The shuttle's engines powered up even as Mazda got inside. The hatch closed behind him with a light hiss of air. As soon as he had sat down on one of the seats and buckled up, the shuttle lifted off of the ground, with the Neko at the controls.
"This is Junko to flight control. The shuttle's secure. Requesting depressurization," said the Neko.
"The bay is secure. Depressurization in five," a male voice replied from the shuttle's comm. system.
Within seconds, the air was pumped out of the shuttle bay, and the main bay doors opened to the cold, dead space outside. The barren, lifeless planet surface could be seen not very far below. The shuttle flew outside, and began its ascent out of the planet's gravity well.
Within minutes, the shuttle had achieved high orbit. A white, teardrop-shaped, Yui-class scout ship was lurking nearby. Through a small porthole near his seat, Mazda could barely make out the writing on the ship's hull: "YSS Jade - Third Expeditionary Fleet."
"This is Jade. Did someone order a hyperspace fold?" A female voice came over the comm. system.
"Yes... And no offense, ma'am, but wouldn't it be faster for you to have picked him up in the first place?"
"We need him on the Celia, not me. Trust me, it's more efficient this way," Jade replied reassuringly. "My sensors tell me that you're close enough. I'm gonna jump, okay?"
"Yeah. It's either that or spending two days in subspace with Mr. Eschve over here. Hit me."
Before Mazda could question about what's going on, a hyperspace drive aboard the Jade was engaged. The Jade and the shuttle blinked out of existence in normal space, and entered hyperspace.
Within a matter of minutes, the two spacecrafts reappeared in normal space, in medium orbit around the main planet of the Ohara system.
"Welcome to Ohara. That's what the natives call it, anyway," said Jade cheerfully over the comm. system.
Through the various portholes onboard the shuttle, Mazda could see the ships in the Celia battlegroup. The ships were all painted white, instead of the navy blue and blood red color scheme usually seen on Star Army ships. All of the ships were teardrop shaped, but were of various sizes. The smallest ones were the Ketsueki-class escort corvettes, while the somewhat larger ones were the Yui-class scout destroyers. These ships held a defensive position around the largest ship: the Ayame-class cruiser, YSS Celia.
The shuttle swiftly carried Mazda toward the Celia's shuttle bay.
"I guess they must really be desperate for more people over there at the Celia," said the Neko to Mazda. "The standard procedure is to have new recruits wait for the next time the ship gets re-supplied, which is not very often, mind you. I wonder just how thin the Empire's human resources are stretched... Well, it's really not my place to speculate. You'll be aboard the Celia shortly, Mr. Eschve." The Neko's mood seemed to have improved slightly, now that her guest was close to departing.