Chapter Text
A Spark Is Enough.
No Turning Back: Part One.
Dim light peeks through the violet clouds of the belt's far side. The subtle glow silhouettes the dense blanket of debris between the Reef’s many asteroids. A lone jumpship carefully navigates the minefield of space junk left adrift in the cosmic storm. The pilot observes the remains of a massive shipwreck as his comparatively tiny jumpship coasts by. Huge block letters adorn the wreck's side. ‘H-O-P-E'. A lurid display of irony. Silently, the pilot watches the wreckage drift out of view as he guides his vehicle around leftover remnants of other ships that met a tragically similar fate to the ‘HOPE.’
“From what I’ve heard, they were part of a colonization effort at the very end of the Golden Age,” the pilot’s companion chimes in, breaking the silence. “I don’t know if anyone knows for sure, but from what I gather, not all of the colonists died in these wrecks."
The pilot turns to his companion with a look of curiosity.
“Some of the colonists survived the expedition, but something changed them.”
“The Awoken?”
“You know I’m no expert, but from what I’ve pieced together, I believe you’re right.” She moves closer to the pilot. “The Awoken out here are not like the ones we met back home,” she warns in a stern but concerned voice. “Even less welcoming than Eyran.”
“I know. You told me about that ‘Dread Orbit’ rumor before,” the man replies, a little annoyed with his friend's warnings.
She listens to the man's flippant response and contracts her shell. “It’s ‘Dead Orbit’ and I heard it directly from the Ghost himself. The Awoken out here are dangerous.”
“I believe you, Spark, but this is important,” the man says genuinely but dismissively as he pilots the jumpship out of the dense pocket of debris.
Now somewhat frustrated, Spark floats directly into the pilot’s view and speaks in a tone that matches her shell’s irritated movements. “Your assignment back on Earth was important.” She stops herself and moves her small frame out of the way.
A deafening silence fills the cockpit for a moment.
“I get why you’re upset about it… but I had to make a choice,” the man says calmly. “If this pays off, it has got to be more important than some patrol. Besides, if anything else happens while we’re gone, I’m sure they can handle it.” He quickly checks his navigation system and begins descending the ship toward a tight cluster of asteroids. “They’d probably tell me to get lost if I tried to help anyway.” He lets out a light chuckle.
“Do you really think that ‘Drifter’ was being honest?”
“It’s worth looking into at least,” he answers with a smirk and a quick glance to his unconvinced Ghost. “It’s the only lead we have.” The smirk disappears.
“It’s not just the Awoken we need to worry about out here. Plenty of Fallen pirates operate in this area as well.” Spark looks out the window as they approach a huge collection of asteroids, loosely speared together by large metal cables.
The man brings the ship in to search for a place to land on one of the gargantuan space rocks.
“I just don’t want something to happen to us. I don’t want you to get hurt, Klutz…”
Klutz turns his attention to his Ghost for a moment, but before he can say anything, the ship is rattled, violently, by a powerful impact.
Swiveling his head to look out the window, Klutz notices the unfortunate sight of dark clouds of smoke trailing from the engine of his spacecraft.
“Significant damage to primary propulsion, Guardian!” Spark exclaims while scanning the ship's internal components.
“I didn’t see any debris. What the hell did we hit?” Klutz fights against the ship’s dying thrusters, desperate to find a safe landing space.
“We didn’t hit anything... Something must have hit us! Likely a surface-to-air weapon, but I can’t be sure-“
Directly ahead, a large, frowsy ship, clearly not of human design, appears out of a cloaked state and trains its guns on the already damaged jumpship.
“It’s a Fallen Skiff! It’s probably filled with them…” Spark says while continuing to assess the damage. “It would be a good idea to make evasive maneuvers, fast!”
“Don't have much of a choice!” Klutz replies just before the Skiff fires off a barrage of plasma directly at them.
Klutz dives the ship downward to try and avoid the plasma fire. Nevertheless, a few blasts hit the jumpship’s hull, causing more stress on its rapidly failing systems. The Skiff follows them and readies itself for another attack from behind.
Alarming red lights and warning messages light up the vehicle's dashboard.
The pilot’s hands grip the controls tightly as he tries to formulate an escape plan that doesn’t end with the pirates picking through both his shipwreck and body for valuables.
With little in the way of options and seemingly no means of escape, Klutz makes a hard call. “Spark, prepare us for transmat.”
She gawks at him. her shell separates in surprise.
“Landing won’t be an option while that thing is around. I need you to get us out before the collision.” He gives a meaningful look at his partner.
Spark nods and dematerializes.
Grasping the controls even more firmly, the Guardian pulls the ship upward at a near-vertical angle, narrowly missing another bright blue burst of plasma fire from the Skiff's guns. Battling the unresponsive thrusters, Klutz manages to maneuver his craft in a full loop through the air and position it behind the hostile ship.
The Skiff turns its guns to face the prey now at its rear. Before another round of plasma can finish off his half-dead spacecraft, Klutz pushes the throttle as far forward as possible, launching the vehicle toward the Fallen at an incredible speed.
Unable to avoid their rapidly approaching doom, some of the pirates opt to leap from the Skiff in the hope of survival. Unfortunately for the desperate pirates, escape is impossible.
Just before impact, Klutz closes his eyes with full faith in his Ghost.
The damaged jumpship violently collides with the Skiff, cutting through it like a great cleaver. Fire and debris rain down as the Skiff is demolished. What’s left of the jumpship crashes and tumbles before settling not much further away.
Klutz opens his eyes. He finds himself safely on the surface of the rocky asteroid. The last of the white glow of transmat energy dissipates around him. “Cut it a little close, huh?” he jokes standing just feet away from the Skiff's burning wreckage.
“You know me. I’ve got a thing for drama,” Spark playfully answers.
Before he can return with another witty remark, Klutz spots a concerning sight.
Another Fallen Skiff disables its cloaking almost directly above them.
Klutz moves to ready his weapon but isn’t quick enough to avoid a direct blast from the plasma cannons. His body is hurled backwards from the impact, sending him head-first into a nearby rock wall.
As his vision slowly fades to smothering blackness. Spark enters his view through his cracked visor. He worries she will get hit by the Skiff's weapons as well. He looks at her damaged shell. He remembers her warnings about the dangers of The Reef.
He knows he should have listened.