Location: Magicon Empire; Valterion Duchy; Hopper System; BCS Darklight

Things don't go as expected when we arrive in the Hopper System. First of all, I'm very glad that Clara and I chose an exit destination a bit off from the actual wormhole entrance because that could have ended badly.

When we appear about a thousand kilometers from the wormhole, proximity alerts immediately start blaring throughout the bridge, and the lights flash red. Stan reacts very quickly and calls out orders.

"Caro, shields! Paul, tell me what the hell we're seeing here. Kevin, get us a bit further away, and Ulia, be ready to step in and help Caroline." He's silent for a second, then he seems to remember me. "Sara, how long until you can teleport us again?"

Hmm, I could do so right now, but that's due to my merged cores as Mom told me. Long-distance jumps even exhaust Master Space Mages to a certain degree. Only Archmages can do two or three such jumps in quick succession before even they exhausted their magic.

While the others are still reeling and start following their orders, I lift my hand to catch Stan's attention. He nods at me to go ahead.

"I should be ready for a quick hop within line of sight in about thirty seconds… Anything else within the Hopper System should be reachable after another minute, depending on how quickly Clara can provide the coordinates. Further distances might take up to ten minutes or something."

His eyes widen at my response. Did I call the times too short? But that's perfectly within the range of Master Space Mages! I mean, I have a table right before my eyes, thanks to Clara.

Before I can do anything, Stan starts to chuckle and Caroline's Shield spell finishes encompassing the Darklight at the same time. "That's such a difference compared to Seniors… You Masters are really ridiculous. Dang, you should ask for a raise once we're back at FBC."

Oh, so he just didn't know. Lucky me…

Meanwhile, our ship steadily increases the distance from the wormhole and our sensors focus on what's happening before the exit. The main screen before us comes alive and Paul clears his throat.

He starts in a deadpan voice as soon as he has our attention. "It seems we have found our missing escort…"

And he's right. The screen indeed shows our missing escort ship right before the wormhole, placing strange boxes all over the place.

"What are they doing?" Ulia asks in confusion. "And why are they even here?"

Paul is the one to reply. "Our sensors flagged the boxes as explosives… They're setting a trap."

"They what?" Stan exclaims in shock and looks at Paul with wide eyes. "Are you sure?"

He nods. "100 percent. It seems like they're trying to take down the freighter once it comes through… Or us if we went first."

"Holy shit!" Caroline swears. "What do we do now? Wait, that has to be the surprise assignment, right?"

Everyone looks at her. She has to be right. Everything else wouldn't make sense. If the other escort really switched sides, that would be fucked up like nothing else.

Stan speaks up again. "Right… So what do we do now? We need a plan… And fast! Kevin, have they noticed our arrival?"

Kevin taps his console a few times, then shakes his head. "I don't see any signs of it. So probably not, I guess? I don't know why though."

Stan takes in stride. "Thanks, Kevin. It's probably because this all is a big test. Real escorts probably jump to a place further away from the wormhole and slowly get closer to check things. Dammit, that's going to cost us points again… Anyway, we need a plan. I'm open for suggestions."

That starts another round of discussion. I keep in the background, deciding not to interfere. I'm not really part of their crew after all, and I don't even get graded for the mission.

While they discuss, I hear them throw in various ideas on how to approach the situation. Most of them immediately get axed again and I inwardly sigh in relief. I mean flying very close to hail them and asking what they are doing would be completely idiotic. Same goes for shooting them down from afar without even trying to communicate. Even if it doesn't look that way, it could still be a big misunderstanding.

In the end, they come up with a strategy that I don't disagree with. Sure, it could be better, but it sounds solid. Once they finish briefing me on it, as I play a big role in it, Stan looks at me. "Can you do all that? And more importantly, do you agree with the plan? I know it's a bit risky, but we have to act fast… The freighter is only one hour out, and we can't stop the transit."

I give him a double thumbs-up. "It's fine, I can do that. Whenever you're ready."

He nods and returns to his seat. Everyone else gets into position as well. The first step of the plan requires me to teleport us out of weapons range, but still close enough to hail them without too much light speed lag. While we already started moving away from the wormhole as soon as we noticed that something is up, my way is faster.

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"Ready?" I ask, and when I get confirmation, I cast the Starship Jump spell and we disappear.

As soon as we're back in real space, now much further away from the wormhole and the other escort ship, Kevin taps his console a few times to initiate a call. The main screen splits: One side still shows space all around us, while a smaller part to the right now shows the outgoing call.

It doesn't take long until a face appears. It's an older man with tanned skin, wearing an eyepatch of all things. He grins broadly and I immediately notice his golden tooth. "Arrrrr," he says into the camera and puts on a tricorn hat.

I almost lose it right there. Is this guy serious? That's the most cliché pirate outfit I have ever seen!

Caroline starts giggling, while everyone else manages to keep their composure. The man's smile cracks and he swears. "Dammit, who taught you? Couldn't you show a little bit of a reaction? I've tried so hard to play a convincing pirate… Anyway, as you've probably guessed, we're the surprise assignment… So catch us if you can. Good luck, you'll need it!"

The call abruptly cuts off before we were able to send a single reply. "The hell?" Paul mutters while Stan just shakes his head.

"You heard him… It's confirmed, they've gone rogue, so let's continue with the plan. We have one hour. Sara, whenever you're ready, get us into position," Stan calls out his orders after a short delay.

Clara gets me the coordinates and I ready the spell. "Jumping in five," I reply and mentally count down. When I reach zero, I trigger the spell and we disappear with a purple flash.

We reappear right behind the engines of the other escort and Ulia immediately casts a Shield spell, while Caroline throws everything she has into her Tracer spell.

It takes barely a second before the Tracer spell is on its way. I don't have time to watch though, as I'm already casting the next Starship Jump spell. Right before the Tracer impacts the other ship, we're already gone again, which means their retaliatory fire gets lost in no man's land.

When we reappear, Paul immediately brings up our sensor feed and starts cheering shortly after.

Target destroyed!

The plan worked.

An incoming call interrupts our celebration and Kevin accepts. The same man appears on our screen. This time, he's lost his eyepatch and the tricorn hat dangles in front of his chest, only held by a thin cord around his neck.

"Well, fuck me sideways," he starts speaking and shakes his head. "That's the fastest and cleanest takedown I have ever witnessed by students. Holy shit, you guys have balls and a hell of a Space Mage. Congratulations!" He gives us a double thumbs-up.

"As you can see on your sensor map, the explosion of our ship took out a lot of the bombs around us," he makes air-quotes to indicate that nothing is real. "So we're going to load them all back in while you're taking care of the remaining ones. And remember, treat them as if they're real and be careful with the ones closest to the wormhole… They might damage the structure if they explode where they are, so don't just shot them down."

The call cuts off before we can reply for a second time. Stan chuckles. "You've heard the man, we're on cleanup duty now. Anyone got any ideas?"

I stay in the background again while they discuss strategies. That is until Caroline looks at me and grins broadly. "Say, how much juice do you have left?"

I look at her in confusion and shrug. "More than half, I guess… So more than enough to get us and the freighter over to border control once they're here."

She pumps a fist in the air and interrupts the others. "Guys, I have the solution."

"What is it?" Ulia asks and Caroline points at me.

"We just have to get close again, then Sara can teleport the bombs close to the wormhole away. Then we just have to hit the others with the Tracer spell and send another one to where Sara sent the others and we're good."

Stan tilts his head. "That could work. Sara, what do you think?"

I groan at the extra work but nod. "Yeah, that could work."

That finalizes things and we set off to do cleanup. Luckily, there aren't that many bombs close to the wormhole and I don't have to teleport too many of them. After that, both Ulia and Caroline take turns in casting Tracer spells and hit one bomb after the other. Then we're done and just have to wait for the freighter.

The other ship finishes loading up the bomb boxes, then they call us again to inform us that they are now back on normal protection duty and we're to continue as if nothing has happened. It feels a bit strange as we basically shoot them down less than an hour ago, but hey, they are the real protectors of the freighter.

Half an hour later it's time and the wormhole flashes in a deep purple color. Then the big freighter starts to appear and slowly emerges through the wormhole ring. It almost takes a minute until the enormous length of the starship is fully back in real space. The usual messages are exchanged between all three ships, then the journey continues toward the other side of the Hopper System.

About 15 hours and a good night's sleep later, we arrive at the border station. One more wormhole journey and we're out of The Empire and enter the Starseeker Kingdom. That's also when our Security assignment ends. One final jump, then back to Terra where normal lessons continue.

But first, the crew of the Darklight has one more assignment: They have to deal with border control and make the crossing between the two allied nations as smooth as possible for the freighter.

That's why Stan, Caroline, Kevin, I, and one of the freighter people are currently sitting in a small shuttle and flying toward the big border station guarding the wormhole. I'm just going along because I really want to see how real border control processes function. I mean my only experience so far was very bad because Lieutenant Larsson was such an ass.

Turns out border control between the Starseeker Kingdom and The Empire is very light, especially for a well-known freighter. Stan and the others basically only have to show their credentials and the bill of lading from the freighter and then the official waves us through.

The final step is just an ID check, then we're through. Well, then we're flying back to the Darklight accompanied by two border control guards who are going to check all the other IDs as well. Once they're done on our ship, they continue to the freighter, and finish with the other escort ship. After that, we're free to enter the wormhole which we do without much delay.

Location: Starseeker Kingdom; Bandolier System; BCS Darklight

Two hours later, we reemerge from the wormhole. We're done! The assignment is over and the freighter safely arrived in the Starseeker Kingdom. From now on, it will continue its journey with only the other escort ship but with their Master Space Mage aboard, they should be more than enough.

The crew of the Darklight starts cheering and Ulia even produces a bottle of whiskey which we promptly open and drink. While we do so, the other escort ship contacts us again and congratulates us as well. They also say goodbye and recommend that we take a detour to Farlon Station here in the system. Apparently, it's a great place for visitors from The Empire. Right before they leave, they also send us an encrypted file that contains their report about our performance for Instructor Schmidt, then they leave and we watch the freighter get smaller on our view screen.

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