In cold, empty space were two ships, one a large fighter-sized ship and the other one, a corvette-sized ship. Both ships were travelling, just floating around in space in close proximity with each other. Both ships just exited the asteroid belt before warping a short distance away. Currently, they were waiting for their warp drives to exit cooldown before warping again. Or at least, they were waiting for Abyssal's weaker warp drives to be usable again. Astral seemed to have no problem jumping long distances or even jumping multiple times in a row. However, that cannot be said for Abyssal.
'I wonder if I should ask for a better F.T.L component…' Abyssal thought to herself as she sat in her seat, playing around with her old body, the round small drone.
They were currently in an empty sector of space, completely devoid of any mass and objects. The closest star to their location was at least multiple jumps away and the distance towards the borders of the Dawning Star nation was even further. It didn't help that they were taking a longer and the more 'scenic' route as compared to just a straight line towards their destination. The good news was that, due to the abundance of warp fuel given to them by E, they didn't have to worry about Abyssal being stranded in the middle of nowhere before they reached their destination.
The other two members of the crew were just hanging around in the bridge. Meica was looking through self-created blueprints of various systems and components while Kuon was busy cleaning up the mess that the Nekomi made earlier. Just like as always, there wasn't much to do in space, especially not this deep into it. It's very easy to become lonely and bored in this vast stretch of emptiness.
It seemed that the red-haired badass pilot of the galaxy wasn't immune to this effect as she too attempted to make idle conversation with the crew— or more specifically Abyssal.
"Hey, I was wondering about how this Jinko person was able to track you down," Astral said during the downtime. She was lying her back on the seat of her cockpit, counting the endless stars in front of her.
"Hmm?" Abyssal hummed in confusion at the sudden question.
"You told me she's been chasing you multiple times already, right? Including the previous battle, it's three times."
"Yeah, she does have a way of finding me, I guess?"
"Any reason you can think of?" Astral asked as she stretched out her body within the cockpit of her fighter ship.
"Well, to be fair, the first time was pure luck for her. We kinda met each other by a bar of sorts," Abyssal said as she looked upwards to the ceiling, trying to remember details about her events.
"A bar?" Astral asked
"Jinko was just hanging out in the space lounge when we first met her in Ashen port."
"Ashen port? Hanging out?"
"Yeah, she was in this Japanese kimono attire and was drinking tea on the floor. At first, I thought that she was bad news and avoided contact with her. But I guess now in hindsight, I should have been more careful," Abyssal folded her arms and sigh in exasperation.
"Right… So how did she find you the second time? It was in Little Foot, right?"
"That's because you shot at me! What do you mean how did she find me there!?"
"Well… excluding that. I mean how did she know to be in the general area instead of, you know, everywhere else in the Maw Zone?"
"No idea. Why not ask all the other people in the area, as well? That Sensenmann and those Royal Navy Ships. All of them are in the same place. You and E as well," Abyssal said to her sarcastically.
"Right… forget about it."
"Why are you asking these anyway?"
"No, I just thought that maybe she has some super special tracking capability or device. Maybe I'm just overthinking it and she's either find your through luck or maybe your luck is Abyssalbly bad."
"Pfft… 'Abyssalbly' bad…" Kuon burst out in a peal of contained laughter.
Abyssal didn���t reply, only pouting towards Astral.
"By the way, Another thing."
"What?" Abyssal said in annoyance.
"I wonder if you know how to contact this Jinko person?"
"What? Why would I know that?"
"Nothing. I mean, I would like to at least have a diplomatic talk to her about the whole matter. Just thought I'd at least ask about what you know."
"No, I don't have any clue as to how to contact her. It's your plan anyway, why don't you know?"
"Not to say I have none. I do have an idea of sorts to contact her at least. It's a little risky though."
"Risky?"
"I mean it would expose our location and all. Plus, there are three of them. How exactly to trust them and how to establish communications with them without them just shooting at us, bla bla bla, the usual."
"I see…"
"Well, we'll think about it when the time comes. Are ya ready for jump?"
Abyssal looked towards the top left of her consciousness before answering. "About thirty more minutes."
Astral let out a loud audible sigh through the transmission. "This is going to take some time…"
* * * * *
Within a canteen of sorts, was Jinko herself, Yoake and several human crewmembers. Jinko herself was sitting across an old man while Yoake was sitting to their sides. Surrounding them in a circle were other crew members, female and male, wearing military uniforms, engineer outfits and service uniforms. In between Jinko and the old man was a table which had a high tech board on it. The two were playing a game of traditional Japanese chess(shōgi) against each other with everyone else observing. Yoake was there to observe but also doubled as a judge.
On the board were rectangular pieces placed in various coordinates. Usually, one would expect the Living Core to have the advantage over the human. She had to be as she was the super powerful core that can process limitless calculations per second with the experience and emotions of a leader who has led countless others in a war. Though, no matter how one sees the board, one could only come to the conclusion that the super-powerful Living Core was losing.
Badly.
However, despite her loss, her face remained calm and collected, as if not troubled at all by the defeat. Her face was so calm it might as well be carved out of stone. It was unfortunate that her ability to hide her emotions on her face was of no use to her in this losing match.
"You are still as bad as ever, Jinko," the old across from her said as he moved a piece.
"It's commander Jinko to you. Despite my status, don't forget that I am still a superior officer," Jinko replied as she moved a piece, only for it to be taken by the opponent almost immediately.
"Right…" the man replied with a wry look on his face, not knowing to respond.
The human crewmembers surrounding the table, young and old, gave Jinko a wry look as well.
"Anyway, how goes the investigation?" Jinko asked, trying to divert the conversation away from the board and the match.
Yoake was the one to reply to them. "We've tracked down the Red Bird and the Blue Shark to the asteroid belt of planet Baal. However, we have found no signs of them just yet. Not even signs of them being here. Though Hikari detected traces of F.T.L. and is trying to track down the two ships."
"Noted. Anything of use within the Asteroid belt?"
"We are currently assimilating the nearby rocks to accelerate the replenishing of resources. The asteroids nearby seemed to be filled with vast minerals suitable for construction of fighter ships and small calibre munitions."
"Could we have been fooled? Perhaps it was a fake footprint meant to mislead us," the old man across from Jinko said.
"I don't think so. Hikari said that the chances of that are below one per cent. I trust her judgement. As her direct subordinate, I reckoned you should put trust in her as well."
"I was only offering a possibility, ho ho ho. No need to get so angry with me just because you are losing."
"Beware old man,
For the match isn't over.
I have a plan,
Breed by composure," Jinko replied before moving one of her pieces.
It wasn't long before the old man claimed her piece. It was claimed with a move so confident in nature that he didn't even spend more than a second thinking before doing it.
"You are very bad at this game, Commander Jinko."
Jinko's face remained composed, but everyone else in the place knew that she was annoyed at the remark.
"Jinko-senpai. My communications device picked up something weird. It seemed like a message," during the middle of all this, Hikari's avatar materialized within the canteen.
She made her way towards her senior, her crew members saluting her before opening a path for her.
"A message?" Jinko asked as she turned around to look at Hikari, but not before 'accidentally' knocking over the board with her elbow. The board fell to the floor and turned off, effectively ending the game. The rest of the crew in the canteen only looked at her with a disappointed look.
"Yes. Two actually," Hikari said as she saluted Jinko.
"From whom?"
"One of them is from unknown. The other one… is from The Reaper, Sensenmann. Both messages are very recent, at least within the week."
Jinko nodded towards her, prompting Hikari to reveal the messages. It was also an act revealing that it was alright for her to disclose the information to the people in the area.
"The first, from unknown:
We will be meeting soon, at the borders of feudalism and meritocracy. I have what you want and will be contacting you again soon enough. Don't bother tracking me down, you'll never catch up to me," Hikari said with Astral's voice coming out of her mouth. The message seemed to elicit a response from the crew as they murmured with each other about the meaning of Astral's message— about her location and what she meant with what they wanted.
"It seemed that the Phoenix of Freedom United is a rather direct person. That is good to know at least," Jinko said with a calm face, not one little bit disturb with the message. Though that can be said to be her default face.
"What about the second message? From The Reaper?" Yoake asked.
"About that… I couldn't really understand much as it was a long-winded message that is mostly encrypted. However what I did manage to decrypt were simply the words: 'We had a bargain. I better watch out if I were you.'"
Another round of murmurs occurred as the crew tried to make sense of this even more cryptic message.
"The Reaper of the Crimson Blood is a very direct person. That's good to know at least," Jinko said, not one bit disturbed with the message.
"Is this a declaration of war?" Yoake asked.
"Whatever it is, if she wants a fight then she'll get one," Hikari replied, her crew nodding in agreement with her.
"What is our next move, commander?" Yoake asked Jinko.
"We will proceed to the location stated by the red chicken: towards the borders of feudalism and meritocracy. For now, we are to mine the surroundings for resources and prepare ourselves for any engagement. I want everyone to be on alert."
"Yes ma'am!" Hikari, Yoake and the rest of the crew saluted Jinko.
"Good. Now, old man, let us continue our match. Oh my! The board is flipped. We were having such a close match too… Should we just call it a draw and move on to the next match? "Jinko said with a smile. A fake smile but, nevertheless, a smile.