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V2 Chapter 14: Stranded 1
🕑 Added 2023-01-21 15:00:04 +0000 UTCSoshal quickly ran up and started fiddling with the screens on the command dais. Sevs wasn't sure what she was going to be able to do. However, it only took a second. "We need to find the captain. His uniform should have an insignia that looks like…."
Sketching a symbol in the air, Soshal sent them to dig through the enemy's corps. While Sevs and Jason got their hands dirty, she refocused on one of the other terminals. After flipping a Tarlaki over, Jason looked over at Bexy, who was doing her best to look busy on the other side of the room. "Hey! You know we aren't out of this yet. I may have reached min deaths, but I still don't want to have to end this play through. And I know you don't want to deal with the consequences of none of the rest of you not being prepared."
After he finished his tirade, Jason looked over at Sevs. "Sorry, boss, that was out of line."
Sevs was slightly stunned. That seemed very out of character for Jason. Both the outburst and the apology. Even Robert looked over his shoulder at Jason, though Carl was still watching the door. In the end, Bexy was the one who broke the silence. "Sorry, guys."
No one said anything, but then she was right there with Sevs and Jason, searching for the captain.
Sevs was concerned about Jason. He normally came across as so carefree, but sometimes Sevs forgot that while Jason still looked like a young teenager, a fully grown adult was behind the face. Sevs watched Jason as they worked. Was he struggling with stress? Or was he just taking this seriously because they were in a serious situation? This was the first real danger they were in. So far, everyone had handled it as well as Sevs could ask.
He hadn't noticed much of a change in the squads' behavior. But thinking back, sure they were focused and executed, they were missing the normal banter. At some level, that ever-present ribbing they all took part in had been absent as soon as they decided not to join the rest of the survivors.
Sevs looked around at his people. As proud as he was of how far they had come, they were not out yet. He supposed there needed to be a time for jokes and a time for seriousness, but to see Jason this way didn't sit right with him. To see any of them this way didn't feel right. He got the sense that they were brittle. That a single misstep could shatter their composure. It might not be now, not this time. But if they could not return to their usual selves after this, that might be cause for concern.
So lost in his thoughts, Sevs almost missed the captain right as he was looking at him. "Soshal, what do you need from him?"
"Badge and hand. Actually, just bring him over here." She called back.
Sevs hoisted the body over his shoulder and carried it to its chair. It was a good thing that they hadn't started to despawn. It seemed the system realized they were still using them and wasn't acting on it. Or perhaps the despawning system worked differently on their ships versus the human ships.
With proper access, Soshal began to work some magic. Screens all around the bridge started to light up. Sure they were in languages that they couldn't read, but the diagrams were mostly useful. At least some of them Sevs had a guess for what purpose they served. There were just as many that he had no idea about.
Luckily he had competent people who did have some ideas. Soshal directed Jason and Bex to a couple of screens in the lower rows of desks while she managed a couple on the command pedestal. Turning to Sevs. "What do you want to do?"
Sevs looked around the room. He couldn't make a decision yet. He needed more information. "How much capability do we have?"
"Well, we can't really take this into a hot zone of the fight. But we should be able to move where I tell it to. Also, no shields."
"Did they get a signal to warn the rest of their fleet?"
"I can't really tell. I don't think so. Seeing that we are still in one piece, I would assume that they have not. I do know that there is jamming within the ship preventing comms from coming out of the ship except by authorized channels. So we shouldn't have to worry about someone outside the bridge radioing out for help."
"So we pretty much have to worry about them retaking the bridge?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Soshal said. "Well, unless someone from another ship tries to contact us."
She and Sevs both held their breath for a second, waiting for a blinking light of an incoming call to sink their hope of getting out alive. When nothing happened, Soshal continued. "The other issue is being able to contact our fleet. I don't think I can get a secure line without making it obvious that this ship is talking to the human fleet. Honestly, I'm not even sure I can do that. We might only be able to contact them over a broad frequency."
"First thing first. Can you do anything about the rest of the crew on the ship? I don't know. Like vent the ship?"
Soshal poked around in a few menus. "Maybe? Not easily. I still can't read this stuff."
She swiped a few times. "I think I can turn off gravity, though. That might slow them down a bit?"
"Hmmm." Sevs thought. "Best not. That might only help them get up the shafts."
Robert apparently was listening to their conversation and called over to them. "You should do it, then turn it back on. Pancake them!"
"That's not how it works. It doesn't just turn on instantly. It takes a while to warm up." Soshal said with a chuckle.
"Aww, that would have been really cool," Robert complained. Sevs had to agree that would be nice. It was also nice to see some humor returning. Maybe now they felt a little safer. Looking over at Jason, he could still see the tension in the man's jaw. Maybe not, Sevs thought.
"Okay, let's focus on what we can do. Soshal, we need to get close to the humans before asking for help. It's going to be a close thing to balance without getting shot down by either side. Can you display the surrounding space somehow?"
She messed with the controls for a couple seconds before the windows stopped showing an empty field of stars. It turned into a hologram projecting the state of the battle. The engagement hadn't slowed down during the time that Sevs and his team had been working. Taking in the battlefield, it wasn't so much that the humans were outnumbered. Actually, the humans had more ships, according to what Sevs thought were some counters. No, the issues were that the humans didn't only have combat ships and the ones that did were busy.
Almost every combat-capable ship was warding back a swarm of boarding ships that aimed for the truly massive population centers, slowly changing course and leaving the engagement. The humans focused on escaping, whereas the Tarlaki's actions only demonstrated a predatory nature seeking the destruction of the human fleet.
After getting an idea of the current battle situation, Sevs turned to what their new ship was doing. It appeared to have a name that Sevs couldn't read, but the map helpfully highlighted the ship in green, whereas the human ships were red and the rest of the Tarlaki were blue. They appeared to be part of a larger formation standing off against the human ships.
Sevs had done many things in his many playthroughs. He wouldn't say he had done everything, but it was pretty close. The system usually favored fantasy worlds over sci-fi ones, but that wasn't to say that Sevs had never participated in space wars. In fact, he had. Many times. However, the one thing he had never done was lead one.
The only times that he had ever been part of factions large enough to field a fleet of ships, he was with other beta testers. Even then, he was a mage or engineer. Sometimes he had been a fighter pilot or even an intelligence analysts. He had never commanded a ship, let alone organized a battle.
Sevs started at what was a completely new problem. He and his team were lucky, though. The new Sevs born through this playthrough was much more suited to this. The snap decisions and teamwork needed were the skills he had been working on this whole time. While he had never done this, many of his first companions had.
Looking at their position among the Tarlaki ships, Sevs started to construct a strategy to get out.
