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Chapter Three: The Cold Rain of the Coming Storm

"For the love of the Oracle how are you so good at this?!" I shouted as Felix beat me in another round of Te'aquen.

"Its similar to an old human game called chess... You use spaceships, and drones on a holographic board. We use pieces on a solid two-tone surface. Its all about strategy really..." He replied.

"But... You've never even played before!" I called out slumping back in my chair. It had been two days since we found Felix, we found a way to get him out of the science wing... For a few hours at a time. The hastily made nanosuit he wore kept him from freezing, but it didn't last long. It was strangely comforting having Felix around... We all felt it. Soraiyan and Tael wouldn't leave the poor human alone though... Always asking him questions, and trying to get him to do odd things. Once they dragged him all the way to the hangar bay, because Soraiyan insisted that humans can't jump. Both Tael and Felix laughed at him before Felix proceeded to hop around the hanger. Some of the other packs gave Felix odd glances, but never directly approached him. He only seemed to trust us and Furlow's pack anyways... He never spoke to any other packs. Soraiyan walked over and bumped me out of my seat, wanting to face Felix in Te'aquen. I watched, in wonder, as Soraiyan beat Felix in two moves, four times. Felix groaned in dismay and stood, bumping his head on the ceiling.

"Agh... I keep forgetting about that..." He mumbled. The timer on his wrist began flashing and he had to return to the science wing. As he left I felt almost, depressed... It was a new feeling... I could tell the others felt it too. I sat down, Soraiyan and Tael fidgeted for a while before busying themselves with maintaining our armor. A while later Furlow summoned us to Felix's room. He was sitting in a chair and hooked up to a Guardian Nanite console.

"If this works... You'll be the only non Avali race to attain Guardian Nanites. They'll regulate temperature, illness, injury, and much more... Are you ready Felix?"

Felix nodded and his chair flattened back. The Nanites would be injected into him while the console connected to his neural port. The whole process took around half an hour, but was particularly uncomfortable. I watched him close his eyes as the sedatives took hold and Furlow began the procedure.

-Networking beginning-

-Unknown program access-

-Hello... Felix, this is Furlow, the Nanites are going to access your neural port in just a moment-

I was surprised to see that Furlow had found a way to talk to me when I was in my abyss, but I was thankful for the lack of emptiness. There was a cool rush, before Orange lit up my plain of black. Data streamed past at incredible speeds.

-section damaged-

-initiating repairs-

I shot bolt awake

"Wait! Don't!!!"

-repair sequence finished, beacon online. Connecting to YCS server... ... Done.-

-welcome Felix-

I panicked as I saw the ping returned... Reynolds knew I was alive... EDEN was coming for me.

"Felix, are you okay?" Furlow asked visibly alarmed.

"No! You activated my distress beacon... All EDEN forces know my current location now... If I'm right we have a little less than seventeen minutes before the first human ships drop in... And they're coming to kill me..." Furlow's ears flattened against his head.

"Ava! Contact the deck commander... We have a problem!" Furlow yelled.

"On it!" Ava called back before the pack took off towards the control rooms.

"Get a nanosuit... And follow me, I have something I was waiting to show you... But you may need it." Furlow said before leaving the room. I grabbed a nanosuit and jumped out the door, my new Nanites helping warm my body, and raising the time I could spend in the station to indefinite lengths. My adrenaline kept me fom thinking too much about the rapid changes my body underwent. Furlow took me down a side hallway and into a lab. In the middle of the room was a partially constructed set of Avali armor... But it seemed to be human sized.

"Only some systems are online... But you may need it..." Furlow said before alarms began to go off around the station.

"Attention all combat squads, this is not a drill, attack force inbound, size unknown." The deck commander called over the intercom. Furlow hastily helped me into the armor before he activated it. It seemed to click and whir before fitting itself to my body. Another alarm blared and Furlow flinched. He and his pack began taking me towards a more secure, inner section. Ava and her pack met us, dressed in full combat armor and armed.

"Felix, ive been given permission by the deck commander to arm you... Just a heads up, these are railguns... So try not to miss if theres targets inside the station." She handed me a small pistol with a long barrel and a circular main body. Along with what seemed to be the hilt of a sword.

"This is a Aeromer print-blade, and the pistol is an AR-4 Blizzard. Use them wisely." Ava said before beckoning for me to follow her and the pack. I lowered the Blizzard close to my side and it magnetized to my hip, a small pistol icon appearing in the armors HUD. Suddenly my processor attempted to reconnect to the YCS database. I tried in vain to stop it, but the connection went through and a mass of data streamed through. It was useless data, star tracking charts, engine readouts, junk that cluttered my data stream and made me stop in my tracks. All of my focus was on diverting the amount of data straight into a dump file. I was vaguely aware of Ava pulling at my arm before Soraiyan and Tael were shouting. I started to get ahold of the data stream and push it away when my processor pinged.

-EDEN signal found-

-EDEN Siwerax, Fulton, Temerity, Necessity, frigate class vessels within scan range-

I diverted all of the data away and scrambled the connection, my senses focusing at the pack trying to get me to move.

"Felix! What are you doing?! Deck commander has called a tactical retreat, we're evacuating the base to regroup!" Ava shouted.

"I...im sorry, they overloaded my processor with data to slow me down. Four human frigates dropped into our area... We need to go. Now!" I shouted over the alarms.

-Flagship class vessel detected-

-EDEN Daybreak Ahead within range-

I stopped. Reynolds personal ship was here. "He's here... Reynolds is here... We need to get out quick." I said as the pack began running, leading me towards the hangar bay. An explosion rocked the station as it took a direct hit. Soraiyan and Tael rushed through the door in front of us into the hangar, and just as Ava was about to reach the door an impact shook the station. The room explosively depressurised and the door slammed shut. The hallway behind us had been hit, the door behind us slammed shut as well, trapping me and Ava in the corridor. Another explosion rocked the station nearby. There was a horrible wrenching noise and the lights flickered before winking out in our corridor. Another explosion followed and the artificial gravity failed. I floated through the air and looked around the corridor. The armors HUD highlighted every object with a grey outline, and Ava in blue. I noticed that it displayed her vitals over her head, and also in the corner of my visor, along with Soraiyan and Tael. I floated over to Ava who was slamming her Aeromer sword against the door.

"Theres no way that will work... Those emergency bulkheads are much too thick." I called out. Ava simply spun around

"Don't! Say that! We have to get out of here!" She yelled and continued to hit the door. She stopped and leveled her rifle at the door firing multiple times. The slugs simply hit the door and flattened into pieces of metal that floated off, leaving only dents. I noticed Ava's vitals starting to spike, Soraiyan's and Tael's were as well.

"Ava... Just stop and listen to me. We're going to get back to Soraiyan and Tael, we need to think of a way out first." Ava angrily turned around at me with her rifle leveled. I watched her twitch and shake before she threw the rifle away, floating from the force. She curled up in a ball and I could hear her sobbing. I pushed off of the wall and over to her.

"Ava... It's just a door, we'll get back to them... I know its difficult to be away from your pack." I said, trying to comfort her.

"You don't know anything about how hard it is! You could never understand how I feel!" She screamed, before curling back into a ball.

"I've lost just as much as you! And the man who did it to me is outside... Attacking this station! Don't tell me that I don't know loss! The only people I've ever loved and cared for were all slaughtered by that man! I am the last... One... Left..." I yelled trailing off at the end. "I know loss... I know pain.... Ava... We'll get back to them." Ava's sobs came to an end, and I saw her vitals come back to normal.

"Felix... Im sorry..." Ava said, slowly uncurling and I pulled her into a hug. Explosions rocked the station and we floated in the lifeless corridor, and for a split second, I swear I felt something familiar...

"Come on... Lets find a way out of here." I said.

"The doors are too thick to go through... But... Try your processor." Ava said and I immediately focused on the door, slipping into the lines of code and data. I flew past the decompression warnings, and straight to the heart. I gave the code a little push, and the door hissed open showing the hangar. The hangar was all but evacuated, it was cold and lifeless due to the gaping hole in the wall, a few drones aimlessly attempted to repair the station as debris and small ships floated past.

"Ava, Felix! Your signal came back... We jumped aboard a dropship... I've got you on the scanner, we're on our way." Tael's voice said over the comms. We made out way forward slowly jumping from object to object in the large room. We made it towards the wreckage of the wall and I peered out into space. The four frigates were being attacked by swarms of drones, while larger gunships focused on the flagship. Blue tinged railgun blasts flashed through space towards the frigates fairly often.

"They pulled back, they're firing from out of the human ship's range." Ava told me as we watched human fighters attacking Avali drones. A dropship sped towards us, and banked hard to avoid incoming fire. It came up alongside the hole in the station and the airlock opened. I pushed myself off the wall of the ruined hangar and propelled myself towards the dropship. I crashed into the wall of the airlock and Ava floated in behind me, using EVA thrusters to maneuver. The airlock pressurized and we hurried into the body. Soraiyan and Tael were piloting the drone control ship and the control chairs were empty. They fired the thrusters and sent us flying towards the friendly Avali ships. As we fled, my processor detected a massive FTL signature. Space rippled and a massive Avali ship dropped out of FTL. Drone dropships poured from the hangars and the ship fired massive rail cannons. The first blast hit a frigate head on, the fore of the ship was destroyed instantly, and with it the bridge. A second shot hit the engines, causing the fusion drives to overload. The frigate disappeared in a ball of blue light as its drive core detonated. The flagship now fired on the Avali ship, but the Avali loosed more shots destroying another frigate and crippling the last two. The EDEN daybreak ahead turned and jumped into FTL, leaving the frigates to burn.

"Survivors of Oracle station XVI, this is the ACM Aeristorm, we are here to provide fire support and evacuation." A voice said over the comms.

"Wow... A heavy cruiser just for our station..." Tael muttered. We flew towards the small prowler that had been firing back at the frigates.

"Combat Squad Six, you are to dock aboard the Aeristorm with the human, you're being transported to Avalon." The prowlers captain said. We docked at the Aeristorm a few moments later and were quickly hurried off to a secluded wing. Furlow was waiting for us when we got there.

"Felix! How did the armor preform? Was it compatible with your processor? Can you give me a full report of its workings?!" Furlow sputtered at high speeds.

"Uh... Well its vacuum sealed... So I'm not dead... I guess thats a plus?" I said in a confused tone. Furlow simply fidgeted and tapped a small orange object against the chest of the armor.

"Oh dear... wow thats a lot of system failures... How did you get around with no EVA thruster?" Furlow asked.

"This thing has thrusters?" I responded.

"Oh dear... We have some training to do with this... Its almost a day long trip to Avalon, so why don't we begin, Ava, you can help him... And judging from the way you and your pack are standing around him... I think our experiment may be succeeding." Furlow joked, his tone becoming more serious as he went on. I noticed how close the pack was standing to me at that point... Thats when the feeling hit again... Something familiar, something comforting... A sense of belonging. I followed the pack until we reached a training room, I noticed several Avali training, but there were also many sleeping along cots built into the walls.

"Why are so many Avali sleeping?" I asked.

"They've been awake for almost six hours straight..." Soraiyan commented.

"Six hours that doesnt seem long..." I replied offhandedly.

"What?! How long do you go without sleep?" Tael yelled, opening her biological notes.

"Well... On a normal schedule about twenty hours... In emergencies I can go almost seventy-two with no sleep." I replied.

"Oh ... Well Felix... That Avali require around twelve hours of sleep per day... And we spread it out through naps... You'll see communal resting areas quite frequently." Furlow commented.

"Well... Looks like I have a lot of learning to do..."

-End chapter Three-

Authors Note: To anyone who has scoured the Avali lore, I apologize for the minor inconsistencies you'll find. Most of them are just to help fit the story better. I changed a couple biological factors but not to any extensive degree. Also a much more fun point... Scattered throughout the story are lots and lots of little Easter eggs and nods to random things. I try to do a good job of hiding them, so if you catch any please don't be afraid to comment on it. Also... If you notice ANY plot holes whatsoever, please let me know... I love trying to explain my way out of those before I fix them. There were two separate songs involved in the writing of this chapter. The slower emotional scene was inspired by the song "For River" from the game "To the Moon". The action sequences were inspired by the song "Futur" by uppermost. And last but not least, a fun fact. The title of this chapter is a line from the song "The good left undone" by Rise Against, even though the song wasn't an inspiration for the chapter, I liked the line. I do apologize for the wait, classes snuck up rather quickly...and theres no good places to write on campus. The next chapter is on its way! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as always

Happy Reading!

~Fallen