73. Astral’s Hideout/ Aftermath Of The Battle Behind The Star

Abyssal warped right in the middle of an asteroid cluster, orbiting a giant gas planet. Somehow, the coordinates of the warp were set to an exact point in the place where she wouldn’t be harmed by the natural terrain. If she missed the coordinates just a tiny bit, she would no doubt be plunged into a rock or something, doing massive damage to her ship.

Her location? Unknown. There was some sort of inhibitor surrounding the place as Abyssal was unable to determine her exact location on the star map. The only thing she knew was that she was outside the Lawless Maw Zone and was at the edge of a certain star belonging to the Dawning Star Nation. Abyssal was currently tailing behind Astral who was leading her deeper into the asteroid cluster.

Unlike Abyssal who was having difficulties trying to steer through the chunk of rocks, Astral could be seen navigating the place like she had been there a thousand times. If Abyssal didn’t have her new shields in place, she would have been pelted by a few giant rocks already. They moved and they moved, weaving in between the giant rocks for what felt like an hour.

“Try to keep up now,” Astral said as she moved faster.

“Hey! Wait up! I can’t move that well in here.”

“Can’t even catch up? I thought you were some super A.I.? These kinds of things should be easy for you, ain’t it?” Astral said sarcastically with a small chuckle.

“That’s just on paper. Deep inside I’m just a person prone to making mistakes alright!” Abyssal shouted.

“Alright, alright. Don’t have to yell, jeez. Anyways, we are almost there, just a little bit more,” Astral said before cutting off communications.

Not too long after that communication, they arrived at a large chunk of rock, larger than the other rocks around. Astral was the first to reach the rock and she soon went into orbit around the thing while waiting for the bigger and less manoeuvrable ship that is Abyssal to come by. Once Abyssal was deemed near enough to the structure, an amazing sight happened.

The piece of rock that was just orbiting soon ‘opened up’. A large entrance that could fit a large ship twice the size of Abyssal revealed itself— a large green barrier separated the inside from the outside. Inside the entrance, Abyssal could see a few large landing pads in a place that looked like a hangar. There were no ships inside, but lots of spare parts and ammunition were lying around the place. From the base, a big projector projected holographic arrows that showed the most optimal trajectory to land in the cave. Astral took one such route and easily landed on the far left landing pad in the base.

It was the Asteroid base that Astral called ‘The Cove’.

“An Asteroid base!” Abyssal shouted when she saw the inside of the asteroid base.“Woah, this place is cool, nyaa!” Meica yelled out as well.

“Yeah, yeah I know. Hurry up and come in. this place is called a hideout for a reason,” Astral said.

Without hesitation, Abyssal followed the holographic lines and entered ‘The Cove’. Her job of landing was rather easy thanks to the guiding lines and the fact that the place was huge which gave her sufficient space to move around. The inside of the place was much cooler than the outside. The moment she entered, she could see various construction cranes, construction drones, grabber arms, and even a few small scale manufacturing facilities producing weapons and ammunition. The resources of which were being mined out of the same asteroid base.

Abyssal steered the Shark-class in awe as she moved through the base. Not too long after that, the entrance to the asteroid base closed. Abyssal deployed her landing gear, landed on the pad, and turned off her engines and other non-essential components. That being said, she was doing all of this in auto-pilot mode. Most of Abyssal’s focus was on the numerous tech in the base. Her mouth drooled at the possibility of upgrading herself even further.

Though, it would seem that Astral prepared a little surprise for the naughty Abyssal.

All of a sudden, Abyssal felt a jolt of shock and then, a little numb. Abyssal, who was confused, quickly looked around herself and noticed that her entire ship was held in by some sort of barrier or field projected by numerous machines on top and bottom of the landing pad. The large barrier prevented Abyssal from moving outside of the landing pad. It was much similar to the barrier that E used to surround Abyssal during her stay at the supercarrier but much much more severe.

“Wha-wha, what’s this?” Abyssal yelled out in a slight panic.

“It’s a stasis ward, master,” Kuon responded. “Such a boorish act.”

“Stasis ward?”

“Sorry about that. I know you cores are a rather curious bunch. Can’t have you going around freely and assimilating all my stuff. Well… not until I can trust you guys more,” Astral explained. She was currently outside of her fighter jet and was walking slowly towards Abyssal. She was somehow communicating to Abyssal through her jumpsuit.

“Surely there was no need to put us in this kind of field?” Abyssal asked.

“Unlike the supercarrier, I don’t have a conscious living A.I. to help me counter other conscious living A.I. from assimilating my stuff, so yeah, do forgive me for being a bit rough.”

“Nyaa! This is like no different than a cage and being imprisoned!” Meica yelled out her concerns.

“Ya guys sure are a rowdy bunch, huh. Relax, nothing is going to happen. I’m of no harm to you. Rather, without this thing, you guys are of big danger to me,” Astral pointed out.

“That’s… true, I guess.”

“Right? So now come out here, all of ya. I want everyone in that ship to come out. No surprises dammit. We need to have a nice little talk,” said Astral as she laid her back onto a wall next to the landing pad.

Abyssal looked towards Kuon and Meica, seeking their opinion on the matter. Both of them nodded to Abyssal. It wasn’t like they could do much in this situation anyways.

“Alright, we’ll be there,” Abyssal said out as she, Kuon and Meica made their way outside the bridge, towards the entrance of the ship.

* * * * *

“How’s the damage?” A man that can be attributed with the word handsome asked. He sat on his chair and looked out into the window. Outside was the view of a magma planet and thousands and thousands of small pieces of metal debris floating around.

“What can I say? We took some really heavy damage. Lots of drones lost. A few injured personnel. Luckily, no dead. Hangar three and four are unusable until repairs are done and engine seven and eight is dead in the water. We’ve lost reactor four. Hundreds of destroyed fighters. The rest… you can read for yourself,” E, who was sitting on the captain’s desk threw a paper file towards the captain.

Kyle, the captain of the ship, picked up the report and started to briefly go through it. He then let out a sigh before tossing the report into the garbage bin next to him.

“How can one ship deal so much damage in such a short time,” he said before massaging his temples.

“That’s kinda what happens when you ram a ship onto another, board the ship with a ton of drones onto the ship before self-destructing into a million pieces when not enough damage was done.”

“What about the Dawning Star ships?”

“Left after the battleship rammed us. Their whereabouts are unknown. I couldn't track them.”

Kyle let out another sigh. “How’s search and rescue? Any survivors from the opposing ship?”

E shook her head. “None so far. Not even signs of any dead bodies.”

“So that ship is only controlled by a single core?”

“That’s what I assumed. But….”

“But what?”

“I’ve been searching for quite a while now. But there are no signs of any core in the debris or even signs that there was a core in the ship. It’s either the core was destroyed after it self-destructed, or the ship was remote-controlled from another place.”

“I see. To throw away a good battleship like that. I can’t understand these people.”

“Well, it is what it is. If they sent in another two more of those we would have been dead.”

“...”“...”

“Oh right, there’s something else I forgot to tell you.”

“What?”

“Astral had taken the refugees away. They managed to escape during the confusion.”

“I see. Well, it’s best that they don’t get too involved with us anyway. Any clues on where they were headed?”

“No idea. Astral never tells me anything these days,” E shrugged her shoulders. “But given the circumstances and the personalities of the refugees, I don’t think she’ll be coming back to this sector for quite a while. She’s definitely going to have her hands full with them.”

“I see. It’s for the best, I guess. Least we won't be getting in each other's way after this. It’s almost a shame though. Catching her would reward quite the bounty.”

“You know that’s never going to happen. She’s way too slippery for that. By the way, on another unrelated news, the kids are now back into their cells and the rest of the crew are ready to get back into active duty. Julia should be ready to start her next experiment.”

“Has it been that long already? What about the rest of the Freedom United ships?

“There were some delays with their arrival. Some reason that won’t tell me. They will arrive soon enough and regroup with us. Orders are the same, to get rid of the rest of outside interference in the Lawless Maw Zone.”

“I see. What are the government plans for the relic?”

“Orders are to delay the search. A full-blown investigation will be done once we secure the sector.”

Kyle stood up from his chair before waving at the window. The window turned into a display before being covered by curtains. He then adjusted his hat and started to leave the room. “I guess holidays are over then. Time to purge the sector.”

“We still need to repair though?” E asked, following him at his side, her hands behind her head.

“We still got two more hangers. We can still proceed with the operation. Besides, this time we will have actual escorts protecting us. If they wanted to kill us, then they’ve missed their chance.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”