5909.5 GSY
Turanic Space
"TK-9, he's on your six."
"I know, I know!" Ajora clenched her jaw as mass slugs whipped past her canopy and blew a space rock into glittering debris before she was past it. She threw her fighter into a hard spin, jetting the RCS to bring the nose around, cutting the ionic engines and then slamming them back on again. Her vision blacked out for a moment - and when she came too, she was on a wild new vector, and...
More slugs whipped past and around her - then several clipped their way along the side of her fuselage. She felt the impacts reverberating through her as layered, laminate armor took the brunt of the damage. Grazes. They all
pinged off her and left the cockpit ringing like a bell. Ajora swore.
"Sajuuk's balls!" She looked back over her shoulder, then forward again. She was streaking away from the furball on a wild trajectory. Three resourcers were visible, their buglike fronts streaming out yellow exhaust contrails as they tore towards the controller, which was parked in the high orbit around some lonely, unnamed gas giant. Ajora frowned, then threw her engines on harder. She juked up, down, moving her head with the motions as the raider pilot behind her tried to bring his or her nose in line with her aft.
"TK-9, pull up...now!"
Ajora cut thrust, slammed upwards, then accelerated hard. Red, then black, washed through her vision - and then she saw the flash of light, whipping past her, as she began to feather down her ion engines to a slower hiss. She craned her head and saw TK-1 doing a corkscrewing victory twirl straight through the expanding cloud of debris that had been the raider pilot. She spotted the glinting light of the Turanic's ejection suit, and then slowed her ship down. She cruised towards the drifting raider, then brought her fighter to a complete stop as, in her ears, she heard the whooping of the rest of TK squadron as the last of the raiders flipped, burned and either died or bailed.
The raider shook his fist at her ship, even as a twelve millimeter railgun bore aimed down at his chest. Ajora felt her finger twitch on the trigger - but she forced it away with an effort. She switched to broadcast: "You do know I'm your only ride out of here right?"
The raider made a gesture that Ajora was fairly sure was
very rude.
***
Hyperspacing took no time at all. If it had taken time, Ajora was pretty sure no one would have ever agreed to ride something as rickety as a Jaavik class resource controller. She still felt nervous hooking her fighter up to the slots that rested alongside the angular, oblong struts that thrust from the Jaavik's main body, and as she settled down, she could hear the faint banging and thunking reveberating through the hull of her fighter. A moment later, the captain of the resource controller - Chief Morrn - spoke through the radio.
"TK Squad, this is RC-09, we are clear for quantum waveform event. Hyperspace in five."
Ajora leaned back in her seat.
She had done this three times now.
The first time, she had been escorting RC-09 to an asteroid cluster that long ranged scanners had picked up and the commodore had decided would be good for mining. It had been the most mind-numbingly boring twelve hour shift she had never been on...until the second time, when RC-09 had been sent to the rings of a gas giant, to much the same effect, for much the same reason. This time?
"Good on spotting those rock rats, TK-9," TK-2, Lt. Daanish, said in her private chats.
"Just following regs, TK-2," Ajora said, her cheeks flushed. She felt a mingled rush of shame and excitement. Yeah, she hadn't bagged any fighters...but...she had spotted the first drive plume! That was something.
"Yeah, sometimes you think they write those things for a reason."
"Cut the chatter, TK-2," Bejik said.
"Three."
Ajora drew in a breath.
"Two."
The stars winked beyond her cockpit.
"One."
A quantum waveform event punched a rectangular hole in spacetime. From the perspective of the outside universe, it looked as the RC-09 and the attached vehicles all sat perfectly still and simply allowed the event to swallow them whole, gently wiping the ship out of existence. To Ajora, it was as if the whole universe had lurched, hard, to the left - and then they were in a different completely unrecognizable place of deep space. She closed her eyes as Chief Morrn spoke up again.
"Hyperdrive jump successful. Beginning refresh and recharge rate. Deploying radiators. ETA for jump two..." he paused. "Eight minutes. ETA for fleet arrival...three hours."
Ajora sighed.
It was funny. They could jump nearly half a lightyear at a time and it
still took them forever to get anywhere.
"Space is too big," she said in the quiet of her cockpit.
***
"Space is too big out here," Ajora said, her knees drawn up under her as, in the background, the buzz of the sonic shower leaked out around the corner into the shared locker room for the pilots. She was looking at her wrist computer, which she held between her fingers, angling it so the holocam caught her features. "It's not like back around Hiigara at all, Kaj...like...there, you just need a few jumps and you're near one of the big ports, or there's a Bentusi trade-ship that stops by every once and a while. You can just go places, whenever you want!" She grinned, slightly - forgetting for the moment that going places still required a hyperspace capable ship. "Out here, though, our nearest resource run was
twenty two jumps!"
She sighed.
"Anyway, to answer your question, everyone here has been a perfect gentleman," she said, blushing. "And stop intimating otherwise. And, uh, stay out of trouble, I can tell you're getting into trouble with that Sorpanna woman you keep complaining about." She grinned, then tapped off the recording. "Send to Lieutenant Kaja, Fifth Fleet."
"Hey! Eytapea!"
Ajora lifted her head and frowned at the sight of Talsiem walking towards her. He was in his flight coveralls and had his helmet under his arm. "What are you doing here without your suit on?" he asked, glaring at her - but the effect was ruined by his little smirk. Ajora glared back at him, then blanched as he added: "Don't you know you and I have patrol through the next patch of realspace we're going to be navigating?"
"Uh...I..." Ajora stood. She checked her messages and scowled. She had been sent the message.
By Talsiem.
On
silent.
Before she could call him out on it, he shook his head. "Well, get your ass in gear, Eytapea!" he said, then turned and started off. She growled quietly, then hastily opened her locker, snagging her suit. She wasn't sure what exactly had made Talsiem Jokasta so fucking pissy at her since they'd met - but he'd been nothing but snide and nasty for the entire damn tour. This, though...she could practically picture how it had played out in her head. He'd said that he would make sure the order got passed on to her and...she shook her head and struggled into her flight suit while hurrying down the corridor at the same time.
Maybe it was because his noble family was only in the Book of Copper and hers was in the Book of Stars...if that was why he was pissy, then he needed to get his head pulled out of his ass...
Thanks to sprinting, cursing, and almost shoving over a few techs, Ajora managed to arrive only a minute after Talsiem. Bejik shot her an eyebrow as he watched her stumbling into the hanger bay. "Glad you could make it, Lieutenant," he said, his voice just faintly chilly. Ajora wanted to explain. Instead, she came to attention, nodding.
"Yes sir," she said.
"Now, you two, we're navigating an area and sounding it out for any activity. Once it's clear, it can be marked as safe for outer rim trade again," Bejik said. "We're within an area of space where several ships have vanished, so we want you both to be on your toes. If you see anything, you will flip your fighters around and burn right back. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir!" Talsiem and Ajora said, at the same time.
"Good. Clear skies, pilots." Bejik slapped their shoulders.
Ajora strapped herself in, flicked on her dash, then settled in - listening to the comforting babble of cross-talk and technical chatter from the radio. She slipped into her place with practiced ease. "This is TK-9 reporting all signs clear. Ions good, fusion containment clear, hydrogen tanks full up."
"You look good to go, TK-9, TK-8. Good hunting out there."
"Thanks FlightCom," Ajora said as the crane shifted her around from the berth to the launch tubes. The magnetic rails jerked and she was pressed into her cockpit, moving smoothly from the belly of the
Emperor's Finest to the exterior - her engines kicking on the instant she was out. She brought her nose around - and came in line with TK-8. Talsiem flew as if he though she couldn't keep up. She smirked, then flew into his X flank, waggling her ship as if it didn't have the offset mass accelerator on the side. It was a trick that took more skill than it seemed...
Probably wasted on that asshole, Ajora thought.
They peeled away from the main bulk of the Ninth Fleet.
***
The first hour was boring.
The second hour was tedious.
The third was excruciating.
By this point, Ajora was beginning to hum to herself, wishing that she was anywhere but in a cockpit, soaring past yet another pointless, useless rock, her eyes looking at the stars for any sign of anything of interest...and that was when her sensors let out a quiet
ping.
"I got something," she whispered, looking down at her dash. Then, more firmly. "TK-8, this is TK-9, I've picked up a sensor ping, bearing 330 by 65, about fifteen K off."
"I read the same thing, it's space trash," Talsiem said, sounding bored. Ajora frowned, looking back down at her scanner. It did look like inert metal - the kind that you'd get from a particularly dense asteroid. She frowned...but...she squared her shoulders.
"TK-8, regulations say, any unusual sensor return must be investigated by scout patrols or-"
"Oh give it a rest, Eytapea!" Talsiem said, sounding annoyed now. But Ajora was already turning aside. Her belly whipped over an asteroid, the red streak of her contrail leaving behind a clear line for Talsiem to follow as she brought her nose around to bear on the sensor ping. It resolved as she flew towards it - and her eyes widened as she realized...it wasn't an asteroid.
It was a ship.
A derelict ship, drifting in the field of asteroids. She feathered up her engines, curiously.
"TK-9," Talsiem said. "Get back here right- oh hell."
"See!" Ajora said, grinning. "It's a ship. It...my scanner says it has to be five thousand-"
"-Trainee Ajora!"
Ajora blinked, looking around muzzily.
"Trainee Ajora!"
She blinked. Ahead of her was...Train...train...Training Master...Jorill...right. She tried to lift her head. It was funny, she didn't normally fall asleep in class. But her head ached and she felt sleepy and...class seemed very small and tight for some reason. Training Master Jorill glared at her, his eyes flashing rhythmically at her, red and white, red and white, right and white.
"Trainee Ajora, I know you apparently think that a noble blood means you can sleep through my goddamn class, but I assure you, that is not the case!" His voice was oddly high and squeaky. "What is the first step upon realizing you are in a depressurizing cockpit!?"
Ajora blinked. She had just been flying towards...something. Then...why did her chest hurt. Her brow furrowed. Training Master Jorill blurred - and his eyes remained where they were. When she blinked she saw the warning indicator on the dashboard of her...huh? Where was she? Ajora tried to move and-
"AUUH!" She screamed. The sound ripped out of her and she froze, trying not to move, but every breath seemed to dig the pain in deeper. She heard, now, why Training Master Jorill had been so high and squealy - his voice had been the screaming air, rushing out around an imperfect seal in her cockpit. She blinked, wildly, and identified the seal. There was something sticking through the cockpit. It had cut through the glass. It was surrounded by frothing, bubbling blood. She traced the blood...and the line of the
something...
To her chest.
Ajora blinked. She had just been flying at the derelict and now a chunk of thin metal had pierced her cockpit. And was. Buried. In. Her. Chest. She lifted her right arm, grabbed it - then felt the pain screaming through her. She clenched her jaw, trembled, then let it go as Training Master Jorill screamed in her ear again.
"Trainee Ajora! Are you an idiot, or do you have a death wish! What do you do when you have been
stabbed?"
"Keep the...in..." Ajora gasped out. She looked around her cockpit. There! Coms! She slapped the coms on. "TK...TK-8 this...this is TK-9, do you read?"
Static.
Ajora let her head rest back against the headrest. "F...Fuc...Fuck...fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" She blinked, then realized that she should have been dead already. Why wasn't she? Her brow furrowed as she looked at the blood again. It was...frothing. Bubbling. Slipping out of the cockpit. But slowly. Some of it must be drying. Gumming up the hole. Slowing her loss.
Slowing.
Not stopping.
She fumbled, her fingers finding the patch kit. She pulled out the foam gun, stuck it up, and then sprayed and spray and sprayed, working her hand around, letting some glops of it float freely. They were dragged towards the vent - and then stuck. The alert stopped chiming. She wasn't losing air anymore. Her free hand tapped at life support, brought the secondary air tanks on. Ajora breathed out, whimpered. Tears beaded in her eyes. "Ow..." She whispered.
But now that she wasn't dying, she looked down at the thing in her chest. It was long and narrow and...too...
It was too...
Too straight and...refined to be a random chunk of debris. Her brow furrowed as she looked up it and gaped as she realized that the odd protrusion at the end wasn't some jagged tear-away point. It was
carved. Cross shaped. Dark handled. Silvery hue. It all clicked into place as she groaned out a frustrated: "Oh
come on!"
She had flown almost the entire length of the Taiidani Empire in a fusion drive equipped, ion propelled, hydrogen fueled, railgun armed, hyper-tensile laminate armored fighter craft, using hyperdrive technologies so ancient that only Sajuuk himself
understood them at all. And she was here, about to be killed...
By a
fucking sword.
"Fuck..." Ajora whispered. "Fuck..." Her eyes started to close.
Ajora.
Her eyes opened.
She was standing on a vast sand dune. Wind blew around her feet, and caught the sand, feathering it around her ankles. She wore the same dress she'd worn to her fifteenth birthday - the sleek red and black one, with the Taii crest on the shoulder. Her feet were bare and she looked out into the setting of a blood red sun.
Ajora...
The voice that spoke her name was not a voice. It was something deeper and vaster and older. She blinked and opened her mouth, to speak - but found she couldn't.
You must stop it. If you do not...then Kaja will die.
"What?" she whispered, the words squeaking out despite her fear.
You must stop it.
The a line of white light shot down from the heavens - streaking down, down, down, down, towards the horizon. It struck without a sound - instead, there was a blaze of brilliant white light. The horizon seemed to bloom with fire, a wall of flames reaching up towards the heavens. The flames spat snakes made of smoke, and the snakes writhed into the shapes of Taiidani imperial banners. Their fangs tore into one another, writhing and twisting, and then blew away as the wall of flames drew closer and closer. The roaring sound of it filled her ear - and a pain exploded in her chest. Ajora fell to her knees.
She knew the voice then. But she dared not name Him.
"S-Stop what!?" she asked.
The flames drew closer. The smoke was overwhelming.
The pain in her chest exploded like her heart was being ripped out.
Ajora's eyes fluttered shut and she fell into the sand before the flames. She was wrapped in something restraining and thick. Her voice, muzzy, mumbled. "No...no, god, no! No!" Faintly, echoing, she could hear voices. She could see, through gauze, a terrible mechanical spider had flayed open her chest. Her glistening organs were on display, and an arm with an articulated blade hovered above her, waiting to plunge and strike and slice. To cut at her heart. To get the vision from her, to rip it from her body, to leave her without anything inside. She reached up, trying to bat at the arm - but human hand held her down.
"No! Sajuuk, no!" She forced the words past the pipe in her throat. Or she tried. It came out wrong. Made her want to vomit.
"It must be a reaction to the stims, get me some sedativ-"
Ajora knew no more.
---
Your second career event is Serious Injury! This gets you +1 Brawn, +1 Skill, +1 Focus and a Defining Aspect. Defining Aspects are beliefs or truths about your character that can compel roleplaying. If you take an action that supports a Defining Aspect, you gain +1 Fortune (Which can be spent to get an automatic critical on dice rolls!) Defining Aspects don't have to be good - in fact, negative Aspects can be easier to compel. So! with that in mind...
Which Skill Does Ajora practice as she recovers
[ ] Combat: She throws herself into physical training to recover,
[ ] Command: She studies people and tactics.
[ ] Exploration: She studies the sword.
[ ] Engineering: She pitches in at the hanger to exercise gently.
[ ] Medical: She works with the medical staff.
What Foci does Ajora learn as she recovers?
[ ] History: Studying the sword
[ ] Swords: Practicing with sword
[ ] First Aid: Seems useful to know!
[ ] Jerry Rigged Repairs: Also, vital to know!
[ ] Write In
And, finally...what does Ajora take from this?
[ ] Sajuuk has a plan for me and I have to meet it
[ ] My cybernetic lung never worked right
[ ] Write In
