Repulse

[Tirak]

Begin log, Captain Hamish McKeon, Repulse, location... Damned if I know. We've developed a glitch in the nav comp, having trouble getting star fixes so all we know is we're a jump out out of Tau 44 after stopping for minor repairs and reactor mass at Singapore. We've had reports of strong magnetic and gravitational fluxes in the system, which normally means a jump hole, and lo and behold we found one. We've set off for a large nebulae, given the star makeup and lack of planets so far, we're betting we'll be able to find something worth extracting.

Endlog

Captain Hamish McKeon tapped a key on the multi function display built into his chair armrest and saved the audiolog. IMG was paying a pretty penny for the locations of new systems, but only if there was something worth mining there. So far, McKeon and his crew had scouted three promising systems, mineral concentrations weren't great, and the materials weren't especially rare, but the size of the extraction zones was massive, and so the crew of Repulse's finder's fee was decent enough. Hamish grinned at the thought, Decent enough, we've got enough to pay off the loans finally, maybe sink a little bit into some armor for her.

Repulse was no survey vessel, or mining ship. She was a Democritus class Luxury Yacht, Hamish had gotten a hold of her second hand from a contact of his on Stuttgart. A beautiful ship with powerful engines, but the previous owners had done a number on her. Hamish was forced to sink quite a few million credits into her just to get her going again, but it had been worth it. Her speed and refitted sensor suit had made her perfect for edge world survey work. Nothing could catch her, an advantage they had pressed more times than he cared to think about, and even for mundane operations, that speed meant the difference between staking first claim, and wasting a few weeks being second to a system.

"Coming up on the Nebula now Cap," Jacob Thule, Repulse's helmsman, reported, "reducing dropping out of cruise, now." Repulse shuddered as she cut her cruise engines, several bangs resounded through the hull and an uncomfortable lurching sensation hit the crew as her reverse engines flared to bring the ship's velocity in check.

"Not one of your better drops huh?" One of the bridge officers remarked with a grimace.

"Cut me a break Calli," Jacob retorted, "I've got a binary and a couple of massive nebulae screwing with the grav waves, you're lucky you've still got your lunch. In the hands of a less skilled pilot, you might not even still be in your seat."

Calli Lisle stuck out her tongue at the ships pilot mockingly, and the helmsman responded with a mimed bite.

"Alright children," Hamish said, interrupting their play, "Make sure you're getting logs of the gravitational instability, mining pilots don't have your experience, or a ship like Repulse, they'll need all the help they can get."

Another officer to the left of the bridge let out a rude sound, "If we can get anything from the sensor's, optical and gravitational pickups are showing nothing but fuzz, and the spectrometer is showing a reduction in efficiency of nearly seventy percent. We'll be lucky if we can spot anything cooler than iridium without being more than a few hundred meters from it."

"Well then I guess we'll just have to be thorough won't we Mr. Mendip," McKeon responded sardonically. Alistair Mendip was one of the most talented sensor techs Captain McKeon had ever met, but he was pessimistic and ornery when his instruments weren't working to their fullest. Which is almost all the time out here, Hamish thought with mixed amusement and irritation. "Do what you can, we'll make several sweeps through the nebula, and maybe by then you're sensor's can give us a star fix."

Things quickly settled into a calm routine, Repulse knifed her way through the gaseous nebula, sensors sweeping for anything that could be mined, collected, concentrated or otherwise gathered for a profit.

"Captain I'm getting a whole lot of nothing," Mendip said after some hours, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes, "Even with the reduced sensor efficiency we should have gotten something by now."

"I see," Hamish said, stifling a yawn as he closed out some paper work on his MFD and looked out the bridge window with a small frown. "Alright, Jacob, get us out of the nebula, let's see if we can't get a star fix and figure out where the hell we actually are."

"Roger that cap, and about bloody time too," Thule muttered as he entered in a new course. Star fix or no, their inertial guidance system was working find, and it was easy enough to find their way back, though the going would be slow, it was dangerous to light up the cruise engines in nebula's where the particle density was high, and the bridge crew relaxed in their seats to relax for the trip back. Or at least, they would have were it not for Alistair's voice snapping out from the side of the bridge.

"Contact, bearing one-one-three, ranging twelve kilometers." the sensor tech chanted. Most of the crew of Repulse was former military of some sort or another and their reactions were instantaneous. So many weeks of surveying on the edge had given them a healthy fear of sudden sensor contacts.

"Ms. Lisle warm up the the turrets, Mr. Thule, stand by for cruise engines," Hamish immediately began ordering, and voices began filling the bridge as the crew prepared for action. Mendip continued his report as more information came in.

"Single contact, Heavy fighter, unknown origin, unknown type. Incoming!" The bridge went silent at the last word, everyone waiting for orders, but Mendip continued, "Missile Incoming, range five kilometers impact in five, four, three, two, one, impact!" The ship shuddered and a harsh groan was heard through the ship as something seemed to grab and twist the hull.

"Cruise disruptor," Thule called from the pilot seat, "System is scrambled, resetting, eta thirty seconds."

"Incoming transmission, audio only," another officer called from the rear of the bridge and Hamish looked down at his command chair's armrest at the comm pickups.

"Unknown ship, unknown ship, cut your engines immediately or be destroyed!" came a voice through the comm.

/To be continued