Into the Black

“Captain, we have a problem.”

That was an understatement. Sure, I just shot up half the Ring, and blew the doors off the place, literally. But you’d think people would have more of a sense of humor about such things. But no, there were a lot of calls for me to return to the hangar, and a Navy destroyer was trying to intercept me. How was a destroyer here so fast? They wouldn’t do an in-system jump just for blowing the doors… Aw, fuck.

It was my own fault, I guess. I blasted out of the spaceport on Luna, and there were legal records naming the ship. It wouldn’t take too much to figure the direction we went. And I already knew that they had Lord Kickass, which would connect the Major, and therefore me, to this ship. Add in the Princess, and factor in the time for a run from wherever their patrol route was, and them showing up now, after we’d spent hours on the station, made a ton of sense.

Damnit.

Of course, that wasn’t the problem Raven was talking about. No, that would be the flight of two fighters that got launched from the station, and were coming in hot. Seems they were quite upset with us. Don’t know why.

I threw the throttle all the way forward, buying a little more time as I rocketed towards the edge of the system. “Carissa, get started on those jump calculations. Set the exit point for the edge of the system, on the other side of one of the suns from the Fleet base.” She nodded from the navigator’s position, and I got on the comms. “Fighters incoming. Cali, Jaynie, feel free to splash them if they fire on us.”

I took a breath, and said, “Now, I just have to deal with that destroyer.”

Carissa looked up from her seat. “Why? Can’t we just go to hyperspeed as soon as the calculations are done?”

I shook my head. “I’m not a navy man, but even if they don’t have some way to track and follow us while we’re FTL, the fact is that they have access to the Hypercom network, so if they get a read on our last known course and vector, they can have someone sitting there, waiting for us, when we come out in Alpha Centauri.”

The woman frowned, and said, “So, what do we do?”

“That’s where things get tricky. The Raven can maybe take that destroyer in a straight fight, if we get lucky, but we’d be hurting at the end of it, maybe dead. They’ve simply got better guns than we do. We certainly can’t deal with them while we have fighters on our tail. The longer we keep in system, the more ships will try and catch us. So we gotta find a good place to mask our trail…”

I trailed off, looking at the plot. Using the keyboard, I sent a query to Raven, who simply said it was possible, but we would have to be fast. With that in mind, I turned sharply, heading straight for the most massive object in the system aside from the sun itself.

There’s an art to flying through a storm. When said storm is so big that it covers a significant part of the planet’s surface, that art gets raised to whole new levels. The fighters, resilient as they were, weren’t designed for this. Sure, they could hang for a little while, but we hit atmosphere just at the time they were in weapons range, and they followed us in, hoping to damage us enough to force us out of the clouds. Unfortunately for them, the atmosphere robbed them of their greatest advantage, speed and maneuverability. Cheers from the turrets greeted me as I saw the fighters disappear from the plot. “Good work, ladies! I’m confirming you each earned your first fighter kill.”

The destroyer, unwilling to simply let us get away, followed us in, as we went into the heart of the red spot, the largest and longest-lasting storm in the solar system. The destroyer was tough, but it wasn’t as agile as the Raven. I was counting on that to get a bit of separation.

Because I really didn’t want to be close by with what was going to happen next.

(INS Nightingale)

Captain Ellair Coineagan watched the screens from his chair on the bridge of the Nightingale. The Griffon-class destroyer was old, from the last war twenty years ago, but she was a sturdy craft, designed for anti-piracy work. Taking out a small freighter should be no problem for a ship of her class.

Unfortunately, the captain of the freighter they had been ordered to capture knew, or guessed, as much, since they immediately turned and fled, waiting until the fighters foolishly followed them into the atmosphere to take them out. That much was within expectations, given the obvious difference in size and weapons between the two ships.

That captain was either a cunning bastard, or a madman, it seemed. As they chased the ship into the atmosphere of the gas giant, Lieutenant Ellery on comms had managed to get an update on the crew’s actions. Apparently, when they had been accosted by one of the local syndicates, they engaged in a running gun battle through the station to get to their ship, before blasting the doors off the hangar bay in order to get free.

That spoke of a certain animal cunning, and a ruthlessness to pull through no matter the costs. More importantly, it told him that the captain knew enough about combat to understand that getting bogged down on the station would make his position extremely untenable. So he knew a bit about strategy, at least.

But why would he then go and dive into the middle of a gas giant? Sure, the clouds would shorten the range of his sensors, but the Nightingale’s military shields and armor would protect it against the pressures of the atmosphere longer than the freighter’s civilian models. Flying into a storm wouldn’t protect them that much. They made a large wake that his sensors were able to track.

It would be so much easier if he could just destroy the freighter, like the pirate scum it probably was. Looking over the acceleration profile, it was clear that the engines had been modified. Clearly, this was either a pirate or a smuggler. Both were scum, in the captain’s mind. Scum that disrupted the natural order of things, and made it impossible to keep systems safe and secure for the human citizens the Fleet protected.

Lieutenant Simonov looked up from the sensor station. “Captain, I think the target is doing something.”

Coineagan looked over to the young lieutenant. “You think?”

Simonov had the decency to be properly abashed for his choice of words. “Sorry, Captain, but the interference from the clouds makes it difficult to be sure. The target looks like it is slowing down. There are some energy readings that look like they may be experiencing engine trouble.”

“Hmm. The reports say there was a firefight in the hangar bay shortly before they blasted out of the station. Could be they received some damage that wasn’t immediately apparent.” The captain considered for a moment, and then said, “Helm, bring us in.”

Ellery looked up. “Captain, we have an incoming message from Earth. Priority One.”

Nodding, Coineagan said, “On screen.” It took all his skill and experience to keep from expressing his shock at the person on the screen, however. Instead of Admiral Morrison, who ordered him to pursue this freighter, it was Prince Travis himself! “Your Highness!”

The prince waved his hand. “As you were, Captain. I understand you’ve caught up with the freighter my sister’s using to hide out?”

“Yes, your Highness. We are currently tracking them through the storms in Jupiter’s atmosphere. According to our readings, they may be attempting to hide in the storms while they conduct repairs of some kind.”

“Very good. You and your men have my utmost confidence. Do your duty and secure the Princess before this ruffian can steal her away somewhere. We must resolve the succession crisis quickly, if we are to preserve our strength for the coming days.”

“Understood, your Highness. We won’t—“

He was cut off by Simonov’s yell. “VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE! VAMPIRE! Missile launch detected from the target! Multiple missiles inbound!”

It may be rude to the Prince, but Coineagan’s first duty was to the ship. “Shields to full! All power to forward weapons! Prepare point defense! Helm, get us within weapons range. Weapons, lock on to the freighter’s engines and disable them! No one fires on the Imperial Navy and gets away with it!”

This was completely against his expectations. The freighter had launched four missiles at him. Even if they were modern shipkiller missiles, which was doubtful, four missiles would not be nearly enough to take out the Nightingale. Not with their point defense active and ready. The missiles were too easy to track in the atmosphere for his point defense to not take out at least two or three of the missiles. And while two shipkillers that size might be able to cripple his ship, they wouldn’t sink her, and then she would turn the freighter into so much floating gas.

Wait. Gas? When he was a boy in what used to be Scotland, back before the planetary government formed, he had witnessed an explosion of flammable gas once, in a kitchen that had been damaged by local criminals. Quickly, he looked at the sensor scans, and bit back a curse. “EVASIVE MANEUVERS! GET US OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE! ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

Four missiles may not be able to kill the Nightingale, but that is only if they were actually targeting her.

This captain was far too clever by half. If only his ship survived so he could take revenge for it.

(Jupiter’s atmosphere)

Jupiter’s atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, in concentrations that aren’t unlike what you see in stars themselves. Of course, Jupiter lacks the overwhelming mass required to start nuclear fusion and become a second sun. But that doesn’t mean it is particularly safe to go launching missiles into areas with particularly high concentrations of hydrogen gas.

Unfortunately for the Nightingale and her crew, her captain hadn’t realized the danger until it was far too late to get clear. The force of the four explosions in close proximity caused a chain reaction going through the cloud, battering the destroyer with incredible force. Following the captain’s orders, the helmsman had pulled the ship up and to starboard, a quick turn that the internal gravity couldn’t quite counter, sending some members of the crew to greet the nearest bulkhead with their faces, but that left the ship taking the brunt of the wave across its broadside.

Even so, for a second, it looked as though the ship would pull through, but the blast wave damaged the reactor. The power hiccupped for only a fraction of a second, but in that time, containment was lost, and the Nightingale gained the ignominious distinction of being the first Imperial Navy vessel to be destroyed by a Nomad.

(Starlight Raven)

For defeating two fighters and a destroyer in ship-to-ship combat, you gain 46000 XP.

+4000 XP for fighting alongside your Crew in ship-to-ship combat.

+4000 XP for fighting alongside your Corporation members in ship-to-ship combat.

+2000 XP for fighting alongside your Slaves in ship-to-ship combat.

You are now Level 18.

You have 24 points to distribute.

Your actions have defied the Empire! The Starlight Raven is now classified as a pirate vessel by the Imperial Navy!

You have new active bounties on your head!

Current Bounties:

Red Orchid Clan – 350000 Alive, 100000 Dead

Choson Ring Militia – 25000 Alive, 10000 Dead

Imperial Navy – 50000 Alive, 50000 Dead

Prince Travis – 600000 Alive, 200000 Dead

Small Ship Pilot has improved to 6/100.

+1 WIS

You have unlocked the Gunnery skill. Gunnery determines your accuracy with vehicle-mounted weaponry.

Gunnery has improved to 2/100.

+1 DEX

You have gained over 1 Million credits in active bounties on your head! Because of this, you have been awarded a title based on your play style:

Legendary Outlaw

Some people take ‘laws’ as more like ‘suggestions’ or even ‘hey, I haven’t done that yet’. Then there’s you. Your actions are quickly becoming the stuff of legends. Everyone knows your name, and that name brings both respect and fear. But it also brings attention from higher powers, and people who want to see if they can take the legend down.

+20 CHA, +20 Luck

+2000 Fame

I chuckled as I read that, dismissing the notifications. Well, I guess I kindof suck at the whole ‘laying low’ thing. I’ll have to do better about that. Once I drop off the princess, I ought to switch to another face for a while. Anyways, the nearest Navy ship is way too far away to get a lock on us, much less track us now that we’ve shaken our pursuit.

It doesn’t take long before we’re clear of Jupiter’s gravity well. Following the instructions Raven put on my HUD, I activate the hyperdrive, and the gravitic bubble forms around us, cutting us off from normal space-time. Four days until we reach Alpha Centauri.

I handed the controls over to Raven’s autopilot, and used the ID spoofer to rename the Starlight Raven as Azarath’s Call. A little joke of my own.