"Do we have to bring rations?" Ulin asked as she packed a box of rations onto the ship. "It is only a short trip that should only take a single day." Ulin reasoned.
"It is because our communications are going to fail as soon as we enter the system. We do not know what will happen after that so we have to tread carefully. That includes preparations for being stranded on the station." Jace informed them. That was the reason he was giving them at least. Sёarᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"Your ship is almost prepared. Are you sure you do not want an additional shielding device like the others for your armor?" Taylor asked as she walked down the ramp of the transport. It was a heavily modified Osprey since they did not need as much space.
Jace chuckled as he unsheathed an arm blade on left arm. The metal slightly glowed and shimmered before he sheathed it again. "Positive. They need it for the gravitational effects but I need that because it will be annoying if I have to pull out a hacking device again."
Their armor had only so many attachments that could be attached to them. They all had shielding devices on their armor. But that left only enough power for an additional attachment. Before, when they went to the Labyrinth that attachment was taken up by their jetpacks because of the power needed to keep the jetpacks attached. But now since they were not taking jetpacks they could choose what they wanted. Taylor suggested they all take extra shielding devices because the gravitational forces that would be affecting their bodies would be lessened by the extra shielding.
"What about the gravitational effects on your own body?" Taylor asked in surprise as she glanced at Nina's armor. "Or both of your bodies. Are you seriously using a grappling attachment?"
Nina shrugged and went back to packing some weapons onto the ship.
"We will be fine. Our bodies can better handle the shock and forces from the gravitational effect better." Jace explained before he began helping his unit put their supplies on the ship.
"Fine. Just get me some data from your time in the anomaly system." Taylor began walking away. "I am going to the ready room. I will watch your progress from there."
Jace chuckled as he walked onto the transport and began doing the preflight check. He also checked the map that Taylor had quickly installed. It had the constantly adjusting positions of the gravity anomaly areas. It also had the approximate path that Hoodwink took.
After a few minutes he got the all clear from the others in the back, they had tied down and secured everything. He closed up the rear ramp. Then he pulled on his helmet and his display appeared. He connected it to the ship. "This is Spectre Jace. My unit is ready to be released."
"Hold off Spectre Jace. Taylor said to not let you fire the engines in the hangar. We are going to the crane to toss you out." There was an immediate response as the person he recognized as the chief engineer hurriedly told him. Jace was already aware of this, but the chief engineer probably assumed that Taylor neglected to tell him.
"Understood, the Osprey is in standby mode." Jace responded with a chuckle as he waited. He watched from the cockpit as a giant crane hand began moving overhead. Jace began putting on the harness for the pilot's seat. Then he called back to the rest of his unit. "Get strapped in. We are about to leave."
"All good back here!" He could hear Ulin call out.
The overhead crane hand was then lowered onto their ship. Then there was a thunk as metal made contact with metal. Then there were strain motors and a thunk as the metal adjusted as the Osprey was lifted into the air.
Then it was moved toward the side with some shaky movement. Jace could see it was moving to a clear path that would lead to the atmospheric barrier that was in the hangar. The external hangar wall had opened to accommodate their departure.
Once they were on the clear path the crane then began dragging them forward. It felt like they were on an unstable platform as it shook. Then as it moved forward it began speeding up and Jace frowned as he realized what they were doing. He could hear the others in the back whisper amongst themselves while the Osprey was quickly speeding forward.
The crane above them came screeching to a halt as the Osprey left the atmosphere barrier along with the crane hand which extended. Then there was a metal clunk as they were released from the crane hand. Jace used stabilizers to maneuver the Osprey a bit further from the hangar and saw as he went parallel with the Anvil that the crane hand was still outside of the ship. They extended it a bit too far.
Jace was still chuckling as he contacted the ship, "Anvil this is Spectre Jace. We have successfully departed the hangar and made some distance between us and the ship. Starting up engines now." Jace began flicking a few switches as everything on the dashboard began lighting up.
"Understood. We will watch you from here. Happy Hunting!" Captain Hammers told him. Mimicking Jace's words from when he and Nina were left behind in the Leonair system. But now it was Jace and most of his unit leaving the Anvil behind.
The ship lurched forward as the engines started up. He could hear grunts come from the back. "Damn. She overdid it with the engines." He only felt the force of it for a second before his body got used to it quickly.
He continued flying into the system. He watched as the stability of his communication with the ship became more and more staticky. He was still receiving and could send a signal. But there was something wrong with the connection.
Jace tried sending a signal just in case. "Anvil, are you still receiving me?" There was no response after a moment so he just focused on flying as he called back to his unit. The ship began shaking violently as he flew. "How are you guys doing back there?"
"Wishing for a better pilot!" Charlie called up to him. Causing the others to burst into laughter. At least they were still feeling upbeat about it.
—----------------------------
Taylor could barely keep her eyes open as she watched the little blue dot enter the anomaly system. She was still exhausted. After a moment the ship received a garbled message and it was sent to her. It was a transmission that lasted one one-hundredths of a second. She frowned and put it in the discard pile. It was a failed transmission. Unlikely to be anything else.
But after a moment the little fire that was the shipborne AI for the Anvil appeared. "Umm… madam. Cain and I noticed something that we thought we should point out." Taylor looked at the little fire and then glanced at the door as it slid open and Cain walked in.
"What is it?" Taylor asked as she looked between them.
"Well it is about the message we just received. Am I right in assuming you believed it to have been a failed transmission?" The little flame asked.
Taylor nodded, "yeah. The same thing was happening with the probes."
Cain shook his head side to side in disagreement while the little flame flickered. "Actually…" The little flame pulled up the transmission and began making a show of pulling it apart. "The transmission was condensed like a file. Not on purpose. But rather because it was collapsing in on itself as it was sent to us."
Taylor frowned. "How did you realize this?"
"Well it is just a packet of data. Usually it would be slow like usual human communication methods. But after a moment we realized that it was a sped up transmission that sounded like random sound to normal humans. We still processed it as a message but it was not possible for humans to normally discern that it was a human talking really really fast." Cain explained.
"Then we can communicate with them?" Taylor glanced at the blue dot and realized something. "Oh…"
"Yeah… Then there is that." The little flame flickered again. "It is moving faster than it should be."
Taylor facepalmed. "Time is traveling faster the closer to the center of the anomaly they go. Well shit, I suppose that means they would arrive back here before I even finish a nap."
"Definitely, but we are more worried about the stress on their bodies as well as the mental strain from being out of contact." Cain informed her.
Taylor shrugged. "Don't be. The reason that we were all chosen for this mission was not just because of our monstrous abilities. But also because of our mental ability to adapt. You would only waste time worrying about us." Taylor informed them. "But that is annoying that I missed that. I suppose I will… get a… talking… to." Taylor fell asleep in her chair and began snoring.