Entering the hangar, Andrew called one of the maintenance droids over.
-Is the ship ready to launch?
He asked.
-Yes, the ship is ready to launch at any time.
The droid confirmed.
-Great, I'm taking her out.
-Acknowledged.
The drone said, and returned to its duties.
Sitting down in the captain's chair, Andrew ordered the droid crew to do a preflight check while he fed the navigation computer with their destination coordinates.
It didn't even take 3 seconds before the flight plan was displayed before his eyes, along with the estimated time of arrival.
All things considered, it was a very short flight.
When he received confirmation that the ship was functional and all systems were green across the board, Andrew contacted Lan to be sure that there was no one in the vicinity, and there was no one as first ships that were due to jump in had still at least 20 minutes to arrive.
This was more than enough time.
-Launch the ship.
Andrew ordered, and the droids did as instructed.
The Corvette lifted off and began to leave the hangar.
Once it was clear, Andrew proceeded to gain some distance from the station as entering FTL next to it would not be the wisest of ideas.
This was also his first time in a while, seeing his station from the outside with his own eyes and not through a drone camera.
The sight was impressive, as the installation was quite big, but he also knew that this was just the beginning.
His station was nowhere close to what he wanted it to be, but reaching that stage would take time, and for now, he had more pressing matters to worry about, like the invasion, which if Terelen was right should begun in more or less a week.
But he put that aside for now and relished the sheer experience of being a captain of a ship for the moment.
He seriously doubted that he would have many opportunities to do this again, especially with the direction this whole event was heading in.
However, he had to admit that it was a great feeling to be the ship's captain.
The vessel reached the safe jump distance in less than 10 minutes, and as soon as it did, it entered the FTL for a few seconds, emerging on the other side of the system.
There was no way to jump straight to his objective, as there were too many asteroids in the way for that, so he had to get close and then approach the site on sunlight engines.
It wasn't long before he was right next to the asteroid in question, as there were still scout drones parked right next to it.
The asteroid itself was enormous; at the very least, it had 120 kilometers in diameter.
If this rock was orbiting a planet, it could be easily called a moon, considering that there were smaller moons in the Sol system orbiting the planets.
A good example of this was Demios, one of the moons orbiting Mars.
Soon, the corvette approached the site of the discovery and, seeing that there was quite a large flat area next to the box and the ship which looked like it crashlanded on this asteroid.
Andrew decided to land the ship and personally retrieve the box.
While he was at it, he wanted to have a closer look at the ship, which was only about one and a half kilometers away from the box.
For now, the one thing he could tell for sure was that the vessel was massive, easily fifteen to twenty times the size of his corvette,
The moment his ship landed, Andrew put on his helmet and sealed the tier 3 space armor he was wearing.
After some checks and making sure that the weapon he brought was loaded and ready to fire, he left the ship.
There was no gravity to speak of on the asteroid, but this was normal.
His magnetic shoes worked as intended, and since the asteroid was mainly made of metals, they kept him on the surface easily.
The first and main objective of his little excursion was the retrieval of the crystal box do Andrew decided to deal with it first.
It wasn't long before he reached the box and lifted it easily.
True to its name, the box was made of transparent crystal with a ball of white light placed inside.
The moment he touched it, a holoscreen popped out, informing him that it was a multichoice treasure box, allowing its finder to pick one reward from the list.
Andrew didn't bother with reading the list for now, as he would have more than enough time for that once he brought it back to the station.
-I see that you retrieved the box, so what's inside?
Aelita's voice came over the comms.
-It's a multichoice box; we have to select one item from the list, but that will be done once I'm back.
He explained while carrying the box to the ship.
-Why does it sound like you want to do something more than just get back here with the box?
She asked suspiciously.
-Maybe because I also want to explore the ship that's embedded in this asteroid for a bit.
He said with a grin.
-And you were the one who was stopping me from entering the pirate ship.
Talk about double standards.
Aelita rolled her eyes in annoyance.
-That was different; you only had a space suit back then.
I have a space armor on me, and I'm armed.
Besides, this ship has been sitting here for a long time, so I doubt that there will be anything dangerous inside.
Andrew tried to calm her down, knowing full well that she was just angry because she had stayed on the station while he went on this small adventure.
Not to mention that as an engineer, she would love to explore this ship.
-That's not the point, and you know it.
She said, irritated even more at his efforts to pacify her like she was just a naughty child, throwing a tantrum.
This made Andrew chuckle, which earned him a death glare from his lady.
-Well, if you want, I can send the ship for you, or you can ask Runir to give you a ride.
Another alternative is to get a ride in one of the gunships.
Andrew suggested, hoping that it would calm her down.
-Alright, I'm taking a gunship with some extra crew for this.
You better stay out of that wreck until we get there.
She warned him before passing command to Lanarine and leaving to get ready.
Andrew chuckled again.
-If she wanted to come, she should have said so from the start.
He thought to himself and went to have a look at the ship from the outside which Aelita didn't say a word about.
The first strange thing he discovered was that this ship didn't crash into this asteroid, but it looked more like it drilled a hole in it with its shields as there were at least three to four meters of space between the rock and the ships hull.
No matter how he looked at it, he could not find any reason for anyone to try something like this.
The ship didn't look damaged in any way other than a few dents, but these Andrew attributed to the asteroids that might have collide with it while it stayed here.
In the end, he gave up trying to figure it out and decided to look for a way in.
The easiest way to solve this mystery was to get access to the ship's systems and read its logs, which should have the answers he wanted.
While he waited for Aelita, he managed to find at least five airlocks, through which they could enter the ship if they could reach them, that is, as the distance to the lowest one was still about 25 meters, and since the ship was lying on its belly, without any landing gear, there was no chance to get inside from underneath it.
The only way that came to Andrew's mind was to deactivate his magnetic shoes and jump to the airlock.
Or he could use them to simply climb up to the airlock as the hill was magnetic.
However, he decided to wait for Aelita and the others she said she would bring with her, to try and figure it out.
He didn't need to wait long as a few minutes later, the gunship landed next to his corvette.
-Andrew, where are you?
Aelita's voice came through the comms.
-I'm next to the ship, looking for a way in, I found some airlocks and even have an idea on how to reach them, but I wanted to wait for you before I did anything.
He explained.
-Wait there; we are on our way.
The engineer said before ending the call.
Not long after, he saw a few silhouettes approaching the ship, one of which was Aelita in her Armor, which was hard to overlook as the rest of the team wore standard space suits, and they were accompanied by two teams of battle droids, with five droids in each team.
-Did you discover anything interesting?
Aelita asked as soon as she arrived.
-You can say that.
This ship didn't crash here, It looks like it was trying to drill a hole in this asteroid with its shields or something similar.
Andrew said, pointing at the bow of the ship.
-That's crazy.
Arien said when she approached and heard their conversation.
-No matter how powerful their shields were, if you use them like this, you will end up depleting your power reserves and fuel.
-I thought you were resting?
Andrew asked, seeing her.
-I was, but when I heard what you found, I wanted to come.
I wouldn't miss this for anything.
She replied.
-Do you have any idea why they would try something like this?
Andrew asked her, as she had more experience with spaceships than he did.
-I have no clue.
As I said, it was reckless, and that's an understatement.
-Then it seems that our only way of discovering what happened is to get the ship's logs.
Andrew shrugged.
-The ship doesn't look like it suffered any battle damage, and in general, it looks to be in good condition.
Aelita said, looking at the vessel.
-I had the same thought when I went around looking for an entrance.
Andrew said.
-The one with the easiest access so far is this one.
He said, pointing at the airlock.
-Then lets get it open and get inside.
Arien said, with a bright smile under her helmet.
-Are you sure that you wouldn't prefer to remain a pirate?
Andrew joked, seeing her eagerness to board the ship.
-No, thank you, I actually value my life.
She answered before using her magnetic shoes to climb the hull of the vessel, followed by the droids and the team she had brought with her.
Once they reached the airlock, Droids got to work on opening it, but since there was no power, they could not use their electronic lockpicks to do so, leaving them no other option but to cut it open.
Within a few minutes, the doors were cut and pried open by the droids, which then entered, taking point and looking for any signs of danger.
That was the main reason Aelita decided to bring them with her, as it was better to lose a droid than a crew member.
Not finding any threats, the droids proceeded to cut open the second door, separating them from the interior of the ship, but were stopped by Arien.
-If there is an atmosphere inside this ship, we will all be blown out the moment we open these doors.
She explained.
They were moving almost blind, since the ships hull was resistant to scans and they had no idea what was on the other side.
-Alright, since that's the case, let's get out onto the hull and let the droids do their thing.
Andrew said.
-Droids, activate the presurized ship breaching protocols.
He commanded, and the two droids that were designated to open the door placed magnetic anchors on the airlocks' walls and strapped themselves to them with metal wires placed on their lower backs.
That way they should remain secured in case of rapid decompression.
As soon as everyone left the airlock and took a few steps back from the entry point, the two droids proceeded to cut the inner door open.
A moment later, there was some decompression, but not as much as everyone feared.
-Entry way clear, no threats detected, minimal atmosphere loss from the vessel.
Andrew received the text message from the droids who removed the anchors and were awaiting further orders.
-Proceed inside, scout the immediate area.
Andrew ordered, and all ten droids dispersed, scanning for any sign of threats.
The team entered right after them and looked around the long corridor.
-This thing is massive; it'll take a while before we search it all.
Arien said, impressed by the size of the ship's interior.
-We are going to move in two groups.
Aelita, take half of the team and a team of droids and try to find the engineering area.
Arien and I will take the rest and try to lactate the bridge.
-Alright, if we can't find anything within two hours, let's meet back here.
Aelita said, reminding them about their air supply.
They all nodded, and the teams went their separate ways at the end of the corridor, which branched into two passages.