Outcast

Chapter 4

Two of the drones had malfunctioned immediately on launch. One drone managed to make it to the debris cloud, while the second one crashed into an old satellite wreck and was destroyed on impact. The third one didn't even manage to leave the cargo bay, but had exploded, rendering the entire Drone Bay unusable until repaired.

"The plan was simple," the Captain said, "so simple. How did you manage to fuck it up this bad?"

"I can assure you that it wasn't me. I did the retrofitting just fine, fucking ask Engineer or whatever, he was there with me!" 13 replied, trying to rein back his temper the best he could.

Through clenched teeth, the Captain growled. "If it wasn't you, what the fuck do you think it was? Two people worked on the drones. Two. One of them has kept this ship from killing us for the past two decades, while the other one...."

Needless to say, learning to repair and maintain space-faring machinery did not come easily, nor did it come without mistakes.

"The other one, what? What the fuck do you wanna say, Cap? If there's something on your mind, spit it out! Say it to my fuckin' face!" 13, at this point, was shouting once again, and had stood up from his station.

The Captain slammed his fists against the table, and roared: "Sit the fuck down, and shut the fuck up! You cost us the Scholar alread-"

"Alright, that's enough!." Green stood up, and walked between 13 and Captain.

"With all due respect, the First Rule was not broken. You agreed to that. We all did. 13 did not kill the Scholar, and you shouldn't hold it above his head."

The Captain froze, and rubbed his eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Yeah? Fuck you." 13 spat vindictively. That old arse deserved it.

Adopting his best reconciliatory tone, Green attempted to defuse the situation: "Alright, knock it off now. We're on a mission here. Mistakes happen, sure. It fucking sucks, but that's life. One of the drones got out just fine, and is sending us data. We'd all know what it is, if you just calmed the fuck down down and let One-Eye speak for a bit."

One-Eye cleared his throat and looked around awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. The loss of the Scholar had left deep scars on all the clones, as she was particularly well liked. Belligerent to an extreme, but likable nonetheless. It was quite clear at that point that a vast portion of that belligerence had found its new home in 13.

"So the drone we did manage to send off didn't find any retrievable tech from the debris cloud, as your preliminary scans suggested. But, we did find something."

One-Eye walked to the centre of the bridge, where there was a large, circular hologram table. He dragged his fingers across a datapad he had been holding, and an image of an ancient satellite appeared, hovering atop the table.

"This thing right here had its data core relatively intact, so 13's hunch was good. In it we found some basic data about the planet beneath, before it was mostly destroyed by the Great War, probably."

Pressing a few holographic buttons, the three-dimensional image zoomed outwards, and the planet beneath was in view.

"Phaeron IV. If the Scholar was still around, she'd give us a lecture about the planet right about now," One-Eye laughed awkwardly, the sorrow was clear in his eyes.

13 carried on where One-Eye had left off: "Phaeron IV. Throne World of the Phaeron system. Around the last days of the Great War a large-scale military campaign was undertaken by Dominion forces. The planet beneath was never truly conquered, as the Dominion's Throne World was destroyed before all the attacking forces could be deployed. Expecting a total assault, Phaeranites launched most of their nuclear firearms as a desperate attempt to destroy enemy forces."

There was a slight pause in 13's explanation. The others were listening intently.

"Neither side really succeeded. The planet experienced a nuclear holocaust that wiped out most of the Praetorians as well as its inhabitants. The biosphere was completely eradicated. " There was sorrow in 13's voice, but he pressed on.

"The atmosphere is toxic to carbon-based lifeforms, but the structures and the Praetorians remain. Not to even mention all the radioactive fallout. As you can see, we have no-go zones here, here, and here." 13 pointed his hand at three orange-bordered zones that covered nearly the entire planet.

The others were silently taken aback by the information given by 13. One-Eye was the first to vocalise it.

"Thank you, 13. If you don't mind my curiosity, where the hell did you learn that from?"

13 was quiet for a moment, and then answered shortly: "The Scholar. I like history, and her stories. And this place was important, once."

The continued references to the deceased clone rendered the room cold; bringing up the Scholar tended to have that effect. Aside from Cook, she was the only other first generation clone on the ship, until the accident that took her away. Her loss was still keenly felt by everyone in the crew.

"Good work, 13," Captain spoke, silently, after a few moments. "One-Eye? Any other details you got?"

"Yep. Shipyards were the first to go during the attacks, then military targets. I found a civilian operated ship component factory. Should be plenty of whatever you need to fix the engine, and maybe even the drones too." One-Eye explained.

"Alright then." Captain was quiet for a while.

"Green? Thoughts?"

The security officer stepped forward and spoke. "This mission has to succeed, otherwise we're all fucked. Usually I'd be against putting all our eggs in one basket but we don't really have a choice. I recommend getting everyone on the planet to find whatever we need. This includes you, 13."

The Captain stood up, and touched the firearm holstered on his right side. "Sounds reasonable. Not gonna get Cook involved though. If he's dead, the mission's dead."

"Of course," Green replied. "Let's get moving, then. Get your asses to the armoury and suit up."