Chapter 41
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TIME:
1 HOURS LATER
LOCATION:
BETA CHARON
43 AU FROM BETA CHARON
INNER KEIPER BELT
RENEGADE'S REGRET
POV:
Commodore Riven Larsen
Today as had been the case for the last few weeks, had begun with a dash of bad news, it was only natural it should continue as such. It was par for the course as far out in the frontier as we were; not that we wanted to be all the way out here leading the scum we once swore to eradicate from the stars.
The journey to this system had been draining on sorely needed parts; if that wasn't already soul draining enough, one of the support ships had vanished into hyperspace. This situation in this system was quickly becoming untenable, it was uncertain if half of us would even be able to leave and escape this system.
'And I won't leave my men to possibly die; not that I consider half of these miscreants worthy of living.'
"So what did Marcus have to say before he was slaughtered? I hope it wasn't a request for us to save him, he should already know we're too far away to respond quickly." My response was cold but I frankly couldn't muster the patience to pretend I cared for him.
"He did not, he seemed rather resolved if anything." I raised my hand, the comms officer going quiet immediately, years of discipline showing fruit. "Marcus was resolved with what I assume is his death? Heh next you're going to tell me this system is legitimately cursed by the precursors."
"Yes sir, it seems he ran into a void ship he believes belongs to the famous system governess. Though he says the ship never turned its identifier on so he couldn't be sure." My comms officer reports with a voice carefully devoid of emotions. I, however, couldn't find that drop in my stomach I would expect upon hearing that I am sharing a system with a class V void ship. I guess we've been through so much that I just didn't care at this point.
I was hopeful they wouldn't try and pick a fight with us if it truly was her. I personally thought it was unlikely, but who knows there has never been a recorded instance of someone bringing a class V void ship into a naval engagement. The Lumen Ascendancy at least hasn't shared anything with our nation, and likely everyone else. At best I can only hope this ship can weather the abuse and flee.
"Michael, did the sensors pick up anything coming from Marcus's direction? I want to know what weapons we're dealing with." I looked across the dim room. It was thankfully quiet but that soon may change, who knows how good class V sensors are. Maybe we've already been spotted and they're waiting for an opportunity.
"Yes sir, I wasn’t able to pick up a series of bright flashes coming from where he should've been that would point to laser weapons. I don't know what it was for certain, however the x-ray sensors picked up an extremely strong pulse of high energy particles colliding with something. I don't have enough readings to be quite certain of the weapon used against the Carrion Mauler and Opulent Reaver."
"Okay can you give me your best guess then? I don't care how stupid or unreasonable it is. This is possibly a class V we're dealing with. Everything they do is unreasonable."
Michael makes a resigned expression for a moment before wiping it off his face with a shrug of his shoulders, "Well I believe what I was just describing was likely a particle cannon. They aren't a weapon one would usually use as they are incredibly maintenance heavy and are only moderately effective against hull armor. Though their main benefit is punching holes through shields. Their second possible claim to fame is that the beam can be hidden to outside sensors by a planet's magnetic field if it's strong enough. I believe the nation was at one point trying to develop them to be usable on warships, but that was decades ago shortly after the Thorns crisis."
I put a palm to my face and just wearily sigh, this was the exact weapon I'd like to face the least, something that ignores shields and just damages what's underneath the ability to hide to the outside system while inside a magnetic field was just icing on the shit cake. Armor plating was expensive and heavy to carry around so of course we had few replacements. Fuel was a luxury that we had to draw cautiously from gas giants; the exact place where I bet a particle cannon would be at its stealthiest. And to make things worse for us the moment someone detected an outlaw or—really any ship in this system—attempting to refuel at a gas giant it was only expected rival gangs and system forces would attempt to attack them. It was something I have done multiple times so I had no room to talk or complain.
"Okay, are there any weaknesses of particle cannons?" I ask if there had to be something I could make a plan around just in case something were to happen. "Uh yes sir, they can only fire for a short time and take a while to recharge. They're power hungry as well so it is unlikely she has many to shoot with. I however haven't detected any other type of weapon fire since the first massive burst of x-rays."
"Okay keep looking for any possible signs of battles in the system. Stefan send a message to all our warships to enter radio silence on laser band. I also want our support ships to stay close to us. They're our only source of food for now; even if it's tasteless cardboard."
"Yes sir, I will send the message right away! What should I tell the… miscreants sir?"
I just wave my hand dismissively as I stand up, "I don't care tell them to try and recover Marcus and Raines ships... if they're even still there. Whoever recovers them can have all the ammunition onboard and we'll give them their fair share of parts to maintain their own ships."
"Yes sir!" Stefan salutes as I leave the CIC. 'How long has it been since I began this hunt... too long, far too long.'
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TIME:
THE NEXT DAY
(1 DAY AFTER RETURNING)
LOCATION:
BETA CHARON
30 AU FROM BETA CHARON
INNER KEIPER BELT
MIDNIGHT NOSTALGIA
POV:
Lilith Runethari
"So have you identified the group the pirates we exterminated yesterday belonged to? I would like to know the chances of them choosing to retaliate."
I was currently looking around my room to see if anything had been moved, not even glancing at the large display screen currently being used. On it was YAGA instead of Mom, who was busy overseeing the production of a second MAT which requires absurd attention and care.
YAGA's avatar was rather unique for a nonsapient AI. Her face—the only thing currently visible—was hidden behind a black mask with white specks that likely symbolized distant stars. But what drew the most attention was a large orange lidless eye on her forehead, the same deep rich orange of Beta Charon. The eyes peeking out from behind the mask also shared the color and even seemed to glow. Her long blonde hair was more normal, being somewhat common among the Runethari.
"Yes my lady, the pirates encountered 5 AU from the ZZ-4 egress point belong to a group named the Onyx Revenants. From data provided by SAI MARA I have recognized that they are in possession of multiple military warships. How they procured these, however, remains unknown. The majority of the void ships in their group however are simply refitted merchant vessels. I put the chance of effective retaliation in the near future as 3%, their ships are simply too damaged and unmaintained. I would imagine they know that. They likely fear you, which is logical. Their fleet seem to be mostly of class II or barely class III void ships in what little recorded capabilities I have noticed," YAGA explained.
Finally done checking my cabinets I walk over into my bed before collapsing into it. I slowly sank into its comfortable embrace, it was good to be back home, enjoying the thought for a moment I just laid there. I soon reluctantly forced myself to get back up and rolled over to sit on the edge.
On the screen YAGA's face was staring at me with blank eyes that I could not see having a light to them like mother's, despite glowing. Suddenly the image changed showing what was clearly an emblem of a gaunt pale gaunt hand reaching out and gripping a black glossy stone that was about to be shattered into dust with half a yellow star rising serving as the contrast; the rest of the emblem was a black background.
"I take it that's the emblem they use? I'm surprised, this must have some meaning behind it. I expected something overtly violent or threatening. I guess I'll ask when I eventually go and meet their boss to kindly request he serve me or fuck off. Speaking of, do you have a name and location for him?"
YAGA reappears on the screen with a square beside her face showing a clean picture of a man's face. He had black hair though it was turning grey with age—and stress—wrinkles could be made out; he seemed old but not terribly so. He also was surprisingly clean shaven which I was not expecting for the leader of a bunch of pirates.
"His name is Riven Larsen he has the title of commodore, though if this rank was official at one point has yet to be confirmed. From what I've managed to piece together and listen to over the months he is a pragmatist who can come off as cold and ruthless. Likely he was a former member of the Obsidian Reclaimers’ Navy. This would help to explain the abundance of warships and his cruiser flagship as well.
"However, that isn't always the case; he does have a weakness, he seems to deeply prize the crew of his warships. During an engagement with the group known as 'Burningthorn Princes' a destroyer was struck by a high powered laser. This laser seems to have struck their fuel as fires were reported onboard before minutes later the ship violently exploded. Those who abandoned ship reported life pods being targeted by the weapons of the Burningthorn Princes before they eventually fled without suffering a significant loss. He then spent multiple weeks hunting down over 6 Burningthorn void ships and capturing them. I managed to listen into the casualty reports on his side, which were lower than expected pointing to a trained and disciplined crew.
"As for his last known location he is further out than this station approximately 40 AU away from Beta Charon onboard his cruiser which I have yet to find the name of. However, his fleet has gone dark and I am unable to accurately track him while keeping the other groups in my sensors. Would you like me to dedicate the resources to reaffirming his location, my lady?"
I shake my head keeping a serious expression, I would look into those Burningthorn Princes and the Onyx Revenants in more detail later. But that leaves me wondering something, "I have one last question: why did the Burningthorn Princes—which we need to come up with a better shorter name for them later—flee? Aren't humans stuck with radio and other luminal forms of communication, they should have had minutes if not hours to continue their slaughter; they seemed to have been winning."
"Reinforcements had actually arrived from a nearby patrol who after dropping out of FTL to scan for intruders picked up their distress signal. The patrol also had a pair of military light cruisers that quickly began overwhelming the shields of the Burningthorn Princes’ ships."
'I guess that makes sense and is reasonable, but doesn't that mean there are at least 2 light cruisers in this system? And if they were on patrol that would mean there's likely many more out there, hopefully I'm wrong.' I realize YAGA is waiting for my response and I hurriedly look back at the display and glance at her glowing orange eyes. "Okay, that is all I have for questions so far regarding the squatters. Do you have an idea when the MAT will be finished?"
"Yes, at the current rate of printing the parts needed to build a medium MAT should be done in 2 weeks. Though its installation in the post and safety testing is expected to take a month, MARA will eventually be free to help pilot the Astro Dawn before then; however, the installation can be completed by me," YAGA reports.
That meant I would be stuck here for two weeks, which was aggravating, but a second MAT was just too valuable; with it I could finally begin printing new warbots that I could hopefully make entirely in the system. We had some scans of the system's resource wealth but I'm sure the surveyors missed something; space was a little big after all.
"YAGA when Mom is available again I want to be notified immediately. Could you also look over any scans we have of Beta Charon 3 and see if there are any locations we can exploit for minerals and plans to exploit them; the deadline is 2 weeks from now."
"It will be done my lady."
I knew she would do this job excellently, but let's hope she is at least reasonable. After all, I only had a dozen Regolith exploitation robots from Orenthia and a single metal extractor which took up a quarter of my cargo bay. But plans on how to assemble that can come later. Now I just want to relax and laze around, that's what thralls were for wasn't it?