Chapter 8: To the Empire

After accessing the information, he received the answers to most of his questions that had been plaguing his mind.

He also understood what synchronization meant. It simply meant establishing a connection between his mind and the Ship's main frame.

It didn't change his personality or anything. It simply allowed him to control the ship and issue his instructions without having to rush to the command center.

Excluding the Ship's history, and the locked features, Cassian now understood everything about this ship.

The Ship was called Fenrir. And Esme was the mainframe of this ship, acting as the manager between him and the ship's core.

As the Captain, he could remove Esme or completely erase her. He could even bypass her and directly control the core, but he needed a higher authority level for that.

As for how to increase the authority level, the process was simple. It was through using the supreme features of this ship. It was through devouring and evolving the ship.

If the ship was like a beast, then he was like it's tamer. The more he fed the beast and helped it evolve, the more his importance would increase in the beast's heart.

At the moment, Cassian was less interested in his authority level than he was in the features of this ship that looked out of this world.

The ship had a total of ten supreme class features, and he was only able to activate two of them yet. The ship was in a pretty bad condition after decades of hibernation, so it wasn't too shocking either.

"If I use this right, then it would be a game-changer."

He waved his hand, and the hollow screen in his vision disappeared. After another light wave, the screen appeared once more.

He was able to control the system interface like it was a part of his own body.

A lot of things about this should've shocked him, but his mind was strangely calm. Was this also the effect of synchronization? He wasn't sure.

"If you had awakened when I was a part of the Star Union, I could have gathered lots of resources to help you through union missions. But now, we can only try unorthodox methods..."

He quickly got off the bed. He picked up a white robe that was lying next to him, and wrapped it over his shoulders.

"Esme, can you calculate the trajectory of the attacks that damaged Fenrir?" He asked Esme, returning to the long corridors that led him back to the control room.

"Looking at the angle of strikes, and the targets that were struck, the attacks came from a ship stationed thirty degrees southwest."

Like a supercomputer, Esme answered him as soon as Cassian finished his question.

"What do you suggest? Should we change after them to gather more resources?"

Cassian sat on the Captain's chair and questioned Esme.

He had already made up his mind, but he wanted to hear Esme's answer. He wanted to learn what Esme's personality was like. Was her personality reckless and brave? Or was it cautious and calculating?

"Reporting to the Captain, the ship is running low on power. A lot of important rooms and facilities had been dismantled to perform emergency repairs. Although some of the primary weapon systems are back online, it would be unwise to follow after an enemy in this situation."

Cassian nodded with his eyes closed. He had thought about the same thing.

At first, he was still amazed that the ERAs had repaired the ship. It was like magic. But after synchronization, he could grasp everything about this ship's situation.

He could already see that many of the rooms in this ship had outright disappeared, leaving empty space. They were dismantled.

Except for the Reactor Room, Medical Bay, Main Bridge and Command Center, almost everything was gone.

From the outside the ship looked normal. But only those on the inside knew that the ship was similar to a wounded animal, hiding its wounds behind its long fur.

He could still chase after the enemy ship by calculating their positions. But it was impossible to precisely locate them if they changed their directions later on.

It was like chasing a wild goose. Even if he found the enemy ship, he had to rely on the fact that they didn't want him dead to go after them.

Just because they didn't want him dead, didn't mean they wouldn't attack his ship again, after their initial shock passed.

It was a risk that he was happy to take when he had nothing to lose. But now that he had Fenrir, he would have to be a fool to take a risk like this.

It was no different than putting a million units on the line, on a bet that could only get him a few thousand Units.

Cassian completely agreed with Esme's thoughts. But it didn't mean that they could simply wait here.

Even if he had told the old man that he didn't need any help, it was highly likely that he was going to come here. And if he saw that his ship had no damages, it would lead to more troubles at this point.

"Esme, we are leaving. Set Coordinates for our destination."

"Where are we going?"

Cassian inserted the memorized co-ordinates in the mainframe. Esme also followed the Captain's command and the ship started providing thrust as it moved through the void.

As for their destination... It was none other than the Empire. It was a place where even the Unions wouldn't dare to cause trouble. It was a place brimming with resources that he needed.

...

At the same time, in a distant nebula, a girl slammed her hand on the keys before her.

"How dare that bastard lie to us? He is fine? As if we didn't receive the video of his ship being wrecked to shreds! Is he so stubborn that he would die then take our help and agree to our terms?"

She had thought that she would hear Cassian begging for their help when they responded to his signal for help. But that arrogant bastard didn't even talk to them respectfully, cutting off the connection with a single message of denial.