Status Quo (Oolite Saga part 1)

by Drew Wagar

  'We’ve got him.' The Galcop officer reported. 'Remote scan has picked up the gravimetric emissions again.'

  'Location?' The voice belonging to the owner of the strange unreported ship came over the comlink.

  'Six planetary diameters, star-centric. Vector three one four, mark two. Estimated velocity shows as hyperspeed.'

  'Good. Clear the area.'

  'Copy.'

  The Galcop cop shutdown the viewer and looked across at his colleague. 'So much for the invincible one. I hate these covert ops.'

  'You saw him take out five ships without a scratch. Let’s not make him angry, eh? I want to enjoy my pension. No guarantee we aren’t on his target list after the job’s done. Fly casual and keep our distance.'

  Rebecca had assigned her identity to the ship by standard DNA ID transfer. The ship would have automatically locked her out after a few minutes otherwise, as was standard flight procedure. Within a few moments she saw her credit rating and Elite status appear.

  Cash:65535 Cr

  Legal Status:Clean

  Rating:Competent (509)

  At least that seemed correct. She used the consoles to access the cargo bay interface, selecting the magnetic cargo arms to move the escape pod and drop it out of the cargo bay. The cargo bay mechanism seemed much slower than the one on the Boa. It wasn’t helped by the fact that the escape pod hadn’t been secured properly in the bay. Whoever the original pilot was he must have been a complete amateur. She couldn’t figure out how someone so dumb had come to own an über-ship like this!

  The sun was quickly looming larger. She would be able to fuel scoop in a matter of minutes.

  Cargo dump: 1x Escape Pod, ready. Confirm?

  Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief. Finally!

  The scanner pinged and the hyperspeed drive cut out.

  Mass locked. Hyperspeed aborted.

  'Damn!' Rebecca hissed, looking at the scanner. There was a slight feeling of deceleration as the old style Torus drive cut out.

  Four dots appeared in close succession on the left forward quadrant. These weren’t yellow though. These were purple. Police Vipers. Vicious little fighter ships, designed to shoot down pirates or Thargoids and anything else. Fighter ships that kept coming even if you killed the pilot, whose missiles kept coming even if you killed the ship. Vipers bit and then held on.

  'Better late than never, I suppose,' she muttered, 'Not that it matters now. Let’s see what this baby can do.'

  She pushed the engines to full power. The noise was intense, even considering the speed. But her eyes grew wide when she saw the speed indicator jump to point-four-five.

  'Awesome!'

  'The target is going to overtake us.' The voice of the Galcop officer said in disbelief. 'It’s running at point-four-five lem!'

  The Agent frowned. At that speed interception would be tricky, the SuperCobra was clearly no ordinary ship. 'Harass the ship, but do not destroy it. Try to prevent it using its hyperspeed drive or injectors. I will arrive shortly.'

  The SuperCobra was alone this time; there would be no witnesses this far from the space lane. He wondered what the pilot was doing. Even given the speed advantage, it was a stupid and reckless move, an elementary mistake: heading directly for the sun from the previous battle scene. Surely he knew he was being tracked by now? Disappointing. The Agent hoped for a multi-system chase. A chance to really earn his exorbitant fee. Now it would soon be over.

  He anticipated the Vipers would weaken the SuperCobra, and he would move in for the kill. He’d be in range within minutes. This time he’d be quick.

  Rebecca watched as the Vipers changed course to intercept her. They were between her and the sun, even with the extra turn of speed she couldn’t avoid them without reversing course.

  Damn! It looked like she wasn’t going to get away with her plan after all. Maybe she’d just have to settle for the insurance alone. She couldn’t afford to gain a Fugitive rating in a corporate system. She keyed the comlink, deciding honesty might have to be the best policy. She was conscious of her headache again; she was feeling dizzy permanently now.

  'Police Vipers. I am a victim of piracy, I’ve incapacitated the owner of this ship and taken over the helm. Please advise.'

  The comlink hissed and spluttered, but there was no response. The Vipers continued to close.

  Rebecca frowned and keyed the comlink,'Police Vipers, please respond.'

  Nothing, maybe the comm system was broken. She’d better shutdown the engines and look passive. The police could board and then she could explain. Hopefully. Galcop officers were notorious for their ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ attitude.

  'Sir?'

  The girl on the ship was the ejectee from the Boa; this really was not her lucky day. She must have been scooped and somehow overpowered the pilot. The Agent almost smiled with the irony.

  'Your orders remain. Engage. Be wary of a trap. Switch to defensive tactics.'

  'Copy.'

  Magenta beam lasers skittered across the SuperCobra’s shields. The ship rocked and bucked.

  'Prak!' Rebecca shouted and tried the comlink one more time. 'Police Vipers, please desist! I surrender!'

  Their response was another volley of laser fire.

  They weren’t going to board, they weren’t going to give her a choice! They were going to kill her! Maybe this ship merited a ‘shoot on sight’ rating. Either way she was in deep trouble. Four Vipers!

  The forward shields were half down already. She couldn’t just sit there.

  Firing on police Vipers, though… I'll never be clean again!

  Kill or be killed. There was only one choice.

  Immediately she flipped on the arming switches for the missiles and the laser, swung the SuperCobra around and accelerated to full speed. She remembered the specifications had reported that the SuperCobra had a military laser on the forward mounting. It would be interesting to see how that performed.

  She spun the SuperCobra around, impressed by how fast it could turn. She modulated the engine thrust, turned again and dropped in behind one of the Vipers. She was in her element, the SuperCobra feeling like an extension of her body.

  'I’ve always wanted to blast one of you smug little Goids!' she snarled.

  She had a perfect shot. She triggered the military laser as the Viper passed through the crosshairs.

  Nothing happened.

  What?

  Frantically she adjusted course and thumbed the trigger again.

  Still nothing.

  Oh frak…

  She targeted a missile instinctively and fired it. She saw the Viper activate its ECM and was grimly pleased to see the missile was unaffected. A moment later though, one of the other Vipers shot the missile down.

  'Stard!'

  She banked away from the Viper, giving up the chase. The others were angling for a good shot at her. The astrogation console flashed. Error messages were streaming up the console log.

  Laser temperature exceeded. Auto shutdown.

  Laser temperature exceeded. Auto shutdown.

  How could the laser be overheated? She hadn’t fired yet! She hit the button for a diagnostic of the onboard systems.

  Coolant levels nominal.

  Coolant divert in operation. (Warning: bypass of primary system!)

  Mine circulation system in operation (Warning: bypass of primary system!)

  'Oh prak!' Rebecca shouted. 'Idiot son of a goid!'

  According to the diagnostic display, someone had jury-rigged a bypass of the laser cooling system in favour of the two stupid onboard mines. Why the frag a mine needed cooling was anyone’s guess, but to send a ship out without an operational primary weapon was madness of an extreme form. Nobody went into space unarmed; it was suicide. She couldn’t believe it.

  One missile remained. Four ships. No maths in the universe was going to make that one balance. Four on one with no gun. Impossible odds.

  She had to get out of here. She needed a distraction. She gla
nced at the armament inventory again. Laser fire bounced off the rear shields, rocking the ship. She turned evasively again. The Vipers struggling to keep up.

  1x ECM Hardened Missile

  2x Quirium Cascade Mine

  'Time to see what you do, ‘Little Boy’.' she muttered, selecting the first mine and keying in the arming sequence from before.

  Arming Sequence Complete. Deploy mine?

  She hit the coder without delay. There was a hiss of retracting cooling pipes and then, with a noticeable clunk, the mine detached. She saw it on the scanner, a flashing red and yellow dot. It drifted back towards the police Vipers. If they saw it they didn’t react. They held close formation, their scanners probably showing it as a cargo canister. They were close now, approaching at full speed. All four would have a clear shot. She’d gambled on the mine working…

  The Vipers went straight past it at point-blank range. The mine did nothing, merely tumbling uselessly in space.

  It didn’t work!

  Rebecca cursed. The SuperCobra rocked under heavy combined fire as the four Vipers brought their weapons to bear, the rear shields collapsing and the energy banks struggling to replenish them. Her gamble had failed. Why the frag would you carry something which rendered your main laser useless when it did nothing whatsoever…

  There was a burst of coruscating white light on the rear view scanner.

  With shocking suddenness there was a writhing, twisting, terrifying ball of electric blue fire expanding behind her. She stared, awestruck, her hands falling from the controls, as it grew to encompass almost the whole of the rear view display.

  Warning! Ultraviolet Radiation Detected.

  Warning! Gravimetric Radiation Detected.

  What the prak is gravimetric radiation?

  The surface of the sphere crackled angrily with a billion sparkling lights. It looked like a million bolts of lightning had been harnessed inside a globe and then all that energy released in a single moment. On the scanner she could see an expanding magenta ring. It was growing at a fantastic velocity yet in complete and eerie silence. The threat warning lights were flashing double red.

  The Vipers were directly between her and the mine.

  She heard the calls of panic on wideband. All four Vipers turned and ran at full speed away in different directions from the mine detonation point.

  One took a little more time to turn than the others.

  Rebecca saw the leading edge of blue fire intersect with the Viper; it was expanding far faster than even the swift Vipers could manage at full power.

  The Viper vanished, replaced by a second flash of light and another intense blue spherical shockwave.

  'My God.' She whispered. 'What have I done?'

  The Viper hadn’t survived even for a few seconds, it had simply ceased to exist. Maybe shields didn’t stop whatever it was at all. A weapon that could destroy ships regardless of shielding? Impossible, surely!

  Warning! Gravimetric Radiation Detected.

  The renewed shockwave caught the next Viper along, with the same result. Then the third one was caught by the original shockwave. The overall effect now looked like a huge distorted, discoloured and deadly amoeba.

  Whatever it was it seemed to be feeding off the remains of the Vipers, each one going down due to the previous one, creating a new burst. Cascading from one to the other. The final Viper was caught. It was much closer to her, having been running on almost the same vector.

  Warning! Range proximity. Impact in ten seconds.

  Rebecca looked down. The nearest Viper had gone, caught in the blast and yet another sphere of blue energy was heading outwards. This one much closer to her, gaining on the ship at a terrifying rate.

  It had killed four fully shielded Vipers. There was no guarantee the SuperCobra would fare any better.

  The expanding effect was close now, filling the entire rear screen with hideous, sparkling light.

  A blue screen of death.

  She was at full throttle, there was nothing she could do. Wait! Maybe this ship had injectors? She scanned the various displays hunting for the controls.

  Where are the prakking injectors?

  Witchspace injectors could give her a spurt of speed, maybe enough to get her out of range. What a stupidly dangerous piece of kit that mine was! If you triggered it in a field of other ships you’d never get out of the way in time!

  Warning! Range proximity. Impact in five seconds.

  ECM, missile control, shield inverters, thrust monitors, hyperspace navigation, fuel status indicators, energy banks, astrogation compass… no injectors! Where were the fragging injectors?!

  Warning! Range proximity! Impact in two seconds!

  The SuperCobra began to shudder, a strange vibration building up through the bulkheads with a deep rumbling noise, making everything unsecured begin to rattle.

  There! At last! The injector control!

  She hit it hard and the SuperCobra shot forward, a blaze of magenta exhaust wake flaring against the outbound energy of the mine. For a moment the flickering blue light seemed to be surging up the exhaust flux, she was too late! The SuperCobra tilted and spun wildly, as if it were surfing the crest of the approaching wall of destruction. Rebecca watched as the ghastly blue light slowly receded behind her. Its dimensions were enormous. Would it ever stop? Or just go on expanding?

  As if on cue, it slowly faded, and then there was nothing but the blackness of space once more.

  Rebecca took her hand from the injector control, it was trembling uncontrollably.

  The console flashed up a message. She looked at it, uncomprehending for a moment, thinking it was a joke.

  Right on, Commander!

  Her Rating had changed too. For a moment the letters swam before her eyes before she could focus on them properly.

  Rating:Dangerous (513)

  Dangerous wasn’t the word.

  The Agent had watched the Vipers dropping into attack formation behind the SuperCobra as he drew into range. He saw a small object being jettisoned from rear of the vessel. He frowned. His scanner showed it as an active device, not a cargo canister. It certainly looked like a canister from his vantage point. Perhaps a missile decoy of some sort? Yet the Vipers hadn’t launched missiles.

  Then there was a flash and a huge bloom of blue energy. Within seconds all four Vipers had been destroyed, the SuperCobra injecting its way out of trouble just in time.

  So… that's what it looks like!

  The SuperCobra’s heat shielding glowed a bright red already. Rebecca watched the cabin temperature rise and the range drop. She’d always found solar skimming unnerving. The surface temperature just a few thousand kilometres down was over six thousand degrees. Enough to melt anything, even duralium. It was nerve-wracking, realising that only a few millimetres of nano-engineered heat shields were all that protected you from the inferno below.

  She was diving at full speed, directly into the corona.

  Fuel Scoops Active.

  Slowly the fuel tanks were filling up; soon she’d have enough to reach Lave. She had to get out of here: this had all happened too fast; she was stressed and exhausted, both mentally and physically. She badly needed space and a rest. Time to think. She felt feverish.

  The scanner pinged. She looked at it with trepidation. Another ship, it had to be trouble.

  It wasn’t a Viper. She flicked on the ident computer.

  Imperial Courier. Mass 480 Metric. .375 LM

  'No, not you again. This just isn’t fair!' she whimpered, her heart thudding painfully. She wanted a fight with that ship, but not here, not now. It was too much. Her headache had become severe, almost debilitating, making her wince with pain.

  She had nothing left to fight with. No laser, no chance.

  The Courier was closing the range fast. It obviously intended to blow her out of the stars. That pilot wasn’t going to fall for the mine trick either. He must have seen it. An explosion that big would have been visible planet-side. The escape pod
was useless too: he’d simply shoot it down.

  The Courier must have some way of tracking this ship; there was no other way it could have found her. Presumably its owner was after these terrible mines. Every government would want something like that. Maybe that was what this was all about.

  If she hyperspaced out to Tionisla or Lave the Courier would simply follow through her witchspace wormhole. She’d be low on fuel and it wouldn’t have used a drop. Without a working onboard laser she’d be killed in seconds at the other end.

  She had only one option left.

  It was unsafe, unrecommended and she knew it killed more than half of the people who tried it. At least, they never came back to report otherwise.

  A forced mis-jump.

  Enter on the wrong vector, use an improper speed, select a poor rotational attitude or position, muck up any one of a thousand variables and the witchspace jump could go awry. Hence the reason they were all run via autopilot. Rumour had it that you might even accidentally trigger time travel, and you’d end up facing an irascible dinosaur in favour of the more common irascible docking staff. Accidental mis-jumps were bad news.

  Forcing a mis-jump was the last act of the totally desperate.

  But if it worked, the wormhole would lead to her planned destination, not to where she actually ended up. She’d tumble out of witchspace… somewhere else. There was a chance of escape. If she survived.

  Oddly enough, she’d learnt how to do it from the boy racers, not that any of them had really had the guts to try it. She’d checked out the theory and it was valid enough. An extreme attitude adjustment during witchspace entry should do it. With luck she’d be thrown into deep and silent interstellar space between the Galcop planets, safely hidden. If she was unlucky she’d end up inside a planet or a star, next to the gaping mouth of a black hole, lost in the depths of a nebula, or right in the middle of a Thargoid invasion fleet.