Eden Space/Largo Quadrant/Opelia System - Year 31,721 - Day 295

XP6 Shuttle

I decided to play the role of the gentleman. For five days I kept my boorish commits tucked in, my dry humor on pause, and didn’t try to poke her with my morning wood while we slept. Honestly, treating her as a teammate instead of a one night stand was for the best.

Gale showed promise.

“Thanks for listening,” Gale said, folding a loose strand of hair behind her ear. We finished evening training about bounding overwatch early. She understood the basics and even moderate lessons. She was smart, real smart. The problem was, there was little for me to train her on besides tablet tactics without a simulator or open bay. During the downtime she found the time to have a personal talk. “I know it was a bit depressing.”

After the lesson, she proceeded to tell me about her breakup with her girlfriend. It was a messy relationship involving long distance issues common across the galaxy. The kicker, I actually listened - for the most part. I added in questions that showed my interest and she didn’t deflect. It was a good start and she started touching me towards the end. Slight touches combined with her vibrant blue showed interest in me. However, our banter about love would have to wait.

“Exiting triangulation jump in three minutes,” Six broadcast.

“Time’s up. I need you in the pilot’s seat, I can’t fit in there while in my armor,” I said, knocking on the thin metallic exterior.

“Gee. I can help fight,” Gale said, not trying to argue - she was following orders by heading to the cockpit - but she was fairly assertive in her tone.

I tossed my helmet on, sealing my armored suit. The diagnostic ran checks as it powered up. I patched into her linker, knowing the device would sync with her ear bud. The armor was a relic, just like me. It had a tectoni powercore, the best money could buy even today. The casing wasn’t the top of the line, but the energy the suit provided would turn me into a fighter with my thrust engines.

“Did you know this shuttle has guns?” I asked.

“Yeah small projectiles,” Gale replied with a grunt. “This cockpit is a tight fit. Gotta lose five pounds, fucking beer and donuts.”

I chuckled, glancing over my shoulder to see her attaching the pilot’s harness. She’d be secured during evasive maneuvers while all I’d have was hand grips in the pressurization chamber. XP6 wasn’t exactly the best model for dampeners.

“Sir, I can fire my sniper beamer from outside the ship and be more effective. I can help as more than a pilot.”

“I need a pilot. Look, if you stick around, we get a better ship or whatever, and we can hire a pilot. And Gale, relax, this ship has a feronix powercore with hidden hydrogen micro-cannons. It may be small, but she packs a punch,” I told her. “I never skimp on my powercores. The micros can do some serious damage to me and this is me trusting you. That means you are going to be using the best weapon you can be.”

“Um… Gee, thanks for trusting me,” Gale said awkwardly.

I scoffed, letting her hear the gesture. “I listened to your heartache story. Best not shoot me in the back after I did so with a fake smile.”

“Har, har. I’m strapped in, mentally syncing with the controls, going silent for sixty during linking,” Gale said.

I didn’t respond. My suit whirled during its testing.

‘Suit diagnostics complete.

Oxygen 93%.

Seal confirmed.

8/8 Jets Operational.

Powercore 53% optimal. Raw elements needed.

Shielding unavailable.

Power required, attaching to the powercore for recharge.’

A hose shot out of my lower back until it connected to a wall outlet. A tube would provide the hydrogen and helium the powercore needed. A humm from my power pack was followed by the fifty three percent indicator increasing. The charging bar flashed and showed a jumping five percent every few seconds.

While the suit gulped down elements, I flexed, tested the joints, and hopped a few times. After the basic maneuvers, all the status sequences showed green.

A minute later, my charging cord detached and I propped open my weapon cabinet. The long rifle ‘Darcy’ went over my back. The suit magnetically attached the tantalizing weapon in place. Memory placed layouts knew where to lock down my tools of war. ‘Bada-Boom’ attached to my chest and the ‘Twins’ went to my hips with crisp snaps.

This would be all a warrior like me needed. A bit of protection and weapons to deal with various situations.

One day. One day I’ll have the elite gear to help carry the day.

In Eden’s name I pray.

“One minute until triangulation is complete,” Six broadcast.

I walked into the airlock, sealing myself into the compartment that I could barely fit into with my armor. The confined chamber was painted in the constant black void that was my trademarked theme. The interior held an entry, an exit, a few handlebars, and vent stacks to pressure or depressurize the room. That was it.

The XP6’s design functioned around practical applications with minimal flare, just the way I liked it.

If only it had a shower.

“There’s a hiccup in the landing zone. We’re being bounced further out,” Six said.

“What the fuck?” I blurted.

Gates were powerful generators that bent time and opened space by creating a tunnel a ship could travel from a to b. You paid a fee, in my case five E-coins, and the gates jumped you to a spot in the galaxy you desired. The fee near the core quadrants was more expensive and the cost near the capital systems was ridiculous. Part of that cost was because the amount of gates used increased. The power consumption the higher the fee. Out here, the cost was reasonable and the tunnel stayed open for a lot longer than normal too.

For Eden, and her citizens, the tunnel creators were normally set in place, meant to stay fixed to facilitate trade. As the system grew, so did the number of exit points through the gate networks. No single ship could jump themselves, therefore creating a network of costly points. Thankfully, gates only needed an opening point.

Gates were a bane and a boon to any admiral because you couldn’t take them with you. They had to power the opening until you finished your journey and in most cases, stayed open to facilitate your return. Which we had paid for an extended opening.

“The octagon gates never needed bounces,” I grumbled.

“Yeah, well, you used the triangle gates. You're on a frontier quadrant with budgeting issues. There’s a reason Pearl Station was so cheap for your procedure,” Six said in her sassy tone.

“A hundred thousand Es is a ton,” I grumbled, not actually trying to argue.

Six hesitated. “Exiting in three, two, one, and sensors out.”

We jolted, leaving tunnel space and arriving into a section of the Opelia System not far from an asteroid field. Far was obviously subjective, it would take hours to even come close to the nearest rock. While I absorbed the scan results, we immediately went into evasive maneuvers.

“Easy… Control your erratic vectors,” I said calmly over the radio.

My heads up display (HUD) inside my helmet broadcasted the scene. Three ships rested a few thousand miles away. A two seater ship docked to the ceiling of the transport freighter. A boarding frigate pulled the three person transport with tethers.

The largest ship fired indiscriminately and I had to wonder if the gunner was new. Their energy beams sliced through space, seeking our XP6 with guesstimated fire. None of the sporadic beams of energy came close because we were way too far away. A few seconds after the gunner fired, they stopped.

With the frigate and the interceptor so far away, there was no reason to panic, giving us plenty of time to assess the situation.

“We bounced because?” I asked Six on a private channel.

“The highest probability is the enemy’s shielding prevented a tunnel exit. Our wormhole will only be open for the next twenty hours, down from twenty eight,” Six said.

“ETA at full burn?”

“To where?” Six asked dryly.

“The fight, Six. Sorry. I will try to remember that you lack the ability to decipher my meanings. Estimated time of arrival to the three ships that were firing at us.”

She didn’t sass me. “Thirty three minutes and closing. The group is on an increasing approach.”

The ship smoothed out, Gale finding the calm I always had. I assessed the situation outside with more scrutiny. Our target freighter was tugged by a xeno combat ship. I knew who made these ships. I zoomed in to confirm my theory. The shorter doors, shielding on the frigate from forty points, and the engine fins; those were the big giveaways.

“Lasarin… Huh?” I said in confusion.

“The Lasarin Empire fractured four thousand years ago. One side stayed under Eden’s protection, the other proceeded to jump into distant space to ally with random anti-Eden factions. The split caused a very brief and anticlimactic war. There is the possibility this could just be pirates instead of that faction,” Six said.

“Not bloody likely. That’s a netting interdictor and the other ship is a boarding frigate. Both are new models with the same old basics. Look at them fly too. Both are acting with discipline. Inexperienced, but trained. The bonus is they’re towing the derelict to us,” I said with a positive tone.

“What’s the plan, Gee?” Gale asked.

I activated my linker tablet on my suit, messing with the interface. A timer counted down from twenty nine minutes. The rate of closure between us accelerated because the timer swirled lower and lower.

“They’re not separating while heading right for us. I’ve been on thousands of combat missions and this one will be tricky. I can win here. I can, but we have to change the dynamic. Hmm… How good are you on the stick?” I asked.

“Like flying?”

“Yes,” I grumbled. “You are sitting in the pilot’s seat.”

“Seeing as how they might have AI enhanced controls, not as good as them,” Gale admitted.

Six cued her mic. “They don’t. I’d know. They’re fighting fair, mostly. There’s some aim assist on their guns but it is subpar.”

“Hail them,” I said.

“They won’t -” she paused. “They have surprisingly accepted.”

“You should realize I have experience in such matters,” I told her, waiting for the connection to materialize.

A wolf-faced humanoid appeared in my HUD. The being was short, five feet at most with dark brown fur on his floppy ears. His face protruded slightly at the nose with smooth cheeks blending the human to the hybrid. He wore a bomber jacket over his space suit, a trait his pack likely passed down from their time among Eden’s finest. He sat rigidly in a plain metallic chair that shone from polish.

Down the strip of the rectangular ship, I saw lasarin’s working at stations while relaying messages to each other. The bridge was quiet, and besides the three human prisoners, very calm. The captured people sobbed, bound hand to foot and seated before the lasarin captain. This would be the Jarshawns that we were meant to recover. The mother and father were a few hundred years old, simple traders in need of repairs.

They came out to the Opelia Belt to deliver goods and to haul ore. If the miners saw them get captured or experience problems, they didn’t move to help them. The mother and father, wiggled next to their fourteen year old son. The situation was tragic and this never should have happened.

The miners should have helped, but they didn’t. The lasarins should have left days ago… I’d get to the bottom of it at some point. However, these were Eden Citizens at the xenos feet. A sight I wouldn’t tolerate.

“Ah, you had to know this would strike a nerve with a man like me,” I said unhappily.

“A man like you, you’re a mechanic sent to repair a ship that we stumbled upon. With the powercore inoperable, we are merely salvaging a derelict. We even waited the two day cycles to rightly claim the ship. In this section of space, this is now our property,” he said, sticking a foot on the father. “And these are my new slaves.”

I paused the video to check we were within Eden’s borders.

We were.

I checked our manifest. Six hid my identity and broadcast I was a repair crew of two.

Interesting. I could work with this as well.

I resumed the conversation.

“Only warning. The legions of Eden, active or retired do not back down from a fight. You will lose good lasarins if you decide to try to flee with our derelict and its crew,” I said.

“A legionnaire. Smesh. As if. You’d arrive with your armadas and we would shake with fear. Instead you show up in a fast shuttle with two souls on board. You are nothing.”

The connection closed and I hung my head. “Hard to be intimidating in a shuttle with no real guns on display,” I muttered to myself. “Alright Gale. Strafing runs on the smaller webbing ship. Six, don’t let her within five miles.”

“Best I can do is warn her with alerts,” Six said.

“Just charge the small ship and shoot it?” Gale asked.

“Keeping it simple. However, this time you have permission to fly erratically. And Gale, they will start firing again once they think they have a bead on you,” I warned.

“I doubt I’ll hit the ship,” Gale mumbled to herself without turning the mic off.

Before I could reassure her, we entered a tight spin and a rapid acceleration. I may have had a few screws loose because I hollered with joy.

“Wahoo! More! Let these fucking pirates know you are crazy,” I said with a grimace.

The suit adjusted some of the tugging forces the ship applied. Ever so slowly, the XP6’s dampers added additional compensation for the intense maneuvers. My HUD’s timer counted down quickly. Five minutes flashed into four minutes in a few seconds.

Both sides accelerated. The interceptor broke off from the tethered ships. The smaller interceptor zoomed forward, increasing in size on my display.

“Take me by the frigate,” I ordered.

Gale screamed a battle cry into her mic, fueling her courage. Our shuttle shimmied from constant vibrations as it unleashed stitching fire. Bright blue beams of energy lanced across the void. The continuous torrent of fire worked its way towards the interceptor, coming a lot closer than I expected.

“Ah! So close!” Gale cursed as her shots barely missed.

The frigate’s hull opened missile ports, unleashing a full salvo of seekers. The missiles were expensive and a bit much for us under most circumstances.

Maybe the captain took our threat seriously. It wouldn’t save him.

Gale’s near misses sent the interceptor seeking safety by running for distance. That was the opening she was looking for. The ship swerved, diving between four seekers. The missiles flipped in slow turns as they continued to track us.

We flew directly toward the frigate, throttling forward with increasing speed. The shuttle twirled, blasting out return fire.

Nice shooting.

Gale’s energy beams smashed into the shields of the frigate. A crystalizing spray of energy burst from each impact, the sight a testament to the forces manipulating energy.

When we neared the shifting frigate, I activated the hatch door and locked my boots to the decking until I was an inch from the void of space.

A little closer.

“Excellent aim. Continue to shoot anywhere close to the frigate, exhaust the powercore now that the shields are flaring with hits,” I said calmly.

“That’ll leave us a sitting duck,” Gale protested.

“Just do it, and when I save you, you can take a shower with me later,” I said with a tease.

I flew out of XP6 knowing exactly what to do. My suit’s exterior ran cold to blend in with space.

I drifted for a few seconds to ensure my blip disappeared from sensors.

3...2...1...Go!