“I can’t believe this ship is running again,” Hot Chow said as he monitored the sensor readouts of the area.
Minh-Chu guided the ship out of a cloud of iron particles that had gathered around them while repairs were being made. “The responsiveness is up,” he said over his shoulder to Finn, who was watching the interconnectivity between systems on the terminal behind him.
“That’s because they’re directly connected, no buggy software version between you and the vital sections of the ship. Shields are working normally, by the way. The readings I’m getting from our external monitoring buoy match what our systems are set to put out.”
The Pursuer III emerged from the iron cloud into a clear space that led out of the iron rich section of the nebula. “It almost flies like a fighter,” Minh-Chu said. “Any chance at cloaking?”
“None, too much of the outer hull took damage and that software kit was in the extended weapons module,” Finn said. “I could upload something into the system, but it would still have to be calibrated and there’s no guarantee it would work because of the damage we’ve taken.”
“Never mind, let’s get to the rendezvous with the Revenge, we’re already a day late.”
“Could have been a lot worse,” Carnie said from the co-pilot’s seat.
Minh-Chu saw that the edge of the massive iron cloud had moved, they could be out in less than a minute, but the density was so high that their passive sensors weren’t picking up anything from the other side. “Send a sensor pulse through that opening, Hot Chow.”
“Done,” he reported.
Minh-Chu’s heart sank as his tactical map revealed a heavy Order of Eden destroyer and fifteen fighters. He flipped the Pursuer end over end and thrust toward the whirling cloud of iron. There were still electrical storms and masses of particles moving quickly thanks to the energy left behind by the fight they barely survived. “There’s some kind of gravity keeping this cloud together, and another force keeping the particles from bonding to each other. Do you think we could survive it if we got close to it?”
“Well, those electrical storms aren’t a problem anymore, but I’d stay away from some of those funnels,” Finn replied. “We’re talking about abrasive particles moving at thousands of kilometres per second, they’ll take out our shields and grind our hull.”
“Gotcha,” Minh-Chu said, looking at his tactical scanner. The fighters were all following them into the cloud with the destroyer not far behind.
“We have a message coming in,” Hot Chow said, sounding surprised.
“Put it through,” Minh-Chu said.
“Triton Fleet vessel, this is the Order Of Eden Destroyer Collins. You are required to power down, surrender your vessel and crew to us by law. You will do so in the next thirty seconds or be destroyed. This will be your only warning.”
Minh-Chu couldn’t help but snicker a little at the name. “Named after General David Collins. You just painted a big, fat target on your hull. I look forward to watching that ship implode.”
“You know he can hear you?” Hot Chow asked.
“Close the channel,” Minh-Chu said. “Not that I mind taunting him, but I told you to play the message, not open the channel.”
“Sorry, I thought –”
“Never mind,” Minh-Chu said as he guided the ship through a thin wall of iron and ice particles that looked like it was reacting to a large magnetic force. “Carnie, start plotting a wormhole jump that will take us deeper into this cloud. Short range, make sure it doesn’t pass through any of the denser formations. Finn, can you manually program our next four torpedoes to seek that destroyer? Two stages, EMP flash and then a big bang.”
“My pleasure,” he said, starting the job on his terminal right away. “I don’t even have to leave the cockpit.”
An idea struck Minh-Chu then, and he pointed the nose of the ship directly into a moderately thick cloud of iron particles, the largest on his scanner was only a few grams, but most of them were smaller than sand. “How are our shields taking this?”
“Good, barely taxed at all, I’ll try to change the settings so we repel them before they touch our energy barrier though,” Carnie replied.
“No, not yet. I want them to think that we’re panicking and running,” Minh-Chu said, looking for indicators of gravity in the distance. “Hot Chow, turn our scanner gain up as high as you can, we need to see what’s in the middle of this cloud. I have a feeling that we’re missing a big part of the picture.”
“Every ship in the area will see us,” Hot Chow replied.
“Do it.”
“Okay, done, I’m not seeing much yet though.”
“You’re looking for the gravitational influence of at least one planet, or a thick asteroid field. With all this iron there has to be one.”
“Those fighters are coming in after us, doesn’t look like they’re afraid to move through this stuff either,” Carnie said. “They’re catching up.”
“All gun emplacements, fire at will,” Minh-chu said, increasing the ship’s acceleration towards the largest iron particle cloud, it filled his tactical display, extending past their scanning range. “Carnie, set the shields so our port side is positive, starboard is negatively charged then spin that around the ship, we’re creating a spinning wake.”
“Can I do that?” Carne asked Finn.
“Yes, or I could do it for you?”
“Please, I have no idea how you do that, sorry Ronin.”
“No problem,” Minh-Chu said as he spotted a chain of heavy iron asteroids and directed the ship in their direction. The iron cloud would thicken as he approached, but the Pursuer was still performing almost normally as far as he could tell. A beam of light pierced the cloud above them and Minh-Chu took evasive action. The second beam weapon shot struck the top of the ship, taxing their shields.
“That brought us down to thirty two percent on our dorsal section, recharge time will be twelve seconds,” Finn announced. “Rotating the magnetic polarity now.”
“Those fighters are coming into range,” Sticky announced over the intercom from her position in the aft turret.
Minh-Chu smiled a little as he watched the iron particles spin behind their ship, creating a funnel of quickly spinning abrasive particulates. He pitched the ship down, directly towards a massive iron asteroid.
“Weird, really weird,” Hot Chow said. “I’m detecting a thick nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere a few light minutes away. That explains why this iron cloud is red, but how is this here at all?”
“Ships, a whole tribe’s worth of Nafalli ships,” Carnie said as he looked at the sensor data above the main displays at his station beside Minh-Chu.
Minh-Chu guided the into a tight turn, sending it away from the Nafalli ships. To his relief, the fighters followed, and the bow of the enemy destroyer started turning as well after a few seconds.
“Where are we going?” Hot Chow asked.
“I’m not going to drag our trouble through a fleet of by standing ships. At a glance, half those ships didn’t look armed. Fire torpedoes, program our missiles to strike those destroyers.”
“Two torpedoes away,” Carnie announced. “Firing main gun.” The heavy particle weapon fired from the nose of the ship, lashing out at the enemy destroyer as it tried to strike them with their beam weapons. Two of the enemy fighters were caught in the whirling storm of particles the Pursuer created behind it. Three more were too busy avoiding the wake to evade their turret fire, and were torn apart by the Pursuers guns.
“Should I send the Nafalli a message? Oops, never mind, they want to talk to us.”
Two beam weapons stroked the Pursuer’s shields, draining them and heating a section of their hull on the port side.
“Two torpedoes ready,” Carnie announced. “Tracked and locked. The other torpedoes are manoeuvring to the target.”
“I have all the missiles programmed to go after that destroyer, but they won’t get through the grit between us and them,” Finn said. “Port shields are down to twelve percent.”
Minh-Chu manoeuvred the ship so their shield would have time to recharge and used an asteroid for cover as he started turning towards the destroyer. “Get ready to dump everything you have into our forward shields.” Two more fighters were destroyed by their gunners, the rest were angling for a shot as Minh-Chu wove between heavy iron asteroids. “Give me control of the missiles, but don’t open the launch bays until we’re within one hundred kilometres of that destroyer. I can’t let it see what’s behind us. Turn the sensor jammers up to maximum.”
“But, the Nafalli want to talk, I think they want to help,” Hot Chow said.
“If we even talk to them on an open channel, the Order will know they’re here, and I’m just guessing that these people are hiding from them.”
“Jamming,” Hot Chow said. “Sensors aren’t picking up any more Order forces, by the way.”
“Good, let’s make an impression. Fire the main gun right at the destroyer’s sensor array,” Minh-Chu said, watching the white particle accelerator weapon bolts cut through the red particle filled space between the destroyer and the Pursuer. “Gunnery crew: take those fighters out now, we need them off our backs.”
Minh-Chu used every bit of the ship’s thruster power and fighter pilot experience to send the Pursuer along a flight path that was so erratic that the beam weapons of the opposing ship were having difficulty keeping up. They suffered several minor strikes, but their shields were holding. “One hundred thousand kilometres away from the destroyer,” Finn said. “Shields holding.”
A heavy strike by all there of the destroyer’s main beam weapons landed squarely on their forward shields, and Minh-Chu strafed the ship sideways then turned to the side.
“Our main gun is offline,” Carnie said.
“Forward shields are down to nine percent and recharging, we can’t take another hit like that for at least ten seconds,” Finn announced. “Sixty three thousand kilometres from the destroyer.”
Minh-Chu almost flinched as he saw his tactical screen light up with the flash of one of their torpedoes as it blasted the starboard side of the destroyer with an electromagnetic pulse then struck and exploded. “Small miracles,” he said as he took a gamble, crossing the front of the destroyer to get to that side of the ship. A beam weapon struck them on their port side, he could hear the warping of metal and the popping of circuitry somewhere behind him, deeper inside the ship for an instant before they moved out of that weapon’s arc.
“Major hit on our port side airlock, one turret is down,” Finn said. “Probably other damage on that side of the ship too but our hull saved us from most of it.”
“How did they hit us so hard?” Carnie asked.
“We had almost no shields on that side, everything is focused forward.”
“Sorry, I’m betting that the port side of this destroyer is still recovering,” Minh-Chu said.
“Looks like it, they’re not firing their main weapons on this side,” Finn said. “Twenty eight thousand kilometres. Ready to open the missile doors when we’re in your range.”
“Here we go,” Minh-Chu said as he pushed the ship’s engines as hard as he could, the roar of them nearly drowning all other sounds out.
“Missile doors open!” Finn said, “Within five thousand kilometres of the destroyer and closing fast.”
Minh-Chu didn’t realize he was smiling until he activated the missiles in rapid fire mode, sending twenty eight heavy missiles towards the most vulnerable side of the destroyer. He swore he could see through the portholes before he pulled up, nearly skimming the hull of the enemy ship. “Launch torpedoes,” he said, knowing that the heavier munitions would loop around and head back for the destroyer.
The first eleven missiles exploded against the enemy ship’s shields, the rest struck directly, most landing right against the side of their sensor suite and main antenna array. “Stop jamming, let’s see if they can broadcast.”
“Stopping jamming,” Hot Chow said.
“Torpedoes away,” Carnie reported. “They’re heading back towards the destroyer, I marked the same area we just hit as the preferred target.”
“Good, now we can risk talking to the Nafalli,” Minh-Chu said.