(Til Death Do Us Part) 3: The Wreckage
20 Jan 2023Silvia Sharpe
Venus arrives at Mackenzie Relay in Cemiess. She checks in Ripjaw her Imperial Cutter for long term storage as she is unsure how long she will be gone for. Making her way to the commanders lounge she sends a message to Ava to let her know she has arrived. Venus heads to the bar and orders a special drink a strange man had made for her once called a "Double Duchess". It was basically a blue lagoon with coffee flavored whipped cream and honey on top. She takes a drink and thinks about the first time she met Silvia.The year was 3299. They had met in a bar after a long day working on a humanitarian aid mission for a superstorm that had left much of the west coast of North America horribly flooded. Silvia was wearing a blue rain poncho and had these goofy black rubber boots on. She was talking to a group of her friends and was holding a blue lagoon. Venus overheard them talking about different kinds of plants which intrigued her so she made her way over to the table. Venus had on her best attire which resembled that of the Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval except with some very noticeable differences. Her shirt was black and low cut accented with a very intricate gold pattern around her bust. The neckline was covered in tanzanite stones. Around her neck she was wearing an platinum necklace with perfect quality tanzanite stones. On top she was wearing a dark grey bolero jacket with gold accents on the wrists and shoulders. She had on matching dark grey tailored pants. Her boots were black knee highs, straps and gold buckles ran down the outsides of each one. In her ears she wore platinum earrings with tanzanite stones. Silvia nearly choked on her drink as she saw an Imperial approach her table. In a panicked tone she asked if there was a problem.
'Is everything ok ma'am? I swear I didn't take anything I wasn't supposed to. We are only...….'
'Its ok I'm not here to cause any trouble and you certainly are not in trouble. Please don't call me ma'am we are in a bar in federation space as much as it pains me to be here. No I am simply here to listen to you guys talk about plants. I have always been intrigued by biology of any kind. Are you all researchers?'
'Yes ma.... um sorry yes. We are Xenobiologist and are here to try and determine the impact this storm will have on the existing flora and fauna in the area. I am Silvia Sharpe. What might your name be?'
Venus is startled back to reality as Ava grabs her shoulder lightly. She spins around quickly instinctively reaching for her pistol before recognizing who had grabbed her. Ava is 6'0 and about 160lbs. Her right arm is cybernetic as well as the lower half of her left arm. Her left leg is cybernetic. She has platinum blond hair and violet eyes. Ava is muscular but holds a very feminine appearance, her strength is further increased by her cybernetics. She is wearing an Imperial Navy uniform the rank of captain on her shoulder. Ava takes a seat next to Venus and orders a Sweet Tart cocktail. While she waits for her drink she turns to Venus and asks for the plan.
'What exactly do you hope to find on the black box for your ship? If you find what you are looking for what do you plan on doing with that information?'
'My hope is to find out the ship that shot down Silvia. I received a message the other day from somebody or a group called Raven. I searched all of my data banks trying to find a trace of the name but came up with nothing. If I can find a ship name I can hopefully track down the person responsible for taking Silvia and get her back quickly.'
'What if the person or group that took her are your old squadron mates?'
'If it is Diaz and his cronies I'll burn them alive!'
With the mention of Diaz Venus squeezes her glass so hard it shatters cutting her hand open. Ava receives her drink and quickly drinks it. She stands up and grabs Venus' good hand pulling her out of the commanders lounge. She leads Venus back to her Imperial Clipper "Genesis" and brings her into the med bay. Venus sits down as Ava grabs a med bag. Ava takes care to clean and dress the wound on Venus' hand. She looks at Venus and places her left hand on her cheek.
'You know Venus that anger of yours is formidable. It may be your most defining feature. I fear though that one day it may be the reason you lose yourself or someone you hold dear.'
'You may be right but I can't afford to be passive. Silvia is my whole world. We have been together for 10 years now.'
'I know Venus. I still remember the day you two got married. Come now, let's get some rest. We will leave in the morning for Amenta. I have been given permission to investigate Silvia's disappearance, so you have me for the duration of this.'
Ava grabs Venus' hand and leads her to the crew cabin. Being that this was a Gutamaya ship the crew cabin was extremely luxurious and had all the comforts one could think of. Venus steps through the doorway and pauses. She turns around and hugs Ava. Venus looks up at Ava taking a step back.
'Thank you. You really didn't have to help me.'
'You would do the same for me if I needed it. Now get some rest. I will come by to grab you in the morning.'
Ava heads down the hall to the captains quarters for the evening. The next morning Venus is woken up to the sound of the cabin door opening. Ava walks in with a tray of food and a caramel macchiato with an imperial crest design in the foam. She walks out of the cabin and heads to the bridge to perform her preflight checks as well as plot their course to Amenta. Venus eats her breakfast and drinks her coffee. Once she finishes her breakfast she opens the crew closet and pulls out an Imperial navy flight suit and puts it on. It had been years since she had worn one. She missed it somewhat but was happy that she was able to explore the galaxy with Silvia on their own terms. Venus makes her way up to the bridge and takes a seat in the gunners chair. Ava looks over at Venus and smiles.
'You look good in white and blue. Alix please activate commander authorization procedure.'
"Yes commander. Please state name and rank."
Venus looks a bit concerned that she has to state her rank but proceeds anyway.
'Captain Duval.'
The A.I. validates the information and registers Venus as an authorized commander.
"Authorization successful. Welcome commander"
Ava completes her pre-flight checks and requests permission to launch. The trip to Amenta is uneventful and Venus takes the time to enjoy it from the passengers seat. When they arrive Venus pulls up the incident report and the two of them head to the wreckage site. They drop out of Supercruise and Venus sees the ship that had brought so many memories with Silvia completely obliterated. Chunks of twisted alloys and panels drifting around. A single large chunk of the front of the ship containing the cockpit is seen. They halt the ship about 200m from the wreckage to avoid any accidental collisions with the debris while Venus is drifiting amongst the shipwreck. Ava activates the ships weapons systems.
'Alix activate automated sentry mode.'
"Sentry mode activated"
Venus looks at Ava and nods a concerned but determined look on her face. They head down to the airlock and attach their jetpacks and tethers. Ava looks to Venus and activates her helmet.
'Alright Venus are you ready?'
Venus nods activating her helmet. The airlock opens and Venus shuts off her mag boots and pushes herself out into the void. Ava holds back in the event something happens and she can activate the recovery system for Venus' tether. Venus looks at all the chunks of her ship some of the panels have missile blast marks. She pulses her jetpack and proceeds through the wreckage slowly observing the chunks of twisted alloys and steel. As she passes a large chunk of the ship she sees the cockpits door. She pulses her jetpack once more and grabs hold of the bar next to it to stop herself. Venus works her way up over the bulkhead. As she reaches the top of the canopy she see it is is shattered and that the commanders chair is gone.
*At least the emergency escape pod deployment system functioned the way it was supposed to.*
Venus looks around noticing much of the flight deck is severly damaged or missing entirely and makes her way over to a think blast shield panel that reads. "Removal only authorized after ship destruction". Venus calls back to Ava who remained on Genesis.
'Got it. It's going to take me a bit to get it out. Anything on the sensors?'
'Sensors are clear. Remember to watch your O2 levels by my count you should have 10 minutes left'
'Roger that.'
Venus pulls out her plasma cutter and begins to cut the edges of the panel for the flight box. As Venus is finishing up a ship drops out of supercruise. Ava notices this and leaves the airlock making her way back to the bridge. She looks at the sensors but the ship doesn't show up. A chill runs down her spine. She sees the faint glow of plasma from Venus cutting the panel and calls over to Venus.
'Venus! We have company hurry up!'
'What? Company? I'm almost done here'
Venus turns stops cutting and turns around to see a Python sitting about 400m from her. She can't see any glow from the ships exhaust vents. A single canister is ejected from the ship, glowing white hot. Venus recognizes the canister as a heat sink canister and dread washes over her. Venus turns back around and looks at the panel. A small 4 inch section is all that separates Venus from the contents inside. The only problem is that the panel is blast proof shielding and there was no way she was going to rip the panel off. Venus starts cutting again and soon as she does Ava yells over the comms.
'Venus! Get your ass back here now!'
Venus finishes the cut and pulls out the ships data bank. She clips the box to her belt and pulls herself up and out of the destroyed cockpit. Once she crests the top Alix issues a warning.
"WARNING! Incoming missile!"
Point defense turrets activate as a missile screams past Venus narrowly missing her, exploding just before making contact with Genesis. Venus looks back before firing her jetpack thrusters full force, in an attempt to make it back to Ava's ship. Another volley of missiles go screaming overhead and the point defense turrets activate. The ship deactivates silent running and begins firing off beam lasers. Venus gets caught up on one of the large wreckage chunks as her tether snags on an exposed beam. Ava calls over once again and her ships weapons turrets begin firing back at the Raider python.
'Venus where the hell are you? We need to get moving!'
'Shit! I'm stuck. Ava call in system security now! I have to cut the tether.'
Venus tries to unclip the tether but the freezing temps have frozen the clip, so she reaches down to her thigh and pulls out her Kabar. She begins cutting the tether. A missile narrowly missing her as she gets through the line. Without a tether Venus needs to be certain her trajectory is perfect as she only has enough juice left for a single full pulse of her jetpack. Venus fires the jetpack and Alix issues a warning to Venus.
"WARNING! Suit oxygen levels critical. Power levels critical."
Venus checks the O2 meter and sees she has 5 seconds of oxygen left. Her suit powers down and she is left drifting towards the ship. Venus runs out of oxygen and as she blacks out she sees a wing of imperial ships drop in and start firing on the raider ship. Ava makes her way back down to the airlock having faith that the security wing could handle a single python for a few moments. She reattaches her tether and jumps out into the void to grab Venus and bring her in. The Python's beam lasers rip across one of the panels in between the two. Ava fires her jetpack thrusters and grapples the now unconscious Venus. She attaches a retention clip to Venus' untility belt and makes her way back to Genesis. Point defence rounds are seen being fired off as another two missiles come screaming in.
One of the Imperial eagles not paying attention slams through the wreckages just as Ava and Venus clear the last of the debris field. They make it back to the airlock with one final jetpack pulse. Ava presses the tether return and removes her own. She closes the airlock and runs to the medical bay. Ava places Venus in the med bay strapping her down to the bed to prevent injury. She rushes back up to the bridge to assist the security wing in dealing with the Raider ship.
As Ava engages her thrusters and fires a volley of multicannon rounds at the Python it high wakes out of the zone having been overwhelmed and not willing to stick around to meet their maker.
Venus wakes up a couple hours later to Ava standing over her checking her vital signs. Venus blinks a couple of times and laughs.
'Hahaha!'
'Whatever is so funny? You are lucky the security wing showed up when they did otherwise it would have been curtains for you!'
'It's just that this is the second time you have had to rescue me from a space walk. You are my guardian angel.'
Ava rolls her eyes at Venus and helps her off the bed. They walk to the decryption terminal where Ava had placed the data bank from Venus' ship and had Alix working on breaking the cypher. Ava takes a seat and turns to Venus.
'I hope we can recover something useful.'
"Decryption completed. Ship log available."
Alix announces the completion of the decryption. Venus begins searching the log files and finds a name. She looks at it and slams her fists down on the data console. She turns to Ava and in a very angry and aggressive tone lets her know what she found.
'Nicholas Grenshaw! Name ring a bell to you because it sure as hell rings one for me! Diaz is a dead man!'
This was it. This is what Venus was needing. She had a name and that name was associated with the one person she wanted to burn alive. Diaz had her wife and she was hell bent on making him pay. Only thing though is that with the recent Thargoid attacks Inara had fallen to them which meant they had no leads. Diaz's last known location was Citi Gateway and that was certainly gone by this time. She had a name but the last message was encrypted and bounced around soo many sources that it was impossible to trace. All she could do was wait.