by Ivan Kal
The Prometheus exited the wormhole and arrived in what looked like an empty system. Binary stars, with seven planets, and a large asteroid belt between the fifth and the sixth planet.
“Set a course toward the asteroid belt,” Aiko ordered. The intel they had received told them that the cache was hidden inside of it. “And keep actively scanning the system.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Prometheus slowly drew closer to the asteroid field, and everyone was focused on their tasks. They knew full well the dangers of hunting for this old tech. The last time they had done so, they had run into the Val’ayash, and Aiko did not want to repeat that incident. It was why she had put the ship on high alert—she would not be getting caught off guard again.
“Captain, I am getting some weird readings,” the sensor officer reported.
“Where?” Aiko asked.
“I believe that it is coming from the same general area as our destination,” the officer said slowly.
“Could it be the cache?” Aiko asked, even though she knew that it was unlikely. If the cache were so easy to detect, it would’ve been found by now.
“I am not certain, it almost looks like—contact!” the sensor officer exclaimed. “I am detecting three ships near one of the larger asteroids—cruisers. One of them is a match for an Iliari-built battlecruiser, and the others are unknown but fall under the same weight class. They are powering up their weapons!”
“Weapons on-line, charge the blink cannon, get me targeting solutions on every ship, designate the battlecruiser as E-1 and the others as E-2 and E-3,” Aiko ordered. As her board was updated, she could see three ships surrounding a fairly large asteroid, with one of them, E-3, looking like it was docked to something on the asteroid. The second of the smaller cruisers, E-2, maintained its position next to the docked ship, while the battlecruiser, E-1, moved to take a defensive position in front of the others. “Target the blink cannon on E-2’s drives, and target all other weapons on the battlecruiser,” Aiko said. The blink cannon was her ship’s greatest weapon: the magi-tech cannon could teleport an explosive device anywhere within its 200,000-kilometer range. Its only weakness was its targeting—it was completely useless against moving targets. The math had to be precise, and even then it was hard to hit the target. Fortunately for her, E-2 was standing still.
“It looks like someone beat us to the prize,” Aiko’s XO Jasmine King said.
“Captain!” the comms officer spoke out. “We are receiving a transmission from the battlecruiser.”
“Put it on,” Aiko said.
An alien appeared on the screens, one Aiko was not familiar with, but that meant little. There were hundreds of species on Jar Allera alone, and many more beyond. This alien looked like a female of the race, bipedal, with long and thin head tails covered in strange markings, her face looked vaguely human with a clearly defined mouth, nose and eyes. The most glaring difference, aside from the head tails, were the eyes, which had no pupil or iris, only green sclera. “I am Captain Garina U’koll of the Red Suns. This system has been claimed by our organization. Leave now or we will be forced to respond with lethal force.”
“Red Suns?” Aiko asked after the message ended.
She saw Jasmine going over her board and then she turned to look at Aiko. “I found a few mentions. The Red Suns are a mercenary group based out of a star system close to Iliari territory. They don’t do much work in the Jar Allera area, but they are known for being reliable and professional. The data we have puts their strength at ten ships, ranging between light cruisers to battlecruisers and even one battleship.”
Aiko grimaced. She didn’t want to get involved with more mercenaries. The last ones had betrayed the Prometheus and attempted to steal the ship. “Am I right to think that this mercenary group should be aware that they are breaking the law?”
“Yes, they have done some work in the proximity of Jar Allera, which means that they should be aware of the Zhal and Qash’vo’tar rules,” Jasmine told her.
Aiko took a few moments to think. The Prometheus was breaking the rules as well, which meant that she needed to choose her next step carefully. Her people needed the tech in that cache—Earth couldn’t survive without it, at least not freely. Her mission was clear: she needed to secure that tech no matter the cost. Earth had risked too much for her to just leave.
“Comm Captain Kane. I want the fighter squadrons ready to launch at a moment’s notice. And get two assault shuttles ready,” Aiko said, then turned to her comm officer. “Star recording,” Aiko said, and then after a nod from her comm officer she started speaking. “Captain U’koll, I am Captain Aiko Nishimura of the free ship Prometheus. I am sorry, but I cannot do that. I need that cache, but we needn’t let this turn into a battle. I can provide you with ten tons worth of kotarium in exchange for everything you’ve found.” Aiko gestured to the comm officer to stop the recording.
“Captain,” Jasmine whispered hurriedly. “That is all of our ship’s supply. It was supposed to last us years!”
“I know, but kotarium is not as valuable to Earth as that cache is.” Aiko hoped that it would be enough to avoid violence.
“We’ve gotten a response, Captain.”
“Captain Nishimura, that is an interesting offer. Ten tons of kotarium are a fortune, but as you probably already know, we can earn far more with what we have found here. And even though I have no idea how, you obviously know what this facility is and what it contains. I am afraid that any chance of avoiding violence is now gone. I cannot let you leave and bring down the wrath of the Zhal down on our heads. I am sorry, Captain. It is only business. Your ship may be kotarium built, but mine is as well, and my forces outnumber you. Surrender now, and I can promise you that your crew will be safely taken into the indentured service of our organization.”
Aiko could see the disgust appear on every face on her bridge. Indentured service might not be slavery, at least not in the eyes of the “civilized” star nations, but it was still only one step removed from it—and Aiko would not allow her crew to go through that.
“What do we know about the battlecruiser’s hull?” Aiko asked.
“The scans did detect a kotarium-based alloy, Captain. But I do not believe that the ship was built with it; I think that a layer of kotarium-based hull plating was added on after construction,” her sensors officer reported.
Aiko nodded. That meant that while their hull would provide some protection, it was not as good as that of the Prometheus; the layer wouldn’t be nearly as thick. The battlecruiser was larger than the Prometheus, and it out-massed her ship. Still, Aiko believed that they had the advantage. The light carrier was something that the mercenaries couldn’t have encountered before. She started recording another message.
“Captain U’koll, I refuse your request. I know that you think that you have the advantage, but I urge you to reconsider. Your lives are not worth what you’ve found inside. Turn over the cache and I will allow you to leave the system.” Aiko wondered what the mercenary captain’s response would be. She didn’t know how to feel about this. Killing pirates was one thing—they prayed on the innocents, slaughtered for greed, captured people and sold them into slavery. They were scum who deserved death. Mercenaries, on the other hand… They were like the Prometheus. Crews which took on a wide variety of jobs, some of which might be questionable, but rarely did mercenary groups break their own code. The fact that the captain offered to take Aiko’s crew into indentured service told her that they would abide by those unofficial rules between mercenaries. Aiko might not agree with those rules, but they had been in place in this area of space for a long time.
A few minutes later they got a response back.
“I am sorry, Captain, but we cannot do that. We’ve been hired to do a job, and protecting our employer’s interest is a part of that. May the stars watch over you.” The alien captain nodded respectfully and then ended the message.
Aiko could see that the alien captain didn’t want to fight, bu
t she also saw her resolve. That woman would do her job, just like Aiko would. The mercenary ships were just at the edge of her extreme missile range; she couldn’t be sure if the battlecruisers had the same range, but it was maneuvering, and she wasn’t about to wait and see.
“Is the blink cannon ready?” Aiko asked.
“Yes, Captain,” Jasmine answered.
“Fire. Cripple E-2’s drives,” Aiko ordered. A moment later, unannounced, the blink cannon fired, teleporting its deadly cargo right into the light cruiser’s drives. An explosion rocked the ship as its hull twisted and blew outward in the back section of the ship.
“E-2 is losing power. They are out of the fight,” her sensor officer reported.
Aiko didn’t order them to fire again. She was not fighting pirates and she didn’t want to kill the enemy crew outright. Crippling their ship would be enough.
“Launch the fighters and the assault shuttles. I want E-3 and the cache facility boarded and taken. Alpha Squadron should provide cover for the shuttles, and Beta is on the battlecruiser. We are going for disabling, not destroying, we aren’t fighting pirates here,” Aiko ordered.
Jasmine nodded and relayed her orders.
“Launch one missile salvo at the battlecruiser. Let’s see what she is made out of.”
***
Kane’s mech-frame Leviathan flew out of the launch tube of the Prometheus, followed closely by the two other mech-frames, the Orion and Artemis, piloted by Lt. Imari Okoye and Lt. Commander Erika Hansen respectively. Behind them came the Havoc fighters and then the two assault shuttles carrying the boarding force. Kane immediately opened a channel to the squadrons.
“Beta Squadron, you are with Commander Jiang. Execute an assault run on target E-1. Alpha Squadron, you are with me. Protect the shuttles and disable E-3. Mech-frames, you are with me.”
A series of affirmatives rang in his ears and then the two formations split off, his Alpha Squadron taking a curving course which should take them around the battlecruiser while they stayed outside of its defensive fire. As they moved away, Kane kept watch on the battle beginning to take form. The Prometheus had fired a single salvo of one hundred missiles, which was speeding toward the mercenary battlecruiser. The mercenaries were burning hard, and as they were yet to open fire, Kane knew that they were not yet in range to do so. He couldn’t help but wonder what the mercenary captain was thinking right now. They had to have seen one of their light cruisers getting taken out in an instant by a weapon that they had no hope of detecting.
That alone would’ve made most hesitate. The battlecruiser didn’t seem to be having that problem, however—as they closed to about 280,000 kilometers the battlecruiser opened fire with its own missiles. That put their missiles at just a bit behind their human counterparts, and ahead of what most mercenaries at Jar Allera had.
Then the Prometheus’s missiles reached the battlecruiser’s point-defense range. Kane was impressed: the battlecruiser had a very good point defense. They managed to take down most of the missiles, and of the few that did manage to pass through, none did any critical damage that he could see. Then, as the Prometheus’s point defense opened fire on the battlecruiser’s salvo, Beta Squadron entered blink range. Jiang had them use the standard double blink to close down to engagement range, and they fired their missiles and laser weapons. The laser fire splashed against the battlecruiser without doing much damage, but their point defense was already firing, retargeting the missiles with astonishing rapidity. Then one of the battlecruiser’s point-defense turrets managed a solid hit on a Havoc fighter and it rolled away, its spin halted later by an explosion. A few moments later Beta Squadron blinked away to safety as their missiles continued on, the mercenary point defense firing constantly. Still a lot more passed through, and Kane saw the ship start to vent atmosphere.
Then his board screamed in warning as his target, E-3, opened fire on his squadron with their lasers cannons, as it was still docked with the facility buried into the rock. The large turrets had a slower firing rate than point-defense lasers, but had much greater power.
“Evasive maneuvers,” Kane ordered just as one of his fighters got hit by the laser and disappeared in a flash of light.
Alpha Squadron split off and started moving erratically by using their maneuvering thrusters, but four of his fighters remained close to the assault shuttles.
“Fire decoys,” Kane said, and a moment later every fighter and mech-frame fired two small missile-like devices which mimicked a fighter signature. In that moment, the number of fighters on his board tripled. The enemy’s fire intensified as they entered their point-defense range, but because of the decoys it also became much less effective.
By then, Alpha Squadron had entered blink range.
“Execute attack blinks! I want strafing runs against the ship—their weapons are priority. We don’t need them destroyed, just disabled,” Kane ordered, and activated his mech-frame’s blink. He appeared five thousand kilometers ahead of his previous position and fired five of his missiles. He had outfitted his mech-frames with high-powered laser cannons, elbow mounted, and as they reached the ship he started targeting their point-defense turrets, burning them to slag, the fighters doing the same. The missiles were being taken down by the enemy’s point defense, but his squadron had fired a smaller salvo. Only a few had passed through to hammer at the hull, but by then his squadron had done a few passes and had cleared most of the ship’s hull of weapons.
“Assault shuttles, you are clear to board,” Kane ordered. The shuttles responded with affirmatives and one moved toward the ship, the other toward the facility.
***
Aiko watched calmly as her ship’s point defense took down the battlecruiser’s missiles. They had good ECM systems, and a handful managed to get through their defenses to explode against the Prometheus’s hull. The ship shook, but the kotarium-based hull did its job and prevented any damage.
Her fighters were making runs against the battlecruiser, but it was still holding on, and it fired another salvo of missiles at her ship.
“How long until we are in laser range?” Aiko asked as she watched the battlecruiser’s missile fly toward her ship.
“Three minutes,” Jasmine responded.
“Fire another salvo,” Aiko ordered. The missiles from the Prometheus left the launchers and reoriented themselves toward the battlecruiser. She noticed belatedly that they had lost three fighters against the battlecruiser—they needed to finish up this quickly.
“Full thrust. Get us in range,” Aiko ordered.
She could feel the ship thrum as the dampeners fought to combat the acceleration. The Prometheus surged toward the battlecruiser, even as the missiles from the battlecruiser flew in its face. The Prometheus’s point-defense turrets fired, taking down many, and the ones which passed through the defensive fire struck the hull. The explosions rocked the Prometheus, and damage reports started coming in.
“We are in range of lasers, Captain.”
Aiko took her eyes off the reports. “Fire at their drives—disable that ship!”
The three laser turrets with line of sight on the battlecruiser opened fire. The light heated their hull, twisting it and burning through. Captain U’koll tried to roll her ship, but the fighters were there, too. Holes appeared on the ship, and then an explosion shut down its weapons.
“Send an abort order to the missiles!” Aiko ordered quickly—she didn’t want to destroy the ship.
A few moments later, her missiles veered off as her fighters took position around the dying mercenary ship.
CHAPTER FIVE
Grimm stood in the observation deck, looking down through the windows at the large hall and a few dozen kids training. They were all just barely in their teens, from twelve to sixteen years old.
They were the UTS’s biggest secret, their greatest crime. Five hundred and twelve children with magic potential, born for a single purpose—trained to be the best, to be the sword of humanity. Next to him stood Commande
r Connor McCullagh, their instructor. McCullagh had been part of the previous generation of trained super soldiers, the same as now-Captain Kane Reinhart. McCullagh was a few years younger, so he had been placed on a different team, but he was still a highly trained and capable individual. Earth did not have many people capable of magic, but they knew that those numbers would rise as time passed.
McCullagh had been part of an experiment, the first human magic-capable soldiers. They had been trained to be the best soldiers they had, but also how to utilize their magic. They were the prototypes, people whom the military was testing the ways in which humans were able to use magic. They were not as strong in magic as people from the other side of the portal, nor did they have the knowledge of how to train a mage; the only thing that they had was the knowledge given to them by the Wanderers, the nomadic people who had agreed to help Earth. The Wanderers were master scripters, and they had taught their knowledge of scripts to humans.
And the military had adapted them to their own needs. McCullagh, just like Kane Reinhart, had scripts implanted into his body which allowed him to use magic without the need for forming the spellscripts in his mind: instantaneous magic. The drawback, however, was that any spells other than the ones he had implanted would be far harder to cast, as the scripts interfered with any other magic. McCullagh, therefore, lacked a mental spellscript, as he didn’t have an awakened golem that he needed to pilot.
In many ways McCullagh’s generation didn’t live up to what the military had intended. They were still a success—super soldiers capable of using magic, genetically altered to be stronger, faster, better—but it was the second generation that would surpass all of that.