M.J. Markgraf
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BSE Chapter 3-20
🕑 Added 2024-12-10 13:00:11 +0000 UTCThe single surviving pirate hadn’t been able to provide much in the way of information, but they were able to tell Vitor more about the strange crate.
Turns out it wasn’t some trap. They were simply meant to guard it until a transport came along to take it into STO space. The captured pirate wasn’t clear on why the ship that brought it out to this system hadn’t just taken it to its destination. He had been told to watch it until it was picked up, and that is what he did.
Vitor assumed the two ships were simply sacrificial idiots in case something went wrong in the transfer.
Whatever was inside the container must be important because it was protected by the same scanner-blocking fields that he had learned about on his trip out here. He was glad Kane had uncovered that little secret but annoyed that the STO was completely in the dark about the pirate's newest trick. Had he known about this before leaving, he would have urged his new employer to forward this information to Fletcher. Alex may have already done this, but he wouldn’t know until they returned in around three months.
With the container having a static field generator on board, it did tell him a few things. There was at least a fusion generator inside the container, nothing else would have been able to sustain a field that large for more than a few hours. The ships had been there for at least six hours before the BSE ships engaged them, and it had been nearly eight since the cleanup.
The container was also heavily armored. It had taken a few glancing rounds from Resolve’s railguns, and at least two direct hits, yet none had penetrated the thick material. The robot that they sent over was not able to make entry either as the door was welded shut, likely to keep these same pirates from looking inside.
Vitor had conferred with the other captains about possibly cutting the container open, but Captain Bloomright brought up a good point. “What if the environment inside is pressurized and breaching that destroys the contents?”
That produced a whole lot of back and forth about how to get inside without damaging the contents. One of the engineers suggested building a temporary airlock, but that could take days to set up. The pirate had confirmed that the ship expected to claim this container was running late. Vitor didn’t want to have to deal with more pirate ships while engineers were out there dithering with a flimsy airlock, but he didn’t want to leave something valuable to pirates.
He also couldn’t just let pirates jump in because he was sure they would see the debris fields. If they were somehow working for the pirates at the secret station, that could spell trouble.
It was decided that the Talon would tow the large container aboard their ship and get inside it while the rest of the fleet waited for the pirate ships to arrive. There was some inherent danger with taking the unknown container aboard their ship, but it was decided that it was minimal especially since another cargo ship was meant to pick it up and no signals were coming from the container. The Hawks also had trained and qualified people who knew how to safely handle dangerous items if they were wrong.
Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet waited around the jump point for their guests.
They only had to wait another four hours when three vessels appeared less than a quarter of a light-second away.
The new arrivals consisted of two gunships and a transport, but these were not pirate ships. He didn’t even need to see their hulls to know that. They had all arrived at the exact same time, which meant they were jump-linked.
There was a tense moment of hesitation as both sides realized something was off before the two corporate gunships zipped into motion and began firing their Gauss cannons.
Reslove and Might, being the closest two targets started to take fire, but the ships were concentrating on the smaller of the two vessels, which was Resolve. The gunships might be quicker than the BSE frigates, but they did not have the same firepower or armor. Fury opened up from long range, scoring a single hit on one of the gunships, but it wasn’t alone. Might and Resolve opened up and their fire filled the space between them and the gunships with a curtain of deadly projectiles.
Vitor prioritized the gunships with his railguns but targeted the transport that was already turning to flee with his laser. The invisible beam flashed out, carving a long glowing scar along the transport’s rear. He wanted them alive, so he was trying to aim for their engines.
An explosion drew his attention back to the gunships. One had exploded somehow. He quickly played back the footage as the remaining ship did its best to try and savage Resolve with its guns. As he kept an eye on the last remaining ship, he got to the point in the recording of the other vessel as it turned to face Resolve. A trail of fire leaped from beneath the small ship.
Vitor realized they were equipped with missiles, but the weapon was hit before it could clear the ship, which caused the explosion.
Whoever the pilots were on these ships, they were extremely skilled. The last one juked and dodged all of the fire that three ships were managing to send its way. It was only a matter of time until the second ship fired its missile. Vitor had faith in Alex’s ships and ECM against pirate ships and missiles but not against corporate tech. He had been around long enough to know the corporations kept the best stuff for themselves.
He made a split-second decision, prioritizing the survival of his ships over the capture of the unknown transport. Might’s laser flashed out, slicing into the small gunship.
As a testament to the superiority of corporate ships, the laser didn’t immediately punch through the vessel. Whatever material this company had discovered for its armor held up admirably for all of a quarter second before Alexander’s overpowered lasers burst through the composite material and into the much more vulnerable internals.
The ship stopped firing almost immediately and began an uncontrolled tumble through space on its last heading.
With the last attacker dealt with, he quickly refocused on the transport, but it was too late. The ship finished its turn and fired up its FTL drive.
The bubble formed almost instantly as the ship seemed to vanish, only to reappear only a moment later still inside their sensor range as a scattered field of debris. Their jump field had failed, and done so catastrophically.
Vitor winced at the sight. It seemed the damage he had caused to their ship had been enough to do something. He was glad they hadn’t escaped, but he would have preferred questioning the people aboard to find out why a corporation was out here picking up a mysterious crate from pirates.
With the first gunship no more than a field of expanding debris as well, that left the one Vitor had disabled as the only possible source of information.
The only problem with that was if there were survivors aboard. He wasn’t about to send his people or the Hawks to board a corporate ship. Not without disabling that missile first.
Soon, two of the fleet's bots floated toward the unknown ship. They quickly attached themselves to the hull and scrambled down the smooth lines of the ship’s exterior to the underside, where a well-concealed launch hatch resided.
The cutting tools of the robots were quickly able to cut through panel seams to remove the hull and armor around the missile tube. They did report feeling vibrations aboard the ship, so there was at least one survivor.
Vitor was betting that these missile tubes were externally loaded though, because a ship this size, sporting this many weapons, simply didn’t have the internal space for loading a full-sized anti-ship missile like it carried internally.
He was right. The bots managed to cut the missile free. One of the bots grabbed the weapon and jetted off into space with its ion thruster. Once it was clear, it started trying to disarm the weapon. A bright flash a few seconds later told him that hadn’t panned out. The ship was still intact and the second bot was already at the opening Might’s laser had torn into its side.
If it wasn’t for Eden’s Might offering up a bit of its processing power, the bot would have been much slower. Watching Alex’s creation backed up by a supercomputer was a bit scary. The robot quickly enlarged the damaged hole and pushed its way into the ship, slicing away metal and tossing it out behind itself as it moved.
It reminded Vitor of burrowing insects he had seen on Earth. An alert popped up when the bot encountered resistance from the survivors. Damage indicators quickly piled up on the machine, but it still forged ahead until it finally reached the reactor. Its arrival was just in the nick of time. It seemed the people aboard had tried to force a reactor overload. The bot managed to sever the fuel lines before it was fully disabled, causing the reactor to slowly shut down.
He would need to thank Alex for making his bots so damn resilient. If it wasn’t for that, any chance of finding out who these bastards were, would have been lost.
Two of the Talon’s drop ships flew in and towed the ship back to the assault ship. The Hawks had yet to open the cargo container, their people taking their time to examine every inch of it before proceeding. That was perfect, now they had more people to get answers from.
***
Jallen and his team along with two more teams were suited up and ready as the drop ships brought the damaged gunship into the hangar. The gunship was a large vessel but looked slightly smaller next to the hulking dropships, which were on average smaller than a typical shuttle.
He wasn’t fooled by the smaller ship’s appearance though, Jallen knew gunships could pack a nasty punch. It's why the Talon was always escorted by two of the vessels. However, he doubted the two Hawks gunships held a candle to this sleek beauty.
The light turned green and the three mercenary teams stormed into the hangar. They quickly met resistance as two armored forms started firing from inside the broken ship. Whoever these people were, they weren’t pulling any punches as beams of deadly light flickered from inside the ship, the otherwise invisible beams of energy highlighted by the HUDs in their suits. Flechettes filled the space between the two groups as the Hawks returned fire and quickly adjusted away from the opening in the vessel, preventing the two people inside from getting a clean shot on them.
As they neared the ship, his HUD started fuzzing before it quickly fixed itself as the augment gear automatically linked with the ones nearby to improve their ECCM protection. The two inside the ship must have assumed their ECM was successful as they finally stepped out of the ship and opened fire, only to be met with swift and brutal counterfire from the three combat teams.
Despite that, it took a full ten seconds of withering flechette fire, before the two combatants finally went down. He looked around to see if anyone was hit. Two of his people were on the ground, unmoving and with holes burned through their armor.
In total, five people had gone down trying to take out the two from the ship. It was a heavy price to pay, and he hoped it had been worth it. The ship alone probably was, but he didn’t like comparing his people’s lives to a bit of tech.
Jallen walked up to the bodies of the two pilots. One was still twitching, and trying to reach for the small laser rifle that they had been using. There was a growing puddle of blood beneath her, so she wasn’t long for the world. He kicked the woman’s hand away from the weapon and picked it up, inspecting it for any markings. It was blank.
Medics rushed into the hangar and took away the injured and dead. When he was told two of the people he thought dead were still alive, he breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, the medics and doctors could patch them up.
He shifted his focus back to the ship, and what answers they might find aboard its computers.
Comments
Vaughn Fredericks
So one of the corps is out there giving interdiction tech to the pirates? Or they're getting the tech from them? Either way, very ominous.
Merlin's Fan
Boo, they're just babies and you're writing them off already
Silver Beard
He can just print more.
Gabriel Melnik
NOOO THE DROONES, NOO WHY, THEY WERE SO YOUNG
Zachary Patterson
Thank you for the chapter!
