Hyperspace

Ionosphere

The Admiral sat on the bridge of her ship, watching the visuals of hyperspace on one of her displays. A mottled black and gray, with flashes of red. At least that is what registered on the screens and in the eyes of humans. Hyperspace was simple. It got you were you wanted to go faster than real space did. Trade Routes, special faster 'lanes' of hyperspace, connected most of the important areas.

She had to avoid the two biggest Trade Routes, the ones that led into Novu Sol's territory. But the other two major ones she was free to use, though she did have to be careful since it was possible for Novu Sol warships to be in the system and cause trouble for her. It took her longer to get places at times, but this was why she was headed to where she was.

Her hand ran over a line of commands, activating them to bring the ship bursting out of hyperspace and into a star system. A few freighters slowly trudged their way in-system from other directions, but as she watched her display fill with vectors, they all intersected at the same place.

A large asteroid glowed bright on the display as the destination for these freighters, its color green, for a friendly base or unit.

The Asteroid Trading Station, or ATS for short. In a relatively worthless star system between the Nation of the Free and the Treos Clusters, it served as a rest stop of sorts, for merchants who may want to avoid the custom patrols and taxes that passing through Novu Solarian space might bring. It came with more risk, but the profits were worth it to some people.

The Admiral tapped her communications, bringing up a link to ATS and moved her ship towards the asteroid.

"Ah Ionosphere! It's good to see you again." The voice crackled a little, aging equipment that had probably been stolen or 'damaged in transit.' "You need your dock opened up?"

"Only once I get closer, refuel as well." She said simply.

"Yes Ma'am." With that the communication ended. The other merchants didn't seem bothered by the Novu Solarian ship in their presence as it swept past the normal docking facilities to a concealed dock in a deep crater. The hatch expertly painted to look like the surrounding rock, small enough to not be worth a second glance, and hard to maneuver into for any large, civilian vessel. She had it installed 4 years ago, when she got tired of her ship being ogled in the regular docks and an uptick in Novu Solarian patrols in the star system meant the station had lost a lot of business. It benefited them both. She paid good money to the station and they helped her stay hidden.

Unnamed Star System

Asteroid Trading Station (ATS)

The Admiral walked easily through the crowds of people, small enough to not be of any notice, wearing gray working coveralls and hair twisting up into a bun. She was armed with a sidearm, that was just common sense out here, but other than that, she did not wear her uniform. Today she needed to blend, not attract attention.

The crowds were starting to thin as she continued her walk, less business was being done around this area, this was the station crew, the people that worked here, lived here for the most part.

A guard in armor that looked worn nodded to her and opened an old fashioned door labeled "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.' before her stretched a passage where only a couple people walked and she strode past them, a confused glance from the younger of the pair as she found the hatch for the conference room.

She sat down in one of the well used chairs, rested her arms on the table and waited.

Two minutes later, a hologram popped up with the face of a man, unnaturally handsome with a decorative burn of some ancient Earth language on his forehead.

"Well Admiral, it's nice to see you again."

"Don't flirt, I want to know if any big requests or fishing attempts have been made." She said coolly.

The man rolled his eyes, "Yes Ma'am. No, I have not heard anything big since the Mountain Men decided to actively seek you out. A few merchants you've escorted before tried to fish, but you weren't here so they moved on."

Not an unusual state of affairs. Her services were never needed at all times, even if there was a demand. "What about intelligence from Novu Sol?"

"There have been some rumbles lately." He paused, almost for dramatic effect. "Mostly small time efforts to look into your whereabouts though. I heard you were busy raiding a large convoy which kicked your ass, but considering you are here, I'm starting to doubt those rumors."

The Admiral nodded. "Thank you, I assume you want the usual payment?" She pressed a small chip into the table, the hologram lighting up with the information on it, credits.

"Yes, and one more thing I heard that,"

The man was cut off as another signal overrode his. This time the face of a woman appeared, the person who was pretty much considered the owner, looked grim.

"Admiral, we have a problem."

NSW Rose

Commander Harvey Avern

"It has been a while Sir." The young Lieutenant said as he looked over the notes on the hologram in front of him. "A little over a year ago since the Navy has been here."

"Thank you Lieutenant." Commander Avern said as he sat back in his command chair on the Novu Sol Warship (NSW) Rose. He was out here in his light cruiser with fellow light cruiser Commander Harving of Daisy, to investigate possible areas where that traitor 'the Admiral' went. Hopefully they'd pick up more of a lead here, as so far, none of the reports being swapped around the various ships on this mission had gotten a whiff since those merchants had come stumbling home screaming about her.

This was small fry though, two light cruisers could handle any of the worthless pirates that may be around, and ask the hard questions to people who were afraid of their profits and lives being shot apart. This base here was an open secret among merchants and the Novu Sol Navy rarely wasted its time out here. Coming out here too often meant it would only scare off the low lives that live here and they would have to put in a massive effort to find the next place they set up shop.

"Communication, contact ATS." Avern said and he waited until the face of the woman that ran the place appeared. She looked annoyed. "Oh hello there ATS."

"What do you want?"

"Not even a hello?" He said in his best injured tone, "I am Commander Avern and I just came out here to ask you a simple question, not clean up the small fry."

"Then what is it?"

"Has The Admiral been out here recently?" He watched her face, and to her credit, almost concealed the reaction. It was tiny, but he saw her face tighten a bit, eyes narrow a little.

"No. I haven't seen her in a long while, didn't your navy beat her recently or something?"

He nodded slightly to himself. Lying to cover her tracks. Not uncommon. He wondered how much that traitor had paid her. "Alas no, we gave it a good try and are following the blood trail." Avern's eyes never left the woman's face. "We believe here was a good place to check for the blood, so to speak."

The ATS woman nodded as though she were just comprehending why two small Novu Sol ships would be here. It was a game they were playing. Could he trick her into admitting when she was here? Could she navigate around the subject and get out unharmed?

"Well I'm..."

"Sir!" Communications interrupted. "Commander Harving says they see an odd opening in the asteroid. Tactical?"

The tactical officer was busy with some information but soon a small hologram out of sight of the com pick up for the ATS woman highlighted an unnatural hole dark and hidden, away from other openings to the actual docks. Had they caught say, a slaver dock that was dealing secretly out here at ATS? Perhaps they had cleared the departure not knowing that warships were here, and had now given away their secret space.

He muted the pick up for a moment, the software working to blur his face for a moment to allow to speak freely. "Tell Harving to get closer and check it out, see if we can get a good look inside that dock." Avern then unmuted the feed and the woman looked puzzled. "Sorry, one of my officers decided something very unimportant was important enough to interrupt you." He apologized, his gaze glancing down at the hologram that showed Daisy moving forward to get a better look into the hidey hole that had opened up. Visuals showed it to be pitch black barely visible to the naked eye in the shadow of a crater rim. Well hidden, he thought, but whoever opened the door was dumb as a headless chicken. The woman was explaining something as she looked through notes about the last time Admiral was here and even half listening he could hear the lies in it. None of it was true or perhaps a partial lie. He didn't really care, he could go back and listen to this at any point, taking care of this hidden secret dock which the ATS wasn't even acknowledging or apologizing for was more important.

"What the fuck?!" Tactical yelled, sitting back with a jerk and even Avern felt his whole body tense in shock and dismay. As Daisy approached there was a single surge in her energy levels, like the cruiser was trying to raise shields before the ship was blown to pieces, no piece large enough to hold any survivors. He watched in numb horror as a shape began to emerge from the dock and his computers instantly identified it.

The Ionosphere. No wonder the light cruiser hadn't stood a chance. On a good day with shields and a running start a light cruiser may get away with a serious fatal mauling from an Atmosphere-class battlecruiser. He couldn't actually outrun the battlecruiser not from a dead stop while the larger ship already had momentum and engines running. He would be dead before he could get out far enough to hyper out.

Avern startled himself out of his numbed horror. He had to save his ship. Get word back that The Admiral was here.

"Get us moving, behind ATS, now!" He snapped.

Helm seemed stunned as everyone else but quickly the ship surged to life, accelerating around the curve of the asteroid as the battlecruiser had just started to turn their direction.

Avern pressed a command the general quarters alarm went off, shrill and loud, summoning those who were not already at their stations to them, preferably with skinsuits for protection should damage be taken. His mouth was dry and still felt horror as he watched his ship come to battle readiness. He thought he had the easy job, just following the crumbs of logic while bigger ships hunted down their enemy. Instead here he was, trapped on the other side of an asteroid from a battlecruiser that wanted him dead.

His eyes traveled over the data now that he had a bit of time. It was definitely the right ship and most certainly hers. Data showed under the shields a gaping rent in armor and energy signature was off, a sure sign of damage, he was dead. Maybe if he could delay long enough he could out dance her. She was one person she had to get tired and there would be no one to fight her ship for her once she fell from exhaustion. It would be hard, but maybe.

"Communication for you Sir." Coms said, sounding nervous.

Avern looked up at the officer, who looked more terrified than he'd even seen. "Put it here."

The face of a pale woman with platinum blonde hair and an angry red scar under an eye appeared next to him. She wore a crisp professional Novu Sol uniform, looking like something out of a recruitment poster. She smiled. "Hello Commander. I see the Navy is putting a little more effort into finding me than I first believed." She paused to see if he would speak. Avern felt he couldn't trust his voice just yet. "I can make this easy on you Commander. Come out now and your ship's death will be painless."

"No I will not." He said firmly after a moment. "You traitor."

"You wound me." The Admiral gave a frown, then a tiny shrug. "If that is your choice, then so be it." The communication ended abruptly and Avern looked over to tactical.

"Ready point defense, helm, if that ship even pokes its nose out from behind the asteroid, you run the opposite direction."

"Aye Sir!" The helm's voice was a bit high from nerves and Avern sat back, trying his best to project calm confidence now that the shock was over. He was a dead man. He had to be. Unless the traitor messed up, got too cocky or lazy. He had a sinking feeling that she wouldn't. It was so easy, he thought, to be confident that they would track her down and sic a fleet on her; he hadn't considered what would happen if his ship got caught alone with the Ionosphere.

The wait that followed was excruciating. His ship held at alert while slowly trying to circle the rotating asteroid, putting on bursts of speed when the Ionosphere was seem in a certain direction. He cursed at the Asteroid Trading Station when suddenly their own sensors became next to useless, hashed to oblivion by electronic warfare from the asteroid that while crude was effective.

"Can't get through it Sir. We can still see, but they have to be burning their sensor output at around 200% to get this kind of hash." Tactical reported, the past four hours of tense evasion apparent in his voice. "They can't do it forever, not even with last generation high tier civilian equipment."

Avern rubbed his eyes and glared down at what little info they had now. Maybe they could make a run now. "Helm, we are going to break for hyper, put everything we got into it."

Helm was about to answer when suddenly the blare of multiple alarms caught their attention. Missiles were streaking hard around the curve of the asteroid, with Ionosphere burning her engines hard behind them, no longer coyly playing but on the hunt. Helm threw the ship down and away from the approaching missiles, bidding to get back behind the asteroid. Avern felt a bit of hope as his ship accelerated away smoothly. He knew this move. Put something between you and the missiles, they might burn more fuel correcting their course, making them easier to evade or possibly destroy. And with the battlecruiser in hot pursuit she would now have to guess which way they would break to avoid running into her instead of toying them in a certain direction.

Another alert screamed and Avern saw it an instant too late. There had been missiles waiting for them, dropped in space and activated as his ship came into view. They didn't have much beyond surprise, but where they had been dropped meant he had only a half a second before they slammed into his shields.

Rose's shields went down and depressurization alarms wailed on the bridge at the damage. He slammed a fist on the arm of his chair, damage reports flooded in and he glanced up as the missiles that had chased him this way puttered out and exploded. His ship continued to limp away but the blood was in the water now.

A few minutes later Ionosphere swam into view, all of the sensor hash dropping as the ship moved closer. Avern watched the ship as it closed, a few pitiful missiles firing off and splashing harmlessly off the shields.

He noticed a symbol. A communication. He pressed it, looking up at communications who was busy coordinating damage repairs.

A voice, chilled and calm spoke to him. "This could have been painless Commander."

He stared in silent hatred at the image of the battlecruiser.

"Fuck you." He hissed in return.

There was no reply. Only the world exploding around him. And nothing.

The Admiral sighed. More wasted missiles.

"Well," she said to the face of the ATS owner. "They are dead, you realize this means ATS is on borrowed time when they realize you were involved, right?"

"Oh I can rebuild this in another star system." The woman shrugged. "This place was nice, but I can always set it up somewhere else. Plenty of worthless asteroids to take over."

The Admiral watched as all the merchant ships that had been docked began to flee as fast as possible in different directions. "Shame. Can you get your new location information to my informants?"

The woman nodded. "I can indeed. Even build you a nice new hidey hole when all is said and done." A large bulky old passenger liner separated from the asteroid and began to trudge away in a direction that pointed to no nation. "See you around."

The Admiral nodded and began to fly her ship away from the asteroid as more and more craft spilled from it. She took her time, watching them all buzz around and fly away, trying to cover tracks and save supplies.

She was sitting quietly out-system, ship prepped for hyper when the ATS suddenly vanished in a bright ball of light, sending shards of asteroid and its inner hidden base flying. She took a deep breath. She was tired. Time to go and hopefully get some rest.

Her hand ran down the line of commands and her ship vanished into hyper, leaving an empty system behind.