CHAPTER ONE

ANGELA

The Fallen

There are only six Lattice’s. This is a well-known fact among the islands. But why did the Progenitors gift us with only six? Why not five? Why not Seven? The answer to this question has innumerable answers, the most common among them being that 6 is something of an important number to the Progenitors. 6 Races, 6 true Mist-Eyes, 6 Islands, 6 obelisks. Another point of proof to the theory will require me to dabble in the slightest bit of Lattice Science. Firstly, is the fact that the 6 lattices are easily broken down into three groups of two as follows.

Transmission (1)

Transition (2)

Translation (3)

Projection (1)

Pair

Shield

Charge

Internal (2)

Signal

Lift

Heat

Secondly, each of the groups can also easily be separated into internal or external. As in whether or not the lattice’s effect is projected outside the lattice, or entirely contained within. This proves at the very least, that the lattice table is filled out, and no more groups exist.

While some would see all of this as mere conjecture, I raise you the last sentence on the first obelisk. Carved there by the very progenitors themselves.

“The Six shall bring civilization back from the brink, and restore the former glory of True Humanity.”

This simple sentence is what prompted the first Tinker to construct the first Airship and begin the hunt for the Lattices, and what prompted Augustus Solar to declare the hunt ended after the Paired lattice was found. Because there are only six Lattices. And that is all that there ever will be.

-A History of the Six Islands, Fourth Edition. Chapter One: The Lattice.

---

Angela woke to the screaming of the mist alarm. The alarm was terrifying, a high-pitched pulsating wail that was designed to instill fear and panic into the minds of the uninitiated. To the sailor, it was not the alarm itself that instilled the fear, but what the alarm meant. Angela pushed aside her rack curtain and swung out of her bunk. The small room was filled with people scrambling to get their mist suits on as quickly as possible. She reached for her own and started pulling it on. A frantic minute passed, her hands doing up the seals and clasps near automatically after years of practice. She turned to her neighbor and started checking on their seals and clasps. She felt someone patting her own. It was reassuring to have someone to check and once it was done, her heart rate eased considerably. They at least had some protection against the mist now. She spent some time strapping her sheathed halfblade to her belt and strode out the door.

On the speakers mounted to the overhead in various places, she heard the muffled voice of the ship’s Executive officer. “Major Incursion, Major Incursion in the number five chiller room. The ship is sealed and manned for mist incursion. Time: 1 minute, forty-five seconds.”

Upon hearing that last part, Angela relaxed. She allowed her breathing to slow as she sheathed her blade that had appeared in her hand at some point. The ship was awake now. Angela could hear the muffled thumps of her officers getting dressed. Annoyingly, she wasn’t the first one out. The Navigator was across the hall, emerging from her own bunkroom.

The Navigator nodded, strapping her blade to her belt.

“Captain.”

Angela nodded in kind and they both began walking away from the officer battle bunkrooms.  The metal passageways of the ship were small, barely big enough for two people to pass shoulder to shoulder. Various pipes and electrical cables ran through the ceiling and walls. They went up one steep staircase and turned left. To the uninitiated, most ships were an insane warren of passageways and pipes. They often had to get escorted or risked becoming lost in one of the bilges somewhere. By contrast, a sailor could navigate their ship practically blindfolded. After passing through a mist-tight door, they arrived at the passageway to the ships forward Bastion. It was located in the center of the ship, well protected against any stray railgun rounds that made it past the shields.  Back in the day, the Bastion had been a place where sailors could relax and take off their breathing protection while traversing the mist. But over time as technology evolved, shipbuilders started designing ships with all compartments sealed against the mist.  Now the Bastion was the nerve center of the entire ship where most of the ship's functions were controlled. Set into the bulkhead at the end of the corridor was a massive metal hatch, easily 3 meters wide.  Situated on the bulkhead above the door was a steel placard.

The placard contained an image that was scribed into the bare metal by a deft hand. It depicted a grey and blue bird of legend, wings spread, flying up into the sky. Four bright trails of white fire followed after it. Below it was the ship’s name.

LTS Phoenix.

Under the name, the ship's motto had been carved with the tip of something very hot, and very sharp. The letters had been rubbed with a type of blue glowstone that made them vibrant against the bare metal of the placard.

 “Ashes to Embers, Embers to Flame.”

 Angela walked up to the hatch and pressed the intercom button mounted on the bulkhead next to it.

“Captain and the Navigator, requesting entry into the Prime Bastion.”

There was a ratcheting click, and the door started to ponderously swing open. Angela quite liked how thick the door was, one and a half meters thick. She shuffled through the door, bending herself almost in half to fit, and stood up on the other side.  The room was relatively small and entirely packed with equipment and people. It was a tiered stadium design, each subsequent tier having consoles that controlled different aspects of the ship's systems. At the front of a room was a massive VFD panel that displayed various information about the ship. The most important being the damage control board and engine room status. Dominating the center of the vertical panel was the Oculus a giant glass sphere that assisted with navigation and reference in the mist.

The lowest tier was the engineering tier, and the officers there controlled the ships steam powered generators, electric systems, trim, list, and the all-important Lift

The second tier contained the pilot's chair, directly in the center. On either side were sensors and weapons consoles. The upper tier contained the Conn, a raised circular section ringed with a railing with the commander's chair in the back. The chair was positioned to see most of the consoles and the Oculus easily. On the port and starboard of the conn were the Damage control console and the communication console respectively.

Behind each Console sat one or several members of her crew. They were the most senior on board, and well-equipped to handle nearly any circumstance the ship could throw at them. She knew them all by name, but in this room, names were secondary. The position of the person sitting in the chair was primary.

As Angela walked up the stairs on the starboard side of the room, she nodded to the officers she saw. Most of them were focused on their panels, but a few gave respectful nods. The Navigator walked to the sensor panel and sat down behind the operator. Angela reached the third tier and spotted her Executive officer, Davon. He was a tall man, and incredibly broad. His hands were gigantic. Easily twice the size of hers. His mask hid a short beard and braided hair. He spoke with a thick, gruff voice that occasionally dipped into the growl territory. Angela knew him enough to see the smile in his eyes behind his mask.

“Aye Captain, nice of you to join us.” He said, touching his brow in the approximation of a salute.

“Davon, When I said you could run drills anytime you wanted, I didn’t mean while I was asleep,” Angela said gruffly, walking over to his chair and crossing her arms.

Davon waved one massive, gloved hand. “Bah, anytime is a good time for drills.”

Angela smiled under her mask. “Just tell me next time”

“Aye, captain.” Davon stood from the chair and stretched, his head nearly touching the ceiling of the room, despite it being two and a quarter meters tall.

Angela walked up to the chair and sat down in it. She glanced over the different panels that showed her the condition of her ship.

Angela turned to her XO and saluted. “I relieve you. I have the Conn”

Davon saluted back, correctly this time, “Aye Captain. I stand relieved. You have the Conn.” He turned and walked down the steps. He was heading to the Secondary bastion, where he would take command if the Prime bastion was ever compromised for any reason.

“Comms, the captain has the Conn.” Angela called over her shoulder. The Communication nodded and grabbed a thick well-worn book from its holder. He opened it to a page and began carefully writing inside.

“Carry on,” Angela said.

The Controllers responded with a chorus of “Carry on aye” The room quickly filled with low-level murmurs as the officers under her command resumed talking quietly into their headsets.

 Angela turned toward the damage control board mounted on the forward bulkhead, directly above the Oculus. The panel displayed a drawn-out representation of her entire ship. Each of the many compartments on the ship was represented here. There were lights at the center of each compartment that indicated its status as well as a pressure gauge beside the light. Most of the lights were green, which meant that nothing was abnormal. One light, located in one of their chiller rooms, was white. It was a sight that sent an involuntary shudder through Angela. Even though it was a drill, the idea of mist getting into her ship was uncomfortable to say the least.

“Damage control, report status of the casualty,” Angela said, her voice falling into the tenor of command easily.

“Aye Ma’m. The Incursion has stopped. The emitters are on service, no signal leakage reported. There were no casualties. There was no damage to equipment. The incursion was from the port radiator hull valve. A repair plan is being conducted”

Angela nodded, approving. “How long until the compartment is safe?”

“Approximately 8 minutes.”

“Very well.” Angela said.

“Do I have an unlimited bell?” She directed this last question to the Pilot, situated directly in front and below her. The pilot himself was seemingly lounging, his hands lazily resting on his controls.

“The engine rooms are ready to answer all bells.” The Pilot said.

Angela considered performing a few rapid maneuver drills but decided against it. They were hunting, if they went to flank, there was a good chance that they would be seen by someone.

“Conn, Red contact! Bearing 300 Mark 23, range 52 miles! Designate Romeo Alfa!” The Sensor console belted out.

Angela turned to the Oculus. In the old days, navigation had been a lot harder. Representing a three-dimensional battlefield on a two-dimensional map was very difficult. The Oculus solved this problem using a glass sphere filled with transparent lights. When a ship was detected, the signal would automatically go to the calculators in the forward part of the bastion.  Eron’s machines would do whatever black magic they did, and a light would flicker into existence inside her Oculus. This light showed the approximate position of the contact relative to the Phoenix.  It allowed Angela to keep track of all the ships around the Phoenix and their relative positions and bearings with a glance, instead of wasting time trying to decipher maps.

The Oculus previously only contained a blue dot at the center that represented the Phoenix. It now showed a faint red cloud at the very edge of the sphere, slightly to the starboard side and up of where the Phoenix was pointing. Not quite blocking their path, but close.

The ship was leaking heat from somewhere. That’s how they had found it so far out. Angela scoffed. The idiots were trying to be stealthy with a leaky ship this deep into the mist.

“Sensors, Get the scope on it”

“Already done cap’n” The sensors console said. The man was intensely focused on his screens, and adjusting dials rapidly.

“Can they see us?” Angela asked, watching the contact closely.

The sensor officer shook his head. “Not a chance, Not unless they got a high-powered scope on that bucket and knew exactly where we are” He never took his eyes off of his panel.

“Pilot, All stop.” Angela said. “Secure from the drill. Weapons, Prepare a targeting solution on all targets.”

“Aye” The officers responded. The pilot brought the throttle lever to stop, and the quiet humming of the engines slowly wound down. On the Damage control board, the white light flickered back to green.

They couldn’t physically see the other ship from this distance. Not while this deep in the Mist. It was only in the upper layer of the mist that sight became a factor in ship-to-ship engagement. Most civilian ships preferred to stay up there, where they could see a pirate raid coming. But It was cheaper to fly deeper, where the lift lattices didn’t require as much heat. And if the civilian ships couldn’t see the pirates, the pirates usually couldn’t see the civilian ships either. Usually. The Phoenix was far from the nearest major shipping lane, so Angela had even odds on this contact being a pirate, cargo ship, or patrol vessel.

The seconds passed slowly. As it grew closer, the previously indistinct cloud grew more defined. It was clearly a ship, though it was moving slowly.

“Conn, Weapons reports they have a firing solution.”

Angela turned to the weapon’s console.

“Time?” She asked.

The weapons officer grinned “1 minute, thirty seconds.”

Angela nodded her head approvingly. Eron’s Machines and her crew’s sheer skill made an impressive combination.

“Conn, red contact! Bearing 300 Mark 23, range 45 Kilometers! Designate Romeo Bravo.”

The new contact was slightly behind and below Romeo Alfa, but moving at the same speed. It was probably the merchant that the leaky warship was trying to protect.

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“Scope, do we have a designation on Romeo Alfa yet?”

The sensor officer shook his head. “Not yet Ma’m, it's still too far.”

“XO, what do you think?” Angela said to the empty air.

Out of the speakers mounted to the railing of the ring, the XO's gruff voice responded.

“Looks like a merchant and its escort, though why they would be this far down is a mystery to me”

Angela nodded. Merchants were built to use their heavy weight to go incredibly quickly, far quicker than any pirate ship could hope to match. For a merchant to be this far down, and moving this slowly, either something was broken, or the merchant was trying to hide illicit activities. Either way, the Phoenix would respond. The nature of the response would depend on a variety of factors.

“XO, how about we see if we can render assistance?”

Angela could hear the grin.

“I think that’s a great idea, Captain.”

Angela grinned herself and strapped into her chair. She manipulated controls on her chair, and the Oculus rotated around so she could better see the tactical picture.

“Pilot, All Ahead one third, come right 5 degrees rudder, steady course 047. Quartermaster, sound general quarters. Navigation, calculate a reciprocal course ending five kilometers behind Romeo Bravo. Weapons, load a firing solution on both targets. Keep it constantly updated as we change position. Damage control, set condition one throughout the ship upon muster confirmation.”

The ship’s alarm bell began to ring. All over the ship, sailors rushed to their battle stations. Masks, which had just been put away, were taken out and re-donned. After receiving confirmation that all compartments had breathing protection on, the DC officer turned a red dial to the left. Vents all over the ship opened and air rushed into them. Angela’s ears popped as the ship was rapidly depressurized. On the DC board, the air pressure gauges lowered steadily as all the air was pumped out.

The ship tilted up and steadily began increasing speed. Their hull was cold and when metal got cold, it got brittle. If they actually got into a fight, they would be at a heavy disadvantage. But if the Phoenix heated up, it would reveal their location. Better to get behind the target first.

Slowly, the ballet played out. The two ships ambled along, none the wiser that a predator had begun the hunt.

When gages at the DC board reached the lower red markings, the damage control officer turned the red dial back to the right and turned a black dial to the left. Nitrogen rushed into the ship, filling the void that oxygen had filled only moments before. The ship was pressurized above normal atmospheric pressure, and once the dials on the DC board had all reached the upper red marks, the DC officer stopped the flow of nitrogen.

As they drew closer, the dots on the Oculus grew to resemble the outline of a ship instead of an indistinct blob. Romeo Alfa was the classic flattened prism warship design. The very top and bottom of it were flat, while the sides slanted to form a sharp point. The front and back also slanted down to form a singular point on the bow. Viewed from above or the side, the ship would resemble a short rectangle that narrowed to long points on either end. Angela could also make out several railgun turrets festooned to its hull on the flat portions of the deck. The ship was leaking heat from various spots. Mostly from the propeller seals. Romeo Bravo was the standard merchant design, teardrop shaped, with massive engine pods on the back that were capable of moving the ship at speeds that the Phoenix probably couldn’t match.

The ships were trying to be stealthy, but they were doing a terrible job at it. They simply weren’t designed to be this deep in the mist. While their hulls were cold, they still radiated a small amount of heat into the mist, undoubtedly created by their engines and other support systems. Mist naturally concentrated near any heat source, and as mist concentrated, it gave off a signal that could be detected by the aptly named Signal Lattice. The greater the temperature, the greater the signal, and the greater the distance at which the ship could be detected. The two ships were essentially trying to sneak through a darkened alleyway, entirely forgetting they were wearing fluorescent vests with blinking neon signs attached.

The Phoenix didn’t have that problem. Her hull was actively cooled just at mist temperature. While this was exquisitely expensive, it provided the incredible benefit of rendering the Phoenix virtually undetectable to their Signal Lattices. A black wolf in a darkened night, invisible to all but the keenest of senses. And Angela had just found her some rather blind sheep.

“Conn, I have a designation on Enemy contacts.” The Sensors officer said.

Angela nodded appreciatively. “Report”

“Aye Captain. Romeo Alfa is a modified Eagle class corvette; Modifications include an extra railgun turret and two class Bravo missile pods. The railgun turrets are the standard fifty millimeter, the missiles are class Alpha. Romeo Bravo is a standard Cortez class merchant. No weaponry.”

The Eagle class was an old, but survivable design. They could be found everywhere, from island police patrols to pirate enclaves. Angela rated its chances against the Phoenix as slightly better than a fly’s chance against a flyswatter.

While they were talking, the sensors officer suddenly leaned forward and rapidly began to adjust dials with his hand to the headphones on his ear. After a moment, he cocked his head and leaned back.

“Captain- Uh. Conn, Reporting a gain and loss of a contact. Bearing 340 mark 1 range 6 kilometers. I put my scope right on the location, but I was unable to identify what it was. Possible spurious signal.”

Angela furrowed her brow. This close, the Scope would have been able to see a gnat in flight. It was most likely an anomaly or something that the merchant did to stir up the mist.

“Keep an eye on it, Report anything unusual.”

“Aye Aye.”

“Weapons, Standby all mounts and tubes. Give me a lock with the spinal on Romeo Alfa.” Angela ordered.

As the crew began working, the Sensor officer said “Conn, I have a reading on their lift Lattices. Romeo Alfa reads one twenty with 4 Lattices while Romeo Bravo reads one eighty with 6.”

Angela’s eyebrows rose.

With that small a number of Lift Lattices and a reading of that large, both ships were dangerously close to the Shatter point. If they went any deeper there was a good chance that they would have a Surge and break one of the Lattices. And unless they dumped ballast, the ship would go down. It looked like this particular convoy was willing to take the risk of running heavy close to the lower layer in order to hide.

The Phoenix took up station about 5 kilometers behind Romeo Alfa. They were directly behind it, and neither of the targets still showed any sign that they had detected the Phoenix.

“Conn, I have a lock with the spinal. Missiles are loaded.” The weapons officer reported.

Angela nodded. She turned to her communication officer. “Comms, broadcast the following. Attention Eagle class Corvette and Cortez class merchant, This is the Privateer LTS Phoenix. Identify yourselves and state your flag. We have you locked in. Do not attempt to mauver rapidly or you will be fired upon. End message.”

Davon chuckled from the Secondary bastion. “A little antagonistic there Captain”

Angela scoffed. “Well someone woke me up without my coffee today, so I have the right to be a little antagonistic.”

She thought for a moment and then internally shrugged.  “Weapons, charge all railguns. Heat the hull and charge the armor. Raise all shields, set to low ripple. Might as well show we mean business.”

The weapons officer seemed happy finally getting to do something. “Aye Captain!”

The shields would take several minutes to come up to full strength, as would the armor. But once they were, the Phoenix would be very hard to kill.

The two ships didn’t change their heading at all, merely kept moving slowly forward. About a minute after their message, the ships replied. The comms officer read out the message, “LMS Phoenix, This is the merchant ship Varinski, and its escorting corvette Arenana. We hail from Centauri, and are heading back after a successful trading mission in Solar. Transmitting transponder code to Centauri Tower now. Please do not shoot.”

Angela frowned. The name Varinski stirred something somewhere deep in her mind. But she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Davon, does Varinski ring any bells?” She said into her helmet mic.

“Aye, it does, but I canna put my finger on what bell exactly. Give me a second.” There was a rustling of paper as he started leafing through a book.

“Conn, I have confirmation from Centauri, the code checks out.” The comms officer said.

Angela’s frown deepened. Something about this whole scenario seemed off. The merchant trying to be stealthy, the leaky corvette, the lack of reaction at their proclamation. Something was screaming at her, but for the life of her couldn’t quite figure it out.

“Pilot, all stop. Sensors, give me a general sweep of the area, and prepare for an active pulse. Weapons, standby to fire.”

Both officers nodded. The quiet humming of the engines slowly wound down, and the ship became oddly quiet. The only sound was the clicking of gears from the calculators and the background whirring of fans.

Davon exclaimed suddenly. “There it is! It was in the papers from a week ago. The Cortez class cargo ship Varinski failed to show up to port on time. It says here that they’ve been trying to raise them on comms for days now. It's odd though. The papers donna mention anything about an escort.” Angela could almost hear the raised eyebrows. “The owners have put a bounty out on her, but it's incredibly small. Barely ten thousand drams. Ships easily worth a hundred times that.”

Angela blanched. “Why would they-”

The Spurious signal.

They didn’t care about the Phoenix because-

Angela shot upright in her chair, the belts holding her in place.

“Sensors! Active pulse! NOW!”

The sensors officer hit the red button instantly, without hesitating. The Phoenix’s deep horn blasted out a single note at incredible volume. The Oculus went red as the sound wave propagated outward. Angela watched the wave closely, waiting for-

“Red Contact! Bearing 090 mark 0 Range 4 kilometers! Designate Romeo Charlie!”

Angela’s stomach dropped through the floor. Fat merchant, leaky escort, a third ship, hiding in the mist. The perfect trap.

“It's charging railguns and raising shields!”

“EMERGENCY DROP! All ahead flank! Right Full rudder!” Angela roared.

The Phoenix dropped from the sky as the lift officer put his fist on the red button in the middle of his panel. Angela’s stomach went into her throat and her body pressed against the straps holding her down. Somewhere, something clattered as it fell out of a holding rack. The Pilot furiously manipulated his controls, and the ship began to ponderously turn. Romeo Charlie fired its railguns. The three slugs traveled incredibly fast, and were visible on the Oculus as streaks of red arrowing toward their ship, looking to tear out its insides.

But the Phoenix had dropped in time. Two of the slugs flew past the ventral deck of her ship with barely three meters of clearance, but the last one glanced off the sloped composite armor there with a shower of molten sparks and the screech of tortured metal. The entire ship shook with the impact, ringing like a giant gong. The slug spun off into the mist, trailing heat.

“Impact!” Damage control said, clearly relieved. “No hull breaches! All systems remain at full capacity!”

Nothing was broken, nothing was shattered. Angela allowed herself to breathe.

Angela looked at the forward status board. Shields were still coming up, at least another minute until they reached full effectiveness.

“Pilot, Nose on Charlie! All up neutral!”

The pilot hauled on the control stick and the ship began to tilt upwards.

“Firing again!”

This time, the railgun shots were much better aimed. The first round missed only slightly, the second and third rounds both impacted the shields. The rounds broke apart, spreading their deadly energy in a cone of shrapnel that clattered on the hull like so much steel rain. Though weakened, the shields were performing as designed, taking the majority of the kinetic energy out of the slug and breaking it into fragments where it could impact the hull as a weakened cone rather than a single solid projectile. It was very nearly enough. The entire ship shook as the slug penetrated into the inner armor.

“Multiple impacts! Hull breach at Frame 110 deck two! Performing damage assessment!”

“Steam rupture in the Number two engine room!”

“Two alpha turbine tripped! Lift array two is cross-connected bravo supplying!”

“Breach is sealed, No mist incursion detected.”

The reports came in. Angela’s eyes flicked to the DC board. Several of the lights had turned red, and the pressure across the ship was falling. No white lights yet. She eyed her targeting panel. Almost there.

“Nose on Romeo Charlie” The Pilot reported calmly.

“Fire the Spinal” Angela said, a note of finality in her voice.

The weapons officer twitched his finger, which had been lying on the trigger for their massive meter-bore spinal mount railgun for the entire engagement. The entire ship jolted backward. The sound of a lightning strike heard from a few meters away came from directly below her as the gigantic weapon accelerated a four-ton tungsten slug from a resting state to Mach sixteen in an incredibly short amount of time.

A tiny hole in the frontal shields opened and the round shot out, much faster than the enemy slugs. Romeo two was directly facing them now, and warming up its railguns for another volley. The two-meter-long slug blew through the enemy’s shields and impacted the ship directly on the nose.

A ship’s armor was designed to take the impact of a railgun round and spread it out, lessening the penetration. The armor of the enemy ship was too cold, and the slug too powerful, for the armor to accomplish this task correctly. Instead, the entire outer hull of the enemy ship reached its brittle fracture point and shattered like so many panes of glass. Thousands of metal shards were ejected out at terrifying velocities. What was left of the ship was hollowed out by the railgun round, still traveling well over ten times the speed of sound. The ship still had oxygen inside it, and the compression wave blew apart compartments and started fires. The twisted wreck fell out of the sky like a stone, barely recognizable as a ship that had once held humans safely in its hull. One of its lift arrays, liberated from the ship from the incredible energies at play, shot up into the mist as it exhausted the remainder of its heat energy. When it reached its apex, the Lift Lattice inside shattered. The entire array exploded with the force of a tremendous bomb, sending fragments clattering against the Phoenix’s hull. The shattered pieces of the array joined what had been a ship falling into the dark.

“Shields High Ripple! All mounts, Hold fire!” Angela said, scanning the Oculus for the other two ships. The merchant ship was running. All eight of its massive engines were heated up and pushing the ship along slowly. It would take a while for it to get up to speed. The Eagle class had fully turned around now and was bearing down on them at an angle, aiming to gain the high ground. All three of its railgun turrets were aimed and charging. Its shields were fully up, though they were also set to ripple. What was a fly had become the flyswatter.

Or at least, that was what they were thinking. Its railguns fired, a measly four-shot volley that streaked across the distance in a second. The rounds impacted the Phoenix’s full power shields and were turned to shrapnel. Angela barely felt the shudder as they impacted the hull.

“Impact! No damage!”

Angela nodded once. The shields would hold now.

“Pilot, Full mount firing angle ten starboard. Target is Romeo Alfa. Execute.”

The pilot pushed the rudder pedals with his feet, and the ship slowly swung to the side. All five of the Phoenix’s 250mm railgun turrets were unmasked and ready to fire.

“Weapons, All mounts, continuous fire on my mark, target is Romeo Alfa”

“Aye, captain!” The weapons officer said, his hands flying over the controls.

Angela felt the ship shudder as another five-round volley impacted. Ten-second reloads. An eternity in combat.

“Connn registering impact! No damage!”

It was Angela’s turn now.

“Weapons, All mounts! Commence continuous fire!”

The Weapons officer spoke into his mic, and the Phoenix began to shudder. The lights dimmed as the incredible energy requirement of the railguns began to eat into the ship’s electrical grid.

The railguns began firing. One mount after another, letting only a second pass between each successive mount firing. It wasn’t the most accurate of fire patterns, but it was not designed to be accurate. It was designed to put as much metal downrange as quickly as possible in order to disorientate and distract the enemy.

The Eagle’s shields were taking the brunt of the impacts, leaving the shrapnel of the shells to impact the armor and leave gouges and small craters. The shields would take a while to fail under such a barrage. Angela decided to end the fight quickly, just in case there were any more hidden ships around.

 “Sensors, do you have their Lift Lattices?” Angela asked, curling her hands around the arms of her chair.

“Aye Captain, Two Two Seven Five fand holding steady.”

“Weapons, Lock on and fire two missiles.”

“Aye! Ready on your mark captain!”

Angela’s eyebrows raised a hair, the crew had already anticipated her next order before it had even come out of her mouth. Having a competent and motivated crew was well worth the cost of their incredible pay.

“Execute!”

The ship shuddered as the two missiles shot out of the forward missile tubes with a blast of compressed air. These weapons were designed to use an enemy’s lift signature to track toward a target, and destroy it. The Phoenix’s forward shields flickered slightly and the missiles passed through only slightly slowed down. Once through the shields, the missile’s hydrazine engines kicked on, propelling the weapons forward at a breakneck pace.

Because the missile was much slower than a railgun shell, it would actually pass through the shields while they were set to Ripple. If the enemy wanted to, they could set their shields to Full. This would block the passage of the missile, but leave them vulnerable to railguns impacting the shield with full force. Instead of letting the slug through and reducing its speed and breaking it apart, the railgun round would be stopped entirely by the shield. This would quickly overwhelm the hydraulic shock absorbers of the enemy ship. It might even break the enemy’s Shield Lattice permanently. Of course, they could try to maneuver around the missiles, but they had acquired their lift signal, and were both homing in on their ship with unerring accuracy.

Angela had effectively given the ship only a few terrible options. They chose poorly.

“Romeo Alfa’s Lift signal is at zero!” the Sensor’s officer called out.

The pair of missiles swapped to heat tracking, but they weren’t able to reacquire the signal. Both weapons spiraled off into the mist.

“Cease fire! Pilot, Follow them down, All up one quarter.”

The Phoenix fell slower than the pirate. They had turned back on their Lift Lattices, but they were so heavy, and the Lattices were already at their capacity. Angela calmly watched their fall rate slow, waiting for the inevitable.

There.

Angela saw it in the Oculus. A great tendril of compressed mist spiked from the Dark, hitting the forward port corner of the enemy ship. Instantly, it began to tilt to one side as the Lift Lattice there was shattered. Angela saw a massive heat bloom come out the bottom of the pirate ship.

“Captain, they are dropping their ballast. Their shields are down.” The sensors officer said quietly.

Watching a ship spiral after a Surge was something that inspired empathy in most sailors, even if that ship was an enemy.

Surprisingly, the pirate ship recovered. It leveled out about 4 kilometers above the dark. Its propellers were still spinning, but very slowly now.  Now that the ship had no ballast, it moved much slower, and couldn’t support its shield's electrical power requirement anymore. The ship slowly drifted up, tilting forward and to the port side heavily. Angela nodded. The ship’s crew had done well in the recovery. Not everyone could recover from a spiral like that. Her thoughts then turned to the merchant. With its escort out of the scenario, it would be easy prey, all she had to do was-

“Enemy lift signal is at zero!”

The Eagle class ship fell. Angela watched, open-mouthed, as it hit the surface of the dark. It impacted the liquid, the several hundred-ton ship not even causing a splash. The ship was quickly devoured, the hungry liquid creeping over the surface of the ship with a supernatural speed. Soon, nothing remained of the ship. The only signs that it had even existed at all were memories and paper logs. None of which would tell the story of this ship, none of which would tell the stories of the people who had lived onboard.

Angela cleared her throat. In the dead silence of the bastion, the noise sounded like a gunshot.

“Pilot, make for the merchant, all ahead full.  Quartermaster, set condition two throughout the ship, and secure the ship from general quarters. Comms, make a note in the ship’s log and forward it to Landing and the Company. Sighted two pirate vessels, sunk same. In pursuit of a third.”

The officers murmured their acceptance. The bastion remained quiet. Angela sat back down in her chair. The Eagle could have survived, should have survived. She had no idea why the crew would work so hard at recovering the ship only to leave it for the Dark. It made no sense. She shook her head. That was a problem for later. For now, she had a ship to catch.