"<Response from unidentified ship.>" Kit responded after a nervous silence after Rega ended her transmission. She was hoping for a friendly response, but it wasn't quite what she expected.<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><br/><br/>"At your service!" Rega chirped with an uncertain smile, forgetting for a moment that the transmission was audio only. The ship she was looking at sprang to life, it's engines lighting up and cargo bay doors opened to eject a robotic mech, akin to the six paladin class mech's in her own cargo bay.<br/><br/>"<Kit, we have no choice. We ended up dragging these people into our problem. By the sounds of it, they're worse off than we are. Can you confirm?>" she asked.<br/><br/>"<Confirmed. Friendly ship is running on diminished power for its equipped systems. Shields seem to be almost seventy percent, armor effectiveness approximately sixty three percent. Hull integrity at eighty nine percent. They are heavily damaged, Rega, however, they are holding together. We should not have come here with enemies in pursuit.>" Kit advised.<br/><br/>"<Battlestations. Shields to full. Energize armor plating.>" she commanded. Alarms went off and the lighting on the bridge turned orange. She ignored the sleeping human beside her for the moment. She was focused, "<Put the ship between where they should exit hyperspace and their ship. Our shields are the best Nekan technology has to offer. We need to cover them until they can jump.>"<br/><br/>"<Acknowledged.>" Kit replied, "Captain, I thought you would like to know. There is an ether signature detected leaving Miss Meredith's ship. It is the Paladin. Nekan life form detected on board....>"<br/><br/>---------------------------------------------------<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"> â€œHurry up, Dren!â€</span><br/><br/>Angela had beat him to the hangar and was already in her flight suit by the time he had opened his locker. She called to him before closing the cockpit of an older model mech, Dren now cursing his decision to stop working on the Stalking Cat, still unable to fight. Once again clad in his metal flight suit, he quickly ran into his Paladin cockpit. It quickly started and Yuri appeared on the console projector.<br/><br/>"Dren Fallon ready for launch." he said over Comms. Below a crewman waved him to the launch platform after Angela had already launched. Once he received a green light, he launched out into open space to meet up with Angela as the Children's ships began to arrive. to his right, a massive hulk of a ship drifted ominously between the oncoming fleet and the Elyandra.<br/><br/>"<That design looks familiar.>" he said, "<Is that a Mankind ship?>"<br/><br/>"<No.>" Yuri said a broad smile spreading across her virtual face, "<I'm getting bombarded with a rapid, repeating hail request with NSF security codes. It's a Nekan ship that's extremely happy to see us.>"<br/><br/>"<N-Nekan!? Here?>" he stammered. He froze for a moment, his heart in his throat but incoming fire from the Children's ships snapped him out of it. He watched the shots harmlessly splash into the broad back of the Nekan ship the shields shimmering for a moment but holding strong.<br/><br/>"<Paladin, this is the Mauna Kea. Captain Rega Ganor speaking. Dren, is that you?>" her face appeared in a small window on his hud. He hit a button and connected the two way video communication, but she was met with the blank stare of his combat helmet.<br/><br/>"<Rega! What are you doing here?!>" he exclaimed, leaning forward. His helmet bobbed as he spoke.<br/><br/>"<I came to find you! I came to prove my theories right! I came for science!>" She exclaimed, her finger raised in the air, "<But regardless of why I came, right now the most important thing is to protect that ship you came from. Did that prototype have a drone interface installed?>"<br/><br/>"<Yes.>" Yuri replied for him. Her face softened on the screen.<br/><br/>"<Yuri. It's nice to see you again too.>" she said, smiling.<br/><br/>"<Likewise, Rega. But what about the drones?>"<br/><br/>"<I'm sending you the frequencies of the production Advanced Dual Mode Stryker's in my cargo hold. They can be operated remotely. I'm sending you the remote for them.>"<br/><br/>"<We can do that.>" Yuri said. Dren watched as a cargo door opened and six Paladins shot out into space, quickly falling into formation beside his own. These were painted in red stripes, while his was blue.<br/><br/>Once he was ready, a large warship appeared before them and Angela sped off into battle. Gripping his controls tightly he followed close behind, the red Paladins keeping formation beside him.<br/><br/>"<Don't worry Dren, I have you covered.>" Rega said hitting a button on her chair. The large energy turrets at the bow of the Mauna Kea quickly charged and shot forth a ray of purple energy which collided with the battleship's shields. Dren watched his sensors and a smile formed on his face as he saw the amount of damage it caused. Pushing forward, he sped off behind Angela into the fray.<br/><br/>-----------------------------------<br/><br/>"<It's him! It's actually him! I've found him already!>" Rega swooned. Communications had just disconnected when she nearly jumped for joy and in her fit of glee, she began pacing the bridge, "<Oh, but first thing's first. That ship. We need to help it. Yes. Yes. What can we do.....Oh I know! Lets get the ship really close to theirs and extend our shields around it...>"<br/><br/>"<Their ship is too big.>" Kit replied.<br/><br/>"<Well how can we reinforce their shields?>" she responded, "<Energy transfer?>"<br/><br/>"<We can try, but I am unsure if our energy systems are compatible.>" Kit said, "<Stand by. Requesting connection permission from the Elyandra for download of energy schematics.....Request denied.....Retrying with passcodes obtained from Mankind escape pod....Access granted....Downloading and analyzing....Configuring transmission array for transfer of energy......Transfer in progress....>"<br/><br/>Rega watched a reading on the arm of her chair as the ship's main capacitor discharged a bit, but then the main reactor recharged it quickly. The transfer of power was smooth and steady but barely caused any strain on the Mauna Kea due to the Ether Generators recharge rate. Hopefully this would help the Elyandra get away quickly...