After many hours of loading things onto ships, Sparky apologizing and fixing her sabotage, convincing Haru to fly the cargo ship, and me guiding the cargo ship through the asteroid field from within The Mualer before jumping to hyperspace, we finally made it back to Asakalabam. Once landing there, having a short heartfelt reunion between Jin and Haru, loading his massive fish tank and several crates into the ship, and setting off again, we encountered our first problem.
“Violet! We have ships incoming!” Haru yelled over the ship’s comms, and soon after, I got the proximity alert on my ship.
I cursed and yelled, “Get to hyperspace! I’ll hold them off!” I slammed a few buttons on my control console, and my ship’s cockpit went into battle mode instantly as I grabbed the flight sticks. A helmet wrapped around my head and my vision was filled with the views from several cameras on the exterior of my ship, along with system readouts on the left or right corners of my vision.
Two dotted lines bisected my vision, showing the angle of my ship, at the bottom of which showed my speed in mkps (million kilometers per second), and in the middle of my vision was a large circle with a pair of crosshairs that followed where I looked with my eyes. Three lines at the bottom right and left of my vision showed my cannon’s energy levels. The top read-out of each showed the energy levels of my forward cannons. And on the far corners of my vision were two lines on either side of my vision showing the shield levels of my ship.
Once my ship was set and ready, I pulled back on the Yolk and turned my ship around to see the enemies coming up behind us. Haru flew by me as I turned my ship, and I initiated a scan that pinged all the enemy ships and their locations. Twenty-five VX-12 fighters were flying at high speed in my direction, followed by five VX-21 support ships that looked like the fighters but bigger and with EM-Ion cannons and two federation frigates with enough firepower to blow me away.
I cracked my neck and said, “Computer, lock on to the closest fighter and open communications with the federation fleet on all frequencies. Blast ‘The Red Baron’ over comms.”
My computer highlighted the closest fighter and opened up comms. “Attention fleeing ships! You are ordered to—” a man’s voice began to speak over comms before the song resounded over him, and I pushed the accelerator forward.
My ship shot forward at incredible speeds and, within seconds, got within range of the fighters. I pulled the trigger, and my forward cannons fired a light blue energy beam at the nearest ship, shredding it instantly. The remaining ships scattered except for three, who charged at me head-on in a triangle formation, firing their rail guns. I spun my ship, and the rounds flew past the top of it as I fired again, destroying the ship in the bottom right corner of their formation. I then pulled back on the throttle and yolk as my ship’s thrusters engaged, slowing my momentum immensely and drifting through the bottom of their formation.
I then pushed the throttle forward and matched the fighters’ speed before me as I gave them chase. The two fighters broke off to the left or right. I followed the ship going right and stayed on its tail, letting my cannons recharge. The pilot swerved and circled with evasive maneuvers that I followed perfectly. Alarms blared in my cockpit, and a warning flashed in my vision.
MISSILE INCOMING!
I ignored the warning and focused on the distance the missiles were from me. Once they were within two hundred meters, I pushed the throttle forward, activated the ship’s boosters, overtaking the fighter before me, and spun my ship a little to tap his wing and get on the other side of him before breaking off. The missiles collided with the fighter, destroying it in a massive explosion. I brought my ship around and looked at the remaining twenty-two enemies.
The federation must have cut off all open communication and stuck to private channels, as they didn’t seem to be affected by my loud music anymore and were now grouped into three groups. There were two capture groups with five fighters per two support ships, an attack group with ten fighters, and one support ship going after me, while the other two groups went after my cargo ship.
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I cursed and said, “Computer! Connect me with Haru! Haru, how’s that hyperspace jump coming?!”
“I need one more minute!” Haru yelled in panic.
“Heard!” I said as I ended the communication. I aimed for the attack group’s support ship and fired. My cannons shredded through the ship’s shields and did minor damage to the haul. The other ten fighters fired at me to get me to back off. I rolled and pulled up, breaking away from the line of fire before diving and going under their formation. The fighters and support ship changed course to intercept me. I continued to pull up as I rolled and angled myself to fly just past the attack group.
I aimed for the closest capture group’s fighters and fired. My cannons tore through two of the fighters in their formation, and as I shot past them, I looked to my left, activating the broadside cannons, and fired. The cannons shredded one of the support ship’s shields and cut through the haul, causing an explosion as its reactor took damage and detonated. The beam continued as I flew by and nicked the nose of one of the fighters, forcing the pilot to break off and slow down.
Once the capture groups were out of the line of fire, the attack group fired their railguns. Three of the railgun shots hit me, shaking my ship and causing warnings to go off in the cockpit again. I ignored the warnings as I cursed and came back around for another pass. They were almost on Haru, and I couldn’t let that happen.
I slowed as I brought my ship in for a head-on charge down the middle of the capture and attack groups. I pushed the throttle forward and flipped a switch in my yolk that activated all broadside cannons. The fighters fired their railguns at me, and several impacted my ship as a shield failure warning came into my vision. I ignored that warning, too, as I got to the front of the fighters, rolled my ship, and fired. Four beams of light shot out from the sides of my ship and began shredding through multiple ships.
Twelve fighters were destroyed, three received too much damage to go on, and two of the support ships were destroyed, with the remaining two losing their shields. I brought the ship back around for another pass as I saw the remaining ships turning around to retreat, save for the remaining five fighters that pursued me and had received no damage. I sped past them and fired on the closest damaged fighter, destroying it.
“Computer, connect me with the Federation ships,” I said as I spun and rolled out of the way of several railgun shots.
“Unidentified vessel! Stand down! And surrender peacefully!” the federation man said over comms.
“What’s your name?” I asked as I dodged another volley of fire, coming back around into attack position.
“I am, Captain Harkness, and I order you to surrender!” the captain yelled.
“Shut up!” I yelled back before asking in a deathly quiet voice, “Do you know who I am?”
“We … we are unsure at this time. All we know is that the cargo ship is marked as a smuggling ship, and the ship you are currently flying is full of illegal technology. And we will be taking you in, dead or alive.”
I shook my head in exasperation and fired, destroying two more retreating fighters and the remaining support ships with my broadside cannons. “I am The Reaper,” I said simply and let the silence build for a second as I turned and fired at the remaining damaged ship, “And you’ve crossed me, Captain Harkness.”
“Im-impossible,” Captain Harkness stammered, fear and astonishment in his voice, “Y-you’re supposed to be dead.”
“Haven’t you heard?” I asked as I pulled back on the throttle and yolk, turning my ship upside down and facing the remaining five fighters, “I am death,” I said, and I fired. My forward cannons shredded the last of the fighters as I aimed at each of them. Silence permeated the air as I killed the last of them, and after a moment, I saw my cargo ship jump to hyperspace. Haru, Sparky, and Jin escaped successfully. “You’re lucky, Captain. I don’t have enough firepower to destroy your frigates at this moment. Not that it would stop me. So, I’m going to ask you one last question. On Asakalabam, there was a fire at an orphanage a few days ago. What was the cause of death for the people inside the orphanage?” I asked.
The captain was silent for a minute as he searched for the information. After a moment, he spoke, “Forty-three dead. Seven were killed by a small caliber pistol found at the scene, twenty-two were stabbed to death with a small blade, and fourteen were bludgeoned to death. The culprit then set fire to the orphanage before escaping and is still at large.”
“Thank you, Captain. I’ll leave you alone for now,” I said as I shut down my weapons and entered the coordinates for Okiri and my newest ship. “I’ll see you around, Captain Harkness,” I added before jumping to hyperspace.
***