It had been 16 hours since Jake and Aria had left the Dravaris Family Manor. Jake was on the main bridge, memorising trade routes, market values and places of interest.
Aria was currently resting in the captain's quarters as she had gotten tired, space travel is very taxing on the human body, unlike Jake who has the Atlas training his body for maximum efficiency.
'What do you think Atlas, I memorised a good amount?' Jake spoke, proud of the amount of information his mind could now process at a time.
(For a human your age, you would be considered a genius perhaps greater than your sister, however, this is nothing in terms of what you need to know if we even think of starting to search for the ChronoScribe. Trust me, Jake, we have a lot more to do, which is why you need to push yourself now.)
'Are we in a rush Atlas?' Jake was a bit worried about his future.
(Jake, I fear we might not have as much time as we thought. Do you remember when I said that we need to find the ChronoScribe to be able to protect your family.)
'Yes. What about it?'
(We also will need to time things right Jake. If we find the ChronoScribe too early or too late, it might not yield the results we are hoping for.)
'I understand Atlas, I won't let you down.' Jake answered the Atlas.
"Jake!" Aria shouted as she called her brother from the Captain's quarters.
"Yeah, Aria." Jake responded to his sister walking towards her.
Aria opened the door to the room, which was a spacious living quarters featuring a large bed, desk and chair for working, a steel wardrobe for clothing as well as a large personal storage locker. An en suite bathroom was also included and Jake knew this would be his new room once he started on his journey.
Jake quickly thanked Dravaris in his mind as at least he would be able to live comfortably.
He turned towards his sister who was next to the locker, having seemingly opened it.
"Jake look at this." Aria picked up a small glass chip, the amount on it being 500 000.
"Wasn't this the amount you paid Elian for the ship?" Aria asked her brother.
"Yeah...it was." Jake thought for a moment as his sister walked towards him handing the chip to him.
Jake took the chip handing it back to his sister, surprised by his actions.
"Don't say anything, just think of it as payment for being a great Co-pilot." He smiled and spoke.
"Thank you, Jake." His sister hugged him.
Jake was then checking out the rest of the contents of the locker.
"An armoured uniform, although it's a little big for me." Jake spoke as he pulled out a heavily armoured pilot's uniform that Dravaris gave him as a gift.
(I think it will fit you perfectly in a few years.) The Atlas responded.
'Wait don't you know how tall I will be eventually, can you tell me?' Jake asked.
(Yes, but I'm not going to tell you.) The Atlas poured rain on Jake's thoughts.
'Whatever.' Jake forgot about it as he looked at the other objects in the locker. Besides some new weapons for personal defence and a few other vanity items, it didn't seem like Dravaris left anything else although Jake felt extremely grateful for everything he had done thus far.
"We should be reaching Iona Prime soon, let's go and get ready." Jake spoke to Aria, who was feeling better and decided to join him.
Although entering the Iona System took longer than expected, the arrest of Wilbur and his men as well as the investigation that most likely is taking place, slowed traffic down quite a bit.
By the time Jake and Lyra had reached Iona Prime, it was mid-afternoon. The sun shines brightly down on the surface of the planet, Jake noticed his ship standing out among the others landing at the port he was used to.
The moment they touched down, both siblings felt as if they could finally breathe easily.
Jake and Aria grabbed luggage, given to them as gifts and made their way home.
Elizabeth Dravaris had barely been getting enough sleep as she worried for her eldest child and only son.
Her children had gone missing for almost an entire day before they had contacted her, regarding their safety, however even with their reassurances, she had not seen her children in almost 4 days and ever since she lost her husband, she would never forgive herself if she lost any of her kids as well.
Even Grace took the week off work, as she worried for both Elizabeth and Jake and Aria.
Jake and Aria took a taxi before arriving home. Both wanted to sleep in their bed after what had felt like forever.
The moment they knocked, Elizabeth who had been standing near the door for hours now, immediately opened it, hugging both of her children.
Jake could feel the tension in his mother's body as well as her restless heartbeat in relief and Jake realised he could not completely lie his way out this time.
In an underground bunker sat Mathaus on an operating table, John extracting the bullet from his abdomen.
"Not a single medical ba-ahhhhh." Mathaus screamed midway through his sentence as John finally located the bullet and pulled it out.
"No, because this piece of shit rock got dedicated to strip mining, all medical bays are operated by the GOE, also you're really lucky this little fella didn't touch your vitals, it would slice it to shreds." John spoke to Mathaus as he cleaned the sounds and began stitching.
"Still not even any Alcohol too?" Mathaus asked as he underwent the surgery with no anaesthetics.
"You were lucky we even found this place, Remember I had nothing on me. It was either blood loss or shock if we aimed for my ship or death by shock with a 60 per cent chance of living with whatever I had on me right now. And you're welcome you old bastard." John spoke as he finished up.
Mathaus finally took a deep breath before relaxing, as John had warned him not to move for a few hours.
"Thanks, John." Mathaus spoke.
"Yeah, yeah, anyway we should be safe for a day, but my ship is still a distance away. We'll leave in 12 hours under the cover of night to minimise our chances of getting spotted. Those mercs ain't that good but there are a few of 'em."
"Besides that, what the hell happened on that job? I know you warned me and wanted me to do that but why ruin your career." John spoke to Mathaus as he looked down.
"Just think of it as a favour I owe someone." He smiled and spoke.
"Favour, who the hell would you owe a favour to, and big enough to piss off him, this man must have been special." John wondered about the man Mathaus spoke of.
"I owe that man my life and career a hundred times over, this was nothing. I still have a few things I still need to do." Mathaus spoke with some determination in his eyes.
"You know you're essentially wanted in almost half of GOE territory. The only place you'll be safe in is the Core." John spoke.
"Exactly." Mathaus smiled and spoke.
"John, how about joining me for one last job, I'll pay you well I promise." Mathaus stretched his arm out to John, waiting for a response.
John thought for a moment before shaking Mathaus' hand " AHH, whatever, I'd have helped you out either way. Not like you could've left on your own after all."
"So where in the Core, the outer systems or the inner systems?" John asked Mathaus.
"Mars." Mathaus spoke.
John looked at Mathaus like as if he were talking to a madman.
"Mars? You might as well have said Earth any way you mad bastard. You realise we are wanted criminals right? I'm not sure I want to visit the base of the 2nd GOE Army." John spoke.
Mars after Earth was perhaps the second most heavily guarded planet, boasting an Army almost the size of Earth's.
Although everything fell under GOE territory, The 2nd Army which was trained on Mars was perhaps the most effective of all armies currently fielded by the GOE.
Mars was the home of Planetside defences and defence in depth doctrines in case of an invasion.
While Earth focused more on Naval traditions, the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 9th fleets were all raised and stationed on Earth, which meant they would not allow an enemy force, no matter how large to land on Earth.
It was a matter of both pride and honour for those who sacrificed themselves when Earth was almost lost.
This meant Earth would pump out ships faster than it would take to destroy them and if there ever was a counterattack with Martian Marines taking the lead, it would be over for any invading force.
"We'll be fine trust me, I hope..."