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(Since no one wanted to give me what the distress signal was I'll do it and set off another quest line...)

Bren finally found the target and smiled, "Found it" he said moving through the clouds...but when he finally made it to them he saw it...it was a large slug cruiser, the biggest they had, being torn apart by a strange new ship, it looked like some kind of monster, a ship made of blades, and the front "pincers" were literally tearing into the cruiser, ripping into it and pulling the pieces into the ship (seriously looking at the Lanius player ships thats what it looks like they could do)

"HELP SOMEONE HELP THEY ARE EATING OUR METAL!" was being screamed on all requencies

"Eating their metal?!" Ruwen called out running to the front and when he came to the cockpit his face was full of horror, Gorlag had the same look when he arrived, Bren couldn't believe what he was seeing

"They...are back" Ruwen declared, his tone grim, his enemy had returned along with him...

It was then Bren noticed he was getting a hail..from the other ship?

He accepted it confused, "Umm hello? This is Captain Bren of the Rogue Union" he said the other slug cruiser was done for, even if Bren fired now there was no way the entire crew could be saved in fact the screaming had thankfully stopped.

Bren's answer was a garbled mess of many languages, most of which his translator couldn't pick up, but the bits and pieces he could understand were "Metal, Food, Surrender"

"The hell? Wait are you surrendering?" Bren asked confused, the blank screen didn't answer for a few moments until they heard a loud screech and the sound of metal shards being sharped like a sword on a sharpener, and he could see the ship turning towards them.

"I think they wanted us to surrender...we must destroy them, they are plague on the Galaxy" Ruwen said and Bren nodded his head charging up the rail gun with everyone getting into position...it was time to fight.

Bren fired a few shots, missing them both, he was surprised the ship may look like a bunch of metal pieces fused together but it could fly, but that third shot got them, "Yeah take that!" he called out the other ship hadn't even fired, but then it got into position and fired a duel barrage

"Oh shit!" Bren said realizing what was coming...high impact scrap...

His entire ship was hit, the med bay was down, shields down and on fire, engines completely down and had a hull breach, life support barely running, his weapons were at half power and Bren himself was hit was a bad chuck, his right side was cut badly causing part of him to distort and he groaned...

"Shit..." he groaned and could see it getting closer, he checked his weapons, "Damn it...need to get another shot on them" he saw the pincer coming....

"EAT THIS!" he cried out and fired the crystal burst as the railgun was offline, and the 2 shots of crystal went right into its "mouth"

"Everyone report....for the black box" Bren groaned seeing the repair drones's signals going about the ship to work on fixing a lot of the damages....

"It was an honor to fight alongside you" Ruwen said, "Yeah...and I'm sorry for what my Captain did to you" Gorlag said, Bren closed his eyes awaiting for his end...but it didn't come. The other ship wasn't going for them, infact...it was getting away

"Its...retreating?" Bren asked clutching his side and he saw it jump away...

"Why...did it retreat?" Bren asked both to the crew and perhaps to some unseen power who saved them...

"What...did you do before it left?" Ruwen asked returning to the cockpit

"I fired the crystal burst at it, maybe I'd hit the cockpit or something" Bren said distorting a bit more, he felt a bit tired now...

"Then...perhaps they were like me, warriors from our previous war....maybe they thought their enemy was on their and didn't want to fight" Ruwen offered and noticed the distorting

"Captain what is wrong?" he asked, Bren moved his hand showing his cut side, "My...body is distorting, we are beings of energy...I...need to go into the med bay, get gorlag up here let him pilot and get some of the scrap, you take me to the medbay I just need the auto-doc to inject me with the right healing nanobots and I'll be fine..." he said smiling as Ruwen picked him up and carried him to the now repaired medbay, setting him on the table, Gorlag took his place at the cockpit, granted his had to stand as the chair wasn't designed for slug but at least he could pilot the ship, just had to move the seat back.

Bren groaned as the ship's simple VI program diagnosed the problem and gave Ruwen the syringe with the right formula

"This formula will stabilize him but the damage is very sever he will need to rest, no piloting until he fully recovers" the VI declared before going off, Ruwen followed the simple instructions and injected Bren's side, the nanomachines in the formula working their magic and he could see parts of the wound already begining to heal

"Impressive a wound that would either kill you or take many months to heal can be healed within a day or two, your technology is impressive" Ruwen said

Bren nodded his head and checked his tablet the engines seemed to be online, and the hull breaches were minor enough that the bots could fix it before it could get worse, no fires had started and everything should work now.

"Gorlag...after you salvage the ship take us back...we need...to tell the others what happened" he said before closing his eyes and passing out from the pain and weakness...

Gorlag did that, following the others, collected a bit of the scrap and returning to the previous beacon, hopefully by the time Bren awakens the others would have returned from their adventure...

(so what happened with that Lanius, with the war happening and plenty of tasty scrap is just floating about in space many lanius scouts or warriors previously "Asleep" from the war now are beinging to awaken, and I could see some lanius outside of their sector as scouts or just being nomadic finding a home, I'm not gonna say they are every other enemy, they are just a rare scout...yeah LOL hope ya enjoyed this bit of writing)

They were escorted through a path in the crowed into a large glass building, which was not open to the public. They stood in a massive room, with some military and politicians standing around.

"We are representatives of the main nations on this world. First we must ask, why have you come?" A politician said.

"We represent the United Rogue Union, a small multi-species organization on a military mission," Jake said. "My name is Commander Jake Collins,"

"What kind of military mission?"

"A large organization known as the 'Rebel Alliance' are devoted to..." Jake was cut off by an ear splitting siren from outside. A soldier rushed in.

"Incoming missiles from unknown location, sir. We are under attack. Multiple nations have decided to pull out of the International Treaty, it seems,"

"Our political climate is already unstable. With your arrival...." The politian said.

"Sir, we have to go now!" The soldier exclaimed.

Lux sighed, putting a hand to her forehead "Just what I thought would happen... well actually I was expecting a political kidnapping... but this comes close"
She whispered to Jake "Do we offer to shoot down the missiles with your ship's point defences or should I get Eden to beam us out and then we get as far away as possible from here?"

"We can't just leave. We're part of the reason this is happening, so I say we offer to shoot down the missiles. Although that might make things worse between the countries." Most of the important people had been escorted out by then. If Kyrie was nervous before, the tension had only made it worse. "In any case, we really shouldn't stay here."

Jake sighed. "Kyrie, Lux, somebody... shoot down the missile..."

"Thank you... thank-" The politician began.

"You obviously arn't ready for this. None of you are. Maybe someday, you'll learn. My species did, let's hope yours will too. Either that, or face destruction." Jake said, his expression cold.

"Wait... you mustn't leave! We have so much to learn... we... we need you!"

Jake began briskly walking back to his shuttle. "You guys arn't ready for the stars. So many things await you up there that you can only dream of. Beautiful things, and terrible things. If you can't handle each other, what makes you think you can handle someone else?"

Jake hopped into the shuttle with the others, ignoring the massive crowed. The door slid shut without another word, and they took off. On the way up, Kyrie detected a nuclear based projectile slowly flying over one of the nearby oceans. She shot it down with a small laser cannon, and it exploded harmlessly over the water. They zoomed off into the nebula, totally speechless. There was nothing more to say.

Eyesight Technology wrote:Jake sighed. "Kyrie, Lux, somebody... shoot down the missile..."

"Thank you... thank-" The politician began.

"You obviously arn't ready for this. None of you are. Maybe someday, you'll learn. My species did, let's hope yours will too. Either that, or face destruction." Jake said, his expression cold.

"Wait... you mustn't leave! We have so much to learn... we... we need you!"

Jake began briskly walking back to his shuttle. "You guys arn't ready for the stars. So many things await you up there that you can only dream of. Beautiful things, and terrible things. If you can't handle each other, what makes you think you can handle someone else?"

Jake hopped into the shuttle with the others, ignoring the massive crowed. The door slid shut without another word, and they took off. On the way up, Kyrie detected a nuclear based projectile slowly flying over one of the nearby oceans. She shot it down with a small laser cannon, and it exploded harmlessly over the water. They zoomed off into the nebula, totally speechless. There was nothing more to say.

(woah....)

When they arrived back to the Nebula they saw the Scarab return...and could see its hull damaged, something had happened

Lux wondered just how pointless it seemed to have gone down there. "This is why the Federation has trained diplomats..." she remarked "And that people like us are supposed to ferry them about."
Although Captain Awesome would usually step in because the ambassador was either a compromising idiot or dead, she thought to herself.

"Do you think they'll try to shoot down the next ship that enters their orbit?" Lux asked Jake "Or will they be filled with their own conflicts to care about another side joining the fray?"

Eden then reported that the Scarab had returned. "Looks like something took a bite out of it" she commented.

stylesrj wrote:Lux wondered just how pointless it seemed to have gone down there. "This is why the Federation has trained diplomats..." she remarked "And that people like us are supposed to ferry them about."
Although Captain Awesome would usually step in because the ambassador was either a compromising idiot or dead, she thought to herself.

"Do you think they'll try to shoot down the next ship that enters their orbit?" Lux asked Jake "Or will they be filled with their own conflicts to care about another side joining the fray?"

Eden then reported that the Scarab had returned. "Looks like something took a bite out of it" she commented.

Gorlag came on the coms, "We need help, Bren has been heavily injured, we got attacked by...umm a metal eater according to Ruwen, please help" he said panicking a bit trying to steady the ship a bit and getting them closer to dock

"A metal-eater?" Eden asked incredulously "Looks like a Space Shark tore chunks out of it."
"My dad said that space sharks were a myth made up by spacefarers to scare children" Lux commented as she was beamed to the Pelican in order to grab her alternative supplies for space-based operations. She had tried to study up on Zoltan anatomy along with Engi only to find a few dead-ends on that front.
The Zoltans after all didn't quite have the same anatomy, what with the differences in potential energy compared to other lifeforms.
"Well maybe your Crystal friend's metal-eaters are our space sharks" Eden commented as she brought the Pelican about to meet up with the Scarab and allow easier teleportation.

"Gorlag, state the nature of his medical emergency" Lux said calmly over the comms.