60 mi outside Greenton, Auctus, February 15, 449 UE. The Treehouse: 220hrs A.M.S.T.

Shit shit shit shit shit! I was frantically trying to work on the third ship. I decided to make a third ship, one for Ernie. The other to could be built by my armBots, well to a point, I had to be there for the personal touches, but that could wait till much later. Ernie seemed to be the kind of guy who was wip smart, but hated the limelight, so I was building a stealth personnel carrier. It was kind of like a marine dropship. Okay it was a marine dropship, except the cockpit was its own ship, a tiny little stealth fighter. The kind of ship that would be undetectable, both optically and with any conventional or military detection system, even LADAR. Its only weapons would be two four count cyner pods an automated laser turret, for point defense and anti personnel, and the PAN-ACE-A or Polymorphic, Advanced, Nanomolecular, Anihilator. The “ACE” is silent, or just there to make the acrostic work. Besides, now I could have different models, like the PAN-ACE-B and such.

Anyway, like the name suggests it’s the ultimate cure all. Basically it’s a tiny particle accelerator turned into a weapon. Basically, if used right, it would rend any ship in two, hel it could destroy a star. But it was a one-off, the weapon had a five minute start-up, and it required to be refueled with unstable Uranium and Plutonium. A special very expensive molecular compound. The cockpit would in theory be able to attach to two different bodies. A dropship, and an evac ship.

That was the theory anyway, the problem is the damn separator, I’ve been at this for an hour and still can't figure out a way to make the damn thing work. Every time I’ve attempted a separation it’s blown out the dropship hull. Which is where I am now, I have 50 hours till Captain Ross docks on The Atrium and I can't get this damn thing to work!

You should make the airlocks out of superdense carbon polymers. Dreq said as he came in.

“Dreq you’re here! Great get on the two dragons, and I’ll try the diamond polymer.” Dreq was talking about bullet proof glass, well for this day and age. Imagine bullet proof glass for powder based firearms, but make it harder than diamond. You get a flexible extremely hard piece of glass. At two inches thick, it could stop a MPD or Manned Payload Device, basically a small wrist fired missile designed for taking out dropships. Why aren’t dropships made with this, because it's heavier than god, expensive too, but mostly heavy.

I put a two inch thick vertical airlock on the dropship, and a one inch thick vertical airlock on the main ship. The added weight was a pain, but it actually balanced the PANACEA, and separation went off without a hitch.

Now it was time for Dreq’s suit, turns out the only thing he built were the wings, which actualy worked amazing. Dreq modeled them after real bird wings, they would have been impossible to build without nanites, the only difference was the outer feathers were solide adamantium, not billions of fibers, like real feathers. Dreq said he wanted them to act like a shield, so the outer layer was more solid. It cut down on flight capability but it actually worked. Dreq synced them to his nervous system, had them harnessed on his back. He could actually do short “hops” of flight, like a peacock or a chicken!

The trouble was the infuriating suit. The metron would not bond to the inside of the suit. Or it would break. Honestly I have not done much work with metron, normally I just ordered the parts with it in them. It turns out metron is way cheaper than I thought, the parts were expensive because metron was so hard to work with. IT so happens that there is no “proper” way to do it, you just have to apply it over and over and over, till it works. That took Twenty-FIVE HOURS. Twenty-five hours of cursing, frustration, and doing the same thing over and over again. It was like someone wanted to pull a joke on insanity by creating metron. Doing the same thing a thousand times is insane, but doing it a thousand and one times, and finally getting it right was genius. Just like Thomas Edison. The suit was tricked out with the same thing mine had, optical, audio, and olfactory enhancements,

The only difference was the addition of small repulsors at the rear of the wings, for extra speed, and for traversing in zero Gs. Also I retrofitted the suit so the wingpack stade on the harness Dreq wore, it was clear he was never going to part with the wings.

Fifteen hours and counting till Captain Ross arrived, I spent the time finishing up the dragon class ships, and I built the evac hull for the Bat class. That's what I am calling the stealth ship, mostly because the atmoWings (atmospheric) wrap around the hull while in space, like a bat when it's in a tree. Dreq, he, played with his suit the whole time. Well, after he modified the dropship to become an all-terrain APC, same with the evac ship. A brilliant Idea really but I wish he did more to help.

He finally quit with his suit three hours before I had to get up to the Atrium. He started “Calibrating the main batteries.” Who spends that much time on the freaking main battery, and how does it get uncalibrated in the first place. His response to when I posed that question was “Garrus Vakarian, and why are we speaking ancient greek?”

Cause I was speaking it in the game and keep forgetting to switch to English.

Okay, why were you speaking ancient greek in the the game?

I closed my eyes and grabbed for the preons, and sent Dreq all the memories I had of the bast few days in game. It was something only Dashad, or their Bondmates could do, it was a much faster way of communicating. I got an hour of peace while Dreq was processing the information. At the end the only thing he said was…

You were scratching her butt?

No! I was petting her Thorax. And she liked it.

I’ll bet she did, who does not like it when random strangers scratch their butt?

I was not! Besides you saw her say “Don’t stop.”

Yes but was that your memory or your weird twisted fantasy.

You know it was my memory.

Yes, but can't a guy just tease you for a little.

You would not let me gripe, so you can't tease. Now help me realign the flux capacitors.

The Atrium, Protovitae System, February 16, 458 UE. Docking bay A6832: 417 hrs A.M.S.T.

I docked at the same dock as last time, It seems Mr, Silver recognised my RF signature, or at least told STC to dock me here. When I got off I made sure to show my gratitude with Ten credits. It was just five credits shy of a membership, but Mr, Silver was discrete, and apparently loyal, I appreciate that. Ten credits was half my remaining balance, but hopefully Captain Ross and Bosun Andrei can still pay for my work, considering they dumped their cargo.

Dreq decided to come with me, we argued on the way, but he insisted. He said that I was an adult, and he was ready to reveal himself. The secret of our Bond would get out, he said we were ready, but I was not so sure. Could we fight the noble class. Dreq was Prince of the Dashad, I would be a defacto King, for all intents and purposes. A lot of nobles will fight it. I did get a good laugh though, he gave Mr. Silver the fright of his life.

I had my duster on, with the red on the inside, but the hood was tucked inside. Dreq’s suit matched his coat, stripe for stripe, and the wings were a matted white, and painted to make them look real, but the paint switched to a more reflective white when he was in his suit.

As we made our way to bay B72, Dreq used his suits claws to do his flight leaps from tree to tree, he still had not quite gotten used to flying, without jumping, but he flew nonstop the last quarter mile. If people were surprised at me flying without repulsors, Dreq was a polka-dotted unicorn. When we landed outside of the B72’s causeway, two Dashad, walk in front of us.

Blasphemer, the right one said, how dare you pretend to be Elurra!

I am Elurra! Dreq replied. The Dashad were surprised to hear a response, they looked at me, thinking I was the one who spoke.

The left one snarled and said to me, you lie! I should rip out your throat!.

Dreq stepped in front of me, his helmet split in half and slid up, revealing his snowy face You will do no such thing, Tiger!

The Dashad on the right immediately bowed and apologised, but the on on the left growled, How dare you call me such a vile animal.

You are right, tigers are considered noble, you are a hyena. Instead of being civil with us you act like a savage animal. Dreq threw out a mental attack and the Dashad retreated along with his companion. Dreq closed his helmet and continued down the causeway.

We entered the bay and were greeted by Captain Ross. Dreq immediately flew up to the rafters, probably to take a nap, he liked to take naps in high places, like trees.

Captain Ross, Andrei Ernie and the longshoremen were standing mouth agape, towards the ceiling, praising the heavens for… I actually don't know why. Or, they could be surprised, yeah that’s probably it.

“Kid, you maybe wanna quit with the surprises, I hate surprises.” Captain Ross said.

“Not sure what you mean Cap, besides, who doesn’t like surprises?” I ask with a smile on my face.

“People who have seen combat, or run a spaceship, I’ve had plenty of both, which means I like surprises doubly less.”

“Well I guess Ernie does not get his ship then, since you don't like surprises, oh and I’ll have to take some things off your ship.” I sigh and look dejected.

“O-orale, Capitan, maybe, your being to hastie, eh, nuevo hombre built me a ship, maybe you could make an exception, just for him, besides he kinda fits under the column of, extenuating circumstances.” I had the distinct feeling Ernie knew something I didn’t, but I let it pass, I was enjoying the moment.

The Captain nodded, “Alright how much is Ernie's ship gonna cost me?” The captain stole my dejected look.

“Well, his ship was not in the deal, so it’s free, you will only have to stock the supplies, it kinda bled me dry.” I gave a disheartened giggle. “Captain, the specials on your ship are weaponised countermeasures and extended sensors, honestly you could find way better sensors, since it’s not a specialty of mine so you may want to upgrade them, don't worry, I’ll install them for free.”

“The weaponised countermeasures are my thing though, basically I thought with you being Captain, your job is to watch over the crew, if one of your fighters is “tagged,” you can fire countermeasures to intercept the Cyners. Andrei your ship is made to order, what you asked for you got,let me know if you think of anything that can be upgraded.”

“Lastly, Ernie, you struck me as the kind of guy who only wants to be noticed when you want to be noticed. So you have a stealth ship” I brought up an image of the Bat-class ship with a holoprojector. “This is the all new bat-class ship. It’s a multitool, on this tiny craft are the most advanced stealth systems I could create, I'm sure there are better but the nanites can make up the difference. This ship is a cure all fix all ship, perfect for a ranger or a scout. Its main battery is highly illegal, oops, I mean, slightly against the law, only because it is a superweapon that could take out a star. But that's only if you really suck at aiming, I call it PAN-ACE-A. It is legalized because it will only fire with a special compound that will not disrupt a star, also its a one-off, you’ll need to buy the ammo.”

“What makes the ship really special, is this.” An animation took place of the ship connecting to the dropship hull. It comes with a dropship, and a slightly larger evac ship attachment. You will have to buy stasis pods and medical supplies for the evac boat. Both boats are all terrain APC’s. You could, probably stealth drop on right on top of a Governor's ass. Definitely after I research more stealth technologies.”

I finished my speech, and they were speechless, except Ernie who said, “hey Jefe, can, can I shoot it?”

“Shoot what?” Victor said, without much attention.

“Boss, the Annihilator, of course, what else could I possibly want to shoot.”

The Captain quickly regained his wits, and came back with the snarky comment, “Your mouth.”

Every, single, one of us started laughing. Then the Captain spoke again, “Normally I would pay you for the third ship, since you kept your end of the deal, and didn’t try to sell me it, but it’s gonna cost a lot of credits just to outfit it properly. Alexander told me you were gonna take me up on my offer, join the crew? He didn’t give me any specifics he just said to clear a bunk, and a lab for you gear.”

I clasped my hand and shuffled them nervously. “Why do I get the feeling this i gonna be another one of those surprises, but the bad kind, like I just watched my evac from a hotzone get blown to pieces.”

I took off my helmet and set it down, “I found and made contact with an unidentified sentient being, well actually it is an entire race.”

I could tell the Captain was shocked, but he kept his cool, I guess he was getting better at hiding it, “Right lots of people claim they’ve run into unknown aliens, what proof do you have?” Or he didn’t believe me.”

“This isn’t the first time I have met an USB.” This got their attention, “I mean, um, forget I said that, the race I want to find are the Arachari.”

“Okay, I believe you, but there is a catch isn’t there.”

“You sound like Lex, maybe there is no catch.” They were not buying it. “Okay, the catch is this,” I pull up a galactic map and put a red dot inside the TDZ. “This is where I think they are.”

“Claro, por su puesto, pinche cabron cree que los gentes en el TZP” Ernie was sardonic, which apparently made him speak spanish. He said, ‘Of course, the freakin ass thinks the peope are in the TDZ’

“It’s alright,” the Captain was much more relaxed, “it’s not too far in, alright kid zoom in, what star system.”

“That's it the dot is the estimated area.” I said sheepishly

“What! That is like, hundred square parsecs!” Andrei exclaimed.

“I told them to broadcast an active signal, across the U.V. spectrum!” I tried to convince them.

“What’s it say?” The captain asked he looked like he was seriously considering it.

I shuffled nervously again. “James, in morse code.”

“Ha ha ha, He has a sense of humor, no?” Andrei supported.

“I expect you want me to supply here, then immediately set off into the TDZ without telling anyone. Fine, I’ll do it, but only if Alexandr comes.” The Captain decides

“I’m comming, I’m comming, I’m sorry, that I am getting old, and I can't keep up with a flying boy and a flying Dashad!” Lex huffed as he came into the room.

“Good, well let's get those ships into the Eagle Spire’s third hangar, and let's get your stuff up here! We got a schedule to keep, congrats James you wanted to start at the bottom you are now an ABS, or if you prefer the militant rank, midshipman! Now get to work!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yay I got the second chapter done! Again eyeballed the editing so if i missed something point it out, especially if there are discrepancies in the stories. I know what you are thinking, where is the action, where is the combat, i'm sooooo bored. Fear not next chapter will have some fighting I promise. Mudrost- ^,..,^