Chapter One: Deep Space Music

[Akirapryde]

Alice glanced down at her shoulder bag, “I think…..Maybe….” she answered with uncertainty in her voice. She quickly shifted her body and pulled up her shoulder bag up towards her chest for a better look. She flipped open the flap and started to shift the things around. She moved through the things in her shoulder bag double checking everything. “yeah, I…..I think I have everything” she answered but in the back of her mind, she wasn’t completely sure.

The crew arrived back at the shuttle and boarded it just as the main hanger doors start to open. Within seconds the shuttle was on its way back to the ark. The distance between the party and the ark started to tick away. As the crew were strapped in to their seats behind Jake, he was going through the basics of piloting the shuttle. It wasn't a hard thing to do. They weren't in combat so it was basically fly a straight line. However his mind raced. Things were not adding up. On his short range sensors, he could see the Kellington as the shuttle continued its approach to the ark. The five hundred meter long Jumpship hung over the star with it’s over kilometer wide sail still fully deployed. For a pilot like Jake, this was strange. If the Kellington was preparing to jump out of system, the sail should have been stored or at least in the middle of being safely stored away prior to the jump taking place. The sail was vital to the ship being able to recharge its massive K-F Drive. Loosing the sail would be a critical issue for the jumpship.

The mystery continued when Jake's sensors reported six small returns speeding away from the Jumpship. The trajectory of the objects and the repeating signal emanating from the objects told Jake that the objects were escape pods. But there was no reason to explain why the escape pods of the Invader Class Jumpship had been jettisoned. For what Jake could tell, the Jumpship was not damaged or in danger. As Jake scanned the Jumpship, he already knew that the Sckicksal had disconnected from the larger ship. The only ship still connected to the Jumpship was the Ark.

To make matters worse, strange magnetic anomalies were starting to make piloting a test of Jake’s abilities. It was if waves of force were attempting to slow the small craft down or risk tossing it off course. These waves were tossing the small craft up and down and side to side like a child. The waves were becoming more intense and more frequent.

Then all of a sudden Jake's headset came to life. “Straker… Sckicksal here,” the voice of Julian Rothbauer calling to Jake personally. Julian Rothbauer was one of the few members of the Merc unit that didn’t have a military background. Julian took to space like most people take to walking and breathing. The man was a natural at feeling his way through space travel. Hired because of this natural ability, Julian’s role with the outfit was as the Executive Officer of the Sckicksal. Jake could hear Rothbauer’s voice through the headphones of his helmet, which was strange that the communication was taking place like this. It only took a glance from Jake to see that the transmission was coming over a secured ship to ship channel.

Unlike the outfit’s personal communicators, which were non-secured, this channel was heavily encrypted to prevent others from ease dropping. It is normally only used during combat situations. At the moment, only Jake and the Schicksal knew the nature of this conversation. While not completely out of the ordinary, normally the Captain would order that communications be changed to a secured channel. However Rothbauer must have felt the situation had changed enough to make the call himself.

Over the channel Jake could hear the sounds the Schicksal’s bridge crew rushing through their task getting the ship ready for combat. Back aboard the Schicksal were nearly twenty other members of the outfit. The twelve member crew of the Schicksal and seven support personal made up the rest of the merc outfit. “Straker, I have you on our sensors. You are five by five with no hostiles in your neighborhood. I got the Captains orders and the techs are getting the mechs ready for deployments as we speak. Let the Captain know that they will be ready when you get here.” There was a pause as the sounds of the Schicksal became muffled. It was if Rothbauer was moved away from the others and covered the mic to speak more…privately.

Rothbauer continued, “Orion Station said that there are raiders on approach but we can’t find them on our search sensors. A few moments ago, the comms went dead with the Kellington. Now we see escape pods from the Jumpship. Straker, do you guys know what the hell is going on?”

It didn’t take much more to convince the rookie pilot that nothing was making sense about what was going on. He turned around in his seat to see the six passengers aboard his shuttle all strapped in to their seats. Alice was going through her bag with a look of concern on her face. It was clear to anyone that she was just as confused at the situation as everyone else was. Jake’s eyes fell upon Lyona who was still playing with her noteputer and headphones. Her eyes seemed to be peering through the bulkhead of the shuttle as if looking through a window in to another word. Her fingers played over the noteputer as if she was dialing in something……

Echoing in Lyona’s ears was the voice of a man sounding like he was giving a speech of some kind. It was sketchy as if she was listening to an old radio transmission. “With communities and families no longer divided, let us never forget that it is what we have in common that give us the strength to build tomorrow. Let us never forget that we are one people, one community, and one world.” As her fingers dialed in the sound more clearly, she could hear a thousand voices overlapping. As the shuttle continued its flight towards the ark, Lyona was finding it easier to pick a voice and clear up the distortion and make it barely audible.

OOC Narrator Notes: I will give Jake and Lyona three questions that can be asked about this post. Jake your questions must be from your character’s perspective. Lyona the same goes for your character. Everyone else will get to ask one question. However please make sure that you help each other out. Offer up suggestions on our KIK Group Chat for which questions should be asked. Anyone can ask any question they want as long as it is within the scope of what their character would know. Asking these questions could make all the difference in what your group knows going in to the next chapter.

If you are not on the KIK chat, KIK me at Akirapryde2006 and let me know who you are. There are between one and three Narration Posts left in this chapter. If you don’t have a character sheet up or need help with your character sheet please let me know. Also, at the end of this Chapter I will be awarding Adventure Points (AKA XP) and Skill Points in my final post for this chapter. AKIRA