After the Red Sun was completely shredded, Robin tried to push all his worries away and concentrated on the man lying bare-chested on his bed.

For once he wanted to have an adventure that didn’t end in a disaster. They were raided by damn, frickin’ space pirates! That’s a story he wanted to share without always having to think back at a fallen comrade. Patience, Happy and Timothy would burn with envy to have missed this. Sure, the pirates also didn’t make it to tell the tale, but they were pirates - they were the aggressors and knew the risks. This was his first kill he really wouldn’t shed a single tear about.

But first of all, he had to ensure Landom’s survival

* Changing substitute blood in 11 minutes

* Next stim in 4 minutes

* Check pulse in 30 seconds

* Check breathing in 10 seconds

ROMAS helped Robin to identify and keep track of the few little things he could do.

Walzor got really lucky, first of all the turret was apparently not an anti-ship weapon, but designed for armored units and besides, he was hit in the chest. If that projectile had hit his head, even the helmet wouldn’t have saved him. The armor of his suit took a lot of the impact but in the end, it wasn’t made to ward off such attacks and gave in. There was a second line of defense however, Robin only now learned that Landom had a Class C - Hardened Skin G-Anomaly. This was a rare type mutation that actually came with physical changes. In this case the man’s normal skin was transformed to some leather-like material that was much more resilient. Though, he was only partly mutated, as his face and left arm were completely normal, maybe even his legs, but Robin didn’t check those.

Of course the hardened skin on his torso wasn’t able to tank all of the remaining energy, but at least it was reduced so much that the rest of the projectile ‘only’ tore a fist-sized hole in his chest. If Robin or Fengo had taken that hit, they probably would have exploded into a bloody mist.

Robin followed the routines ROMAS had compiled and tried to stabilize his patient as best as possible. There was already a UAS ship with a proper med-bay on its way and the stims did wonder in stopping the bleeding and keeping the man alive until help arrived.

After some time, Fengo came into the cabin.

“We left the general area of the anomaly. The reinforcements should arrive in 7 hours. How is Mr. Walzor doing?”

“I think the worst is behind him, pulse and breathing are constant for more than half an hour now and I just gave him a new stim. Only our stock of blood substitute is running low, however his bleeding has stopped. As long as it doesn't flare up again, he should be fine.”

Robin explained his situation, relief in his voice.

“That’s good to hear, great news!” Fengo cheered and also visibly relaxed a bit.

“Can you keep an eye on him? I would like to check on the ship's systems for now, see what can be fixed and what is gone for good.”

“Sure, thanks for your efforts. Without you, this would have ended very differently today.” The young pilot said and took Robin's spot near the bed.

“No problem, we all did our part. If you hadn't gotten us out fast enough, our pieces would be floating there now too. By the way, let’s keep the little accident with the Disruptor as a secret for now, okay? I’ll discuss it with your mother later, but I really wanna reach Gaunus before everyone gets worked up over something new.”

“Huh? Yeah, sure. I didn’t even understand half of what had happened anyways!” Fengo laughed and Robin gave him a thumbs up, before leaving for the technical room at the ship’s rear.

***

Robin was hunkering down near an open panel in the ship’s wall. He saw many different cables and circuit boards, all glowing in a bright blue light. The ones that didn’t glow were damaged parts that he began to repair, exchange or bypass.

With the help of ROMAS and the schematic Fengo had sent him earlier, Robin made good progress. He wore a satisfied smile on his face while taking out one of the burned cables. This was the kind of exciting adventure he always dreamed of. Being raided by space pirates, a shootout in a hangar, the crazy destruction initiated by an alien super-weapon and now even playing the engineer of a stranded ship in space. How much more would he be able to experience when he began to explore new planets? When he met alien races?

With a happy mood, he changed the last parts and the QVT came back to life. He was done here and they were good to go. The damage wasn’t too bad in the first place, since the raiders stopped shooting after their shield went down.

Of course he knew that there was a huge portion of luck involved today. If the Red Sun hadn’t stopped shooting, they would have had no chance of escaping or fighting back. If Landom wasn’t such a resilient bastard, he would have instantly died back then. Their ship escaped the collapsing space only by a hair's breadth and if the pirates had closed the shutter after they entered, it would have been game over.

However, all that didn’t happen. They pulled through, they won. They are the ones who will continue their journey and tell the tale.

‘What an exhilarating feeling…’ Robin enjoyed that moment a bit longer and then made his way to Fengo.

“QVT is back online, you can fly towards our escort to meet up earlier. How is Walzor?”

“Nothing changed, he’s sleeping right now.” The pilot answered and changed places with Robin before he continued.

“Great work, I’ll give you an update after I talk to the UAS and we get a new time for the meeting.”

4 hours later, the Jingur landed once more in the hangar of another ship. This time however it was a Humbler Cradle from the UAS. Landom was brought to the infirmary and professional UAS engineers gave the Jingur a complete check-up, before they actually took off and continued their trip to Gaunus.

Robin and Fengo both had to give a report about the assault and after it was clear that it was some kind of Cetro-raid, the officials didn’t ask much more questions. Things like that unfortunately did happen too often to make a huge fuss about it every time. Living in space was dangerous, everyone knew the risks.

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Since none of their people died and the raider's ship was destroyed ‘by an explosion due to a lucky shot from Robin’, they dropped the matter surprisingly quickly.

The rest of the trip was without any more interruptions. Fengo cycled between checking the ship’s systems and sleeping and Robin worked on training with his mutation. After its latest upgrades he found more and more uses for it and longed for finer control. He worked hard on managing and even suppressing his passive senses. It really sucked to start stammering gibberish each time he was surprised by a sudden increase of energy nearby.

Roughly 6 days later they finally closed in on their destination, Gaunus.

This was the most important planet in the Mereus Cluster and the location of the local UAS HQ. When Robin looked out of the window and saw the celestial body he immediately spotted the obvious differences to Rucasur.

“That’s blue, right? It’s blue!” He gasped in excitement. Of course he already knew that the planet was mostly covered in water from the reports he read and what he saw on TV. However, being there and seeing it with his own eyes was something completely different.

“Finally I’ll set foot on a different planet, not only some lifeless, dusty moon but a real different planet where people do live. People that were born there and maybe never once have left their home, like me before…” Robin chuckled, “And here, on one of Gaunus’ moons, I’ll finally be able to restart my work on unraveling the map!”

Packing his stuff, he went to the cockpit to accompany Fengo on their landing approach.

***

“Mr. Tulward! Welcome to Gaunus! I heard you had a rough flight. Are you alright?” A middle aged man greeted him after they landed on one of the floating platforms. Robin didn’t immediately answer but instead looked around in awe.

They stood on a big rectangular construct made of metal that floated in the middle of the ocean. Robin never had seen so much water in one place, it was breathtaking!

Huge waves crashed into the platform’s side and fine spray was blown into his face, cooling him down and wetting his clothes. The strong wind was howling and everything smelled like salt, he could even taste salt on his tongue after a few moments.

“Marvelous…!” Robin exclaimed with awe in his voice.

The man stepped to his side and patted his shoulder.

“It’s overwhelming coming to Gaunus for the first time, isn’t it?” He said gently but loud enough for Robin to hear over the sound of the crashing waves.

“You should see it on a calm day, it’s another sight to behold when the water is still and Mereus is creating sparkling light effects on the ocean's surface.”

Ultimately Robin turned to look at his host. The man wore the official UAS attire, comparable to what Landom normally put on, this however was colored in the metallic sliver of the alliance. He held his cap with one hand in place and beamed Robin a friendly smile.

“I’m Keran Bex, but you can call me Keran. Shall we go in?”

“Hi and thanks for the warm welcome. I’m Robin, nice to meet you.” Robin said and shook Keran’s free hand, “Lead the way.”

After they entered a small, unassuming door, Robin followed the man down a long stairway that led them deeper in the facility. Built under the ocean’s surface.

“Your pilot will follow us later, he already knows the way. Any lingering problems after your encounter with the Cetro?” Keran asked once more.

“Ah right, no. Everything is fine. Sorry about that…” Robin motioned at their wet clothes, “And thanks for waiting so patiently. Have you any news about Landom Walzor’s condition?”

“Yes, I’ve heard the medics were surprised to see him so well stabilized. You must have done an amazing job. After they took him to a proper hospital on Rucasur, his wound was quickly healed. He is already back on his feet and only needs to take it easy for some time.”

“Great, thanks for the update. That’s good to hear!” Robin took a deep breath of relief and began to grin. Finally he could categorize this adventure as ‘awesome shit!’ without a nagging feeling of uncertainty about Landom's condition.

“Robin, I must say, it’s really amazing to have you here!” Keran switched topics as he led them deeper into the facility, sometimes taking more stairs, at other times they followed long corridors with dozens of doors.

“I’m the official representative of the UAS main HQ in charge of the team that is researching the Keeper object. We are working on this thing for ages already without achieving anything. After we heard that there was a technocrafter in Seka with a Class E - Minor Energy Senses G-Anomaly that noticed remnant energy in an unknown artifact that later - after arriving at the main HQ - was identified as Keeper technology, there was quite the uproar.” The man said with a laugh and patted Robin's shoulder again, “I’m really excited to see what you will get out of this thing!”

He opened a door and motioned for Robin to step in.

“Thanks, I guess? I still have no idea what exactly you want me to do. I only know it’s about an artifact from a race called Keeper, so call me curious, but what… Burn in plasma!” Robin stopped mid sentence.

The room they had entered was some kind of big, comfy guest lounge with a couch, a big display and some workstations. What took his breath however was the big window that completely replaced one of the walls and allowed a direct view into the ocean’s underwater world

***

“Mister Ramones, Robin Tulward arrived on Gaunus just now.” A woman in UAS attire and with short, black hair reported to the tall man that stood near a huge glass wall which allowed one to observe the seabed.

“He wiggled himself out of our grip last time, but now he comes here on his own accord? That man is quite full of himself!”

“He has pretty solid agreements with the UAS. There isn’t much we can do to force him to spill the beans…” The woman hesitantly said.

“I don’t care what kind of deal the geezers from the main HQ made with him. He knows stuff no one should know, his mutation is one big anomaly and maybe he even looted a whole Drel outpost. There are many people looking for answers and I’m more than willing to help finding them! Is Walzor with him? He messed up last time, but maybe we can still learn from his investigations.”

“Walzor was injured when their ship was raided by pirates. He is back on Rucasur to recuperate.”

“They were attacked by pirates? How did they get out of that?”

“We only have a basic report for now as everything seems to be just a random raid by some Cetro. The pirates were destroyed, Tulward survived, no UAS personnel were killed - case closed…” The assistant muttered hesitantly, as she knew how extreme the base’s commander could react to news he didn’t like.

“Case closed?” Ramones turned around, fury on his face.

“Are you fucking kidding me? An unarmed vessel with a pilot that is still wet behind his ears, a second-rate shamus and technocrafter stuffed with secrets fought off… no destroyed a pirate ship and no one asks more questions?”

The woman winced but still tried to reason with him.

“The UAS likes the status quo, Tulward has secrets, yes, but he works efficiently, produces results and shares them with the UAS on reasonable terms. As long as this is a beneficial relationship, they wanna maintain it that way…”

“You think I’m stupid? I also read those directives…” The man huffed and paced around for a moment.

“Get the pilot here. I wanna ask him some questions!”

The woman nodded and turned. She hated this job, while Ramones really did get results with his brutish methods, she didn’t like how much he bent the laws to his likings.

‘Damn creepy cree… Ugh, whatever.’ Shaking her head, she left the office to look for Fengo Hutton.