The staccato clank-clank of Agent Hornady's boots on the deckplates of the cargo bay echoed through the room, the steel walls doing little to muffle the sound. The usually-continuous noise of vessel construction and the rushing about of Security Force scientists had been curtailed for most of the day as static testing of the Hedgehog missile defense system drew closer. The slim woman leaned against the massive, black box in the center of the room, hundreds of cables and wires snaking away from it in all directions. Each bundle led either directly to the core powering the entire installation, or a turret mounted on the hastily-constructed test stands ringing the station. Convincing the Directorate to approve testing of an unproven projectile weapon in orbit of planet Columbia was no easy task, but it was certainly a preferable situation to installing the weapon on the Willow Grove untested.
"Agent Hornady, please report to the CIC." The voice of Master Sergeant Siler echoed through the station, startling the woman slightly. She set off almost immediately, stopping to pat the side of the bus-sized computer core before her footfalls began to echo once more. Waiting in the elevator to the command center of the shipyard was Doctor Aaliyah Carter, a representative of Ingenuus Research Group assigned to aid the Security Force during testing of the Hedgehog.
Hornady spoke first, turning to face Doctor Carter in the lift as it set off towards the uppermost portion of the station. "Morning, doctor. Come to attend the testing sequence?"
"Yes ma'am. We've been at this for weeks, it'll be nice to finally see the project bear fruit." The woman's voice was full of hope and excitement, sounding more like a child in a candy store than a doctor with multiple degrees in physics.
"Working off the assumption that any of this works." Hornady quipped, knowing full well that the previous manager of the project left her in the unenviable position of fixing his clerical errors. It had taken her nearly a week to sort through all of the mismanaged paperwork and lost records.
The lift shuddered and came to a stop at the CIC of Chesapeake, the doors sliding open with a pneumatic hiss. Hornady never understood why the room was perpetually darkened, the majority of the officers and NCOs bathed solely in the glow of their consoles and stations. The duo trotted over to the windows overlooking the test stands: a septet of missile launchers attached to a spindly framework, exposed cables threaded through airlocks leading out of the cargo bay.
"Sergeant Siler," Hornady spoke, leaning down to examine the power distribution and simulation readouts displaed on the short man's station. "Is the weapon ready for testing?"
"Yes ma'am, the Menwith Hill is currently deploying target drones in the AO. Once that's complete, we'll be ready for live-fire testing."
"Chesapeake, this is Steyr. The drones have been deployed, we're ready to begin remote maneuvering controls on your order."
Hornady hesitated for a moment, allowing the crew in the CIC to settle in, before issuing the order. "Menwith Hill, you have control. Commence standard evasive patterns." The octahedron-shaped drone began to maneuver in lazy weaves and circles, hardly difficult targets for even the most rookie pilots. "Sergeant, slave the turrets to the targeting computer and open fire, one launch per turret."
"Understood, ma'am." The lanky sergeant tapped at his keyboard, and the lights on the station dimmed imperceptibly as the septet of supercomputers began their internal simulations, drawing power directly from Chesapeake's main and auxiliary reactors. Hornady watched as the turrets angled towards the first drone, unleashing a synchronized barrage of projectiles. As expected, the rockets arced towards the octahedron, tracking it in slow loops and turns until bouncing off the drone harmlessly, before detonating in a small puff, having expended their thruster fuel.
"Slightly less than impressive, though expected." Hornady adjusted her cap, opening another channel to the Menwith Hill. "Steyr, let's up the difficulty a little. Bring the drone to Gold-5 training levels." The response was near immediate, the junior agent aboard the Defiant responding with his typical cold, clinical tone. "Roger that, Hornady. Gold-5 confirmed. You may fire when ready."
Gold-5 was a training program for the target drones typically reserved for the Navy's top aces, designed to challenge even the most accurate of the Navy and the Agency's fighter jocks. In sharp contrast to the previous test, the drone utilized every maneuvering thruster it had available, changing direction and attitude in ways that would turn nearly any human pilot into a thin slurry. "Sergeant, you may fire when ready. One launch per turret."
The next few moments seemed to pass at half-speed. Again, the turrets began to track the target drone, letting loose another septet of missiles that looped and rolled at a much higher speed towards the drone. All seemed to be going swimmingly, up until the point that a junior engineer in the room spoke up. "Agent, we're reading a massive power draw from the cargo bay!"
"Aborting the test, powering down th-..." Sergeant Siler was cut off in the middle of his sentence by Hornady, unwilling to give up the test. "Belay that. Attempt to compensate and continue the test." The engineer quickly complied, sections of the station darkening as the supercomputers in the cargo bay chugged through their work, each of them running hundreds simulations within simulations, attempting to compensate for every possible maneuver of the drone independently. The missiles would merge into one exhaust trail one moment, then split into a starburst pattern another, chasing down the target at hundreds of meters per second. As usual, the Gold-5 program detected the inbound projectiles and attempted even more extreme maneuvers, and the station darkened further, audible warnings echoing through the CIC as additional systems lost power. Just before impact, the reactor aboard Chesapeake finally gave out under the strain, the entirety of the station going dark all at once. The missiles, having lost connection to the controllers, immediately self-destructed in a number of small puffs of fuel explosions.
"Doctor, explain to me what just happened." Hornady turned to face the Ingenuus researcher, a stern expression on her face lit solely by the glow from the Virginia sun.
"It would appear, Agent, that you need more juice."
Hornady monitored the forklifts shifting cargo pallets from the catwalks above Chesapeake's loading bays, slowly teansporting the newly-requisitioned IRG power cell towards the airlocks leading to the Willow Grove. The commander of the shipyard had ordered the testing rig for the Hedgehog system disassembled and the cargo bay cleared of the MK-CULSIM supercomputer arrangement earlier that morning, throwing her plans into disarray. A number of near-accidents had occurred during the hasty repositioning, including the entire system nearly toppling from the forks of 2 lifts opposite eachother. The quick intervention of a third wily palletjack operator saved the multi-billion Credit arrangement from shattering into hundreds of useless pieces against the steel deck. Behind the trundling forklift, Sergeant Siler tugged a palletjack heavily laden with the power interface module, hastily constructed by Doctor Carter to allow the power cell to divert it's massive stores of energy directly to the MK-CULSIM system without excessive power rerouting. Luckily for all involved, the Willow Grove had always been an experimental vessel, with much of the systems automated, permitting the interior space to be rearranged in manners appropriate to the mission at hand.
This mission was different from combat, however, and the skeleton crew of the Battlecruiser was a little on edge. Hornady followed Siler through the airlock and the bowels of the Interdictor, maintenance crewmen and technical staff making way for the half-ton piece of equipment being maneuvered by a 160-pound man. "Mngh, a hand wouldn't go amiss..." He grunted out through the strain, and a duo of technicians took their places behind the matte-black box, pushing it as Siler pulled.
"Sergeant!" Hornady shouted, as one side of the PIM scraped the wall at a bend in the corridor, scratching the paint applied to the steel octagonal prism. "Sorry, Agent!" Siler replied hastily, throwing his full bodyweight against the handle of the palletjack before his boots lost grip on the deckplates, sending the lanky man tumbling to the floor. Hornady only shook her head and walked past, patting the Sergeant on the shoulder as he stood up and dusted off, headed towards the bridge.
Hours later, the engines of the Willow Grove flared to life for the first time in months, the deck shuddering under Hornady's feet. "Helm, ahead one quarter. Pull away from the shipyard." The Inderdictor slid slowly out of her berth, leaving behind the two other project vessels in a wake of exhaust gases. "Hornady to Steyr, come in."
"Steyr here, ma'am." Swooping in an arc out of the tradelane rings sped the Menwith Hill, the little Defiant towing another target drone in her wake. "We're ready at your command. Gold-5 program has been loaded, and the drone is online." The tether snapped off where it met the drone, severed by the junior agent on the gunboat's bridge. It floated listlessly before coming online, the single gold-colored strobe lamp atop it beginning the unenviable task of marking the target. Rather than the previous test, the drone for the live-fire examination of the Hedgehog was a converted Avenger, remotely piloted by an AI aboard the Menwith Hill.
"Understood, Steyr. Retreat to control distance." Hornady cut the comms link, turning to Doctor Carter. The researcher looked slightly less excited than during the previous test, having been berated by the station commander just as harshly as the Agent standing opposite her. "Here's hoping this goes a little better than the last time. Winchester, bring the power cell online and slave the launchers to the grid. We go live in 1 minute."
The previously-placid bridge erupted into a flurry of control inputs and communications chatter, the lights dimming as the ship entered red alert status. A quiet hum echoed through the bridge as the power cell began to funnel energy into the MK-CULSIM grid, growing louder as the power requirements of the array increased exponentially. "Steyr, begin evasive pattern Gold-5. Weapons, prepare to fire on my command." Once again, the target began the loops and weaves specified by it's programming, the racks mounted to the hull of the Willow Grove swiveling to track it throughout. "Three... Two... One... Mark!"
The hum through the ship grew louder still, accentuated by the sound of the Battlecruiser's coolant pumps kicking on, diverting hundreds of gallons of capital-grade engine cooling gel through the supercomputers. A dull "fwoosh" echoed through the bridge as the launchers discharged their payloads, missiles twisting and turning through space to track the lone fighter. The seconds counted down before impact, sensor data from the Grove's grid relayed through hundreds of meters of cabling to the tracking and control center, fed into the simulations within simulations, and transmitted back to the warheads within a fraction of a second. The AI controlling the Avenger quickly detected the incoming missiles and attempted a similar weave as the previous test, limited only by the integrity of it's spaceframe, maneuvering thrusters firing at maximum to attempt to throw off the pursuer. For nearly any other projectile in Sirius, the maneuver would have been more than enough to thwart their tracking systems. The Hedgehog, however, fed data from the massive sensor arrays of the Willow Grove, maintained a steady lock and tone, right up until the moment of impact. The multiple warheads of each payload scattered around the hapless fighter, exploding microseconds later into a cloud of electromagnetic radiation and deadly shrapnel, shredding the shields and hull of the old fighter.
"Target neutralized, Agent. Op success." Piped up the weapons officer, and the bridge erupted into cheers. Hornady jumped as the young doctor wrapped their arms around her waist, practically sobbing with glee at a job well done. "I told you it would work, Agent!"
"Yes, yes you did." Hornady couldn't help but grin, patting doctor Carter on the back.
![[Image: jKk7NOg.png]](http://i.imgur.com/jKk7NOg.png)
![[Image: 1iGGFXz.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/1iGGFXz.gif)