Malan set in the appropriate commands as several groups of the Eclipse fleet surged towards them, opening fire with a volley of pulse missiles from range, followed immediately with a barrage of gunfire. Job finished, he accelerated into a dive, before twisting away from several of the missiles, even as several more rocked his rejuvenated shields, followed by a peppering of the smaller weapons.
Warning: Shields at 82%
Warning: Shields at 64%
Warning: Shields at 60%
He swore, even as he torpedoed away from the chasing pack, spinning to evade as much of the opening salvo as possible. He’d expected them to be a little more cautious of hitting their downed but still-living comrades, and had remained too close for too long. 40% was far more damage to his shields than he’d intended to take, but his display told him he hadn’t taken it for nothing. Half a dozen cruisers were just pulling level with the stranded ship, still firing, as more arced wide to cut off their escape.
Malan swallowed, and allowed himself the smallest of prayers. If this didn’t work, the chances of them holding out long enough with his shields as they were had slimmed considerably. However, just as he was beginning to worry he’d made a mistake, a violent burst of energy rolled across his fleeing ship, sending him staggering briefly away from the control rods, as a burst of vivid white light consumed his displays.
Alert:
Eclipse Interceptor [Lv. 9] Destroyed
Enemy of a higher level killed. Bonus Celestial Energy Harvested.
Eclipse Interceptor [Lv. 12] Destroyed
Enemy of a higher level killed. Bonus Celestial Energy Harvested.
Eclipse Corvette [Lv. 15] Destroyed
Enemy of a higher level killed. Bonus Celestial Energy Harvested.
Alert:
Pilot Lv. 6 → Lv. 7
Stat Point(s) Available
Skill Point(s) Available
Class Choices Available.
Eclipse Corvette [Lv. 14] Destroyed
Enemy of a higher level killed. Bonus Celestial Energy Harvested.
Eclipse Corvette [Lv. 10] Destroyed
Enemy of a higher level killed. Bonus Celestial Energy Harvested.
Alert:
[Engineer Gauntlet, Interface Lv. 3→ Lv.6]
A bubble of laughter slipped past Malan’s lips at the first notification, even as his visuals remained bathed in white, which quickly grew to a throaty laugh as the notifications kept coming. Finally, as the alerts faded, so too did the light. He kept Tanwen accelerating away at speed, but couldn’t resist a look back to a scene of utter chaos.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Where once the stranded ship had been, a violent rend had been torn in the very fabric of reality, as the craft’s jump drives had opened a path to the Nexus whilst entirely overloaded. It hung in space like some kind of twisted star, a gaping maw of luminous diamond and sapphire coloured light, with several jagged arms that tore across space like reaching lightning.
Chunks of Eclipse crafts drifted outward from the tears, caught in the path of the opening gateways and torn apart as reality itself divided in the space they were flying through.
The chasing packs had slowed to a crawl now, the final dozen or so ships suddenly wary at finding their prey had a larger bite, and fighting far harder than they’d expected. Malan knew it wouldn't slow them for long, but there was a certain grim satisfaction to having taught these assholes to be wary of him.
The buzz of someone hailing him had him answering eagerly, ready to hear Elena's reaction to the carnage, only to hear a rattling laugh over the Comms channel and a grizzled, smirking face flash into life on the corner of his display—a feature he hadn’t been aware Tanwen had. He opted to keep his outgoing comms solely auditory when a small dialogue box presented him the option.
“Standarr.”
The pirate's amused chuckle faded, but there was an infuriating amount of mirth left in his gravelly voice when he finally responded.
“I have to say, Starbound, I am impressed. When I heard you'd been speaking to Iven’s bint of a wife, I suspected you might try and do something stupid. I never expected you to be stupid enough to just fly right at us though, and I certainly never expected somebody so obviously green to do as much damage as you have. Even I have to admit, that jump drive stunt was fucking spectacular. Well played, boy.”
Malan scowled, keeping his eyes focused on the positioning of the rallying enemy craft, pointedly ignoring the two terrified-looking children at the man’s feet. Standarr was trying to rattle him, clearly. Push him into making a silly mistake to minimise further damage. He took a steadying breath. As much as he was growing to hate the man, talking to him had actually been part of the plan.
Seeing the children had only solidified that his thinking had been correct.
“Boy. Green. Perhaps you’d have been less surprised if you hadn’t made so many assumptions about somebody you know nothing about?”
Another irritating chuckle crackled across the channel. “Who said anything about making assumptions, boy? Any man living outside of the UGC’s reach worth their salt knows the basic profiles of their Starbound dogs—each of you are public record, after all. You have to be so you can be a part of their propaganda. So when one I’ve never seen nor heard of before appears on my doorstep to beg for supplies, what conclusions should I have drawn?”
Malan didn’t answer, hands tightening around the control pillars. In the distance, the rest of the Eclipse fleet had finally regrouped and gathered the confidence to give chase, and he swung his ship back around to face them, Elena following close behind.
“Exactly,” Standarr continued. “I knew you were young from the way you spoke, which meant you weren’t some kind of well-kept secret weapon, and there was no public record of you at all. That means you’re new to this. No supplies means you weren’t prepared to become what you are, either. All of which tells me the UGC don’t even know you exist yet. You may as well be a child playing dress up.”
“An interesting theory. Maybe it’s even true. I can’t help but wonder what that would say about you as a commander, though. How many ships is it you’ve lost to this child in a costume? How many men dead?”
“I did not claim you had shown no skill. As I’ve said, you’ve impressed me. But what do you really hope to gain here? What is it you think you can accomplish by attacking us so brazenly? The damage you’ve done is surface level at best—a few useless bodies and some low-grade ships it would take us little to no effort to replace—you can’t possibly believe you will reach the station with just the two of you.”
“We’re here to bring you down, Standarr. Nothing more, nothing less. Were you aware you’d left your personal files at Eidolon? You may have been able to guess at who I am well enough, but I know who you are. What you’ve done. You die here, today.”
This was true enough. Only a cursory skim of the files stolen from Eidolon had told Malan more than he’d ever need to know about the man. Since being dishonourably discharged from the UGC military for an undisclosed offence, Standarr had run a litany of criminal operations across the independent systems, and left an inordinate number of bodies in his wake. And this was before he’d joined up with Eclipse.
But, in the end, Malan knew Standarr was right. It was impossible for them to reach the station with the number of ships and defences stood in their way. That was why Malan had come up with a plan that meant they wouldn’t need to. It needed only two things for it to work—Malan and Elena surviving for long enough, and for Standarr to be as greedy as Malan thought he was.
This time when Standarr spoke, all mirth had been stripped away, leaving only cold steel in its wake. “So be it. Let me explain, in that case, how you’re going to die: Wave after wave of fighter will whittle away at you unrelentingly. Sure, you may kill a few unexceptional men, but the result will be the same. Your precious ship will be left entirely at our mercy, at which point we’ll tear it open and I will take your precious Starbound for my own. You will forever go down in history as the only pilot to ever lose their Starbound to a Pirate, and your ruined corpse will adorn the bow forever more as a warning to those that might cross me.”
The communication channel closed, leaving a dense silence in its wake. His displays flickered, and sure enough, it showed a flurry of fresh craft launching from either docking bay on the space station in the distance. The swarm descended in the distance, even as the dozen already engaging he and Elena crossed into the effective firing range of their weapons.
Missiles launched as the sound of Standarr’s threat rang through his mind, and his enemies moved to surround him completely. Despite it all, a savage grin slid across Malan’s face as he and Tanwen spiralled out of the path of the opening barrage, their own weapons blazing in grim answer. Unknowingly, Standarr himself had slid the last piece Malan needed for his plan into place.
Now all Malan had to do was execute and survive.