Selene

The antics had ended as some of the others struggled to help the confused Guado off the Hypello who was probably dead underneath. Selene found herself in the cockpit, staring at the control board in mid thought. In her pocket she fiddled with the small piece of metal her and Sirius had discovered and briefly chatted about. The woman found herself frowning, she didn’t know its purpose and she hadn’t the time to ask Seta, as he had passed. What confused her was that her dear friend hadn’t been completely truthful; the damn Viera had been on another mission…

That was the most irritating part of the mystery, Seta wasn’t one to keep secrets from her, and so the order had to of come from her father. Which was equally as frustrating… That meant her father hadn’t been truthful either, for the love of the Gods was it that hard to inform her of some obviously important details? Selene gritted her teeth together and let out a harsh hiss of air.

“Time to leave!” Adair chimed as he entered and quickly sat down in the controller’s chair. “Don’t like sitting in one place to long, not good for my like.”

“Pirates.” Selene noted, but kept staring out the window.

“Precisely.” The pilot grinned, and flicked some switches. The engines began to hum again, and sounded particularly better than before. “Oh that’s a lovely sound indeed.”

“We need to head to Ivalice.”

“Pardon?” Adair looked at her, confused. “Do you realize what ship you’re on?”

“Archades specifically.” Selene noted how some of the colour drained from Adair’s face. “What?”

“My dear, you are not the Captain and nor would that be a guarantee for me to listening even if you were, Archades is swarming with law-figures. It would be unwise for pirates too-“

“To Archades my good man!” Sirius smiled, patting Adair on the shoulder.

“Captain, you’re doing some gymnast-like contortions around her little pinky…” He looked at Sirius like he was mad. “Archades-“

“Selene has assured us that we will not be arrested, questioned, shot-at, or targeted for annihilation.” The captain seemed particularly proud of that last point. “There might even be an award for rescuing her.”

“And you trust her?” Adair looked at Selene with suspicious eyes. “Just who the bloody hell are YOU?”

She looked at Adair with a smirk.

Adair narrowed his eyes at her. “The Expanse is a war zone! You… You… Somethin Somethin!”

Selene laughed. “Keep shields up and weapons powered down and no Ivalice ship will pay you mind.” The woman noted, turning as Shay entered, nearly tripping in the doorway.

“The Hypello is alive.” She grinned. “Kind of out of it though, and his troop left without him, poor thing. Can we keep him?”

“Exactly how many hitchhikers do you expect me to carry along?” Sirius frowned; he turned his attention back to Adair. “Now, see to it we make it to Ivalice intact my good man.”

“Of course Captain.” Adair grumbled. “But if we get blown out of the sky, I am not responsible.”

* * *

CHAPTER TW0

‘The Expanse’ as it was so affectionately (and originally) called, was pure ocean. Not a speck of land was in sight, and wouldn’t be for several hours. The sea below was calm and glistened in the bright gleam of the sun, and occasionally a whale or some other odd creature would surface for air. As of right now, things were peaceful, but they were in no-man’s land, a stretch of area that was the constant battle ground for Spiran and Ivalician troops.

So far, they had avoided any violent incursions. In fact it seemed that no one was out here.

All ships had a ‘deck’ of sorts, and the Wolfstar’s was small, but it was there. Selene stood outside, holding onto the railing as the airship zoomed forward.

She didn’t even hear the door to the deck open, and jumped in surprise as Sori fluttered over, and grabbed a hold of the railing,

“Whats with being alone?” Sori questioned, shuffling a bit as he looked at her. “Not going soft on us are you?”

“I wouldn’t dare.” She smirked in return. “I was just thinking.”

“Well its good someone on this boat does, I don’t think most of the ‘crew’ has an ounce of brains.”

“You’re so kind.”

Sori smiled gleefully and looked out at the view. “Jeez, there’s nothing out here, is there?”

“Called ‘The Expanse’ for a reason…”

The moogle shrugged a little.”I thought this was supposed to be a warzone. Where are all the ships?”

Selene stretched. “We should consider ourselves lucky…” She noted, remembering brief flashes of the Silver Zephyr crashing. “I don’t think being caught in the middle would be pleasant.”

He shuffled a bit more and laughed. “I guess I’m so used to running for my life around you guys, peace seems a little weird.”

“I kind of like the feeling of not running for my life…” The woman smiled. “You know? Relaxed, at-ease, only worrying about Adair crashing us…”

“According to him he never crashes.”

“Why don’t I believe that?” She chuckled, but frowned a little as she spotted a dark form on the horizon. “What’s that?”

Mog looked over just in time to see a flash of white, black and red skim over the ship and disappear out of their view. Either of them looked at each other and frowned, Selene headed to the door, pressing the com button to the cockpit.

“Adair..”

“Yes luv?”

“Did you see what shot over us?”

“just a little fighter midear, I assume it’s from an Ivalician ship.”

Selene thought about the colour scheme. “But it-“

“Uh… Selene!”

She stopped communication with Adair for a moment and walked towards Sori. He pointed into the distance, off to the starboard side of the Wolfstar, was a looming ship. Its colours bright red and black painted in a menacing manner. Selene gulped, noting how it was not Ivalician, and if she recalled the Spiran airship designs, it wasn’t a Spiran ship either.

“Who the hell are they?”

“They…” The gunner bit her lip and went to the com. “Adair do you have a bigger ship on your radar?”

“Yes I do dearie, isn’t it kinda small to be an Ivalician craft?”

“It’s not.” She grimaced. “It’s not Spiran either.”

“Then whos…?”

“Selene my beauty, this is Sirius.” She rolled her eyes and Sori pretended to gag. “What colour is that vessel decorated with?”

“Red and black.”

There was an abrupt silence over the com and Selene frowned, and nearly jumped as the two in the cockpit yelped. “PIRATES!”

On the cue the larger ship turned and began to move quickly towards them. Selene gulped, it was small compared to an Ivalician Ship, yes, but it was still considerably larger and probably more powerful than the Wolfstar. She could feel the wind pick up as the freighter’s speed increased, its movements becoming slightly more erratic as the enemy ship gained on them.

“Oh lord…” Selene gulped, watching as the large ship’s bay opened up, and three oddly coloured Valefor fighters dropped out, and unfolded. She paled, watching them easily close the gap between the two ships. She pressed the com button. “Adair you pride yourself on being the best pilot correct?”

“Chiefest of my pride points, dearie.”

She gulped, as she shut off the com and entered the ship, followed by the moogle who leapt onto her shoulder. In about five minutes, they were going to be in for the ride of their lives.

* * *


MISSION TIME

.: THE HUNTER :.

Belonging to a nefarious pirate Syndicate, The Hunter is a specially modified ship designed for one purpose.

Destroy The Wolfstar.

Though no one, not even most pirates, know the name of the Syndicate leader, it is a well known fact that if you cross the syndicate you end up dead. The only two currently alive after stealing a large number of valuable objects from the organization is Captain Sirius and renowned pilot Adair. The Wolfstar has outran every other Syndicate ship so far, but it seems this time around they have a new trick.

Somehow, they have obtained versatile and speedy Valefor Fighters from the Ivalician Empire. Who knows what other tricks the enemy has; right now, the crew of the Wolfstar just has to focus on staying alive.

OBJECTIVES

* Stay alive until further notice

* Valefor Fighters are hard to destroy, they won’t be an easy kill.

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