I just decided one day to write this up and it turned into a long story. Hope everyone enjoys.
“Look, I’m leaving you in charge of the mission, O.K?” the general said, with a flick of his cigar. He put his feet cross-legged onto the table.
“ARE YOU INSANE? A prototype flagship of the rebel fleet might be guarding it, and we don’t even know if the rebels will be using it?” I asked him, recalling what the General’s mission was. Penetrate the defenses of the rebel stronghold, fight the prototype flagship, and retrieve the ship with the Vindicator beam technology, the most powerful weapon in existence.
“Sam, it’s our only hope. If they figure out how to copy the technology, the federation would be destroyed, and every species- I MEAN EVERY- would be destroyed or confined. The Zoltans would succeed in keeping some territory, considering their shield tech and that they created the beam in the first place. Everyone who obeyed the Zoltan security patrol or lived in the forgotten sector would be the only people who survived. You’re our best captain, and that’s why I’m sending you on this mission”
I couldn’t argue with him, or he’d take back the compliment, even if it were true. “Fine,” I said, falling back in my chair.
“Good; you will have your accompanying crewmember arriving shortly.”
“Wait, I only have one crewmember other than me?”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure something out. I’m off to go train some people; go to the hanger and some people will guide you to your ship. Tootles,” he said, and the wall opened up revealing his secret elevator. “You’ll be fine. Probably.” The doors closed and blended into the wall, like most secret doors.
Let’s review what I have here; an unknown crewmember, a burst laser mark II, a federation modified Artemis, and a lame old Kestrel-class ship. Yay. I started on the long journey to the hanger, which doesn’t take that long, but when you’re on the road to Loserville, or “The wall of dead heroes,” it takes forever. Oh boy.
I finally made it to the hanger, where I entered and saw many people asking for directions. It was quite loud, but when one person saw me coming down the stairs, there was a giant cloud of silence except for the occasional whisper of “Is that Commander Samuel? It can’t be. It must be.” and the loud “Excuse me, coming through,” from some mantis making his way through the crowd.
Mantises are a fast, limber fighter species genetically created by some company called ‘Hole science’ or something like that. They certainly look like praying mantises.
“Robert smith, at your service,” the mantis said in his wispy voice. “A pleasure to meet you, Commander Samuel. Your ship is this way, and is fully stocked to get going on its voyage.” The mantis seemed to have not eaten in a year, but it was the fasting period. Mantises can survive for a lifetime without food.
“So you are the crewmember the general was talking about?”
“General ‘you do it’? Yes, I was sent by him.” I had forgotten about the name I had made up for him when I was a lieutenant and he was a captain. It seemed to have lasted as some sort of tradition. I chuckled to myself at the sound of that.
“So, where’s the ship?”
“This way…” Robert dashed off in some direction where the ship was. It was as if there was a built- in compass in his head.
“Hey, wait up!”
“Hurry up!” Oy. If he did this every time, I would be on a mission with a… a… I actually don’t know how to describe it. Crazy doesn’t fit, and insane would be an exaggeration. He seemed to be of high status, for it was obvious where he was. The giant crowd watching him and me split apart like the Red Sea when Moses stuck out his hand. We were that high priority, but I didn’t know why Robert was getting a giant invisible snowplow to himself.
We finally found our ship in the crowded hanger. It seemed that everyone was after that ship, especially because there would be a big bounty for retrieving it. Bounty hunters, federation ships, Engis (robots that specialize in robots and repair), and every other species and fleet in existence. Considering we were the only people assigned to this mission, there would be two fleets after us; the rebel fleet, which would come second, and then the fleet of bounty hunters and other ships. This’ll be fun.
“Here we are,” Robert said, pointing to the silver-white streaks on the hull of the Kestrel. The orange stripes made the ship obviously a federation ship; there was no doubt about it. Robert dashed up the steps to the ship and said, “Your stuff is already packed, sir.”
“Call me Sam.” I tell everyone to call me Sam.
“O.K., sir.”
The ship was already packed with food and items for our journey. It also had titanium system casing, which was useful, considering how many times our hull would be hit by some annoying laser or missile. I went to the helm and sat down behind the controls, and saw one thing: THERE WERE NO SENSORS. The only way to see what was in a room was to send a crewmember into a room, and I was glad you could see into those rooms, at least. There seemed to be a rockman on board, too.
Rockmen come in various colors, usually dark. They were the first species that the federation made contact with. Immune to fire, these are expected to have lower than average intellect.
“Robert?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Is there anyone else supposed to be on this mission?”
“Yeah, a rockman. I should say rockwoman, actually. Her name is Xemu, after her grandfather. Joined the federation, and is one of the best repairmen the federation’s seen. She’s definitely not the best, and Xemu’s certainly glad for that. Otherwise she’d be asked on every mission.”
The rockman lived up to his- I mean her- definition from Robert. She was fixing a broken oxygen node, and seemingly upgrading it. The little device shook, and finally the green light went back on. I don’t think I’ve seen someone do that so fast. She then headed to the medbay, for some reason. Maybe to heal or something. Anyway, I got the engines started.
“Robert, is there anything we’re forgetting?”
“I think not, sir.”
“Actually, yes, there is,” A computerized voice said over the intercom. “Intruders are on board, trying to get to Captain Sam. Shall I escort them out?” There seemed to be some AI on the ship.
“Immediately, if possible,” I said, getting the ship ready to exit the hanger. “Send ‘em out on a shuttle, if possible. I don’t want to kill a bounty hunter.”
“But you’re willing to kill rebels?” Robert piped in.
“Yeah, I think I’m ready again.”
Exiting the hanger went smoothly. The intruders were trying to kill me, for there was a bounty on my head, apparently. Hopefully that will lower the bounty for the ship, I thought. I’m going to have to kill some bounty hunters along the way, though.
Easy choice of what beacon to go to next; there was only one way. If I went the other way, the rebel fleet would catch me, and if I went the way I went, I would reach the stronghold quite “easily”. I’d have to deal with all of the annoying auto-scouts of the rebel fleet, and the rouge federation ships. This’ll be fun.
“Let’s do this,” I said to myself, and turned on the portal to the beacon.
I always hate going through FTL jumps. You never know what’s there until you regain your balance. When I regained my balance, I was not happy at what I saw.
“Federation vessel. Surrender while you can.” A rebel auto-scout was positioned at this beacon.
“Ladies first!” It seemed that rebels programed their AI’s to understand insults, for immediately after I said that, its weapons sprung from its hull.
“Sir, the FTL drive of the enemy ship is charging- fast. It seems to be headed towards the rebel fleet,” the AI (I’ll call him Fred) of our ship said.
“Let it charge,” I said, “It’ll be good for us, actually. The fleets will meet and chaos will be unleashed. They both are after us, but they are for different reasons. One is for retrieving the ship before us, and the other is for stopping us.”
“I misspoke. It’s going to detonate after the jump, and it will appear right behind us.”
“ROBERT, GET THOSE WEPONS ONLINE IMMEDIATELY!”
“Sir, Robert is not manning the weapon room.”
“What’s he doing then?”
“He has EVA on, and seems to be- riding the missile from the Artemis.”
“WHAT?” I went to the window, and surely, there he was, riding the missile, guiding it towards the helm of the enemy ship. He seemed to have done this before, for he was doing it with effortless perfection. Then, at the last second, before he went through the shields, he leapt off it.
“WHEEEEEEEE!!!” Came his voice over personal intercom (perscom for short). He timed everything just right; the explosion propelled him back to the hull of our ship. The airlocks were opened, and Robert dashed past me. “That was FUN!!”
“What were you doing out there, Robert?”
“Guiding the rocket towards the weapons room on the auto-scout so it couldn’t hurt us with its own missile launcher.”
A loud explosion rattled the ship as something hit the hull.
“Scratch that,” Robert said, and scattered towards the airlock again.
After a minute or so, the ship finally exploded. Not after any FTL jump; we destroyed it before it could get anywhere. This time when we made the jump, we had more choices. There was one that said it was a store; but there might have been a ship stationed there waiting for us. I decided not to go there. At the other beacons there was nothing important emitting from them, and I decided to go to the “lower” one of them. The real question is: what direction is down in space?
The jump was completed, and nothing important was at the beacon. Some remnants of a rebel ship were nearby; some pirates must be near. Maybe even ahead of us. I took no chances and jumped to the next beacon.
I turned out to be correct; there were some pirates ahead. One had an ASB unit (Anti-Ship Battery) on it. When it saw me, it fired a warning shot at me, which soon launched itself away from the scene, damaging the other ship. That was easy, I thought, and waited for the Drive to fully charge.
“Nothing exciting for three beacons in a row? Seriously?” Those are famous last words, or at least they should be. As soon as I said that some pirate came into view.
"Greetingss, and welcome to our beacon! For a ssmall fee, we'll let you conti- Wait a second, you’re that federation sship everyone’sss looking for! AS I wass ssaying, for a ssmall fee of 27 sscrap, we’ll let you continue on your way." It was obviously a slug captain, for he wasn’t using a com, and he lengthened hiss ss’ss.
“I think not, at least not today,” I said. We only had 57 scrap in our hold, anyways. That’s not much, in case you were wondering.
“Fine then! No wonder uss sslugss were banned from the federation. You people don’t trust uss.” They armed their weapons after that.
“Sir, enemy FTL is charging,” Fred said.
“Are you sure? It’s not like they’re going to go warn the hunter’s fleet.”
“They actually are, Sir.”
“Someone really needs to teach you how to read sarcasm. Please don’t tell me that Robert has gone on another ‘rocket ride.’”
“Fine. I won’t tell you what’s truly going on.”
“Great,” I said, holding my head with my hand. A fiery explosion appeared out the window, which died out quickly from lack of oxygen.
“This is fun, captain. You should try it sometime soon,” Robert said over perscom, as he grabbed on to the hull of the ship.
“Do you know what’s happened to Xemu?”
“Yeah, she’s manning engines currently. Not the best, but when they take damage, you know they’re gonna be fixed soon.”
“Well, at least now I know only one of my crew members is doing the ‘rocket rides.’”
“Actually, it seems we now have gained a person who likes these ‘rocket ride’ as you call them.” Another explosion happened, but it seemed to have come off of two rockets colliding. A Lanius flew away from the debris, looking like it was having the time of its life. Well, if it had a visible mouth, it would be smiling.
Lanius’ are an interesting species. They are metal beings, so no wonder they live off of scrap, and they don’t need oxygen, which makes them ideal for external repairmen, or stellar comedy routines. Either way they are excellent for many positions aboard a ship.
After a couple minutes of a comedy routine in which the Lanius flew around on a couple fireworks, we decided to leave. I was surprised to see a Lanius so far from an abandoned sector, but that was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. He liked it so much that he took his own cannon and flew around on that. He seemed to have started a firework show company, in which he launches a rocket and rides it around. I hear it’s quite popular.
We finally left the beacon, and I thought for sure the rebel fleet would be closer now. But it turns out the two fleets met and are finally remembering that I’m their target, not each other. I was slightly relieved by that, but not completely. I was about to head to the next beacon closer to victory, when I realized, “I could upgrade our shields system and give it enough power to get a second layer of shields!” I did exactly that. Now that I think of that, it sounds like something out of a cheesy banking commercial. Don’t you think so?
The second layer might have been helpful, but upgrading engines might have been a better idea. I didn’t know that at first, but it would have given us enough maneuverability to avoid the rocket the other ship had. “Sir, a ship is closing in fast. What should we do?”
“What do we usually do?”
“Defensive maneuvers and full power to the weapons?”
“Bravo! You passed your test!”
“I didn’t need it, sir.”
“Wait, why aren’t the weapons online?”
“You never told me to turn them on.”
“Sir, the weapons system might be jammed! They aren’t coming online!” Robert said via perscom.
“Someone really needs to teach you (Fred) how to understand sarcasm. Turn on the weapons. NOW.”
“Yes, sir.”
Within a minute the ship had approached. “Surrender a crewmember immediately and no one goes off and cries to the fleet,” a mantis said over com.
“You seriously think I’m going to hand over a crewmember to bribe you?”
“Yes.”
“Too bad.” I immediately cut communications with the mantis and fired all we had charged up. They were expecting this, though, and dodged everything but two lasers, which hit the crew teleporter they had. I hadn’t even noticed it until it was disabled. They also were prepared with their own rocket, ready to launch. You know how I said I wish I had upgraded engines instead? Every shot they fired at us hit us except two or three. Before they left, they told us something:
“You know, I feel slightly sorry for you. Instead of alerting the fleet, I’ll let you do your repairs. That’ll be long enough. There apparently are people capable of beating you, Sam. This’ll be an excellent omen for your mission.” They lept away as soon as they were done with their message.
It turns out that having a good repair person on our crew was more than helpful. Xemu was able to fix everything before the fleet jumped, which was amazing, considering I’ve never seen that happen before, because I never have had excellent repairmen onboard. However, we needed to get our hull repaired. They were very damaging, getting us down to about… oh, about 73% hull stability was left.
The next beacon was a little surprise. Well, more of a big surprise. A pirate ship was positioned at this beacon. Of course, before they could react, I had ordered the weapons out. There was something… odd. This ship seemed to have an artillery system on it, which was the reason I was on this mission in the first place: to obtain the missing Vindicator Artillery system. Did the federation give up hope already and this ship was taken over by pirates, or was another system made?
“Explain,” I said through the intercom.
“Well, I’m glad I found you, myself. This is a federation ship, just to clarify.”
“Good.” I ordered the weapons to be powered down. ‘So why did you want to get to me? And what’s up with the artillery system?”
“Well, some pervert wanted to make an artillery system that made a good- well, I’m not going to describe it. Let’s just say we’ve also got a crew teleporter and advanced clonebay.”
“Carry on.”
“The federation wanted us to come and fix your hull and bring news. There is a HUGE bounty on your head. Bigger than the vaults of Morocco. The general is attempting to find out who put out the bounty, and there is some suspicion that the rebels put it up themselves to throw off the fleet.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, we’ll be following a similar route to yours. If there is some problem, we can come and help out. In the most desperate of situations.”
After about half an Earth hour the entire ship’s hull integrity was fixed. Hull repair drones are useful. We both prepared to jump, but before we could, a slug ship jumped in. The fleet had caught up surprisingly quickly. The new artillery needed “testing,” or at least that’s what the people on the other ship said. Soon we were able to scrap the wreckage, but not much before the Protector- or that’s what they called themselves- jumped away. There must be a lot of ships coming, I thought, and decided to engage the drive. Turns out Xemu wasn’t fast enough.
The next beacon had a rebel ship waiting there. “Sir, I’ve been waiting here for days. You might say patrol is fun, but it wouldn’t be a war without a fight.” Only one weapon sprung from their hull, and before coms were cut, I asked:
“Well, how will you kill me?”
“You’ll see.” As soon as coms were cut, something flashed off of their hull. Immediately I yelled an order:
“Robert, time for one of your ‘rocket rides’!”
Robert was able to keep the boarding drone from reaching our hull, but it came close a few times. If Xemu wasn’t manning engines, we would have had to deal with three or four breaches by now. They kept coming, and we eventually had to jump away because it was just a stalemate. I wouldn’t win because of their awesome shields, and they wouldn’t either because of our good evasion and ‘rocket rides’. Good game, guys.
After that, we headed straight towards the exit. Good reasons also. The fleets were going to get to it after two or three jumps. After a rough landing the beacon appeared to have some sort of arms dealer. “Whoever you are, we don’t care! You’ve come to the right place! Here, take a free sample! And check out our stores in the Vega13 sector!” Soon a box full of scrap and a weapon was retrieved from an orbit. When Xemu opened the crate, words couldn’t describe the excitement.
“Captain, you might want to see this.” I was surprised to hear Xemu have such excellent literary skills. Most rocks would have said. “Captain. Come see.” What there was in the box was surprising. A Vulcan? No, not the 20th century humanoid sci-fi race. I mean the laser. The one that has a 1.1 second charge time. Sadly, we couldn’t use it at the time. We only had 3 power accessible to our weapons system. But seriously? A free Vulcan? Can’t argue with that.
By the way; just as a note; we did eventually visit the store. They have nice people working there, and is in a quite convenient spot that’s close to the beacon. They have discounts on stuff you actually want. Oh, and a warning for pirates and such, it is well defended. Just saying.
The Vulcan would eventually prove useful, but for the time being, I didn’t want to spend 55 scrap currently. We only had 63, anyways. I wanted to save it on something else. I prepared to engage the FTL drive. “Entering next sector…”
The next sector was an Engi controlled sector, which was lucky. Engis are sided with the federation, mostly because they accept any species except for slugs. The fleet apparently didn’t think to use the exit beacon, which was lucky for us. Big time. If they had thought to do that, we would have died quickly.
The first beacon was a nebula. Nebulas slow down the fleet because they speed up anything inside of them. Not so fast that one second is one equivalent earth year, just more like double time. We had no choice but to head further into the nebula.
“The nebula is a dangerous place, stranger. You can trust no one. We’ll sell you a weapon for 45 scrap.” Some black market trader was positioned near the beacon.
“We don’t need any new things right now, thanks,” I said.
“Fine.” The ship slipped into the nebula, out of sight of the beacon. I decided that chasing them would be stupid. We just waited for the drive to charge up, while Robert tried to convince me that going after them would be exciting and fun. I responded, telling him that if we did go after them, he wouldn’t go on any ‘rocket rides.’ That got him to shut up.
Will be continued (perhaps)
P.S. It would have fonts and such but the site doesn't let you do that.