For a moment, no one responded to his barely whispered assertion. It was something they all knew but nobody dared speak out loud.
Tae Hwang gave a harsh exhale. "I hear you Prince Vartis. We've been grappling with that disparity for years now. At our pay grade, we're not supposed to be firing weapons at anybody, but I saw your fancy shooting when you took out the scorpion ships. I'm super impressed."
"Thank you." Alekai responded.
"One more thing. I checked out your Gear, Prince. You have less than half the weaponry that even we Scout Gear carry. As soon as possible, you need to load up on better weaponry."
Jeremy Niles nodded. "I'm afraid I have to agree with that. Your Gear really needs to be upgraded. For now, you shouldn't do anything more than scout or it really will be suicide mission for you and Lieutenant Chantal here."
"We can't just sit around while you go out there and risk your lives!" Jesse protested.
"Your Gear is underpowered, Lieutenant Chantal." Jeremy Niles interrupted. "I am ordering you to stand down."
Jesse compressed her lips into a line and looked down."Yes Sir."
Although technically, she was the same military rank as Jeremy Niles was, in this combat situation, he was the Commander of the group.
"Although I do appreciate your concern about our safety, your job at this time is to project a visual display to assuage the paying customers that it's safe to gallivant out there in the depths of the Galaxy."
"So what do we do about those two hostile motherships on the horizon?" Lennie of Team Duran spoke up.
"No choice, Lieutenant Duran. If they turn hostile, we have to go out there and protect the Anastasia."
Jesse interjected. "There is absolutely no way our Scout Gear Teams can possibly protect an entire starship from the likes of those insectoids! I have been on warships that struggle to contain the wasp scout ships and they have far better weaponry than we do."
"Nevertheless, we must do our best. We don't have the option of running away. There isn't anywhere to run to. If the Alpha Centauri AB space station goes dark, even if we're still alive, we're dead."
Alekai rubbed his forehead. "Do you think I can swap Gear, take one that's better equipped but no longer in use?"
Jeremy paused for a moment. "That's a good idea, Prince Vartis. When we get to the Krystabella, follow me to the engineering hub and help me get the unused Gear back to the Anastasia. I can have the engineers here take a look at them and see if we can re-engineer them to upgrade them a bit."
"I'm right there with you," Alekai gave a thumbs up.
"Then let's do it."
"Wait, Jeremy." Lan spoke up. "Do we need to obtain permission from our Captain first?"
Alekai nodded. "Hang on, let me call him."
Alekai tapped a few keys and joined a separate voice channel. "Hi Tom."
"Hey kid. You doing okay?"
"I need permission to grab the Gear on the Krystabella."
"What's wrong with the one you got? Isn't it brand new?"
"Yeah, but it's prototype and super light, with barely any firepower. I hear the Gear on Krystabella is more powerful."
"And heavier, not to mention slower. Look I'm not gonna tell you what's best gear for you, only you know that, but part of the reason why you were able to scootch around so fast is because your Gear was so light. It's the difference between a race car and a hummer."
"Jeremy Niles, the Commander of our Gear Squad wants to bring the abandoned Gear back to Anastasia to see if we can retrofit it for better firepower."
"Permission granted. Heavens know you kids have been underpowered and underpaid for a very long time. All the folks on Krystabella are dead. No one is going to begrudge you kids the use of something that will help you keep the remaining ships safe."
"Okay, thanks Tom."
Alekai ended communications and relayed the approval to Jeremy Niles just as the Gear Squads from both starships approached the maw of the Krystabella's opened hatch.
Jeremy's voice came over the speaker system. "The Gear Squad Teams from Helene is in direct contact with their Captain right now. Since we've already spoken with Captain Tom Duncan, let's move ahead with our plan."
"Team Forbes and Hara, go check out the bridge. Find out if you can what caused the Krystabella to go dark."
"Yes Sir!"
"Team Hwang and Team Duran, go find Captain Nir Ray and bring his body back to the Anastasia."
"Yes Sir!"
"Team Vartis, come with me to the Engineering hub."
"Yes Sir!" Jesse responded.
Alekai said nothing. He didn't have any military training, nor was he enlisted. He felt a bit out of the loop as far as the command structure was concerned and didn't know exactly how to respond to Jeremy.
As the eleven Scout Gears from the two starships edged closer to the maw, their Gear's broad beam lights switched on.
From the video feeds that were fixed on them, Alekai could see their exoskeletons disappear into the maw at the same moment Jesse navigated their Gear into the hatch. Once inside, the ship's automatic rotating gravitational field kicked up and their feet landed on the floor with a thump.
The various Gears split up into teams and began exploring the interior of the ship. Since all starships were built on a general design, it was not difficult to find their way around.
Within his cockpit, Alekai could see the other Gears' video feeds as they walked around within the darkened hulk of the starship.
"…dead crew members everywhere in the Command Deck! The Krystabella has more than two-thousand passengers and crew. Aside from Shielder Percy Lewis, no one else is alive."
"Commander, we're in the sleeping chambers. All the passengers who went into torpor have died for lack of life supports. Thousands of them on three decks, eternally sleeping…"
"…catastrophic failure of the engine deck. The power system has been sabotaged…"
"…we found Captain Nir Ray of the Anastasia. He's dead Sir. I repeat. Captain Nir Ray of the Anastasia is dead…"
"Holy shit." Aiko Hara cursed. "I can't believe our Captain is dead. What the hell do we do now?"
Jeremy Niles sniffed. "We keep the ship running as smoothly as possible, that's what we do. Team Vartis is with me in the Engineering Hub. We're going to check on the Gears. You people keep me updated on what you find."
Jesse was still following Team Niles through the Engineering Hub when he suddenly stopped, causing Jesse to almost crash into the back of his Gear.
"Oh my God!" Jeremy called out.
Standing behind Jeremy's gear, Alekai and Jesse could see nothing.
The video feed from his Gear however, showed exactly what had caused him to stop in sudden shock.
Before him, as far as his video feed could show, was a vast nest of scorpions, frozen solid.