บท 5: The Pilot and Delano

"Water," he said again louder this time. We were all looking at him. "Goddammit, people. Stop staring and somebody get me water." we quickly complied As buvin got him a big cup of water. I also brought him a shot glass and some of our finest scotch as he was probably going to need it to get over his missing arm. When I got back to the medbay I decided he might need the whole bottle. "No. No. No. Where is my ****ing arm?" I came over and handed him the scotch. He proceeded to take the bottle by the neck and drink the whole thing in less than a minute. I could see that he and Buvin would be good friends.

While this happened Narchean was over in the room next door using the mechanical printers to make a quick new arm for this man. It would not be the best or very pretty but a new one could be made soon.

"What is this?" The man asked as Narchean brought over the newly crafted replacement arm.

"For now it can be a temporary arm. What do you think?" Narchean new it wasn't his best piece of work.

"Hmmm… it's a little bit underwhelming"

"Well, I did say temporary. By the way, I don't think we have introduced ourselves. I am Narchean, these two people next to me are Jaku and Buvin. The medic currently tending to the other patient is Yalson"

"Oh, I have not introduced myself either. My name is Sparrow."

I finally spoke up after observing the conversation for a while. "Well, Sparrow," I said, "welcome to the gray surge."

Eventually, we left Sparrow with the scotch bottle in the medbay hoping that one of them would help him recover. He would adjust in time.

Meanwhile [Delano] (switching viewpoints/focus.) Delano had always been a very faithful servant to the Grandmaster, but for the past 2 days, it appeared that luck had not been on his side. But, because of his recent failures, he was not on the good side of Grandmaster. 'I must escape if I make one more slip up Grandmaster will surely take my head,' Delano thought to himself. It was not as if he had not seen it before, he had just never imagined that it could happen to him. Delano knew that he as the others before him would not receive help, no matter how much they needed it or who they asked. This was often their downfall as they would be consequently reported and their death would get a more painful death with less delay or time to talk with their friends for one last time. Delano thought back to where it had gone wrong for him. It had started less than a year ago when he was first put in charge of his own squad. From weapon malfunctions to disappearing secret plans their squad had a more than a fair amount of problems they had dealt with. Because of this, the squad was all relatively close to one another, and they all liked Delano especially as he had taken most of the blame for these unfortunate mishaps. Still, regardless of how they felt about Delano, he knew that this was no reason he could trust them. He would have to rely purely on himself for escape. This would be an extremely difficult task for Delano as he could not even fly a plane properly, in his previous mission Delano had accidentally crashed into his teammate's ship causing them to lose the ancient Sierra Viper plane that they had been chasing. After this incident Delano had his pilot license revoked and he was no longer allowed to even set foot in the hangar. 'How in hell will I escape? It is literally impossible for someone with my poor set of skills to pull of an escape from a military installation of this size.' This thought was soon replaced with the thought that he couldn't fail or his life would be over. At this moment everyone in the hallway scooted off to the side allowing a path for the grandmaster. "Grandmaster! Halt and hail!" the commanding officers in the hallway yelled. Next, as Grandmaster moved further through the hallway everyone saluted in unison, yelling "Hail! Grandmaster Hail!" the grandmaster was the only one with a facemask, a curved metal piece with slits for eyes and the disturbing image of a mouth that was welded shut. The rest of the Grandmaster's red and gold cloak flowed behind him as he floated majestically towards the main chamber. Around the silky sleeves of Grandmaster metal rings with strange inscriptions on them rotated slowly, not in contact with any surface. To Delano, these had always been mysterious and bewildering. He seemed to be the only one that noticed the daily change in the number and inscriptions on the disks, only occasionally reusing older disks.

[Sparrow] Sparrow sat down in the flight simulator for what must have been the millionth time that day. He had to get up every few rounds because pilots needed practice. To his disappointment in the flight simulator, he was almost as bad as all these newbie pilots that surrounded him. He got up from the flight simulator deciding that he had done enough for today. After talking to both Jaku and Buvin, he managed to find Narchean. Narchean was sitting in a seat facing the mess hall windows looking out into space. With the sleek helmet that Narchean sported it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. This was the first time that Sparrow had managed to get a decent look at him while sober (or at least soberer.) He was impressed by Narcheans smooth futuristic style, that if you looked closer could see that it was actually older armor pieces together with more parts. This was all made using intricate detail and quite clearly a lot of care. "What is the armor made out of?" I asked, trying to make conversation. Narchean turned, seeming to notice me here for the first time. "See that," he asked pointing down at a volcano on the planet underneath us. "That is Freldem Mountain, it was once a wonderful town. But, when the volcano exploded the city collapsed and new types of metal were discovered. Eventually, they built a mine and forge where the city was, able to create stronger armor and weapons. The mine and forge were both destroyed very early in the war. That is where the metal is from, and once a long time ago that was where I was from." He went back to staring out the window, this time it was slightly easier to imagine what he was thinking about.