A surge of stellar energy surrounded Apophis for nearly an hour after he emerged from the portal. It wasn't until this energy dissipated that the MK.1 could safely come close enough to pick him up from the vacuum of space.
Everyone was quite curious to know what had happened inside the portal, but Apophis simply said that he'd been transported to a place called the domain of the gods and gave them a description of the surroundings. Everyone found this to be an astonishing surprise!
Chocolate was particularly happy to hear this, since she enjoyed contributing to the Horus wiki. This information from Apophis was extremely valuable information, and she couldn't wait to add it to the wiki!
Now that Apophis had returned, it was time to head for Asur. To get there, of course, the MK.1 had to cross the border of the Lizardmen Commonwealth and register the ship and its passengers. Violating the sovereignty of even a fairly weak state like the Commonwealth was a bad idea at this stage of the game!
Before long, the ship arrived at a border station orbiting a large asteroid in a white dwarf system. The MK.1 slowly entered the landing port, and the team disembarked.
The station was quite warm and more comfortable than most of the team had expected, though Apophis, of course, knew what it would be like. The equipment and decorations seemed less modern and advanced than those at their previous stop, but it was clear that the Commonwealth was still more advanced than the Republic of Tyo had been.
After disembarking, the party headed for the check-in desk, joining a long line while the MK.1 was scanned by some workers for contraband. Apophis took the opportunity of their wait in line to monitor the political situation in the galaxy on a nearby screen… and it seemed that things had gotten worse in just a few hours. Apparently, the Federation and the Orc Empire were on the verge of war because of the Era massacre and the way Azerof had blamed them! This surprised Apophis, since he hadn't thought anything would really come of the accusations.
The Lizardman Commonwealth was an ally of the Federation, so the comments of nearby workers and travelers were mostly anti-orc in nature. The Lizardmen loathed humans as a race but considered the Orc Empire a threat to galactic stability, so they supported the humans in this political war.
As Apophis looked around, he noticed something strange: many of the players at the border stations were Hyrule SuperGuild players. While it was true that many players loved to explore, it was inconceivable that so many players from the same guild would be in the same place without a good reason. Moreover, it definitely seemed too early for even a SuperGuild to mount an expedition outside the Federation's borders unless they had a good reason to do so.
Apophis glanced back at the hangar and saw what he hadn't noticed in the first place: three of the corvettes in the hangar had the Hyrule guild logo on the hull! That meant that there were likely about thirty elite players here.
It was all clear now. The members of Hyrule wanted to either capture them or eliminate them for the way Apophis had humiliated Zelda, their star player. They'd deciphered the MK.1's takeoff vector and had beaten them to this station, where it was obvious Apophis would go, while the MK.1 was waiting for him to return from the portal.
Unfortunately, Apophis couldn't simply eliminate them here in the border post. This would be a blatant crime that would result in the Commonwealth pursuing him forever, unless he somehow managed to leverage his Federation military rank… and Apophis had the feeling that Azerof wouldn't bother helping in this instance.
Nevertheless, Apophis knew that he couldn't give up the tiny advantage he currently had, knowing that he was being hunted. How could he turn this to his advantage, though?
Apophis considered every tool at his disposal and finally came up with a tentative plan. The border post was equipped with several kinds of fuel pumps for ships, since different civilizations built different kinds of engines. Apophis's Zetark Experimental Corvette could adapt to most different kinds of fuel for a short time, though extreme usage without a full engine reconfiguration might cause it some damage.
But its subliminal engine could definitely use the hyper-rich fuel intended for capital ships and increase its hyperspace speed by 300%... for one trip, at the very least.
At this point, the check-in process was completed, and the officials didn't find anything suspicious about either Apophis's party or the MK.1. The team returned to their ship, and Apophis leaned in to the Lizardman attendant who was there to receive final loadout orders before takeoff.
"I need you to mix a custom fuel," said Apophis in a low voice.
"Certainly," said the attendant with a stiff expression. He didn't like dealing with humans, but he was a professional who wouldn't let his biases influence him.
"Now, this is very important," said Apophis. "It will sound insane, but I assure you that I'm not joking. I need a mix of 50% standard light fuel… and 50% capital ship fuel."
The Lizardman's expression froze. "Sir," he said politely, "that will surely melt your engine into a solid block."
"That would be the case for a normal engine," said Apophis. "But look at our scan information. You can see that the estimated performance of our engine is so far off your calibration charts that you'd need to expand your parameters tenfold to get a proper reading."
The Lizardman made a reluctant humming noise. "The readings did max out," he said at last. "Though, of course, it's impossible to tell how much more the engine is capable of beyond that point."
But at last, the Lizardman had Apophis sign a waiver that he would take full responsibility if he ruined his own ship with this custom mixture, and he got to work mixing it.
Before long, the MK.1 was in full operating condition. It lifted off and exited the system at a subliminal speed that far eclipsed what was possible for an ordinary corvette.
And, best of all, the engine didn't melt.
Apophis smirked as he looked at the engine readings on his dashboard.
Now they just had to wait until they arrived at Planet Asure!