I didn't stand in the cockpit for too long, however. The navigation systems would keep the ship on its course, which meant that I could explore the rest of the ship and perform some additional research on my terminal. The terminal’s schematics of the Yunikōn eventually led me to the captain’s quarters, located at the rear of the ship right above the engine room where the Lunar Core resided. The Yunikōn actually had two levels, with the top level entirely dedicated to living quarters. The bottom level consisted of the four hangars, the engine room, ammunition storage, and a mysterious chamber the schematics simply labeled “spell array”, whatever that meant. My terminal mentioned that many ships piloted by spellcasters possessed such a chamber, and the spell array was what allowed them to channel magic through their ships. With no real idea behind the magic I was supposed to have, I merely made a note of it and moved on.

There were actually enough rooms for maybe a hundred other crew members, not counting the captain, although I couldn't imagine all rooms to be in use at once. My own quarters were stupidly huge, dominated by an equally bafflingly large bed. Against one wall rested a mini armory of sorts, and it was here where I finally found more clothes in addition to various weapons and devices.

The bra I found was a simple sports bra, which caused me to let loose a sigh of relief. Standard bras were entirely too uncomfortable for any girl who was regularly active. I also selected a pair of cargo pants with many pockets to replace my leggings, and a lightweight blouse. What really caught my attention, however, was what appeared to be a choker with a gem embedded in it. The gem shone with its own light in a rainbow of colors just like my long hair, and the band seemed to be made of some sort of white, synthetic material. It captivated my attention like nothing else had since I’d woken up in this strange new life. I reached out with slightly trembling hands. The choker was fastened around my neck before I’d even noticed what was happening. For a moment, I admired the choker in the mirror off to the side.

Then there was a slight tingling in the horn on my forehead which quickly grew into a burning sensation as something seemed to drink from something deep inside me. I dropped to one knee and grunted in pain as the gem pulsed with an even brighter flare of colors. The next instant, I was covered in armor. It was stupidly svelte, clinging to me like a second skin. It was definitely some sort of armor, though, as evidenced by a pleasant sort of tinking sound as I rapped on the chestplate. It wasn't segmented, yet somehow gave me a ridiculous level of movement, almost as if I was wearing nothing at all.

The armor itself is white, the same shade as my skin, with pastel rainbow accents. It also had some sort of long, pale gray cloak attached at the back, and as crazy as it sounded the cloak seemed to be regulating my body temperature inside the armor. I should have started to feel slightly warm by now, but instead I was extremely comfortable and the cloak had almost imperceptible heat waves emanating off it as it shunted my body heat into the surrounding environment. Then the visor activated, flashing across my eyes from the left by a thin tendril of armor and leaving the rest of my head free. The only thing I could find to say after the heads up display activated was: “Oh. Here's the rest of my game stats.”

And honestly, I wasn't far off the mark. There was a bar for both my health and mana, although there were no actual numbers associated with them. My mana bar was far longer than the health bar, however, and I assumed it was due to my higher Willpower compared to Endurance. My mana was also reading at half empty, although it was regenerating at a surprisingly quick rate. I assumed that the uncomfortable feeling of having something sucked out of my horn was the armor’s doing. There was also a little reticle that followed my gaze around, although it was surprisingly unobtrusive. That would certainly prove useful in combat. Off to one side more information was listed, stuff like heart rate, atmospheric contamination, etc.

I once more took up my trusty terminal to see if it had any additional information. And sure enough, there was an entire new section that hadn't been there before.

Armor of the Unicorn Magus

This armor is as much a status symbol as it is a protective piece of equipment. When a unicorn first comes of age, they will spend up to an additional fifty years crafting the armor of their station. During this time period, unicorns are more vulnerable than at any other time during their long lives, as a unicorn with a completed armor set is exceedingly difficult to either kill or capture. Once they reach the appropriate age, unicorn adolescents will lose the magical protections preventing others from harming them they've had since birth, necessitating the creation of such armor. Slavers and exotic collectors are well aware of this pattern and as a result unicorns have been hunted to near extinction in spite of the punishments for enslaving a unicorn being extremely severe. A Unicorn Magus is one step down from Unicorn Royalty and is considered to be of similar rank to Duke within other empires. This armor belongs to Celestia Nadir.

Huh. So assuming that being a Summoner was some classification of Magi judging by how the armor was named, I was technically some form of nobility. I could already see how this could help me in the future. Being decently high on the society ladder should open up a few doors otherwise closed had I been just a grunt. I continued to read the manual on the armor. It didn't make me completely invincible in a universe full of lasers and monomolecular blades, but it did make me more resistant to them, likely dependent on their power classification.

If the ship exploded the explosion itself would likely kill me if I got caught in it, although if it didn't I could actually survive in the depths of space in the armor for a short time before it would eventually fail. The gem had apparently bonded itself to me when I had put it on, draining enough mana for it to do so. This basically meant the choker could never be lost or stolen, as it would just summon itself back to its user after moving a short distance away. I reached up to tap the rainbow gem, which I hadn't even initially noticed was still around my neck, and the armor retracted. It really was magic.

Not having the armor deployed now made me oddly feel naked, so I redeployed it again. If what my terminal told me was accurate, unicorns were quite literally unable to be harmed until a certain age, at which point they lost those protections. Enslaving a unicorn for its magic capability was something many unscrupulous types would literally kill for, so the armor creation was like a rite of passage ceremony designed to recapture at least some of those early year protections. This had me then wondering why unicorns didn't just start their armor early before they became so vulnerable. If they knew it was going to happen, it made sense to start the armor before reaching the threshold where they lost their invincibility. Perhaps there was something that prevented them from doing so? Thoughts for later, I decided.

What I really wanted to know is how the summons worked. Unfortunately my terminal had no real information outside the fact that Summoners were a type of mage who made pacts with other creatures in return for aid and power. I also had no idea how to even use magic, let alone if my body already subconsciously knew how to cast spells. Considering my terminal kept updating itself with relevant information, I assumed that I would eventually have more to study later.

The rest of the journey to that pirate base was spent trying to get used to my new body. I was far more lithe than I'd ever been as a human, and as a result my center of gravity was a bit off. The medical pod on the Yunikōn assured me that I was at an exceptional level of fitness and weight, but I still felt entirely too light on my hooves even when equipped with my armor and a full battle kit of laser rifle, laser pistol, and a monomolecular blade. This was likely the high Agility offering this benefit, but what was more surprising was how slowly I tired. With an Endurance of only D, I expected to become exhausted rather quickly.

However, since Endurance specifically said that it was a measure of how much damage I could take, I assumed that my overall stamina was an average of my total physical stats. Since I had fairly high numbers for two of the three physical stats, that would explain the almost boundless stamina I seemed to possess. I went to bed later almost eager to see what tomorrow would bring. And really, who could blame me? I had been reincarnated into a sci-fi universe full of stuff to do. It certainly beat being dead. The only thing that could bring me down was that Millie wasn't here to enjoy this, too. I could only hope that one day they would be reunited.

I woke up several hours later when Yunikōn's navigation alerted me that the ship had arrived near the coordinates. I felt extremely refreshed, even despite the fact that I had apparently been so excited I had fallen asleep with the armor on. Instead of being in pain, however, I felt great. This armor of mine was really something. Before I left my quarters, I decided to take a moment to properly arm myself. My terminal surprised me yet again because it also apparently functioned as some sort of bottomless bag.

I couldn't help but watch in fascination as my rifle, pistol, sword, and several spare energy packs all glowed with a violet light and disappeared. My terminal had yet another tab simply listed as “Inventory”, which showed everything I had stored. It was kind of clunky to remove stuff since I had to pull the terminal out and select what I wanted to remove. It prevented me from just swapping around weapons while in combat, but another feature of the armor was magnetic clasps specifically designed to hold the weapons. My laser rifle slotted into a clasp across my back, my pistol fit into a magnetic holster on her thigh, and the sword slid into a sheath at my hips.

I quickly made my way to the cockpit, kind of surprised that nothing was shooting at me yet. The reason for this quickly became apparent: navigation had dropped FTL right behind a large asteroid, of which there were several dotting the space around me. Since the coordinates I inputted had been an unknown location, the navigation system wasn't going to drop me within range of possible defenses. With a few twitches of the controls, I deftly maneuvered around the asteroid and discovered that the pirate base was a fair distance ahead.

Perhaps more worrying was the fact that there were no pirate vessels moving to intercept the Yunikōn. The ship wasn't exactly stealthy even when attempting to hide behind an asteroid, so the fact that the pirate base wasn't spewing out pirate ships suggested one of two things: the anticipated pirates were hiding behind asteroids of their own in small ships that my own sensors couldn't pick up, or the pirates were instead raiding somewhere else and the base was only going to be defended by turrets and a small garrison. I had no real idea which scenario was true, so the only thing I could do was proceed with caution.

But even as I got closer, no pirate ships jumped out to accost me. So it was starting to look like the second scenario might be true, which had me further scratching my head. Having multiple raiding parties out at once and leaving no ships to defend the base was just poor tactics all around. These pirates were being extremely careless, which suggested that they may have been terrorizing this sector of space for a while if the military hadn't located their base yet. They were overconfident being on a hollowed out asteroid in such a remote location compared to this star system’s primary colony. Even if local military fleets had the personnel to regularly conduct sweeps in seemingly empty sectors of space in an effort to locate pirate bases, those sweeps weren't likely to stretch to areas five days of FTL travel away; those efforts would instead be focused much closer to the colony.

Ultimately, the only thing I could do was press onwards. I was already here, after all, and if nothing else clearing out this pirate base would net me some more credits from bounties. Although… In an effort to be prepared for anything, I decided to use my terminal to designate a few areas of the Yunikōn as off-limits. Now that I had considered the thought, it was extremely likely that the pirate’s loot would be soon-to-be slaves. I wasn't exactly a bleeding heart by any stretch of the imagination, but saving a few folks from slavery would undoubtedly net me some more credits. It sounded harsh even to my own ears, but the Yunikōn was my lifeline right now. If I didn't have my ship due to damage or a lack of maintenance I would have no way of performing my duties as Artemis’s Champion.

I eased up on my forward momentum when the base finally got within the range of my weapons. There were a handful of what appeared to be automated laser turrets dotting the entrance to the crude hangar, but none of them had enough range to threaten a long range ship like the Yunikōn. I paused for a moment, considering my options. My pulse lasers would likely produce less noise when striking the turrets, possibly allowing me to dock and move throughout the base without potential pirates knowing I was here. Yet in the end, I was a woman who liked to make an entrance. To that end, I opened up with my autocannons. The kinetic artillery shelled the hostile turrets with a roar, and for a brief moment I wondered why I could hear them through something that had no medium through which sound waves could travel. There must be some sort of sensor or other technology in use that allowed me to hear the deep belch of my cannons.

The enemy laser turrets were destroyed in short order, and I wasted no further time, squeezing the Yunikōn into the woefully small hangar. And it truly was a squeeze. Sensors indicated that there were mere feet between the top of the hangar and the bulges created by the weapons after they had slid back behind their concealing panels. For a brief moment I panicked; I had no idea how to properly dock the ship, and even though I had slowed down as much as possible I was still going fast enough to cause serious damage to the Yunikōn if I ran into something. The next instant, however, put these fears to rest as the navigation’s autodocking feature kicked in, smoothly guiding the massive mothership into the docking clamps. Huh. That was handy.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I rushed to the airlock, as time was of importance. As the airlock cycled the pressure to match the interior of the hangar I double checked my gear. I decided on carrying the laser rifle to start with simply because it would have more stopping power and range. With a thought, the visor my armor provided morphed into a full face helmet. The helmet tingled a bit as it formed an opening that my horn jutted out from, hugging the appendage snuggly. That was going to take some time to get used to, and not for the first time since waking up I wished I could learn to cast magic with it. If the thing was going to insist on camping on my head it should at least start paying rent.

I stepped out onto the platform that slopes down to the hangar floor, the pale blue light from the hangar’s atmospheric shield casting a baleful glow on my white armor. For a brief moment as I looked behind me, I was in awe. The Yunikōn was just as impressive outside as it was inside. It was painted in deep violets with flicks of white outlines here and there, resembling the vastness of space and stars. I also discovered that the ship did have a prefix, for upon the ship’s side was emblazoned in white the words ALS Yunikōn. Judging by the theme of everything about the ship, the ALS likely stood for Artemis Lunar Ship. It had a nice ring to it, although considering the fact that there was such a prefix I had to wonder if it was possible to obtain more of these spaceships powered by a Lunar Core. It didn't really make sense to prefix the Yunikōn in such a way if there were no other ships to be obtained. But again, these were questions for later. For right now, I had a pirate base to raid.

***

Sophie de Casteinau certainly hadn't expected her life to go like this, even taking into consideration that her House was an old guard of the Imperium of Cevanti. In a galaxy who refused to forget the atrocities committed by the ancient Cevantian Scourge, the eldest daughter of the de Casteinau House was expected to remain silent and obedient so she could be married off to some other noble from a neighboring galactic neighbor in a political marriage that was supposed to bring the Imperium of Cevanti more respect while in reality not changing much. Her sisters were expected to do the same, as was every young noblewoman of the all female cevantian species. Sophie had been told her entire life this was all she would amount to. It was bad enough that the old civilizations had utilized powerful curse magic to ensure every cevantian was born female. But Sophie was expected to bring more into the world to further pay for the sins of their forefathers.

Everything had gone sideways with her life's expectations when the de Casteinau triplets ended up caught by pirates. Some well thought out sabotage had ensured that the de Casteinau fleet was crippled before the battle with space pirates had even begun. The triplets were supposed to have been on their way to a neighboring nation to meet potential suitors. Someone else had different plans, according to the pirates who had slaughtered the de Casteinau fleet. They were to be sold to some human nobleman who wanted some pets that resembled angels from ancient human mythology for his exotic collection. Infuriatingly, the pirates were very careful to never mention his name. Once the sale went through, it was very unlikely the sisters would be able to escape his grasp. He would outfit them with slave collars, make them enjoy what he turned them into, and that would be the end of it.

Antonietta and Edelguard huddled up to their sister on either side, their pure white wings and golden halos creating a dazzling background. Even despite the grime that streaked their skin, all three were visions of loveliness with silky smooth skin, piercing green eyes, and golden locks. It was impossible to tell the three apart usually, so they had taken to wearing different colored ribbons through their hair. Sophia sported lavender, Antonietta’s were a pale blue, and Edelguard favored a pale pink. Their dresses and dowries had long since been confiscated, likely to be sold by the pirates after being sold into slavery. Instead, the triplets were dressed in little more than a cloth sack that reached down to their knees and little else. They were huddled together with several others waiting to be sold; some humans, a couple of kitsune, and even a siren of all things. They had all been brought in at the same time, and it had already been a few months. Everyone knew that they were already slaves, even if by some miracle they were rescued.

Sophia's ears suddenly picked up new sounds. There was a commotion outside the room they were being held in, and it was growing closer. It sounded like laser fire and panicked, shouted orders. Sophia had been in this cell for too long to hold out any hope for this to be a liberation. It was likely that the nobleman planning to buy the sisters had decided to not play nice with pirates. Their jailors abandoned their card game to scrabble for weapons. One of them, an absolute unit of a human, scrambled into the rusted frame of a heavy power armor suit. It stood twelve feet tall, and even despite the obvious lack of maintenance it could still crush anyone under a single foot. The other pirates rushed up onto the cat walks on the edges of the warehouse turned jail cell, weapons pointed towards the opening.

Sophia had a couple of expectations on what would come through the entrance to the jail. The mysterious nobleman’s private army, perhaps, planning to claim the triplets without paying the pirates who'd kidnapped them. Maybe another band of pirates had gotten wind of the massive amount of riches tucked away by the kidnappers, and they were securing the base and spoils for themselves. What the young cevanti didn't expect was a fucking (pardon her crass language) Unicorn Magus to come barreling into the chamber. And for a moment, everything stilled at her entrance. Obviously the most glaring way of realizing the stranger was a unicorn was her stupidly sharp horn jutting from her forehead. Traces of blood spotted its length, suggesting that at least one pirate had been gored by the appendage.

The second thing to catch the eye was that white armor. Unicorn armor was extremely distinct, and even though Sophia didn't have magical senses as fine as what Antonietta possessed, the armor was emitting so much magic it was almost able to be tasted. The unicorn’s long, white on pink hair and tail was absolutely mesmerizing. Unicorns generally had hair that grew lighter the more powerful they became, so the fact that this one had the brightest coloration she had ever seen spoke of a high level of magic.

Time seemed to suddenly return to its normal flow, and as it did Sophia caught the gaze of the Magus. Her eyes were a piercing, glowing blue behind her helmet’s transparent visor, and that single gaze made her feel as though the unicorn understood every single hardship and insecurity the angel woman had gone through in her rather short life. The pirate in the heavy power suit couldn’t bring one of his lasers to bear on such a close target, so the thug swung one of his metal arms at the newcomer with a grunt of exertion.

Sophia gasped in horror, sure that she would see the unicorn splattered all over the walls. What actually happened almost defied belief. The unicorn caught the impossibly heavy limb. With just her bare hand connected to a dainty limb, the one not clutching the laser rifle’s receiver. Steam hissed from the joints in the suit as the pirate attempted to push through the resistance and crush the interloper through brute strength. Yet despite his efforts, his arm refused to move any further. “Damnit! Kill her already!”

A storm of laser fire answered his call, and even despite the red flashes of light it was all too easy to see that there was no visible effect upon the unicorn’s armor. Then the unicorn spoke, and her voice sounded amused. “Hey now. Y’all are scuffing my armor. That’s not very nice.” Edelguard giggled despite herself, and the newcomer flashed the prisoners a grin. Then she promptly raised her laser rifle in one hand and started firing back; the beams of light were blue, and Sophie could only raise her eyebrows at the use of a Class III weapon.

The unicorn’s shots didn’t miss. One-by-one, she dispatched the fifteen or so pirates that continued to shoot at her despite the lower output lasers obviously having little noticeable effect. And she did all of this while still holding up the arm of the heavy combat suit. The pirate in the suit finally found his brain and attempted to back away to drag the unicorn off balance. With a resounding shriek of metal, however, one of the legs of the suit failed. This resulted in the Magus practically holding the combat suit up by its arm she still had in her grasp.

The pirate within tried a last bit of desperate threatening as the last of his comrades fell. “You have no idea who you're messing with. Our benefactor will find you, and they'll kill you.” He swung his other arm around, trying to use his hand to grip at the unicorn's hair. The look on his face was priceless as his hand went right through the magical strands.

The Unicorn Magus turned her head to look directly into his eyes. “Kid, I've been doing this for longer than you've been alive. If your benefactor is going to insist on getting in my way, I'll kill him like the animal he is.”

Before he had a chance to say anything else, the unicorn slung her rifle across her back, grabbed her pistol in the same smooth motion, and put a laser shot right in between his eyes. Casually, as if the weight of the combat armor was a mere afterthought, she tossed it aside where it crashed into the ground. She then stretched with a dainty little yawn, and the way her lithe body was displayed in that moment made Sophia feel things she'd never expected to feel towards anyone. After resecuring her pistol to its holster the unicorn approached the sturdy bars of the cell. Once more, Sophia had the distinct impression that those beautiful eyes were observing her straight to her soul. “Well, what do we have here? A few cevanti, a handful of humans, a couple of kitsune, and even a siren. I certainly wasn't expecting this when I decided to raid the base.”

“Please, miss. Will you get us out of here?” Edelguard attempted to appear as fearless as possible in the face of a being that could kill them with but a thought.

The unicorn let out a musical laugh. “Hey, gorgeous, don't call me miss. Makes me feel old. Name’s Celestia. Celestia Nadir, I suppose, if you're getting fancy. I won't bite. While I didn't really expect to find a bunch of civvies here, I can't just leave you to fend for yourselves. It's not like my ship doesn't have the room at the moment.”

As she spoke, the Magus’ helmet collapsed down to her neck, leaving only a thin visor across her eyes. She was devastatingly beautiful, and Sophia faintly wondered what a being such as her was doing raiding a pirate base. The unicorn studied the digital lock holding the cell closed. “Huh. I don't have the time nor the inclination to hack this, so time to bust out the old reliable.” Saying thus, their savior unsheathed her blade. It was certainly a fine weapon, if a bit plain, and its monomolecular edge promptly made short work of the bars of the cell.

“Um… thank you.” Sophia stammered with a blush dusting her fair cheeks. Gods, why did this woman make her so tongue-tied?

Celestia flashed a half-smirk at the cevanti. “You're welcome, cutie. Now, can you guys walk under your own power?”

There were a few noises of assent. The pirates had at least kept them fed and watered. “I think so,” Sophia said, speaking for the whole group.

“Good. So, here's how it's going to go down. I'm going to leave your hands manacled together. While I'm sure you could loot the pirates for a few weapons for self defense, I'd rather not have one of you get shot in the back by some unsalted civilian. Getting shot in the back isn't likely to do much to me, but it's a different story for the rest of you. While I cleared out any pirates I encountered along the way here, it's possible there's still a few hiding out somewhere.”

This sounded fairly reasonable to Sophia, but she did have something to add. “Please, if it's possible could we try to find where the pirates were stashing their loot? Many of us have personal objects we would like to reclaim, including the dowries of us three sisters. Those are yours if you can find them.”

Sophia was a burning red as she finished her sentence. Gods, what was she even thinking? Offering those dowries was basically the same as proposing to this mysterious unicorn! Celestia didn't seem to pick up on this, however, and fell silent as she thought. Her sisters likewise didn't offer any protests, and Sophia wondered where this unicorn was from if she didn't realize what offering those dowries to her meant. After a moment of quiet deliberation, Celestia agreed.

“I originally set out to this base to see if the pirates had anything worth taking from them. Stay a short distance behind me and stay alert. If I present myself as the first target, the chances of you guys surviving will be higher.”

Without waiting for an answer, the unicorn re-engaged her full helmet and began trotting off at a steady pace. Her hooves tapped out a constant beat, and Sophia found the sound rather soothing. The rescues followed after their savior in a ragtag group. Sophia definitely noticed that Celestia certainly moved like a soldier would. Her posture was loose yet alert, sweeping her rifle from side to side whenever they encountered a side room. “I already cleared those rooms on the way down this direction,” she explained. “But can’t really be too careful in an enemy base. Their spoils are likely going to be in the opposite direction I took after arrival.”

After passing the corridor that led towards the hanger, the party soon came upon a right hand turn. Celestia raised a hand in a wait gesture, then whipped out a terminal from its holster opposite her pistol. Its screen was dark as it was in sleep mode, and Celestia cautiously slipped a tiny portion of the screen around the corner, angling it towards her. Sophia realized that she was using the dark, reflective screen to check out what was behind this ninety degree turn. It was really ingenious, as inside the asteroid she wouldn't have a ship and its sensors above feeding in tactical data. This cemented the fact that the Unicorn Magus had likely spent most of her life in some form of combat like she had told the pirate in the heavy suit.

“Looks clear,” she announced. “There's another warehouse up ahead, with few adequate hiding spots for an ambush. Let's get this done and get off this miserable rock.”