Red Eagle: Welcome aboard the Red Eagle

Simulations 49, 60, 58, 54, completed… Once again a mass of people walked out.

“We couldn’t go through the polar star.” Renee stated glaring down her test captain.

“Yes, you can. You have to temporarily fry the-” The captain seemed equally furious. Which seemed rather strange to Targus given their scores, perhaps he was finally going to note something of interest.

“You can’t fry both the cleft compiler and legedeer system on S-cr34 they’re on opposite ends of the engine area” Renee rebutted. “No one this side of the cosmos is going to fix both of those in time for me to chart a course that doesn’t involve crashing full-force into a moon!”

“Uh? Reroute the cleft to the buster tubes before you go through, and you won’t have to.” Damian stated matter of factly. Renee opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it.

“Would that have worked?” Renee turned to the engineer on her team.

“Please don’t suggest sinking to the level of savagery this failed rich boy does.” A female responded.

“If you don’t need to shoot.” A pick haired Spectrum replied. Her two guns holstered.

“Actually…” Everyone looked down at a Dematorian who stared up at them with solid light blue, glowing eyes before he continued to speak in the usual robotic tone after a few seconds. “The cleft compiler only needs about 53 watts to turn the engines. That kind of engine pack in way above 300. In theory you could fire a plasma beam, and still be fine.

“There’s no style in a plasma beam.” The Spectrum replied.

“Not like style matters when you can't hit the bright side of a planet.” A male rebutted, which led to a 3rd argument about space and flexibility. 

“And you!” Damian’s test caption glared at their scientist. A very shy Triemkeylen doing her best to be humanoid, like those around her. “I said a basalt like compound.”

“W-well yes but we actually needed to overheat the… Maliton drive?” She looked at Damian who nodded. “Which was copper, so I made something that would generate its own heat much faster because-”

“You were radio silent for 10 minutes!” The captain.

“And saved like 15?” Damian responded, which to the captain glaring at him instead.

“You could at least follow one order.” Renee’s captain stated.

“I followed every order, and it cost us 13 minutes and 54 seconds.” Renee stated rather matter of factly. “Which is what I was trying to communicate. You know? Talk? Bounce ideas around?”

The assistants were trying their best to get the least compatible teams yet to seperate, but countless arguments continued. Targus eyed the pick haired Spectrum for a moment before reaching into his coat, and chucking three metal balls towards her. Three shots, one gun, and series of random moments later scraps of metal were on the ground.

“A crew of five for official testing, correct?” Targus questioned shouting down.

“Are you… sure, sir? This isn’t even half the-”

“It’s 31.87 percent” The Dematorian stated. “Not even a 3rd. But a lot of civilizations have 2 of their 5 tests done already, so I guess it’s not that weird, this year at least.” Most of the group gave silent glares as they were finally pushed away. Renee met up with the other chosen 4 shortly after.
 
“Weird section, in my opinion, but I guess I can’t complain on my first test.” Renee stated trying to be honest. A lot of governments seemed willing to let her in at first, but not many of her teammates had spoken highly of her for somewhat obvious reasons. Targus was apparently at least somewhat impressed, and even left an optional quest. Get to the test area from your room in 15 minutes. Along with a series of clues as to where that area was.

“No official seal either….” Renee thought out loud, and looked over the invite again, and cross references with people who consider her of interest. “Alchano, huh? Weird I was told they kept to themselves…”

“Alchano?” The Triemkeylen questioned. “They’re super open about almost everything. They’re just… umm…”

“They are the exact opposite of enforcing rules by launching a meteor into a moon.” The Dematorian finished, and Triemkeylen just shyly nodded.

“Anyways.” Renee signed. “I”m Renee Lywing. Damian I know. What about the rest of you?”

“I’ve been going by Sara. Sara Welkithem.” The pink Spectrum began.

“Only thing I got for ya is L3on-14” The Dematorian stated.

“Delma…” The Triemkeylen stated. “We don’t usually do names…”

“Sara, Delma, and… Pylon...” Renee stated. “Let’s see… navigator” Renee pointed to herself then to Damian. “Engineer… Scientist… Weapon expert, I assume.” Motioning to Delma and then Sara. “And I guess you can do pretty much anything” Renee stated looking at Pylon.

“Pylon?” The Dematorian question.

“Yeah. 3.14 is pi. And that leaves l-o-n… I can think of something better…”

“I like it.” Sara stated openly. “Even if he doesn’t understand the importance yet.”

“Humanoids? Confusing. Numbers. Those I understand. Nonetheless if y’all are gonna insist on ‘Pylon’ and ‘Robo’ I don’t really have the power to stop you.” Pylon stated.

“Well, with that settled. Does anyone actually know what we're doing?” Damian questioned. “I haven’t been given an official test either.”

“It’s not super different… usually.” Delma stated. “Alchano tends to do things differently. I can only really tell you that it will be a couple weeks on a spaceship.”

“I hear their test has been the same for a couple years.” Sara stated. “So they must really like whatever they are doing. Targus is a new face, so far as I can tell though.” Pylon shuffled through various records.

“Hmm… mhmm.... Interesting. So Targus has 5 rules, but there’s no record of all of them being followed” Pylon began to summarize the info he found to his new crew. Who attend their meeting as scheduled. Renee made it 12 minutes flat, and was easily able to describe her route in detail. Sara and Damian were working on some kind of project apparently even earlier than that, but Damian wasn’t willing to say what yet.

“Your test ship is referred to as the Red Eagle.” Targus began. “Welcome aboard. As of today, the alchanian government takes you into consideration. But whether or not you are truly ready to show yourselves, remains up to you. Today you leave limitation, and begin a test of where you stand without boundaries…” Despite the countless speeches at the Luxkem space academy, something about this one spoke to Renee in a way she hadn’t felt before. She had a feeling she was going to like it aboard this new ship of hers. Now came the challenge of proving it.