This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

"Right, I'll worry about why you three are here later," I lightly chuckled. "For now, let's get this [Rig] out into the water."

At my call, Shade and Maruki went to their respective kiosks. Well, Shade did while Maruki went ahead and claimed the Engine kiosk for himself while it was unmanned. Of course, I myself took my usual spot in front of the Main Console, my fingers quickly flicking through one switch after the other as I started the launch sequence.

[*gggrrroooaannn....*]

With a mighty groan, the [Rig] began moving as our engines began humming underneath our feet. Looking at the map below me, I kept a careful eye on our heading as we slowly made our way out to sea, my gaze still partly looking at the possibility of any enemy ship trying to intercept us and preventing us from leaving.

"Moriya, we've got a call coming from the Portmaster telling us to stop," Shade called out from his kiosk. "I'm assuming we won't do that?"

"Of course," I scoffed. "We're running away, and we're going full speed if our engines can handle it."

Rolling my eyes, I returned my attention to steering this massive [Rig], the faint red dots by the edges of the map quickly informing me that we were finally getting chased by the authorities. This also meant that there was a possibility of combat should they manage to catch up to us.

I took a breath as I ran through my current options. I really didn't want to disturb the girls right now, but I sure as hell also didn't want our other kiosks to be unmanned while we were going to push our engines. Turning to the family of stowaways, I considered asking them for help only to shake my head. I didn't know what they could do yet, and I really didn't want them somehow sabotaging our efforts.

But Nicole on the other hand...

"Shade, call Nicole up here to the bridge," I instructed to Shade. "Tell her we need her help in running things."

"Got it," Shade nodded.

I then turned to our tank who was currently manning our defense kiosk. "Maruki, how are our defenses?"

"All of our defense systems are currently running adequately!" Maruki shouted out with his usual volume. "Our hull is impervious, and is currently undamaged as expected of Imperial engineering!"

I chuckled at how extra he delivered that status report. Still, the only thing I really wanted to hear about was our engines, and currently, nobody was manning the kiosk related to it. If I recalled correctly, Guidance was the last person to man that kiosk, but she wasn't here right now...

[*BANG!*]

"You called?!"

The sound of the door slamming open almost made me jump as I quickly turned around. Sure enough, Nicole was beaming at the opportunity to steer this massive thing, and she practically had a skip in her step as she walked up to me.

"What am I needed here for? Do I get to steer the [Rig]?!" she excitedly asked. "Oh! Maybe you want something upgraded in a flash?"

"None of those, Nicole," I shook my head as I then pointed towards the empty engine kiosk. "I need you to man the engine kiosk. I'll be pushing this thing to get us out to the Deep faster than usual, and I know just how temperamental this thing can get if we push it too hard."

It was yet another disaster waiting to happen. The last time our engine died, we were dead in the water without even a source of light to help us with the repairs. Thankfully, Shen was able to slapdash a solution by just brute-forcing the issue, but I really didn't want that to happen again, especially with a sovereign nation now gunning for our assess.

"Ooh! Do I get to play with it then?"

"Only if you can guarantee that it'll keep running despite that," I sighed in resignation. "Now go and get to position. I'll start pushing our speed the moment I see you situated."

"Can do!"

With a childlike wonder in her step, Nicole looked like a kid in the candy store as she marveled at the amount of technology in front of her. She didn't even wait for me to give her instructions before she began fiddling with the dials and switches, the manic look on her face glowing against the lights being emitted by the kiosk itself.

"We're all good!" she called out. "Push it!"

With Nicole giving me the all-clear, I started pushing the engine up to increase our speed. Making sure that our heading won't get us into a collision with a random island, I carefully pushed the lever up to the point where the red dots on the edge of my screen disappeared off into the edges again.

"Woah! What is this engine?! It's so bad!"

I shook my head at Nicole's obvious observation. Still, with her random fiddling, the general state of the engine seemed to be holding steady on my part, with the main console telling me that it was still well above the point of starting to sputter out.

"Moriya, we're getting more communications coming from Marquee," Shade called out once more. "They're the usual stuff of telling us to stop and face the consequences though."

"Then we continue to ignore them," I scoffed. "Unless it holds some kind of information that we can use, don't bother telling me about the death threats."

"Of course."

Sighing, I kept a close eye on our heading as I watched the maritime borders of Marquee blink into existence. I watched carefully as our [Rig] slowly passed over the threshold, my nerves pounding in my chest as I held my breath with each second that passed. Thankfully, nothing of note happened soon after as we finally found ourselves back on international waters.

We were finally safe. Well, relatively, at least.

"Okay, we can start cruising now," I sighed in relief as I slowed our speed down to more efficient levels. "Nothing of note happened to our engine, yes?"

"Other than it almost died just pushing cruising speed? None at all!" Nicole scoffed. "Really, this thing needs a lot of work."

"Why else do you think we hired you?" I called her out. "You're free to return to whatever it was you're doing, by the way. The danger has passed, and I don't think the engine will die now that we're running at a slower pace."

"Way ahead of you, boss," she huffed. "I'll be down in the engine room if you need me. I want to see this piece of junk for myself."

Just as quickly as she came, Nicole promptly sat up and powerwalked her way out of the bridge. She sounded a lot more subdued than when she first came here. Was our engine situation really that bad that it sapped all of the excitement out of her?

"What of myself, Moriya?!"

I flinched at Maruki's booming voice. I didn't even notice him walking up to me as he stood right by the side of the main console.

"You can do what you usually do when we have downtime," I waved him off. "Which means you're going to be on guard duty, I take it?"

"Of course!" he proudly replied. "I shall make sure that our horizon is clear from any and all enemies!"

I sighed as I then watched our tank leave the bridge, leaving me with Shade and the stowaway family as I turned to face them. With the danger of being caught now gone for the moment, we had a bit of time to see just what and why exactly they were here.

"So, while I might know your names, I won't be comfortable with giving you asylum on this [Rig] until I know just exactly why you're here," I leveled to them, my eyes carefully gauging their reactions. The kid of course, was promptly ignored. She was too young, probably not even seven or eight years old. "Shade here told me that you're all here because of his offer, but I'm not one to leave able bodies unoccupied unless they're not needed."

As if catching my drift, the man, Alcian, was it... suddenly spoke up. "We're highly skilled in our respective fields. I can assure you that you and your party will not find us wanting should you ask us to do something within our means."

"I concur," Carbuncle added, backing up her husband with a seemingly passionate tone. "We only want what's best for our family. And if it means keeping Gem safe, then we'll do whatever it is you want."

I hummed in deliberation as I took in their response. They sounded genuine enough, though, I was still kind of suspicious as to what exactly their specialties were. Also, the fact that Gem looked like the most innocent little kid really put credence to their claims of only wanting what's best for their family.

Still... "I don't have to full picture just yet, don't I?" I called myself out. "Shade?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Can you fill me in as to just why you granted them asylum here?"

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