"I've never seen anything like this before. It must be really old." Shigo commented as he observed the ship.
"Wanna bet on how old it is? I bet it's a few decades older than you." Kjēl stated.
"This ship is at least a few hundred years old. This marking on the cockpit, it's an old flower that grew on earth." Shigo added.
"Earth? You mean it comes from that wasteland?" Kjēl asked.
"Before we humans left Earth, it was booming with life and it was beautiful. After the war, it became the wasteland that you speak of." Shigo replied.
The Exo-Wars, the war that killed all life on Earth. It happened more than four hundred and fifty years ago. Once mankind began building space colonies, they also fought over territory in space. Humanity's curse of violence against his kind lit the match that set fire to the entire world. Countless lives were lost along with Earth, the remaining survivors seeked refuge on Mars. There, they rebuilt their society and prospered. They have come together as one and have formed XenoMars. The ruling body of humanity which acted as a peacekeeping force that sought to protect and serve mankind. After the formation of XenoMars, many rejected the idea of giving people highly dangerous weapons. A reason to start yet another war, so those against the rule of XenoMars, left for Jupiter.
They are known to be Jupiter-Astra, a group of colonies in the orbit of Jupiter and it's moons. They have sworn to never take up arms and provoke another conflict but news of XenoMars building an army spread like wildfire which lead to the birth of the Alliance. An unorganized group of volunteers and ex-military units that was formed after Jupiter-Astra's fear of XenoMars' growing power. They use commercially available and civilian ships in their forces and converts them for combat. They are tasked to guard the colonies of Jupiter-Astra in the possibility that XenoMars attacks them.
"This might take a while but I'll try and restore as many systems to get it flying again." Shigo said as he began to override the CPU.
"Shigo, this ship has some big guns huh? Do you think it fought in that war?" Kjēl asked.
"It's highly possible considering the condition of the machine and the fact that it has munitions on board." Shigo replied.
"So it did fight in the war. What's an old machine doing all the way out here in space?" Kjēl mumbled to herself.
"I've found out what its model and name is. ASN-0001, Asterion. Named after the flower that closely resembled a star." Shigo told Kjēl.
"Asterion...what a beautiful name." Kjēl said before smiling.
Shigo checked the reactors and they were still operational and stable. He then disabled the weapon systems and told Kjēl how the controls worked. He didn't adjust the sensitivity because it might throw Kjēl off during her test flight. Kjēl asked about the broken wing and Shigo told her that it's fine since she'll be flying it in space and not in atmosphere. They then towed the ship to the colony's port and filled up the thrusters with propellant. Kjēl wore her suit and put on her helmet before hopping inside the cockpit.
"Remember, the levers are for steering. The buttons and triggers on it are disabled so you don't have to worry about those." Shigo reminded.
"Okay, I got it. I'm tuned into our frequency in case you need to say anything." Kjēl replied before closing the hatch and activating the machine.
The display monitors lit up and showed a view of the outside of the cockpit. The cross hairs aimed to the blast doors of the port. Shigo opened the doors and the port was vacuumed. Kjēl activated the launching sequence and slowly pushed the lever forward, activating the thrusters and launching Asterion to space. Kjēl was startled at how fast it picked up speed, even with the sensitivity on low settings, she found it a challenge to steer.
"Kjēl, can you hear me? Lower your thrust so you can handle the steering." Shigo ordered over the comms.
"I think I'm getting the hang of it! I like how fast it's going!" Kjēl exclaimed and laughed in response as she performed bold maneuvers.
Shigo couldn't help but worry, though he can't stop Kjēl now that she's having the time for her life. Shigo was amazed at how fast she was able to understand the controls. It was the first time he heard her laugh too.
"Shigo, there are three dots showing up on my radar besides me." Kjēl informed Shigo.
"Those must be merchant ships. Be careful not to get in their way." Shigo replied.
"I don't think they are. They're moving towards me and quick." Kjēl worriedly said.
Three ships encircled Asterion, they bear the symbol of XenoMars. They were the new XM-3 models that XenoMars have massed produced. It was a small squadron on patrol of the area.
"To the pilot of the unidentified ship. You're being ordered to stand down and surrender your vessel." Victor ordered on the open frequency.
"Surrender my vessel? I just got this...tch." Kjēl mumbled as she turned her ship around.
"Any attempts to resist will be handle with force. I will not repeat again." Victor stated.
"Kjēl, get out of there! Those are XenoMarsian ships!" Shigo shouted over the comms.
Kjēl punched it and went full speed towards the colony. The three XM-3s tailed behind her and we're alarmed at how fast and agile Asterion was. They fired off warning shots that Kjēl easily dodged. One of the XenoMars pilots contacted his superiors and informed them of the situation. Kjēl kept them going in circles as she zigzagged outside the colony. She found a cluster of space debris and quickly hid her ship behind them before turning off the ship's engine and reactors. This made her undetectable on radar and threw the enemy off her trail.
"Sir, I've lost it on both radar and visual." A pilot states.
"Retreat to the station. I want a full report of that ship's data once we get back." Victor stated before sighing in defeat.