When I next became aware, I was delightfully cold. During my time in the army I had taken an extreme cold weather course and this was even colder than that training had been. For a moment I simply basked in the ability to feel again, eyes roving over everything before me. I appeared to be seated in some sort of strange mashup between an aircraft cockpit and a tank’s driver position, except it was situated smack in the middle of a navy vessel’s bridge. An array of screens were mounted across my vision, showcasing various readouts and information panels. These screens were attached to my seat via an array of arms made of a metal that wasn’t familiar to me at a glance; everything appeared to be touch screen activated.
A pair of pedals jutted from a control column attached to my seat, and the armrests each held what seemed to be hi-tech bike handles accompanied by even more haptic interfaces. The rest of the bridge was bare, although there were several coverings that looked like they could be removed to hold more seats. The far wall in front of me consisted of a half circle of windows that currently gave me an excellent view of the blackness of space.
I then experienced a sensation I hadn't in a long time: a shortness of breath that came before suffocation. A synthetic voice blared in the cockpit. “Warning: Oxygen levels are dangerously low. Recommend bringing life support systems online.”
Scanning the panels before me, I selected the largest, most central touch screen. With a few taps I found the life support controls and moved them to max. Immediately warm air began to be belched into the cockpit, and I sighed in pleasure. I sat back in the pilot’s seat while gathering my bearings. Almost hesitantly I lifted a hand to feel the bottom of my chin. I half expected to feel the bullet hole where I had put myself out of my misery, but naturally there was nothing there. Patting the rest of me down, I confirmed that the rest of my body was in one piece and in working order.
It was at this point I really took stock of my body. I was extremely lean, even more so than I had been previously. My muscles were a little more prominent, but in a way that felt natural. My breasts were a pleasant handful that complimented my compact frame. My skin was also a very pale tone, a far cry from the tan I was used to. Filled with sudden curiosity, I scrambled around for a reflective surface. I found a curious rectangular device that resembled a large tablet with a currently black screen and studied my reflection.
The most shocking thing was the long, spiraling horn jutting from my forehead. It was as white with pink grooves and almost looked to be deliberately filed into a wicked point. My eyes were a brilliant, glowing sky blue framed by luscious lashes. My face was perfectly symmetrical, and my hair simmered a shocking white with neon pink undertones. It also hung down to my waist. Triangular horse ears jutted out from the top of my head, also with the same pink coloration of my hair on their insides. Holding back a sudden giggle at the absurdity, I twisted in my seat to confirm that yes, I had a tail and yes, I had cloven hooves. I was a fucking humanoid unicorn. Not exactly furry anthropomorphic, but human-like with unicorn features. I couldn't hold back my giggle at the absurdity of the situation this time.
The tablet in my hands suddenly chirped at me and its screen lit up, notifying me that I had a message waiting. Pressing my finger over the biometric scanner, the screen unlocked and I tapped the notification. The message had no sender listed, but it only took a moment to realize who it was from.
Celestia-
I hope this message finds you well. As you might have surmised by now, yes you are a unicorn. They are a race whose magic will serve you well now and into the future; the only downside more or less is how exceptionally rare they are. Shai decided that his own gift to you would be a race that would help ensure your survival until you're strong enough for nothing to be capable of hurting or killing you anyway.
My own gift to you is the spaceship you woke up in. Remember when I said I was going to devote what little power I have in order to get you a strong start? This ship is that. I'm not going to spoil all of its secrets, but rest assured that it is completely unique. There will be no other ship like it in the vast galaxy. The downside to such a gift is that outside of this initial message, I'm not allowed to have any contact with you outside of official tasks you can receive by praying at a shrine dedicated to me, and those can only happen once every few months. Shai assures me that as you earn me power, this restriction will slowly start to fade.
Be sharp out there, Celestia. Other Champions are not under the same restrictions I am, and many of them have constant, direct communication with their patrons. Some of them may end up as allies, as not every deity can be considered an enemy, so to speak. But just as many would love to either kill you or seduce you to their side. Don't be afraid to make friends with the locals, though. You'll need them and their strength if you're going to accomplish anything.
The above also ties into the class I've chosen for you. To make things a little more familiar for Champions, many things follow a format similar to a role-playing game. To that end, your class is Summoner; your terminal can provide more information. Find allies you trust. Bind them to you. Create a force that spans the stars. Create an everlasting familial hunter lodge in my name, and as I gain in power so shall you reap the rewards.
-Artemis
I huffed out a breath of air. There was a lot to unpack here. I was very obviously in space. With my own spaceship, which apparently would have no other similar ship in the universe. Also, I was almost literally playing a real life RPG. I stood up and stretched, grabbing the terminal as I set off to explore the ship. Even though I had no real basis to compare to, the ship didn't disappoint. It was huge. According to my terminal it was a mother ship, designed as a homebase for smaller ships. The four hangars I found supported this claim. It seemed to be a size somewhere between a cruiser and a battleship; it was a fair bit larger than a cruiser yet not quite as big as a battleship. Amusingly, the terminal listed the ship as an Artemis-class.
Then I found myself in the engine room and was promptly stunned at what I found. Instead of a regular ship generator that I would expect to find in a weird sci-fi universe, the ship had a damn moon that seemed to be powering everything. The thing was huge, spanning from the floor all the way up to the ceiling dozens of feet above and taking up a good three-quarters of the rather spacious room. Three rings were rotating around the pseudo-moon with each on a different axis, and it regularly pulsed with energy like a heartbeat. I should have felt some sort of gravitational pull, but there was none. If I had to guess, those rotors contained the miniature moon. Almost in a trance, I tapped at my terminal until I brought up the ship schematics and found the engine room. I tapped it and the view on the terminal zoomed in.
Lunar Core: A unique generator characteristic of all Artemis-class ships. The Core generates as much power as the strongest military generators and will grow in strength the more Faith Artemis receives. The Core also serves as a foci of prayer, allowing followers of Artemis to receive the goddess into their home.
I briefly considered trying to contact Artemis through the Core if only to thank the goddess for this second chance at life, but remembering that Artemis’s message mentioned only being able to do so once every few months caused me to reconsider. It would be better to wait until I had a better grasp on things and was ready for a task. I instead rifled through the terminal some more, discovering that many aspects of running this ship were automated. This meant that I could basically fly the entire ship by myself with no need for a bunch of extra crew. Then I stumbled upon a section that showcased what my current RPG stats were.
Name, Class
Celestia Nadir, Summoner
Race
Unicorn
Age
153
Level
1
Sex
H
Strength
165
Agility
171
Perception
278
Willpower
282
Endurance
162
Libido
71
Traits
Unbound Lifespan, Champion
Titles
Champion of Artemis
Trying to ignore the fact that my sex drive was apparently also a stat, I long pressed each one to get a better idea of what I was working with. Strength aided my proficiency with melee and aided my ability to lift and carry things. Agility helped with ranged weapons and general reflexes. Perception aided my ability to multi-task and fly. Considering this one started at 278 I was more or less born to pilot ships. Willpower was a cool 282, and this one increased my magic potency and how often I could cast. It made sense, considering Artemis had mentioned that unicorns were powerful mages. Endurance was definitely my lowest stat, and it was a general idea of how many injuries I could survive. Libido was literally a number assigned to my sex drive and didn't seem to provide any benefits at all at first glance. There didn't seem to be any sort of stat caps, so I wondered if my stats would just scale into infinity.
My sole trait was certainly interesting: I wouldn't age at all. It wasn't something ridiculous like immortality, but provided I didn't die I would always be 153, which was apparently just after adulthood for unicorns. I had been 37 in my previous life, so apparently 37 in human years translated to 153 in unicorn years. The Champion trait simply added 100 to every stat and 200 to my primary stats, which meant that as a unicorn Summoner Perception and Willpower would default at 278 and 282. My title was exactly as it sounded: it marked me as a Champion of Artemis, providing me with the Unbounded Lifespan and Champion traits.
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The most confusing aspect was the H next to my sex, but after long pressing it I understood. I was a hermaphrodite. I supposed it made sense considering how rare my race was; a part of my edict from Artemis was to create a family, and having kids was obviously a part of that. My Libido being quantified as a stat was also explained this way. The next page on the terminal was dedicated to my summons and bonds. There didn't seem to be a limit on either, and with nothing under either tab I didn't have any clue how either system worked. I browsed further on my terminal and found information on the ship.
Name:
Yunikōn
Classification
Artemis, Gunboat Mothership, Summoner
Hangars
4
Hardpoints
24 (Doesn't include anti-air and point defense cannons)
Weapon Load
15 Heavy Pulse Lasers, 3 Railguns, 6 Autocannons
I snorted at the name. At this point, I was pretty sure Artemis was just trolling me. If I remember correctly, Yunikōn is Japanese for unicorn. As befitting a ship designed to be in the back supporting other craft, nearly all of its weapons were designed for long range engagements. I had taken a peek at the hangars on my way to the engine room, and each of them contained a handful of round repair drones. I doubted they were capable of performing their work entirely autonomously, so if I ever did get additional pilots and their ships I'd probably have to get engineers for the hangars. Equally interesting was the classification field. Artemis obviously referred to the series the ship belonged to, while gunboat mothership was the role performed. But apparently ships also came with an RPG class. Perhaps ships that matched the RPG class of its pilot received additional bonuses?
But, all of this was in the future. For now, I needed a plan. And if there was one thing I knew, it's that combat capable folks were always in demand no matter what the local governments wanted to claim. And in the vastness of space, these fighters would be among the primary peacekeeping forces for any system. Large police and military fleets would be unwieldy and would only be capable of taking on larger criminal elements. Space being infested with pirates would be a safe assumption. Criminals were kind of like cockroaches, and trying to hunt their bases down without any sort of hints would be impossible.
As I was lost in my planning, the support AI came to life over the intercoms. “Alert: unidentified ships approaching this vessel. Ships are not broadcasting any IFF tags.” I wasted no time and made a mad dash towards the cockpit, my hooves pounding musically upon the hull and the thrill of potential combat already rushing through my veins. I took a moment to marvel at the fact that I was moving far faster than I ever remembered doing in my old life. I reached the cockpit in seconds, and wasn't even winded. I barely had time to throw myself into the pilot seat before the AI blared again.
“Warning: unidentified craft have brought weapons systems online and are scanning this ship.”
I danced my gaze across the controls available to me until I found the one that controlled the ship's generator output. I was operating under half-remembered tropes that dictated a ship's generator had multiple different levels it could run at. I raised mine to be battle-ready and felt the Yunikōn thrum under me. That Lunar Core certainly felt powerful.
A coarse voice crackled over short, wide range communications. “Well, lookie here. Ain’t never seen a ship like that one.”
I took a moment to observe the models of the other craft. They were all rather small, not even approaching the size of a standard corvette. These were just personal, small ships then, on the level of a frigate. There were ten of them in total, and they all looked distressingly shabby. Their plating was buckled in places. Their shields flickered constantly, and looked as though they wouldn't stop a handful of rocks let alone a high output laser. What weapons I could see left me wondering if they were even capable of being fired. I decided to at least be polite and offer a warning.
“My name is Celestia Nadir, ex-soldier. You get one warning. Do not attack me if you value your life.”
“Wowie, not only do we get a nearly fangless mothership to repurpose, we even get a woman to enjoy!”
“Not just any woman, boss!” A second voice chimed in. “Thermal signatures indicate she's a unicorn!”
“Ha! We'll be rolling in it after we sell her, boys! Now, Miss Unicorn, I would suggest you surrender quietly. Your point defense cannons aren't going to do more than tickle.”
For a brief moment, I considered letting them get close enough for the point defense cannons to shoot at them. Their shields did not look like they'd survive such a confrontation. In the end, I decided to play it safe in my new life. I flipped my Lunar Core from battle-ready to max all at once, then activated the weapon systems. A couple of screens showing a model of my ship revealed why the pirates had assumed the Yunikōn didn't have weapons: they were hidden. Panels slid back seamlessly, revealing the twenty-four weapon hardpoints loaded to bear. The Yunikōn might have been partially classified as a mothership designed to support smaller craft, but in reality it still a gunship carrier.
“Oh shi-” I didn't give the pirate a chance to finish his exclamation before my heavy pulse lasers completely obliterated his ship. My auto cannons punched holes into another ship that was slow to move, causing it to combust from within. In the span of seconds, the pirates were down two ships.
“Damnit, take her down!” The pirates fired their own lasers and I launched the Yunikōn’s side thrusters by pulling hard on the two control sticks on the armrests. The massive ship smoothly dodged to the right, racing far more swiftly than a ship of its size had any business moving. The incoming lasers went wide, and I retaliated by more precise laser fire. It was astonishingly easy to pilot the ship, and I had an inkling that it might be my high Perception at work. I kept strafing sideways, and as I did so I discovered the unique layout of my weapon hardpoints. I had eight hardpoints apiece on the starboard and port sides of the ship, with the final eight up top. Each weapon was staggered enough to prevent them from interfering with each other's firing arcs. This meant that I could aim the top weapons and the port weapons on my current flightpath, which was a full two-thirds of my total firepower. Each section of weapons consisted of five pulse laser batteries, two autocannons, and a railgun.
One pirate at least proved he wasn't entirely useless and managed to score a direct hit on Yunikōn's shields. I flinched slightly, but the laser dissipated harmlessly. The shields didn't even so much as flicker. I didn't know the overall power structure of weapons of the new universe I found myself in, but a faint tickling from my teenage years told me that the pirates were likely using Class I weapons. Powerful enough against their usual civilian prey, but against what appeared to be military grade hardware they were woefully inadequate. The pirate didn't even have time to realize that his laser fire had done nothing before he was reduced to atoms.
The two remaining pirates attempted to flee. Unfortunately for them, they did so in a straight line one after the other. I lined up the railguns and fired. The gunship shuddered for a moment before the stabilizers could compensate as the massive rounds left their barrels. They tore through the first pirate ship with plumes of flame as the generator failed. The second ship fared no better, getting cleaved in twain as the shoddy frame broke apart. And just like that, the battle was over.
I sagged against my harness as the adrenalin began to ebb away. All in all, I felt I had acquitted myself well. Piloting a spaceship was incomparably different compared to being a foot soldier, but with enough practice I was sure that I would be fine. I lowered generator output back to normal and surveyed the wreckage of the pirate ships. It looked like the carcasses could be salvaged for food and other goods, but I wasn't entirely sure how to go about the task. Maybe the terminal could provide additional info?
I fished the little device out of one of the pockets of my surprisingly sturdy pants. At some point I'd have to properly get dressed, only just now realizing I’d been topless ever since I awoke. In my defense though, a lot of stuff had been going on. The terminal proved to have a nifty little search function, in addition to entire libraries of downloaded information. Looks like I could research common knowledge without having to connect to whatever counted as the internet in this universe. I quickly typed in my query and discovered that all ships came with tiny drones specifically designed to comb through the wreckage of ships and asteroids.
With a few more taps on a console, I managed to find what I was looking for and send a small army of drones out to the destroyed craft. I scanned through a readout of the loot. Looks like some water, some alcohol, and something called a low quality food cassette. Obviously it was some sort of food, but cassette? Really? It sounded like I was going to plug it into some sort of music player instead of eating it. Among the loot was something called void alloy. Another search into the terminal revealed that it was a fairly uncommon metal alloy used in the construction of spaceship weapons and other subsystems; apparently it originated from star systems with a black hole, hence its name.
It sold for a tidy sum of credits and even though my terminal didn't explicitly say so I could read between the lines: in this universe, everything was handled electronically. No one actually carried credits on them because it was a digital currency. Digital currency left an easy to follow trail, so the fact that void alloy was a tangible good that could be sold for a good chunk of credits made it desirable for unscrupulous types who didn't want to be digitally tracked.
Still, it was good that I'd gotten my hands on something I could then sell. Owning an entire ship was likely a very costly expenditure, especially if it became damaged. Add in stuff like ammunition and basic maintenance and I was going to need plenty of credits. Among the spoils of my battle was what looked like some sort of data cube. It was black and oblong, and it had blended in with the darkness of space until the drones had come into contact with it. After studying its model on a screen, I concluded that it looked almost like a black box, like one you could find after an aviation or seafaring accident.
As soon as a drone carried it back, it seemed to just disappear. Almost immediately afterward, my ship's navigation chimed, alerting me to a new set of coordinates received. After studying the coordinates and the area around them, I concluded that they were pointing towards a pirate base. The coordinates were out in the middle of nowhere with nothing else of note nearby, while according to the terminal the nearest colony was roughly three days of faster-than-light travel away.
I tapped my chin in thought with a delicate finger. On one hand, I wasn't entirely sure the Yunikōn had enough firepower to deal with an entire pirate base. On the other hand, I could potentially earn more money. The terminal informed me that the pirates I had just destroyed had been tagged as killed by the mothership, which meant that I could go to a mercenary guild building on a colony that had one to collect their bounties. Those ten ships were worth 30,000 credits each, which meant I’d have 300,000 credits to my name once I collected their bounties. I had no real idea how much that was right now, as I had nothing to compare it to. Considering how little of a fight they had provided me, I figured that they had merely been small fry in the grand scheme of things.
More importantly right now, the notification about the bounties suggested that the Yunikōn and the terminal were connected in some way. A few taps later and I discovered this was true, as I could also turn the shields of the Yunikōn on while it was docked, preventing unauthorized access. There were also a myriad of other notifications about my ship that I could receive, including ammunition levels, food and water levels, and even movement detected in areas I could designate as off-limits if I ever had a reason to take civilians on board. My mind made up, I set the targeted destination to the possible pirate base. The ship took care of the rest, including the jump to FTL travel. The vessel hummed again as its Lunar Core shifted up to cruise output. The engine roared most gleefully as nearby stars began to turn into streaks of light. I paused for a moment to admire the phenomenon, understanding that I was currently traveling extremely fast.