Starborn: Origin of the Stars

“The operation was a failure.” The black haired woman reported hesitantly, fearing another outburst from the commander. However the man only continued reading some files on his workstation and nodded with a faint smile.

“That was to be expected. It was a long shot anyways and more like a gesture of goodwill to the Alaris family. Those guys were just a few nobodies, country bumpkins without any skill. It would be kind of disappointing if it would have worked.”

Akemi Watanabe was a bit surprised by the calm demeanor of Ramones but kept her mouth shut - the man wasn’t wrong with his evaluation.

“While it would’ve been nice if they could have made the scan, what we got out of this is way more important. An Eltaran!” The man exclaimed, now grinning, “We always knew they were still hiding somewhere, however it is close to impossible to catch one of them. You were right Watanabe, that Tulward really produces results!”

“What will be our next steps? Is the headquarter already informed about this find?” She asked.

“Have you learned nothing yet? Don’t you know how many rules they immediately would make up to use this opportunity to forge a deeper bond with the Eltaran? For what? That in the end the fish escapes and the whole race goes back into hiding? No! We have to solve this as quickly and quietly as possible. I assume the team will barter for a deal as soon as they find the laboratory. Any news from Bex?”

“No, we think that he still is within the Mystic Sea - no communications are working there. However, the Hubble is still in Dreamer’s Hope with a small part of the crew. So it’s safe to assume the others will return there, too.” Watanabe reported.

“How long until our team arrives?” Ramones asked.

“21 hours!” She said and prepared to leave.

“Watanabe,” Ramones called her to a halt, “How are the tests with this Disruptor-thing coming along?”

“Nothing yet. The team fails to recreate the energy charge.”

“If the old man is still not dead, tell him to let the drones be for now and help with the Drel-weapon.”

“Will be done.”

***

“So, he’ll be fine?” Happy asked the doctor who came out of Sevastian’s room.

“Yes, you don’t have to worry anymore. He is over the hump and just needs some quiet time to rest.” The Ommih explained with a friendly smile.

“That’s good to hear. How is Landom?”

“Just a few scratches and a broken leg. He’ll be back on his feet in no time.”

“Thanks!” Happy shook the man’s hands.

“You’re welcome!” He said, “I’ll head back now. Left my office empty for too long already.”

After she saw him off, Happy slowly walked towards the Hubble’s bridge while pondering about this messed up situation.

The ‘quick mission’ the team had planned developed into a proper disaster. Two hours after the three left, she got an emergency message from Alena, requesting medical assistance. Happy immediately called for the doc and the two guys from local Security. Together they recovered the team from the stitch’s hidden workshop.

The result of the mission was a complete shitshow. From what she heard from Alena, they were surprised by a turret and Landom tried to tank the enemy fire. He got a few hits but his suit prevented the worst. Unfortunately before he could take it down, the auto-turret still got a few shots on Sevastian. It managed to penetrate his suit and destroyed most of his right shoulder. After going down, Hulky dropped his shield, which fell to the side and smashed Landom’s leg. Meanwhile, Alena kept the thugs in check, but ultimately had to kill them all since she was the last one standing from their team and couldn’t find any other way to ensure their safety.

“No permanent damage was done to them at least, so that’s a yeah!” Happy mumbled when she finally reached the bridge, “I only hope that Alena finds anything in the remains of the workshop…”

After getting in her seat, Niu checked all the systems and passive scans she had set up after Robin and the others didn’t return when night fell. Now a storm was raging outside and while it wasn’t too bad here in Dreamer’s Hope, she looked up reports about the condition within these storms.

“They found themselves a shelter, stop worrying so much Niu… you are Happy, right?” She chided herself and started another scan. This was a fruitless endeavor as the sensors didn’t even reach the closest island in the Mystic Sea. And what if she found something? She could hardly fly into the Mystic Sea at normal times - but in this storm? Yeah… no sane pilot would risk crew and ship by flying willingly into a storm that not only makes navigation a mess but also fires icy projectiles at you like an angry child that throws its toys.

Just as she wanted to log into the net to distract herself for some time, a loud alarm began to ring on the whole ship and an automated voice shouted warnings.

“INCOMING MISSILE! Your region is under attack. INCOMING MISSILE! Your region …”

“What the???” Happy yelped in surprise and reflexively raised the ship’s shields to maximum, having more than enough power left with the engines being offline. Quickly she switched her view to the radar scans to look for the source. While she was still trying to figure out the situation, another alarm began to beep. This one however made her perk up as it was one she set up herself to listen on emergency frequencies for any broadcasted SOS’s.

Before Happy could resolve any of what was happening, both alarms went off and the ship fell quiet again. The first thing she checked was the radar and realized that the missile, or whatever it was, came from within the Mystic Sea and vanished as soon as it reached the forest on the shore about 3 km north of Dreamer’s Hope. The scanners didn’t catch anything resembling an explosion, so it was either a dud or it never was a missile at all.

Putting that aside, Niu looked for the recorded SOS. When she saw the message attached, her eyes went wide and she immediately opened a comm to Alena.

“Hey, what’s happening? Who is attacking? I’m already on my way back to the ship!” The woman instantly answered the call.

“Landom gave you a call? Yeah, we aren’t under attack but got a message from the expedition team. We need to get them out of the storm immediately.”

“Are you crazy? That…” Alena began but stopped mid-sentence, “I’m on my way.”

“Thanks, please bring the doc! He just has left and should still be on his way back to the town.” Niu said.

“He won’t be happy…”

“No, he won’t…”

Happy quickly opened the ship’s internal comm and explained the situation before she began to calculate the ‘missile’s’ origin with the data provided in the emergency message.

Minutes later, the people of Dreamer’s Hope saw the Hubble majestically rise above the treetops, before it accelerated and rushed straight into the raging storm as if it was one of its flashing lightning bolts.

***

Timer Keran: -03:30 h

Timer Hubble: -01:00 h

When Robin saw the timer ROMAS had pinned him drop by another 30 minutes, he slowly got up from the bed and quietly made his way towards the living quarter on the other side of the hallway without waking up Timothy.

Close to 8 hours had passed since they launched the drone and only one hour was left before the earliest possible arrival of the Hubble, if they even got the message and dared to enter the storm. The shitty weather was still raging outside, the storm lasted for more than 23 hours by now and no indicators of it receding could be found.

Robin had tried to get some sleep but was way too anxious to really rest. At least he used the time to make a few tests with his G-Anomaly. It was strange though, it was as if nothing had changed at first, but somehow his head always told that he could do more now. Only after a few hours of testing, Robin finally managed to achieve a small success and got into the trance-like state like before again.

It was all still shaky and unreliable, but his first results indicated that he was now able to have a slight influence on the energy he sensed. Like someone with an elemental affinity who could control metal or fire, but less direct. It seemed like he could slow down or accelerate the energy flow, if it wasn’t too strong. However, energy didn’t work that way, you couldn’t slow down power as if it was water. So, while Robin was still confused about this and needed much more time to figure out everything, it was a pretty promising start. If he could somehow manipulate energy that would be big!

After checking on Keran in the other room, Robin went down to the laboratory. Patience was still lying on the stretcher but more comfortable now, since Ang’Tue had got her a pillow and stuff from one of the beds. The man in question was in the small server room and working on the access station.

“Hey mate, how are you doing? Got some rest?” Robin asked the Eltaran.

“Hello Robin! Yes, I slept for a few hours before I switched with Mr. Reed. How are you?”

“Couldn’t fall asleep but still rested a bit. Tried to figure out my new mutation but didn’t get the knack of it for now.”

“That can take some time, as I told you before, your genes are a bit strange. Unfortunately I cannot help you much with that, maybe one of my people could but…” Ang’Tue said.

“Yeah, no worries. We have more important things to do for now. I’ll go outside in half an hour to prepare for the arrival of the Hubble. Are you doing okay here?”

“Yes, but your friend here should wake up in the next few hours though…” The old man said with an awkward face.

“...ah shit. We are in for the beating of our life. Tell her to wait until we are out of the Mystic Sea and everyone is safe… if we are lucky her temper has cooled down by then.” Robin said with dread in his voice.

“It has been more than 250 years since someone gave me a beating. I could be her great-great-grandfather, certainly she would never…”

“Ohhh, she would!” Robin interrupted him, “So you better prepare a stim for healing… just in case!”

After he ate some of their last rations, Robin made his way up to the surface and began his wait for the Hubble. Niu would come to get them, ignoring all warnings and storms, he was sure of that!

Timer Keran: -03:00 h

Timer Hubble: -00:30 h

Icy projectiles still flew through the air but as it was about noon by now, at least vision had cleared a bit. Robin could see the edges of the Island in all directions. While he hunkered down in one of the robot’s holes, he prepared his final trump card: a flare-gun with one shot for emergencies. He got it from his reserves in the Melody II and hoped to get the Hubble’s attention with this.

Timer Keran: -02:30 h

Timer Hubble: 00:00 h

Time slowly ticked down and after the first timer reached zero with no ship that could be seen, Robin got more and more nervous. There was so much that could have gone wrong: the drone may have crashed or missed Dreamer’s Hope, his crew may not have picked up the signal or decided against entering the ocean with the raging storm and even if everything worked out, what if they didn’t find the island? Timothy apparently had left some instructions on how to calculate the position of the island, but the data of this drifting island would only be accurate for so long.

Timer Keran: -02:00 h

Timer Hubble: +00:30 h

“Damnit!” Robin cursed. Keran’s time was running out, the Melody was broken and rations were getting low. They were really stuck here by now. He had bet everything on this one card…

The cold wind of the wild storm slowly crept through his suit. After the fight with the robots it wasn’t completely sealed anymore, partly leaving him at the mercy of the elements.

Just after ROMAS’ timers changed once again, informing him of Keran having not more than one and a half hour left, Robin saw something rush by in the storm above him.

It was hard to identify with all the rain and reduced visibility, but whatever it was, he could not let this chance pass. Quickly he fired the flare which shot high into the air and bathed everything in a bright light that was probably red. Robin held his breath, wishing for his friends to find them.

Moments later the huge Hubble broke through the heavy rain and flew a low circle over the island. Robin could see how ship and pilot had to fight against the strong winds. The Hubble shook like a leaf in the storm and the four vertical thrusters screamed so loud, they even drowned out the howling of the wind and the crashing of the waves. Time and time again he saw the shields of the ship flash brightly. Another front of this battle, as the icy projectiles in that height were much more numerous and obviously tried to batter the intruder out of the sky.

The fight continued for a few minutes even, before Happy managed to land the ship on the unexplored site of the little island. Robin looked warily around but couldn’t spot anything amiss. Shortly afterwards the elevator dropped down from below the Hubble and Robin was surprised to see only Niu coming out to greet him.

She was still not in range of near-field comm, so he could neither ask her… nor shout a warning, when suddenly three combat bots crawled out of the ground behind her.

“Burn in plasma! Fuck!” Robin cursed, it seems like their assumptions were correct. One more trap was prepared for intruders. In the loud storm Niu didn’t hear the robots and she misinterpreted his waving as a gesture of welcome, not as a sign of danger. With a grin, she waved back at him.

When Robin saw the robots were taking aim, he theatrically threw himself to the ground, arms crossed over his head as a protection. Finally Niu seemed to get the message and also dropped down. An instant later, many energy projectiles were fired and Robin could see flashes near the Hubble everywhere. Seconds later, the shooting quieted down again and they both stood back up. Three still smoking robots lay on the ground in pieces and the turret at the Hubble’s belly rotated once to give the island another inspection.

Niu rushed over to Robin and as soon as she was in range for comm, he heard her laughing.

“Holy ship, what kind of welcoming did you prepare for us?”

“Good to see you, Happy. I feared the worst… the storm is pretty bad.” Robin said with a relieved sigh.

“What, why? Don’t ya know? The hero always comes late!” Niu chuckled, “A little wind doesn’t stop me from coming to rescue you! …or the icy projectiles …or the failure of the navigation systems …or some freakin’ robots …or…” Niu continued, but Robin interrupted her with a big hug.

“Thanks, Happy!”