ShipCore

USD: Short time later

Location: 92 Pegasi, Ackman Orbit, Asteroid Belt, SRS A3123-Y

Amy watched as Abbey brought the Frigates and Destroyer into laser range. The ships had desperately tried to burn back to their heavier siblings. Then they had dived sunward a short time later, even more madly, but it had been far too late. The haphazard movements only doomed the ships to a relatively slow pass by the station.

As the distance narrowed, the lighter ships began to move in an evasive pattern and streams of kinetics flashed past A3123Y as the orbital did its best to avoid slamming into the incoming munitions.

They had attempted another two missile salvos; both had been wiped out easily by the station’s point defenses.

24cm quad barreled lasers took aim from a light second away and Abbey closed her eyes to focus as long-range targeting parameters were calculated.

|Glitter Glitter|

|Meet my flyswatter! |

|Fusion Fire|

There was no physical sensation to the weapons firing, but Amy felt a chill as she looked over her shoulder at Abbey. The young girl’s eyes were glowing, and a scary smirk had appeared on her face.

Chaff erupted from the fleeing ships in reaction to the large, high-powered anti-ship lasers caressing their hulls. The chaff was a mix of a micro-lattice of reflective mirror material that reflected over 99% of the incoming laser energy away at the cost of absorbing the remaining 1% as heat.

Space behind the frigates lit up as the coherent beams burned their way through the cloud at a much faster rate than point defense lasers could ever hope to copy.

As the frigates continued to burn away at full speed, the clouds quickly dissipated and lost cohesion. Warships carried hundreds or even thousands of chaff canisters, but the Corporate ships were forced to eject one every five seconds to keep the fiery lances at bay.

The frigates cut their acceleration to a minimum suddenly, but A3123Y copied the action, intending to keep the range open. There was no need to get close enough for the enemy’s railguns and PDCK to get in range.

The enemy’s own chaff cloud prevented them from returning laser fire. Neither could they change course any longer without risking outrunning the expanding protective cloud.

Amy looked at the plot, “Corporate cruisers are accelerating on direct intercept course, springing trap.”

Across the nearby area, the small caches of pods that had been stashed by their contract miners came to life. They had little range, so only a relative few fired.

It still amounted to almost six hundred small drones, each with an acceleration profile almost as high as a missile.

One cruiser jerked out of formation, and Amy sent a control pulse through high band for all units to target it specifically.

“Hex 3 and 7 power and control restored!” Logan said.

Amy shook her head as Logan fist pumped the air.

“Activating Hex 3 and 7 weapon systems now!” Abbey replied.

The entire station jerked, and even the inertia dampeners failed to hide the sensation of motion. Amy gripped her seat as the sudden force tried to fling her out of it toward the ceiling. The seat clamp attached to the spine of her suit worked fine, though, keeping her safe.

“What was that? Did you fire Hex 3 and 7 and they blew up!?” Amy yelled over the sudden plethora of alarms and klaxons saturating the command center.

“Enemy is returning fire! Laser impacts to main module and Hex 8!”

The enemy had run out of chaff. In the few seconds they had left, they targeted their lasers and had fired on their tormentors. The heavy 24cm beams of the station then tore through their hulls with little resistance, the coherent beams rippling across the hull and exploding and rupturing internals with wild abandon.

Amy turned her attention to the engineering monitor. Multiple sections of the orbital were flashing red and yellow.

Abbey spoke up, “Bandit 1 and 2 have ceased fire and considered destroyed! Bandit 3 is broadcasting surrender and life pods are ejecting! Should I destroy those as well?”

Amy’s eyes went wide at Abbey’s suggestion. “No, don’t do that.”

“Oh, I see. Since they are plunging toward the planet, they’ll burn up anyway!”

Amy took a breath. “No, Abbey, it’s wrong to shoot life pods or kill people without a good reason. We’ll try to rescue them if we can.”

“Oh… I didn’t know that. Should I send drones to help them?”

“Yeah, one for each pod should be fine. Can they get to them before they burn up?”

“Calculations say they will make it!”

Logan interrupted, “Uhh, guys, the damage is cascading, and those cruisers are still coming!”

A shrieking sound echoed through the station as part of an industrial construction yard snapped, metal giving way under stresses it wasn’t meant to handle. Abbey yawed the orbital in a movement to keep the section from slamming into the rest of the station and doing even more damage.

“Depressurizing outer station, debris from damage impacted the main linear drive, but still operating at full efficiency!” Abbey reported.

Amy kicked herself mentally. “Should have depressurized first!”

On the tactical map, their drone assault continued to burn hard toward the cruisers, which had cut their thrust toward the station and rendezvoused with each other. Both curved on a path that would take them out of the asteroid belt.

“Intercept course plotted for Turtles 1 and 2!” Abbey said.

Amy swallowed, the damage they had taken was ultimately minor, but it had been done by a few lasers. It had highlighted to her that even with the extra armor plating that had been welded onto the orbital’s top sections; the station was not built for combat and highly vulnerable.

But they had already made their choices. There wasn’t anything to do now but continue. She doubted there would be any mercy even if they surrendered now.

That gave her an idea. “Abbey, demand that the cruisers surrender.”

“Umm, are you sure?”

“Yes, can you transmit to them?”

“Transmitting!”

Amy cleared her voice then spoke. “Attention suspected pirate vessels. You have precipitated an unprovoked and hostile act. This is SRS Battle Station A3123-Y, on an intercept course. We are offering you this one chance to surrender without further weapons exchange.”

After about a minute, Amy looked over to Abbey. “Did they get that?”

“No response.”

Amy frowned, guessing that the offer had been refused. At least she had tried.

“Missile launch detected from turtles! 64 signatures detected! They are targeting… the drones!”

Amy looked at the chart and noticed that the drones had moved into clumps as they attempted to close the distance. One missile would have the chance to take multiple out. Shit.

“Abbey, have the drones change course, full evasive spread pattern; they are too close to each other!”

“Oh, no…. umm…” Abbey’s eyes suddenly glossed over, and she went limp in her seat.

Amy stared at the plot, hoping they could avoid hits, but the drones had already built up a lot of velocity and the closure rate was high. They were also far away from the station and didn’t benefit from any ECM.

The closest drones were hit first, missiles detonating within a few kilometers thanks to their standoff fuses. It was more than enough energy dumped into the area to slag the small units.

The same effect was repeated as a wave that washed over the drone attack. Only the rear half that had time to disperse survived and Amy’s heart sank, seeing over two-thirds of the ambush had been destroyed.

“Splitting units into singles, dispersion distance 50 kilometers, 198 units remaining.” Abbey said.

“Why didn’t we spread them out to start with?” Logan asked.

Amy felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. She hadn’t thought about it. “Sorry, my bad…”

“Wasn’t blaming you, sis. We’ll do it right next time!”

Amy shook her head. She hoped there would not be a next time.

Trajectories on the tactical plot continued to bend and curve as the ships, station, and drones continued to dance. Amy heard Abbey announce a ‘Gotcha!’ when all three lines finally found a point where they crossed at the same time.

“Entering missile range of turtles! Prepare for close combat!”

Sure enough, missiles flung themselves out of the cruisers’ tubes, bee-lining straight for A3123Y. It was more missiles than the lighter ships had managed by a factor of almost three, but Amy wasn’t that concerned. The station had a staggering amount of anti-missile point defense.

|Dazzle razzle|

|Bazzle Cazzle|

|Not today, missile!|

A hundred EWAR drones jumped out of their launch tubes on the station, arching out in a rapid burn to place themselves between the station and the hostile units. A massive amount of noise and fake signals erupted from each drone.

Several missiles were so disoriented that they lost their wire guidance and veered off to track a fake signal. The rest continued to flash inside the station’s laser range. A hundred smaller sized lasers flared, vaporizing the missiles by the dozen. PDC-Ks thrummed as the ones lucky enough to evade coherent light drew closer.

The storm of metal clouds ripped the last few missiles into harmless debris.

“Allocating EWAR drones to support drone squadron. Anticipate entering max laser range at the same time.”

Another wave of missiles thrummed out toward them, but it met the same fate as the first.

“No damage from missiles. Repairs to Hex 8 mounting are completed. Nothing else should fall off.” Logan said.

Amy sat silent as the final pass came closer. Both sides would pass by each other, forming an X. The velocities would be low enough for the action to be decisive.

“Focusing fire on Turtle 1. Drones entering enemy PDC-L range.”

Hostile lasers fired on their attack drones, impaling them and turning them into expanding clouds of melted metal. The dozens of defense lasers on the cruisers working efficiently to destroy the incoming threats.

Abbey brought the 24 cm lasers into action, heavy lasers lashing out to slam into their chosen target.

The cruiser’s hull turned a deep red as its heavy armor shrugged off and absorbed the energy. Multi-layered ceramics and metal discharged into plasma, blowing back into the beam’s path to stall the lasers’ attempts to burrow and pierce the hull.

Emergency chaff canisters exploded into clouds as damage mounted and the cruisers were forced to switch to PDC-K for final defensive fire. The drones having closed the range jerked backward as they fired their high-powered rail cannons. More than two dozen 8kg slugs streaked through space into the path of the first cruiser.

Plumes of debris splashed out the far side of the Corporate ship as five of them impacted nearly at the same time, the rest whizzing by in a near miss.

The blow was heavy enough that the ship lost power for several seconds, listing to the side as it lost RCS control. Backup and redundant systems snapped on and righted the ship’s trajectory, bringing it back onto course at a slower, more measured limp.

Abbey smiled evilly. The temporary power loss had shut down its EWAR system for a few seconds only the NAI could perceive. She took advantage of the lapse by focusing every laser on the ship. The dispersed protective clouds of chaff vaporized instantly with no new particles to replace them.

Vibrant red lines of slagged metal vaporized as lasers cut across the ship in a grid pattern, destroying softer components and sending unprotected mountings flying off in a series of explosions.

Drones destroyed, the cruisers focused fire on A3123Y.

“Warning: Incoming rail projectiles and lighter munitions. Returning fire with PDC-K.”

The station shuddered as multiple impacts slammed into it. The ad hoc heavy plating of the station deflected the smaller projectiles without issue, but a dozen heavier rail projectiles slammed into wharf arms and different hex modules.

The station suddenly yawed hard to the right as one module containing their transshipment bay crumpled and slammed into the more sturdy central section of the station, sending the primary drive sputtering.

“Turtle 1 breaking up. Targeting: Turtle 2.” Abbey said in her monotone voice, eyes glazed over as the NAI focused on controlling the ship.

Amy looked at the tactical screen. Sure enough, the first cruiser had fractured, a combination of damage from railguns and the lasers having torn it into pieces. Dozens of little pods had sprayed outward as the surviving crew tore away from the dying wreckage.

The cruiser’s fusion plant suddenly lost containment, producing a small star long enough to ignite its remaining munitions and reactor rods in a devastating inferno that erupted out of the ship that was quickly snuffed by the vacuum of space.

Suddenly the room exploded around Amy, atmosphere blasting outward as one side of the room crumped into the floor. Loosened panels and bolts turned into missiles as they ripped themselves out into space. Taking a second to realize she was unharmed, Amy looked at her companions.

“Logan! Abbey!”

“F..fine!” Logan said.

Amy looked over her shoulder to see that Abbey was bleeding, her hand covering a hole in her suit’s navel that had been dripping blood and small specs of gray that Amy realized were active nanites.

“Abbey?”

“Major hit to central module, power loss to Hex 1-4, PDCK fire ineffective against turtle 2. They are hitting us with rail rounds while hiding in their chaff cloud.”

“Abbey! Use the super laser!” Logan shouted.

“The…what!?” Amy felt confused. What super laser!?

“Deploying Logan-Abbey mirroring unit extension. Beam semi sphere collator ready-status.”

The remaining operational lasers on the station stopped firing into the cruiser’s chaff, retargeting to the end of a column that shot out of the station’s center like an antenna. A mirrored chamber accepted the laser energy and merged it into a single high-powered beam.

“Starting single-core overload!”

Amy felt alarm, “Don’t do tha—”

The station shook as a fusion plant dedicated to powering their laser weaponry detonated, tearing off Hex 5 from the station completely. But not before it dumped most of the sudden surge of power through every laser channel on the ship.

Heatsinks glowed in protest and several lasers popped as their circuits died from the overload, but the remaining systems held on and pumped their energy into the mirroring chamber.

A thin but potent beam shot out from the tip of the station, almost instantly crashing through its warding chaff cloud and piercing the armored hull like a needle. Vaporized material and plasma incinerated all it touched as it accelerated out of the pin prick wound.

Abbey unclicked from her seat and stood, raising her hand and making a karate chop motion.

“Die!”

The station pitched minutely, and the laser sliced the cruiser cleanly in half just as the Logan-Abbey focusing array slagged itself from overheating.

Abbey coughed and blood came out of her mouth, her free hand coming up and trying to cover her face but was stopped by the EVA helmet's glass.

She announced the cruiser's fate as she pulled another breath. "Got’em.”

Amy frowned as the young NAI paled, her face turning white. The girl’s hand came off her suit and the pressure difference blew open the hole that had barely been plugged by blood and nanites, sending a stream of red liquid spewing out in a rapidly expanding cloud.

Suddenly the A-Grav field failed, and Amy clicked out of her seat and struggled to float over to Abbey while grabbing a med-kit along the way.

Reaching the floating girl’s limp form Amy felt a growing sense of panic.

“Abbey!”

The lights of the station flickered and died leaving the entire area cloaked in the dark, highlighted only by the emergency lighting.

USD: Six days later

Location: Nu Crateris, Dedia IV Orbit, en route to 92 Pegasi Jump Point, Tears of Fire

Alex propped her chin up with a hand as she listened to the Elevator’s Portmaster.

“None of them have paid nearly enough to cover the Elevator fee, and they got detritus all over the station as they were waiting to board!”

It had taken a long time to load the ships. He had that much right. With no crew, the ships had tried to rely on the drones to manage the passengers. In the end, she had caved and asked Captain-Major Thraker for help. He had sent several teams of security personnel to manage the thousands of refugees.

Having those possibly dangerous personnel on her ships made her feel wary, but so far, all her dealings with the IHMC were above-board. She was probably just being overly sensitive.

“I don’t see the problem, Portmaster. We had authorization to take on refugees, and we did so.”

Alex’s eyes dropped to inspect the idle circles she was drawing with her finger on her console. She was tired of paying attention to his outrage.

“You..! You…! It was agreed so that you could take on wealthy passengers, and that we would get a percentage cut! Even just one wealthy passenger could have paid for all of them, but you didn’t take ANY! My department will have a deficit! Your Corporation needs to pay the costs at least!”

Alex paused in her idle stirrings and looked up at the man calmly.

“Wow, you’re the first one to actually outright say it. I don’t really think we’ve incurred any liability in being required to pay those costs… you are alright with me broadcasting this recording, right?”

She paused, a smile appearing on her face for the first time during their conversation. “No…? Well, that’s really too bad. Enjoy everyone knowing how much a scumbag you are, asshole.”

She jabbed the kill connection button before the Portmaster could recover, the shock on his face being the most enjoyable part of her morning so far. Mainly because neither she nor Elis had slept much, and breakfast had been skipped and she had been forced to eat some of the new MREs.

They were not any better than the old MREs.

It was time for her to take a nap, somehow. Despite the refugee convoy’s seemingly smooth and rapid departure, she felt a sense of oncoming dread at the situation. The Corporate Picket around the jump point was going to be a pain to negotiate around.

Thraker had told her she should be prepared to offer a sizable sum as a bribe to the ‘inspectors’, which would amount to half her remaining balance. No doubt they knew about how much the refugees were supposed to be paying and wanted their cut, too.

It was an insidious game that Alex hated.

She wanted to break it. Smack them and make them behave in a fair and non-exploitative manner.

Checking the monitor, she noted they were halfway to the jump point, and it would be two days until she had to deal with anything.