Cynthia POV

This was strange. Draco seemed to have turned off his communicator. Normally my job would have been to report this to Amber and Blue, but since it was Draco we were talking about, I was certain he’d done that for a reason, and as his friend I trusted his judgment more than I did my subroutines.

Of course if Amber OR Blue were to check, they would see it for themselves, but they were far too concerned discussing the ethics of my existence. Right in front of me.

From their discussion I could tell that I liked Amber a lot more than Blue, maybe because they were the one telling Blue that I had just as much right to exist than any other person. Or maybe it was because they actually saw me as a person.

Regardless, listening to their discussion would only dampen my mood and I could hardly talk to Draco at the moment, so I decided to focus my attention on surveying the area around the ship.

After some time had passed - precisely 15 minutes, 37 seconds and 125 microseconds after the time I had predicted his arrival - Draco came within the sight of my sensors.

“If you’re done discussing whether or not I should exist, Draco is back. And it appears he has company.”

Both Amber and Blue stopped their pointless discussion and turned their attention to the screens displaying what the optical sensors mounted on the hull of the ship were picking up.

Neither of them had any way of knowing her, but I recognized the person tagging along with Draco as Crimson. Strange. Crimson was supposed to be dead. 

Maybe accessing the nearby Imperial Military Bases server would give clarification?

Genesis 25852, 25940, 25967, THERE! Genesis 25978! Let’s see if there’s any recent reports about it?

Peacekeeper ‘Draco’ 247 - KIA

Lt. Gilbertson White - Committed Treason against high commander Omega, was executed on the spot.

Interesting…

It seems we made assumptions based on incomplete intel. No mentions of anyone else, so it was probably best to assume that they were all alive for the time being.

It was time to open the door to let Draco and Crimson in.

“Welcome back Draco. Good to see you alive Crimson, we had assumed the worst.”

“Good to see you too Cynthia and likewise.”

Blue had rushed from his seat to the boarding area, having grabbed a blaster from the armory on his way and tried his best to look threatening whilst alternating between pointing it at Draco and Crimson. Should I tell him he forgot to load it?

“Who is that?! Why did you bring them?!”

I projected out my hologram between the two fractions, to act as a barrier and tried my best to de-escalate the situation. Needless infighting wouldn’t help anyone.

“Blue, given everything I know about you, the weapon you are holding, Draco and Crimson, there is a 100% chance you will end up incapacitated, should you choose to open fire. I recommend against this course of action.”

Speaking of Crimson and Draco, both of them had managed to stay completely calm. Which made sense as neither of them had much to fear, since they both could easily evade gunfire even at this range.

“That is Crimson. She used to be my co-captain back when I was still with the Empire. Also one of the few people I called a friend and really meant it. I brought her back, because we have a common enemy in Omega and-”

Crimson interrupted him “You know, I can speak for myself too, Draco, right?” There was no annoyance in her voice, but rather a clear hint of amusement.

“I’d also love to tag along to wherever you’re going because I don’t really have anywhere else to go, and since I need to lay low, I’m very limited in what kind of mercenary-work I can do.

So if you’d have me, I’m sure I can prove myself to be a capable asset to whatever group you belong to. As long as it’s not the empire because I am DONE with them.

Also that gun isn’t loaded.”

“No matter if it is loaded or not, let’s not get violent here.” Amber had finally decided to speak. “Draco, you trust this person?”

“With my life!” Draco responded instantly, showing not the slightest hint of any hesitation.

“Well then welcome to our little misfit group of more or less rebels? I’m never quite sure what we should actually label ourselves. Anyways. Welcome, Crimson.”

 

Crimson POV

After that, Blue, put away the gun and Draco and I were allowed to board the spacecraft. On our way to the cockpit, we passed the armory, where he returned the weapon to where he borrowed it from, but not before checking whether it was actually empty.

“I can teach you how to load these things if you want?”

“Sh-Shut up!” Blue almost shouted, clearly very flustered about the situation.

Honoring his wishes, I stayed silent until we reached the cockpit, where each took a seat.

There was a bit of awkwardness, when I took my usual seat (the copilot seat) and Blue, especially, looked like he was going to blow up, but when I motioned to my tail and the specifically made hole in the seat, he was very quick to calm down.

After checking that everyone had strapped in, Draco asked:  “Cynthia, do you have the course charted?”

“Yes Draco. We will arrive on Genesis Null in approximately 90 minutes, if we are to take off now. Shall I start the engines? Permission to take-off from ground-control has been granted.”

The AI had projected a hologram of herself in the middle of the room, as usual, to help with communication.

Draco gave her an affirming nod, and with that, we were off the ground. Say what you will about sentient AI, but I had yet to find a human pilot who was able to get a spaceship off the ground this fast and this gently.

That in and of itself made Cynthia one of the most valuable members of our team in my eyes. Even if until now she’s never officially been part of it.

During takeoff, there was a bit of an awkward silence lingering around between us.

“So, uhh… What makes you hate the Empire?” Blue spoke up first, breaking the silence.

I thought about what, or rather how much, I was going to say for a few seconds, before finally saying “My sister. She has telepathic abilities and refuses to cooperate, so… you know… They won’t KILL her, she’s too useful for them, but until she ‘comes to her senses’, she’s basically imprisoned at a ‘training-camp’.”

“That sounds horrible!”

“Yup. It’s also the reason why I joined the military. I was promised that if I would prove myself useful enough, they’d let her go. Load of bull. I mean, now I know that no matter what I do, it will NEVER be enough, but at the time that sounded like a good idea.”

“And when you figured out, they threatened to hurt your sister if you didn’t stay in line?”

Amber was sharp. That was good if I was to stay their ally, but very bad, if I decided that I wouldn’t. I should make sure to remember to tread carefully around them.

“Yup. Made a crucial mistake though. When Omega demoted me to recruit, it became impossible for anyone to keep tabs on me. Recruits leave at random all the time and since there’s so many, it isn’t even mentioned in reports anymore.”

I smirked a bit whilst carefully watching their expressions. I was telling them quite a lot, after all, some of it personal, reflecting who I was, or who they thought I was. “Omega probably expected me to climb the ranks again rather quickly, but he’s probably going to assume that I had enough of commanding and decided to just not do that.

He’s never going to see a report, saying I deserted or mentioning me getting a promotion, so in his racist mind, he’ll just assume that I finally realized my place was at the bottom of the pecking order and never waste another thought on me.” I gave a small laugh at how easy it had really been to get away from him in the end.

“Ironic, he thought he’d punish me, but all he did was give me an out.

Enough about me, I’m assuming you all have a reason to hate them too?”

“Dropped a supernova on me”, Draco deadpanned.

That would do it. Wait. I was such an idiot! Of COURSE Omega would make up a false accusation to slander Dracos name.

“Also I promised you to help break your sister out of prison.”

After looking at Draco for some time, definitely curious if he’d add anything more, Blue told his story: “I’m transgender, as you probably realized. It is very easy to transition medically. Like seriously. Push a button, boom, done.

Except to be allowed to push this button, WHICH IS COMPLETELY REVERSIBLE BY JUST PUSHING IT AGAIN I MIGHT ADD, you are expected to go through decades of therapy and pay a few million credits, because we can’t have nice things be affordable now, can we? And of course the study of any form of shape-shifting magic is strictly prohibited.

And don’t even get me started on all the legislation they produce daily that has no purpose other than making life hell for trans people!”

I… had never thought of any of that. I mean those were as good reasons as any, but damn. I was a lot more naive than I thought, even after all the shit I’ve been through.

After Blue was done talking, we all looked at Amber, expectantly.

“My reasons? Hmm… I suppose you could say I have a score to settle.”

They wouldn’t tell us anything. Got it.

“I estimate that the most optimal course of action is to confront Omega first, then free Crimsons sister and after that tackle the systemic discrimination Blue is facing.

Given the contents of Omegas PC I estimate there’s a 86% chance he knows where Crimsons sister is being held. He was given the task of keeping an eye on Crimson and given authority to punish her sister should Crimson step out of line.

To do this, he must know where she is. Or at least he must know where to find out where she is. The biggest problem of this approach would be getting this information out of Omega as well as preventing him from having her relocated after we obtain her location.

Omega also instituted a policy that would have every prison be relocated in the event of his death.” Cynthia concluded.

How in space did she know any of this? Oh. Right. Draco probably had her monitor the contents of Omegas PC whenever possible.

“I am not sure how I feel about my thing being last in the order of priorities.”

“Well to be fair yours is by FAR the hardest one to achieve. Dracos is the most straight-forward one, he just has a list of people to unalive. Crimsons is maybe even easier than that, she should be happy if we bust her sister out of prison. To achieve yours we would have to change a lot of things about how everything works. Not saying it’s impossible, it just won’t be easy.”, Amber explained.

“This was my reasoning, yes. Also Blue I shall try and figure out how this button works and go develop one of my own for you to use, if that helps”

“...Fine…” Blue grumpily accepted Cynthia's offer.

“So the plan is: beat the location of Crim’s sister out of Omega, Jailbreak, and then see where we go from there?”, Draco summed up.

“Pretty much, yes. So I guess we should start by thinking about what we know about Omega. I’ll be honest, no clue what his Origin does. I DO know of the prophecy that he won’t be killed by a man, but other than that? I got nothing.”

Now that I was thinking about it, I didn’t know if anyone here stood a chance at beating Omega. Draco would probably be the closest, but he couldn’t finish him off.

IF he even got to that point, I’ve seen their last fight and Draco got his ass handed to him while using every advantage he could use.

Primal reversion, magic, even underhanded surprise-tactics! Omega didn’t do any of that and absolutely dominated the fight still.

“Don’t worry Crim, I got a LOT stronger since then.” Draco reassured me, almost as if he could read my mind. To be fair, him knowing me as well as he did combined with my tail and ears having always made it rather easy to guess my emotions, he definitely could make a decent educated guess on what I was thinking, no telepathy required. How dare you betray me like this tail?!

Also just what in space has Draco been through to be this confident? I mean sure, the star thing probably gave him a major boost, but fucking hell! They weren’t even in the same league then!

“I do not think the prophecy will be relevant for Draco. You say you’re strong enough to defeat him now Draco?”

“I guess. Would love to have more intel on his Origin tho. Can’t hurt to know who you’re up against and all that. But well if it can’t be helped, it can’t be helped.”

Hmm… More intel? I don’t have any, Draco doesn’t and I highly doubt Blue or Amber know anything either. I shot Cynthia a questioning look, to which she slowly shook her head.

So none of us knew anything about what we were up against. Did I know anyone who would? Bob? He was always on very friendly terms with Omega.

Makes you wonder if he might have been added to our squad solely to spy on us…

“I have no confirmation of this, but Bob might know something? Cynthia could find out his schedule and then we could ambush him?”, I asked, hopeful.

“That could work. Worth a shot too, honestly. Let’s go do that!” Draco agreed, before awkwardly adding, “After we arrive back on Genesis Null, I mean”