Fan Fiction: Protocol

[dovahspence]

Hello, I am writing a fanfiction for FTL. I may have taken some liberties lore wise, or will take some, but this is part one. If you enjoyed it and want the rest, (and even if you dont) I will post parts 2 and 3, which are WIP.



PROTOCOL: Part I

“Diverting power to engines.”
“Affirmative.”
“How many jumps until we reach the station?”
“Shortest route: three jumps, two through asteroid fields. Four jumps to avoid them. Current fuel capacity: six jumps.”
“We’re going the long way around. Can’t risk any more damage.”
“Affirmative.”
Captain Ben Pritcher leaned back in his chair. Damn, he thought to himself. He had just survived a battle with a rebel bomber, costing him three of his crew. Good ones, they were. A Mantis boarder, Engi, and a Human. Now it was just him, and Isaac, the Engi that was stationed in the engine room, fittingly. He had known Isaac for a while now, and was confident in his abilities. Since that battle, they were below 60% hull, in need of restocking ammo and crew. Currently, they were on their way to a station to talk with a Federation Commander about the current plans. The Federation, having destroyed the rebel flagship, was crippled but fighting, slowly driving the rebels out of these sectors. Despite this, a problem had arisen, and it was Pritcher’s job to get that fixed.
They were one jump from the station, and had seen no action but the remains of an Engi battle, and a distant pirate ship bolting away the second they saw the firepower that Pritcher was carrying: Two shields, a Burst Laser Mk. II, Fire Beam and Breach Missile. On the final jump, and the station came into view.
Immediately, a transmission came in on the screen. A Zoltan with what seemed to be a stern face, (you couldn’t really tell,) appeared, Federation markings on his uniform.
“Captain Pritcher, of the Federation ship Afterburner?” he said in a low voice
“That would be me. Is this Commander Serrus?”
“Yes, your presence is requested immediately on board the station.”
“Can do. Isaac, prepare for docking!”
On board the station, The Sanction, Ben and Isaac headed straight for the bridge at a brisk pace. They were new to this sector, and had no prior knowledge other than the scanty reports given to them by the Federation officers. The station was big, and activity was buzzing all around, with Engis fixing ships, a mantis crew arguing for lower prices with a weapons merchant, and a rock and a slug attempting to bypass security without the right papers. Defense drones were monitoring customs, and it felt like at any point violence could erupt.
But nothing did, and making it through customs, Pritcher sent Isaac to go contact a repair group. He made his way through a long corridor, and entered the bridge. Commander Serrus was hovering a few inches off the ground, emitting a soft green glow.
“Captain Pritcher, we have no time to waste!” he said in a formal and confident tone, “The Federation requires our help.”
“I thought we actually had the upper hand, until I was wrecked by a retreating rebel ship,” he half-mumbled.
“Yes, but we have a new, and troublesome problem.”
He turned to the massive screen on the wall. It displayed a map of the current sector. A red line encompassing rebel territory was getting smaller to the far left of the screen, back to the long range beacon.
“This was the map of the sector 48 hours ago.”
It flicked to the next shot, the red area slightly smaller on the left.
“And this is 24 hours ago.”
Finally, it switched to a shot of the sector, but...
“They’ve stopped retreating!”
“Yes. And we think we know why.”
The screen showed the diagram for a beam weapon, with many small and complicated augments attached to it.
“This is the blueprints for a devastating weapon, weapon known as the Bio Beam.”
Pritcher cut in. “If I remember correctly, didn’t the Kestrel find that on its way to defeating the flagship?”
“Yes,” Serrus replied, “but that was the only one we had at the time. The Federation has developed classified plans for mass producing this weapon. And we believe that the rebels have found this out and are hoping to seize the plans for themselves, and use our own weapons against us.”
“So... now we have to get these plans out of this huge system, while evading rebels and pirates, and SOMEHOW get out of here alive with the plans and deliver them to the Federation fleet, that’s still rebuilding itself, mind you, and create these weapons, outfit ALL of the ships with them, before the rebels reach us.”
“Precisely.”
“Well then, let’s get cracking!”
Out in the hangar, Pritcher and Serrus joined with Isaac and decided that they needed more crew. Serrus volunteered to join, and said he had extensive training in shield operation. Pritcher then instructed him and Isaac to go restock on missiles and fuel, while he looked for recruits. He had scarcely walked a few meters before a boy, most likely at the age of nineteen, greeted him.
“Hello sir. I hate to bother you, but I overheard your conversation, and would like to join your crew.”
“You do realize that eavesdropping on official Federation business is a crime?”
“Yes sir.”
Pritcher liked this kid. As they talked more, he informed Pritcher that his name was Garret and was an electronics technician straight out of the academy and always wanted a job in the Federation. He specialized in subsystems such as sensors and oxygen units, and added that with the right materials, he could upgrade their sensors right now. Pritcher agreed, had him sign a contract on his datapad, and informed Isaac of his findings over the short range communications. You can never have enough crew these days.
Pritcher assigned him to the sensors, had him upgrade them, and they set off once again.
After a brief skirmish with a rebel automated ship with hacking capabilities that shut down his engines with Isaac in it, they continued on for two more jumps. As they entered an abandoned beacon orbiting an uninhabitable planet in the system of a dying star, Garret picked something up on the sensors.
“Sir, there is a ship wreckage not that far from here!”
“I’m moving in to inspect it,” Pritcher replied.
They coasted around the wreckage until they matched its trajectory. After a more detailed scan, Garret reported that there appeared to be an operational device inside the ship. After much consideration, Pritcher decided to put on his spacesuit, and hop onto the ship and recover the technology. Some talk with Serrus, a little fiddling with the suit by Isaac, and he was propelling himself towards the ship, his ship gliding gently beside it, with Serrus at the wheel. Despite moving at incredible speed, it felt as if Ben was moving only towards the wreckage.
Grabbing onto a jutting piece of metal coming out of a breach in the hull, he pulled himself into the ship. After gliding through what appeared to be the remains of a doors system room, he made his way into a larger corridor. A Rock corpse was clutching some kind of augment in his arms as he bobbed around the weightless corridor, and Pritcher found that he could not pry it from its arms, locked in by rigor mortis. Pritcher drifted around the ship until he found a small hand held personal defense laser pistol in a compartment, made his way back to the Rock, and carefully shot his arm to pieces, until it was weak enough to pry apart from the augment, with only little burn damage to its tech.
When he returned, analysis showed that it was a Weapon Pre-Ignitor, very useful in combat for allowing weapons to be charged by an FTL jump. After quick installation, they jumped into the next sector and were immediately greeted by gunfire from a pirate ship. Dodging and rolling, they fired a well-timed missile at its shields, barraged it with laser shots, and finished by disabling the ship with a burst of fire. Suddenly, a transmission came in. A panicked looking Mantis appeared on the screen, with a missing arm from a long forgotten fight.
“Please don’t kill us!” it pleaded, “We are slavers, and if you cease fire, we can offer you a laborer!”
Pritcher didn’t like this. If they wanted business, they wouldn’t have shot at them! But Serrus had a different opinion.
“Let them go, and we get another crewmember.”
“They’re slavers, Serrus! They capture and sell people for a living!”
“Yes, but by destroying them, you destroy the innocents in their capture.”
“It could be a trap! They could send over a bomb, and we would all be dead!”
“They are at our mercy, and anything other than conformity would get them killed. They know that.”
“...fine.”
Pritcher contacted the ship, and after many thanks beamed aboard a slave. Pritcher and Serrus, weapons drawn, headed for the teleporter room. Inside was a girl with blonde hair. She was tall, and looked like she had seen battle before. She looked slightly familiar to Ben, but he couldn’t place where he knew her from. A brief talk, reviewing of policies and information, and a threat from Pritcher informed them that her name was Annika, from outside of these sectors. She had been captured a while back by the Mantis slavers, and was willing to work. After Pritcher informed her that any suspicious actions would most likely result in her being thrown out the airlock, he returned to the cockpit. After two more jumps, they were halfway to the long range beacon. Pritcher ordered everyone to take a rest, and privately for Isaac to keep an eye on the girl. Checking the ships catalogue, Pritcher searched up her name. Turns out she had spent time as a mercenary/bounty hunter, and took contracts from many employers. Pritcher kept that in mind as he assigned her to work at the weapons station. Taking a short rest, Pritcher got up to take a walk around the ship. As he passed Serrus’s courters, he noticed that Serrus had left a datapad on his desk. Taking a liberty, Pritcher entered and checked the pad. It had the exact plans for the Bio Beam production, and Pritcher downloaded it to his pad quickly so he could study it further later. He headed to his quarters, and ordered the crew to head to theirs. It had been a long day. Was it a day? It was hard to tell in space.
He fell asleep reading the plans.

Pritcher scavenged some fuel from the wreckage of the rebel ship. It was two days after they had started their mission, and the rebels were closing in fast. Pritcher was startled to be getting an alert from Garret. Heading over to the sensors, Garret informed him that someone had sabotaged the sensors! Nothing had been recorded throughout the two previous sleep periods. Garret began to work on fixing this situation. Pritcher, noting that he needed more help, called for Isaac. He didn’t respond.
“Isaac,” Pritcher spoke into the comms.
“Isaac!”
“Greetings sir,”
“We need you up in sensors.”
A pause.
“Affirmative.”
Odd. Isaac had been acting up recently, not responding immediately, and performing wrong actions. It was beginning to trouble him. Another jump led to a double attack by a rebel bomber and a scout. Just barely surviving, they jumped out in the nick of time, opening airlocks to put out fires. They quickly noticed another rebel! After a quick but costly fight, they were out of missiles and Pritcher took some time to think. There was no way that they could trace him, yet they were always one step ahead. Could it be treason? Garret was new, and could have any background. Serrus was a commander, but commanders can turn. Some people say the greatest rebel generals had defected from the Federation. That bounty hunter girl Annika could be being played off. And Isaac was acting up... could that incident with the automated hacking drone three days earlier downloaded software, or was he just malfunctioning? He wasn’t certain. But one thing was. He needed answers, and he needed answers now.