My alarm blared. I rubbed my eyes, heaved myself out of my bed, and walked into the hallway connecting all of my ship’s rooms together. I knocked on Noah’s door.
“Noah! Wake up and get ready! We’ll be leaving for our job in a couple hours!”
“Mmmhmmmm….” I heard Noah grumble from beyond the door.
I left the sleepy human alone, and walked into the bathroom for my morning routine. I brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and filed my claws. Then I stepped into the shower, stretching as piping hot water flowed over my shoulders. I scrubbed myself clean, dried off, and scuttled back to my room, wrapped in a towel. I changed into a fresh skin-tight bodysuit, and set my spacesuit aside for now. I’ll put it on after breakfast.
I strolled over to the kitchen and started heating up two premade breakfast packs. While they were heating, I knocked on Noah’s door once more.
“Hey! Breakfast is almost ready, so get your ass out here!”
“Coming!” Noah replied.
A few moments later, a slightly disheveled Noah stumbled through the door like a zombie. We walked over to the kitchen counter, and I slid a breakfast pack over to him. We both started eating.
“Are you nervous?” I asked.
“I’m too sleepy to be nervous, but it’ll kick in eventually. But we’re just going to be traveling for most of it anyways, so I’m not too worried.” Noah replied.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m going to be flying the ship anyways, so all you have to do is sit in the copilot’s seat. Shit, you can be in your room, if you want. The way there is about five days, and most of it is going to be spent doing nothing.”
“Damn, and they’re paying us for that?” Noah grinned. “This is a great job.”
I grinned back. “This is why I love escort jobs. Don’t get too comfortable though, there’s a good chance pirates will come looking for trouble.”
“Yes, captain!”
“Cut that out!”
“Yes, captain!”
After we finished our breakfast, I went back to my room to change into my suit. My suit was different from Noah’s, it had the same shield generator and sleekness, but it also had blackish-purple armor plating protecting my vitals. I liked to get into close quarters combat often, so I had the armor plating just in case my shield went down, or in case of melee attacks. The shield generator didn’t stop objects moving slower than projectiles. My suit was heavier, but I was strong enough to handle it. My helmet had a full visor, covering my entire face with a transparent material. My boots had large claws to accommodate my feet. My gloves were tipped with metal. My spacesuit reflected the armor of ancient Togumo instead of the modern suits of today. It made for a very intimidating look. If Noah and I stood side by side, we’d look like a knight and her squire. Which wasn’t too inaccurate, I suppose.
Once all of our preparations were ready, I undocked and launched my ship. It hung in the stagnant air of the massive space station, rising over the multitude of neighborhoods, blocks, and buildings. My ship idled as other spaceships flowed around it. I waited for contact with the mining ship “Breaker”.
“Leviathan, this is Breaker, undocking and lifting off. Meet us over Block 5D, and we’ll be on our way. Let’s get this started.” Sa’Ruh’s voice rang through my ship’s comms.
“Got it, Breaker. Heading over to Block 5D now. We’ll follow when you depart. Glad to be working with you.”
I swung my ship over to Block 5D and waited for Breaker’s lumbering mass to reach it. Once all preparations were made, I followed the much larger ship out of the station and into the endless void beyond the semi-permeable forcefield. Once we were ten kilometers away from the station, our ships jolted into FTL, heading towards the tunnel that would route us towards our target system. Noah watched this process with extreme curiosity. FTL tends to mess with your perception of space. The distant star quickly became a behemoth too close for comfort. We whizzed past the bright red star, and left FTL. We dropped in front of a tunnel filled with nothingness, and something we couldn’t see with our puny three dimensional eyes. The Leviathan followed the Breaker into the first tunnel of many.
The first couple days were uneventful. The Leviathan and the Breaker did routine comm checks, and that was the only work I did. The ship was on autopilot, we still had a few days to arrive, and both ships were perfectly good on fuel.
“Leviathan, we have a complication. Fuel levels are lower than the sensors say. The Breaker is going to have to refuel today, or we’re going adrift. We are searching for a fuel station or star, and we’ll head to one as soon as possible.”
Or not. Running out of fuel was no joke, especially in this route. You’d be helpless against pirates. Even trying to collect fuel here was dangerous, but there was no other choice.
“Breaker, I read you. We’ll be on guard during our detour. Good luck.”
Damn, this sucked. We’d be out here for even longer. I’d probably get a nice bonus because of it, but I wanted Noah’s first job to be without any complications.
“Saka, what did the Breaker say?” Noah walked up behind me, entering the cockpit. “They’re running out of fuel?”
“Yeah,” I replied, “Apparently their fuel sensor was broken. They probably got a higher reading than what they actually had, and noticed it now. We’re going to be making a detour.”
“Damn. Hopefully we won’t have any problems. Isn’t this a pretty bad area?”
I sighed. “Yeah. It is. We don’t have any cargo so pirates won’t bother us, but you never know what’s going to happen. Gotta be careful out here.”
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“Got it. I’ll get ready, then.” Noah replied. He plunked down into the co-pilot’s seat, and cracked his knuckles.
Both of us sat there tapping on our tablets and making small talk until the mining ship contacted us with details for our detour. We’d be making a stop at a B class star, a system with a few small planets and moons, and a relatively small trading outpost. We’d be buying our fuel there. Several minutes later, we emerged out of the tunnel and into the black. A bright white-ish blue ball of hydrogen hung in front of us, its brilliant light piercing my eyes. B class stars were always beautiful but also painful on the eyes. Our ships turned away from the dazzling spectacle and headed towards one of the small rocky planets orbiting it, accelerating to near the speed of light. Eventually, the tiny dot in the distance loomed in the foreground of the endless canvas of dark and light. Our destination was the small outpost that orbited that planet. After a few minutes, both ships were within ten kilometers of the outpost, and we underwent docking procedures. The station was relatively busy, with a few ships docked already, and a couple buzzing around. We docked safely, indicated by the sound of the landing gear latching onto the docking pad. I ordered a refuel for the Leviathan. It didn’t hurt to top off. Suddenly, I got a message from Sa’Ruh.
“Saka, we’ve got some suspicious activity. Some of these ships flying around are scanning us, and the docked ones are starting undocking procedures. I’m pretty sure they’ve scanned the Breaker already, and they’ve got their eyes on us. Even without cargo, this ship’s worth a lot. They might be looking to make some quick creds.”
I frowned. Surely they wouldn’t try this at a trading outpost like this. However, what Sa’Ruh said was likely right. A mining ship could be sold for a lot, even scrapped. I’ve heard of pirates taking not only cargo, but ships as well.
“Alright, have you finished refueling? Let’s leave as soon as possible, maybe we can get away before they get ready.” I replied, starting to tap away at my console.
The reply came quickly. “Almost done, about three minutes left. As soon as it’s finished we’re leaving and heading straight for the tunnel. Hopefully we can shake them off.”
“Got it. We’ll have your back.”
Noah gripped the turret console tightly. “It wasn’t going to be so simple, huh?”
I patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ve got more firepower than these pirates. At most, we just have to scare them off. Just be ready for a fight, and defend the Breaker.”
Noah nodded. “Got it. I’m ready.”
The comm crackled. “We’re ready. Let’s go. Disregard undocking procedures, we’re getting away from here.”
“Alright, undocking now. I’ll be right behind you.” I replied. The Leviathan roared to life, vertical thrusters flaring with everything they had. The Breaker did the same, wrenching away from the docking pad. We were off. The small ships that were already undocked started speeding towards us, and the Leviathan and the Breaker both launched into FTL. It’d be several minutes before we reached the tunnel, and every second was crucial. I checked the radar, and saw a few signatures light up behind us. The alleged pirates were on our trail.
“They’re following us, there’s a high chance it’s going to be a fight. Stay calm and get ready.” I said.
Noah nodded again, and double checked his console. Minutes passed as we inched closer and closer to the safety of the tunnel, while the ships behind us closed the distance. I counted four ship signatures behind us. Definitely pirates. A few seconds later, I got a panicked message from the Breaker.
“Fuck! They’re interdicting us. We’re getting yanked out of FTL, Saka, follow us! We can’t get separated!”
“I got you, matching speed with you right now.” I pulled up side to side to the Breaker, and linked the FTL programs. There was no way that heavy lump was escaping an interdiction, so our only option was to stand our ground and fight. I had to leave at the same time they did, so we didn’t end up several thousand kilometers away. There! The Breaker was forcibly pulled out of FTL, and so was the Leviathan.
The Breaker and the Leviathan were side by side, and the four pirate ships were behind us. We did a 180 degree loop to face our aggressors. They were two small ships, one medium sized ones, and one relatively large one. It was still smaller than the Breaker, but these pirates were decently equipped. The ships themselves weren’t anything high end, but they seemed to be well-armed and somewhat competent. These pirates weren’t going to be pushovers like the poachers.
The Breaker’s turrets warmed up, and started taking potshots at the pirates, who were still out of our effective range. While they were wasting their energy, I flipped a switch and undid the safeties for all of my ship’s weapons. Laser cannons unsheathed themselves from the chassis of my ship, missile bays were fully locked and loaded, and the kinetic turrets unfolded themselves from their compartments.
The two small pirate ships peeled away from their mini-fleet and streaked towards the Breaker. Those two ships were fighters, meaning they were minimally protected but were fast enough to be a real problem. They were hard to hit but still capable of taking down larger ships. They probably targeted the Breaker first because its huge turrets wouldn’t be able to hit them. The cannons were just too slow.
“Noah, we’re taking out those fighters first. We need to whittle down their numbers before the bigger ships get closer. We’re focusing fire on whichever ship we’re chasing.”
“Got it!” Noah replied, shakily. “I’ll try my best to hit them.”
The Leviathan hurtled towards the Breaker and the two small fighter ships. As expected, they were utilizing their speed to whittle down the larger ship’s defenses. It appeared like they were trying to disable the turrets, but they had to get through the energy shield first. As we approached, both ships quickly peeled off, and engaged in a dogfight with us. The Breaker would be left alone, for now.
I managed to get behind one of the fighter ships, but the other was on our tail. We had to get rid of the one in my sights first, if we wanted to win this battle. Meanwhile, the Breaker stopped shooting at the fighter ships and started trading blows with the medium sized ships that were closing the distance.
The fighter in front of me bobbed and weaved, rolled and dodged. The pilot was decently skilled. Nothing like a trained fighter pilot, but still had enough experience to throw me off a few times. I laid down a barrage of lasers, projectiles, and occasionally missiles whenever the tiny ship was in front of my sights. I funneled the fighter into predictable directions with my plasma missiles, and then locked onto it, whittling down its shields with my beams. The beams made quick work of the shield, and the hull of the fighter was about to be exposed. All the while, Noah released shot after shot, trying to predict the fighter’s movements, trying to compensate for the speed and movement. He was getting close and occasionally landed a few shots that rattled the enemy ship. All the while, the other fighter was harassing us. I popped off a heatsink and chaff every once in a while to mitigate the damage, but it was starting to drain the ship’s shields. Thankfully, the concentrated fire from my ship proved to be too much for the zippy fighter in front of us, who was unable to shake me off their trail. My kinetic cannons finally tore through the top of the ship, who was trying to loop around over us. The cockpit imploded and the fighter ship spun out of control. One down.
Noah and I made short work of the second fighter. They heavily relied on their strategy of distracting their opponents with one ship while attacking with the other, and without its partner, the tiny ship stood no chance. The Leviathan stayed hot on its trail, and its superior weaponry shredded through it like paper.
Up next was the medium sized ships. The pirate ship and the Breaker were jousting knights, hurtling past each other and making wide turns to face each other once more. Every time they passed, they each released a volley of shots. The Breaker had less firepower, so it was taking more of a beating than its opponent. However, its shields were still holding on. I rushed to join the fight. All the while, the large ship hung back and let loose gigantic beams of crackling energy. It wasn’t maneuverable enough for dogfights, so it was laying down artillery support. Dodging it was easy with my fast and agile ship, but every time one of those beams hit the Breaker, its shield reserves took a massive hit. We had to end this fight, fast. The Leviathan let loose a barrage of shots on the medium sized striker ship. It was a lot more durable than the tiny fighters, so our only choice was to whittle the ship’s shields down, and do enough damage to crack the hull. It was a tall order. All three of the dogfighting ships had low shield reserves. We popped the striker ship’s shields at the same time it managed to pop ours. We were exposed. It had focused its attacks on my ship because it was clear I had more firepower than the poor mining ship. My chest quickly seized with panic.
“Shit! Noah, shoot them before they shoot us!”
Noah sent out a volley of shots. Every shot hit its mark. The striker ship jolted as each shot hit its flank. I swung the Leviathan around for another pass, when the striker ship turned tail and started retreating. It was heading back towards the large pirate ship. Its weapons were stowed and it was boosting away as fast as it could.
“Saka, is it running? Do we chase it?” Noah asked.
“Yeah, the pirates are cutting their losses and running. We’re not chasing it. Let’s get out of here, fast.” I replied. I sent a quick comm to the mining ship.
“The pirates are running! Let’s get to the tunnel and leave this system! We don’t need to fight them anymore!”
Sa’Ruh’s stressed voice came back from the other side. “Alright, got it. Thanks for covering our asses out there. Let’s go!”
Our ships jolted into lightspeed as the pirate ships did the same. We were headed in opposite directions, both sides had opted for a retreat, thankfully. Any more and the Leviathan would’ve been in real trouble. I sighed as the mouth of the tunnel approached steadily. I’m never making a detour out here again.