It had been three hours since I had left Belt Station in one of the frigate sized ships the mercs had brought to the system. Turned out that one of the ships was an assault shuttle slash drop ship. Although getting into that shuttle had been a good bit of negotiation.

First we had met the captain of the mercenary corp. I still wasn’t sure if this was a military rank or because he was the captain of the cruiser. But it didn’t matter in the end. As the official representative of Stardust he was the one calling the shots for our contract. Which I found out had cost Nirazera half a million credits for one week.

At first they thought they just needed to stand guard over our rock and scare off the Red Dawn. But when we shared all the intel with him, after Nirazera insisted that he needed that information the price went up. Apparently clearing an occupied station was more expensive. And while the asteroid wasn’t really a station, the same rates applied too.

After the price negotiation was the ‘my people and me are coming along’ negotiation. At first he wasn’t having it at all. In a way I could understand his arguments. These people were trained for drop and clean, as he put it, missions and while they worked well together having them look after a bunch of untrained civilians, also his words, would complicate the matter. So then came a whole bunch of back and forth, sharing of skill tables, experiences and the like. In the end we convinced him.

Then we needed to get new gear for Ygglog since his was still on the asteroid after dying. If it was still there that is. But then again who could wear gear for a Drak other than a Drak. So we spent some money on a new, lightly armored vac suit, a plasma rifle and a vibro combat knife similar to the one Ralgau used to crack open the pirates armor. Talking of which, I could kick my own ass that I hadn’t insisted that we take it off of him. While neither one of us could have used it, we could have traded it in. No point crying over spilled milk though. What did make me nearly cry though was the fact that I sprung for all of that from my own cash. Plus I got myself the same armaments. Now I was sporting the plasma pistol on my hip, the rifle and the combat knife on my lower back and a hole in my bank account where my money used to be. We definitely needed a corp account for these kinds of expenses.

Finally we had gone to the system security office and registered the hostile action we were about to conduct. For that I first filed the report that the claim had been taken over by claim jumpers and then presented the contrat I had with Stardust Mercenary Group and Complaints Department. Loved the name by the way. Nirazera had finally clued me in as to what MGCD stood for. Then the captain paid 75k of the half Nira had paid him and that was that. Now we were free to wreak havoc upon any ships not identified as blue by the system security.

Now Ralgau and me plus eight of the mercs were strapped into barely cushioned seats. It was a bit like in the trideos I had seen from faire rides. You sat down in these kinds of bucket seats and then a metal bar with seat belts closed over you and pinned you to the seat no matter what funny things the shuttle did.

On top of that, there was a different technology at work here than I had experienced in Rustbucket or the new shuttle which I never named. There you had some kind of static gravity generated. Which meant you could walk around in it even though the ship was stationary. In this one there was no artificial gravity although it had the same kind of acceleration dampening properties as the other ships. Don’t ask me how that worked. I had thought that those things were connected but apparently they weren’t.

Ygglog on the other hand had it even more uncomfortable. Since he could not sit down in the seats, he had gotten a corner assigned to him where he stood strapped to the wall. I would not have wanted to be in his place but then again… you know… might make one stronger. Ba Dum Tss!

“We are seeing two civilian ships and one frigate near the asteroid. No identification markings, no ID tag. We also see debris near the cave entrance. Resolving tactical display.”

The com came from the pilot of the assault shuttle. Then I received a notification that the captain wanted to share sensor data. When I accepted, I saw the display very familiar to the one I knew from my turrets. Additionally I was added into listen only mode fleet communication.

“Unidentified ships near Pathfinder Corp. claim. This is Captain Ishi of the Stardust cruiser Enchantress. We have been contracted by Pathfinder Corporation to secure and guard the claim. You have 15 minutes to retreat and leave the claim.”

The reply was near instantaneous. They must have been monitoring their sensors and have been waiting for the contact.

“Captain Ishi. While this claim might be registered to this new corp, it is in possession of the Red Dawn. Instead of creating hostilities would it not be better to work together? We are offering double the contract amount for you to walk away. Nobody needs to get hurt.”

“Red Dawn, I don’t know what kind of mercenary corps you are used to dealing with but our reputation is our calling card. Until the contract is completed, we will not consider any new offers in this system. You have 15 minutes to remove yourself.”

I repeated what just happened in the corporation chat.

Nirazera: I would have been surprised if RD wouldn’t have tried to bribe them. Good thing that we contracted Stardust, isn’t it.

Malcolm: You did great with these guys Nirazera. Now stop fishing for compliments.

Irene: Do you think they will actually retreat or do we see fireworks?

Nirazera: Hard to say. I think they might retreat now but if they do, they will show up with reinforcements.

Malcolm: So you think it would be better if they didn’t?

Nirazera: Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Even if they come in with more ships, our merc friends are more than enough to handle them.

Malcolm: Honestly, I would rather they leave us alone but I think that is off the table.

Irene: They know about the relic. There is no leaving that alone. You have no idea what kind of value that represents.

Malcolm: I have an idea.

Irene: No, you don’t. You should have seen the faces of our scientists when I mentioned that there is a working relic in need of study. They immediately hushed me and made sure that there was no way we could be overheard. And that was on a university planet.

Malcolm: Hm! Let’s just see what happens.

Ten minutes later the RD ships hadn’t moved. I watched a countdown tick down in the corner of my HUD.

“Red Dawn, this is your last warning. Remove yourself or we will open fire!”

Another three minutes passed without any change of the situation other than us getting closer. Then the frigate turned and burned into the asteroid field. The two civilian ships remained where they were.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

When the countdown hit zero I saw first one and then another marker speed away from our lead ship.

Malcolm: I think Enchantress just fired on the two ships still near the asteroid.

Ralgau: Yes. If I had to guess I would say two long range mass driver rounds. They won’t hit anything. The range is too big and these projectiles show up on the sensors.

Malcolm: Warning shot?

Nirazera: Making sure they understand.

As on que the Red Dawn ships fired their thrusters and repositioned but held the line near the asteroid. When the range to the enemy ships had finally ticked to 100.000 km captain Ishi’s voice came once again over com. This time only to the fleet.

“Engaging hostile ships. Helios and Crusader engage. Web and turrets free. Slag ‘em. Enchantress will continue on course providing cover for the shuttle.”

This was the moment when I wished I could have been in the other two frigates that Stardust had sent to our aid. I mean come on, the first real space fight. And what did I do? I sat in the tin can of a shuttle and watched the whole thing play out via icons on my HUD. But then again I had no one to blame but myself considering that I had insisted on being part of the landing team.

The two ships marked with their names in my HUD increased their thrust and sped away from us and towards their targets. Moments later I saw the first red icon blink orange and then disappear. A few seconds later the second enemy ship’s icon also started blinking in orange. It took only a few more seconds and the icon disappeared from my HUD as well. Wow. Honestly, the whole thing was surreal. I mean I knew that military ships would eat civilian ones alive, especially with one size class difference but this was way fast.

Irene: Looks like they got them.

Malcolm: Yup. Good riddance.

“Both targets were eliminated.” Came Ishi’s voice again over the com. “Prepare for ground combat. We do not read life signs on the asteroid.”

I turned to Ralgau and activated direct com to him.

“Why ground combat when there are no life signs being read.”

“Life signs can be dampened. Unless you know for sure that nobody is home you go in hot.”

Yeah, that made sense. Be prepared for the worst and then hope it didn’t happen. Good recipe for staying alive.

“Plus there could be automated defenses like turrets. They won’t show up. Unless they are actively scanning you won’t see them until they fire. There could also be booby traps or other surprises.”

“Fair enough. Thanks man. Is it weird that I feel at home in the action and at the same time totally out of my depth?”

“Nah. A lot of it is experience. And there is no experience without memory, no?”

I pondered his response. Made sense. I mean I had my memory just fine but there was a lot going on in this game. And since there was no wiki to read up on how things worked, I had no experience. I mean in a lot of ways I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Which made me feel out of my depth.

I was shaken out of my thoughts by a computerized voice in the shuttle.

“30 seconds to drop.”

A last look around, making sure all personal equipment was in place, more to reassure ourselves than to fix it. Then another timer was displayed in my HUD, counting down from 10 seconds. When it hit zero I felt the impact of the shuttle on the asteroid's surface. The security harnesses unlocked and swung upwards. The Stardust guys rushed forward. The loading ramp lowered and I saw that there were about a meter high steel walls on either corner and one of the mercs kneeled in each, gun at the ready.

Then the other six mercenaries double timed it out of the assault shuttle. I followed, then Ralgau and Ygglog behind me. Nothing happened. Nobody shot at us, no active readings from turrets. I tried tapping into the sensors of the turrets I had left behind but the ping request failed. Either they were destroyed or hacked.

I heard a bunch of ‘clears’ in raid com.

“I can’t connect to the turrets I left behind.” I informed the assault team.

“Okay. Moving forward, formation as discussed. Enor, stay on the ramp, we will keep the shuttle on the ground for now. Minyashi point, rest in formation as discussed.”

As discussed meant that we were in the middle of the group. Two mercs took the lead, then the assault leader, then me and my corp mates and finally the other two mercs to guard our rear.

To facilitate our integration into their team, they had decided not to use their power jet equipment for now. Which meant we were again hop skipping our way across the asteroid towards the cave entrance. When we were just behind the rocky lip of the entrance our assault leader told us to stop.

“Aka, deploy sniffer.”

The mercenary in question raised his arm and tapped some buttons on his interface. Again I received a request for sensor data transmission and again I accepted. Then I saw three small drones lift themselves from the back of their armor. They were about the size of my closed fist. But I barely had time to see what they looked like as they fired their thrusters and zipped into the opening of the cave.

A short moment later his voice came over the coms: “I have six hostiles. Five of them armed and in various positions around the cave. One appears to be unarmed. Some kind of scientist.”

As he was speaking our tactical view updated with this new information and a map was generated. Then five red and one orange dot appeared in the view.

So they really were trying to get into the ship and considering that they allowed two of their ships to get blown up they must have been kind of close to get into it. Plus with no way out since their ships were gone I expected them to fight to the last. When I said as much on the coms, I got a round of nods and grunts.

“Okay, we are going in. Aka bring your sniffers back and prepare a distraction.”

“On it boss!”

It took another few minutes and then the little drones came back. They hovered for a moment and then attached themselves to the spot in the armor they had come from. I watched all of this fascinated. A moment later a bigger piece detached itself. It was maybe 30 centimeters square and about 15 centimeters thick. Again it fired thrusters. These ones seemed a lot more powerful.

When the Aka guy noticed me watching the drone he gave me a bit of background: “This is a gremlin. While the other four were purely reconnaissance drones, this one is a light combat model. Nothing major, not much armor but decent speed and maneuverability. Basically a flying plasma pistol.”

He shrugged. Apparently for him that wasn’t much. But while I was not as fascinated by this particular drone, I was, once again, mind boggled by the depth of this universe. I mean how deep did the possibilities go? And how would my path fit into all of this. For that matter, what would my path be, considering that I hadn’t even made up my mind regarding my skill plan.

“Break into pairs. That means you three go together.” He gave a nod in Ralgau’s and my direction. I assumed that included our resident Drak. “Split out around the entrance. On my mark start the distraction Aka. Once the gremlin has their attention we all enter together on my command. Take out the reds and secure the orange.”

Again a round of affirmatives came in reply and then we were off splitting out around the cave entrance.

“Aka, go!”

I barely saw the gremlin zip into the cave. You would think that the thrusters of the things would be visible in the relative blackness of space. But they must have been so small that even 20 or 30 meters out you could only see them if you followed them from the start. The gremlin zipped in and seconds later plasma bursts flew out.

“Go! Go! Go!”

Now this is where the mercs had the real advantage of the actual armor suits that they wore. While we did our usual hop-skip dance into the opening of the cave, they lit up thrusters on the back or their suits that basically amounted to jetpacks. So they zipped as much as the gremlin had zipped while we… well, we got there in the end. But let me assure you: There is no such thing as fast and secure movement in zero gravity without the help of some kind of thruster system.

By the time we finally got eyes inside, there was only one red and the orange dot left on my HUD. The red had taken cover behind some debris that they must have cleared out around the ship. And he had found an angle that allowed him to be covered and return fire to the mercenaries.

Which would have given him a fighting chance. But there being another group, as slow as we were was something he hadn’t counted on. So before he could shift and find a better position all three of us had our rifles up and fired near simultaneously. Yep, all three of us hit. Although my shot was the worst and grazed his leg. In the end it was enough though as the other two hit him more or less center mass.

“Advance! Secure the orange!”

Again the mercs cheated with their jet packs. Again we took our sweet ass time and before we even saw what was going on we heard ‘Secure’ over the coms. Love working with professionals!