Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

[Xander]

Flynn hauled himself to his feet, supporting himself on a console as he looked out a window, ignoring them. He noticed the wreckage of a ship drifting close to them.

“What happened?”

“When the other pirate ships appeared the fighting started. You remember one of our ships was on a collision course with us? Shortly after you passed out it slammed straight into us. It almost cut this ship in two. Right now it’s lodged in this one.” There was a pause. “Flynn, it’s the Excellion.”

Flynn felt a chill run through him. Though it wasn’t a great ship, he had launched most of his recent missions from it. It pained him to hear this. “How is it? What about the rest of our fleet?”

“The Excellion may have taken heavy damage but it’s still in one piece. We received a burst transmission from them and they advised us most of the systems are intact and casualties were minimal. It’ll see service again one day but for now it’s no use to us. Everyone is being evacuated from it by one of our other ships as we speak.
From our original four we’re now down to three. Considering we were outnumbered nine to four it’s a miracle if you ask me. We’ve been in touch with the others and have advised them we are proceeding as planned. We’ve managed to destroy all three of the pirates Palm class ships plus one Mota class ship. Shortly after that the fighting stopped. Must have been quite a surprise to them.”

Flynn looked away from the window and scanned the rest of the bridge as he spoke. “So what are we doing now? Are we still going to disable the rest of their fleet or what?” He could see the remaining soldiers milling about, some guarding the entrances, watching the ships in space or tending the wounded. A lot of those were his men. Dead.

Sergeant Merrick continued for the Captain. “We’re still set on disabling the enemy fleet, but we hit a snag with the crash. We’ve lost a lot of power and life support is minimal in most of the ship. But the good news is that most of the pirates fled the ship shortly after. There are still Cast on-board however, but most of them have also been withdrawn.”

Something dawned on Flynn and he turned to face them. “Wait. What happened to engineering? Where’s Matiel?”

The Captain spoke up again. “Sorry Sergeant. But that area of the ship has almost been completely destroyed by the crash. The system shows life support is gone and the area is venting atmosphere. Anyone in there would have died by now. I’m sorry.”

Flynn turned back to looking around the bridge, catching site of the technicians huddled around a set of control consoles, trying to figure something out. At a nearby console he could see Rika, absorbed in some other task. Noticing his attention she looked over at him and smiled before continuing with whatever she was doing.

“So how about that virus we were talking about? What stopped us from uploading it?”

“When the ship crashed it damaged the communications array. In order to get it working again we have to first get it back online in the mainframe, something, given the current state of the ship, we can only do from here. Once that’s done we have to go down to the main communication array and repair it before we can upload the virus.” He paused. “Thankfully we were able to retract the array back into the ship so repairs should be fairly straightforward.”

Flynn turned back to face the Captain. “Let me guess. Life support in that area of the ship is down and that’s what you’ve been trying to fix in these last two hours. Or were you just waiting for me to wake up? I’m no technician, you know?”

“Almost right Flynn. We’ve managed to get life support working again, though breathable air is minimal. We’re just waiting on getting the array link re-established with the mainframe.

Just then Rika chimed in. “Just a few more minutes Captain. We’re almost done here.” She moved over to one of the consoles manned by the technicians and began working again.

“Well then Sergeant Zedek. Since you’re up and about I’ll be sending you down to the array along with Rika, a couple of technicians and a couple of our soldiers. Our life sign scanners are offline. We can’t afford to take any chances with those Cast still on-board. Once you’re down there we’ll pump some oxygen into the room for you and seal the area off to stop any remaining pirates from getting in. Seeing how they don’t have any gear like us, we’ve provided the technicians with respirators so they can breathe in case the air runs out down there. The last one will remain here to monitor the system until you get back.”

At that moment Flynn was aware Rika was standing behind him. He turned to face her as she addressed the others.
“We’re all done here. The link with the array has been re-established. We just have to go down, fix it up and we can get it working again.”

The Captain spoke again. “Alright, time for you to go Sergeant. Get your gear and get ready.”

“Will do sir. Where exactly is the array located?”

“It’s not far from here.” Rika again. “I know my way around these ships like the back of my hand. I lost count of how many simulations I did. All we have to do is go up three decks via a maintenance shaft and it should be somewhere close by.”

“he Captain turned to face Flynn. “Get to it Sergeant. The sooner we get this done the sooner we get out of here.”

“Understood sir.” He turned to two of his soldiers and motioned for them to get ready. The two technicians who would be coming along joined them, checking they had all the equipment they needed. Rika retrieved her helmet from a nearby console and put it on as Merrick almost grudgingly handed Flynn his helmet and rifle. “Good luck Zedek.”

“You’re not coming with us?”

“Well it’s not like we expect much to happen where you’re going. Besides, we need to save air and I’m only going to use up more of it if I’m there, being the old timer around here.” He looked around the bridge. “Besides if the Cast are going to go anywhere, it’ll be here. I doubt the pirates will want us sticking around.”

“Ok then.” Flynn smiled as he placed his helmet on his head and accepted the rifle before leading the others to the door. “See you later.” One of the soldiers standing guard opened it and they stepped out into the corridor, the door closing behind them as they did. Flynn could feel the air was thinner even in this part of the ship and he took deeper breaths to compensate for the lack of oxygen. He turned to the others who were coming with him, all probably as eager as he was to get the job done. Finally settling on Rika who he saw was unfastening her pistol in its holster.

“So where’s the maintenance shaft in this area?”

She looked past him, scanning the corridor before finally pointing it out to him. “Just over there. Three decks up and the array should be nearby.”

“Alright then. Let’s go. I’ll take point. You two cover the technicians and keep your eyes open. Don’t want anyone jumping out and surprising us.”

They approached the hatch and Flynn opened it. He looked inside to make sure nobody was hiding before giving the all-clear to the others. They made their way inside and sealed the hatch behind them before beginning the climb.