Chapter 19

Kratta system, near the broken moons
Timestamp: July 10, 2296
04:45 Sol standard

The action station’s siren rang out through the ship as Jack awoke and let out a huff of disappointment.

“O dark stupid and we find the damned things,” He looked at the clock on his desk and sighed, muttered sarcastically. “Just got off watch, nice!”

He pulled himself out of bed, despite his body protesting the offensive action and scrambled to get his gear on. He secured his void suit and snapped on his utility belt, trying to adjust everything to feel a little more comfortable. Once he was set, he stepped into the hallway and saw Kazlaena racing up to him. Her tail was secured in the suit behind her, giving her backside a distorted appearance. The helmet of her suit was very triangular with the internal heads-up display casting a mixed palette of lighting along the length of her snout.

“Sa drones, we find sem?” She said, excitedly.

“Seems so,” Jack smiled through the mask of his suit. “How do you have the energy? I’m ready to sleep on my feet here.”

“Didn’t go to sleep,” Kazlaena grinned. “Time to get sose bad bots,” Kazlaena held up her fists in a mock boxing gesture and Jack threw a few slow punches at her, allowing her to dodge and get a few in on his midsection.

“Oh! Ah! Lil sprocket strikes again.” He spoke.

“Big mars’mallow and lil sprocket gonna get ‘em,” Kazlaena tried to rush past, but Jack stopped her.

“Ohhh no, not so fast there, lil firecracker. Let’s make sure your suit is up to regs.”

“Um, ok,” Kazlaena stopped and stood with her arms out.

Jack looked over the connections with her O2 supply and helmet, making sure they were locked down. He heard someone else approaching and saw Pri walking in a bit of an odd gait. Like Kazlaena, her tail was wrapped up behind her, but the tail’s longer length made it more awkward.

“Void suit with tail pocket,” Pri grumbled. “See it made so.”

“Or one with a pillow...” Jack said Pri nodded.

Jack smiled and touched her shoulder, seeing her grin back after a moment. Though it would increase comfort, most void suits did not have a tail appendage due to the danger of it getting caught or torn. Most races with tails had limited control over said appendage during moments of expression. Some even lacked full length control, making a flopping appendage a risk in many scenarios while in the void.

Pri looked over Jack’s suit and he did the same with hers, before they turned and headed for the stairwell. Jack went up first, with Kazlaena hot on his heels. She looked behind to Pri momentarily as they headed up to B deck, catching Pri give her a nod of the head as she followed close behind. Jack and Pri parted with Kazlaena at the bridge and went further up the ship to the C.I.C. Inside, Sita and Cardox were at their stations. Jack slipped into the Ewar Station while Pri took over the Radar/Lidar post from Sita, who then sat at the Probe Station.

“What have we got?” Jack asked as he opened the Ewar Station interface.

“Had echoes on the radar screen for two minutes, moving between the asteroids.” Sita’s voice came through the comms in the helmet.

Jack nodded and began a tracking operation to see if he could detect any radio frequency comms between a drone and a mothership. As he carried out his task, he overheard the comms between Cardox and the Captain.

“Roger, Captain,” Cardox said. “For about two minutes, playing peekaboo in the asteroids near the broken moons.”

“How many?” Lucinia asked.

“At least four separate contacts were pinged in one sweep, hard to detect that many now.” Cardox replied.

“Got a broadcasting frequency,” Jack said into the radio. “Source is in the direction of the broken moons. Terminates in the asteroids before us. They fucked up, or we got real lucky.”

“How so?” Lucinia asked.

“The broadcast signals suffered interference in the rocks, likely loaded with enough copper and aluminum to absorb them. The drones barked out an SOS to reestablish a connection and maneuvered to strengthen their signal. Their absorption capability was likely compromised, even if only for a second.”

“Sita, give us a couple probes in the vicinity of the signals last knowns,” Lucinia said. “Pri, anything on radar now? Lidar?”

“Negative, Captain,” Pri answered.

“They’re still there,” Jack said. “Signal’s moving away from us. I think they made us.”

“Can you interfere with the signals while we get ready to strike?” Lucinia asked.

“Stand by,” Jack said as he listened to the strange chattering signal that sounded like a bizarre robotic, alien dialect. He used a targeted burst of magnetic noise and caught a brief interrupt in the signal.

“Pings,” Pri said. “Nine separate pings detected.”

Jack adjusted to a static burst from the Feather when the first attempt was overcome and again the drones appeared on the radar, momentarily.

“Cardox, can you get a target lock?” Lucinia asked.

“The starfire will need a moment to acquire,” Cardox replied.

“Jack, can you reveal them long enough for the streaks to get a lock?” Lucinia asked.

“Stand by for repeat static pulse,” Jack keyed in the command to his computer. “The starfire will have five seconds to get a lock,”

“Should be sufficient,” Cardox answered.

“Alright, three, two, one, mark,” Jack engaged the pulse.

“Got tone,” Cardox said. “Starfire away.”

The Starfire shot out of the cell it was housed in via a burst of compressed air and began to arc towards the stealth drone. It closed in on the drone’s location, then missed the drone and continued without course correction, off into the vast emptiness of space.

“Failed contact,” Cardox said through the radio. “The missile lost homing.”

“Send another,” Lucinia ordered and after a moment, a second Starfire was launched.

This one went straight vertical, up and up and out of action.

“Starfire two had lock, no pursuit,” Cardox reported.

“Is it the missiles?” Lucinia asked.

“Believe so, Captain,” Cardox let out a huff. “We may have been sold lemons.”

“Try a third,” Lucinia ordered.

This missile arced towards the drone and went dead, smashing against an asteroid in a small debris cloud.

“Useless fucking missiles,” Cardox snapped.

“Try an Apollo,” Lucinia commanded.

Cardox was silent for a moment, listening for the ‘growl’ tone that would tell him the Apollo had a lock, none came.

“No go, Captain, Apollos are failing to detect the drones.” Cardox heard a brief sigh that was interrupted by silence for a moment, then Lucinia came back over comms.

“Jack?”

“Yes, Captain?” Jack already knew what was coming.

“The danger and risk is not something I can order you into blindly. This is your call.”

“You hired me because I had a starfighter,” Jack answered. “Let me make use of it.”

“We can abort. We can look at the starfires and see if we can find the issue.”

Jack stood up and moved to leave the C.I.C. “I understand Captain, however, we got really lucky finding them here. We may not get an opportunity like this again. Let me paint the drones so the Apollos can take them out.”

There was a pause for a few moments before Jack heard Lucinia’s voice come over the radio, sounding stressed.

“Alright Jack, fly safe. Be careful. No excessive risk. Paint the drones, do not engage with your craft, how copy?”

Jack relayed the info back as he headed down the hall and towards the stairs.

“Jack?” He heard Kazlaena next. “Um, be sa careful, please.”

“I will, lil sprocket.”

“Coralane?” Jack heard Proculus next.

“Yes, First Officer?”

“Watch your back out there. Returning safe is your primary mission, understood?”

“Understood, First Officer,” Jack headed down level to the hangar.

Jack swapped out his bulky void suit for his leaner flight suit, then made for the hangar deck.

Spurius already had the Scapa hooked up with air, fuel, and electricity so that when Jack arrived, he was able to begin uncoupling the service hookups.

“Air, fuel, charge, ammo, all nominal,” Spurius said through his suit comms and Jack gave him a thumbs up.

Spurius helped him climb the rails beside the cockpit and, once Jack was seated, Spurius headed over to the control booth. While Jack turned on the Scapa’s systems, Spurius began depressurizing the hangar. At zero pressure, he opened the inner door and Jack began taxiing to the lock. Jack flipped his amber nav lights twice and spoke through his suit comms.

“Good to go, Spurius.”

“Roger,” Spurius opened the outer door and Jack took flight, moving away from the ship.

“Raven has left the nest, over,” Jack said through his comms.

“Raven, Nest Copies,” Lucinia said back. “Drones have continued to move away. They destroyed the probes. Pursue and target, Apollos will do the rest, over.”

“Understood Nest, over.” Jack piloted his Scapa over the Astral Feather and headed towards the drifting asteroids.

His own radar picked up momentary blips that rapidly changed position, hiding from him just how many drones were ahead. He used a large rock for cover when he neared their position and slowly ascended over the apex. He caught a momentary burst of thrust from an object ahead and knew his quarry had been spotted.

“Nest, hostiles sighted, standby for dinner bell, over,” Jack tapped a button that dropped the armored cover on his cockpit and switched to remote view. He was blanketed in darkness for only a moment after the cover locked, as a projected h.u.d. [heads up display], came up in front of him to provide the same view as before the covers embrace.

“Raven, Nest ready for delivery, over.” Lucinia came in over the comms.

“Roger, Nest, stand by, over.” Jack applied forward momentum and the Scapa’s I.F.F. [Identify friend or foe], highlighted a drone with a red diamond.

Jack glanced at the HUD readout on the drone and saw it was moving away at a faster velocity, so he throttled up and began locking with his laser designator. Just before he was able to lock, the drone went evasive, darting and spiraling in random directions. This caused the designator to have to recalculate often which made the lock take longer. Once the drone was painted, Jack spoke into the radio.

“Nest, send, send, send, over.”

“Copy that, Raven. Dinner on the way, over,” Lucinia replied, and Jack felt that some of her tension seemed to lift.

The Apollo missile from the Astral Feather arced over to the asteroid belt and zeroed in on the drone. Moments before impact, the drone fired off a red canister that strobed brightly and the Apollo suddenly shot vertical.

Jack kept the target lock and directed a small laser at the strobing canister until it was rendered inert. He saw the Apollo above begin to arc back down to the drone. The drone tried to release another countermeasure, but that was struck by an asteroid and broke apart before it could fool the Apollo. Jack saw the Apollo pursue the drone behind an asteroid from below, then a flash, then debris went rocketing upward above the asteroid.

“Nest, meal delivery successful, over.” Jack said.

“Nest copies, one down. Stay alert for others, over,” Lucinia replied.

“Raven copies, stand by, over,” Jack slowed to near zero momentum and shadowed an asteroid, watching his radar intently.

After a few moments of nervous scanning, Jack caught a signal from in front of him, about ten kilometers out.

“Nest, Raven has a signal. Stand by for further delivery service, over,” Jack said.

“Nest copies. Awaiting address, over,” Lucinia said back.

Jack had just given his Scapa a vertical boost to clear the asteroid when his radar lit up with dozens of signals. He knew immediately it was a Ripfly drone swarm, and they were all heading toward him.

“Nest, Raven has contact. Multiple hostiles in pursuit, over,” Jack said as he spun his Scapa around and headed back with the intent of taking cover in a cluster of several asteroids.

“Raven, Nest sees them. Return, return, return, over.”

“Nest, Raven copies, over.” Jack knew it would be close.

The Ripfly swarm was closing in fast, and he couldn’t paint them to engage without serious risk. To target one drone would give the others ample time to maneuver in and hit him with their weapons. His Scapa could withstand some compression cannon impacts. But an energy weapon would burn through the armor and a Gauss cannon would rip his Scapa in half with little effort. Jack’s eyes fell on the radar map to the lower left of his display, and he estimated, despite the swarm, there was likely a half dozen drones there.