Incoming Press Report, Four Light Years Away (Hindenburg System Network Relay, Union Controlled).

FEG Military accused of censorship campaign! Two unknown whistleblowers are now present in Trianta in contact with the Union Leadership regarding the FEG’s three centuries-long “obfuscations, distortions, and outright censorship” of both the Federation’s historical records and “records about the cause of the collapse and its implications”. It is unknown if these claims are verified. The Coalition Authority has not issued any statements regarding these “whistleblowers”.

- Orion Press

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Escuardo System

Assault Craft

The point defense fire was thick when we were dropped off the Radiant’s hangars. Briefly, we all saw what was happening outside, with the Radiant’s multiple point-defense systems opening up against multiple barrages of missiles, before literally disappearing into the void as if it didn’t exist.

Naturally, all of us held a shocked expression as to what the hell happened, but Juliett held off any questions from arising as we sped straight for an almost ramming maneuver toward the freighter merely a few kilometers in front of us.

“I’ll answer everything later,” she declared, holding the same SMG that I did. “Suit yourselves up. And watch your buddies. No one is getting left behind or injured today.”

All of us, at once, equipped our helmets. The HUD finally appeared for me, as its flickering digital lights stabilized, showing everything from their vitals to the number of bullets in my gun.

Immediately, the assault crafts opened up three angry laser beams straight into the hull of the freighter, and I held on to my safety harnesses as we slammed straight inside of it. Naturally, the extreme Gs nearly made me faint and vomit, but I removed it just as everyone did.

“Everyone! On me!” Harold ordered, still winded as the ramp of the assault craft lowered itself. Naturally, all of us followed him, just as bullets flew around us as we went out of the ramps of her assault craft, just as the ship’s emergency shield systems closed itself on the damaged parts of the hull, preventing further atmosphere venting. “Clear the LZ! Don’t let them get into your blind spots!”

I took aim at some of the panicked pirate crews, all of them still wearing their everyday apparel instead of a vacuum-rated combat suit. Naturally, they were all shitting their collective pants at the sudden attacks, as they were only armed with simple pistols or shitty rifles.

“Put your fucking guns down!” I shouted, but they didn’t, as they started firing at me. I dropped down into cover and replied with my own gunfire. My HUD allowed me to aim the gun with almost perfect accuracy, as the gun’s targeting systems were fed straight into my suit’s networks. One after another, the bastards dropped as my magazine dwindled.

Within moments, the entire LZ, which appeared to be a loading dock of sorts, still filled with countless heavy-duty reinforced containers that probably housed the cargo they salvaged in their raids and exploration expeditions, was cleared of all hostiles. Most of them dropped dead by our guns.

“Area cleared!” I shouted, just as everyone stood up from their covers to survey our surroundings while the ship’s red alarm lights and its high-pitched alarms wailed around us. They would be responding to the attack soon. I checked the PDA attached to the forearm of my suit, showing the layout of this specific freighter ship. Now, I didn’t know if they modified anything by virtue of them being pirates (and this ship was probably ancient), but this was our best intel regarding the layout of these ships.

Harold approached me, just as he slammed another magazine on his assault rifle. “Jonathan, where do we strike first?”

“Well, someone’s gotta stay here to defend our assault crafts,” I replied first, but Juliett cut me off.

“I have that covered,” she said, as she pointed at multiple hovering circular drones leaving the ramps of the assault crafts. They immediately formed a tight perimeter around the LZ, flying off into the passageways and corridors where we expected them to come. “My drones can keep hold of this place well enough. We can all go search for the hostages.”

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“Well, in that case, we’ll stick with the original plan. Me and Juliett will strike quickly into the CIC of the ship. You boys go find them first in the medical bays, then on the mess halls, and if that doesn’t work, the port side cargo bays. We’ll try to paralyze them, you guys do the hostage-saving. Clear?”

“Clear,” he nodded, turning to his men and calling them all up. “Alright, you scallywags! Let’s find our lost brothers!”

With that, me and Juliett turned straight to the passageway that would directly go to the center of the ship. I checked my magazine counts—twelve bullets left out of thirty. “And I only bought six magazines…”

She didn’t reply, and the two of us continued through the passageway. A blast door blocked our path, and we looked at each other.

“I have some explosives,” I said. “Unless you can hack it.”

“I can.”

“Do it.”

She placed her hand on the biometrics of the access panel beside the blast doors. Multiple alerts appeared before it opened up with a hissing sound. Right in front of us, however, were multiple guns aimed at our faces. That was enough to get me into panic mode, as there wasn’t any cover for us, but she stood in the way as we both fired out guns.

One after another, tiny hexagonal shards of metal that appeared in and out of reality met the barrage of gunfire that rained on both of us, stopping them one after another like a shield. At this point, questioning whatever she could do was beyond me, and I merely took aim to keep my guns firing, killing three, no, four people when the magazine finally dropped to zero.

Juliett’s SMG on the other hand was glowing blue, and the bullets she was firing were glowing at the sheer speed of it. I could swear that she wasn’t holding a mere simple gun, but something akin to a railgun or a coilgun. Her shots peppered their covered positions or turned them into literal pink mist whenever it hit, even when she seemed to be firing it semi-auto.

“Goddamn! What the hell is that gun, Juliett?!” I shouted as I reloaded my SMG. She only turned around when the last of the pirates dropped.

“My personal coilgun, I think I’ve called it the ‘Clowner’ when I designed it.” I looked up at her with nothing but dead silence. “What?”

“Your creators have a better naming sense than you, Juliett.” I pushed on, and she didn’t say another word after that. I flashed on my gun’s flashlights as the lights turned off, with distant gunfire still going out in other sections of the ship. “Someone probably took down the main power lines.”

“Yeah,” Juliett said. “I’m already inside their networks. Their PD subsystems are down too. Defense shields as well. Harold and his crew are already splitting up and sabotaging everything.”

“And outside?”

“The Radiant, Shine, and the Jukebox are clearing out the vicinity. They wouldn’t be able to shoot down this freighter. Some of their frigates are escaping though.” We both stopped in front of two surrendering pirates. They held their hands up high, approaching us cautiously.

“We surrender,” one of them said. “Please, we were just gang-pressed into this…this crap.”

“Keep your hands up in the air,” I said, as Juliett approached them. She fished out two zip ties, tying them up to restrain them on the side. I stood beside her, keeping watch of the surroundings.

“Don’t do anything stupid, and wait here,” Juliett said, as they allowed her to restrain them. “I’m not sure about your innocence, but we’re not going to be shooting you all if you surrender.”

“A lot of us want to surrender, Miss.” One of them said. “The hostages, they’re at the port side cargo bay. Most of them at least. Twenty-nine of them. Mostly civilians.”

“Wait, what about the crew of Captain Roll and Captain McHover?” I asked, and the two of them fell silent.

“Lord Preussen doesn’t take any mercy on mercenaries who hunt pirates,” one of them replied. “He executed them all. I think Captain Roll and Captain McHover are in the CIC though. They’re the main hostages after all, but I don’t think Lord Preussen is planning to exchange them with you.”

“Goddamn…fuck, Harold won’t like this news. I don’t like it either,” I said, finally realizing the implications of this. “Are you both sure of this?”

They both nodded in fear and panic, and Juliett was already starting to stiffen. I tapped her back. “Look, we’ll verify. If that’s the case…we’ll deal with it later. Let’s paralyze this ship fully, and get Captain Roll and Captain McHover from the CIC, assuming they’re there.”

I heard her breath out. I could already imagine that this entire nonsense was taking its toll on her. I really wondered how that would be possible, for an AI. “...Okay.”

She stood up and continued on without many words. I followed her while checking each and every corner.

I hope they’re still there. I gripped my SMG’s handgrip tighter as we turned another corner of the passageways, and the auxiliary lights flickered weakly. I don’t want Harold going into a revenge spree.

I wouldn’t want him…to make the same mistake that I did.