"It’s a Kraken." Jace said simply as the tentacle tightened around his leg before he was pulled in by the creature and it grabbed one of his arms before trying to tear him apart. But he resisted. "I thought the NeoYakuza AI was joking." Jace laughed.

"Did you say a Kraken!?!" A voice screamed in excitement.

"Is that K?" Jace asked in confusion as he kicked the kraken’s beast with his free leg.

"K is excited. A little too excited." Cain explained with a robotic sigh.

Jace frowned as the kraken released and swam away. After it swam away he started floating upwards again. "How, she has been an emotionless machine ever since her cover as a Union spy was uncovered."

"Apparently the technique that allows her to channel whatever power she uses also has a side effect of making her emotions fluctuate wildly for several hours afterwards." Cain explained. "She would not explain more."

"Don’t push. We are only temporary tepid allies for the moment." Jace reminded him. "How much space did we get on this ship that you are making?"

"Enough to house twenty people on a permanent basis. But not enough to include a hangar. I opted to instead create magnetic locks to secure the additional larger vessels." Cain informed him.

Jace sighed as he arrived at the unspoken conclusion. "I am going to have to design a new gravity drive from scratch. I understand. But please tell me you have found all the necessary materials to make the ship out of premium metals that won’t dent because of a little bit of force."

"Then some. I already made the frame out of that metal. Now we are moving onto the more important part." Cain explained. "Which brings me to what I called to talk about. Your schedule. I could move it forward if you arranged two different pickups."

"Not yet." Jace told him. "We still have things to do. Things that need to be nudged if we ever want to get home. Like you said before. We are not in a rush. Now if you will excuse me." Jace grunted out as a new sea creature with giant teeth chomped at his legs and started dragging him through the water. "I believe I am going to have to constantly fight off attacks from strange sea creatures. This one is a giant eel. Oooh? A giant electric eel!" Jace said in excitement as electricity coursed through the eels body and into Jace’s.

—----------------------

Cain sat his head down. "You didn’t tell him?" K asked. She was hanging from the rafters above. Swaying her legs back and forth.

Cain clicked his robotic tongue in annoyance. One blue eye and one red eye. "Of course not. Communications are still not secure enough. Telling him the truth would tell them the truth. That all of us are broken beyond feasible repair."

K was having an identity crisis because she had not used her abilities in so long. One minute she was a silent and elusive member of their little team. The next she was like an overjoyed child that was somehow more mature than most adult creatures. She was constantly slipping back and forth and it was getting taxing to keep track of her.

Crystal was sitting in his mech mostly now. Almost relying on it so he remembered the final objective. Which for him was to get home and protect his family. A sad lot that one was, especially with his insomnia. It was not like they brought a medic or doctor with them.

Then there was Colvert. Something happened to him when they came through. Slowly at first, but now all at once. His body had begun drastically changing. Despite that he was still working as hard as he could. He figured something had happened when they went through that black hole. But Cain was certain that something had happened as well.

Jamal was probably the most normal of them. He had not changed. In fact, it almost appeared like he had become a bit younger. Cain would have to get proper medical equipment to check what happened to him.

They were not the only ones. Shilla, an efficient and ruthless member of their team, had been changing as well. But she stayed in her armor and seemed unbothered by it. Almost like she knew something they didn’t. But for some reason she was staying quiet. Cain knew he should not be bothered by it.

But he was having his own crisis. Him, the original wanted to leave her alone because the reason she did not say anything was because of the rules her people have regarding sharing information that other species are not ready for. But the other, the psychotic AI he absorbed, wanted to torture and get the information out of her at all costs. His core programming was dueling constantly. The portal they came through did not affect, nor could it. But this programming where he dueled for his own control. That was something he did on his own, now he was suffering the consequences. He wished that Jace was here to help him.

—-----------------------

"Yahtzee!" Catherine yelled in excitement as she pulled a chunk of metal out of the twisted hunk that was once the center of the ship.

"What did you find now?" Sherlock asked in disappointment as he approached. He was probably sent here to keep an eye on her. Nowadays the princeling had grown suspicious and impatient with her. Especially since this civil war ended up being part of a larger movement on a galactic scale. As it stood, the contingent from Mars was on the way to help suppress the rebel movement that was occurring.

Now that this nation really mattered to her. She wanted a way home and these newcomers her way to it. But before she did that she needed a way to survive them and the only way to do that was information. Unfortunately the actual fish were not biting, so she was going to have to go around them and acquire the information in another way. That way was going to be through the angel species.

The same angel species that apparently did not see this galaxy as worth it to reveal their names. But somehow told the other galaxy, her home galaxy, their name because they respected them as a form of enemy.

"Oh? Is the famous Sherlock finally ready to share all of his intel. Or is this just a one way street?" Catherine asked as she climbed out of the twisted pile of metal. The rest could be broken down for scrap after she confirmed what she had found. She had taken an entire cargo area for her ’little’ project.

Sherlock glared at her.

"Fine." Catherine sighed. "If I am right I just found the records from the angel’s ship that the foreigners came in on." Catherine explained as she walked to a giant black box that started opening to reveal a screen and a keyboard. She did not even glance at him as she pulled a wire from the box and connected it to the side of the object she pulled out from the hunk of metal.

"I doubt that. All the angel ships destroyed their intel when we tried to capture them. Why would they not do the same with the foreigners." Sherlock asked with a scoff as he watched from behind her.

"Because, as much as they were expecting it. The angels are apparently prideful creatures. So prideful that I doubt they thought they were truly going to lose. So as soon as that group stepped aboard, I am guessing they locked down the network. That is what I would have done." Catherine explained to him as her hands glided across the keyboard and raw data appeared on the screen. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"That doesn’t look like viable intel." Sherlock pointed out.

"It’s not." Catherine lied as easily as she breathed which came out in a sigh. She would look at the intel she just acquired when there was not a snake watching over her. She detached the wire before walking back to the pile of scrap. "Now if you excuse me I have to get back to going through the remains of the ship parts that were acquired."

Sherlock chuckled as he walked away. "Of course, that is all you have permission to do until the Prince clears you."

—-----------------

West looked at the information on the screen as a flurry of movement occurred around her. "Ma’am, the data suggests he stopped momentarily between the southern islands and the west continent. But now we have picked him up going towards the west continent at a high speed."

"Any news from the local military bases on the west continent yet or the landing parties we sent?" West asked as she watched the data.

"No, nothing." Someone else answered.

"Then send word to the prince but leave it alone unless someone contacts us." West told them as she discreetly sent a text. [It is going as planned.]