Having landed on the planet, near to the Polaris ship, Ren and Luciel instantly leapt off the Janus ship and stormed their way over to the other ship. The rocky blue planet, full of mountains that stretched out as far as any of them could see, was deafly silent. A sort of eerie feeling spread across the five guys as they trod over to the ship.
Ren and Luciel were too preoccupied over the distress call to sense anything malicious or bizarre nearby. Despite the rest of the crew feeling just as worried as the two guys, they were at least able to keep their wits about and be prepared for any sudden attack to appear.
"Damnit! What was their code for the ship?" Ren yelled as he punched the side of the airlock, near the keypad.
He had tried several combinations that he could think of, many of which were ones he was sure Luca Ethens would've used. After giving up on the sixth try, Luciel went up to the keypad and gave his codes a go, but once again, the door didn't budge an inch. Biting at their nails, they thought over and over again; trying their best to remember any important dates or numbers that linked with any of the Polaris crew members.
"Kennie, can't you like... Break it open?" Ren asked, clearly frustrated over the unresponsive door.
"The academy obviously didn't teach us how to do things like that," Kennie replied, his tone blatant and obvious with a hint of held back laughter, which was explained as he said, "so I definitely learnt it myself."
And with that, he shoved Luciel and Ren out of the way as he went ahead and broke into the ship. Disarming the alarm systems and powering the whole thing up. As the airlock slowly opened up; lights within flickering on down the corridor and into the ship.
It was creepily silent within the ship, not a sound emitting from any room of it. As the Janus crew entered the Polaris ship, Ren and Luciel led the way up to the bridge. Quietly making their way, everything they passed situated weirdly in their positions with inches of dust accumulated atop of the object. Not a single person could say anything and the tension between Ren and Luciel grew stronger and stronger. It quickly became clear that whatever happened aboard the ship hadn't ended well, and that caused the two guys emotions to stir more.
"They should be here," Ren stated, opening up the door to the bridge.
As the large steel door gradually opened, the lights within the room still turned off, the potent scent emitted from the bridge thrashed out into the Janus crew's face. The stench of the room filled the crew's mind with horrible thoughts, none of which any of them wanted to believe in. Entering the room, their eyes were instantly met with the sight of three members of the Polaris crew, slumped against the cold metal floor, lifeless.
"Luca!" Ren screamed as he dashed across the bridge over towards where Luca's deceased body laid.
Similarly, Marcus and Kennie rushed over to Jaden and Yazmin's bodies, hoping that there might be an inch of hope that either of them may be alive. Once Marcus reached Yazmin's body, the limbs senseless as they dangled off the side of the chair. It seemed like she was killed instantly by a gunshot, similar to how the two others were killed. However, from the positioning of Jaden's body, it seemed like they were anticipating the attack, as he appeared ready to launch the ship off the planet and rush to safety.
"Wait!" Luciel called out, his black eyes searching the room for his sister. Desperation flooded his face as his eyes scanned the room, "where's Sofia? She has to be here!"
Racing around the room, searching under every table, he tried his best to locate his sister. Chronos just stood back, watching the whole event pan out as he tried the think rationally about the entire situation. He was the only one who didn't have a strong connection with the Polaris crew, which allowed him to maintain a level head and form rational decisions for himself.
"Wasn't Sofia the person who sent us that distress call?" Chronos questioned, gathering everyone's attention, "perhaps she's in comms?"
Swiftly exiting the bridge, the crew, led by Luciel, dashed over to communications. Hope lingered within his black eyes as he prayed silently for his sister's survival.
"Sofia?!" He cried out, hoping that someone would reply even though he knew that it wouldn't happen.
Leaping into the room, his eyes were instantly met with nothing. No body laid within the narrow small room. Desperately searching - praying - that the body could be hidden somewhere within the room, he turned over every monitor, chair and table, hoping that - even dead - he'd be able to see his sister once more.
Witnessing the chaos unfold before them, Marcus quickly grabbed ahold of Luciel, ensuring that he wouldn't cause any more damage from his emotional roller coaster happening within himself.
"Hey! Let me go!" He yelled, furiously fighting against Marcus as he tried to escape from his strong grip.
As Marcus restrained an erratic Luciel, Kennie went ahead and cleared up the room, placing most of the things back where they were and turned on the communication system. He flicked through the messages and calls that the ship had received within the past three weeks. Most seemed to have been from the Athena crew who continuously tried getting in contact with them.
"Check if she left a message or something," Marcus called over Luciel's head, "she could've left one after sending the distress call out."
Doing as he was told, Kennie checked the records of messages. It didn't take him long to find the one Marcus asked for as it was the last one in the logs.
"Here." He said, pointing to it, "this is it... Probably."
"Move!" Out of nowhere, Ren barged through Marcus and Luciel and threw Kennie off the chair as he played the message.
Kennie fell to the floor as the audio began playing, a loud thud erupted from the spot he fell to. The crew carefully listened to the audio, hoping Sofia told them something that could lead them to whoever, or whatever, killed the Polaris crew. It was fairly difficult for the crew to understand what she was saying, her voice was quiet, quieter than a whisper and she seemed to frequently stop talking for a period of time before continuing.
"Luca, Jaden and Yazmin are fending them off..." She once again trailed off for a couple of minutes before a sudden scream erupted through the speakers, "no! Wait! Stop!"
As she continued screaming, her words failing to leave her mouth as she desperately struggled to explain more. The crew could only assume what had happened to her as the struggle and cries that left her voice echoed into the room. It didn't take too long before her final words were expressed to the Janus crew and silence returned to the room.
"That-that couldn't be it!" Luciel cried, tears collapsing down his small face as he thrashed around in Marcus' grip, "Sofia wouldn't leave it at that! She-she would've told us something! Anything! It's not-not over!"
Emotions raced through his black eyes as they were glazed over with thick tears filling in his eyes. His struggles against Marcus' hold weakened significantly as it seemed like he had lost all of his strength the instant he listened to that clip.
Ren checked the audio clip again, seeing if Luciel was right and that Sofia had something else to say. He left it playing for a few more minutes in case they had misjudged something - like that she was still alive or conscious despite what it seemed like. However, after about five minutes had passed, with nothing but silence coming from the speakers, Ren ultimately decided that they reached a dead-end.
"Sorry, Luciel," Kennie softly said, placing a comforting hand on his thin shoulder, "it seems like there nothing more we can look into."
"No! You're wrong!" He yelled, tears spewing out of his eyes as he cried out in disagreement, "that's not the end!"
"Nothing is coming from the audio, Luciel," Marcus stated, "she's either been killed or knocked out by now. She can't give us any more information."
"You're wrong! Definitely wrong!" He continued to argue against the others as his tears began to cloud his sight and his emotional instability shrouded his mind, "Sofia! Sofia wouldn't leave it at that!"
"Lu-"
Just as Ren was about to concede as well, despite wanting to believe the same as Luciel, Chronos slapped his back and told him to shut up. He glanced up at the blonde teen, puzzled as to what he's listening to. Marcus and Kennie, after getting Luciel to calm down a bit more, tried to figure out what Chronos had heard.
"What is it?" Marcus asked, "what are you listening to?"
After motioning for him to be quiet, Chronos pointed to the monitor, which still played the quiet audio that Sofia had left them. They could hardly hear anything but irregular tapping coming from the speakers, which they assumed was the Polaris crew's killers footsteps retreating away from the room, except for that they weren't softening. Each quiet tap continued in its irregular pattern with some of them having long pauses or quite short pauses until the next one.
The crew, still quite confused about what Chronos was listening to, just watched as his lips began mumbling something. It was like he was trying to crack a code of some kind.
"H... E..." He muttered under his breath, "I... G... H... T..."
After another minute of him muttering to himself, his eyes finally lit up as it seemed like he arrived at an answer. Without telling any of the crew what he just worked out, he swiftly in one motion lifted the right speaker from his position and a small piece of paper with messy writing floated out from under it.
"What's that?" Ren asked, hastily picking it up and trying to read what it said, "wait- Sofia left a note?"
"It seems like she pretended to pass out before and once they left, she quickly wrote the important things down and hid it," Chronos explained, as he pointed to the speaker, "she then communicated the note's whereabouts through morse code."
"Can you read it?" Marcus asked, letting go of Luciel as it seemed like he had calm down quite a bit once the note was found.
"More or less," he replied, before going onto reading the note, "go to the planet... Cararam to find the... Rewn pirot- pirates. They're going to... Sell the things."