Aboard the station

"Nice body, Marla," Ellia Longtail laughed as she entered the station with Gerard and Lia, "too bad it's missing the most important bits!" That was childish of me, she thought, but dangit, my heart feels like it's about to beat into my throat!

"You mean the tail attachment?" Marla inquired with a knowing grin as the inner door opened and they made their way into an eerily silent but clean corridor; she had apparently guessed at Ellia's innuendo, but decided not to play along. "That is unfortunate, but not surprising, for a model that usually functions autonomously. Also, you know as well as I that most have trouble operating that appendage remotely."

"Yeah, the tail attachment," Ellia muttered with a groan, "that's exactly what I meant. Is this place... how you left it?"

"The layout is the same," she answered as they went past an unmarked door, then turned towards an elevator at the end of a connecting hall, "but it has clearly been repurposed. My 'body' has access to internal maps, and the latest revision shows most rooms as 'storage' now, or 'unused'. In fact, it looks like several of the less secure levels have been unused since Division 2 withdrew from here nearly two centuries ago." She halted just before the elevator, and turned around. "Give me a moment, I may not have the biological reactions you do, but my emotions are just as... raw."

"Speaking of thaaat," Gerard spoke up, tensing slightly, "ambassador, are you... alright?"

"Geez Gerard," she responded with an eye-roll, "how many times have I told you, call me Ellia. But no, I already need a rebalance, and this isn't the time nor place to do it."

"Hey uh, ladies?" Hack's voice sounded static-y, maybe it was the speakers in the hall. "Er, and two guys. I just had to kick a remote user out of the systems, and they're still trying to get back in. They were about to trigger an immediate self destruct sequence before I stopped them so... can we move with a sense of urgency, please?"

"Shit!" Lia exclaimed, pushing everyone into the elevator. "Y'all heard the man, get those tails in gear. Marla, which floor?"

The elevator started moving without any input, making everyone nearly jump, except Lia and Marla. "Already took care of that," remarked the latter, "the droids can directly link into the elevators, makes getting them places much easier."

"Who the fuck would try to self-destruct the base right now?" Dorrin asked nobody in particular.

"As much as I want to know, we don't have time;" Marla quickly dismissed the question, "I currently have control over systems, as well as read only access to the database. There were two other users logged in: Hack and 'Omnex'; before anyone asks that's a common maintenance limited artificial intelligence program for uncrewed facilities or those operating temporarily without a crew, and had been behaving normally until now - the thing isn't supposed to be able to even access self destruct systems. The lab we're heading to is on a completely isolated network of its own. That's all its referred to as in the main database, so I have no idea what we're walking into, or even what the topology if its internal network looks like."

"So it could come back at any time, can potentially control anything on the main system, and we don't even know how to get what we're looking for, outstanding." Lia grumbled as the elevator stopped and opened, and she drew her sidearm. "Who's the dumbass who planned this op again?"

"The same dumbass who's keeping the threat actor from jumping back in and making the station dissolve around you." Hack sounded even more distorted now, and definitely annoyed. "They're throwing everything at getting back in, quit getting caught in each other's orbits and move!"

They quickly rushed into the next room, which was filled with terminals, vats and a large tube. "Is this..." Gerard gulped, "Is this a cloning lab?"

"It does look like one," Ellia remarked, "but that doesn't make any sense. It's been centuries since we used it for generating replacement organs and tissues, the AIS is more effective and capable at rebuilding organs."

"The only other place cloning is still used would be for restoring a viable population of a near extinct species," Marla noted, plugging into one of the terminals, "I doubt that's what these were used for. Dammit! Everything on this network has been wiped already, I'm trying to recover what I can, but it won't be quick."

"I'm sorry Ellia," Dorrin sighed, moving over to her as she slumped against a nearby panel. "Maybe Marla will dig up something faster than expected."

"Whatever -bzzzt-oing -brrrffsst-urry up!" By now Hack was shouting over the distortion on the speakers, and not all of what he said could be made out."

Ellia closed here eyes, about to start crying... then she heard a voice she'd not heard since she was a small child. "Ellia, what are you doing here?"

Unknown Location

"Camera access restored." Omnex noted aloud as the holographic projection of their feeds reappeared before Reese, who's eyes quickly darted to the lab, which was now populated.

"Who's there?" The Lapinian soldier shouted, holding her weapon as she scanned the area. "Identify yourself!"

"Ellia, it's me... uh, sort of. Kindly tell your friend to put that thing away, please sweetie?"

"D-dad? What do you mean?" Ellia replied in confusion.

"By the Order," Marla sighed, moving towards a panel, "Dr Longtail I presume? Or more accurately his imprint?"

"Correct, yes, no time to explain; please remove my enclosure from behind that panel, you need to get me back to Ragerian space as soon as possible!"

"OMNEX!" Reese screeched, clenching his paw hands into fists and smashing the projector showing the camera feed, "activate the self-destruct immediately!"

"Processing... access gained. Error! Unable to initiate immediate destruct sequence - timed sequence has already been initiated."

The lights flickered and then went out, as Reese seethed, then an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

"I don't know who you think you are," the voice spoke in an unusual accent, "but I think I know who you are, which makes what you just tried to do so much worse. I'm done letting you screw around in our wake regardless."

"You know nothing," Reese snarled, "and you'll never stop me, primitive fool!"

"Says the smartass who just had his own backdoor slammed in his face, but I'm done here, goodbye Reese Jorlen; I'd say I hope we never meet again, but I suspect we will."

Realizing too late that this had been a distraction, Reese enabled manual controls form an auxillary panel, just to find it was unresponsive. No matter, he thought, it will take that upstart centuries to decrypt anything he got. I'll be back up in a few days time.

Meanwhile, aboard the station...

"Attention - self destruct sequence has been initiated and will occur in 20 minutes," intoned an overly calm and clearly simulated mid range voice, "please follow evacuation protocols in an orderly fashion."

"Fucking hell!" Lia shouted, leaning out the doorway to check the hall. "Out of time, let's go!"

Marla grunted unnecessary as she used her robotic arms to tear away the panel, then pull the imprint enclosure both quickly and smoothly. "Right, moving, that goes for everyone!"

"Weren't they trying to do it instantly?" Gerard asked as he grabbed both Dorrin and Ellia, practically carrying out the latter as he led the former by his hand.

"Yeah, about that," answered Hack, the static now gone, "that was me, activating it by timer prevents an instant trigger. The good news is I've knocked them offline for now, but I have bad news we'll need to discuss later. I've already let Donna know the situation, so expect to be leaving once you've cycled the airlock."

A Rec Room aboard the New Dawn

"Fuuuuuck!!!" Princess cursed, tossing her cards to the table as Mace pulled chips representing her extra ration vouchers toward his end of the table. "Yoo worse than Icebox!"

"Well, by the goddess, now I feel like a tit-head!" Creampuff grumbled, tossing her cards down on the table. "I'm withdrawing my fleet and cashing out what I've got left."

"Are you sure you're not cheating, Mr Northpass?" Icebox asked with a slight grin, but the Lupin pilot merely gave them the same flat, determined expression he had before.

"To do so would dishonor myself, and by extension my ancestors. No Icebox, I am not cheating, nor do I intend to. Provision your fleets for the next action, or withdraw them."

Icebox drummed his claw tipped fingers on the table, panting slightly... and then picked up his chips. "As much as I like taking risks, having to eat nothing but the regular galley food isn't worth this one, I withdraw... but let's see your remaining fleet."

Mace took the last of the cards in his hand, and laid them out on the table, causing the Vulpin's jaw to drop.

"Ahahaa! No void damn way! You were bluffing?" Creampuff laughed aloud as she showed her own hand. With a screech, Thompson threw his own cards onto the table, then went to sulk in the corner. "Whoa, little screecher would have beaten you too! A light cruiser and fighter wing easily falls to a destroyer pack."

"Indeed, and had he tested my had he would have revealed my true misfortune."

"You're misfortune alright!" Icebox shot back, but winked. "Say... I think that's it, whatcha say ladies, is Misfortune a good callsign?"

"Heh, Misfortune sounds royt!" Princess nodded, as Creampuff cackled.

"Do I not get a say in this?" The wolf asked, his ears lowering as he blushed slightly, and Thompson shook his head.

"Nope, and with a majority vote, looks like you're stuck with it, already updated the roster!"

"Captain on deck!" Called someone much nearer to the door, already at attention and saluting the flesh and blood version of the Homeship's Captain as he entered with Monk. The surprised group quickly saluted as well.

"At ease," said Hack, with a nod, looking them over, "Colonel Treeline, do you not have 5 pilots besides yourself in Chimera Wing?"

"I do sir," he responded, "Stripes is in the simulator and should be out shortly. Shall we wait for him to arrive?"

"No, send someone to get him and meet us on the flight deck, I need your whole wing for this mission."

Snowlit Dawn, bridge

Donna fidgeted in her seat as she tried to go over the ship's various accounts for the 2nd time since this mission had began. Marla had been eerily silent since she said she was "partially transferring" herself to the station. Knowing asking for more details would either cause Marla to launch into a haughty mini-tirade, or get far more technical than she was comfortable with, she'd simply accepted that answer at the time... but the silence was getting deafening. -[ Marla, is everything going alright over there? ]- She typed though she wanted to ask aloud, but Herb already looked nervous and was clacking his hooves in place at his station; the last thing I need is for my pilot to have an episode during some sort of crisis.

For a long moment, there was no response, she was about to type something else when a message came in from someone she had most definitely not asked the question to.

-[ Hey, it's Hack again. We've got a small situation that's led me to fire-walling off Marla's core off from direct comms out of an abundance of caution. You uh... may want to tell Tallia to keep the boosters warm, she'll know what I mean. Oh, and don't try to connect to the station's network, that'd be very bad right now. And have Lana run some of her anti-malware utilities too, as soon as possible. ]-

This can't be good... Donna thought as she gripped her seat's armrests and forwarded the whole message to Tallia, who responded with -[ O_o ]-, about the reaction she'd expected.

-[ Your next message better be telling me they're all fine, on the way back, and almost to the airlock. ]- She typed, even though she didn't know how she'd enforce this wishful ultimatum, especially if there were reasons beyond anyone's control that made it untrue.

-[ They are... ]- popped up almost instantly, followed by -[ have Herb disengage clamps and move away quickly as soon as the airlock is sealed. ]-

"Hey Captain," Aria said in an almost bored tone as she filed her claw tips, "the boarding party just got back in, said we sho-"

"Herb, disengage the clamps and get us out of here." She ordered, somehow managing to shove down the rising panic she was feeling.

With a whinny of shock, the Equin pilot complied, and the ship lurched slightly as the clamps disconnected, and the screen showed the station shrinking in the distance. "Cap, why are we running from an abandoned station?"

"I'm still waiting for someone to tell me," she replied aloud, "Hack, Marla; care to answer that question?"

"Someone's been hacking abandoned Ragerian stations that don't exist," Marla sounded shaken and... different somehow, as though a microphone was capturing output of a speaker, "present company excluded."

"It's far worse than that," Hack replied, and he seemed more exhausted than anything, "all of you deserve an explanation, but for a great many reasons I can't do that here or now. For one, I'm still processing and confirming a great deal of data. I will say this, we found an imprint of Ellia's real father, and I have a solid lead on where he might be now but... I'm not going to say until I'm sure - especially given where it points. I also ask that you not tell her this yet either, she's not in a stable state right now."

"And where may that be?" Sabre asked the obvious question as he downed the last dregs of his tea.

"Deep in Leonin space."