Jared hustled out to the hangar, flight suit on and helmet in hand, running for the mech that was being set up for him. â€œI thought we melted these things down for scrap ages ago!â€ He commented at seeing the nearly forgotten design, a part of him idly wondering how many layers of dust the flight crews had to clear away from the things in the prep time they had. Whatever the case, they were functional and would be carrying them into battle and with luck is normal piloting skills had not gone rusty.<br/><br/>Waiting for the thing to boot up was agonizing; both due to the delay and the fact he was not connected so he had no clue where in the boot up it even was. â€œI swear Iâ€™m going to kill her for messing up my Orion...â€ He grumbles to himself though also knowing it was an empty or mostly empty threat. By the time it was finally done booting up and he was positioned on the launch platform, Jared was practically jumping out of his skin with impatience to get this over with. â€œBowman, ready to launch,â€ He announced as he was locked in place. He watched as the lights began switching to green until finally all indicated he was good and given permission to launch. â€œLaunching!â€ and with little else he gunned the controls, sending him careening into the speckled darkness of space.<br/><br/>He immediately joined the others in their formation and defensive positions of the ship. â€œSoâ€¦ anybody else worried about these things suddenly going blue screen on us?â€ Jared joked trying to lighten the mood slightly. Despite the joke, he was all serious and had every weapon system on the hunk of junk armed. His eyes blazing yellow but not lost in some predatory haze, completely focused and determined. He did not hesitate a moment when the Children ship appeared, gunning the engines and firing weapons. He was going to hit them before they even had a chance to react, put the fear of the devil back in those bastards.<br/><br/>It was another battleâ€¦ Another fightâ€¦ He was not going to lose it this time though, he couldnâ€™t with what was at stake. He had a future. Not just the constant droll of combat and death that prevented any semblance of a normal life, but something more. He had a wife (well soon to be wife) and in nine months they would be parents. Whether they found a new home planet by that time or not did not matter. He had to be alive for them. He had a reason to keep fightingâ€¦ a reason to continue to live.<br/><br/>*************************<br/><br/>Jon practically leapt out of his seat when the alarms started sounding, his head snapping around in confusion for a moment before he remembered where he was and slowly returned to his seat. As his eyes found their way back to the main monitor, Jon could only groan and pinch the bridge of his nose. â€œI see youâ€™ve met the Children of the Dying Son,â€ He grumbles as Rega turns the ship around and flees.<br/><br/>The flight from the Children wasâ€¦ infuriating to say the least. Rega and her AI continued to speak in their native tongue which meant that Jon was left completely clueless as to what was going on other than they were fleeing the Children. Even more frustrating was the fact that everything on the blasted ship was written or displayed in Nekan, so the most he could do was sit there as he had no clue what anything was. Eventually he just buried his face in his hands in frustration and of course right when he was going to say something they switch back to English briefly.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"> "This is the Mauna Kea. We need your assistance. We are being pursued by a hostile faction known as "The Children of the Dying Son." We require assistance and apologize for our sudden appearance." Rega said, then added, "Also I am sorry for possibly leading them here. We should both go as soon as possible if you are able or assist in our defenseâ€¦ I repeat, this is the Nekan Space Force vessel Mauna Kea. Captain Rega Ganor speaking. The Children are coming!"<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"> â€œThis is Captain Meredith Troy of the United Mankind Forces. I wish this was under better circumstances that we were to be meeting, I do hope you forgive me when I say, go fuck yourself for bringing this down on my crew!â€ the bitterness in her voice there was genuine and many of the crew kind of snickered at how vulgar she was with the alien ship. â€œAlright. Now, that the pleasantries are out of the way and I have gotten that off my chest. We are going to need time before our engines are ready to jump. I hope you can help buy us that time...â€</span></span><br/><br/>Jonâ€™s head snapped back up at the sound of the familiar voice and beheld the sight of the Elyandra on the screen. His long lost home now floating there before his eyes againâ€¦ though anger bubbled up in him at the sight of the damage she had suffered. How long had she been like that? When did she get attack?... Was She all right?<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"> "At your service!" Rega chirped with an uncertain smile, forgetting for a moment that the transmission was audio only.</span><br/><br/>And just like that: Rega and her AI went back to talking in their native tongue leaving Jon in the dark about close to everythingâ€¦ Then she was talking with some others that Jon had no clue where they were or what they were talking about. After she had practically danced around the bridge, Jon had had enough. â€œExcuse me!â€ Jonâ€™s frustrated voice finally erupted out from his long silence, â€œbut I canâ€™t understand a word you are saying! That is my ship out there and I donâ€™t have any idea what the hell you are planning or what anything on here does!â€  After his little outburst, Jon takes a deep breathe to calm down before speaking again. â€œSorry itâ€™s just very frustrating not being able to do anything,â€<span style="font-style: italic">Plus youâ€™re dancing around after talking to your boyfriend or whatever before battle didnâ€™t help things,</span>â€œSo could I be clued in a bit here as the only thing I can figure on help the Elyandra is using your AIâ€™s processing power to help speed up the jump computerâ€™s plotting or trying to jam the Childrenâ€™s sensors to they effectively would be firing blind.â€