As the rest of her team lifted off, Charybdis boarded the second Kestrel named "Above and Beyond", having hired two ex-military guys to help her fly it - West and Hawkes, who prove their experience by easily taking down some pirates and saving the slave O'Reagan from his asteroid prison - defeating four rebel enemies in a space dock shootout.
After restocking with the Engi and stealthing through a nebula sector they enter Zoltan space and encounter a Rock vessel attacking a science outpost. Before they destroy Rocks, the enemy manages to hit West with a terrible beam causing him to de-age rapidly into non-existence!
I don't think he even got a saving throw...
With nothing to do for him, the crew save the scientists and recruit one of them - Ferediam the Zoltan to take his place. Unfortunately they have no choice but to proceed into Rock controlled space next and run into ship after ship of hostiles in a massive asteroid field, destroying them all but taking severe damage in return.
Despite their depleted status they rush to the aid of another civilian refugee ship being attacked by a Rock cruiser, barely winning the fight. As the civilian ship moves into dock with them to assist with repairs, Charybdis gets light-headed as Hawkes, O'Reagan and Ferediam all faint. She realizes too late that their oxygen system was badly damaged in the last fight and tries to get there to repair it but her legs give way and everything goes black...
When she awakes she and her crew have been saved by the civilians who were quickly flying away from the incoming rebel / Federation war. Unfortunately the Above and Beyond could not be saved as Ferediam self destructed (as is the Zoltan way) and so was dismantled for scrap. This included the all important data cube that was in the cockpit.
MISSION FAIL.
Insight: As energy beings, Zoltans provide one extra bar of energy to whatever station they man. That's pretty cool! Just be careful if they die, because they do so explosively!
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