The Universe, 3029

[Kaimani Akamu]

D.C.S. Takashima
Main Engineering, Drive Section, Escape Pod Access Corridor
Great Banded Desert, Nirasaki
(Early February)

 

”What luck,” Kaimani Akamu marveled, “What wonderful, glorious sons of fate these newcomers were!”

Not only was he free of his makeshift cell, but his new “friends” were most definitely mercenaries here in pursuit of of a parallel goal! Just 5 short minutes ago, Kai hadn’t been entirely sure that he would ever leave this ship, unless it was in the guts of those disgusting giant rat lizards!

One firefight  (and one poorly executed fistfight) later, he had a good chance to make a success out of his real mission here! 
 

Kai dusted his shoulders off and attempted to make a decent assessment of his current situation through the terrible, psychedelic raze in his ears and Smokey hallway he was in. Dirty, difficult-to-make-out people standing around him. Maybe one of them could help him to get the neck-popper off. 

A member of this group even seemed to be wearing the very equipment he’d come here to find! The Nighthawk power-armor he was wearing was heavily modified and was obviously the recipient of decades worth of scratches, patches, and scorches.

“Where the hell has he gotten it, “ Kai pondered. “Moreover, where had he learned to pilot it?!” It couldn’t have come from this ship, he was sure of it. He was sure he knew or knew of every skilled power-armor or PA-L suit driver on this side of the Sphere.
 

Kai thought the Nighthawk pilot seemed a little off but he certainly knew how to vivisect pirates with it! He looked down and wiped the bit of gore off his boot with a small grimace. The suit’s markings were unfamiliar.

However, Kai had internally made up his mind that he could work with these men , whoever they were, for more than just the time it took to escape though he was not sure what they would think of his “official” mission here. No matter, they seemed to accept and dismiss his cover story for the moment.

Dare he hope that he had once again been delivered from Pele’s Volcanic Wrath? 
 

Only time would tell...

[Sergeant Miles]

D.C.S. Takashima

Black Eclipse discovery site
Great Banded Desert, Nirasaki
February 7, 3029
___________________________

Miles kept his eyes fixed on the gore covered Nighthawk battle suit. The suit was old and had clearly been through many grueling battles. The charcoal gray armored monster loomed in the hallway, it’s entire bulk dominated the battle space, including the man sitting on the ground with the bomb collar around his neck. Driven by an unseen force the Sergeant walked forward,  deep inside of him something stirred at the site of the killing machine. The madness around him disappeared, time slowed and sound dampened.  He walked on, holding Mother’s gift. 

As he closed the distance, the true horror of the suit became real. The suit’s normally rectangular shaped head had been modified to mimic a snarling K9 with elongated fangs... like a crude werewolf. It’s powered gauntlets had been shaped into rending claws that now dripping with blood and human fluid. Everything about it spoke of horror and death. 

None of this scared the Skinwalker, for he saw beauty and admired its purpose. The Sergeant also saw the killing construct’s gift, Mother’s gift. It was a necklace similar to his own. But this that hung from the Nighthawk’s armored neck was larger and more ornate, made of human bone, feathers and a silver snarling wolf skull with real fangs. 

Now Miles was so close he would reach out and touch it.  The only movement the faceless killer made was a slight flexing of his claws. It was just as transfixed on the Miles as he was on it. 

“I am Nightstalker, son of Mother and a true blood of the Pack.... show yourself” whispered the Sergeant. 

The suit stood still, now completely motionless. 

“Reveal yourself.... battle bother” Mile’s tone was like ice. 

Slowly, the creature’s  arms raised up, it’s massive claws covered its head. A low hiss and puff of air escaped from the helmet’s collar seal. Slowly, the beast pulled its helmet off..... revealing the painted face of an old battle brother. 

Bishop’s massive skull was shaved smooth, his face was horrible scared with burn marks and cuts. The warriors entire head was painted in a spooky bone white war paint that sent chills down Mile’s spine. From temple to temple a single, greasy black strip of war paint covered his now silver eyes and bridge of his nose. A wave of emotions struck Miles like a thunder bolt, joy, pride and sadness....for his brother’s damaged soul. 

“What is your name brother?” Asked Miles. 

In a slow and growl Bishop spoke, “Deathwalker”

“No.... brother, what is your name?” Whispered Miles. 

Bishop’s face twitches and contorted with pain,”Deathwalker” he whispered. 

Miles starred unblinking into Bishop’s eyes, the  man was in tremendous physical pain. Like flashes of lighting, Miles saw the internal  struggle in Bishop’s eyes. He saw a beast’s rage and hunger for slaughter and a man trying to regain his mind and soul. It was a struggle as old as time, the animal savage against man. 

“Your name is Bishop Weyland .... remember your name my brother.... come back to me” whispered Miles. 

Bishop’s face twitched with pain, now a trickle of blood ran out of nostril. Miles recognized it immediately... the suit was keeping Bishop alive, pumping him full of pain killers and combat stimulates. How long had been like this? What happened to him? How did he get back? All these questions raced through Mile’s mind. 

“My name....my name... is Bishop Weyland” whispered Bishop. 

The Sergeant’s heart leapt with joy. He had hope for his brother’s mind and soul. 

“Bishop! Your alive!” Captains Maxwell’s voice broke the moment. 

The armored hulk instinctively twitch, flexing its claws at the approaching Captain. Miles held out his hand, signaling the Captain to stop.  The Captain instinctively froze in place. 

Miles held his breath and watched as Bishop’s eyes tracked the possible threat, ready to massacre him, and everyone else in the room. 

There, in his silver eyes Miles saw a flash of recognition. 

In a distant and slow voice Bishop spoke,

“Captain Maxwell......Captain Maxwell.... what are your orders sir?”

Miles relaxed some, then slowly turned to the now spooked Captain. Locking eyes with Maxwell, the Sergeant told him everything he needed to know.....I’ll explain later.... keep calm... no sudden movements. 

[Charles Maxwell]

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Apparently, neither could Marcus Donovan, who let out a long whisper and an expletive in my headset, a decidedly out-of-character move from a man I'd known to maintain a strict military bearing at all times.

"Ho-ly shit," the Captain's voice crackled. "Bishop Weyland - back from the dead. How the hell did he manage that? I saw the BattleROM myself. There was nothing left of that tank."

"I have no idea," I murmured, trying to afford the Mendacius' control center as clear a view of the battle armored soldier as I could without alarming him. "But he seems really spooked. And, frankly, doesn't look terribly healthy."

"See if you can talk to him,"  Donovan ordered. "But listen, Charles, don't take any unnecessary risks. This mission is going sideways again."

"Yeah, about that," I whispered, turning my head away from Weyland and Miles momentarily, "what's the situation with the Republic? Why can't we raise them?"

"Major Hayes and Nathan Schmidt were trying to decrypt that drive you brought back - "

"Schmidt?" I blurted. Miles cast me a glance. I held my hand up to forestall any questions. "What the devil was Schmidt doing mucking around in that archive?"

"Major Hayes wanted to leverage his abilities, and what happened wasn't his fault. They found a program on the drive that looked promising. But when they tried to run it - in a sandboxed environment, mind you - it smashed through the security protocols and initiated the Republic's liftoff sequence. They weren't prepped for dustoff and were very nearly killed as the ship made orbit. We have since lost communication with them - first due to the ionic interference of their exit trajectory, and now, because they're in an orbit that's taken them onto the far side of the planet - but our telemetry confirms that they're in a stabilized orbit and appear to have gotten the ship into a pressurized flight configuration," Captain Donovan explained. "And before you ask - no, I don't know the status of any of your crew that you had onboard. They were all aboard at the time the ship pushed off, though. Those down on the planet aboard the Tana are fine."

"I appreciate the update. Please keep us apprised. Are you moving to intercept the Republic?" I asked.

"Not at this time. Our primary responsibility is to ensure you are able to complete your mission successfully. If we break geostationary orbit, we'll lose communication with you and we won't be able to continue surveillance of the discovery site. After you're safely extracted and aboard the Tana, we can attempt to aid the Republic," Donovan answered.

"Understood," I replied. "If and when you are able to raise the Republic on the comms, please recommend to Major Hayes that he leverage Warrant Officer Alyssa Chase to help get the ship back online. She's cut from the same tech-savvy cloth that Mister Schmidt is. Marius Lennox, aboard the Tana, can also provide remote advisement."

"I'll be sure the message gets through, Captain," Donovan confirmed.

I looked back toward Miles and Weyland. Both men wore haunted expressions - Sergeant Miles looked as though he was seeing a ghost, while Bishop looked as though his soul had left his body, leaving behind a shattered shell held together by machinery and medicine. Cautiously, I approached the pair. As I did so, Weyland's head snapped toward me. Holding my ground, I maintained eye contact, stepping closer and closer.

"Bishop - it's certainly good to see you," I began. "We thought we'd lost you."

The soldier gazed at me with distant eyes. Eventually, he spoke, each word emerging slowly, deliberately, painfully.

"No. I...returned to the pack."

I nodded, deciding against any further sentimentality that I knew would make the man uncomfortable. "Well, if you feel up to it - fall in, solider. We could use your help."

Weyland tipped his head curtly toward me, and stomped toward the rest of our group, his Nighthawk power armor making heavy mechanical noises as it thunked across the deckplates.

I glanced toward Sergeant Miles.

"I can't explain everything right now, sir," Miles offered, "but Bishop has come back. Mother was here."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"As you know, we have a pact to retrieve any Skinwalker elders that fall. And...Mother did something with him," the Sergeant explained, sounding shaken.

Before Miles could speculate further, another voice spoke up.

"I suppose a thank you is in order."

I turned my head toward the speaker. It was the man with the bomb collar.

[James Hayes]

Elsewhere...

C.S.V. Republic
Low orbit
Nirasaki, Draconis Combine
February 7, 3029
___________________________

"Amazing work, Mister Schmidt," I sighed, the tension easing as the Lyran and I registered the successful transition of the Republic into an interstellar flight configuration. 

"I'll remember you said that," Schmidt replied, his fingers clicking across the keypad of the noteputer. "We're still under thrust. By the looks of it, this thing is trying to put us into a stable orbit. I have no idea why."

"Maybe we can use that to our advantage," I answered. "Now that we're not under immediate threat of falling out of the sky, we can turn out attention toward making sure we don't leave this system."

"I don't think we stand a chance of getting control of the engines," Nathan retorted. "We didn't even technically get control of the ship just now. We just got lucky that the virus apparently has a fear of drowning."

"I get that," I interrupted, stopping Nathan's rant. "But I'm not talking about trying to get control of anything. I'm talking about going down to the engine room and physically disconnecting the drives."

"Well, I don't see any reason why we wouldn't be able to do that," Nathan agreed, "especially since the virus doesn't seem to care about any security systems that don't directly protect its program. But then, what's gonna keep us from falling into the atmosphere and getting incinerated when we inevitably start losing altitude?"

"We'll only take the interplanetary engines offline. We'll keep the thrusters and RCS online. I feel pretty confident that the virus doesn't want to burn up any more than we do," I explained. "Come on, let's get down there."

"I don't know the first thing about engines," Nathan deadpanned.

"Well, I guess that means that today, you get to learn," I replied.

###

A short while later...

With the help of the engineering crew and Nathan Schmidt, we'd been able to make short work of disconnecting the fuel lines which fed the Republic's massive fusion drives. As we'd predicted, the malware made no attempts to stop us; instead, it seemed confused as to the sudden unavailability of the ship's interplanetary engines, attempting to fire them periodically, but having no success in doing so. As a result, the program simply used the vessel's thrusters at regular intervals to keep the ship on a stable altitude and trajectory.

"Well, that was fun," I chuckled, wiping grease from my hands and tossing the rag across the zero-gravity environment of the engine bay. Nathan plucked it out of the air, using it to scrub at a spot on his flight suit while casting me a skeptical glance.

"I guess," he answered.

"Well, if turning wrenches doesn't do it for you, maybe there's something else we can busy you with," a new voice quipped. Floating down the ladder of the bay toward us was Alyssa Chase.

"Miss Chase, nice of you to join us. What exactly did you have in mind for Mister Schmidt here?" I inquired.

"Sorry for not calling ahead, Major," Alyssa replied. "The comms are still hosed. The bridge crew passed me your summary of the situation with the computers. As I understand it, you're going to have to take the core offline to get the virus extricated."

"Yes, that's pretty much accurate, and purging all the malware is going to need to happen quick enough that we can fire the system back up afterward with enough altitude left that we can maintain it with just the thrusters," I agreed. "I'm essentially planning to try to pull off what we did on the Half Moon."

Chase nodded. "While that did work, it took you a while - no offense, of course. I'm just a little concerned that you might come in right against the wire if you go at it alone this time."

"What'd you have in mind?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, if Nathan and I assist you, we can get it done three times as fast, and guarantee that we'll have breathing room on the other side," Chase explained.

"That sounds like an excellent plan," I nodded. "Mister Schmidt, feel up to more some authorized systems intrusion?"

[Nicholas Schuster]

A few minutes later......

Major Hayes, Alyssa, and I stared at the computer core aboard the Republic. The server room was so quiet that you could practically hear a pin drop.

"Uh, this doesn't look anything like the computer room aboard the Half Moon." I finally said.

"And how would you know what the computer room aboard the Half Moon looks like?" Alyssa asked pointedly.

I looked toward Major Hayes.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." the Major said.

"Never mind, forget I said anything." I sighed. "Anyway, the point is, this is a seriously different configuration. Much, uh, simpler, but with weirdness."

"We reconfigured it on Sheratan to beef it up and make it capable of handling command and control situations in a major battlefield environment, as well as being able to grind through heavy-duty encryption, algorithmic analysis, and compilation, all while networked to an intelligence vessel and a supporting DropShip." Hayes replied. "You need a lot of extra firepower to  be able to do that."

"I don't disagree, but it's all spaghetti'd together and cross-patched and stuff. I don't know who did this job, but it's a rat's nest of - "

"I'm sorry my work isn't up to your standards, Mister Schmidt, but I can assure you, it's been getting the job done." Major Hayes grumbled.

"Until now." I fired back. I instantly regretted the comment. Major Hayes was being really patient with me, and I was pushing it. So I quickly course corrected. "That's all beside the point though. Where are the O/S drives on this thing?"

"They're over here." said the Major, pushing off the bulkhead and floating slowly across the zero-gravity environment. I followed, with Alyssa behind me. I was feeling kind of paranoid about where Alyssa stood on everything. She was yet another person that had been on the Half Moon when I'd knocked it offline. And it seemed like she didn't have a lot to say to me. Not that I blamed her.

Major Hayes turned a key in the server rack and pulled away the faceplate of the server blade, revealing all of its drives alight with twinkling lights. There were probably a dozen or more.

"That's a lot of redundancy." I eventually said.

"Think you can handle it?" Hayes asked.

"Whether or not he can handle it, I've got it covered, Major." Alyssa interrupted. I looked toward her.

"We can get this done together." I said. "Come on, let's get to work."

[Steve Jenkins]

Aboard the REPUBLIC
Sick Bay
---------------------

I woke up with a huge headache. I rolled over and puked violently into a barf bowl. Then I sat up. I was laying in sick bay. There were doctors going everywhere, nurses and doctors. I looked over and a guy I had met during the battles, Kylo Biggs was there too, eating a burrito.

"Do you want some Steve Jenkins?" he asked me.

"Sure I'm famished." Fighting in the war had really taken it out of me. Kylo brought me a burrito and I bit into it. Anchovies and beans fell out of the end of it as I gagged on the bad taste. 

"BAH THIS IS TERRIBLE!!" I screamed as I whipped the burrito through the air and watched it blow up on a wall. 

I cracked open a beer and chugged it. The problem with the Republic computers had been long and intense, but me and my client Nate had survived it. We were heroes. I drank the beer down to the bottom, crushed it, and threw it at a wall. Kylo had gone back to sleep, and I was going stir crazy, I needed to find the Book of the Dead to resurrect everyone lost in the wars, I had to do something, but sitting in a medbay on some broke down DropShip I was helpless. I decided to do waking meditation and mixed martial arts the way my father taught me to clear my head and center myself so that I could find an answer.

I sat in a Lotus position on the MedCouch and closed my eyes and started a long zen humming, that got louder and more deeper, as my medication got more intense. Then as I meditated I smashed a board with my forehead and did 3 backwards flip kicks and 6 monkey punches, soon I was completely meditated, and I had a vision in front of me.... 

[Steve Jenkins]

PART DEUX

All was darkness until.... 

"FIND IT!" 

A loud voice, whispers, and then Sensei Ronald floated out of the darkness with his glowing hair flowing behind him and he was slitting cross legged and floating in the air like a yoga guru. "FIND THE BOOK!" 

HOW? I begged, it was too confusing. "WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? HOW CAN I GET AT IT FROM HERE? IT'S LIKE HALFWAY ACROSS THE GALAXY!!"

Sensei Ronald pointed at a spot. "PICK UP THOSE BARBELLS." He commanded with a loud voice.

I looked, and there were barbells, but they had not been there before. I picked them up and started pumping iron, but I didn't know how I was supposed to use them to get to the Book of the Dead. The more I pumped the more I just got tired. Eventually one of my arms felt like it was gonna rip out of the socket. So I stopped, and yelled at Sensei Ronald some more, eventually fire was blasting out of his face and splattering everywhere and lighting other stuff on fire

"NOW Your goal is at where The Book is." said Sensei Ronald. "Use your techniques to project there." As he made words lava came out of his mouth and he grew 12 arms.

"But how??? How do I do that? I'm in a spaceship a billion miles away!!" I said. A bowl of peyote appeared.

"SMOKE." 

"OK, I'll try...."

[Alyssa Maxwell]

Elsewhere...

C.S.V. Republic
Low orbit
Nirasaki, Draconis Combine
February 7, 3029
___________________________

Major Hayes, Nathan Schmidt, and I worked feverishly to image new operating drives for both the Republic's primary and backup core systems, having discovered that not only had both systems been infected by the malware, but also, the failover drives that they contained had been compromised as well. Fortunately, the Crayven Corporation seemed to be an especially paranod bunch, and kept air-grapped recovery media in a locked cabinet in the computer bay for just such a contingency. Time was preciously short, as we knew that there was a chance that, eventually, the virus would either try something new, or freak out and cause a maneuvering accident that would send us spiraling to our deaths on the planet's surface below. Meanwhile, we were still out of communication with the other vessels in our flotilla, and as I understood it, we couldn't reach our teams in the field, either, thanks to the unavailability of our comms system.

I wasn't sure why the Major had seen fit to trust Schmidt with access to the ship's key systems, even with his degree of computer finesse, or why he thought that it was safe for the Lyran to be out of his holding cell in the first place. I could only trust that he knew what he was doing, and it appeared that Hayes had the prisoner on a short leash, at least. In the mean time, it'd be my responsibility to bury my resentment, mistrust, and hostility toward Schmidt and get the job done.

"Alright, Nathan, when the drives are done imaging, we're going to have to pull all of the primary OS disks and all of the secondaries at the same time so that there's no remaining locations that the virus can continue to exploit for command and control access," I instructed.

"Got it," Nathan replied.

"Nathan, can you handle swapping the backup system's drives while Alyssa and I cut the primary system over?" Major Hayes asked.

"Of course, I - " Nathan began.

"Major," I interrupted. "With all due respect - I think either you or I should handle the backup system. One of us needs to keep an eye on him." I glanced toward Schmidt, who scowled in my direction, but said nothing. Major Hayes paused for a moment before responding.

"You're right. I'll take the backups," the Major eventually replied.

"Understood," I answered. "Mister Schmidt, where are you in your imaging process? Almost ready?"

[Charles Maxwell]

Elsewhere...

D.C.S. Takashima
Black Eclipse discovery site
Great Banded Desert, Nirasaki
February 7, 3029
___________________________

The man with the bomb collar seemed completely unfazed by the series of events that had just transpired. Casually, he made his way toward Bishop, scrutinizing the soldier's Nighthawk power armor.

"I'm impressed that you've refitted this the way you have, it's quite a bit different from the ones at NAIS," he remarked, studying the configuration. Bishop's eyes narrowed, following the motions of the man.

"You're trained to use it, obviously," the stranger continued, gesturing at the mutilated remains of one of the salvagers.

"Yes," Sergeant Miles replied, at length. "Irian has some of these suits, and we use them now and then for operations with the Skinwalkers."

The young man nodded. "As it would so happen, I am certain that there are more suits of that type deeper in this ship. The people who have set up camp here don't seem to understand that there's more going on here than meets the eye. I can tell from the looks on your faces that you've seen some of it already."

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Captain McKenzie interjected.

The man bowed slightly. "My apologies. My name is Tikashi Hideo, I was captured and held in the room across the hallway, next to the drive controls. I was here to salvage, and I tricked the others into thinking I worked for the Combine."

I balked at the man's reply. We'd been in the drive control room just days prior, creating a distinct possibility that we'd nearly crossed paths and didn't even know it.

"Pleasure to meet you," I nodded. "And - forgive me, but it looks like you're still being held. Is that thing active?"

I pointed at the bomb collar for emphasis. As I did so, it started to beep.

[Nicholas Schuster]

C.S.V. Republic
Low orbit
Nirasaki, Draconis Combine
February 7, 3029
___________________________

Music for this post: snidelyWhiplash (YouTube)

"I'm ready." I replied. "Let's go!"

"Alright, now, when we take all of the drives out, the ship is going to shut down. Totally. I'm talking life support, thrusters, defenses, lights, everything. We won't lose atmo, because the life support's designed to stay in whatever state it was in during a catastrophic systems failure, but it won't be making any new atmosphere, so we have to work quick. Also, let's loop back to the thing I said about thrusters. Our orbit will eventually start to degrade. So we have to do this expeditiously." Major Hayes warned.

"Got it." said Alyssa.

"I understand." I confirmed.

"Okay, I've got my bank of drives and I'll be hitting the backup machine. Alyssa, you have yours. And Nathan, you have yours.I just texted the bridge and let them know what's about to happen. On three, I'm gonna kill power to this entire room, and we swap. Get your flashlights ready." Major Hayes commanded. I pulled my headband-mounted flashlight on, and clicked the little lamp to full brightness. Alyssa did the same, looking at me with uncertain eyes.

"Ready...three...two...one!" Major Hayes barked, and with that, he dropped the giant breaker switch along the middle of the room. Everything went dark, and quiet, immediately, with the sounds of dozens of machines abruptly powering off. Across the entire ship I could hear systems also winding down. The room started getting warm right away. Only the small pools of light from our flashlights remained.

"Go time!" shouted Major Hayes, and I heard a flurry of mechanical activity behind me as the Major started ripping drives out of the backup mainframe. I dove into the guts of my side of the primary computer and started pulling drives as fast as I could. From time to time, I glanced at Alyssa, ensuring I was keeping pace with her, and sometimes, her eyes would catch mine, rampant suspicion and worry obvious every time.

"Don't worry." I finally said, quietly. "I'm on your side this time."

"Just remember that." Alyssa warned.

In short order I had all 12 drives pulled and lined up inside a plastic box, which I threw the lid on and pushed across the zero gravity to Major Hayes. Then, I started grabbing drives out of the imaging bay, razor focused on making sure that the right clones went into the right slots on the server. As I clicked each in, I called off the drive numbers to Alyssa to make sure I was mirroring in time with her. In about five minutes, we were ready, turning toward Major Hayes to give him the thumbs-up.

"Okay, Major, Nathan and I are clear." Alyssa announced.

"Me too." said Hayes. "Alright. Here we go. Fingers crossed."

The Major floated over to the main breaker, pausing for a moment to look at it, then back at the computers, worriedly. Then, he threw the switch. At first, nothing happened, but then, as current flowed into the room, all of the systems started booting up, lights flaring alive again, and the sound of servers powering on filled the air.

"This is looking good." Hayes commented. He floated over to the main computer and started checking system status. "Helm, operations, weapons, sensors, internal systems...it looks like we have control so far. Except...comms. Weird. Comms aren't back."

"May I?" I asked, pointing at the terminal to the right of the Major. Alyssa glared.

"You can watch, if you want." I said.

Hayes nodded to me and Alyssa. I quickly pulled the terminal up and logged in.

"This is weird. The dish is in use." I said. "It's...transmitting to some place on the wreck. And receiving from it. This doesn't make any sense."

"Is it a member of the team?" the Major asked.

"No." I said, slowly. "It's a...data stream."

Before any of us could process what I'd just said, the computer terminal, and all of the terminals in the room, started to glitch out and cascade back into the state they were in before we'd wiped the malware. I quickly ran a series of commands on the comm dish.

"Major, there's a bootstrapped program in the firmware of the dish, and it's calling home to something on the surface! Whatever that is, it's streaming the malware back aboard!"

"That means it's in the boot sequence for the comm dish, which means that no matter how many times we re-flash the drives, it's going to come back online and start doing the same thing, undoing our work in the process. And we can't pull the comm dish to re-flash the firmware separately while outside of a shipyard. Goddamn it. Alright, I'm open to suggestions, you two." Major Hayes looked concerned.