-Cylus-

We wasted little time heading back to Bauvarak: in under thirty minutes, I was landing back at the Administrative building. When my crew and I disembarked the Ravager, we were greeted by Jackson and a mix of soldiers. Some wore the orange and red armor of the Ashkera Dominion while other wore the cobalt armor of the Damascaras Alliance.

"Ah, how nice of you to return," Jack mused, approaching my crew and holding a fist out, "And you brought a friend too! How delightful!"

"Who...are you?" Ms. Flynn inquired, looking at my guildmaster in confusion.

"Ouch, I'm wounded," Jackson replied, flashing his brightest smirk at her, "The name's Jackson Delacroix, and I'm the guildmaster of the Silver Foxes. I take it you've heard of my group?"

"Ah yes, the guild of bounty hunters that have been a thorn in the Federation's side," Emily mused, cocking an eyebrow as she spoke, "Who knew they were led by such an...extravagant person."

"Ah, I'm flattered."

"Don't worry, this is just Jack when he's sober," Boreas informed the weary admin.

She snorted while Jackson glowered at the smug hacker.

"Anyway, Morrison's waiting for us. I hope you guys found something useful."

Boreas held up the tablet he had almost hurt himself getting with both arms. "I found this!"

"Well, it's better than nothing," he mused, motioning for us to follow, "C'mon, let's not keep Morrison waiting."

Leaving the landing pad, we followed Jackson through the crowded corridors and back into Nathaniel Morrison's office. Dents and marks on the walls and desk were the only indicator that a squadron of ex-Federation  soldiers had stormed in and lit the place up. Other than that, the office was surprisingly clean.

The instant he saw us, Nathaniel shot to his feet and approached us.

"You've returned," he breathed, beaming when he saw Ms. Flynn, "And you're still alive."

"Somehow," Emily breathed, running a hand through her messy hair, "All thanks to your friends, I'm here instead of in an unmarked grave."

"Same here," the other admin murmured, returning to his seat and flopping down in it, "I don't know where I'd be if Guildmaster Delacroix and his guild members didn't step in."

"At any rate," I began, breaking the silence, "What exactly happened, Ms. Flynn? You survived the sacking of Ryderos, so please help me understand what Horner and his men are doing."

"W-Well, for one: they stormed the marketplace I had gone to without warning," she explained, a slight tremble entering her voice as she spoke, "I was in the middle of buying several medpacks when the gunshots began to rang out, so I did what any sane human being would do: I ran like a coward. All the way back to the Administrative building, I ran screaming. I tried to warn those I passed by, but everything that came out of my mouth was little  more than gibberish. O-Once I got back to the Admin building, I let the guards know to be ready for a fight and continued running after that."

"So...You tried to warn everyone of what was about to happen," I prompted her.

"I...tried, b-but nothing could prepare anyone for the slaughter that had happened," she murmured, "For about five-six hours, I hid in a cupboard–where else could I have gone? I at least had a medpack with me, so I could take care of myself. H-however, the screams..."

Her voice tapered off after that, and the room was left in silence.

"Alright," Jackson began in a gentle tone, rising to his feet, "That's enough for now. Where are the living quarters in this building, Morrison?"

"Third floor."

"Thanks. Alright Emily, you need rest. C'mon."

And so he led the shell-shocked admin out of the room. After that, I struggled to find my voice as I turned to regard Boreas. "A-Any luck with the tablet?"

"I've been fiddling with it while Flynn was talking," he admitted, frowning to himself, "Took me a bit of tampering, but I was able to crack my way into the piece of tech."

"And?"

"And, it appears to have belonged to a radar technician," Boreas answered, his frown not leaving his face, "I know this because there are logs detailing the daily traffic that passed by Sylkiir V. While most of the logs were relatively unassuming, there are three–the most recent written three days ago–that detailed a large vessel passing by Sylkiir V and approaching Tyraxis VII. that was the oldest log, and the other two detailed how the same vessel stayed close to the planet. If I were to guess what was happening, it's that Horner is sending out several small groups of his lackeys to go and terrorize the colonies on this planet. Since, technologically–speaking, these hubs of civilization aren't the most advanced, it wouldn't be too difficult to ambush and silence them before a distress call could be sent out. No offense, Nathaniel."

"None taken," he muttered.

"My point is, these squadrons were able to sneak into each and every colony they wanted to hit up, and they made sure to silence everything they could get their hands on. The fact this tablet still works is a fucking miracle in of itself–I guess the bastards either weren't thorough enough with their sweep of the admin building, or the owner of this tablet was good at hiding their tech."

"The main point to take away from all of this is that Horner is still relatively close to Tyraxis VII," I chimed in, "Since you lost contact with Ryderos yesterday, Morrison, something tells me he's too close for comfort."

The admin opened his mouth, only to pause when someone barged into the room.

"A-Administrator Morrison," they stammered, "Guards on the eastern wall have reported shuttles touching down in a n-nearby forest. They're believed to be hostiles."

"You hear that, Jack?" I prompted him through comms.

"Yep. I'll tell my ladies and gents to get ready–hey, don't snap at me, blondie! I'm trying to be a decent human for once in my life."

A slight pause stretched on for several minutes before my guildmaster continued. "Fuck's sake–gonna have to find a medic or something. Our newest friend doesn't seem to be in the best of moods."

"Leave Flynn be, Jack," Boreas chimed in, "Heaven knows the woman doesn't want you hitting on her."

"I-I wasn't fucking hitting on her!" he snapped, "God, you're unbearable."

"Now you know my pain," Alannah grumbled.

"Anyway! Get the troops ready, Jackson. Also, notify the Sovereign-Breaker's crew to standby for conflict."

"Don't tell me how to do my job, Cylus. I know what I need to do."

"Then do it," I snapped, turning to regard Morrison, "Do you wish for my team to help defend the settlement, or do you want us to go deal with Vincent Horner directly?"

"Directly–if he touches down on this planet, we're going to have a...messy situation on our hands," he answered, "Guildmaster Delacroix made a surprising amount of progress with the people who were interested in defending Bauvarak. He's at least assured me they understand how to aim a gun and shoot it along with understanding that taking cover is always an option."

"That's always a necessity," I grumbled, huffing to myself, "Alright, if more than just one shuttle is touching down at once, that means Horner is closer than anticipated. I know things have progressed at a fast rate, but I promise you I will end this conflict as quickly as possible."

A gentle smile appeared on Nathaniel's face, "The fact you're deadset on doing this fills me with hope. Honestly, I cannot thank you enough."

I nodded and rose to my feet. "I do this on a daily basis, Nate. Everyone ready to head out?"

The rest of my crew voiced their confirmations, but Jackson decided to weigh in.

"Hold your fucking horses!" he snapped, "You're not leaving me again!"

"Jack, you have to stay here and make sure nothing goes to shit when Horner's men attack the colony," I reminded him.

"Since I borrowed so many of his soldiers, General Phaerex decided to come along for the ride and lead the charge. He's the decorated war hero, so I trust him to lead in my stead. We don't know what to expect when we go deal with Horner on his ship. so please allow me to accompany you."

"Alright, meet me at my ship," I told him, moving to leave the office, "We leave in five minutes."

"Awesome," Jack replied, "I'll be there in a moment."

- - -

(Thirty minutes later...)

"Hooooly shit..." Alannah breathed, her eyes glued to the sight before us, "Is that...a ship."

"Looks more like a large rectangular hunk of iron," I murmured, shaking my head in disbelief.

"Hey, how close are we–holy balls," Boreas exclaimed, stopping between me and Alannah as he studied the monstrous vessel that loomed before us, "Um...huh..."

"Our thoughts exactly," Alannah replied, turning to regard our best friend, "What should we do, Boreas?"

In response, he plugged something into the main console of my ship and started working away.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed, too focused on controlling my ship to smack him.

"I'm installing a mod into your ship that'll allow you to appear invisible to a menagerie of sensors. I dunno what toys Horner has in his flagship, so I'm installing the good shit. Since we can't bullshit our way in, we're going to have to use the next best thing: subversion."

"Fair enough," I murmured, "Thanks Boreas."

"Hey, you know: I'm just making sure we won't get shot down," he replied in an easy-going tone.

Can't argue with that...

And so we continued our approach: I was able to tell Boreas' modification to my ship worked since no one contacted us over comms demanding to know who we were or why we were approaching the boxy, multicolored excuse of a flagship. Another telling sign was that none of the rather nasty-looking defense batteries shot at us. Before I knew it, I was landing my ship in what appeared to be a side hanger. Since there were only three other small crafts in the cramped, dim space, this was the perfect place to land. If anything,  this particular hanger was used more as a storage space since there was an abundance of crates stacked up near the blast doors and in the corners.

"Welp, this is the place," Boreas grumbled, shaking his head in disbelief, "These heathens let such an impressive vessel go to waste. What a shame."

"That's not important," I muttered, watching the few people within the hanger approach my ship, "We'll have company in a few moments."

"I can tell," Alannah mused while putting her helmet on, "What do you think we should do?"

"A stealthy approach wouldn't work–I'm sure there's an abundance of cameras on this vessel. An explosive approach would make things messier."

"So how about we charge out guns blazing?" my wife suggested, shrugging to herself, "We have the firepower."

"Eh, we've had worse plans," was all I said as I rose to my feet and motioned for Boreas to get out of the way.

"You can't be serious..." he breathed.

"When am I never?" I replied, "I'll grab you a better gun, Boreas. You're going to need it."

"Mama mia..." was the last thing I heard him say before walking into the cargo hold. There, I unlocked my onboard arsenal and selected a semi-auto shotgun from it. Thank god I change out my stock.

"Catch," was all I said as I tossed the gun at him.

"Wh-What?" he demanded, "This thing looks like a bloody SPAS-12!"

"Alannah created it with that old-world model in mind," I informed him, drawing Sintel and holding it as I spoke, "It can switch between semi-auto and pump action, but I can't remember what rounds are loaded into it. Speaking of which..." Turning back around, I grabbed a few pouches full of ammo and handed them to my old friend, "For when you run out."

"Oh, how kind of you," he replied in a dry voice.

Chuckling to myself, I patted Boreas on the back and turned to regard my crew as they waited for me.

"We have a fair bit of ground to cover, so who's ready to raise some hell?" I prompted them. 

They cheered in response, which more or less answered my question. Yes, yes they're ready.

"Why is your group so...bloodthirsty?" Vik prompted me.

Eh, hell if I know. We all come by it naturally.