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Krystal and Chase: Deep Darkness
Part Four: Overload

"According to the AI, This should be it just up ahead." Sofia stated as the team carefully made their way towards the bridge.
"Let's hope so." Chase replied, "Can't wait to get back down the help the colony.  Sneaking around a warship isn't my style of combat."
Krystal nodded in agreement as she kept an eye on their flanks, making sure that more Reaper units did not sneak up on them.
Chase glanced at her, noticing that Krystal cringed every couple of steps.  But the vixen kept quiet, refusing to let even a whimper of pain escape her lips from the pain still clawing at her insides from the interrogation.
Chase sighed, "You alright Ronin-2?"
Krystal nodded, "I will be, don't worry about me."
Chase nodded and continued to follow Sofia, who was peeking around a corner into another hallway.
"Ok, we've got a problem." Sofia stated, "According to your AI, the bridge is just past a doorway at the end of this hallway."
"So what's the problem?" Chase asked, already knowing he would not like the answer.
Sofia nodded for him to take a look for himself.  Chase peeked around the corner carefully, seeing exactly what Sofia was saying was the problem.
Above the doorway was a large, quad-barreled gun turret.  The weapon was scanning the hallway in front of the doorway, swinging slowly back and forth.  The energy tanks feeding the weapon its energy strapped to its sides.
"Alright, so we have to get by that thing." Chase said as he pulled back around the corner before the weapon could target him, "Just toss out an EMP grenade and we can move on."
Sofia shook her head, "No good, we could fry the door.  We need a better way to take it out or disable it without taking out the door as well."
Krystal took a peek around the corner as well, seeing what they were talking about, "What if we shot the energy tanks and just blew it up?"
Chase smiled, "Ronin-2, that might work.  The ensuing explosion might blow open the doors too."
Sofia shook her head in doubt, "That's highly unlikely Ronin.  There's the probability of a failsafe locking down the doors after the turret is destroyed.  Plus that would draw every available unit on the warship to this location."
Krystal thought for a second, then snapped her fingers, "If it's on the Sev`fel's networks, is there a possibility of Jennifer being able to hack the turret and shutting it down remotely?"
Chase heard a 'ping' in his ear as Jennifer popped up on his HUD.
"I might be able to hack the turret remotely, but I will need time to do so." The AI stated calmly, "After all, I must not be detected."
Chase relayed what Jennifer had said.  Sofia nodded for her to go ahead with the hack.
As Jennifer went to work using Chase's armor systems to initiate the required connections, the team held back from entering the turret's line of fire.  As they waited, Krystal took the time to rest against the wall, curling up against it a bit to help ease the pain, which was still working through her.  As she did, the pain started to retreat from her gut before starting to fading away slowly.  But the pain was not what was on Krystal's mind.
Although she was not going to say it, Krystal was afraid of what could have happened to her had the alarm not stopped the Sev`fel captain from further 'interrogating' her.  She knew that the captain had seen her as expendable, simply keeping her alive to see how long it would be before she broke or was finally stubborn enough to simply dispose of.  Now that she was out of the immediate danger, Krystal closed her eyes, her fear of death returning to her before she could push it away again.
As this was going through Krystal's mind, Chase glanced down at her, realizing there was something the vixen had not told them but was currently going through.  Chase patted her shoulder, the vixen looking up at him as he did.  Chase smiled gently, not having to say anything to reassure his partner, offering his other hand to help her up.
Both of them knew what the other would say, making their words unneeded as Krystal took his hand, allowing Chase to help the vixen back onto her feet.  Krystal smiled as Chase smiled back to her, their eyes meeting for a brief moment before a 'Ping!' interrupted them.
"I have access to the turret controls and have disabled it without alerting the Sev`fel." Jennifer stated, "You are clear to breach the door."
"Alright let's do this." Chase replied, "Epsilon, get that door open.  Ronin-2, cover her."
Both girls nodded in reply before Sofia took a tender step around the corner, fully expecting the turret to open fire.  To her pleasant surprise, the turret was hanging in its cradle above the door, no longer scanning the hallway.  As she went to work hacking the door, Krystal took up a position beside the door, cocking her rifle as she readied herself to breach the room.  Chase took up the position in the hallway, keeping one of his pistols trained on the door as he took a grenade out of his pouch.
Sofia moved beside the door as the steel doors opened.  As they did, Chase tossed in the grenade, it bouncing twice inside the room before detonating, a blinding flash filling the bridge as the explosion deafened anyone within its range!  The Sev`fel inside held their ears and eyes after the flash-bang had detonated.
Krystal and Sofia pulled around the door, opening fire quickly to stun the Sev`fel on the bridge.  Chase joined them after the two had taken down several Sev`fel crewmen, the fox's pistols blazing as he opened fire as well.  Sev`fel fell out of their chairs as the high velocity stun rounds paralyzed their bodies.  The few that had been standing when the flash-bang had gone off fell immediately as the team took them down, each of them taking cover wherever available before the remaining few Sev`fel could regain their senses.
But as they did, the Sev`fel that remained tried to draw their own weapons.  As they did, Chase fired first, taking down the Sev`fel closest to them as Krystal and Sofia opened fire after reloading, taking down the rest of the crew before any of them could return fire.
"Clear!" Sofia called.
"Clear." Chase confirmed, standing up from his cover behind a terminal, "Let's get that data and get the hell out of here."
As Sofia walked up to a terminal, Krystal examined the many Sev`fel they have stunned, Chase keeping his pistols trained on each one until she verified the hit.  But as she examined the Sev`fel, Krystal noticed something wrong.
"The captain is missing." Krystal stated, a bit of worry in her voice.
Chase glanced around at the bodies of the paralyzed Sev`fel crewmen, "You sure?  I'm pretty sure we hit everyone on the bridge."
Sofia was inserting her AI into a terminal she had found when a shot suddenly rang out from behind the team!  A bullet grazed the dove's shoulder, her armor's shield system shorting out and failing as Sofia spun from the force of the bullet clipping her armor, catching herself before she fell.  The dove's handguns were up quickly as Chase and Krystal took aim at the shooter.
Smoke wafted from the barrel of a handgun as the reptilian creature who fired the shot stepped forward into the bridge.  It was smirking as it pointed the handgun at Sofia.
"Well, I must say I am surprised to see you still alive, fox." The Sev`fel captain stated calmly to Krystal, "And you've even reunited with your pathetic little team.  Too bad I have to kill you all now."
As he fired, Sofia moved, dodging the shot just barely, the bullet grazing her armor, leaving a deep scratch across her shoulder as the bullet scraped against it.  Sofia returned fire as she moved, her handguns blazing as she moved.  The Sev`fel moved as well, taking cover behind a panel as Sofia fired, the dove taking cover behind another terminal.
"Don't just stand there, Ronins!" Sofia called from behind her cover, "Take him down!"
Chase nodded and glanced to Krystal.  The vixen nodded, knowing what was on his mind for a plan.  Chase sprinted to the side, giving Sofia plenty of room to keep the Sev`fel captain pinned down.  Krystal followed his lead, moving to keep up with the fox as he took cover across from the Sev`fel captain.  But before Krystal could make it into cover, the captain noticed them and opened fire!  His bullet clipped Krystal's side as the vixen ducked behind a computer bank, her shield flickering and failing all together as she blind fired around the side of the terminal.  Krystal's bullets missed the Sev`fel captain, but slammed against the terminal he was taking cover behind, Sofia keeping his head down with accurate shots just over the top of his head.
As the two kept the captain's attention, Chase moved closer, taking careful aim as Sofia and Krystal kept the captain pinned.  The reptilian creature noticed Chase, turning to fire on the fox.  As he did, Chase's finger squeezed the trigger, the barrel bolting upwards as the round left it in a blazing flash.  The round slammed against the Sev`fel captain's chest, dispersing it's energy through the reptilian creature's body in a flash.
The captain spun once; hitting the floor as Chase unloaded a second round to be sure he was down, the second stun round clipping the captain's shoulder, sending it's energy through his body once more.  The Sev'fel lay still as Sofia stood up, walking back over to the terminal to continue to extract the data.
Chase walked over to the main control for the carrier, looking them over as a beep sounded in his ear.
The fox touched his com link, "Ronin-1 here."
"Copy that Ronin-1, this is Dagger.  We have a new order for you straight from command." The voice replied, Chase noting it as Captain Raye's voice, "And not a pretty one."
"Go ahead." Chase stated.
"Once you extract the data, we cannot leave a trace that we have the information." The captain stated, "After an extensive scan of the carrier's systems thanks to your AI's infiltration, we have determined that the cleanest way to end this situation this is to overload the carrier's warp core system.  Destroying the carrier itself should cause a delay long enough for the ground forces to gain an upper hand in the confusion."
Chase simply nodded, understanding the repercussions of leaving the Sev`fel knowing that they had taken the information.  Plus there was the advantage of taking out the carrier altogether from the inside.
"How long will we have to get out?" Chase asked.
"Long enough." Captain Raye replied, "Steal a transport again and get out.  The warp core should overload within ten minutes of being set to do so.  Luckily, we know that a warp core overload will do a clean wipe of the ship."
Chase nodded and looked to his partner, "Affirmative, we'll see you in a few minutes Dagger."
Sofia pulled her AI from the terminal, glancing back at the two, "Alright, we have it.  Everything about their plans we could pull from the system is now duplicated onto the AI's systems.  Let's get out of here."
Chase walked over to one of the main computer banks, looking over the controls.  Everything needed to send the carrier to another destination was on this panel.  Now all Chase had to do was overload the core.
"Ronin, what are you doing?" Krystal asked, watching him carefully.
"We just got a new order from the captain." Chase replied, "Jennifer, I need a way to overload this ship's warp core."
"Checking now." Jennifer replied from within his armor.
"Overload the warp core?" Sofia asked, looking at Chase, "That'll cause a system wide failure, possibly destroying this vessel entirely!"
Chase nodded, "That's the plan.  We take down this carrier and the ground teams can better defend the colony in the confusion of losing it.  Once we set the core to overload, we'll have ten minutes to steal another transport and get out of here."
Before Krystal could reply to that Sofia cut her off, "So we'll be out of here in five.  I'll unlock all corridors leading to the hangar from the elevator we took to get up here.  The alarm should send most of the remaining Sev`fel scrambling for their escape pods."
"Makes it easier for us to get out of here at least." Krystal sighed.
As Jennifer instructed him, Chase set the warp core to overload itself.  The fox had seen what a warp core overload could do to a small interceptor like the Phoenix, having been in a minor overload himself before the team's first mission against the Sev`fel.  But Chase had never witnessed a carrier warp core overload before, let alone set one to do it himself.  He knew that the warp core to move a carrier was massive, almost twice the size of his Phoenix interceptor, outputting enough energy to shift the carrier between locations through a warp tunnel.  Unleashing that sort of power into a destructive blast from inside the carrier...Chase thought it best to watch and see what happened for himself.
As Chase worked, Sofia walked over to a security terminal, unlocking the corridors between them and their target, as well as taking out any security measures between them.  Across the carrier automated turrets shut themselves down as security doors unlocked and opened, the only doors locking down being those leading to the path the team was going to take out.
Krystal kept watch, making sure no one interrupted Chase and Sofia as they worked.  She knew that the destruction of the carrier would ensure victory below, saving hundreds of colonist lives.  But the method was one she was unsure of.  She knew that destabilizing the amount of energy within a warp core was always unpredictable, especially with the larger ones.  The vixen only hoped her partner and Sofia knew what they were doing enough to keep them safe until they escaped.
"Alright, ready team?" Chase asked, his finger poised over the final key to overloading the core.
"Our path is clear." Sofia stated, "We've got a straight shot from the elevator to the hangar."
"I'm ready to leave as well." Krystal nodded.
Chase nodded and pressed the final button.  As he did, the alarm sounded again!  The wailing cry pierced the air, the klaxon siren sounding as a computerized tone spoke much calmer than the situation called for.
"Warp core systems engaged, energy levels rising to critical levels." The voice stated as the team ran to elevator they had rode up on, "Please shut down warp core before overload occurs."
Krystal placed an EMP grenade by the bridge doors, "Clear!"
The EMP grenade flashed as it detonated, the door controls sparking as the grenade overloaded the door, locking to down for good.  Once the door was disabled, the team proceeded to the elevator, boarding it and checking their weapons in case of a fight.
Chase smirked to himself as the elevator descended to the hanger bay level.  He glanced to Krystal and Sofia; the two looking back at him as the elevator slowly fell through the levels of the carrier.  They all knew the mission was not over yet, but soon it would be.  With the loss of the carrier, the Sev`fel ground forces would be easier for the teams and colonial security to retake the colony and repel the robotic units.
When the elevator doors opened again, Chase took off down the hallway at a run, Krystal and Sofia close behind him.  As they moved, Chase noticed that no one was trying to stop them, despite the alarm wailing.  The fox checked a corridor before darting down it, Sofia giving him directions back to the hangar.
"Warp core at critical levels.  Overload estimated at eight minutes and counting." The computerized voice stated calmly, "Please abort warp."
"Just keep going!" Chase shouted over the wailing alarm, "We'll be out before that!"
Krystal nodded, following him with Sofia as they ran towards the hangar.  The vixen was glad that she had disabled the door to the bridge, knowing that it would take too much time to open the door, let alone abort the warp core's overload sequence once the Sev`fel had managed to get through.
*           *          *
As the minutes passed Chase, Krystal, and Sofia had reached the hangar.  As Krystal and Sofia took cover around the door, Chase worked to open it.
"Really rethinking your decision to shoot that panel, huh?" Sofia asked almost playfully.
"You're not helping." Chase replied as he tried to rewire the panel.
Sofia rolled her eyes and pushed Chase aside, "Let me in there Ronin."
The dove quickly worked with the wires as Chase watched, soon having the panel rewired.  As she activated it, the door slid open.  Krystal entered first, taking cover as Chase and Sofia followed suite.  The hangar was on full alert, Sev`fel already boarding evacuation transports as others left the protective hangar before the core overloaded.
"Warp core overload in six minutes." The computerized voice stated, "Please shut down main warp core reactor."
Chase looked around for a transport they could use.  Most were being guarded by Reaper units, the robots being much more expendable than the Sev`fel crewmen.
"Looks like it won't be a clean escape either." Chase stated.
Sofia nodded, "It rarely is.  We'll hit the closest transport and use it to escape."
Krystal took aim at one of the Reapers, her rifle sights right on its head.  The vixen waited for Chase to signal her to fire, knowing the shots would get attention immediately.  Chase nodded once he had his pistols trained on another Reaper.  With that, Krystal squeezed the trigger.
The wailing alarm did nothing to cover the sounds of gunfire as Krystal and Chase opened fire.  The two Reapers went down, but the rest were alerted to the intruders presence, opening fire towards the three as Sofia and Krystal returned fire, Chase moving up towards the transport to secure it.  As he over, Krystal moved back to his cover, firing around the pillar towards the Reaper units.
"Keep him covered!" Krystal ordered.
Sofia nodded and kept firing, her pistols blazing as Krystal took down another Reaper.  But soon, the remaining Sev`fel crewmen were joining in the fight, firing from whatever cover they could find, even getting out of the transports to kill the intruders.
Chase stepped onto the ramp of one of the drop ships, opening fire without hesitation, despite the bullets flying past him as the fox dropped the Sev`fel inside the transport.  The stun rounds paralyzed the Sev`fel inside before any of them could draw their weapons.  Once he had cleared the transport, Chase called to Krystal and Sofia.
"Epsilon take the cockpit, get this thing flying!" Chase ordered.
Sofia nodded and moved to the cockpit, pulling the door open and shooting the pilots, dragging their paralyzed bodies to the cabin.  Krystal stayed near the ramp, firing out at the Sev`fel crew and Reapers to keep them covered.  As she did, Krystal felt a sudden jolt under her feet.  The vixen stepped back as the ramp to the drop ship began to rise, still returning fire as the Sev`fel pummeled the hull with gunfire.
Once the ramp was half way up, a greenish glow surged over the drop ship, coating it in a reactive shield.  The bullets pinged off the shield, the protective energy countering them as Krystal fell back into the cabin of the craft.  Chase was already strapping in as the vixen took a seat beside him, pulling down a harness over her chest as she noticed the unconscious Sev`fel were all strapped in.
"They may still be our enemy," Chase said when he noticed her looking at them, "but I figure we get them back in one piece and we might get a little bonus and some more information."
Krystal nodded, agreeing with Chase.  The vixen watched as the ramp finally sealed shut, the cabin pressurizing as Sofia looked back from the cockpit.
"Four minutes until that core goes up!" Sofia shouted to them, "Shall we do a little damage before we leave?"
"This transport has weapons?" Chase asked in surprise.
Sofia nodded, "Yeah, twin pulse cannons.  Won't do a lot to this carrier, but it will do some nasty damage to some of their transports."
Chase shook his head, "No time for any real damage.  Let's bail before things get worse."
Sofia nodded and set the thrusters, the engines roaring to life as the alarm continued to wail, the Sev`fel having abandoned their attempts to penetrate the shields with regular arms fire.  As the drop ship lifted up off the floor of the hangar, Sofia turned it towards the open bay doors, gunning the engines.  The drop ship raced across the floor before entering the vacuum of space.  Chase looked back, seeing other drop ships evacuating the carrier as Sofia clocked the core's overload progress.
"I guess it's too far gone to disable the overload now." Krystal noted.
Sofia nodded, "Yeah, easier just to lose the carrier than to try to save it at this point.  We've taken it down and on our way home.  I'll open a channel back to Dagger."
Chase nodded, "Sounds good.  Can we see the explosion before we go though?"
Krystal glanced at him as Chase smirked to her, "I'm a guy, Ronin-2.  I love a good explosion."
Sofia giggled softly, "Boys will be boys, Ronin-2."
Krystal couldn't help but smile, "Yeah, I know."
Sofia turned the craft towards the carrier, keeping the drop ship outside what she expected to be the blast radius.  As Krystal and Chase joined her in the cockpit, the three watched as drop ships left the hangar of the carrier, escape pods erupting from all levels of the carrier near the bow of the vessel, the orange bursts headed towards the planet as the Sev`fel evacuated.
"Should we go after those escape pods?" Chase asked.
Sofia shook her head, "No, we'll leave them to the ground teams to deal with.  Our job is done.  We cannot risk the information we've obtained from the carrier just to go after some Sev`fel crewmen.  If we need to help the colony or the ground forces any more, we'll get those orders.  But, right now, whatever these plans are is much more important."
Krystal glanced towards the corporation carrier in the distance, the large vessel in a stationary orbit over the colony.  Even though Dagger was a small carrier compared to most of the corporation's mercenary fleet, the carrier held more than enough firepower and transports to keep the ground troops supplied with reinforcements and supplies, as well as orbital precision strikes.  With that in mind, Krystal looked back to the boomerang-shaped Sev`fel carrier.
Sofia checked her watch, watching as the minute counter clicked down, counting down the seconds until the warp core overloaded and exploded.
*           *          *
Aboard the Sev`fel carrier, the captain was finally able to move.  The paralysis was slowly wearing off, finally allowing the reptilian creature to try to get to his feet.  The first thing he noticed was that the bridge was empty, then the flashing lights and wailing alarm.  The captain groaned softly as he grabbed a terminal to support himself, the stun rounds not entirely having worn off.  The captain glanced down art the terminal realizing that it too was flashing red, a counter rapidly dropping down in seconds.
As it flashed, a computerized voice stated, "One minute until warp core overload.  All attempted fail-safes have failed; overload cannot be halted at this point.  Please evacuate to minimum safe distance before catastrophic system failure occurs."
Realizing what was happening, the captain dashed for the door, his hand slamming down on the panel to open it.  The door failed to respond, the circuits having shorted out after Krystal had set off an EMP on the other side to prevent anyone from stopping the core's overload.  His heart pounded as he realized he was going down with his vessel.  With that, the captain checked the terminal, the timer down to thirty seconds and counting…
Deep inside the carrier, the warp core was destabilizing.  The energy building up inside was no longer able to be contained, bolts of plasma and pure energy escaped from weak spots in the core's design, the leaking radiation increasing dramatically as the lead lined housing failed as heat built up within it.  Ribbons of energy sparked through the housing, escaping into the rest of the carrier as the core failed altogether, small explosions from the failed security rocking the outer shell of the warp core, the building energy inside unable to be contained any longer!  Flashes of energy erupted from the core, breaking through it's casing with several small explosions before the core erupted in a final, bright explosion.
*           *          *
Small explosions ripped through the hull of the carrier as the final transports left it.  Several larger explosions tore up through the hull, the force of the detonation of energy catching one of the transports in the blast, throwing it violently off course and into a transport close to it, both of the crafts detonating into fireballs before quickly dispersing, leaving the wreckage to float aimlessly towards the planet below.  As the explosions continued to ripple up through the carrier, one final explosion blossomed from the rear of the ship where the warp core was housed.  The explosion tore through the entire back half of the carrier, the energy arcing out from the carrier into the vacuum of space as the detonation died away; the carrier broke in half, slowly plummeting down towards the planet below as the smaller transports fled, most of them activating their own smaller cores to flee to the nearest Sev`fel outpost.
As the team watched this, Chase couldn't help but feel a small sense of accomplishment.  Not only had the team been able to capture intel on the Sev`fel's plans but had also taken down a Sev`fel carrier.  The fox smiled to himself, glad to have taken out at least one carrier, although he knew there were probably hundreds more.
Chase glanced to Krystal, who had turned away.  With a gentle sigh, the fox placed a hand on her shoulder.  Krystal glanced up at him, her emerald eyes holding a sadness her mind was trying desperately not to let show.  Chase knew what it was for, gently giving her a light, sideways hug.
Krystal smiled a little, feeling better knowing she could talk to Chase about it once they were back on Dagger.  Although she knew why they had to do what they did, knowing that she had taken lives was never an easy thing to deal with for the vixen.  But, she also knew that Chase would be more than happy to listen to her and help her deal with what had been done.
Chase nodded to the cabin and Krystal nodded in return, walking back to the cabin to make sure none of the Sev`fel onboard the transport caused trouble.
Sofia glanced back at him, "You care about her, don't you?"
"Well, she is my partner." Chase replied.
"I meant that you care for her as in more than a partner." Sofia clarified, emphasizing the word 'care' as she spoke.
Chase felt his cheeks warm slightly at that.  While he did care for Krystal much more than as a partner, he had always felt that they could not be closer than they already were as best friends and partners.
"Let's not discuss that." Chase said quickly, wanting to change the subject, "What about what I asked you earlier?  About why you would settle to be Hiigan's assistant and not a mercenary.  I mean, you clearly have the skills to be one of the best."
Sofia gunned the transports thrusters, rotating the craft to head back to Dagger before guiding it on it's course, "I guess you've earned that answer.  I'm just not the mercenary type.  Sure, I've had the training and I do well in the field, but I never quite passed the licensing examinations, especially when the board was reviewing my examinations.  So it is sort of rare that I'm actually allowed to do this sort of work in the field instead of just assisting Hiigan or guarding him when he goes to a location."
Chase nodded, "So it's just a matter of the license?"
"I guess you could say that, yes." Sofia confirmed, "But I've also grown to enjoy my job with Hiigan.  Now you'd better go help Ronin-2 keep an eye on our prisoners."
Chase nodded and walked back into the cabin as Sofia hailed Dagger for landing confirmation.
*           *          *
Hours after the operation, Chase and Krystal walked into the room where they had been briefed by Hiigan.  Krystal walked to the window, looking down on the planet below them.  As she did, the vixen gave a light sigh, her mind still heavy with the loss of the lives of those who had not escaped the carrier in time.
Chase stayed back a bit from Krystal, giving her some room to think before walking over and placing a hand on her shoulder.  The vixen looked up at him before silently nodding, knowing what he was going to say.  Once again, no words were needed between the two to express what they were thinking.
The opening of the door behind them interrupted their thoughts as the two looked up to see a human walk in.
"We are currently in the process of decrypting the data my assistant and you two retrieved from the Sev`fel carrier." Hiigan stated without emotion, "Therefore, I will be filing this mission as a success."
"What about the colony?" Krystal asked.
Hiigan simply nodded, "The ground teams held off the Sev`fel as long as they could.  Luckily, the operation was a complete success.  The colony is free of the Sev`fel and we managed to capture quite a few of the transports and escape pods that landed within our jurisdiction of the colony and outlying territories."
"So all's well that ends well, huh?" Chase asked.
Hiigan looked at Chase, the human's eyes narrowing slightly, "If this data is what we predict it will be, I cannot say that is the case."
Chase folded his arms, "And that means…what, exactly?"
"It means that if what we believe is true and this data is able to prove our beliefs, a war is brewing once more." Hiigan stated.
"A war?" Krystal asked, disbelief in her voice.
Hiigan nodded, "Do not dwell on it now, though.  Until we are able to decrypt the data, our suspicions are not valid, merely speculation based on the Sev`fel's past actions."
"So you're just guessing, really." Chase summarized.
Hiigan nodded, "Indeed we are for now.  Dismissed."
Chase and Krystal nodded, walking out of the room.  As they did, Hiigan sat down behind the table, his fingers folding into a pyramid as the human remembered the war thirty years ago.  He prayed that he was wrong and that the data would not verify his beliefs that the Sev`fel were rebuilding for war.

Description
Krystal and Chase: Deep Darkness
Part Four: Overload

"According to the AI, This should be it just up ahead." Sofia stated as the team carefully made their way towards the bridge.
"Let's hope so." Chase replied, "Can't wait to get back down the help the colony.  Sneaking around a warship isn't my style of combat."
Krystal nodded in agreement as she kept an eye on their flanks, making sure that more Reaper units did not sneak up on them.
Chase glanced at her, noticing that Krystal cringed every couple of steps.  But the vixen kept quiet, refusing to let even a whimper of pain escape her lips from the pain still clawing at her insides from the interrogation.
Chase sighed, "You alright Ronin-2?"
Krystal nodded, "I will be, don't worry about me."
Chase nodded and continued to follow Sofia, who was peeking around a corner into another hallway.
"Ok, we've got a problem." Sofia stated, "According to your AI, the bridge is just past a doorway at the end of this hallway."
"So what's the problem?" Chase asked, already knowing he would not like the answer.
Sofia nodded for him to take a look for himself.  Chase peeked around the corner carefully, seeing exactly what Sofia was saying was the problem.
Above the doorway was a large, quad-barreled gun turret.  The weapon was scanning the hallway in front of the doorway, swinging slowly back and forth.  The energy tanks feeding the weapon its energy strapped to its sides.
"Alright, so we have to get by that thing." Chase said as he pulled back around the corner before the weapon could target him, "Just toss out an EMP grenade and we can move on."
Sofia shook her head, "No good, we could fry the door.  We need a better way to take it out or disable it without taking out the door as well."
Krystal took a peek around the corner as well, seeing what they were talking about, "What if we shot the energy tanks and just blew it up?"
Chase smiled, "Ronin-2, that might work.  The ensuing explosion might blow open the doors too."
Sofia shook her head in doubt, "That's highly unlikely Ronin.  There's the probability of a failsafe locking down the doors after the turret is destroyed.  Plus that would draw every available unit on the warship to this location."
Krystal thought for a second, then snapped her fingers, "If it's on the Sev`fel's networks, is there a possibility of Jennifer being able to hack the turret and shutting it down remotely?"
Chase heard a 'ping' in his ear as Jennifer popped up on his HUD.
"I might be able to hack the turret remotely, but I will need time to do so." The AI stated calmly, "After all, I must not be detected."
Chase relayed what Jennifer had said.  Sofia nodded for her to go ahead with the hack.
As Jennifer went to work using Chase's armor systems to initiate the required connections, the team held back from entering the turret's line of fire.  As they waited, Krystal took the time to rest against the wall, curling up against it a bit to help ease the pain, which was still working through her.  As she did, the pain started to retreat from her gut before starting to fading away slowly.  But the pain was not what was on Krystal's mind.
Although she was not going to say it, Krystal was afraid of what could have happened to her had the alarm not stopped the Sev`fel captain from further 'interrogating' her.  She knew that the captain had seen her as expendable, simply keeping her alive to see how long it would be before she broke or was finally stubborn enough to simply dispose of.  Now that she was out of the immediate danger, Krystal closed her eyes, her fear of death returning to her before she could push it away again.
As this was going through Krystal's mind, Chase glanced down at her, realizing there was something the vixen had not told them but was currently going through.  Chase patted her shoulder, the vixen looking up at him as he did.  Chase smiled gently, not having to say anything to reassure his partner, offering his other hand to help her up.
Both of them knew what the other would say, making their words unneeded as Krystal took his hand, allowing Chase to help the vixen back onto her feet.  Krystal smiled as Chase smiled back to her, their eyes meeting for a brief moment before a 'Ping!' interrupted them.
"I have access to the turret controls and have disabled it without alerting the Sev`fel." Jennifer stated, "You are clear to breach the door."
"Alright let's do this." Chase replied, "Epsilon, get that door open.  Ronin-2, cover her."
Both girls nodded in reply before Sofia took a tender step around the corner, fully expecting the turret to open fire.  To her pleasant surprise, the turret was hanging in its cradle above the door, no longer scanning the hallway.  As she went to work hacking the door, Krystal took up a position beside the door, cocking her rifle as she readied herself to breach the room.  Chase took up the position in the hallway, keeping one of his pistols trained on the door as he took a grenade out of his pouch.
Sofia moved beside the door as the steel doors opened.  As they did, Chase tossed in the grenade, it bouncing twice inside the room before detonating, a blinding flash filling the bridge as the explosion deafened anyone within its range!  The Sev`fel inside held their ears and eyes after the flash-bang had detonated.
Krystal and Sofia pulled around the door, opening fire quickly to stun the Sev`fel on the bridge.  Chase joined them after the two had taken down several Sev`fel crewmen, the fox's pistols blazing as he opened fire as well.  Sev`fel fell out of their chairs as the high velocity stun rounds paralyzed their bodies.  The few that had been standing when the flash-bang had gone off fell immediately as the team took them down, each of them taking cover wherever available before the remaining few Sev`fel could regain their senses.
But as they did, the Sev`fel that remained tried to draw their own weapons.  As they did, Chase fired first, taking down the Sev`fel closest to them as Krystal and Sofia opened fire after reloading, taking down the rest of the crew before any of them could return fire.
"Clear!" Sofia called.
"Clear." Chase confirmed, standing up from his cover behind a terminal, "Let's get that data and get the hell out of here."
As Sofia walked up to a terminal, Krystal examined the many Sev`fel they have stunned, Chase keeping his pistols trained on each one until she verified the hit.  But as she examined the Sev`fel, Krystal noticed something wrong.
"The captain is missing." Krystal stated, a bit of worry in her voice.
Chase glanced around at the bodies of the paralyzed Sev`fel crewmen, "You sure?  I'm pretty sure we hit everyone on the bridge."
Sofia was inserting her AI into a terminal she had found when a shot suddenly rang out from behind the team!  A bullet grazed the dove's shoulder, her armor's shield system shorting out and failing as Sofia spun from the force of the bullet clipping her armor, catching herself before she fell.  The dove's handguns were up quickly as Chase and Krystal took aim at the shooter.
Smoke wafted from the barrel of a handgun as the reptilian creature who fired the shot stepped forward into the bridge.  It was smirking as it pointed the handgun at Sofia.
"Well, I must say I am surprised to see you still alive, fox." The Sev`fel captain stated calmly to Krystal, "And you've even reunited with your pathetic little team.  Too bad I have to kill you all now."
As he fired, Sofia moved, dodging the shot just barely, the bullet grazing her armor, leaving a deep scratch across her shoulder as the bullet scraped against it.  Sofia returned fire as she moved, her handguns blazing as she moved.  The Sev`fel moved as well, taking cover behind a panel as Sofia fired, the dove taking cover behind another terminal.
"Don't just stand there, Ronins!" Sofia called from behind her cover, "Take him down!"
Chase nodded and glanced to Krystal.  The vixen nodded, knowing what was on his mind for a plan.  Chase sprinted to the side, giving Sofia plenty of room to keep the Sev`fel captain pinned down.  Krystal followed his lead, moving to keep up with the fox as he took cover across from the Sev`fel captain.  But before Krystal could make it into cover, the captain noticed them and opened fire!  His bullet clipped Krystal's side as the vixen ducked behind a computer bank, her shield flickering and failing all together as she blind fired around the side of the terminal.  Krystal's bullets missed the Sev`fel captain, but slammed against the terminal he was taking cover behind, Sofia keeping his head down with accurate shots just over the top of his head.
As the two kept the captain's attention, Chase moved closer, taking careful aim as Sofia and Krystal kept the captain pinned.  The reptilian creature noticed Chase, turning to fire on the fox.  As he did, Chase's finger squeezed the trigger, the barrel bolting upwards as the round left it in a blazing flash.  The round slammed against the Sev`fel captain's chest, dispersing it's energy through the reptilian creature's body in a flash.
The captain spun once; hitting the floor as Chase unloaded a second round to be sure he was down, the second stun round clipping the captain's shoulder, sending it's energy through his body once more.  The Sev'fel lay still as Sofia stood up, walking back over to the terminal to continue to extract the data.
Chase walked over to the main control for the carrier, looking them over as a beep sounded in his ear.
The fox touched his com link, "Ronin-1 here."
"Copy that Ronin-1, this is Dagger.  We have a new order for you straight from command." The voice replied, Chase noting it as Captain Raye's voice, "And not a pretty one."
"Go ahead." Chase stated.
"Once you extract the data, we cannot leave a trace that we have the information." The captain stated, "After an extensive scan of the carrier's systems thanks to your AI's infiltration, we have determined that the cleanest way to end this situation this is to overload the carrier's warp core system.  Destroying the carrier itself should cause a delay long enough for the ground forces to gain an upper hand in the confusion."
Chase simply nodded, understanding the repercussions of leaving the Sev`fel knowing that they had taken the information.  Plus there was the advantage of taking out the carrier altogether from the inside.
"How long will we have to get out?" Chase asked.
"Long enough." Captain Raye replied, "Steal a transport again and get out.  The warp core should overload within ten minutes of being set to do so.  Luckily, we know that a warp core overload will do a clean wipe of the ship."
Chase nodded and looked to his partner, "Affirmative, we'll see you in a few minutes Dagger."
Sofia pulled her AI from the terminal, glancing back at the two, "Alright, we have it.  Everything about their plans we could pull from the system is now duplicated onto the AI's systems.  Let's get out of here."
Chase walked over to one of the main computer banks, looking over the controls.  Everything needed to send the carrier to another destination was on this panel.  Now all Chase had to do was overload the core.
"Ronin, what are you doing?" Krystal asked, watching him carefully.
"We just got a new order from the captain." Chase replied, "Jennifer, I need a way to overload this ship's warp core."
"Checking now." Jennifer replied from within his armor.
"Overload the warp core?" Sofia asked, looking at Chase, "That'll cause a system wide failure, possibly destroying this vessel entirely!"
Chase nodded, "That's the plan.  We take down this carrier and the ground teams can better defend the colony in the confusion of losing it.  Once we set the core to overload, we'll have ten minutes to steal another transport and get out of here."
Before Krystal could reply to that Sofia cut her off, "So we'll be out of here in five.  I'll unlock all corridors leading to the hangar from the elevator we took to get up here.  The alarm should send most of the remaining Sev`fel scrambling for their escape pods."
"Makes it easier for us to get out of here at least." Krystal sighed.
As Jennifer instructed him, Chase set the warp core to overload itself.  The fox had seen what a warp core overload could do to a small interceptor like the Phoenix, having been in a minor overload himself before the team's first mission against the Sev`fel.  But Chase had never witnessed a carrier warp core overload before, let alone set one to do it himself.  He knew that the warp core to move a carrier was massive, almost twice the size of his Phoenix interceptor, outputting enough energy to shift the carrier between locations through a warp tunnel.  Unleashing that sort of power into a destructive blast from inside the carrier...Chase thought it best to watch and see what happened for himself.
As Chase worked, Sofia walked over to a security terminal, unlocking the corridors between them and their target, as well as taking out any security measures between them.  Across the carrier automated turrets shut themselves down as security doors unlocked and opened, the only doors locking down being those leading to the path the team was going to take out.
Krystal kept watch, making sure no one interrupted Chase and Sofia as they worked.  She knew that the destruction of the carrier would ensure victory below, saving hundreds of colonist lives.  But the method was one she was unsure of.  She knew that destabilizing the amount of energy within a warp core was always unpredictable, especially with the larger ones.  The vixen only hoped her partner and Sofia knew what they were doing enough to keep them safe until they escaped.
"Alright, ready team?" Chase asked, his finger poised over the final key to overloading the core.
"Our path is clear." Sofia stated, "We've got a straight shot from the elevator to the hangar."
"I'm ready to leave as well." Krystal nodded.
Chase nodded and pressed the final button.  As he did, the alarm sounded again!  The wailing cry pierced the air, the klaxon siren sounding as a computerized tone spoke much calmer than the situation called for.
"Warp core systems engaged, energy levels rising to critical levels." The voice stated as the team ran to elevator they had rode up on, "Please shut down warp core before overload occurs."
Krystal placed an EMP grenade by the bridge doors, "Clear!"
The EMP grenade flashed as it detonated, the door controls sparking as the grenade overloaded the door, locking to down for good.  Once the door was disabled, the team proceeded to the elevator, boarding it and checking their weapons in case of a fight.
Chase smirked to himself as the elevator descended to the hanger bay level.  He glanced to Krystal and Sofia; the two looking back at him as the elevator slowly fell through the levels of the carrier.  They all knew the mission was not over yet, but soon it would be.  With the loss of the carrier, the Sev`fel ground forces would be easier for the teams and colonial security to retake the colony and repel the robotic units.
When the elevator doors opened again, Chase took off down the hallway at a run, Krystal and Sofia close behind him.  As they moved, Chase noticed that no one was trying to stop them, despite the alarm wailing.  The fox checked a corridor before darting down it, Sofia giving him directions back to the hangar.
"Warp core at critical levels.  Overload estimated at eight minutes and counting." The computerized voice stated calmly, "Please abort warp."
"Just keep going!" Chase shouted over the wailing alarm, "We'll be out before that!"
Krystal nodded, following him with Sofia as they ran towards the hangar.  The vixen was glad that she had disabled the door to the bridge, knowing that it would take too much time to open the door, let alone abort the warp core's overload sequence once the Sev`fel had managed to get through.
*           *          *
As the minutes passed Chase, Krystal, and Sofia had reached the hangar.  As Krystal and Sofia took cover around the door, Chase worked to open it.
"Really rethinking your decision to shoot that panel, huh?" Sofia asked almost playfully.
"You're not helping." Chase replied as he tried to rewire the panel.
Sofia rolled her eyes and pushed Chase aside, "Let me in there Ronin."
The dove quickly worked with the wires as Chase watched, soon having the panel rewired.  As she activated it, the door slid open.  Krystal entered first, taking cover as Chase and Sofia followed suite.  The hangar was on full alert, Sev`fel already boarding evacuation transports as others left the protective hangar before the core overloaded.
"Warp core overload in six minutes." The computerized voice stated, "Please shut down main warp core reactor."
Chase looked around for a transport they could use.  Most were being guarded by Reaper units, the robots being much more expendable than the Sev`fel crewmen.
"Looks like it won't be a clean escape either." Chase stated.
Sofia nodded, "It rarely is.  We'll hit the closest transport and use it to escape."
Krystal took aim at one of the Reapers, her rifle sights right on its head.  The vixen waited for Chase to signal her to fire, knowing the shots would get attention immediately.  Chase nodded once he had his pistols trained on another Reaper.  With that, Krystal squeezed the trigger.
The wailing alarm did nothing to cover the sounds of gunfire as Krystal and Chase opened fire.  The two Reapers went down, but the rest were alerted to the intruders presence, opening fire towards the three as Sofia and Krystal returned fire, Chase moving up towards the transport to secure it.  As he over, Krystal moved back to his cover, firing around the pillar towards the Reaper units.
"Keep him covered!" Krystal ordered.
Sofia nodded and kept firing, her pistols blazing as Krystal took down another Reaper.  But soon, the remaining Sev`fel crewmen were joining in the fight, firing from whatever cover they could find, even getting out of the transports to kill the intruders.
Chase stepped onto the ramp of one of the drop ships, opening fire without hesitation, despite the bullets flying past him as the fox dropped the Sev`fel inside the transport.  The stun rounds paralyzed the Sev`fel inside before any of them could draw their weapons.  Once he had cleared the transport, Chase called to Krystal and Sofia.
"Epsilon take the cockpit, get this thing flying!" Chase ordered.
Sofia nodded and moved to the cockpit, pulling the door open and shooting the pilots, dragging their paralyzed bodies to the cabin.  Krystal stayed near the ramp, firing out at the Sev`fel crew and Reapers to keep them covered.  As she did, Krystal felt a sudden jolt under her feet.  The vixen stepped back as the ramp to the drop ship began to rise, still returning fire as the Sev`fel pummeled the hull with gunfire.
Once the ramp was half way up, a greenish glow surged over the drop ship, coating it in a reactive shield.  The bullets pinged off the shield, the protective energy countering them as Krystal fell back into the cabin of the craft.  Chase was already strapping in as the vixen took a seat beside him, pulling down a harness over her chest as she noticed the unconscious Sev`fel were all strapped in.
"They may still be our enemy," Chase said when he noticed her looking at them, "but I figure we get them back in one piece and we might get a little bonus and some more information."
Krystal nodded, agreeing with Chase.  The vixen watched as the ramp finally sealed shut, the cabin pressurizing as Sofia looked back from the cockpit.
"Four minutes until that core goes up!" Sofia shouted to them, "Shall we do a little damage before we leave?"
"This transport has weapons?" Chase asked in surprise.
Sofia nodded, "Yeah, twin pulse cannons.  Won't do a lot to this carrier, but it will do some nasty damage to some of their transports."
Chase shook his head, "No time for any real damage.  Let's bail before things get worse."
Sofia nodded and set the thrusters, the engines roaring to life as the alarm continued to wail, the Sev`fel having abandoned their attempts to penetrate the shields with regular arms fire.  As the drop ship lifted up off the floor of the hangar, Sofia turned it towards the open bay doors, gunning the engines.  The drop ship raced across the floor before entering the vacuum of space.  Chase looked back, seeing other drop ships evacuating the carrier as Sofia clocked the core's overload progress.
"I guess it's too far gone to disable the overload now." Krystal noted.
Sofia nodded, "Yeah, easier just to lose the carrier than to try to save it at this point.  We've taken it down and on our way home.  I'll open a channel back to Dagger."
Chase nodded, "Sounds good.  Can we see the explosion before we go though?"
Krystal glanced at him as Chase smirked to her, "I'm a guy, Ronin-2.  I love a good explosion."
Sofia giggled softly, "Boys will be boys, Ronin-2."
Krystal couldn't help but smile, "Yeah, I know."
Sofia turned the craft towards the carrier, keeping the drop ship outside what she expected to be the blast radius.  As Krystal and Chase joined her in the cockpit, the three watched as drop ships left the hangar of the carrier, escape pods erupting from all levels of the carrier near the bow of the vessel, the orange bursts headed towards the planet as the Sev`fel evacuated.
"Should we go after those escape pods?" Chase asked.
Sofia shook her head, "No, we'll leave them to the ground teams to deal with.  Our job is done.  We cannot risk the information we've obtained from the carrier just to go after some Sev`fel crewmen.  If we need to help the colony or the ground forces any more, we'll get those orders.  But, right now, whatever these plans are is much more important."
Krystal glanced towards the corporation carrier in the distance, the large vessel in a stationary orbit over the colony.  Even though Dagger was a small carrier compared to most of the corporation's mercenary fleet, the carrier held more than enough firepower and transports to keep the ground troops supplied with reinforcements and supplies, as well as orbital precision strikes.  With that in mind, Krystal looked back to the boomerang-shaped Sev`fel carrier.
Sofia checked her watch, watching as the minute counter clicked down, counting down the seconds until the warp core overloaded and exploded.
*           *          *
Aboard the Sev`fel carrier, the captain was finally able to move.  The paralysis was slowly wearing off, finally allowing the reptilian creature to try to get to his feet.  The first thing he noticed was that the bridge was empty, then the flashing lights and wailing alarm.  The captain groaned softly as he grabbed a terminal to support himself, the stun rounds not entirely having worn off.  The captain glanced down art the terminal realizing that it too was flashing red, a counter rapidly dropping down in seconds.
As it flashed, a computerized voice stated, "One minute until warp core overload.  All attempted fail-safes have failed; overload cannot be halted at this point.  Please evacuate to minimum safe distance before catastrophic system failure occurs."
Realizing what was happening, the captain dashed for the door, his hand slamming down on the panel to open it.  The door failed to respond, the circuits having shorted out after Krystal had set off an EMP on the other side to prevent anyone from stopping the core's overload.  His heart pounded as he realized he was going down with his vessel.  With that, the captain checked the terminal, the timer down to thirty seconds and counting…
Deep inside the carrier, the warp core was destabilizing.  The energy building up inside was no longer able to be contained, bolts of plasma and pure energy escaped from weak spots in the core's design, the leaking radiation increasing dramatically as the lead lined housing failed as heat built up within it.  Ribbons of energy sparked through the housing, escaping into the rest of the carrier as the core failed altogether, small explosions from the failed security rocking the outer shell of the warp core, the building energy inside unable to be contained any longer!  Flashes of energy erupted from the core, breaking through it's casing with several small explosions before the core erupted in a final, bright explosion.
*           *          *
Small explosions ripped through the hull of the carrier as the final transports left it.  Several larger explosions tore up through the hull, the force of the detonation of energy catching one of the transports in the blast, throwing it violently off course and into a transport close to it, both of the crafts detonating into fireballs before quickly dispersing, leaving the wreckage to float aimlessly towards the planet below.  As the explosions continued to ripple up through the carrier, one final explosion blossomed from the rear of the ship where the warp core was housed.  The explosion tore through the entire back half of the carrier, the energy arcing out from the carrier into the vacuum of space as the detonation died away; the carrier broke in half, slowly plummeting down towards the planet below as the smaller transports fled, most of them activating their own smaller cores to flee to the nearest Sev`fel outpost.
As the team watched this, Chase couldn't help but feel a small sense of accomplishment.  Not only had the team been able to capture intel on the Sev`fel's plans but had also taken down a Sev`fel carrier.  The fox smiled to himself, glad to have taken out at least one carrier, although he knew there were probably hundreds more.
Chase glanced to Krystal, who had turned away.  With a gentle sigh, the fox placed a hand on her shoulder.  Krystal glanced up at him, her emerald eyes holding a sadness her mind was trying desperately not to let show.  Chase knew what it was for, gently giving her a light, sideways hug.
Krystal smiled a little, feeling better knowing she could talk to Chase about it once they were back on Dagger.  Although she knew why they had to do what they did, knowing that she had taken lives was never an easy thing to deal with for the vixen.  But, she also knew that Chase would be more than happy to listen to her and help her deal with what had been done.
Chase nodded to the cabin and Krystal nodded in return, walking back to the cabin to make sure none of the Sev`fel onboard the transport caused trouble.
Sofia glanced back at him, "You care about her, don't you?"
"Well, she is my partner." Chase replied.
"I meant that you care for her as in more than a partner." Sofia clarified, emphasizing the word 'care' as she spoke.
Chase felt his cheeks warm slightly at that.  While he did care for Krystal much more than as a partner, he had always felt that they could not be closer than they already were as best friends and partners.
"Let's not discuss that." Chase said quickly, wanting to change the subject, "What about what I asked you earlier?  About why you would settle to be Hiigan's assistant and not a mercenary.  I mean, you clearly have the skills to be one of the best."
Sofia gunned the transports thrusters, rotating the craft to head back to Dagger before guiding it on it's course, "I guess you've earned that answer.  I'm just not the mercenary type.  Sure, I've had the training and I do well in the field, but I never quite passed the licensing examinations, especially when the board was reviewing my examinations.  So it is sort of rare that I'm actually allowed to do this sort of work in the field instead of just assisting Hiigan or guarding him when he goes to a location."
Chase nodded, "So it's just a matter of the license?"
"I guess you could say that, yes." Sofia confirmed, "But I've also grown to enjoy my job with Hiigan.  Now you'd better go help Ronin-2 keep an eye on our prisoners."
Chase nodded and walked back into the cabin as Sofia hailed Dagger for landing confirmation.
*           *          *
Hours after the operation, Chase and Krystal walked into the room where they had been briefed by Hiigan.  Krystal walked to the window, looking down on the planet below them.  As she did, the vixen gave a light sigh, her mind still heavy with the loss of the lives of those who had not escaped the carrier in time.
Chase stayed back a bit from Krystal, giving her some room to think before walking over and placing a hand on her shoulder.  The vixen looked up at him before silently nodding, knowing what he was going to say.  Once again, no words were needed between the two to express what they were thinking.
The opening of the door behind them interrupted their thoughts as the two looked up to see a human walk in.
"We are currently in the process of decrypting the data my assistant and you two retrieved from the Sev`fel carrier." Hiigan stated without emotion, "Therefore, I will be filing this mission as a success."
"What about the colony?" Krystal asked.
Hiigan simply nodded, "The ground teams held off the Sev`fel as long as they could.  Luckily, the operation was a complete success.  The colony is free of the Sev`fel and we managed to capture quite a few of the transports and escape pods that landed within our jurisdiction of the colony and outlying territories."
"So all's well that ends well, huh?" Chase asked.
Hiigan looked at Chase, the human's eyes narrowing slightly, "If this data is what we predict it will be, I cannot say that is the case."
Chase folded his arms, "And that means…what, exactly?"
"It means that if what we believe is true and this data is able to prove our beliefs, a war is brewing once more." Hiigan stated.
"A war?" Krystal asked, disbelief in her voice.
Hiigan nodded, "Do not dwell on it now, though.  Until we are able to decrypt the data, our suspicions are not valid, merely speculation based on the Sev`fel's past actions."
"So you're just guessing, really." Chase summarized.
Hiigan nodded, "Indeed we are for now.  Dismissed."
Chase and Krystal nodded, walking out of the room.  As they did, Hiigan sat down behind the table, his fingers folding into a pyramid as the human remembered the war thirty years ago.  He prayed that he was wrong and that the data would not verify his beliefs that the Sev`fel were rebuilding for war.