All Actions Have Consequences (#5)
10 Jun 2021Neon_nylon
[Conflict Zone, Thiana system]Neon's eyes were still closed. His death was inevitable. He waited.
. . .
. . .
Nothing happened.
He was not dead.
He opened one eye. Then the other. And looked at his dying, flickering radar.
The red hostile data point was gone.
Tinkle, Tinkle
Metal shrapnel rained against the canopy.
He looked at the radar again. There was another signature. An orange one. A neutral one.
It seemed to be coming closer, though it was difficult to tell, as the Nexus was still smoking and spinning.
The orange point got clearer. It was coming closer. But it wasn't on an attack vector. No... That was an escape vector.
Then, suddenly, something flew right past the Nexus. Neon caught a glimpse of it through the smoke. A blue wedge. A Cobra! His pursuer was gone and a cobra flew past... The cobra shot down the hostile! I'm not gonna die. IM NOT GONNA DIE! EVEN THE UNIVERSE IS TO SCARED TO SEND ME TO HELL!!! HAHAHAHA! He was gonna escape, cause that cobra saved him.
Then it hit him.
It hit him like a bag of bricks to the face.
It hit him like an Anaconda ramming a Sidewinder.
The realization hit him so hard, he physically recoiled, grasping his head with his hands.
Th-they.....s-s-saved....m-me.
Som-somebody saved me.
why?......why? WHY?
It makes no sense.
It just makes no sense.
Some stranger had saved his life. His pathetic life. The life of one who had his hands soaked in blood. Somebody had saved him and had asked for nothing. "Wha-what the f-f-fuck."
And then Neon did something he had never done before.
Neon screamed.
He screamed, because he did not know. Because he did not understand. Because he could not even begin to comprehend.
Tears flow down his cheeks.
And he kept screaming, calling, begging for some clarity, some help, for someone, some being to help him understand.
His voice got hoarse and soon only a quiet sobbing was left. whywhywhywhywhy. I don't understand, i don't understand...
The blaring of the alarms brought him back.
"I have to find that ship, that pilot. I need to find them." But the cobra had already left the area. Last contacts! He'd check the ships last contacts! With quite some difficulty, Neon was able to navigate to the last contacts tab. But nothing showed up. He gave the instrument panel a hefty kick. It sprung to life. And there it is. A blue cobra mk3. Registered to... [DATA CORRUPTED] "OH FUUUCK MEE" The Nexus was in worse shape than he thought, if not even the scanner was functional. But maybe, just maybe it picked something up before it died. Neon frantically read through the jumble of data. And there it is. A godsend. A tiny tidbit of data. Ship-ID: D4N-T3. "Yes!" It was not much, but it was enough. He was gonna find this pilot and understand why, why he was saved. A new spark lit up in his eyes. He had gotten another chance at life. And he was gonna fucking use it.
But first he had to get out of his current predicament. The Nexus had no engines and no scanner. So he was blind and limp. But there always is a solution. The sweet thing about the DBX was that it could fix itself. Not much, mind you. But just enough to get it under control, Gotta do this quick, before some other fucker tries to kill me. All you had to do, to get it running, was to restart the ship. That would mean shutting it off completely. All of it. Life support too. And if the ship was too damaged a restart after the shutdown was not guaranteed. But Neon was not scared. He knew he was gonna survive. So he presses the button.
The Nexus goes dark and silent. Then: WHUMPF!
A massive shudder goes through the entirety of the ship. Like the heartbeat of whale. Dials are flashing and the HUD flashes and flickers. It had worked! It's not perfect, but it sure as hell was good enough. Neon tests the throttle. The ship responds! He has movement. Neon chooses a system in the nav and activates the FSD. Somehow it was still intact. LAUNCHING IN 3..2... BOOOM! A stray rocket had hit the ship, forcing its trajectory to change. The FSD did not deactivate. It must have malfunctioned "FUCK!", Neon exclaimed as the ship goes FTL. This is not good. Where the fuck am I gonna end up? Please don't fire me into a sun. Please don't fire me into a sun. Please don't fire me into a sun.
The Nexus tumbles out of FTL.
Neon looked around. Where the fuck am I? Well, at least not melting inside of a sun. Neon checks the nav. Nothing. It had died. He spun the ship around and spotted a sun in the distance. Ok.. I'm not stuck in the void between systems. That is good. But where to now? Without the nav, I can't leave. I'm stranded for now. Man.. fuck this day. Neon checks the scanner. Also nothing. Or wait? A faint echo of a signal popped up. Could be something, could be nothing. Better than havin the Nexus as my coffin, i guess. Though this day could not get any worse, really. Neon tries to activate supercruise. It works, thankfully and he begins his flight to the faint, flickering data point.