SPaMG: Repeating Colors

    Stars soon lost their stretched shape and returned to their natural circular forms, the sudden jolt of immediate deceleration causing everyone held by the ship to jerk forward immediately afterwards. Below sat an odd world; once a tremendous cityscape, yet now all that remains is an uncountable number of metallic shards from the structures held by the dead planet, along with a gigantic crater between its north pole and equator.
    “Davy do you have any idea what you’re doing!?” Aggravation consumes the oldest of the crew as his rows of teeth grit and grind together, his face clearly enraged with the abrupt slipspace jump.
    “Listen-listen, we’re just ‘ere to find some salvage ‘n stuff, aight?” The driver’s optimism soon fades, now only in existence to mask the awkward afterthought of what she just did, along with a small smile and a pair of shrugging arms.
    “Miss Davy, if it’s not too much to ask, may we stop by the memorial? If we’re going to be salvaging parts then we might as well gather some data.” Elo’s discomfort seems to have been replaced with a sense of curiosity. Maybe he’d rather spend time learning about this world in the safety of a museum rather than having a close-up view of the decayed ball of stone it was dedicated for.
    “Leave it to the blunderer of pirates to take a mission to literally the biggest crisis in human history! Davy, do you realize the significance of this place!?” Melissa continues to forcefully scold her counterpart and her ridiculous one-man decision, leaving Jessie to let out an annoyed grunt, followed by the loud clank of falling metal.
    “Okay okay, I can kind of see why I made you guys mad, buuut, the Vanguard is offering a lot of dosh for someone t’ check this place out.” Sweat drizzles down from the captain’s hair-fluffed forehead, more and more awkwardness punching her right across the jaw as her two hands both come together, palm-to-palm.
    Jessie soon steps up behind the bulkhead behind Davy, his feet hitting deep and loud against the creaky floorboards before slamming it open.
    “Elo, you’re getting dropped off down at the memorial museum. Mel, you’re going to keep watch over the ship. Davy, you and I are gonna head down to the surface. I’ll take a guess and say that the contract came with a beacon?”
    The captain leans back in the swivel chair and taps her fingers together, eye bouncing from left to right and back over. She stands, all optimism now gone after forfeiting the idea of redemption.
    “Uhh, y-yeah.”
    Jessie takes place in the seat that was once occupied by his superior, the specified woman willingly stepping to the side. He soon flicks off the camera feed and brings them around the planet’s orbit, most-likely to arrive at the previously mentioned museum.
    “Davy…” He sighs, limbs becoming less tense and relaxed. “I’m going to show you just why none of us want to come here, or why I didn’t want to come back. Instead of pulling us outta here, I feel like you need to know. The kid doesn’t need to know what’s down there, not in person.”
    “Jessie, don’cha think you’re gettin’ a little too worked up over this? All we gotta do really is just go grab some stuff. Yeah I know that it’s kinda’ important, but still, we can handle it!”
    The ship slows down once the planet’s artificially orbiting station comes into view, leading to Jessie slowly turning the chair to face his old comrade.
    “Jones. I never said we couldn’t handle it, it’s just…” He looks down with another sigh and gently brings both hands together, his voice softening. “This place brings some bad memories… Some memories that have haunted me since…” Jessie looks back up, his eyes shining and wet, though, no tears fell. “Taking anything from this world is… Well it’s offensive. So many people died here, yet you just wanna take a piece of it for some money.”
    “Well look at it this way, the Vanguard set up a commission, and the pay shows that whatever we need ta’ grab is clearly worth it; maybe we’re doin’ some good, ya’ know?” Davy gives another shrug to her cooperate, face no longer showing distraught. The short man turns back towards the wheel to move the craft forward through the midst of tiny metal particles, the ultimatum being the obvious museum.
    They’re eventually pulled into one of four cylindrical airlocks, leaving the first round door to close behind them as the innermost entrance splits open. Jessie reactivates the camera feed and speaks to the newest of their group.
    “Hey kid; stop’s here.” The droid smiles with his singular eye and takes hold of his Davy-gifted tablet before heading up the stairs and eventually, out through the ship’s side door. “And make sure to take plenty of notes!” Jessie chuckles and hoists himself onto two feet, now looking down and waving to the innocent automaton, and as expected, receives a wave back. The ship is soon lifted back off from the landing platform that briefly rested its four deployable legs and charged through the same airlock, leading back to the open void.
    The sets of trapezoid-shaped windows face directly towards the planet, letting the two captains stare as the sun rises overhead. Light unveils the shattered world above, revealing a graveyard of thousands of ships, along with huge stretches of material that wind back down to the planet. Jessie looks over to a secondary monitor to his left, the screen holding shape of their contract. The large central visor reveals an image of the planet, and after entering the given coordinates, informs them of the beacon’s location.
    The five-engined ship quickly swoops down towards the decimated world below. The Homebound slid above a broken street and between an array of buildings, all of which have been mostly yanked from the ground. The sun hadn't reached their half of the planet yet, so Jessie had to rely on the ship’s two high-powered headlights in order to see. All around them sat human-like outlines, cascaded and preserved from the many years of unbreathable darkness. Davy gulped, though the silence between the two friends was soon broken by a call on the rightmost monitor.
    “Haha!” A familiar figure soon came into view, the one cylindrical eye and three triangular panels revealing it to be none other than Brother! “I knew you guys would take on that listing!” A large boom came through the High General’s shaking screen, forcing his attention off-screen. “Get the plasma cannons online NOW!” He then turned back to Davy and Jessie. “Alright you two, look. I really should have gone down there myself, but conflict has overtaken my rare free-time, but you ABSOLUTELY NEED to check something for me. A huge surge of solar polarity has been detected over New Harmony, and in case you couldn’t tell, I only have about a third of the corresponding armament.”
    “Great. So first Nemesis grabs a Shard of Luna, and now there could be someone with a piece of Sol.” Jessie stops the Homebound's movement as he speaks to the Sapient Intelligence.
    “Precisely. I need you to go scout out the scene and see just what in the Forerunner’s name is happening down there! If anything happens then call me. If I don’t respond, then go straight to the High Commander himself, understood!?” The two pirates nod to their life-saving ally as the various wires that sit under his frame begin to glow neon orange. “Now if you’ll excuse me...” Brother bends his right arm and aggressively straightens it out, causing an aura of orange to form around it. “...I have some business to attend to.” The call then ends.
    “Ha! I told you that coming ‘ere would be good!” Davy’s smile returns as she pushes a single finger against Jessie’s nose. However, that burst of joy and triumph soon fades in exchange for even more discomfort than prior. “Wait-wait-wait. So you’re telling me…” She forces herself into a worried pause, only to mumble out the rest of the thought.
    “...We could have another Nemesis on our hands?”