Captain’s Log:
Three colonies have been attacked by an unknown group of ships on the fringe of human-occupied space.
The Craton is being re-routed from a fleet exercise in the Chonus system to investigate and reassure other colonies in the region that they will be defended.
The identities of these pirates are still in question. Their ships appear to be a mix of common cargo carriers modified with aftermarket weapons systems. Information is still sparse, but command has little reason to believe they pose any serious threat to a ship of the Craton‘s capabilities.
If the pirates agree to that assessment, it is likely that they will avoid any engagement, and we will be chasing ghosts for the next few weeks until patrol frigates are able to reach the area to secure it more fully.
In the meantime, we will be making every attempt to learn the identity of these pirates, as no member of their crew has yet to be seen by a colonist or captured on data.
There are disquieting aspects to this all beyond the obvious, however. The pirates have been able to evade the defenses of each colony they have approached, in ways we cannot fully explain yet. As always, rumors are spreading; is there something more serious going on here?
I hope they are just simple pirates. There’s always the possibility that this has to do with recent tensions with the Glorians or Fesha or even Hev – but already there are other ideas circulating, drawing parallels to ancient stories and relic technology.
It’s not uncommon for pirates to try and draw that mystique around themselves, and no matter how many times it proves untrue, the stories always rise.
Let’s hope for something mundane.
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“What sensor data the colonies have captured suggests the pirates have between three and five vessels,” Brooks explained to the assembled group.
It was not simply his command staff present at his briefing, but also some of the under-commanders – as well as Apollonia Nor.
She looked as uncomfortable as he felt about her presence. It was not that he minded someone who was more akin to a civilian than an officer being here, but the knowledge of what he might have to task her to do.
“However,” he continued, dragging his eyes across the whole room. “The surviving readings are sketchy, and we suspect that the pirates have been modifying some of their ships between attacks to disguise their true numbers.”
He brought up an image of a large, bulky ship – it was no monster, being only a kilometer and a half long, but it was strongly built.
“This is the largest ship that has been sighted, and we believe it to be their flagship. This one they do not bother to disguise, and we have given it the designation of PV-1. It is simply a bulk carrier, a modified Evergreen-class hauler constructed by Holdur Conglomerate. As you can see, it allows them a lot of cargo room, though some of that space carries weapons, we believe seventeen private military-grade fast-launch missile systems.”
“Do they have any confirmed point-defense cannons?” Jaya asked.
“We do not know,” Brooks replied. “No colony has had a chance to test their defenses, but we will assume so.”
“Evergreen-class,” Ham sulp noted. “I know that kind of ship well. They’re pretty sturdy – I’d say pretty much designed for pirating work, their internal bracing really lets them fit in a lot of weapons systems.”
“True,” Cutter hissed. “Advertisements for vessel hailed it as being a capable escort with modifications.”
“Union intelligence believes that Holdur frequently sells them to pirates,” Brooks confirmed.
“Um,” Apollonia spoke. “Has anyone considered that this could this be some retaliation for what happened recently on Gohhi . . . ?”
Eyes went to her, and hers grew wider. She shrank back a little. “Just a thought,” she added.
“Not a bad one,” Brooks said. “But this particular vessel has been out in the wild for some time.”
“I know in the initial reports from the colonies we didn’t have a good idea of what they’d been taking,” Urle said. “Do we have a better idea now?”
“Yes,” Brooks confirmed, his eyes unfocusing as he looked into his HUD. “We’re still waiting for the third colony to get us a list. From the first two colonies they took a great deal of equipment, tech, and raw materials that were likely for the maintenance of their ships, as well as chemicals used for food production.”
He focused back on the assembly. “Unfortunately, they also took hostages – fifty from the first and fifty-two from the second.”
“Have they made any demands?” Jaya asked.
“None yet,” Brooks said. “There is a lot of apprehension about this, so we are not spreading word of it yet.”
“They’re kidnapping people?” Apollonia said, speaking up again. “That’s crazy. I mean, even just attacking Union colonies is crazy. Don’t they expect retaliation . . . ?”
“I agree,” Jaya said. “It is very rare for even our distant colonies to face piracy issues outside of single niche events. They must know we will come for them.”
“That is a concern,” Brooks admitted. “There is one more detail that we have learned just in the last hour that warrants serious consideration. While the original copies were lost when the computers at each colony were corrupted, we were able to piece this together.”
A message began to play. It was only audio, and the sound was strange – clearly an artificial voice that did not sound quite right.
“Colonial residents, you will surrender immediately.
Your defenses cannot stand against us. We possess relic technology far beyond your understanding that will wave away any and all attempts to resist. You cannot withstand it, and to try to do so will bring only death to you and your children.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Do not throw your lives away needlessly. Move to your emergency bunkers and stay within them. Any seen outside will be assumed defiant and shot. Attempt no resistance, stay in your bunkers, and you will not be harmed.
So speaks the Dire and Feared Captain Tarsota.”
The voice ended.
A silence lingered, however.
“Do they really have relic technology?” Pirra finally asked.
“We do not know,” Brooks admitted. “It is a common claim made by those trying to invoke some aspect of the legend of the Star Hunter, but usually it is just a claim.”
“The Star Hunter is not a legend, Captain,” Pirra said. “The whole story is true.”
Brooks watched Pirra, listening, but did not reply.
Jaya spoke. “Yet at each colony their computers were completely destroyed, and the colonies reported heavy corruption in them,” she said. “That is consistent with the effects of tenkionic disruption on artificial intelligence.”
“All of these points have been made at Union headquarters,” Brooks said. “Due to the seriousness of anything related to relic technology, this is no longer simply a humanity issue – the entire Union has been informed, and we are to take every precaution.”
He looked to Apollonia. “This is why I’ve brought you in for this briefing, Ms. Nor. Cerebral Readers can protect from krahteonic and tenkionic corruption to a degree. For the duration of this mission, you will be staying in special quarters near the command deck.”
“Oh,” Apollonia said, looking once more on the spot. “Wonderful,” she added, unsure what else she could say to that.
“What I want the rest of you to do,” he continued, “is to go over the data we have. Build me scenarios of the likely capabilities of their ships, plans to knock them out, plans for boarding – any scenario we may encounter. And try to figure out who or what they are – the name Tarsota sounds human, but we are not sure if the pirates actually are due to the strange sound qualities of the message, which we feel are not due to corruption.”
“It does sound like they’re trying to just pass themselves off as human, though,” Urle noted.
“Exactly. If we can figure out who they are, we may have a better idea of what we may face. Now, we are ten hours out from Presna colony. I want your preliminary reports by then. Dismissed.”
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“Captain,” Pirra said, saluting. “Might I have a word?”
Most of the room had emptied, but Brooks saw Kai glance over. She did not indicate anything on her face, and Brooks looked back to Pirra.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“Captain, I know that the story of the Star Hunter is viewed largely as legend,” she began. “But I advise that you take the story seriously.”
Brooks was rather caught off-guard by Pirra’s words. He knew that Dessei placed great emphasis on the Star Hunter legends, even teaching sweeping details of that war in their voidfleet academies.
But many of the stories they told were . . . fantastical to say the least.
“Which aspects do you mean specifically?” Brooks asked.
Pirra seemed to squirm slightly.
“I mean the elements that seem to defy physics and neo-physics, Captain.”
“Such as?”
Brooks was not so much trying to make his Lt. Commander uncomfortable, as to understand just what she was trying to tell him.
Her discomfort grew to a head, but she stopped fidgeting and met his eyes, speaking strongly. “Such as the techniques he used in battles such as at Lahhua and Ghonno,” she said. “Moving his fleet in ways that have been deemed . . . impossible. Disappearing and reappearing. The way his ship avoided all conventional attacks and his weapons were able to bypass normal defenses and strike vulnerable points even inside ships.”
Brooks was unsure what to say to that.
He had wondered if these were the sorts of things she had meant. The stories were often told by spacers, embellished and enhanced over the thousands of years since the actual event.
They were not things that he took seriously. Spacers also told stories of starmaids and black holes that somehow caused men to want to fly into them to be wrecked in their accretion disks.
“I cannot say I place much stock in those legends,” he told her. “But I appreciate your candor, Lt. Commander. However, I do not want you to overly-concern yourself with ancient stories. We’ve encountered Leviathans and other forms of tenkionic matter that show strange properties we don’t fully understand. In no case were they able to do the things that are attributed to the Star Hunter.”
“Sir,” Pirra insisted. “This isn’t just about the Star Hunter’s relic technology potentially being tenkionic. This is about real tactical scenarios we may face if these new pirates truly have their hands on a piece of relic technology!”
“Yes, I understand that,” Brooks said, his voice turning a little chilly. “Notably, this is outside of your field of expertise, Lt. Commander. Let me worry about ship actions, while you worry about preparing for a potential boarding action.”
In her large, alien eyes it was easy to see the defiance – even moreso in her crest that made it clear she was ready to argue this even harder. But the warning look in his own eye made her quiet herself.
“Yes, sir,” she said neutrally.
Brooks nodded his chin for her to go, and she turned on her heel.
He felt as Apollonia moved closer. Her presence was always noticeable when he paid attention, the strange aura that was almost but not quite discomforting.
“She seems real spooked,” Apollonia noted.
“Her people take the legend of the Star Hunter very seriously,” Brooks said. “To them, it’s history, not just a story.”
“Yeah, like . . . literally. I’ve seen a lot of pulp shit that has him in it, and from what I’ve learned he had so many lovers that I don’t know how he even had time to pirate anything,” Apollonia said.
“Don’t mock it,” Brooks chided. “I had to draw a line, but Pirra is a valuable part of the crew.”
Apollonia seemed surprised by the rebuke. “All right,” she said, her voice now as unhappily neutral as Pirra’s had been. “But may I ask you some questions about something else that’s not a part of my assignment?”
“Go ahead,” Brooks said, gathering up a few things from a desk. “And walk with me.”
She followed him towards the door.
“I’m just wondering why we’re going after these pirates. I mean . . . the Craton is kind of a big deal, isn’t it? We’re the only ship in our class-“
“There are other cratonic vessels,” Brooks corrected her. “The Craton was only the first of them in the Union. We have two sister ships and there are ten total cratonic vessels across the entire Sapient Union.”
“Still, ten? Out of millions of ships capable of chasing pirates? Surely we have more important things to do . . .”
“We’re protecting Union citizens,” Brooks replied.
“Yeah, and I’m not saying that’s not important. But I’m just surprised it’s considered important enough to send us.”
“There’s a bit more to it than just hunting pirates,” Brooks admitted. “Are you aware of the moratorium on colonization?”
Apollonia was not actually sure what moratorium meant. “Remind me,” she said.
“Ever since Terris,” Brooks explained, and Apollonia wondered if he did not realize her ignorance, “the Union has stopped all colonization of new systems. It’s not simply a cooling of policy, but officially we do not allow it. One of the effects of this has been that colonies that had just been founded tend to feel rather exposed. After all, they expected to soon be parts of a bustling area of space with many other colonized systems that would be growing together economically and in population. With all the limitations, supply runs are likewise restricted to a degree, which makes their conditions even harder.”
“So . . .” Apollonia ventured, “This is about making them feel better?”
“More like acknowledged at all,” Brooks replied. “Many have lodged complaints that they feel practically abandoned. I can’t agree with that assessment-“
“Can’t like you’re not allowed to by higher-ups?” Apollonia asked.
Brooks laughed. “No, I mean they are still being supplied and evacuation has always been on the table for them. But they certainly have had their plans destroyed by these changes, and they’re not happy about it. Sending the Craton shows that command is taking their safety very seriously.
“Beyond that, the possibility – however slight – that these pirates do have relic technology compels a strong reaction from us. The Dessei and Sepht take these possibilities very seriously, and we are duty-bound to treat it with equal gravity.”
Apollonia thought about it. “And what if they do have relic technology, and they really can do the crazy things that Pirra was worried about? We’re a city as well as a ship,” she asked.
Brooks frowned. “We all join this ship knowing her duties,” he told her.
Apollonia considered that seriously, her stomach squirming.
She didn’t like the feeling she had about all of this.