by Z D Dean
After getting fitted out with her new equipment, Ann informed her that Zade wanted her to familiarize herself with flying the ship. She was vibrating with excitement at the prospect of using the new helmet and tech to fly the ship. After hustling to the command deck, she plopped down in the pilot’s chair and fastened her harness. Unlike the first couple of times she flew, a black data cord emerged from her headrest and connected to the back of her new helmet.
Once the cord seated itself, the view on the inside of her visor changed. Her view of the command deck from her pilot’s station shifted to a view of the stars. As she looked around, her vision was unimpeded by the ship that surrounded her. She could make out the details of the larger ship she to which Ann was docked. The surrounding asteroids flitted around, masking and unmasking the pinpricks of light that were distant stars. Although disorienting at first, she quickly gained her bearings and found that her new view matched the position of her head. As she looked to her left and right, vantages that would have shown her the interior of the command deck were now views of space. Her reverie was interrupted by the AI.
“What do you need to see to effectively pilot me?”
“Aside from this amazing view,” Samix responded, awe still in her voice, “thruster readouts and a vector overlay would be a good start.”
The populated thruster icons were positioned around the periphery of her field of view based on their position on the ship. The readout for the main engine was at the top, dead center, and showing zero percent. She assumed the vector overlay had also been implemented, but since the ship was sitting still, it couldn’t be seen.
“I want to do some easy maneuvering outside the asteroid belt, to get comfortable. As I get better with the controls, we can play around with more obstacles. I’m forward-facing though. How do I see above, below, and behind me for maneuvering?”
“This will show you the optimal view when any portion of the ship is moving in a direction that is not forward, or when there is a proximal warning,” Ann said as a small window opened, showing the belly of the ship. “If you are flying backward, the view will be from the rear. If you are pivoting the ship around its center axis, you will get an appropriate view.”
Samix triggered the bottom thrusters to push the ship away from the docking point. As she did, the window changed to a view from the top of the ship. When she began maneuvering the ship towards open space, a small green arrow appeared, showing her the ship’s trajectory. Once the ship was clear of the asteroids, she turned it around so she could try to find the docking hatch. A green icon highlighted the docking point, signaling that Ann had accurately predicted what the pilot was trying to do.
“Even though I have upgraded myself, our interactions will be clumsy at first,” Ann said. “The more we fly together, the faster I will be able to predict what you need to be the most effective pilot. It was said that the greatest Groz pilots were essentially one with the ship.”
After an hour of familiarizing herself with the new controls and readouts, she nosed the ship towards a loose cluster of asteroids in the dark portion of the belt. With the astounding complexity and intricacy of the helmet, she worked the flight controls as if on instinct. On other ships, she would have had to worry about striking one of the rocks with the back of the ship as she made tight loops to navigate. With the helmet, she could immediately see the exact proximity of her ship to the nearest rock. The longer she worked inside the belt, the more predictive Ann became. By the end, Samix felt as though she and Ann were working as one, the latter putting up visuals autonomously.
As Samix broke through the interior of the belt, a radio transmission broke her concentration and almost her to graze the massive stone she was passing. With a quick button hook, the ship was back inside the cover of the belt, and she turned her attention to the communication. As she flew deeper into the asteroids, Ann identified and translated the message.
“It appears that a mining ship has been attacked by pirates. This was the ship’s SOS.”
“How close is it to us? Is there a threat to us?”
“I do not believe so. I have traced the signal back to a portion of the belt located near the planet. I have seen no signs that anyone even knows we are here. You wake the captain.”
Chapter 5
Zade fell asleep without the helmet for the first time since he had found it. After sleeping with it on a few times, he concluded that it was trying to train his muscle memory while he slept. Every time he woke up with the helmet on, his mind was spinning with knowledge he had no right knowing. At first, he couldn’t pinpoint why he felt strange when he woke up, but after waking up with a full knowledge of how to wield twin battleaxes, he figured it out. This time he just wanted to rest. He left the helmet on his desk across the room.
“Zade, we need you on the command deck. We are getting a transmission from a distressed ship.”
Samix’s voice emanated from a speaker somewhere in his pitch-black quarters. He was close to waking anyway, so the message wasn’t as jarring as it could have been.
“I’ll be right there,” he responded. “Lights on.”
The lights came up slowly, allowing his eyes time to adjust. After tossing back the sheets, he put on a new under suit and grabbed his helmet. When he arrived on the command deck, he saw Samix hunched over, examining a map of the system. Ann greeted him as he entered by appearing next to him.
“What’ve we got?” he asked both simultaneously.
“A mining ship in the system has been attacked by pirates,” Samix said. “Ann has the source of the transmission identified on the map.”
As she finished, she pointed to a green box on the far side of the system. He moved forward to examine the map.
“Can you locate the two transmission sources you identified when we entered the system, Ann?” he asked after a minute of quiet contemplation.
Two more boxes appeared. One was on the planet itself and the other was located on a planetoid sized object in a densely packed portion of the belt.
What is going on here? Do I want to get involved? he asked himself as he continued examining the map.
“It looks like the miners are from the planet,” Samix began before he could formulate a plan. “Based on the proximity of the distressed ship to the planet, the other transmission location must be a pirate base?” her inflection rose at the end, betraying her uncertainty.
“That, or the miners are from a refining station in the belt, allowing them to collect and process whatever ore they mine without having to burn fuel leaving the planet’s gravity well,” Zade said.
“You see, piracy is where people…” she began to explain the concept of piracy to him but he cut her off.
“I know what piracy is. We have it on my planet. I imagine space pirates are more Somali and a little less Jack Sparrow.”
She didn’t understand his reference but accepted that he understood the concept.
“What do you want to do, captain?” she asked, the last word a little more patronizing than he liked.
“Do we even want this fight? If so, can we win?” he asked aloud. “Ann, you have seen my memories and know exactly what the capabilities of our Groz technology is. Can you run probabilities on our chance of success with different factors?”
The hologram nodded and began typing on something only she could see. After a few seconds, she gave him his answer.
“We currently have no weapons. We will not be able to fight another ship. I do, however, have my engines up, which means we will be able to outrun anything short of another Groz ship. Based on your martial skill, I would suggest an eighty percent chance of success if you board and there are less than nine hostiles aboard. Any more than that and your chance of success drops to near zero.”
“Well then, we better set up where we can see what we are going up against,” Zade said. “Samix, what routes can we take to get an eye on the objective without being seen?”
After a few keystrokes at her station, two routes app
eared on the projected map. One circled the outside of the system, easily fifty times longer than the second choice. The other was nearly a straight shot, keeping the smaller star in the system between the objective and the ship. Although he knew time was important, Zade chose the longer route to allow preparation time.
“Samix, we are taking the scenic route. Ann, get some weapons up. I want to have some point defense cannons at the very least before we hit the target. No replay of our exodus from Xi’Ga. Let me know when we are thirty minutes out.”
Ann’s hologram disappeared as she went to work. Samix gave him a nod of approval before heading to her tasks. As the only member of a potential boarding party, he headed to his quarters to gather his armor and then to the forge room to see what advantages he could give himself. As he explored the different upgrades available for his armor, he noticed a menu that was greyed out at the bottom of every list. It was labeled ‘create’ and no matter how many times he tried to use it, he couldn’t.
“What is this create menu?” he asked Ann.
“There is an extremely rare class of Groz called the forger. Much like the engineer or weaponsmith, they grow by creating things that can be used to kill enemies or protect friendlies. It is said that the last forger lived millennia before I was even created. The forger can interface with a forge and create with the Rua. Although they were strong, many captains wouldn’t have them on the ship because they thought that they wasted the resources.”
“What types of things can the forger make?”
“Given enough resources, they could make anything. They were valuable when the fleet was growing because they were the only ones who could make new forges to be put on ships, but the cost in Rua was tremendous. The forges became more complex and had more available items with every iteration. At a point, they had all of the capabilities they believed were necessary. After the Groz had the fleet they needed and enough backup forges to equip an army, forgers became less common.”
Ideas raced through his mind and he wanted nothing more than to explore the possibilities. He thought back to the combat multipliers he had created with the fabricators back on the XES01. Maybe he could find something to help him with his mission. His pilot’s voice interrupted him. She had announced through the ship-wide intercoms that they were two hours from the objective. A couple of mechs accompanying him on the boarding party would have helped him greatly, but he chose to bolster himself instead. He wasn’t sure how long improvements would take, and he was equally unsure how long it would take for him to be ready to start creating new inventions on the forge.
He had already decided to stay simple with the improvements for his armor. He chose the shield generator modification, which covered his armor in short spikes that would create an energy shield to protect him. The modification would allow him to weather the storm if he found himself outnumbered on the mining ship. Most of the flight to the objective was consumed by the implementation of the modification. Samix gave the thirty-minute warning just as he was pulling his helmet off the forge. He simply admired the hellish visage the modification had created. The small cloaking studs had been replaced with spikes in the hexagon pattern on his helmet, giving him the look of a demon.
He walked slowly towards the command deck, studying how the shield would work in battle along the way. On the jaunt, Ann informed him that she had gotten two sets of point defense cannons and four gimble mounted plasma cannons installed on the ship. The defense cannons were located on the top and bottom of the ship, bisecting its length. The plasma cannons were located just under the command deck and would give Samix a one-hundred-degree firing window.
The pilot was focused on flying. She didn’t notice him entering the room or taking his seat. At first, he was concerned that his new spikes would make sitting difficult, but found that the density of them made them act similar to a nail bed. With his harness secured, he filled her in on her new weapons. She had been working with Ann on the armament and was given notification as soon as they were functional, making his announcement unnecessary.
When the flight clock hit zero, he heard the drone of the engines stop and Samix used the remaining momentum of the ship to angle it back towards the asteroid belt. One second, he could barely make out the asteroids on the front window, and the next it was filled with a zoomed-in view of a tubular silver ship connected to an asteroid with multiple anchor cables. The side of the large ship not facing the rock had four patchwork shuttles docked.
“Well, it looks like we know how the pirates got to the miners. How the fuck could they be dumb enough to let themselves get boarded through their own shuttle bays?” he asked no one in particular.
“That’s a little rough don’t you think?” Samix chided. “A few months ago, you didn’t even know space battle was possible. Now you’re the expert? These people are miners. They have no clue about security. If they thought the system was being secured by Unity forces, they probably don’t even have weapons aboard.”
Her snipe aggravated him, but he didn’t let it show because she was right to put him in check. When he was training his species in Afghanistan, he wasn’t that critical, and humans were shit-caked, backward, dirt farmers that had been fighting for hundreds of years.
“Fair point,” he acknowledged before addressing Ann. “How many do you think are in each of the shuttles?”
“Based on volume, I would estimate that they could carry twenty individuals each.”
He was really hoping that the pirates didn’t roll eighty troops to take one unarmed mining ship. He figured the ships were there to receive their ill-gotten spoils. Even so, he explained what he wanted to do, and the team waited for at least three of the shuttles to undock and head out into the rest of the belt. His plan was as crazy as it was reckless, but with two crew members and one AI facing a pirate army, it had to be. After his briefing, he headed to his quarters and geared up.
As the second to last pirate shuttle disappeared into the depths of the asteroid belt, Samix made her move. Zade was doing a final equipment check, an army habit, he felt the gravity shift as his pilot fired up the main. Within seconds they were pulling alongside the mining vessel. Once the ship drifted to a stop above the remaining shuttle, Ann executed her first task. With Samix lining up the shot, Ann fired at one of the ship’s massive anchor spikes. It ripped through the roof like tissue paper. Zade rode the cargo lift down, peering over the edge at the massive wound to the other ship. He kept his sidearm trained on the opening, but the only thing leaving the shuttle was debris from its sudden decompression.
Once the material stopped flowing out of the shuttle, Zade stepped off the ramp, allowing the shuttle’s gravity to pull him through the breach point. The shuttle wasn’t huge, but with the damage from his ship, the few working emergency lights cast everything in deep shadows. He quickly flipped on the thermal overlay in his visor before moving forward to clear the section. He could see the red signature of a limb flailing. He was extra cautious as he stepped through the door that divided the section from the back.
One of the pirates was frantically trying to unclip his stuck harness and grab his environmental helmet that had drifted just out of reach. The violent decompression of the ship and exposure to vacuum did nothing for the appearance of the already ugly alien. As the alien shuttle pilot caught sight of Zade’s menacing black armor, he froze. Time stretched out as both men simply stood examining each other. The severity of the pilot’s situation caused him to regain focus first. He redoubled his effort to grab the helmet which would provide him protection from the vacuum and clean, breathable air.
Realizing that he was getting close to succeeding, Zade reached out and nudged the helmet just out of his reach. Even on the alien face, Zade knew he was watching the hope leave its eyes. The being turned his attention to freeing himself from his seat. His frantic struggle with the harness quickly turned to convulsions, which turned to stillness. He wasn’t sure what to expect when the man died. He had killed before, but there was a ne
w component that he had never experienced before donning the Groz armor. Once the pilot finally expired, he watched an ephemeral, green substance ooze from the dead pilot to his helmet. The capacity indicator on his helmet went from empty to showing a sliver of a charge.
As he moved back through the shuttle towards the airlock that connected it to the mining ship, he looked up through the breach point to see that Samix had moved the ship into a covering position. Neither wanted to risk a collision of vessels if one of the pirates tried to flee in the shuttle. The new nose cannons also allowed her to prevent any reinforcements from making his life more difficult.
After the airlock cycled, he stepped into the darkened hallway and placed his hand on the first console he found. Ann could use the contact to gain access to the internal systems of the ship. After a few seconds, a layout of the ship appeared in his visor with an icon denoting his current location.
“It appears that there is an individual in the engine bay and eight trying to gain access. I do not see any other lifeforms aboard.”
“Are there internal cameras you can bring up? I’d like to see what I’m getting myself into.”
“There are, but the pirates disabled them for their attack. I can only tell they are there by the temperature difference between their bodies and the ambient temperature.”
He trusted Ann’s abilities to identify the pirates but moved with caution none the less. He was hoping that the operational sloppiness and complacency he had seen on the shuttle were also traits of the boarding party. At the airlock, the corridor of the mining ship had sparse lighting, and the further he moved into the ship the darker his surroundings got. He quickly found that he was navigating solely with his thermal overlay and layout map. The corridor was only illuminated by lit control panels.