December 2941
Unmarked Idris Frigate
Unknown System
Matthius breathed heavily, as he tried to remove the grogginess out of his head. The last thing he remembered was walking down the corridor and trying to breath slowly to conserve air.
"Where the hell am I?" He spoke without expecting an answer as the odd sensation of dangling overtook his body. He was now in zero-g, but he had oxygen.
"Preceptor!" He heard a muffled voice. "You're locked in an escape pod. They opened the Idris to space, venting all the air." He could make out the voice but he still hadn't quite gotten his vision back. 'Initiate Patterson?' he thought to himself as he continued to rub his temples.
James Belcher stood watching the hatch to the Idris cockpit. His body ached. Surgery had fully repaired most of the burned tissue, leaving a few scares but the only thing that would heal the bruises and broken ribs was time. He insisted Matthius include him on this operation though and true to his friendship, Matthius relented. When the Preceptor fell unconscious, he knew there was only one thing to do. He had the soldiers place Matthius into one of the oxygen filled escape pods and placed a guard.
"Curate, we're ready to blow the hatch." Big John broke his thoughts as he dropped from the ladder leading up to the bridge.
"Alright, Lynn, John, Take cover." He knelt behind a crate marked antiquities. So far the vessel felt more like a cargo mule than the warship it should, he jested.
"Three, Two" He began, thinking about the tactics utilized by the Idris crew. It was smart to vent the oxygen and disable gravity. Most invasions would have been repelled already, but their Marine Armor had both Oxygen and magnetic boots. It slowed them a bit, but didn't have the desired effect. Any crew not currently in the bridge also likely had been dispatched for the invaders, making the assault that much easier.
"One, Mark" He continued. Big John across the hall behind another crate pressed the trigger.
Marotu Thanin stood on the bridge of the Paladin's Sacrifice. He'd tried everything he had could think of, but his crew was not prepared for an assault of this nature. Sure they'd had a few pirates hit them from time to time, but never any trouble of this magnitude. He'd personally done this run for six years. As much as he didn't want to face it, he only had one thing left to do. Begrudgingly he pressed the button.
As his finger depressed from the ship's computer, the blast came out of nowhere. The oxygen quickly began sucking out through the hatch and it's door flew towards the ceiling, slowing as it neared the bridge roof. The oxygen sucking out of the room made for a small vacuum that pulled them as well as the hatch towards the center of the room and the opening now in the floor. Knowing the end was near and that he'd done his best, be looked at the other three bridge crew and bit into the capsule. 'It will be fast' he thought as the capsule's contents began moving into his throat.
A muffled sound escaped the bridge, signalling to Belcher the time to go was now. He motioned to Big John who turned and started to climb the ladder. Immediately following him was Disciple Lynn. As Lynn reached the top Belcher began the climb. Almost instantly, he felt the wave of nausea overcome him. "The ship just jumped" he thought across the open comms channel.
Big John looked over the bridge, ready to fire at anyone offering resistance. To his surprise, four bodies were afloat, white foam exiting their mouths. The hatch as well dangled in the airless, gravity vacant space. Shoving one body aside, He move towards the central terminal and looked down. The screen showed a percentage bar and file names scrolled across the screen. "Curate, I believe you'll want to see this."
Belcher made his way to the bridge and the terminal. "Damn" He cursed. "They jumped us and wiped the navigation computer. We'll never know where we are or where we came from."
Disciple Lynn meanwhile had found the airlock and oxygen systems. "Let's make our environment a bit more hospitable." he said as gravity was restored and oxygen began flowing once more.
--- Hours Later ---
Saskia sat in the Freelancer, Course Correction. The team had already returned to the nearby fleet but she was determined to analyse the data and attempt to figure out where the Idris had jumped. Something she knew was next to impossible. As she sat pulling data from the sensors, the course correction's own sensor array lit up. Looking over the navigation computer's readings, she opened a comm channel. "Seer Gedeon, The Idris is back!"
Matthius made his way to the bridge. It was actually pretty clever of her crew. They had single handedly prevented him from knowing any more information than what was already exposed. They had found the Idris in the Pallas system. The cutlass nav computers didn't jump and they hadn't gotten to the bridge fast enough so the only system that knew the coordinates for where they had been was the Idris. The program Big John and Belcher had discovered kicked off the jump back to Pallas and proceeded to destroy all of the navigation data. Who knows what else it had destroyed, but this was a major victory for the Xeno Syncretic Order.
Joined now by Saskia, Gedion and several other technical staff. He looked around the bridge and turned back to the team. "It's a bit of a mess at the moment, but we'll fix her up. Gedion, I'd like you to get looking at engineering systems. Saskia, you and your team take a look at the bridge. We'll need a complete system review to get this thing flight worthy again. Oh, and make sure there are not tracking devices that would allow the Shadow Advocacy to pay us an unannounced visit." He turned to Disciple Lynn. "Lynn, take your team and sweep room by room. Make sure there are no unexpected survivors. Should you find any, place them in the brig." Matthius knew he wouldn't find anyone alive. The Advocacy had made it pretty clear, they refused to be taken alive and were encased in secrecy.
As the team started to scramble, Matthius interrupted. "Oh, and one more thing." Matthius offered a huge smile. "Welcome to the XSO's new flagship! Celestial Unity."