Incoming Press Report, Zero Light-Years Away (Cryesa System Network Relay, Independent Controlled).

Piracy rings were discovered by local troops in Lucynthia City. A three-hour shootout and chase developed, leaving twenty-three gunmen dead, and eight soldiers dead, alongside two civilians caught in the crossfire. The city mayor has now declared that the crisis is stabilized, and the pirates “dispersed from Lucynthia City”.

- Sector Updates

+++ Harold Percival +++

Cryesa System

ISS Rearguard

En Route to Target Coordinates

“What’s the status of our weapon mounts?” I asked, thoroughly miffed at the situation we found ourselves in. The crew of the Rearguard, thirty-five men strong, had been hard at conducting rapid repairs for hours since our last engagement that forced us to flee and turn tail.

A decision that proved to be too shameful for myself and my crew. We left our fellows out there. And now, they were captured or worse by those pirates. My blood boiled, both against them and to myself for that decision.

I shouldn’t have fled. My mind repeated a hundred times. I shouldn’t have fled.

“We’re now halfway done with the repairs, Captain.” My ship engineer replied over the comms. “The other sections are still repairing the damage on our main electronics. Redundant subsystems are still working green, but the main lines would need some repairs. I estimate five hours before we’re finished. But we would need some dockwork after this.”

I looked at my second in command, and he nodded at me. “Continue the repairs then. We’ll find a way through this. We have enough supplies to replace most of the damaged parts of the ship, no?”

“Yes. Our engineers are already restarting our auxiliary reactors after the earlier field repairs. Their shot clipped through it, but it didn’t hit any critical parts. The main reactor is fine as well.”

“Good. Keep doing it. Out.” I sighed, looking at the CIC crew around me. There were only six of us, all keeping tabs on the various subsystems of the ship, communicating with the damage control parties, or keeping watch over the sensor readings and our course.

And all of them were furious. When they looked at me, I saw not fear, but courage from these men. They wanted blood. They wanted our brothers back and rescued. These men…we all fought hard together already. Many already made friends or knew the crewmembers of Captain Roll’s and Captain McHover’s ships.

“Gentlemen…”

“Sir!” My second in command started. “Rest assured, we are all in this plan. We’ll rescue them. Or die trying.”

“They’ll do the same for us if it was us captured,” said my NAV officer. “We can’t run. We have to go now and rescue them. I can vouch for my team. They’re all in this plan, Captain.”

“I absolutely am in this plan,” said my weapons officer. “We’ll put them down, that’s for sure. I’ll even join the boarding parties if I have to. I’ll choose death before dishonor. Just as I know that they’ll do the same for us.”

“I see then.” I raised my head a bit, looking at them all. “Alright, it’s clear then. We are all in this crap together. And we’ll be going in to save them from this crap, together. But worry not, gentlemen. We have a friend. I already notified you of it, but he is coming. With two ships. I don’t what the other ship is, but he, Jonathan Jones, an old friend of mine from my homeworld, is coming with us with a Reaper-Class Corvette.”

“A corvette?” My weapons officer asked. “Then that makes this all the better. Faster support to assault them. Yes, this is perfect.”

“Yes. He was a good one back in my days in Loran.” I grinned. “I’m sure he’s still just as good today.” Especially when he survived that trainwreck. “Rest assured, we will get our brothers back. We will rescue the captured civilians of that merchant vessel. And we will make those pirates pay.”

All of them gave a grim nod, just as I gave my last words. “This will be one of our finest days, gentlemen. The Rearguard never retreats!”

“The Rearguard never retreats!”

+++

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Cryesa System

ISS Jukebox

En Route to Target Coordinates

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Juliett was back. She said she merely checked and fixed something in the Radiant when her transport shuttle returned and docked back to the Jukebox.

“The VSS Shine is rejoining us?” I asked, just as we walked through the passageways from the shuttle docks. “I thought your underlings were done serving you.”

“They still recognize me as their leader. But, many of them aren’t coming. Mainly, because I didn’t call for them.” Juliett turned to me. “They have other things to do for now in the Outer Sector. Luckily, the VSS Shine is free to accompany us.”

“I suppose that’s good.” I took note of the roster of ships on our side. The ISS Jukebox, my now upgraded and heavily modified Reaper-Class Corvette. Perfect for quick scouting actions and fast finisher jobs, mainly due to my missiles. The ISS Rearguard, now only a few million kilometers ahead of us, we were catching in at full-burn. Another heavily modified Gallant-Class Destroyer. Harold’s ship would be perfect for frontline duties.

And then, there was Juliett’s two strange ships with us. The VSS Shine, perfect for suppression and general assault with its powerful Photon Lance, and the VSS Radiant…that I remember, completely sliced that Vanguard-Class Light Cruiser back in Lubola with its Particle Lance.

Naturally, I imagined that the VSS Radiant would be our flagship of sorts, all while the rest of us kept them off the Radiant’s flanks. But of course, that assumes that we would get into a fight. I really am hoping we don’t. It will be a pain.

I opened another door, just as we entered the CIC. Immediately, Juliett sat beside me, as she placed her hand on the weapons officer’s access pad, just as the thing immediately accepted her without even an ounce of resistance. “Wait, Juliett?”

“I’m taking nominal control of the weapons.” She said, looking at me. “Problem?”

“I mean, I can do it.” Well, not exactly. “Or, SYS can.”

“SYS is too inefficient. And I imagine you would be too distracted at managing the battle line to worry about managing the Jukebox’s six weapon systems.” She smiled. “I, on the other hand, have enough processing power to handle both the Radiant, the Shine, and the Jukebox, and had your friend’s ship contain more autonomous systems…even his ship. At the same time.”

“...I guess this is why people are afraid of AI ever since Stable Dynamics used them en masse.”

She merely scoffed. “I’d be honest…I find that distasteful. Did Stable Dynamics ever even use true AI? Perhaps not. Sure, they’re far smarter than normal humans, by orders of magnitude, but…nothing compared to me and the Void Fleet.”

“Heh, I smell quite the arrogance coming from you today.” I almost shifted from my seat as I laughed awkwardly. She seemed to be really pissed ever since she heard the hostage situation part. No, they actually didn’t just take Captain Roll’s and Captain McHoven’s crew hostage. They captured multiple ships from a Lucynthian convoy that carried food, passengers, and heavy industrial equipment.

None of those things really mattered for Juliett, as far as I could say. But the passengers and civilian crew? If she was really this righteous, then why had she stayed far away from the Inner Sector, when all this happened for centuries?

“Sorry…I’m just…” She paused. “Look, it just rubbed me wrong. What they’re doing…to their fellow humans. Maybe it’s just because I’m hardcoded to act like this. To feel like this. But…but I can’t control how my code responds, fully.” She looked at me. “So, I guess I’m just quite irritated. Maybe.”

“It surprises me that an AI can feel that way.”

“...”

“In any case, we’ll do what we can, alright?” Another ping appeared on the control screens. More data transmissions from the ISS Rearguard—it seemed that Harold rejected my idea of reporting the incident to Lucynthian authorities. “I see…they threatened him.”

“Threatened him of what?” Juliett asked, looking straight at the text presented on the screen. “This is just—”

“They’re going to ask something from us. And they don’t want to involve the authorities, naturally.” I sighed. “This will be a damned clown show again. Criminals…they’re going to be hard to deal with. If we don’t play our cards right…”

“They’ll execute the hostages?”

I nodded. “Though, I really hope they do not. Lucynthia will definitely pay big time for those civilians. As for Captain Roll and Captain McHover, and even Harold, they all have insurance backing, alongside business ties with multiple trading consortiums operating around the Cryesa System.”

“Then why aren’t they just releasing them? They can take the damned cargo, the ransoms, everything. Why are they still holding them?”

“As I’ve said, Juliett. I expect this to get dirty real quick.” I looked back at the screen. “Yep, they’re definitely going to be asking for something more than money or ransoms. This shit won’t be easy.”

“I…” She frowned. “If they execute those civilians, Jonathan, I swear. They won’t feel the next day alive. I’ll ensure of that.”

“Sure, you do that.” I almost looked down, remembering what and who I was. “They would deserve it anyway. Criminals, right?”

“Indeed…” Her lips formed a thin line. “Scum.”

“Heh…right. We’ll get back at them and pull those people out, as I’ve said.” I nodded to myself. “And if they demand something, we’ll do our best to meet that.”

“Negotiate? Don’t tell me you plan to negotiate with these…people.”

“Well, if they demand something, and in exchange, they release everyone without a fight, and without any complications, like them shooting their hostages should they get twitchy…wouldn’t that be ideal?”

“...I…I suppose it would be. But if they do something, I swear…I’ll beat them into a bloody pulp.”

“Yeah, I get that. You’re a bit of a war freak, aren’t you?”

“If there are no options other than violence, and if they invite that option, then it shall be done. Remember what I did to that pirate ship before it destroyed the Jukebox.” Her eyes almost lit up. “I will kill if I have to. Even when the Void Code demands I do not let humans die. I will, Jonathan. If it’s the only option.”

“I’ll keep that in my mind.” I really thought she was more of the gentle, pacifistic AI type considering how she acted and spoke earlier. But I suppose there was a difference between someone who held reverence and sanctity to human life and avoidance of conflict that could lead to death and someone who preached nonviolence as a disarmed being. One could arm themselves to defend their value, enforce it, and prevent deaths, the other one was a victim.

And I doubted that Juliett was the victim type of thing. No…the VSS Radiant, the VSS Shine, the VSS Glisten, and everything that she showed me so far. Perhaps yes, she could be gentle, and heal even the most wounded person like I was after Lubola.

But she certainly was prepared and ready to take the extreme option should push come to shove. I mean…she did take out that Union expedition and mauled them before going down herself, didn’t she?

Well, her creators wanted her to save the Sector. Already, Juliett returned to checking the tabs about the statuses of the different weapons in the Jukebox.

Of course, she needs to be well-armed and ready to use that…to save the Sector.

And in this case…to save those hostages.