Hello! Just here to say that school starts tomorrow, so updates will happen slowly. But they'll still happen! Don't worry.

Oh and also if you've made it here then this is largely irrelevant, but here's the second (and most likely final) curse word warning.

With that out of the way...

Here goes nothing!

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Six hydraulic pistons detached from the Lexian's hull, emitting an ear-piercing screech as they retracted into the steel walls of unit 112. The puddlejumper's sublight engines flared to life, inching the mass of the vessel backward out of the atmospheric shielding which sealed unit 112 from the vacuum of space. 

Filion was seated in his small office, directly adjacent to the Lexian's bridge. She was still very much a work in progress, undergoing continuous modifications- the bus-sized inertial dampeners were visible through large gaps in the steel paneling. 

The ship-wide communications buzzed. "All personnel, we are clear of unit 112. Initiating jump sequence." 

Jarik, resting in one of the Lexian's forty guest quarters, drew his pulse pistol and placed it down on the desk adjacent the bed. The Lexian was fully capable of handling herself- he hoped. It was difficult to miss the dozens of torpedo tubes arrayed across the north and south poles of the vessel. 

If that pistol was required, it would likely be far too late to do any good.

After hours spent pouring over the case PDA, Jarik had come to the conclusion that he was spectacularly under-qualified for this particular investigation. The Aurora Flare had seemingly disregarded all standard procedures. She had crossed the Prythian border with the Caroki Star Union twelve lightyears out from Armin V, the unofficial yet multiversally recognized center of the demilitarized zone between the two superpowers. A distress call was logged, but it was jumbled and confusing, spitting out fragments of information alongside screams and a veritable ton of white noise.

A wormhole burst to life fifteen kilometers off of the Lexian's bow. An exit wormhole appeared a few seconds later, punching a hole through spacetime to bridge the gap between two distant locations.   

Filion forced himself out from behind his desk and stooped through the low doorway of his office into the bridge. 

"Alright. Let's get this over with." he said, sighing. 

A few moments later, Jarik entered with a mug of coffee.

"Hey, copper." Filion said, his eyes fixed on the navigational console's data readout. "We're at the coords you gave us. Although we are-"

"Twelve lightyears out from Armin V?" Jarik replied, glancing at the same readout.

"Well... yeah. We're not even in a system. This is dead space."

"This also happens to be the last known location of a UPRN puddlejumper. The Aurora Flare. Don't suppose you've heard of it."

"Nope."

"Anything on the sensors?" Jarik asked, shuffling around the claustrophobic bridge and taking care to avoid the myriad of wires and piping which snaked across the floor.

"Anything big would've tripped the prox alarm. If you're looking for a puddlejumper, she isn't here."

"What about things that aren't hundreds of kilos in diameter?" Jarik responded.

"No debris, no bodies, not a trace of hydro. Your ship didn't blow up. Not within a lightyear, at least."

Filion wasn't wrong. The sensors all read blank. Jarik cursed under his breath. 

A klaxon blared throughout the Lexian. 

"Shit!" Jarik shouted, wincing as the proximity alarm screamed throughout the bridge. "That's so damn loud!" 

"Nathan, what the hell happened?" Filion asked, grabbing the nearest tactical helmet and slamming it down on his head in an attempt to curb the noise. 

"The prox alarm just tripped. We've got something crawlin' out of warp 600 kilos starboard." Nathan replied. 

"Hail them. And turn this alarm off!"

Six small, cylindrical projectiles slid quietly out of the new vessel. They each ignited small sublight engines and streaked towards the Lexian.  

A second, louder klaxon roared to life.

"Torpedo launch alert! Boss, we've got incoming!" Nathan yelled. 

"Fuck me," Filion muttered. "Lyise-"

"Defense perimeter is online and hot, captain," Lyise responded.

Point-defense cannons sprouted all across the Lexian's otherwise smooth outer plating. Bright streams of tracer fire lanced off her hull, catching each torpedo and vaporizing all six of them in quick succession.

"Nathan, get a full sensor sweep of this asshole," Filion ordered. "Life signs, drive signatures, all of it. Lyise, load a few torpedos and return fire."

"Gladly," Lyise responded, flicking a lever which drowned the Lexian in deep red battle lighting. 

Below the torpedo batteries of Lexian's northern pole, automated assembly plants fitted twenty long, narrow titanium cylinders with plasma warheads. Eight of them glided out, free-floating for a split second before igniting their thrusters. 

In but a few seconds, the assailing vessel was vaporized in a blinding fireball. 

The bridge fell silent. Both klaxons died off in quick succession.

"Nathan. Did you get the sensor data?" Filion asked quietly a few moments later. 

"Uhh... only a part of it. The ship was destroyed too fast for the sensors to really work. But she wasn't any pirate ship, that's for sure."

Jarik stared blankly at Nathan's console. He didn't need to know the specifications of Aurora Flare - there was absolutely no chance that was the ship that destroyed a puddlejumper. The Lexian possessed a fraction of the firepower of military puddlejumpers. 

"Holy shit... boss, we've got a lot of incoming targets." 

The tactical console lit up like a Christmas tree. "Breaching pods en route, captain!" Lyise shouted. "A lot of them!" 

"Brilliant," Filion muttered. "Power the grid back up. Let's finish this and get out of here."

"I... I've been locked out of weapons, captain." Lyise said.

Filion glanced down at the tactical console. "What the hell?" 

"Same here..." Nathan reported, his eyes darting across his console's display. "I've been locked out of navigation, sublight... boss, we've got a problem!"

Before Filion could reply, a titanium cone crashed through the roof paneling of the bridge. The cone spread apart, using powerful hydraulics to force a person-sized gap in the steel panels. 

A figure in powered armor slammed into the floor. The attacker grasped the frame of a shotgun in his or her hands, instantly swiveling and depressing the firing stud, sending a blast of pulsed plasma straight into the navigational console.

Nathan slumped sideways out of his chair with a smoking hole clean through his chest.

The attacker didn't get a second shot. Filion fired his pulse pistol, shattering the soldier's faceplate and killing him instantly. 

"Back!" Filion shouted, tearing Nathan's pistol out of its holster and tossing it to Jarik. "Through the west entrance!" 

A small, spherical object bounced off the floor of the bridge.

"Flashbang!" Lyise shouted, tossing the pulse rifle she held over her shoulder and rolling backward out of the bridge.

Jarik pulled down hard on the quick-release, sending a burst of energy to fry the door's electric solenoids. It crashed down hard onto the floor, transferring reverberations down the hall. 

"We need to evacuate," Filion said as calmly as he could manage. "Tram 4 to the shuttle bay is just down this corridor." 

Jarik stared at Filion incredulously. "You're giving up already? You're gonna abandon your ship to these assholes?"

"As far as I'm concerned, it's already lost," Fillion replied, sliding the charge pack out of his pulse pistol and shoving a new one in. "They have total control over all the ship's systems. As soon as they come to their senses they'll have free reign to vent all the compartments of the Lexian into space."

"Brilliant." Jarik replied. "You can't regain control."

"No."

Jarik glanced at Lyise. "She's coming with?"

"Not just gonna leave her here, am I?"

"Fine. Lead the way."

Filion pointed down the hallway. "Right down there. Just don't walk into any walls and-"

A pulse blast erupted from the end of the west corridor, slamming into Filion's chest and flying out the other end. 

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Hello!

Yeah. There isn't really much for me to say.