Captain Antares climbed up the hatch ladder to the bridge of the Argo, pulled himself up to the main deck plating and clamored to his feet. He strolled around the bridge, quickly inspecting the various stations, consoles and gazing at the various systems readouts. Rister was busy at his 'Ops' station, reviewing a listing of numbers. At least, he was trying to look busy. Antares turned to the opposite side of the room, where Jonas and a new crew member were looking at a computer screen. The new hand was a steward of sorts, attending to whatever was needed at the time. Antares had hired a few new faces to help out in the engine room and with general maintenance. Jonas had a disturbed look on his face. The ship was blazing through the Texas system, as it had been of late.
"Report please gentlemen" Antares finally cut the silence.
"All systems functioning normally, we're on course from the Calinfornia Jumphole, full speed for Peurto Rico, as per your orders sir," Jonas replied, there was a slight nervousness in his voice, Antares could hear it.
"What is it Jonas? If there's a problem just lay it on me" the Captain spoke bluntly.
"Well sir, not all systems are working right. Its our scanner. I told you when we first launched it might not hold forever. This little ship can only generate so much power, even with your 'modifications', and now it seems we're lost some range" Jonas said.
"Whattya mean we lost range? What's different now? Has the power flow been cut off? Just reroute it" Antares snorted.
"Well sir, its the last set of systems updates we got from Neural Net...those automatic updates are suited for ships that go by the book, yanno, follow 'safety protocols' and such sir. Beggin' your pardon, but when the Argo updated a few systems, it changed our whole power grid. They never intended for a ship like ours to need anything different. In total I'd say we've lost 20% of our former range" Jonas explained.
Antares paused, and turned away, looking out the viewer. "Damn. So we lose normal power flow to the scanner. Can we fix it?"
"Well maybe sir, but I'll have to go through the entire coding for the power distribution grid when we hit a port. That could take a while, I hate to say it sir, but it could be like this for weeks, or longer..." Jonas said.
"Very well Jonas, do what you can. Best keep a stern eye on that scanner then. Everyone needs to be a little more frosty than usual from here on in. No more lolly gagging until a contact pops on the scope. Due diligence men, that's what we need to make up for it!" Antares replied sternly. He sighed and crawled around the center spire, up into his command chair. Sliding back into it and relaxing a little, he chalked it up as just another glitch they'd tackle when the time came.
Just then, a signal from the scanner went off, drawing Jonas's attention. He threw a glance at the screen, "Contact on scanner sir, shows as friendly, and its close, from the distance and the fact we're only seeing it now, I'd have to say its out in the scrap field sir"
"Hmm, well, we're here, keep the cloak ready, but leave us as is for the moment. Head straight for them, if we close the distance fast enough, we'll still have the drop on them...if we need it" Antares let out with a slight chuckle.
The ship swerved and made its turn into the large debris field in the far southwest of the system. The large cloud of former ship and station parts had accumulated over centuries of space travel and a massive mismanagement of space waste. Enough so, that the entire culture and society of the Junkers had sprouted around the very phenomenon all over Sirius.
Most of the time, the fields were not dangerous, but were still volatile to an unprepared space traveler. Shields were important in protecting from various residual radiation types, and electromagnetic disturbances caused by an every changing mash of toxic gasses and waste plasma that had clung to the debris as it drifted. The result was a very noxious environment, that made extracting the premium scrap from the core of the field, a tedious task.
As they approached, they identified the ship, and confirmed its Junkers IFF and ID papers. After reassuring the Junker scrapper that they were no threat, Antares made small talk with the other captain. After a few minutes, the other ship departed, and Antares gave the order to resume their previous course.
Before getting under way, they did drop their shield to jettison some garbage and useless cargo, instead of hauling it back. They had used the cloak in the past out in those fields, and had successfully flown with no shield before, with no trouble. This time, not so much.
Upon the lowering of the shield, the ship rocked. The sound of an explosion ripped through the ship. Twisting metal could be heard by the whole crew, and the bridge jolted the captain and his hands out of their seats.
Alarms of all sorts began to ring out, lights flickered and smoke began to fill the corridors. Quickly the dark gas began to fill the bridge as well.
"Whats going on?" Antares blurted over the noise.
"Checking all systems captain, but the controls are frozen, I can't get helm control, shields are still down, and main power is offline!" Rister chimed in, "I'm not sure we can even begin to tell what happened without internal scan ability"
Antares keyed in on his chair communicator, and began to banter with the engine room. They were also aloft of the source of the problem. The captain looked around at Jonas, and Rister, but no one had any answers. Just read outs of failing systems and a short list of systems that still had power.
"Life support is down sir, we're on the clock" Jonas cut in, "Whatever it was, we could be looking at a total systems failure in minutes sir"
"Engine room, whats the status of the power core?" Antares asked, still eyeballing his two counterparts, trying not to let the smoke get to him. Every few seconds the ship would still rattle and shake, as if the gods themselves may be dangling the ship over the edge of a cliff.
"Controls won't respond sir, we have no way to get any readings, the core could be fine, but if there's no power, we have less than 5 minutes to containment failure. I wish I could say it looks like we'll get our systems back before then sir" the engineer spat back.
The captain sat back, one more time, gazing out the viewport at the dark cloud that lay around them. Periodic lightning outside in the cloud was the only thing that cut through the darkness on the bridge. At that moment, it felt as if it were the darkest space Antares had ever seen. Dark indeed had the day turned, in just moments. He thought to himself about a great many things, and about the inevitable conclusion he was going to reach.
"Alright folks, that's it. We pull the plug. Jonas, is the main computer still functioning?"
"Yes sir, I only have limited control though" Jonas replied.
"Doesn't matter, get under the console, rip out the back up hard drives. Make sure you get all the sensor data we have stored. I wanna know what the hell happened here. Well what are you all standing around for?" He keyed in over the shipwide comm "All hands to the escape pods, abandon ship!"
Jonas and Rister looked at each other, then the captain. He nodded at both of them, signalling his go ahead, for them to do what they needed to do. Jonas and Rister then descended on the scanner control console and ripped it apart within seconds, tearing out the back up drives. With an armload of wires attached, the three made their way down the hatch. Antares was the last, and before he left sight of the hatchway, took one last look around the bridge, wondering if that was all she wrote for the Argo.
Down on the service deck, the remaining deck hands and engineers had gathered. With only 2 pods, the crew split up and divided equally. A few had managed to grab a few things, and were frantically trying to drag as much as they could inside. Most had to be left behind.
The pods ejected safely. Equipped with basic maneuvering thrusters, Antares took his pod and arked it for one last look at the ship. Hoping to catch a glance at the damage from the exterior, and for clues as to what had just happened. Had they hit a mine? A pocket of explosive gas? The shield was still down, and the ship drifted lifeless, and dark.
Before he could get close enough, a bright flash erupted before their eyes, blinding them, and sending the pod blasting in the opposite direction. It was a large fireball, followed by a cloud of singed scrap.
Antares froze in horror, as he watched the ship suddenly explode. His worst nightmare realized, within just minutes he had gone from happy, on the bridge of his whole world, to floating aimlessly, lost in space, with nothing left.
* * * *
It took about a day, with simple thrusters, to get the pods out of the debris field. They emerged not far from the Peurto Rico jumphole, and managed to get picked up by a routing Junker patrol on its way down from Beaumont. Antares wouldn't have considered much 'lucky' by that point, but with the food they had, they had been lucky to be found so quickly. Even if a scrapper had passed them in the field, EM interference might just as easily have rendered the pods invisible to them, even at close range. Or worse, they could have been mistaken for scrap themselves.
So they managed to hitch a ride to Peurto Rico, landing at Vieques Shipyard. After clearing his crew of any injuries, other than to their pride, he gave them the option to find other work. None of them had much choice however, and Antares vowed to get another ship, and get back out there. Starting from scratch didn't much please him, but it was better than nothing.
He got on the horn and called in some favors, transferred cash from some old accounts, and pooled his remaining resources. After sending a few transmissions to some old sources, he finally came up with an option. A new transport type had been just manufactured and released to the open market, replacing the aging Firefly shipline. The 'Serenity' class transport had very similar specs but a few changes to its arms layout that gave it a bit more teeth as a transport. After giving it a look over, he ordered one to be flown in for them.
A couple of days later the ship arrived and they moved on board. With his remaining cash he had the station crews slap on an armor upgrade and they launched for the Taus. Back at Freeport 6 they could pick up some of their auxiliary supplies. Not only that, but Antares still had an ace up his sleeve. At his penthouse on Barrier Gate Station, he had stored yet another cloaking device. A Mark II Advanced cloak, fit for larger transports, and capital vessels. He'd always kept it on the back burner, just in case, but figured he'd never need it. Determined to establish a similar set up on his new ship, he brought the ship across Sirius for a major overhaul.
Antares was hell bent on remaking a new "Argo". They'd use the larger transport this time, and spiff one out with all the same kit as the last ship, and pick up where they left off. Jonas, somewhat naive about the captain's intentions, figured it might be possible. Rister, however, was concerned about the captain's psychological state. He'd just lost a ship, and was within days determined to spend his last remaining fortunes on getting back into space. And they still hadn't figured out what caused the Argo to go down in the first place. The captain's neurotic tendencies walked the fine line between what might keep them alive, or damn them forever.
Once they arrived in Coronado, and Jonas and Rister were finally able to take a look at the other cloak, they had to burst Antares's bubble of simply 'rebuilding' a new Argo. The large cloak was functional, but only barely.
"Ok Jonas lay it on me, what's the problem with it? I was assured it would work!" Antares blurted as he entered the engine room of their new ship, Argo-2.
"Well captain, it will work, but you got this piece o' junk second hand sir. That had to be too good to be true. Anyways, the fuse coils are practically burnt out. This thing has a limited life span, we might get a couple of weeks out if it. After that, poof! Toast. Ain't nobody outside of a military shipyard capable of repairing those things" Jonas explained. He wiped his forhead, pushing aside his blast goggles, across his scraggly, dirty hair. Taking a seat on a girter, he looked back up at the captain, "Too bad we couldn't have salvaged the Argo's old cloak".
At that point, Antares had an epiphany. "Hmm, I wonder, Jonas, I wonder. Drop what you're doing kid, go get those back up drives and start checking that data. Do a full analysis, find out what happened to that ship. And get me its last known coordinates, we're going back out there, at the very least, to put her to rest"
"Aye sir, I'm on it, but it might take a day or two." Jonas said.
Rister's voice erupted over the intercom and entered the conversation, "Excuse me sir, but we're clear to launch"
Antares turned and keyed in on the wall mounted communicator, "Fine Rister, take us out. Jonas, you'll have to work on the way. We gotta make some lost time. We'll hit a few places on the way back into liberty, make some rounds, I know where the miners usually hang out" Antares chuckled, "So we'll go after some fast cash before heading back to Texas. Rister, set your course for Cortez." Antares oredered.
"Yes sir" both men answered, and with that, they scattered. Antares retired to his new quarters. It was larger than the last ship, but still didn't feel quite like home. As he lay in his cot, it occured to him he'd barely slept in days, and never slept well while travelling. But tonight, he drifted out with little problem. The next few days would be a quest for answers he would need his rest for.
A week had passed. The momentum that they'd hoped to achieve continued to be stimied by Antares's thirst for adventure, and intrigue. As cliche as it sounded, it was true. The new Serenity class transport was shaping up to do ok out in the great void. But Antares was reluctant to drop his cloak for an attack, since he could no longer rely on it to slip out of a sticky situation, as he could before. So, rather than have the same kind of luck they usually did when it came to finding transports to prey upon, they simply...observed, most of the time. Many times Argo-2 was lurking when passers by may have least expected it.
After a great trek around the border worlds, almost dragging their feet, they crossed over into Liberty space, and made their top speed towards the Texas system. This time they were going to play it safe. Regardless, even if he'd wanted to cloak, his time was running out on the new ship and its new set up. The ship had proven space worthy, but gave Antares little confidence she would fair better than the Pelican in a scrap. It made him reluctant to strike, which left him even more irritated at the loss of his old ship. Then, there was the fact that the new cloak wasn't new at all, but almost burnt out with no way to get it repaired, save for marching up to the nearest Liberty Navy shipyard and asking for some assistance. Not exactly what Antares had in mind.
Jonas had painstakingly combed over the sensor data from the Argo that had been stored aboard their salvaged backup drives that were taken during the evacuation. It had taken a bit more than the 'couple of days' to get to the bottom of the incident than Jonas had promised. None the less, he'd called the captain to the bridge to deliver his report in person.
Antares entered via the rear door way. The bridge of this new ship was much larger, but felt more empty, with only Jonas, Rister, and one other deck hand that used to spend his time in the engine room on the old ship.
"Alright Jonas, I'm here, I'm listening, please, enlighten me" Antares said, as he walked about the bridge, arms held behind his back, quickly making eye contact with the other men in the room. He turned around all the way and finally came to a hault at Jonas's station. Jonas stood and handed him a data pad.
"Well sir, the sensors did record plenty when everything went haywire. But when the systems froze, there was no way to access the data. The interface itself went down, but the computers still functioned normally. Its a shame, we might have been able to save her otherwise" Jonas started. Antares, glared at him, sighed, and signaled him to continue, "It looks like some kind of strange ionizing radiation charge hit the ship when we dropped our shield. It charged the entire hull. According to the sensors, it was some kind of 'time bending' field distortion. Basically, its ann EM field that was messing with time at its event horizon, in this case, the ship's hull. The ship reacted to some of the other static charges out there, like a big antenna, and it sparked that field again. The thing is sir, according to the Escape Pod's records, the Argo emitted a cloaking field carrier wave just before the last explosion, when we lost sight of her. If i'm correct, the Argo may not have been destroyed, it could have only cloaked, and then drifted away after we left her."
Antares thought to himself for a moment, and strolled around the bridge, "Well I wondered that Jonas, but the Junker Salvager teams all came back with no sign of the ship, if it had been intact at all, they'd have found it," he said.
Jonas winced in thought, and began to go over the pad again, "Well captain, its possible, that with the cloaking field active, it could have had a combined effect with that strange time distorting EM field that permeated the ship! If so, that radiation could have turned the cloak into some sort of phase discriminator!" Jonas exlaimed.
"Phase what? In english Jonas, Liberty english too, not that strange Zoner slang you picked up" Antares retorted.
"Ahh, it means, ah, well, that the cloak didn't just shield the ship from radio waves, it may have sliced the entire ship out of space-time altogether. The cloak is just another subspace field, like the ones our engines emit to lessen our ship's mass. This field could have been, amplified, by the temporal radiation, and altered the ship's inter-spatial 'phase', or frequency. Basically the ship would have existed, but not physically existed, at the same time. If that's the case sir, in theory, after the cloak ran out of fuel, it should have returned the ship to normal space-time. But if it drifted into a larger piece of debris..." Jonas drifted off...
"Then it could have re-materialized inside a solid object? Is that what you're saying Jonas? Cuz I'm not sure if I like that much more than accepting it was blown to bits" Antares snapped back.
"Well sir, it might be better than nothing, if the ship's intact, it could be salvagable" Rister cut in randomly, as he always does, to hit home with that one point that always mattered.
"Well hot damn gentlemen, Jonas, you might be in the wrong line of work son. Excellent work. Alright, get busy. Set course for the Grand Negra!" Antares yelled as he took the captain's chair. The others followed suite behind him, taking their stations. The ship moaned as they made a wide turn, and settled in on a new course. The men complied without a word.
* * * *
Antares stood and approached the viewport, as was his fashion upon reaching a waypoint. The had arrived near the center of the ominous dark mass, and began scanning. Not only that, but Antares chose to begin the search by focusing on the largest of the debris, the most likely to hide an entire ship. With radiation still dangerously high, scanning ability was minimal, and the crew began to search using flood lights and their good old fashioned eyes.
Hours passed, and they jumped from one large mass to another, documenting the ones they had already searched. Slowly the assembled a picture of many places the Argo wasn't.
Suddenly, Jonas had an idea.
"Sir, I've been playing with a thought. It might be possible for us to use our cloak to find the ship. Instead of activating it, I can rig it to emit a simple burst of the same EM energy it normally uses. If I invert the power flow to the coils, that burst will radiate a negetive charge outwards. If the Argo's out here sir, her own cloak's fuse coils will emit a 'ping' when they feel that negative charge!" Jonas said, all the while the captain appeared to be waiting for the catch.
"But?" Antares asked...
"But, it will burn out that cloak for good sir. It won't be able to handle the reverse polarization. Essentially, I'll be causing it to overload, using its residual static charge to - " Jonas was cut off by the captain,
"OK OK Jonas, I get ya, and I trust your word on this. Lets hope you're right about it all. If this works, we may not need the old cloak for much longer. Do your best son" the captain said, and glanced at all of them as he spoke.
They took their positions, and Jonas began entering the commands into his station controls. After a moment, the ship's power began to fluctuate, and the there was a 'pop' sensation all over the ship, that left a little ringing in everyone's ears.
"There goes a few hundred million bucks" Antares muttered.
"Checking the scanner sir," Jonas reported. A moment passed, in silence. "Contact! I have ping location for the residual static discharge of a cloak! Its close, a piece of debris 1300 meters behind us!"
"Bring us about Rister, Jonas lock onto that location, and take us in" Antares ordered. The ship carried out its actions and approached what appeared to be an old docking control tower, from a station centuries dead and gone. The ship, with flood lights glaring, peeled around the chuck of metal and grating, and began to encircle a large opening. There, sunken down inside an old hangar door, was a Pelican Armored transport, lifeless with the exception of some running lights.
"There she is!" Antares pointed outwards as he clamored over his chair and towards the viewer, "Scans Jonas, and Rister, lock onto her with the grappler, we're towing this baby out of here!"
"Scans show the power grid is still intact, cloak and main systems seem to still be intact. Some chunks of the outer hull seem to be slightly 'embedded' in the older metal, I think some of the ship did re-phase inside parts of the old wreckage" Jonas said.
"Use the turrets, cut the damn thing out if you have to" Antares replied.
"Heh, aye sir" Jonas laughed as he complied, with a smile on his face. Not only had he been right, but he knew the captain wasn't leaving without what they came for, even if he had to get out there himself in a space suit with a plasma torch.
* * * *
Within hours they managed to free the Argo from the wreckage, and tow her back to Peurto Rico. Once they were back at a shipyard, Antares gave orders to skuttle the Argo-2, and to salvage her parts to be re installed where ever the Pelican might need them.
Repairs took a few days, and cost the last of Antares's 'petty cash'. He did, however, sell the large cloak to a group of Zoners bound for the Omicrons to make up for it. They said they had the 'resources' to get it running again. So all was well that ended well, with a lot of money spent, and grief well wasted.
After a little overhaul and adjustment to a few little things, the Argo was back in flying shape, and the Serenity was sold off. Immediately Antares had them set towards the Taus to wrap up some loose ends.
Antares was eager to get back to business the best way he knew how. He walked about the ship, reaching out and touching the hull in some places, really taking in the ship, in its smallest detail. He'd got her back, and didn't plan to leave again. Next time this ship goes down, he's going down with it. As it should be he thought.
He approached a comm panel and keyed in, "Jonas, status" he spoke into the wall.
"All systems are go sir, she's probably in better shape now than she was before! We're fueled up, bound for Tau-29 now sir." Jonas replied as a buzz over the speaker.
"Very good Jonas. Keep an eye out for anything juicy kid, I'll be up in moment. And keep your finger on the cloak, I have the feeling we're gonna need it," Antares poked back.
"Aye sir! Sounds good to me Captain!" Jonas belted back. Antares turned down the main service corridor towards the ladder to the bridge, with a half smile on his face.
Rister was hovering over his station, eyes down on the screen, glancing at the data it displayed. The Argo had arrived in the Inverness System for a routine pit stop and chit chat with the local Junkers at Invergordon Space Port. As the ship engaged its cruise engines from the mouth of the Cortez jumphole, Rister noticed that the hull had taken a little damage during the last cloak.
He entered a few commands, and in a flash, a dose of Nano-Botts flashed in to fill the damaged areas. Those darn little things were the best invention in the history of space travel, as far as Rister was concerned. It made repairing in space and on the spot possible for the first time. No more needing to stop and get out of the craft for hours. Times like that did arise, certainly, but it also allowed him to polish up any scratches or dings that occurred on his watch, hoping the captain wouldn't notice. It was a little easier to hide a routine restock of nano-botts and shield batteries.
Jonas was leaning back in his station chair, feet kicked up on the consoles, hands folded behind his head for a stretch, as he watched the scanner. Rister let out a grunt and gave Jonas a brief glance. Sparking his memory, Jonas leaned forward suddenly and snapped his fingers, "Dang you're right Rister!" He chirped, picking up a hand held micro and keying in "Captain Antares, we're closing in on Invergordon sir, no contacts"
"Good Jonas, I'll be right up. Tell Rister to make sure we're all stocked up. I'll be hitting the bar as soon as we're cleared. You'll have 3 hours after the ship checks out. Make good use of our time gentlemen. Get the ship done first" Antares buzzed back over the bridge speakers. Jonas and Rister looked at each other. In other words, the faster they get the ship checked out, the more time they'll have for themselves.
Captain Antares stepped off the main ramp underneath the ship's belly. Dapper in his leather jacket and leaving his had behind, he set out towards the station bar. He sat down at a booth and ordered a double whiskey sour and a cigar. Pulling out his data pad he connected to the network and began reviewing updates the neural network.
It was the usual garbage on systems updates, Sirius wide news, local job posts, war updates of various kinds. Antares pounded his drink back and signaled for another.
Just then a group of people entered the bar, and the noise level in the place shot up like a rocket. Antares, peering over his drink and glancing towards the door way, noticed a couple of Junker pilots, in snazzy utility uniforms, accompanied by a triplet of young, beautiful women. Laughing and conversing they ordered drinks at the bar.
Antares tried not to notice and focus on the updates, but quickly downed his drink and stood from his booth. He put away the pad and slowly approached the vacant side of the bar. Unable to shake the distraction he sat on a stool and took his next drink there. Just listening, he could over hear the Junker pilots rambling on about their last patrol.
He could tell they were juicing it up a bit to impress the ladies. They seemed like rookies trying to cash in on their new uniforms. It might well have worked, if they had picked another time to have their little drink.
Around that time Jonas entered the bar, and silently approached the captain. He also waved at the bartend for a drink, and took up the captain's flank.
"Whats the word cap?" Jonas whispered as he leaned in close to Antares, taking a sip from his glass.
"Just gritting my teeth at those rookies over there" Antares replied, seemingly a little intoxicated. Hadn't taken the captain long to down 3 drinks. A few others in the bar also turned to listen to the pilots go on about their adventures. Claiming their bravery and ingenuity out in space, the drunken pilots' boast was drawing in quite the attention now. Antares twitched a little as the other men acted out some sort of flight manouver with their hands, excited about whatever it was they were describing. Antares was too buzzed now to notice. He over heard them,
"Yeah, we pirate sometimes baby, but Piracy is pretty dead lately," one Junker said.
Suddenly, he slammed his drink down on the table. Like a Judge's hammer, it cut through the room like a lightning bolt, and everything fell silent. Jonas took a step back and looked around the room as everyone turned towards them with puzzled looks on their faces. The other loud mouthed pilots turned to Antares,
"Hey man, you got a problem?" the lead Junker spat , "We're in the middle of an awesome story here..."
"Shut up kid. You're full of sh*t" Antares said calmly as he raised his drink again from the bar to take a drink. Leaning on the bar, and half on the stool, he slouches around, glaring around the room at everyone as he moved. Half chuckling, "I hate to break it to you folks, but these rookies wouldn't know piracy if it was built into their ships" he stammered.
"Pfft, what do you know? Who are you anyways? Some drunk at the bar?" The other Junker said. The women stood by silently observing the exchange.
"The name's Antares, I'm Captain of a little fell sloop called the Argo. And I guarantee ye, she's seen more action than you ever will rookie!" Antares said in a half drunken slur. However, he then stood up, zipped his jacket and pulled on it to straighten himself out. Taking a breath, he stepped from the bar, out into a small crowd that had gathered. With a drink still in his hand, he raised a finger pointing at everyone, "I've had my ship all over Sirius boy, and piracy ain't dead. Only thing that winds up dead are rookies like you!"
Jonas began to look a little nervous, and was hoping the captain wasn't bordering on too drunk. But the captain was unstoppable at this point, maybe it was the booze, but a drunken rambling had begun, and there was no going back....
* * * *
"Well ladies and gentlemen, why just recently we came from the Taus where we decided to put the squeeze on some rookie miners!" he laughed, then whipping out his data pad, keyed in a few taps and brought up some pictures, and held it up to show everyone, he passed it out to one of the ladies that had come in with the Junkers.
"A miner we came across out in the Nobium Ore fields of Tau-23 that we'd hit a while back, crossed out paths again not long after our first meet. Both times we got paid folks, never had to fire a shot! See, we like to get real close and personal" Antares said, as he glanced back over at the ladies. He continued to drink his whiskey all the while.
One of the Junkers grabbed the pad and took a quick look, "Yeah so what? Happing on defenseless miners? I guess its 'easy' money then" he blurted, then passed the pad.
Antares took out a cigar and lit it up with his zippo. He blew the smoke towards the man, again straightened out his posture and spoke,
"Not all of them go down so easily boy. Why not long after, we ran into a similar miner in the area, but this time, he didn't wanna pay up. Instead, he replied by the mouth of his cannon. He didn't realize, I speak the language too" He pointed at the pad.
The Junker started to turn a little gray at this point, "Lucky shots buddy" he tried laughing it off. Antares, in turn, just got louder,
"Oh thats not all folks, we've been quite busy! Why just recently over in Liberty we snuck up on a Bowex transport, and after he jerked us around for a while, we had to put 'him down" Antares chuckled whilst taking another drink.
Antares set his glass on the bar and switched his cigar to his other hand. He walked over to them and grabbed the pad, he held it up and began to lecture,
"Even the next few attacks we made, we got paid boy! We can shoot but we can't spend glory, know what I mean? Check these out:"
Another Bowex Trader, simple in and out job... Cargo Scan H-Fuel ID Scan BowEx
Payment:
"Then there was this guy..." Antares continued, "He was a heckler, but we stood our ground"
"Oh then there was those Freelancers, damn yanno the Serenity is now the most widely used ship in Sirius? Had one myself for a while!" Antares was making eyes at one of the blonds that was closest to him, and she was returning the gesture now herself. The rookies weren't liking it one bit.
This one I made an exception on, since he was shipping something my friends ship often, so I made paying 'voluntary'. Smart kid this one was. Donation Offer
Payment:
"This guy had it coming, I had been spying on him earlier in Tau-23 with a miner, and caught up to him in the Sigmas. I knew what he was up to, made him pay regardless!"
"I even went and decided to not be so mean all the time" Antares laughed out with great confidence, "I even freed some slaves there last week, off an Outcast ship bound for Malta. Couldn't just let him by without payin up something...so I took what I could and freed them on the nearest Freeport. Who says I ain't merciful eh?"
At around this time, Antares had managed to pry his way in among the pretty ladies, who were now ignoring the Junker pilots completely. Jonas looked around the room, and people were chatting and staring at Antares, some in awe, some in disgust. He also noticed that the Junker rookies were now speaking into a communication device off in the corner by the main door way, glaring back at Antares. He lightly approached the captain yet again, and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Ah, boss, this doesn't look good" Jonas said as he gestured towards the door, as station guards had arrived in body armor, and were speaking with the pilots, who were now pointing towards Jonas and Antares.
Antares let out a sign, said few things to the girls, and let Jonas pull him away, towards the back, where there was a secondary exit. Too bad the Captain thought, he was just making some progress finally!
* * * *
Jonas managed to keep the Captain on his feet long enough to plop him down inside his quarters on board the Argo.
"I couldda taken 'em Jonas! You know that right??" he said drunkenly, leaning back on his cot, not bothering to remove any clothing or his boots, settling in and passing out.
Jonas turned to the comm line and keyed in, "Rister, the Captain's, uh, incapacitated at the moment, and we left a rather rowdy crew back at the bar, lets just get outta here"
"Copy ya sonny, see to the captain and get on up here" Rister replied over the speaker. Jonas turned to exit the cabin, glancing back at the Captain, who just might have fought them all, but probably have lost, he smirked over the thought.
"Lets just get in space, the rest will sort itself out" Jonas said to himself as he climbed up towards the bridge, and the ship was 'cleared' after some banter on the part of Rister, to blast their way out of Invergordon, lucky not to be fired at on their way out.
A beat up looking Pelican dotted with a few tiny red lights streaked its way across the Baffin sky, its orange-yellow sun casting a golden tint to the top side of the armored transport's hull. After a quick jaunt around the system, it entered the Great Barrier Nebula and the ship's flood lights kicked on, compensating for the rapidly thickening gasses and cosmic sludge engulfing the ship. The Argo was bound for the Coronado system and scowling the standard trade routes through there, which was almost a 'north west passage' of Sirius. It connected the Taus to Liberty and the central colonies. Ironically, Antares had himself been escorting Junkers along this route as a scout for the last few months.
Captain Antares stood at the front of the bridge, hands folded behind his back, peering out the viewport as the ship cut through the nebula. Jonas, Rister, and couple of other deck hands were fluttering about the bridge, performing their regular duties of operating the ship and constantly re-working its systems. The Argo was an old ship. It had been previously used, ironically, by the Liberty Police Inc. for a generation,, transporting prisoners around liberty.
The ship had been for sale 2nd hand and slated for scrap if no one was going to take her when Antares came across her at an auction on Curacao. She sold for cheap, only a tiny fraction of the cost of the rest of the gear wired into her now. The ship had a strong heart, but was like a power socket with too many plugs wired through it.
Quickly they passed through the Coronado jumphole and made for Barrier Gate Station. A routine stop-in, Antares went on the station to check his recent communiqués, and there was indeed a message that peaked his interest. Once he had what he needed, he cut through the wildly packed corridors of Barrier Gate's bustling spaceport, back to the docks, and off they went.
Jonas and Rister were muttering to themselves over a console when Antares came up into the bridge and approached them. The ship sat just a few dozen meters outside hovering in the dark cloud, barely able to see the station even at near point blank range. Periodic lighting cut through the haze every so often with a startling effect. Just when your eyes adjust to the darkness, they are momentarily bombarded with light.
"Status report gentlemen." Antares said as he opened his leather coat, rapidly justling his pipe out of its inner pocket. He began to stuff it with Synthetic Marijuana from a small satchel and turned towards the viewer as he listened to his men.
"All systems go cap'n. We're in tip top shape! Well, for this ship anyways," Jonas said with a bit of a smirk, "Course sir?"
"We're bound for Inverness Jonas, we're to make a rendezvous. You know the route, best speed mister." Antares ordered.
"Aye sir, engaging cruise engines." Jonas complied.
However as they approached the Cortez Jumphole, another ship came upon them.
"I have a contact sir, closing fast, a GTS tag, now showing GMG IFF, at this range it must have just jumped in the system sir...orders?" Rister said as he read off the details from his monitor.
"Oh, by all means, move to intercept please navigator. Stand by on cruise disruptor. Scans?" Antares replied calmly.
"Almost in range sir, closing." Jonas belted. A moment passed, and Jonas explained that it was a Kusari train hauling a load of Helium-3.
Antares reached up to a hanging mic and immediately hailed the ship, while silently hand signalling to Jonas to fire the cruise disruptor. The ship responded promptly and after Antares hounded and poked at the other ship's captain over the radio for a few minutes, a transfer of 3 millin credits was made to them, and the ship was allowed on its way. Smooth.
As they jumped through to Cortez, Antares took a seat in his command chair and remained there for the next few hours across the system. The rest of the journey was quiet and he sometimes sat in thought,or would read various things from literature to ships reports and logs.
Finally after arriving in Inverness, Planet Cannish came into view, the megalithic purple orb that looked small from afar but was actually a massive gas giant had become a familiar site to Antares and his crew since going to work with the Junkers.
The Argo's flood lights cut as the ship entered clear space and the system revealed itself. Antares took notice and put down his data pad,
"Make for the Junkyard Jonas, stand by when we get there."
The ship came around the back side of the planet where the twin stations 'Sigma Guard Station' and the 'Junkyard' rested one on top another forming an array in a mid-low orbit.
"Alright, we're escorting a Junker client who recently ran into a bit of trouble with some of the locals in the Taus. All you need to know is Bounty Hunters and any Gallic types are to be avoided at all costs."
Jonas and Rister both acknowledged and tossed each other a quick glance, the one they usually do when they know the captain's up to something. Something that's likely to turn into someone shooting at them.
Antares caught the look and as he turned to face the window, folding his hands behind his back, pipe hanging from his mouth, he jarbled, "Don't worry gentlemen, you trust your captain by now, right?"
"Oh, implicitly sir, implicitly..." Jonas replied as he gulped.
Antares sipped a cup of hot tea from the command chair of the Argo. He was holding a headset up to his ear with his other hand, chatting quietly. A buzzing voice could be heard on the other end. Jonas and Rister stirred in their usual ways, watching the scanner, listening to any local chatter. The ship was bellowing at full speed across Tau-37 towards deep Outcast territory, not far from the L'Ane Brigands Transport he was escorting.
The mysterious transport had been found, or possibly stolen, he wasn't too sure, and recently commandeered by Junkers. Something that many of the Gauls would have preferred not have happened. The Union Corse decided to put some pressure on the Congress and take out some bounties related to the matter. Antares had been escorting independent Junkers and Congressmen back and forth from Alpha on their Scrap runs and occasional smuggling back into Liberty for months. It was a familiar route. Luckily, things were staying quiet, for the time being it seemed.
Antares signed off the comm line and hung the head set on a perch above the captain's chair, "Jonas, the captain of the Res.Nullius has asked me for some...credentials, I suppose, to review while we travel. Send him our operations logs for the last couple of months" he ordered suddenly.
"Uh yes sir. But, sir, you want me to send him...everything?" Jonas complied, and tried not to sound too questioning in his rebuttle.
"Heh, yeah Jonas, send him the good stuff. We're not hiding anything this time. We're not Starbucks employees, lets show them how we play" Antares replied with a smirk.
"Aye sir, transmitting" Jonas acknowledged, also a slight smirk on his face.
The Argo and the Res.Nullius emerged from Avlemore Ice Field in tight formation. It was always a beautiful sight to see the entire Inverness system suddenly open up and reveal itself to you, as if opening her doors to travelers.
The run had been just fine until the way back from Outcast space, when they had a little run in with some locals who seemed up to no good. Res.Nullius was pursued and forced to go to ground. After some time, the threat passed, and they finally managed to get across the Taus. In the end, it pays to have an invisible scout to let you know when the coast is clear.
Antares stood as they approached the Junkyard, and the other ship went in to dock. Jonas looked at the captain with a questionable look on his face, as if to ask if they too were going to dock. Antares's responsive grimace in return told Jonas not to even bother ask.
"Payment received captain" Jonas notified.
"Good, lay in a course for Cortez, we're going back out there, we'll take a break when we hit the Barrier" Antares orded, and gestured with his hand waved towards the viewport.
"Aye Captain" Jonas replied, and threw Rister another look, "Tell me we at least got paid well cap? So we can spend some nice dough at the Barrier Gate Station?"
"Don't worry Jonas, we made more than enough for some fun" Antares replied as he chuckled, and began to spark up a match for his pipe.
Captain Antares sat at the bar on Beaumont Station. He was glaring outside into the scrap field, drink firmly grasped in hand...locked in position, in deep thought. He was thinking about the events of the last few weeks, which had been, as usual, a wild ride.
On top of that, it was a mixed bag of things. Only a couple of raids resulted in successfulextortion. He'd been busy lately anyways, with other things, like escorting Junkers in and out of Liberty. He'd had some skirmishes recently with random Xenos and Pirates, hypocritical GMG contraband patrols, heavily armoredUC haulers, and the occasional civiliantrader. He even made a close pass by a GRN armada that was raiding the Magellan system. Somehow, throughout it all, he had managed to slip out OK. Although, not always unscratched. Many times he was pushing his little ship way past its normal limits, past its normal purpose. Half the battle strategy turn out to be bluff, words, posturing. The other half derives from nothing more than determination. It was enough to succeed, or survive to fight another day.
He scanned down a listing on a data pad, occasionally sipping his whiskey, and stopping to puff his pipe. The crew was taking some R&R while on the station, and Antares was contemplating his next step. There were some things he'd like to see happen, but may not be able to pull off alone. Not just regular piracy either. Some of his encounters recently had been taken rather personal by him, and he wanted to push back, send them a message. For the first time in a long time though, he felt he might put out the call to any loners like himself or dirty mercenaries, to operate as paid gunmen. Jonas was going to crap his pants, but it had to be done.
The time had come to invest, and not in another ship or any more equipment. It was not a matter of technology, fire, or alloys. This time, it was the hand that wields it. This time, it was flesh. He needed men, or women for that matter, to expand his reach, and kick things up a knotch. Someone with some guts, and a strong drive. That was going to pay off more than any cargo, ship or base out there. He decided he'd be commencing some 'operations' of his own, the kind best kept in the shadows.
He stood after finishing his drink and left the bartender a tip in the form of a small strip of gold. Upon leaving, he went straight to the nearest comms terminal he could find, and got right to business. After inserting some Counterfeit Software into the ID reader, he was able to achieve a minimal hack, and tuned into an old unused bandwith, typically only still monitored by the dastardly, low down drudges of the Sirian pirate community. He hadn't used it himself in months, but it was his hopes he wasn't the only one that turned to it when in a jam.
He inserted his recorded message into the terminal, and executed its broadcast across the pirated signal.
Well that was it, now it was time to wait. In the meantime, his thoughts were on finding Jonas and Rister, and getting the ship ready to launch. Better head for Barrier Gate Station, he thought. If he was going to find the kind of pilots he had in mind, he'd might as well start looking there. It was tough to find the kind of pirates he needed though, that could communicate in full sentences and weren't total hot heads. Hopefully, Sirian pirates still had a handful of guts among them.
He keyed in on his hand held comm link "Jonas its the Captain, get the Argo prepped, we launch in 1 hour"
Jonas and Rister stood side by side in the doorway of the bar on Barrier Gate Station. They were glaring past the dozens of people coming and going, and those sitting at various tables, to the far side of the room, by a window, where they could just barely see Captain Antares sitting alone gazing at a pad.
The two of them had been debating silently their next move. They usually didn't like to bother the captain when he was off ship doing his thing. However, they'd been hanging around Coronado for days with little luck. Frankly it seemed it was slowing down business.
Not that they hadn't been busy. But raids were fewer and further between lately, and not having been to Liberty for a while had left them out of the loop on the happenings back in the scrap fields.
"He's been staring at that thing for hours, when's he gonna give up?" Jonas said with a slight urgency in his voice.
"He won't, I've seen the captain get like this time to time. He doesn't give up til he gets what he needs. That being said, doesn't seem like he's having much luck monitoring that old frequency. Ain't nobody listening but the past." Rister replied coldly.
"We're gonna start turning heads around here if we waste more time out here. And not in a good way. Last thing we need is to draw attention of the Colonials, or nut case pirates our lion tamer captain can't control. C'mon, we gotta do something to shake him" Jonas said, as he knudged Rister by the elbow to follow him in.
They approached the captain slowly, almost hoping it would help them from being noticed before they got within arms reach. As they arrived at this table, Antares looked up at them with a puzzled look on his face. Quickly, its dissappeared in favor of a smug smirk.
"Have a seat boys, get a drink. I know what you're thinking" the captain started in their stead, as they both looked at each other and sat down, "You're thinking I'm crazy, right? No one in their right minds who's a pirate or otherwise is gonna show up. Well, seems I might have to agree. From what I've seen so far, most of the pirates that frequent the border worlds or liberty haven't read a book since they were in grade school"
He went silent for a moment and continued to scan the pad, with a frustrated look over his brow. "Most of these guys aren't the type to follow orders, or even directions for that matter. Alright gents, we'll keep moving, like we always have. Other than the few piratesI've spoken to in person, it seems any folks I need are unwilling to show themselves. A damn shame if you ask me." Antares said as he pounded back a shot of rum and pocketed the pad.
"Aye captain, we're not tryin to question you're orders or nothin, just think that when there ain't no fish, there ain't no fish sir. We don't wanna see the Argo goin to waste in empty waters now" Rister posited bravely, but spoke from experience, which could be heard in his voice.
"No, no, you're right Rister. Even I don't like lingering too long in one place. Finish up your drinks boys, get some shut eye. We launch at 08:00." the captain said as he stood and dropped a few credits on the table.
"But, uh, cap - " Jonas started, as Antares raised his hand to interrupt.
"Don't worry about me boys, I have a few things to do tonight. Enjoy the evening, tomorrow...we work."
* * * *
It wasn't long before the Argo was back to speeding its way across the Taus and Borderworlds, and back and forth into Liberty escorting some usual scrap or cardimine shipments. Captain Antares decided the next step was to get out there, and try finding some pirates to hire as he traveled. In between scouting for potential wingmen or goons, there were plenty of opportunities to go send some messages himself to the few groups who had wound up on his own personal hit list. Not to mention some good old fashioned extortion.
Antares reviewed his logs in the main computer from his command chair. The bridge crew were up to their usual duties, and the ship was cruising the long way across Tau-29. They had a little while to get some administrative jargon out of the way, assuming it stayed a quiet trip. Antares began reviewing the files.
DSE|Atrivuc - $2,000,000
"A DSE train hauling base supplies in Alberta. Said something about having contracts with the Junkers. I let him off with a voluntary donation of 2 mil, he was a good chap about it."
GMG|GTS-Yamashiro - Warning Transmission Log 1 Transmission Log 2
"After hearing from a Junker trader that GMG were targeting scrap haulers, I decided to pay a little visit to Okinawa and send a message to the first ship I came across. What I thought was a UC bomber jumped in to ruin my party, and I had to bail. Might not be the last trip up there either."
IDF|Thorkel - $1,000,000
"While I was hanging with a Marauder we came across an IDF transport coming to and from Freeport 6. Instead of spending useless time waiting each other out, we came to a little arrangement. Of Corse a UC bomber showed up to cause some confusion, and I had to take him out to make an example. I have no problem cashing in on bounties from foolish pilots who park their ship in front of mine at point blank range! Ironically the JM had some trouble with the IDF's payment, and it came to me. I had to wire it to him myself in the end" *chuckles*
Agiera Shade - $3,000,000
"While puttering through Ontario on our way to Col, a nice big Agiera Bison dropped in on us, and had to take advantage of the situation."
Kishiro - Curiosity - $2,500,000
"We tracked this Kusari Train from 29 into 31. Bagged him at the gate before he could lane out. He spilled a sad story about the families on board. I let him off with 2.5 mil."
Gateway - Freighter-374:=Creed=- $3,000,000
"While travelling cloaked up into Baffin, I thought I was about to lose this Gateway transport on his way to Tau-29, when he suddenly veered off towards Hodge & Podge. A perfect time for site seeing it was! When he turned backI closed the gap. Far from any safety, he saw the prudence in paying up. Good man."
IMG Ozai - $3,000,000
"Another routine hit on a lonely miner out in the Tau-23 field. Brings back memories. Another smart captain!"
RS-RTS convoy - $5,000,000 Convoy 1
"Again, for some old times sakes, I took a little patrol into Nagano to visit my 'old friends' up at Shiojiri Station. Much to my pleasant surprise, I found not one, not two, but three Republican Trade Ships setting out on convoy full with Platium ore. After waiting for them to leave the safety of the station, I dropped cloak and ambushed. Despite being heavily armored, not all ships were. They probably knew not all of them were gonna make it out. They were a proud bunch, and decided to consider it a purchase of my lone case of Rum from me for 5 million credits. I think it helped them deal, they were gonna need a stiff one to deal with the reaming out from their superiors no doubt. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum they say!"
"We also managed to accompany a variety of clients in and out of Outcast territory."
"I also briefly teamed up with a Blood Dragon Cruiser BD-Dekigokoro & Independent Junker Dell.Conagher, and decided to try to hit some corporate traffic going through Kyushu. After no luck we high tailed it over to Tau-23, and ran into a familiar UC Jagaur Bomber who made for cover after quickly realizing he was in hot water."
"We're always happy to help out the Congress whenever we can. Texas has great business now whenever piracy ain't paying off. There's always someone that could use an extra hand when shipping or scrapping" Antares said into his log recorder before shutting it down. The ship had just jumped into Tau-23, and began to pick up speed. He turned back towards Jonas, and gave new destination orders.
* * * *
The Argo finally completed docking procedures at Freeport 10. Captain Antares trotted down the corridor of the upper level, towards the bar. He had just had a decent conversation outside the station with a Freelancer who was willing to take on an assignment from him. Antares hurried out his data pad to connect to the network, and send him his follow up instructions for the job. Good to know there's someone out there who's willing to go for some extra cash and help out.
After connecting he checked his pirated signal for a response. Still none. It was a long shot, but seemed time to send one more transmission and see what happens. After all, he was sitting on a pile of cash, one way or another, it was going to be invested. If this scheme doesn't work, there's still one last alternative...
Out in the blackness of space, a colorful trinary star system soared graciously to the accompaniment of a vast turquoise green streak across the sky behind it. The combination with the blue and green light from its stars gave a more than somber feeling upon laying eyes on the Omicron Lost system.
Suddenly the whirlwind and flutter of ionization of a jump hole turned and rattled, spewing out a lone 'Pelican' class Armored Transport. The ship sat like stone for a moment, then the engines finally flared their bright red fire, and the ship sped off. Visible from there, was a large purple planet in the distance, that seemed obscured partially by an asteroid field.
Captain Antares was standing on the bridge of the Argo, pacing back and forth while listening to his bridge crew work and call out their status reports. He was nervous. They were far from home, far from their typical hunting ground to say the least. There was nothing out here. No civilization, no valuable resources, no strategic value, no friendly traffic of any kind. They were on the frontier of explored space, and there was nothing out this way but trouble.
That was the first thing that came to mind, when Antares received an encoded message from his old friend Seagullathor. It was fragmented, but enough to tell he was in distress, and kept rambling something about an 'artifact'. Of course, that was more than enough to peak the captain's interest, and he immediately had them set out on a trek across Sirius, to the edge of hell itself.
"Keep your eyes on those scanners Jonas, I know he's out here somewhere. These were the only viable coordinates we got from the databurst. He's no fool, just a bit foolish" Antares ordered.
"Aye sir. Just a reminder sir, that run in with the Corsairs patrol back in Delta slowed us down, considerably. Our jump goes out in just 2 hours, we don't have a lot of time to make it back" Jonas retorted.
Antares sighed, and placed his hand on Jonas's shoulder "Don't worry son, we're getting out of here, I don't plan to become a permanent resident of the Omicrons" and then chuckled for a moment. His smile faded and he again turned towards the main viewport of the bridge, gazing out towards the now growing massive purple orb. After a moment, the clang of small impacts on the hull could be heard throughout the ship.
"We'll be entering the initial grav zone for Planet Moros in 5 minutes sir, these rocks are a basic combo of dead carbon, iron and ice. Nothing major so far. Scanning range in 3 minutes" Rister chimed in.
The ship was but a tiny blip when compared to the vast size of the lone gas giant. It was a big place, big enough to get lost in for sure. According to some recent reports though, the planet had once housed some kind of ancient civilization, and nothing that had been traced to the nomads or any other local activity, after Sirian settlement. Enchanting as it was, archaeology was not Antares's forté. Moving items, however, was.
If there was anything of value found out here by Seagul while being a brave nut out here on the edge, he'd have found a way to let Antares know. And that's exactly what Antares hoped he had done.
A sensor notification suddenly rang out, breaking the stern yielding of silence to the engines noise, "We've got an unknown ship on scanner, no IFF, looks like he's in a low orbit, northern hemisphere, starside" Jonas read out.
Antares slapped his hands together to clap loudly, "Now we're talkin. Lay in an intercept course, take us in"
"Sir, pressure at that altitude drops pretty low, we won't last long down there" Rister explained.
"Alright gents, lets swoop in and get him out. We can't waste any time here, especially if he's sinking" Antares ordered.
"Confirmed sir, his transport is descending at 50m/s. The ship's shields are offline, hull integrity at 37%" Jonas blurted.
"Full speed pilot!"
The Argo began its own descent towards the gassy atmosphere, and began to level out as the turned up to hover over a thick layer of purple cloud. They quickly approached the unnamed Border Worlds transport.
"Hold us here, prepare to grapple them" Antares said, he reached up above his chair for the comm mic and spoke into it, "Seagul, its Antares, the Argo is here, we're gonna get you out of here buddy, just hang on. Do you read??"
He repeated the hail, and waited another moment. There was no response.
"Orders sir? The ship is sinking out of our range fast" Jonas said, suddenly, a signal on his screen, "Uh sir, the ship just jettisoned some cargo".
"What?" Antares belted. Surprisingly, a fuzzy voice appeared over the intercom speaker.
"Just take it...and...go..." the unknown voice said, as if it were struggling to get it out.
"Seagul, you crazy nut, what have ya got yerself into this time??" Antares yelled over the comm, "What have ya got me into!?"
The comm rang out with coughing, and something they couldn't make out. Then there was a moment of silence. The bridge crew all looked around at each other. Antares dropped the mic and slowly walked over to the viewport, and put his hand up against the pane. The ship sank below the cloud line and disappeared.
The radio fuzzed with more static, back ground radio waves, radiation reflecting off of the planet's surface.
"Tractor that damn thing while we still can, and get us up out of this hell hole Jonas" Antares said quietly, as he turned to slowly sit in his command chair. He faced straight ahead, not deviating his gaze for a second. His chagrin had turned a little cold.
The ship sucked in the cargo container and made a 90 degree turn upwards, then fired its thrusters. It spat away from the planet straight up. After a few minutes they were clear from the planet's gravity again and space became more clearly visible. The black, the tri-star formation. All a reminder of where they actually were, which was far from home.
Once they reached a certain altitude, they began to turn for their departure, when another ship suddenly appeared. With a familiar flash, an Order Resheph classed scout cruiser de-cloaked right in front of them, and just as quickly fired a cruise disrupter at the Argo, stalling its cruise engine.
The control systems on the Argo's bridge rang out with proximity and missile alarms. Antares stood and faced the ship directly.
"What the hell is this? We been set up?" Antares shouted, spitting with his words. But, Seagul, a snitch? No way. They must have followed him. Whatever this thing was, seems the Order were also after it.
"Pelican Transport, cut your engines and prepare to be boarded. We are scanning you. If you do not comply, we will open fire on your ship" A voice chimed in over the bridge comms system in its usual fuzz.
"Like hell! Jonas, get us out of here, 180, full speed, Rister, get the guns online, prepare to distract them"
For a second they looked at each other, and then went to their tasks. No one there liked the odds of taking on an Order fleet cruiser, but seems they weren't going to have a choice. There was no way in hell the captain was going to let them board the ship, let alone take the mystery cargo.
"On my mark activate the cloak, keep those thrusters fired, we can outrun them at sublight speeds" He said as he gazed out the viewer, " Turn us back into the rock field, we'll try to muddy up their disrupter in there, and get the cloak up" he said as he pointed back towards the planet.
Several 'bleeps' then were heard from the scanner, which meant only one thing. More ships. Jonas looked over at the screen, and then up at the captain.
"Uh, hate to trouble ye captain, but we have an LSF IFF'd Liberty Cruiser on scanner. It must have just jumped in, and judging by its range, its coming up behind the cruiser!" Jonas called out.
Antares climbed up into the command chair and activated manual control. Once he had control of the thrusters he killed the engine and rotated the ship to face its rear. Sure enough, the Order ship was turning to its starboard side to engage the other ship. This was getting crazy.
"Get that cloak up mister or we're still screwed' Antares ordered, as he dove past the men and hit the switch himself. The lights dimmed as the power transfer program kicked in and ship sailed past the other two now locked in mortal combat.
"Radio chatter shows they were also after the cargo, I think they already thought the Order ship had it sir, they didn't pay us any mind at all" Rister said.
"Cloak engaged sir, we're clear" Jonas said.
"Turn us back about, get us back to Omicron Delta full speed." Antares said tiredly, slumping back in his chair, as the manual control folded back up into the ceiling.
Jonas and Rister went to work navigating the ship and doing a little diagnostic to make sure no major damage had occurred. Antares continued to glare at a secondary screen near the view port that showed a side view of the other two ships going at it, as seen through a camera on the side of the ship. He stared as they entered the jumphole and finally made it out of the system, leaving the battle behind.
* * * *
"C'mon gentlemen, punch it" Antares blurted as he pounded his fist down on the arm of his command chair, "We're late as it is, if we don't make this jump it'll be a long way back to the Taus. I don't think we wanna take the long way"
"I wholeheartedly agree cap" Jonas retorted sarcastically, his eyes dancing between the scanner and his own viewscreen at his station.
The rendezvous was about half way between the jumphole and Freeport 11. This put it right along the main route to Omicron Zeta. They were rushing to meet one of Antares's clients, and acquaintance he'd med a few months earlier during the Mumbai Station Incident in Tau-37. A Zoner who'd been in charge of re-settling those former Commonwealth Zoners that were forced to flee, Captain Kennedy had worked under Antares directing Zoner employees servicing their brief attempt at a permanent settlement in the Taus.
After the station had been destroyed due to skirmishes with the Outcasts, they requisitioned a 'Nephilim' Class Colony ship. The ship was massive, a carrier and capable of being its own self sustained exploration ship, base, and battleship. It filled the gap after plans to build a station were abandoned.
Antares had helped many of those Zoners escape Tau-37 before being hunted down, and suffice it to say, Kennedy owed him a favor. In this case, the ship had jumped in to Omicron Delta to pick up the Argo, and jump back to Tau-29 together. Now, with an item this hot, it was more important than ever to get out of the Omicrons pronto, before anyone else could try to interfere. Antares was hopeful he'd be able to sell this to a decent buyer, maybe a research project, for a pretty penny. Otherwise, his old friend may have been lost for nothing.
Finally the shape of the giant ship became visible in the distance. It cut out a silhouette against the gold light that permeated the system. As they closed in Antares began to breathe a sigh of relief.
He turned and gestured to Rister to signal the the other ship Peregrine's Nest, and notify them they are ready to jump. Antares continued his usual pacing around the bridge, keeping his eye cocked towards the viewer. It was quiet, a little too quiet.
The Peregrine's Nest signaled its acknowledgement of the Argo's arrival. The small transport, just a tiny sliver in comparison, zipped down and underneath the whale of a ship, up under its belly, and came to a halt. As long as they stay within a short distance of the ship when jumps, they'll be taken as well. It would put them half way across Sirius in the blink of an eye.
The battleship signaled it was beginning calculation of jump coordinates. This may have been what set off what happened next.
With an all too familiar bright flash of blue and white light, followed by ionized flashes of energy, a megalithic Marduk classed Nomad 'battleship' de-cloaked almost directly on top of them.
Panic broke out, and the Nomad began firing at them immediately, as several other Archons suddenly deployed from the larger vessel, and began to attack as well.
By this time Antares had taken his seat and again assumed manual control of the ship. He had them move off and headed for one of the nearest ships.
"Jonas get on the guns and target those smaller ships, we gotta by the 'Nest some time to make the jump!" Antares shouted.
"Are you sure sir, shouldn't we all head for the Freeport?" Jonas asked.
"No no, we'll never make it, our only hope is to jump out of here. Fire at will!" Antares ordered.
The ship darted around the larger Nephilim in pursuit of the other small craft. The Peregrine's Nest had been firing back at the Marduk since almost right away. It was a hell of a sight to say the least. But the other craft were taking their toll, and were too many for the Argo to take all by itself.
"Get me Capt. Kennedy" Antares snapped quickly, reaching for the hand held mic, "Its Antares. Listen, just jump. I know its crazy, but we have no choice, we can't hold them much longer. As soon as you're charged, just go!"
"Antares, are you nuts? You know the risks of a blind jump, we can't possibly-" Kennedy returned, only to get cut off.
"Just do it, while we still have time, we're in range!" Antares shouted, as the ship rocked from another hit. Sparks were flying on the bridge and he was almost shifted right out of his chair. Time was running out indeed.
Ionization from the charging hyperdrive was visible now around the ship. He was doing it. Although they were charging, there was no way he had been able to plot proper jump coordinates in this little time. With the Marduk closing and their shields failing, they just had to withstand the assault long enough to blind jump.
The Argo meanwhile had been darting around the Zoner ship trying to stay close and avoid the smaller Archons. He turned the ship down the nose of the larger one and turned straight on at two Archons.
"Fire Jonas, fire!" he ordered, and as such the large green Charons fired their blasts cutting the closest craft to pieces, and with another flash, the other disappeared as well.
The ship suddenly stopped on a dime and remained still, huddled close to the colony ship. Ionization from the impending jump was so bright now it was enveloping the ship. Then, a bright white flash occurred, followed by a 'popping' sensation. Then, silence.
* * * *
*A vision of 0's and 1's falls before him, with strange sites of tractors, strange alien creatures, and the aroma of...coffee*
Antares blinked a few times to clear his head. He slowly stood from his chair and looked around the bridge. The crew was also regaining their composure, and and the captain approached a nearby computer terminal near Jonas's station. After keying in a few commands, his facial expression digressed from concerned, to an all out grimace. Jonas came up behind him, and peered over his shoulder to what was on the screen.
He was flicking through the tactical array, looking at the Colony ship in closer detail, "They made it in once piece as well I see. Looks like they took a lot of damage" Antares said has he pointed to the ship.
Several fires burned leaving massive smoke exhaust trails. It looked like more than half the ship had to be burning. Antares looked around on the floor for the intercom mic he had dropped earlier and picked it up.
"Peregrine's Nest, this is Antares of the Argo, anyone still home over there?" Antares rang out. There was a minute or two of silence. Finally a voice keyed in response.
"Kennedy here. We're still flying, but barely. It'll be a few hours before we can contain our damaged sections. Our navigational sensors are down, so we're holding our position as best we can. Any idea where we are?" the other captain said.
Antares hadn't given it much thought. It sank in at that moment that he really had no idea where they were. They were lucky to be alive. He leaned over and looked out the viewport past the Peregrine's Nest.
"Gentlemen, we still have our own sensors? Any fix on our position?" the captain asked.
Rister spun over to his terminal and began entering commands. After a brief pause his neutral visage began to deteriorate into a frown, and he looked the captain in the eye, "Well captain. You're not gonna like this"
"Just get to it Rister, what's the deal?" Antares snorted.
"According to an astronomical cross reference, we're nearest to a yellow dwarf star we would know as the 'Halle System'. I say nearest, because we're not really in the system, we're about half a light year below its main star. Even if I could rig up a stable anti-grav field to counter act the time dilation, at light speed or near light speed, we're looking at a 6+ month cruise to the nearest known jumphole or jumpgate." Rister explained woefully.
The silence was deafening now, "Are you sure. Do we have anything on scanner out here?"
"Nothing sir. Our light speed sensors haven't pinged anything so far. Not so much as a dust cloud. I only can guess that the only reason we aren't destroyed already by cosmic radiation out this far, is cuz we're still in technically Halle's heliosphere. But... likely on the edge, I wouldn't go any further away that's for sure. We could see radiation spikes at any time, we'll have to be careful where we tread" Jonas said as he joined the conversation.
Antares spoke back into the mic finally, "We're about 6 months from the Halle system, best we can figure it. Any chance u can fire up that jump drive and get us out of here? I don't think we even carry rations for more than a couple weeks" he chuckled via ship to ship, a hollow gesture.
"6 months. Dear God! Well even if we can salvage the drive, we're a little low on fuel to power a jump. We can re-enter coordinates no problem, but..."
"It could have been worse, at least we didn't jump into star or black hole. Well we have a couple hundred units of MOX left over here, any good to ya?" Antares posited.
"Not enough for our needs unfortunately. Sure you ain't got nothing better? We could strip down that little Junker of yours and use its reactor-" Kennedy replied before Antares cut him off.
"Ahh, I don't know about that captain. If that jump fails I won't even have my little Pelican here to drift our corpses back to civilized space" Antares cut in sarcastically, "But I'll look around. I s'pose its also worth a little patrol for some possible jump holes, but I ain't holding my breath."
"Copy that Antares, we'll be holding our position and continuing repairs. We hope to have our basic systems back up within the hour" Kennedy replied.
"Alright, we'll check in shortly. Antares out"
He turned to face the crew, "Jonas lay in a ever expanding search pattern in circular motion. Lets take a look around out here." he ordered, and stepped lightly towards the main hatchway, "Alright gamma shift is up, everyone on 30 minute rotations starting now. Get some grub folks. I'll be back up shortly"
The Argo began to move off. The crew was working hard to get everyone looked after and any system bugs repaired. Antares was was bellowing down the stairs to the main hold at the bottom of the ship. He stepped quickly down and towards a lone container in the middle of the bay. He approached it, keyed in on a sided panel a few times and the case opened, He pulled the top off, and stared down at what lay there. In its foam pressed form filler, lay a beautiful football sized translucent crystal.
It had to be some kind of quartz, he thought at first. It was radiant and smooth, and arranged in a very odd and unique geometric shape. He reached down and slipped his fingers in under the object between the foam and loosened it from the holder. Grasping it with both hands, feeling its cold surface and heavy weight, he gazed bewildered by it.
Bewilderment that quickly turned to rage and frustration. Again he'd let his greed and curiosity endanger the crew, and land him in a spot where he just might not get back again. It was typical of him, but this time, over some useless sparkly ornament. Some relic of ancient art or a tribal icon. Beautiful as it was, just wasn't worth it.
With anger he heaved the thing across the room. It let out a loud 'ding' of a sound against the metal bulkhead as it bounced and landed. Antares turned to exit when a flash came from behind him. He paused, and the room began to flicker. With a cocked brow he slowly turned about and almost tip toed down the deck to the other side of some crates, where the crystal had landed. As he cleared the boxes, he could see the crystal laying on the deck, now glowing and sparkling profusely. Out of some kind of trance like awe, he reflexively leaned over and picked up the object. Holding it before him, glowing radiantly, Antares could feel a sudden 'vibration' or buzzing coming from the thing. The lights then began to dim and the only light in the room became that being emitted from the crystal. As the buzz filled him, the hair on his arms and the back of his neck began to stand on end.
The slight moment of euphoria that washed over him melted away into a slight anxious concern. He regained his composure and quickly back tracked to the cargo container and placed the thing gently back into its mold, and closed it over. After a moment, the lights in the cargo bay resumed, and the buzz rescinded. He leaned against the thing for a moment. He hadn't noticed how heavy his breathing was until the buzz was gone.
Several realizations hit him at once. This changed everything. This thing wasn't just some derelict artifact, it was different. It was still...alive. Whatever it was, might be some kind of power source, and might be worth checking into. The Argo didn't have any scientific equipment on board, but the Peregrine's Nest just might.
Antares walked over to the door way and tapped the comm system, "Jonas, turn us around, take us back to the Colony ship, full speed"
"Aye captain-" Jonas replied, when suddenly the ship rocked, sending Antares flying backwards landing on his back. He quickly jumped up and ran back up the stairs, and as he did so he could hear Jonas chime back in "Uh, captain, we've got company!"
* * * *
"Report!" Antares yelled as he pulled himself up through the hatch to the bridge.
"One Nomad Archon bomber, just de-cloaked at point blank range and started firing at us!" Jonas shouted back, the ship rocked again to another blast and the sound of tearing metal.
"Keep dodging his fire, I'm jumping on the turrets" Antares said as he jumped into his chair and the manual interface lowered into place. His hands slid into their pistol grips, and a scale sized holographic image of the ship and its turrets appeared in front of him.
The ship swerved back and forth. Antares began firing back at the morph, which was relentlessly pursuing them. The sound of the Nomad cannons, a terrifying yet familiar sound to almost all who've traveled the Omicrons, resonated throughout the ship.
The shield kept taking more hits, Antares beckoned orders while he focused on the fight. "Keep an eye on the shield Rister, soon as we lose it, I want you to hit the cloak" he said.
"You think that'll work against this thing captain?" Rister said as he moved over to the command console for the cloak, "These buggers are clever little devils"
"Its worth a try, I hope I can keep him distracted long enough to get it activated. Its not like our shield is very fancy anyways" Antares replied.
The Argo's hull was taking a few dents, and its armor plating was starting to lose the battle. Nano botts rushed in to keep the major systems up, but they were gonna run short very soon. A few more seconds went by.
Suddenly, the missile warning rang through, "Hold on!" Jonas shouted, as the ship dived and began to turn sharply. It was not enough, and a light jolt rattled the ship.
"The shock reset the cloak charge sir, we'll have to start it over" Rister read out.
"Don't bother, we don't have much fuel left now anyways, but it was worth a shot. Guess we'll be fighting our way out yet again" Antares chuckled.
The large blue entity was closing and laying down constant fire. Antares was firmly returning fire while the ship whirled and twisted disparately in effort to keep from being hit.
He turned the turret in pursuit of the ship, when he turned back facing the bow, found a squadron of 4 Zoner Eagle fighters coming at him.
"Argo, this is Zoner patrol leader Beta-Zero-Six, we are engaging the target, break off for the Peregrine's Nest, we'll handle it from here" a deep voice buzzed over the bridge speakers.
Antares sat for a moment, turning the turrets to observe the fighters chase off the Archon, "Do it Jonas, take us back to the colony ship, and request to dock. I need to talk to them face to face this time"
"Aye sir, taking us in" Jonas acknowledged. The ship sped away from the battle towards the shape of the dreadnought in the distance, now growing fast. Antares still kept watch of the fight.
Out of nowhere, the the entire bridge crew began to succumb to some kind of headache, and even Antares could feel some kind of high squeal, and pressure in his head. It was some kind of strange sensation he'd never experienced before, and it made him slightly nauseous. Within seconds it seemed to pass. Not a moment later, he observed a flash over at the battle. The nomad had likely been put out of its misery. That sensation though, was it some last second cry out in pain, a kind of telepathic distress signal they'd picked up??
"What the hell was that sir? a voice rang out behind Antares. His disorientation was wearing off.
"I don't know, but I've got a bad feeling" he admitted.
The Argo came up alongside the Nephilim, and began to side strafe inwards towards a docking port they had parked adjacent to. The large ship looked considerably better with the fires out and no smoke trail dragging behind it. It was also assumed its engines were back on line since they were in forward motion.
"We're cleared sir, about to make seal" Rister called out.
"Inform Captain Kennedy I'm coming to see him right away"
* * * *
Both captains stood next to each other in one of the cargo bays of the Peregrine's Nest. They stood to the rear of a security team, that stood between them and a team of men in full bio containment suits, loading in the mysterious cargo pot containing the crystal.
"What do you suppose it is?" Antares asked almost childishly.
Captain Kennedy stood tall next to him. The man was about 10 years older than Antares, and was slightly greying. His long hair was tied back in a pony tail, and he wore a pristine dress uniform with decorations and gold shoulder tassels. His grey gotee gave him a certain edge of intimidation, even for a Zoner captain.
"Initial readings indicate erratic power emissions, but of an energy pattern we've never before encountered. We'll move it down to our research lab and run some more detailed scans there. However, even judging by first glance, the thing is a large crystal. Quartz crystal can be used for everything from storing data to energy. If the nomad attacked you after it became active, it may have sensed it. If they wanted this so bad, and if what you say is true about the Order and Liberty agents being after it too, we may have something with real potential on our hands." Kennedy explained.
Antares scratched his chin for a minute or so, and watched the suited men haul away the container under high guard after clearing it as stable. The officers then made their way back up to the bridge. Kennedy gestured to Antares as they got to the main deck, and followed him over to the side of the massive catwalked area, to the captain's 'office' it seemed.
The men sat down at the desk inside. It was a rather large and beautifully decorated room, with various pieces of artwork such as paintings and sculptures scattered about. The walls were lined with wood, wooden book shelves filled with old books, and even a mock fireplace. At least he assumed it was not real.
Kennedy sat behind the desk and reached down to pull out a bottle of scotch whiskey. He uncorked the bottle, and revealed two shot glasses with his other hand.
"Drink captain? Sometimes its necessary, even when on duty" He said, as he poured the shots, placed down the bottle and pushed one glass over to him. Antares leaned over and reached for the glass. He held it up in a toast, and they both shot back the drinks.
"Quite a predicament we're in here eh" Antares spoke with a scratchy voice as he swallowed the liquor in a gulp.
"Yeah, thanks for that by the way, this was supposed to be an 'in and out job'. Transport only. Not fight some damned war against the Nomads" Kennedy spat out sharply. After which he softened up his tone and sat back down, "But I guess its too late now. I know the ship can take it, but now we have bigger problems" he said in a dry tone.
"Bigger than you think, right before your men killed that Archon, we all sensed some kind of mental signal or something, if effected all of my men for a moment. It was a little unnerving" Antares responded.
"My pilots reported the same thing. If that thing was able to send out some kind of telepathic signal..." Kennedy mused.
"It means they might be able to communicate to their own kind over large distances. Which means, if we don't act sooner than later, we might have guests to entertain on the sooner side of things" Antares spoke bluntly.
"Listen, I just want to get us out of here, I am not some 'heroic' captain like you Antares, I don't risk my crew for fame or glory, or profit. We work honest work, and have a trough history of being hammered down" Kennedy exclaimed.
"Hey, at this point, this has all been far beyond worth the trouble its brought me. I've lost a friend, my ship is barely holding together, and my crew is marooned in the middle of nowhere. Trust me, I'm on the same page, and for the record, I ain't heroic" Antares said back.
Both men locked eyes and stared at each other for a brief pause. Finally Kennedy let up and leaned back in his chair, "Good, well, I tell you, we're not finished yet".
An alarm rang out from Kennedy's desk, and he jaunted forward and respond.
"Go ahead" he spoke immediately.
"Preliminary results of the first phase of multi-spectral analysis. We're detecting some kind of spatial and gravitational anomaly at the core of that thing captain. We've pick up inverse tachyon particles in there that can only exist in subspace. This leads us to believe the crystal may be a medium to contain an artificial singularity within."
Both men looked at each other.
"Uh, well. To sum up, its drawing energy directly from subspace sir. Theoretically its called 'zero point energy', but its only existed on paper, until now. We believe if we contain the item within an EM field cradle, it's energy output should stabilize, and we could even harness the energy for...use." the voice explained.
"Now we're talking. Do what you need to do doctor, I'll be down shortly to oversee your efforts." Kennedy replied. The men stood and faced each other again.
"Well, seems you might be right Kennedy, maybe we do have a way out of this mess" Antares joked, with a slight smirk on his face, "I better get back to the Argo, we have our own repairs to make. Thanks for the drink captain. I'd like to observe as well, hope you don't mind if I head down there now" he said, and with a nod blasted past the security at the door, back into the lift.
After arriving at the lab, and being decontaminated for static and other small particles, Antares stepped into an observation room next to the laboratory where the crystal was held in stasis.
The scientists in full ECV suits continued their work recording data. Antares reached forward from his spot near the separating glass, and hit the intercom, "So what more can you tell us doc?"
It seemed to startle the doctors in the room for a second, and they continued to flutter about. One man stepped towards his console to return communication, "We think its a reactor sir" he began, "We've measured the possible yeild of this thing so far, and its off the charts. If we get this thing back to Sirius it could change our entire energy and fuel system. It could lead the way in a whole new line of power generation. Its design is genius, and suffice it to say, far more advanced than anything we have available to any human society at present" he said.
"Any, human society. So you think its Nomad after all?" Antares asked.
"No Mr. Antares, its even older than the Nomads" a strange voice interrupted from behind him. Standing in the doorway, in front of Captain Kennedy, was another strange man, in a uniform and lab coat. A short balled man with small circular glasses, and chunky, red cheeks, began to speak again, "I am Dr. Lovetz captain. I am Cpt. Kennedy's chief scientist."
"Dr Lovetz is our resident expert on everything. He's a former Liberty Government scientist, educated in Liberty after the Nomad War, and he's studied many alien artifacts" Captain Kennedy explained.
"I believe what we are looking at is one of, if not the only, actual physical relics of the ancient race known as the Daam K'Vosh. Only their technological advances we are aware of can explain such a mysterious anomaly." Lovetz said, in a strange accent Antares couldn't quite pin down.
"The Daam K'Vosh, aren't they the race that made the Nomads?" Antares asked almost rhetorically.
"Yes, we know this now. It's also possible this device was made for them to use. If they gain access to it, it could grant them a source of unlimited power. More than enough to begin another campaign into Sirius" Lovetz added.
"Great. I suppose that's why the Order and LSF were after my friend Seagul. Everyone in Sirius is gonna want to get their grimy little fingers wrapped around this thing. That's gonna put us on some hit lists, and destroy what fragile balance remains in Sirius" Antares spoke his thoughts aloud.
"We can't let that happen Antares. I'm sorry. But I'm ordering this thing destroyed. We're gonna jettison it out as far as we can before the Noms show up, and wire it with a warhead. That should get us as clear as we can. Then we set a course for Halle and tough it out" Kennedy said.
"What? You can't expect us to rot out here? We can destroy it when we get back!" Antares shouted as he stepped towards the other captain and his officers.
Kennedy put his hands up towards Antares "Listen I'm sorry, but if we bring it back it could only wind up in the wrong hands. Something this powerful will change everything. The last thing we need is for some doomsday weapon to pop up and start sinking whole planets or stars, and eating up whole houses. I like my Sirius where its at captain" Kennedy shouted back, firmly looking Antares in the eye.
As the men continued to banter, Lovetz slithered out behind them, and snuck around to the other room. Without notice he entered the laboratory and slowly stepped around the scientists as they worked.
Antares and Kennedy were still arguing when it happened. Without warning the Dr. Lovetz pulled out a pistol and began shooting the lab techs and scientists. Alarms began to ring out. The captains turned to face the glass in sure disbelief and terror of what was happening. The security were already trying to bust in the door but it was jammed.
The doctor finished off the last of the workers, and walked over to the crystal. With a dead stare and blank expression, he reached into the containment field and pulled out the object. Holding it, and looked up towards the captains, as his eyes began to glow brightly.
In a strange alien voice the man began to shout "Now you will know the power of the K'hara, the power of the true Gods who's will you will bow down in respect to. They are the only true salvation, and your true destiny. You will all submit, or be destroyed"
With that, he raised the pistol yet again, and fired a single shot up to near the ceiling of the room, and punctured a gas canister. Some kind of fire suppressant it was, and enough to trip the fire containment protocol.
"Dammit, what the hell's he doing, what kind of plan is this if he's trying to make off with that thing?" Antares shouted again as he pulled out his side arm and aimed it at the glass.
"Its no use you'll never breach it with that. He's hit the fire system. If a minute or so a chamber in that room is going to open and vent the contents of the room out into space" Kennedy said.
"Not if I can help it" Antares replied, as he dug out his comm link, "Jonas, come in"
"I read you boss" Jonas replied over the tiny speaker.
"Jonas I need you to undock right now and open the cargo bay doors. Interface with the Peregrine's Nest main computer and come to our location. One of the doctors must be infected by the Nomads, he's trying to eject himself and the crystal into space, I need you to position the Argo over the ejection port and catch whatever comes out, copy?" Antares blurted out of breath.
"Heh, strangest order I ever had Captain but you can count on me. Moving into position" Jonas said back.
Seconds clicked by, and the men watched the lab contents, infested doctor, crystal, bodies and all, get sucked out through now open chute in the ceiling of the room. A moment passed.
"We got him sir, he's in the hold, now frozen as an iceblock. I got some boys heading down to get him now" Jonas chimed in.
"Well Kennedy, seems the ball is in my court" Antares said almost in a cocky tone.
"Despite what's happened Antares, I'm right, we need to destroy that thing!" Kennedy answered sharply.
"Well maybe I'll just rig the thing up myself and blast out of here"
Antares had barely gotten the words out when an alarm rang out again.
"Proximity alert, hostiles on scanner, captain to the bridge" a voice spoke over the ships intercom.
Kennedy walked over to the comm "What is it?" he asked into the speaker.
"Looks like another Marduk sir, and its has friends, they're closing fast, 10 minutes to weapons range" the bridge officer replied. Kennedy looked at Antares. It was as they feared, and somehow they were found.
"The doc was infested Kennedy. The last Archon gave us away too. Who knows who else might be compromised? We can't wait to act. If we let this thing take us out, we lose the crystal to them anyways" Antares reasoned. Kennedy hung his head for a moment, then nodded. Antares raised his comlink "Jonas dock the ship asap, you're picking me up, and be ready with that crystal. We're wiring this thing up to get the hell out of here."
* * * *
Within a few minutes the Argo was launching off and flying free again. Antares set foot on the bridge and took his seat.
"Fire up the turrets gents, we gotta buy Kennedy a few minutes to charge that thing into the hyperdrive" Antares ordered as he activated the interface. Suddenly Kennedy's voice came over the speakers.
"I'm sending my only 4 fighters to back you up. They're not the most hardened vets but they'll have to do" Kennedy said.
"I copy, looks like we need every edge" Antares replied into the mic.
The Argo made a 90 degree roll and pulled to its starboard side to cross over the dorsal of the Nephilim. Its fighters were visible, launching from the large bay at the head of the ship.
"Alright, all fighters form up on me, lets form a wing. We fly straight at those smaller craft and and break to engage. That Marduk seems to be holding position to see if we're gonna go down easily. Lets make life hard for 'em fellas" Antares shot over the comm, as the fighters came up along side them.
The ships fell into formation accordingly and the 5 small craft pushed forward in stead fast motion towards the enemy. In the distance the large blue Nomad battleship was clearly visibly, and 4 other small blue craft were closing in on them fast, and had to be Archons.
Antares was quickly settling into the manual piloting controls, "Jonas I'll take the stick on this one, you just keep those turrets blazin, ya hear me?"
"Aye cap'n, but you'll have to hold her steady" Jonas jaunted back.
"No promises! Ok here we go, they're at 5k, target the flanking ships, break to contact!" Antares yelled. The ship rocked as he began to turn into the other group.
Weapons fire from all parties erupted into a violent, yet colorful and beautiful display. Both groups broke up into a swarm of activity. Ships buzzed in circles blasting frantically in every direction. There was that sound of the Nomad cannons blasting, and yet 'barking' with every shot.
The Zoner fighters quickly eliminated one of the Archons, with the help of the Argo. The other three then reformed and turned back on the them, and Antares saw it on his scanner read out.
"I think they're targeting us now" Antares admitted over the comm.
The fighters formed behind the alien grouping and begin to attack, when one lone Archon broke off and began to double back. He started firing right into the Zoner ships and forced them to scatter. One ship took a hit and began to smoke.
"This is Beta Zero-four, I'm hit" the pilot reported, sounding strained.
"Beta Zero-one copies, hang in there. All pilots target the closest blue bugger and let him have it" the squad leader shot back, "Get back to the ship Zero-one"
Meanwhile the Argo was swerving and swinging its aft section, fishtailing back and forth as its turrets continued to blast at its 2 remaining pursuers. The ships had now been split up and Antares was now out numbered. The ship rocked again.
"Shields are taking a beating captain, we'll be out of replacement batteries within 2 minutes" Rister yelled out over the sound of the shaking ship.
"I'm taking us in towards the Peregrine's Nest, with any luck they'll break off when we get in range" Antares said.
Continuing to shudder from weapons fire, the bridge of the Argo was a mess. What papers they had been using had been strewn everywhere. A few small computer casings had already been jolted loose. Antares looked around and couldn't help but still think 'she'll hold together'.
He stood, "Ok I don't like the idea of making Kennedy handle these two. Lets try somethin', " he said, and then looked at Jonas, "Get ready for my signal, when I turn this baby around, we'll be face to face with those things, get ready on those turrets. I'll keep our back to them, so just keep firing til you hit something"
"Uh, yes sir..." Jonas replied, with a slight hesitation. The same hesitation Antares was used to when he knew he was giving one of those orders.
He laughed, "Just be ready with that trigger finger of yers, on my mark....3...2..1...mark!"
With that the engines on the Argo suddenly died, and the ship went silent. The usual hum that filled the atmosphere, for a brief and erie moment, was gone.
Using maneuvering thrusters only, Antares spun the ship on its heel and pulled a direct 180 while continuing to coast under their momentum in the direction of the Nephilim.
While facing backwards he centered the ship, all in just a couple of seconds, and with that Jonas began to blast away.
Taken by surprise, one of the Nomad ships simply did nothing, and within just a few more seconds had been stripped of its shield, and then blasted to bits. The explosion shot out and the other Nomad ship veered off and away, as the Argo thrust forward, suddenly propelling itself back in the opposite direction, through the oncoming debris.
"Great job bud, now I'm gonna get behind this thing and not let go, you keep-" Antares said, but couldn't even finish the sentence before he saw the turrets going again, and glanced over his shoulder to see Jonas fixated on his targeting screen, "Uh, yeah, you know what I mean" and he smiled.
Only for a moment, and the ship jolted again as the other Nomad returned fire, but Antares was still managing to stay to its rear, and at least not get caught from behind themselves.
"This is Beta Zero-one, looks like you could use a hand" a pilot's voice spoke up. Antares looked out the viewer and noticed 3 fighters coming in, blasting havoc at the nomad.
"Thanks guys, we've taken some hits, we're breaking off" Antares said back.
"We got this in the bag, and Captain Kennedy just sent us the signal to turn in, they're almost ready" the pilot reported, "BZ4 is already en route back"
"What about that Marduk" asked Antares.
There was a pause. In the distance the alien ship could now be seen closing, it must have gone to cruise speed. Which means it was probably going for the colony ship directly now, maybe some crazed suicide mission. All it had to do was damage the ship enough to stall them for another wave to show up and finish the job.
"We've got to stop that thing, and I have a plan"
* * * *
"This is the captain speaking, all hands to battle stations! I repeat, all hands to battle stations. This is not a drill" Captain Kennedy spoke into a microphone as he stood on the bridge of the Peregrine's Nest
"5 minutes to weapons range captain" a bridge officer in behind him called out.
"All turret stations report ready captain" a second voice followed up.
"Good, turn the ship's bow towards the enemy and hold position. Stand by on all weapons. Ready missiles"
"Aye sir" the officer confirmed and turned to address his subordinates.
Kennedy walked over to the scanner station and began to follow the paths of the ships closing on their position. 5 small blips from one angle, one very large blip from another. All were about to intersect.
"Captain we've got Captain Antares on the comm asking to speak with you sir" a lady officer suddenly spoke, almost startling Kennedy who realized he had dazed out for a moment. He turned to face the young officer who was now waiting for his orders. He took a breath.
"Put him through," He replied, and moment later she gestured to him, "Captain Antares?"
"Listen to me Kennedy, that Marduk is heading right for you, and you don't stand a chance of lasting long enough against that thing. I've talked one of your brave pilots into pulling a stunt" Antares blurted out over the speaker.
The bridge crew looked around at each other at the statement and then at the captain, "What sort of...stunt?" Kennedy asked.
"Just be quick about that jump when we get in there will ya, we'll be coming in fast" Antares said back. With that the signal was cut.
"Orders sir?" the officer asked.
"For now, we continue as planned. Prepare to fire as soon as the ship comes within range. Prepare to receive our fighters" Kennedy spoke softly. He left the comm station and walked to the center of the catwalk leading to the main viewer.
"30 seconds sir" another officer called out.
"Remember to hold this position, we only need to hold for a couple of minutes" Kennedy yelled out over the hum of voices, "Stand by..."
"10 seconds"
He raised his right hand above him, "Stand by..."
The room finally went quiet.
"Fire!"
* * * *
"Ok just like how we talked about Beta-Zero 4, take it right in behind that sucker. Level off, steady it out, bring yourself up close and match his course and speed"
"I got it Antares, I just think I'm gonna die" the pilot replied.
"Yer not gonna die. Just hit the eject right after you lock on your thruster, and I'll be there to tractor in your pod. Piece of cake!" Antares replied.
Both ships had broken off from the others who were now trying to dock on the colony ship. Suddenly, weapons fire blew up the sky and the Peregrine's Nest's numerous, yet rarely used turrets began to light up the incoming Nomad Marduk.
The Marduk began to take hits, and return fire of its own. Missiles could also be seen closing on the large blue ship. However, it was pressing on.
"Ok we're running out of time, lets go" Antares ordered, and the pair broke towards the Nomad ship. Its large 'engine' or propulsion system of whatever kind it was, still seemed to operate with a similar principle. It can still blow up if hit hard enough.
The two smaller ships had to fly erratically for a moment to avoid the other ship's turret fire, and then came around to the back of the ship. Since it was occupied, it didn't seem to notice.
The Zoner fighter moved up in within meters of the engine. Flashes and explosions were going off around them now as the Marduk began taking heavy fire.
"I'm in position!" the pilot reported.
"Go!" Antares yelled.
With that, exhaust began to pour out of the fighter engine from its thruster and it pushed forward. Within a second or two, the escape pod ejected. The ship crashed into the engine emitter and cause a brilliant explosion.
The Argo spun on its pitch to turn its belly to the oncoming pod, and flung open her bay doors, tractored the pod in, and closed behind it.
"See I told ya! We're pros at that!" Antares joked. Then the ship began to shake violently and rock again.
He hadn't noticed the Marduk now severely damaged, but not destroyed.
"Sir, we did it" Jonas said softly.
"Not yet" the captain replied.
"Antares this is Kennedy" a fuzzy voice spoke over the comm, "we're almost ready to jump. Get in here quick"
"We're incoming, and we have your pilot"
The Argo swiveled and sped off full thrusters towards the Peregrine's Nest. Antares sat for a moment and thought they might be in the clear.
"Uh sir, I'm tracking the Marduk, and well, uh, its following us"
"What do you mean by that Jonas, spit it out" Antares shot back sharply.
"Well, looks like its headed right for the colony ship sir" Jonas said.
Antares stood and looked at the scanner too. He turned fast and grabbed his mic for the ship to ship comm.
"Kennedy you're weapons fire ain't doing a fast enough job, that thing is headed right for you!" Antares yelled.
He jumped back into the manual controls and took the helm. They were still faster. They just needed to hold out a few more seconds...
The Argo sped into position beneath the colony ship and took up position, waiting for the jump. But he knew it was pointless, they weren't going to make it. Out of some strange sense of honor, or whatever it was, the next thing he did surprised himself most of all, or so he thought at the time.
Without saying a word, the ship took off at full speed, full thrusters, and moved straight out from under the larger carrier, and went right for the Nomad ship.
It was too little too late. With a blaze of glory, the Argo crashed full speed into the bow of the Nomad, exploding on impact with a large shock wave. It did do great damage, but the Marduk was still too close to the Peregrine's Nest, who was enveloped with energy plasma of the Hyperdrive cycle it was trying to achieve.
The Marduk crashed nose first into the Zoner ship, blasting away at its hull and sending metal chunks of bulkhead flying outwards in every direction, with massive explosions spreading from the impact.
The jolt must have come just as the hyperdrive activated for the jump, and the large flash gobbled up the explosion at the same time.
The space around the entire area then began to implode and collapse in on itself. A vortex formed, some kind of singularity, and began churning and sucking in everything around it. It formed a tear or fissure in the fabric of space time itself.
* * * *
*Again, Antares could smell the aroma of Coffee, and every time he opened his eyes, all he could see was 0's and 1's. Nothing made sense to him, and he felt like he was trapped, couldn't move, like he was under water.*
"What, what's happening to me?" He yelled out. His voice seeming to echo, but from nowhere. He tried looking around but was frozen. All he could see what white everywhere, and the light was blinding.
"It is you that has brought us here, Antares" a voice replied calmly.
"Naughty naughty of you, meddling with such things" another soft spoken voice said.
"No, such things are not for the mortals. They cannot be trusted with the...responsibility" another voice added.
"What, what things? What are you talking about? We're just trying to get home in one piece" Antares managed to get out, still feeling like his face was compressed by some unseen force.
"Home?" the voices spoke together, followed by laughter. There was a pause.
"We'll send you home Antares. But you're 'toy' stays with us" the first voice replied.
"Perhaps, one day, we'll give it back. But for now, you are not ready"
It finally hit Antares. The crystal. Something had happened, and it was the crystal's fault. It must have been big. He was supposed to be dead. Was this death? Who are these entities? There was only one possible explanation for this. These beings, could they be...the mystical gods of Sirius? With the ultimate power over the mortal man?
"Yes, you understand now Antares. Very brave of you to sacrifice your ship at the last moment. Some of us...were not expecting such an outcome. Perhaps there is hope for you yet." another voice spoke, this time as if inside his head.
* * * *
"Captain, hey, captain, wake up sir, are you OK?" another voice said.
Antares opened his eyes, and bolted up off the deck of the bridge. He had been lying face down drooling into the metal plating. He shook his head and took a deep breath.
"Jonas? Whats happening, last I remember..." Antares began to speak.
"I don't even know captain! Not sure how it happened either. Must have made the jump though, I woke up and looked outside, and we're not 30 clicks from Freeport 6!" Jonas answered gleefully.
"Freeport 6? And, the Peregrine's Nest??" he followed up.
"She's heading towards the station. Looks like they took more damage, they're pretty beat up" Jonas said.
Antares stood and grabbed the comm mic, "Kennedy. Dammit Kennedy answer me. The crystal, did it survive intact??"
"I'm here Antares. Funny you ask, because the 'crystal' is gone. My engineers just reported back that when they came to, it was gone" Kennedy replied, "At this point I can't even care Antares. We've got weeks of station side repairs to be done, and wounded to tend to. I also expect the payment we agreed upon for the jump"
Antares smirked, and bit his lip, "Hey, you owed me one, remember? Tell your pilots they did alright. I suppose since you went above and beyond, I could wire you some cash"
"Well don't get used to having us to kick around. I think we're done with offering jumps for a while. Anything is appreciated. You take care Antares" Kennedy signed off.
With that, the ship moved off towards Freeport 6. Antares looked around the bridge, "Ok, Ok, take us in too, we'll dock here a few and get rested. But we have things to do" he said as he chuckled a bit.
Antares sat and pondered a moment. The entire experience was starting to sink in. And if he was correct, they may only be alive because of some 'divine intervention'. Needless to say, it was a bit creepy. Something did come to mind though, crying from the back of his sub conscious, giving him a sudden and uncontrollable urge.
"Jonas, I think we need a coffee machine on the bridge"
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