MILO

“We have a problem,” Sam said. “Look at your hand terminals.”

Milo pulled out his and looked at the incoming data from Sam. It was an omf ship. But it was in a bad state, damaged and leaking all kinds of liquids and sparkling, exposed wire work.

“It must have been able to flee in the chaos, just like we did,” Sam said.

Diego turned to Milo. “I am sorry Captain that I missed them. I don’t have Leo’s natural instinct or his eyes for these things.”

“We still cannot communicate with Rahgon and Elzrig, and any plan we come up with will require their full participation. We could steal modules and parts we need from that ship. We could establish the mental channel again,” Beth said. “And get some revenge.”

“This has to be considered, crew. Diego, do they see us?” Milo asked.

“Difficult to tell, boss. Their ship is in rough shape. But I don’t think they are target locking us,” Diego said. “But it’s hard to tell if they can or not.”

“We are not the ones being hunted anymore, we are the hunters,” Birgitta said.

“Crew, what do you say?” Milo said. “Attack or fly off?”

“Attack,” the entire crew said at once.

“Crew, to your stations. Diego, plot the course. Claire, check the core and then su…,” Milo started, before realizing how Claire had reacted the last time she was in her rig, but they needed her expertise in the field. “Claire, will you be able to suit up?”

Claire nodded, grabbing Diego’s hands. “I am coming with you.”

“Thank you, Claire. We will try to be quick about it,” Milo said. “Sam, suit up. Beth, if you would like, your older maces are still in storage in Birgitta’s lab. Yuri, you want a piece of this?” Milo said.

“Yeah. I want to earn my place with you. Let me prove myself,” Yuri said.

Birgitta smiled wide, revealing her teeth. “You didn’t throw them out? Nice. Beth, come. And Yuri, you too. I believe you are strong enough.”

“Throw them out? You know how much they weigh. It’s so much easier just to lock them down rather than trying to move them,” Milo said. “Beth, do the dragons want to help us? You know them better than everyone else.”

It was a long shot. The dragons seemed very inclined to keep their eggs safe and maybe that didn’t make it possible for them to do battle.

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Beth showed them the hand terminal and the video feed.

Rahgon and Elzrig roared with delight at the display.

“I like where this is going,” Milo said.

“They want vengeance as much as we do,” Beth said. “I don’t speak dragon, but their body language speaks plenty.”

“Nicely done,” Milo said. “Crew, one more thing. We are not just attacking them for getting revenge and the tools to set up the mental channel again. This is a great opportunity which has been dropped into our lap. We can raid their ship of weapons and technology.”

“Void torpedoes. Energy weapons. Nuclear material,” Beth said. “A treasure trove.”

“Are we going to upgrade the Final Sight?” Claire asked with a giddy tone and she almost bounced on the spot, as a child getting the best and finest toys in the world.

“I have a few ideas on how to integrate their stuff into our equipment,” Birgitta added.

Beth smiled at her. “And into the rigs. We will be packing some heavy firepower.”

Sam sighed, but didn’t interrupt them. Had his old friend finally calmed down? He couldn’t see it being a permanent thing.

“Crew, prepare for boarding,” Milo said.

-

Milo stepped into his Birgitta-designed vacuum suit, which let him discharge lightning bolts without harming the suit itself. The first one had been destroyed when they had fought Carl and Lisa, back on the meet-and-greet-and-mingling planet. But Birgitta had luckily loaded the schematics into the ship’s general database and thus it had been a breeze for him to print the parts and put together a new one. Well, a breeze was an exaggeration. He had done the wire work, while Claire had done the other stuff. Like verifying the air seals and the filtering function.

“You don’t have to come with us,” Sam said from behind.

Sam was in his rig, which put another layer of exoskeleton, motor muscles, cybernetics, weapons and augmentation on him. And armor, a lot of armor. It was like putting another shell of cyborg on and around an already existing cyborg. A layer of robotics on a robot? It was kind of weird. But a power up, nonetheless.

“Of course I am going,” Milo said. “When you were the Captain, you always went out with your strike team. You never held back or were held back.”

“Well, we had a full crew then. Diego and Birgitta will be left alone on the ship,” Sam said. “What if they board us?”

“You didn’t care before, when you attacked Europe13 by yourself, leaving Diego and Claire by themselves,” Milo said.

“It was different, then. The only plan of crippling Saif was to blow up that facility. But now we have a plan, an opportunity to attack him for real. We cannot do that without the Final Sight,” Sam said.

Milo sighed. “Of course. It’s not the people and crew you think about. It’s the ship.”

“Don’t be like that. We cannot fumble this. Then all of mankind will be locked in Saif’s purgatory for eternity,” Sam said.

“They will be fine. The ship will be fine,” Milo said.

Sam frowned.

“They will be fine. One of dragons will stay behind,” Milo said.

“Alright. After this, we need to talk,” Sam said.

“About what?” Milo said.

“Not now. After. Trust me. Trust in your old friend Sam,” Sam said.

Milo sealed his vac suit, the checks were in the green. “I trust in you, Sam.”