Chapter 44
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TIME:
10 DAYS LATER
(1 MONTH AND 9 DAYS AFTER RETURNING)
LOCATION:
NEARORBIT OF BETA CHARON V
3 AU FROM BETA CHARON
OUTER PLANETARY SYSTEM
ASTRO DAWN
I sit in the CIC bored out of my mind staring at a barely moving orange blip. The idiot probably thought he was being all quiet and stealthy. I, however, wondered how a 260 meter warship—I believe it would be rated as a destroyer—was the smallest currently solitary warship in the system; surely there had to be a corvette somewhere right?!
Finally I stand up as a tactical holo-table rises from out of the floor just in front of my seat. It was finally nearing time to end this hunt.
On the Hologram the Astro Dawn could be located "hiding" inside the ring of Beta Charon V; something we've been doing for about 3 days now waiting for worthwhile prey. Though honestly it was more us pretending to be a chunk of ice; the nearest sizable ring asteroid was over 65,000 km away, and measured a vast 100 meters at its widest.
"Did you have more luck locating some of the ship's components this time around Mom?" I ask while walking to the side of the table. The screens on the walls and ceiling began showing the outside of the ship. The wall opposite of where I was standing had been zoomed in to show the entire flank of the warship we had set our sights on.
"Yes, I have, I've located all major components of the ship. I will send a map to your power armor. I have, however, been unable to secure access to internal doors and bulkheads; they seem to all be manually operated."
That leaves me feeling uncertain about this mission. I mean this vessel had well over 400 people onboard all of which are classified as pirates. This vessel was also serving as a community ship but I couldn't care less. Since they were aboard a pirate they were pirates I couldn't care less they might as well be civilians.
"Okay, do we have enough cutting equipment for this? I'd hate to have to cut through every door. Also begin aiming the particle emitters, focus on taking out their main thrusters and if possible a shot to their FTL drive would be appreciated. Do you think you can tow this to a hiding spot near the listening post?" I ask a question that in all likelihood is an impossibility with so much lack of preparation. "... It should be possible but I would need to travel slower than our usual 8c. I think I could guarantee safety going at 4c."
My mouth dropped open in surprise, "You can? That's great, then we'll need to find the engineering room so we can shut down the reactor, but can the robots connect you to it remotely?"
"Yes, but that won't be a problem after all life support is sharing a room with the reactor. And I'm sure you're capable. Now let us focus on the battle the particle emitter is ready to fire on your command." I nodded as I reined in my emotions and put my focus towards the naval battle. "Okay I want the particle emitter targeting the FTL drive to fire on highest output. The moment the cannon fires I want the control thrusters to fire and push us up! Shift 1TW power towards the thrusters for now, with minimal output going to recharging the emitters! Shields stay a priority. Make sure the nanoswarm is ready to redirect any kinetic projectiles."
I felt the Astro Dawn shake not a second after I finished giving orders. I watch as a brief flash of light flares across the screens only to disappear revealing what appears to be an undamaged voidship. My eyebrow twitches at the lack of damage. I opened my mouth to ask, but Mother quickly answered my question, "Their FTL drive should be unusable, I focused the beam to 50 centimeters in diameter, that's why you can't see any holes. Shall I commence targeting their thrusters?"
I opened my mouth to ask why she made the beam a fifth its max size but eventually sighed and just nodded, 'Sometimes Mom likes to show off how good her aim is; it's only gotten worse since she inhabited the Astro Dawn.' I silently lament my Mother's odd sense of pride just as a second barrage of 10 high output particle beams smashes a sixteen meter wide hole into the rear of the warship.
The plasma thruster continues to flare for about a second before it suddenly completely cuts off. I plan my next move just waiting to see how they respond, surprisingly they respond with a request to communicate?
'Could they be surrendering? I hope so, makes this errand easier.' I took a moment tapping my foot wondering if they were truly surrendering this all felt too easy. "Answer it, I'll leave combat to your judgement Mom."
"Communication connecting. please wait a moment... Communication connected with warship B.P.V. Stellar Hallow."
"YOU! WHO ARE YOU TO DARE ATTACK A HALLOWED VESSEL OF THE BURNINGTHORN PRINCES! YOU WILL BE BURNT TO CINDERS FOR THIS GRAVE SACRILEGE! PRAY YOUR SHIELDS HOLD AGAINST OUR HOLY LIGHT YOU HEATHEN!"
I make a show of exaggerated wincing before speaking, "Uh could you be more quiet with your screaming? It would make it possible for me to actually hear what you said. Well I wouldn't listen regardless, so I take it you aren't here to surr– oh he cut communications... asshole."
"Lilith, he seems to be trying to send communications and signals for help. Should I scramble them?" I sigh, of course the bald bipedal Morduul—the Runethari word for a large slow moving animal. It's actually the name of a species of rare long extinct sauropod-like creature, as Therin lacked oceans deep enough to support whale-like fauna—who was just a moment ago screaming I'd burn to ashes is now crying for help. Regardless, I should respond to Mother, "You're already jamming his comms aren't you?"
"..."
"Thank you, now target any obvious turrets with a focus on kinetics."
The moment that word left my mouth an eye searing barrage of lasers slammed into our plasma shield. Unfortunately a few thousand ant sized nanoswarm drones were slagged in the process. Thankfully it seems no kinetic weapons had fired, not that we wouldn't detect it but still.
"Fucking hell! ...I guess he wasn't exaggerating when he said I 'd be burnt to ash. I feel like my eyes almost turned to ash with that lightshow display." I wince covering my eyes as I try to blink the spots out of my vision.
'You appeared to have just overstimulated your eyes Lilith. There is no need to worry.' Mara's words come as a minor comfort, but I stop hunching and look back to the screen now sporting a helpful caption "TIMESTAMP: T - 1 SECOND."
I thank Mom but I still never expected to be blinded like that from a modern human. That tactic was also used in my training simulations when I first started leading naval battles. Vampires usually live in dim environments, so a sudden flash of light can easily blind an uncautious command crew.
I grind my teeth in anger at being subjected to such a stupid trick. I order Mother to slag a few of their laser cannons. I watch with vindictive glee as 12 flashes of light signal the destruction of a dozen weapons turrets. Suddenly the screen dims as another barrage of lasers smash helplessly into the plasma shield.
"What's their problem, can they only use those oversized laser pointers? Mom direct power away from thrusters and into recharging the particle emitters."
"Understood. Any other orders?"
I shake my head as I feel the battle settle into a rhythm of us trading shots. We were slowly gaining on them so it was just a matter of waiting now.
Eventually I got another request for communications I thought about accepting. Maybe I would mock him for how shitty of a position he was in. I then just decided against it, but had Mom screen them just in case he wished for a surrender.
It took around 4 and a half minutes for our particle emitters to recharge when we focused all resources on them. This meant by the time we were close and had matched velocities with them all possible weapons—including point defense turrets—had long been destroyed, with no sign of help coming.
"Are they still not accepting to surrender despite their pathetic state?" I ask looking at the live footage of the drifting vessel. Mom responds somehow managing to sound disgusted despite her usual monotone, "They are not willing, apparently he views us artificial intelligences with an especially incandescent anger. He actually threatened to blow up the ship before handing it over to 'unbelieving metal.' Though his dream of self destruction has sadly been sent to drift in the solar wind. I've targeted all explosive stockpiles with especially high powered beams; they were atomized before they could even grow warm.Though engineering remains an option, but a small scale one, please watch out for them trying to crack open the reactor, I wouldn't put it past a fanatic..."
"Understood now that we were in range, can you launch the towing cable?"
Thankfully Astro Dawn had some, though the quantity left much to be desired we had only one left after this. The reloading procedure will take weeks of manufacturing and loading at Midnight Nostalgia; I refuse to use human facilities mostly out of principle, and a good share of paranoia.
"Launched, you can begin armoring Lilith. And Lilith, please be careful this isn't like the last boarding you took part in, this ship has hundreds onboard who may all end up being combatants. Let the Pesantes take the hits and handle the incapacitation of future subjects; they're designed for it." Mother cautions with a slightly longer space between some words. 'She's anxious. Not that I can fully fault her. We have only a dozen of the nightmare wolves, and to make things difficult they weren't even designed for boarding actions.'
I jog to my room trying to not be too quick so I can give Mom time to calm down. Inside my closet sat the highly advanced geometric light scout power armor. The back opened up like it was the shell of some insect that had molted. Climbing in smoothly I was momentarily left without my sight, smell, or really anything that wasn't touched until the armor began to turn on.
In a moment my face plate seemed to turn transparent and the air filters whirled to life. I walked over to a locked case, with barely a touch it clicked open revealing a new type of rifle from the Aeth I usually would have used. This was a new weapon design from Mara, the XBC-04 'Carth' 6.8mm Experimental Boarding Carbine, a pure chemical propellent carbine. It was a short polymer body rifle that was perfect for the corridors of a ship. It could fire low lethality soft polymer bullets or as humans would wrongly call them rubber bullets; they were however not made of rubber.
Grabbing it I put a half dozen the magazines inside holders flaring out from the thigh. The one part of the armor that was more function over form, but just made me look like I had thick thighs... it felt almost shameful like that damn eva suit.
Finally carrying the maximum amount of ammo—both lethal and low lethal—on my person I left for the cargo bay. If I ran out of ammo I could rely on the pesantes that would join me to carry more; their torso could store supplies for missions, so extra ammo was a given.
Arriving at the cargo bay after a refreshingly quick airlock cycle I spotted the twelve 74 centimeter tall dog like constructs. Coming with no paint it was difficult to see them as the silent menaces they were. One walked up to me purposely having its metal claws clicking quietly against the metal floor. It was slightly larger than its brothers at 80 centimeters.
I took a glance into its mouth and had to suppress a shiver of dread; it was a smile full of needle-thin teeth that served as a way to inject a small amount of an amazingly strong—for humans—if short lived sedative. Its curved knife-like claws also could serve as a way to sedate a human more subtly. Its tail ended in a sharp point that was just meant to kill or rather euthanize sleeping targets. I could see why its name has managed to survive in human myth as a dog that only brought nightmares, it looked like one and that was without its black paint job.
"So you guys are going to follow and help me get to engineering?" The dog nods its head with a show of surprising intelligence from its animalistic AI. "Then make sure you protect the breaching automaton that's joining us. It might be armored but one wrong bullet then we're left with no way to advance against locked steel doors.
"Now let's get onto the lift, and remember to attach yourselves onto the metal cable; I don't have enough maneuvering thruster propellant to save even one of you dense boys! Mom, if you would do the honors and remove the last of the air I'd be thankful."
Mother's voice responded quickly though it wasn't oddly paced, seems she's calmed down a little, "Yes Lilith, and good luck with the boarding."
I nod my head as the sound inside the bay slowly begins to ceases like it never even existed in the first place; the dogs quickly advanced to the lift as a pack, their claws and servos quiet as a gecko—Runethari mouse/vermin equivalent—something that wouldn't change even in an atmosphere; these guys were built for spec ops and scouting missions after all, that was the sole reason we even had their blueprints on the Astro Dawn.
I shook my head internally. This wasn't the time to count blessings, I had an almost 2 meter thick metal cable the length of a large town to walk. And after that? Over 400 religious—I assume—fanatics and onboard security systems. This would be a slog both mentally and physically.