((Part 1 of the collab between me and Penultimate))
Entrance went without incident. The Andromeda gladly opened its bays for the incoming EAF shuttle, which appeared as a more traditional sort of transport shuttle rather than the concise, bottle-nosed round canopy fighters that might've been seen before. It was outfitted with no real weapons whatsoever, and best served for when outings like this were necessary during spacial operations.
The shuttle touched down, guided by a flagger, and after a couple of moments the left-side door opened. An EAF bodyguard took point, working with another one behind to flank the appearance of Lieutenant Dietrich Atterburg. Their weaponry wasn't anything particularly outstanding - a stun laser handgun, each - given the local tendency for ship-to-ship combat as the norm. Nevertheless, it was good to exercise whatever caution was available, even with potential allies.
Atterburg was only vaguely aware of another EDF craft leaving the bay not long after they had arrived. Surely, with all the commotion going on in recent space, there was plenty to be facilitated. He hoped everything would go well, however much the situation might be out of his control.
In the meantime, Atterberg glanced around the hangar for whomever was meant to be giving him this tour of the ship. He was to be provided with information regarding their Wave Motion technology, in exchange for the Jotunheim's own specifications of tech. A direct communicator stood at the ready on his belt, though how well it could work among many other signal being slung about was dubious. Still, it was other humans they were dealing with here, so Atterburg wasn't expecting anything to go wrong.
The hangar bay received the shuttle without incident as the two Cosmo Seagulls departed for the Jedi vessel and the Jotunheim. The hangar certainly seemed busy, fighters refueled and rearmed, prepared for combat on a moments notice should the Imperials arrive once again. The technology might even seem familiar to those aboard, with missiles and kinetic weapons being the main armaments of the Cosmo Tiger II fighters.
As they disembarked, the party would be met by Engineering Chief Alex Sarkoza and some EDF Marines who stood at attention with pulse rifles, the Chief having come forth from the engine room to meet the new arrivals and show them around. He snapped off a salute as Atterburg came to stand before him. "Welcome aboard the EDFS Andromeda," he said with relatively little pomp and circumstance. "Apologies, but the Captain and XO are busy at the moment, so you'll have to do with me. In the interest of not wasting time, if you'll follow me I can take you to the engine room."
With Atterburg's approval, he would turn about and lead the way at a decent clip out of the hangar bay, their shuttle watched by some members of security, while two guards accompanied the group that went into the ship to make sure nothing happened. After the Impeiral visit they weren't about to take chances.
"Glad you could have me," Atterberg responded, snapping a similar salute and introducing himself after Sarkoza. "As long as you know what to share with me about your Wave Motion tech, then it shouldn't matter who guides me. Lead the way, sir." The lieutenant properly fell in step behind the chief.
The activity in the hangar was bustling. Large numbers of craft, most of which Atterberg could only imagine to be fighter ships, were being worked on. Some were being buffed out, others reloaded with missiles or other ammunition. The designs seemed to harken back to those vintage science fiction shows Atterberg used to watch, and again he was struck with how... surreal, this all felt. Not that this was anything on par with a Bydo Dimension encounter, but dealing with ships from completely different planes of reality, from another Earth so alike and yet so different? What was it like, without the Bydo? Or was there something else that had spurred them to this level...?
Looking elsewhere as he followed, Atterberg also noticed the presence what seemed to be trained and armed marine soldiers. Already a couple were accompanying them, and several more were securing the shuttle. A head-on fight with the Bydo was suicide and rarely ever seen, so the EAF's marine forces went unsung for many years. Perhaps that was why Atterberg couldn't help but regard it a bit oddly.
"Tight security..." The lieutenant mumbled, a bit louder than he had intended. As he was regarded, Atterberg tacked on, "Expecting a fight? I mean, looks like you have a lot of combat forces at the ready."
Sarkoza hadn't given the security too much thought, it just part of everything that the Earth Defense Forces had dealt with in the past several years since the Interplanetary Wars and First Contact. As such, Atterberg's comment took him by surprise as he led them through the hangar bay towards the passages that would lead to the engine room. He glanced over to the marines before shrugging. " We were en route to a fight when we wound up here, and they got taken along for the ride. Of course, they've already done some good work when that Imperial delegation that came to visit started shooting, so I'd prefer to have them than not," he replied.
They quickly enough departed the hangar bay, riding on automated conveyer belts through corridors to the lifts that carried them into the bowels of the ship and the Wave Motion Engine that ran the length of the entire thing. Past them, crewmen went about their business in blue uniforms with colored stripes that indicated the department they were from, with reds, blues, greens, yellows. It was a more formal attire compared to the white with colored arrow jumpsuits that the Star Force used, but they were special and their own branch so they got to do things like that.
Of course, not all the hallways were automated, and they had to take some detours to go around areas that had been damaged by Imperial weapons fire, but it did give the group form the Jotunheim time to see more of the ship, which would invoke a feel of a natural outgrowth of naval tradition transposed into a space setting. Automatic hatches with gunmetal grey walls and decoration, the ship mostly designed around utility and efficiency rather than aesthetics. As they went along Sarkoza had to wonder how the others on the Jotunheim were doing, if it was much the same as this.
Atterberg nodded in understanding at Sarkoza's response, satisfied with the explanation. Sounded like, then, that this was all just standard-issue and the Earth Allied Forces had just been lacking in their own marine capabilities. Again, justified with how man-to-man combat against the Bydo was impossible. The lieutenant paid it no further mind.
As they ventured deeper and around the keystone of the Andromeda's power, claimed to be a Wave Motion Engine, Atterberg had already taken out a data-pad and started to take notes. It helped to have a digital synopsis of things to look back upon, especially for something of this scale. The prospect of using gathering such energy waves and then using them as propulsion wasn't exactly a staggering concept to the Space Corps individuals. With the size of that engine core, though, it was readily apparent that the engine was used for far more than just moving the ship around.
He recalled back to the approach to the Andromeda, wherein he had observed the general shape of the battleship. It seemed like the bow sported two massive outlet for which energy might be released - he was hesitant to use the term 'Wave Cannons', given their differing techno-babble. Ultimately, though, it brought up the question as to how efficient and power this Wave Motion control core really was, given how it would be powering propulsion, artillery, and possibly much more all at the same time.
"This Wave Motion Engine..." Atterberg began passively, "Given that size, it looks like it's outputting a lot of power. That is, it would appear to provide power to much more shipboard systems besides propulsion. How did you get a unit like that to be so... efficient, I suppose I'm asking." The Space Corps' own attempts to use Wave technology required a dedicated system array and a level of external-source charging; the more energy to output, the longer and greater you had to charge, no matter the efficiency of it. It appeared, though, that this Wave Motion Engine was completely different from that in how it operated, and in doing so seemed to blow all of those concepts out of the water.
Eventually they arrived at the Wave Motion Engine, the keystone feature of the EDFS Andromeda, and indeed of every Earth Defense Forces ship. It was from this large, orange turbine that the entire ship was powered, allowing them motive power, as well as Warp, keeping all the ships functions operational, and also granting them access to the destructive power of the Wave Motion Gun, though it was not, perhaps, as useful as Atterberg might think due to the necessity of overcharging the engines into a buffer to fire them. But there was no way for the crew from the Jotunheim to know that without prior knowledge.
Having entered the engine room, Sarkoza showed them around the large device, on gantries and walkways that took them next to it, and above it, allowing for full access that would be necessary for the maintenance of the large device which was currently in operation, turbines spinning as white light shone from another nearby component that had a hatch to allow entry, though it was sealed at the moment. The pipe continued, moving down out of the room and to the rear engines, pushing the ship forward, while other tubes and devices maintained it's stability and collection of fuel. In front a separation could be seen, a section that looked like it belonged connected currently not, with the main portion housed in a separate room. That would be the Wave Motion Gun, currently inoperable.
At Atterberg's question, Sarkoza turned back to regard him, before glancing to the Wave Motion Engine nearby. "That's right," he confirmed. "The Wave Motion Engine powers propulsion as well as all onboard ship systems. It's also how we go to Warp, though we obviously don't have that particular function on all the time."
As to the second part of his question, that earned a shrug, but not one that would indicate that they had no idea how the hell the thing worked. "We had help," Sarkoza admitted. "The initial design came from an alien civilization called Iskandar. After the first vessel to have one successfully made the voyage from Earth to Iskandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud in 80 days, we've just improved on the design." This was, for the most part, true, though the Wave Motion Gun hadn't been included in the initial technical specifications that they had gotten. That was something they had made themselves.
Atterberg and his Space Corps associates couldn't quite help but marvel at the size of this machine. Back in the EAF, a machine of this capability would be able to supply enough power for a Mark II Bow-Mounted Wave Cannon all on its own. And here, they were using it to power their whole ship, plus perhaps whatever frontal artillery they were using. Sarkoza's explanation expanded upon that further and said that the Wave Motion Engine was also how the ship was able to go to Warp; the details of which were omitted, so Atterberg had no further insight if the engine was directly responsible for their warping capabilities, or if they brought power to some linked system.
To answer Atterberg's latter question, Sarkoz had began with an indifferent shrug, before going on to admit that in fact, they had not designed the Wave Motion Engine all on their own. "Ah..." The lieutenant noted with some realization, jotting down an addendum in his notes. It meant that Iskandar was ultimately responsible for determining the capability of this device, not the humans. Which, by extension, meant that the Space Corps weren't likely to discover the secret for themselves anytime soon.
"Right, then," Atterberg went on, starting an new section on his datapad, "I noticed, on the way here, that the Andromeda has a bow-mounted pair of what we would call 'Wave Cannons'. Could you elaborate on those?" He looked up with some anticipation.
Sarkoza was unaware of the concerns or thoughts of the Space Corp crewmembers that were along with him, and had they asked he could have explained how the engine worked, since it was only Iskandar who had helped them create the necessary technology in the first place. Once they had had the theories and knowledge on how to make these devices, they had done all the hard work themselves. After all, they had built more than one. But since clarification was not asked for, he could only assume that their Wave Motion tech worked in the same way, so they understood the principles.
At the same time though, it made him wonder. Their questions would seem to indicate that their tech didn't have the same level of power output, so maybe they were working with a more inefficient design? That was something he would only be able to learn once the team returned from the Jotunheim.
For the moment, he turned to the next question of theirs, regarding the guns that they had on the front of the ship. He nodded in affirmation, approval having been given by the Admiral, since they might be able to assist repairs. "Yes, though we call them Wave Motion Guns." With a wave he led the way, following the path up the gun and past the separation of the two sections, to another large room, where workers swarmed, sparks flying from torches as they effected repairs.
He talked as they arrived then, allowing them good looks past the bustle. "The Andromeda is equipped with two Wave Motion Guns, each with the power to destroy an area the size of the Australian Continent, or about 3 million square miles for each barrel. Power from the engines is diverted into a buffer, which utilizes gravitic anomalies generated by the Wave Motion Engine to form a beam of devastating force that can be fired when the buffer hits the critical level of 120%." He glanced over to where the crewmen were working. "Sadly, the buffer got damaged during the transition to this place by an energy surge of exotic particles, so they're currently offline." His attention returned to Atterberg as he asked what was probably his most important question. "Actually, we were wondering if you would be able to assist with that. It is our most powerful offensive weapon after all, so we'd like to be able to use it."
Atterberg nodded in recognition of Sarkoza's use of terminology, resolving to call those weapons Wave Motion Guns from then on. He had to remember that by recalling that they were powered by the Wave Motion Engine. He followed behind the engineering chief as normal, looking around at their surroundings and taking notes accordingly.
As they proceeded to the housing of the guns' inner workings, Atterberg was quick to notice the comparatively greater amount of crew activity present. Welding, calibrating, rewiring, all sorts of activities, bringing a clear indication that there was some issue that was in the process of being fixed. Before he could say anything about it, Sarkoza began his expansion of information regarding the guns' workings, so Atterberg held his tongue for the moment.
The Wave Motion Guns, of which there was two applied to the bow, each exerted an energy output capable of destroying well over 7 million square kilometers each (after a quick proper area conversion). That garnered a whistle from Atterberg as he jotted it down, but afterwards he found himself reconsidering that in his head. Such statistics could indicate that their Wave Motion Guns were far more spread out than the Space Corps' own array of various Wave Cannons, which revolved around the use of a focal point to intensify power to a more concise area. A sacrifice of area for absolute annihilation power, in a word.
The functions of the guns otherwise were very divergent from the Space Corps tech. Rather than mostly gathering particle energy from external sources, they used the Wave Motion Engine for power and sustaining of the beam charge. The only thing vaguely similar was the use of a sort of charging buffer, but the method of bringing it to "the critical level of 120%" brought a good level of concern just from the sound of it, and even more from the implications. Atterberg would have to address that, along with his other concerns.
One concern was cut short, though, as Sarkoza mentioned how the buffer was knocked down by some exotic particles during the unexpected warp here. That sounded reasonably close to their own problem with the Iving Positron Cannon back aboard the Jotunheim. Then Sarkoza turned and asked a vital question: if the Jotunheim would be able to offer any help with repairs of the Wave Motion Gun.
"Hm. Well..." Atterberg trailed off a bit, think about how he wanted to approach this. "You see, the approaches and the applications for Wave Motion technology between us are quite vastly different," The lieutenant explained. "More often than not, our use of Wave Motion tech is exclusive to the creation and use of Wave Cannons. Nevertheless, we've gotten very good at that." Having gone off a rapid tangent, Atterberg cleared his throat a bit, and restarted, "The point I want to make is that, well, there is such a gap in technological direction here that there may not be much we can offer plainly. If the buffer is the only thing that is damaged, we can probably help to repair it, but..."
There was a mote of hesitation present from Atterberg before he continued, as if he was afraid of the response. "If you care for my professional opinion, it sounds like your Wave Motion Gun is using far too much energy to be safe, while spreading it across a huge area." Deciding to press on with the intent of this, he continued with more dedication, "We would definitely offer to remedy this issue with a reconfiguration of the Wave Motion Gun, but seeing as how the gun derives directly from the use of the engine-..."
He shook his head, starting again, "You see, the idea would be to channel the buffer's gathered power into a far more condensed particle blast; perhaps a bit less size and destructive capability than your current guns, but with a far safer level of power consumption... in theory, unfortunately." Such a process would have to be executed in a completely different manner if they were to still the use the local methods with the Wave Motion Engine, something the Space Corps engineers would have a hard time with. It would be light-years easier if they had a dedicated R&D team available to work with the Wave Motion Engine, but both the Jotunheim and the Andromeda were dedicated battleships, to Atterberg's knowledge.
Well, it seemed Sarkoza had succeeded in impressing their guests with the statistics that involved the Wave Motion Gun. To be honest, he would echo that sentiment sometimes. It was an incredible destructive power that they had access to, and one that they had to be careful not to abuse. Victory should not come as a result of the complete devastation of an alien species and numerous worlds. Though they fought, they would not bring the kind of destruction that had occurred to Earth. At least, not intentionally.
Still, he waited, and listened carefully as Atterberg replied to his request, not expecting much but having made the offer regardless. It was interesting to learn that for the most part, their Wave Motion tech was dedicated around the gun itself, rather than the power source it could be, while their own Gun was a natural extrapolation of that power source. It was an interesting distinction, making Sarkoza wonder what kind of power output they had from their tech and for their own weapons.
Listening, he heard the offer of trying to reconfigure the Engine and Gun for safe usage, but it would require significant technical cooperation, and might not be possible regardless. Still, if they could help it would be appreciated. But first, Sarkoza addressed their other concerns. "It's true, we are channeling a large amount of power into the buffer and then the guns, but given the foes we have to face sometimes it is necessary. The gun has two firing modes, a dispersal mode that hits everything in the vicinity of the bow, or a more concentrated mode that fires a beam of energy that engulfs the area surrounding the target with the destructive force of the weapon on impact. We've also determined that we can fire off six shots in quick succession before it causes a risk to the ship."
He looked back to the gun, and then to Atterberg as he explained further. "You see, while the technical specifications for the Wave Motion Engine came from Iscandar, we designed the Wave Motion Gun technology ourselves. That's not to say that Iscandar doesn't have access to the same technology, but it was not provided to us. We designed and built the weapon ourselves, and are very familiar with it's capabilities."
He walked over, resting against a metal railing as he turned his attention to the work crew. "Well, we'll let you guys have a look at the buffer, and if you think you'll be able to do anything, then what help you can provide would be appreciated."
Listening carefully to Sarkoza's explanation, Atterburg got the clear picture that his extended offer was not be required for this ship. The explanation of the different firing modes raised an eyebrow, and prompted some notes, mostly for the concept of a warship of this size having a Wave Motion weapon that support different firing modes. Perhaps this, too, was in part due to the Wave Motion Engine's capabilities. At least the second mode Sarkoza described was more akin to how the traditional dreadnought-grade Wave Cannons operated back in the Space Corps.
The truth of the matter that the chief engineer explained was definitely eye-opening to the whole scenario. It definitely explained some of the concerns that Atterbug had seen with the gun; the EDF had made the weapon on their own. Perhaps, of course, it may not be of the same prowess as Iscandar, but they built it especially to serve the purposes they needed it for. And from the sound of it, those purposes warranted a lot of destructive power. Did they have some equivalent to the Bydo they were fighting...?
"Well, as long as you can use that gun without sacrificing your integrity," Atterberg said with some calm resignation, shrugging a bit, "...then I suppose it's not really any concern of mine." Looking back to the working crew that Sarkoza appeared to be staring at, he said, "I'll see if we can spare any guys from Engineering to at least speed up work on that buffer. Again, I'm afraid I can't guarantee much."
During a bated moment of silence, Atterberg looked back to his datapad, reviewing his notes so far. He jotted down a couple of elaborations, before turning to Sarkoza to address a gap. "Do you mind explaining your concept of Warp? I understood you used the Wave Motion Engine for that, but I was wondering if you could expand upon how it works."
"Alright, thanks," Sarkoza replied with a nod. He wasn't sure how much they could expect, given the apparent differentiations that were making themselves known between the two ships and their notions of Wave Motion energy. Still, any little bit helped. With the forces that the Imperials could bring to bear (namely, the forces of an entire galaxy), having their main weapons online would be useful.
"Of course," Sarkoza replied before launching into his explanation. "Essentially, the Wave Motion Engine functions by drawing power from the vacuum of space through a process that converts it into tachyon energy, providing essentially infinite power for the ship. At the same time, we are able to ride the 'waves' of tachyon energy and travel faster than light via a transition into the fourth dimension, allowing us to cross vast distances quickly. Of course, it requires a human pilot to time the transition so everything is lined up, or the ship risks becoming lost in the fourth dimension, stuck wandering time and space for all eternity."
He shrugged. "Well, that's the theory anyway. It's not like anyone's been able to report back if it's true or not." He paused, before remembering something and adding that on. "Oh, and because of the draw on power that going to Warp requires, you can't use the Wave Motion Gun immediately after exiting Warp, or vice versa." Hopefully that answered what questions Atterberg had, though he would be willing to go on if he hadn't adequately explained it.
As Sarkoza began with the explanation of their Warp functions, Atterburg found himself doubling back to the Wave Motion Engine portion on his datapad in order to elaborate on the engine as he did. The use of tachyon conversion to form a practically infinite power source was definitely quite keen; the Space Corps' own ideas of using Wave Motion as a power source were less than fruitful, and ultimately more funding went into Wave Cannons anyways.
But using that power in order to latch this ship onto wavelengths of such tachyon energy into the... fourth dimension? That wouldn't warrant any warping issues as they had described them, especially considering the Space Corps had found the fourth dimension wasn't a tangible one, though it was true to be a parallel one. Desynch travel required a crossover into the fifth dimension, and even then ships would only see normal space in a distorted haze, not the reaches of time and space itself. It was likely that Sarkoza was referring to what the Space Corps had discovered to be the 26th dimension, affectionately known as Sub-space; this was a corridor that could link to any point across time, space, and the dimensions, as long as you knew where and when you had to get out.
As much as Atterberg was to jump to conclusions, he found himself giving the EDF the benefit of the doubt, in this case. Maybe they really did have the capability to go into the fourth dimension itself, but Sub-space still sounded more safe. The fact that those dangers were also of theory still sparked a bit of dubiousness.
"Right, right. Makes sense," Atterburg replied passively to Sarkoza's addition of the Wave Motion Gun versus Warp. "I must say, we really aren't too dissimilar with our sciences in some regards. The Space Corps regularly uses different dimensional transitions to facilitate FTL travel, although we've managed to make ours a bit safer. Just a bit." The lieutenant held up a couple of pinched fingers for emphasis, then retracted them, chuckling a bit.
Sarkoza didn't know of this talk of 26 dimensions, or how they seemed to have two different versions of Warp, even though the one that his guests used was very different in another sense than what anyone from the EDF was familiar with. Of course, it had to be expected as well that they didn't have to watch out for Warp anomalies, like pockets that could catch you in them and drain all your power if you weren't careful. Sarkoza also wondered if they had to watch out for unexpected gravity wells that could pull you out of Warp as well, like what had happened to the Yamato when they tried to warp to Saturn and ended up at Jupiter instead.
"Well, that's interesting,' he replied truthfully when Atterberg noted that they seemed to be similar in terms of science. "Well, we're working on it," he said with a shrug. "The first Engine was kind of a rush job, but we've made steps in automating the process and reducing the human element required. Given that we've only had this tech for about 3 years, we've made good progress." He wondered how much of a shock that would be, and if he should have even revealed that, but it was a bit late now.
Atterberg nodded in recognition of Sarkoza's verbal thoughts. Once one was able to safely facilitate a technological process as a human, one of the safer approaches available from then one was to remove the human element, or to at least automate it to degree so as to minimize error. But only three years?
Looking back, Atterberg would realize that perhaps such advances were not so farfetched in the scope of three years, as long as you had the base technology and were able to consistently work on it in detail. Hell, by the time they made the R-9A a mass-produced model, not even a year after the first R-type Bydo operation, they had more than doubled the output of what would be known as the Standard Wave Cannon. Hell, even the prototype ships used in the Bydo Seed Incident were light-years ahead of the first R-9A. But that was just personal gawking.
"I'd say that as long as you're familiar with the technology, three year is plenty of time for all sorts of advancement," Atterberg commented on Sarkoza's talk of only having the Wave Motion Engine technology for three years. "In fact, I think the techies back home have a saying for it: 'Progress works in exponents,' or something like that," he joked wholeheartedly.
"Anyways..." Atterberg double-checked his notes one more time. Engine, power source, bow gun, warp... looks like that covered everything, as far as he could tell. "I think that's all the information I needed of you. Unless there something else you'd like to mention that I didn't think of," the lieutenant glanced towards Sarkoza for some response.
Sarkoza chuckled a bit as Atterberg confirmed that for the time they had had to work on it, they did seem to be making strides with the technology that they had acquired. 'Ain't that the truth," he replied. "Before we got it we couldn't even pierce Gamilar armor with our shock cannons. Afterwards, we could take them down easy. The shoe was definitely on the other foot then." Unintentionally, he got a sort of predatory grin, one would get across the impression that there were bad memories involved there, though what they were particularly Atterberg would have to guess at.
Asked if there was anything else that needed covering, Sarkoza ran over a mental checklist, much as Atterberg had gone over a physical one. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "Nope, I think that's all we really need help with. We have a lot of supplies laid in for repairs, so no problem there, and most of the Wave Motion related tech is in the engine room where we just were."
Gamilar. An educated guess would say those would happen to be the aliens or other enemies that the EDF were fighting against. And with some degree of strong armor plating, to boot. Though Atterberg had no indication of how strong the Shock Cannons were, indications would say they were pretty good weaponry otherwise, but just not effective against certain kind of armor.
That grin Sarkoza gave, though, seemed to say that what he had said earlier was bringing about some memories of revenge against Gamilar, whatever it was. Atterberg smiled, back, though not to the degree that he did. The advent of the Wave Cannon was what pretty much gave humanity the primary weapon it needed against the Bydo; it was, after all, a weapon built of of necessity for it, and so was perfectly tuned for destroying Bydo. If recent history was any indication, however, then they might soon be using those Wave Cannons en masse against human craft...
"Alrighty then," the lieutenant remarked to Sarkoza's confirmation that they had probably covered everything. "If that's all, then perhaps we'll start heading back. I trust your crew will return with information on our own Wave Motion tech." After a moment of pause, Atterberg added, "Right, and I'll be sure to keep you notified if we can spare any other repair crew. Hopefully the damage to our own gun isn't quite as extensive."
Thanks," Sarkoza replied with a nod. "I hope they will as well. given how similar our tech bases seem to be, we could probably both benefit from cooperation until we can get back to where we came from." Now that was a priority if they had any. None of them wanted to lose Earth while they were gone, though confident in the Star Force the Admiral might be.
The conversation concluded for the most part, Sarkoza gestured to the visitors and led them back form the engine room, along the paths they had taken, and to the hangar bay in which they had arrived. Their shuttle was untouched, if cordoned off by security personnel. That ring parted as the group approached, allowing them through and back to their vessel without incident.
Coming to a stop, Sarkoza reached out for a hand shake as their guests re embarked. "A pleasure meeting you Lieutenant. Have a safe trip back," he said at the same time. Then, once they had all loaded up, the bay would be opened, the shuttle allowed to depart, and this half of the meeting would be over.
"I agree," Atterberg said simple in response to the Sarkoza's comment. While their application of sciences did definitely differ, the two Eath-based combat forces were alike in plenty of ways that warranted an alliance. Plus, those similarities were somewhat comforting, in a way, as they were both stranded in some foreign galaxy.
The group headed back through the engine room, back through the same corridor in a straight return to the hangar. The shuttle was right as Atterberg had left it, prepared for boarding and takeoff on the mark. The lieutenant motioned for his crew to start loading up as he approached, and as they did so the EDF ground crew cleared the way for launch.
As Atterberg himself prepared to get aboard, Sarkoza offered a handshake and a parting comment, both of which he accepted firmly. "I'm glad to have met you as well. To both our prosperity," The lieutenant raised an imaginary glass, then turned to give a proper salute before stepping on to depart. The shuttle doors closed, the ship lifted up, and the bay doors opened to allow for their exit.
