Thaum new galaxy chapter 10.

Chapter 10. Search.

Thaum sat on the front step thinking and people watching. An alien walked through the street. Blue long spindly limbs and bone plates instead of hair. Thaum had seen more interesting magical races.

He was getting strangely impatient. His annoyance grew. There was so much to do in this new universe, and he was still on this backward planet. And worst of all, on this backward planet he almost got blown up on a simple mission.

His immediate goals became more apparent. He needed information about the weaponry here. Then he could counter them, or at least avoid being unintentionally scattered across a room. Or vaporized.

There was a knock on the door. Thaum raised a brow, it came from the inside. It had only been two minutes since he went outside. He sarcastically said, “come in,” before opening the door himself.

Alice dodged the door with hands up, “I’ll go. There isn’t anything left for me here anyway.”

Thaum shrugged, “as good a reason as any, grab your things and put them in a one-meter pile.”

She rushed back to get a suitcase then moved her bound pile of books. There were only forty or so of them. Thaum grabbed one and flicked through it. Hand-written Thaum mused while Alice fidgeted.

She asked, “so when are we going, and umm, how are we getting there.”

Thaum smirked. It was rare to meet someone who had no idea about magic. He said, “magic,” making sure to keep the tone joking. Then played with a communicator he had stolen last night as a distraction as he was silent casting a teleport spell.

Alice yelped as everything went dark, “what happened!” she asked. Thaum threw a few light balls around. Revealing the cave and Alice on all fours feeling about.

Thaum ignored her and focused on the next teleport. She jumped as the formation on the ground shone to life. Before she could fully get her bearings, they shifted again. The scene changing to cold steels of the ship's hull. Alice emptied her stomach.

Thaum thumbed the communicator, and the cave blew up. He stepped over Alice and her mess, “clean that up and see me in the cockpit when your stomach calms down.”

Teleportation tends to make people a little disorientated. And having no mana and suddenly being overwhelmed by a powerful spell will upset most people's stomachs. Both together were bound to make you lose your lunch. Thaum mused that he should have given her a bag first as he sat in the captain's chair.

The computer said, [welcome back captain, would you like to see the ships reports now or later also, what designation will the new passenger have]

Thaum got comfortable. A harness automatically fastened him and a small halo fitted onto his head. “give her standard cremate status and show me the most pressing reports.”

[the most important report is the ship's power systems are operating zero point zero zero five nine percent lower than expected values]

Thaum had to look through his memories before saying, “that's fine. I didn’t expect the repairs at that auto station to be that great anyway. What else.”

Alice shuffled in, holding the wall, trying to take everything in. “where are we” she managed.

“my ship”

Alice slumped into a cremate seat and only flailed a little as she accidentally activated the automatic harness system, “I know that. I mean, how are we here.”

Thaum had very little practice with the halo system using thoughts to interact with the computer, so he accidentally sent a report window flying across to the edge of the screen. “teleportation.”

Alice managed to find the unfasten button, “that’s impossible.”

“Magic,” Thaum replied, grabbing the flung window and scanning it. He heard a sigh and murmur behind him. He said, “Hey, I want to know who around here would know a lot about weapon systems.”

Alice thought for a moment, “Wolfram was a general”

Thaum said, “the person is going to die, so pick someone else.”

Alice sucked in a breath, “you want me to name someone to die…” her voice trailed off.

Thaum spun the seat around, “yes. Pick someone evil.”

Alice sat back down and answered after a minute, “I heard rumors of a weapon researchers on a nearby moon--”

Thaum interrupted, “I want someone who knows what the weapons do, not how they work.”

Alice raised a brow, “that’s a strange request... you probably want an arms dealer, but I have no idea where you would find one.”

Thaum flicked through a few screens, “okay then, how about an easy target that carries valuables, but not too valuable.”

She facepalmed, “so from hitman to pirate in five minutes of getting on the ship.”

Thaum said, “computer, just resolve all the unimportant stuff yourself or show it to her. Also, Alice just answer the question.”

Alice hummed with various expressions before finally saying, “There are mining convoys a few systems over. It's valuable as a whole. But not very valuable by volume. They are easy targets which is why they have a pirate problem.”

Thaum smiled, “perfect, set out heading for there. That’s where we will find our arms dealer.” He stood up and said, “computer tell me when we are almost there, an hour before you ask.”

Alice jumped back up, “what. I don’t follow. Why would an arms dealer hang around mining convoys? They don’t have good weaponry hence the pirate problem. It's not like they are going to suddenly have the money to buy weapons now of all times.”

Thaum stretched, “the bandits are getting their weapons from somewhere to beat the convoys right. So find the bandits, and you find their dealer. Then find the person supplying them if he doesn’t have what I want.”

“oh,” she said before sitting in the captain's seat with a bounce.

Thaum went to his room after telling her that the room they arrived in was hers.

Alice asked the computer to set a course then sat there for several hours watching the stars. Each second taking her further than she had ever been from her home. Soon enough, her world was too far for the sensors to detect, and the last monitor pixel refreshed to black.

She smiled faintly as the insanity of it all merged with a strangely optimistic hope for the future.

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Several days later.

Thaum was sitting in the captain's seat, and Alice was piloting. Although it would be more accurate to say she was telling the computer what she wanted done. In front of them sat station forty-two. Unimaginative name, but that was because it was a temporary refining station. It would refine the ore the miners brought back into something volumetrically smaller to save space and improve profits. Then send the goods on more well-protected in-house barges. Then when the ore in the area ran low, the whole thing would just move somewhere better.

Thaum spotted dozens of mining ships of various sizes and designs lining up to drop off their load. Some of them had large drills on their vessels. Others had large doors probably for releasing smaller driller drones instead.

A group of ships not in cue caught his attention. They were also mining ships, but they had obvious signs of battle. Burns, holes, and breaches peppered the hulls. Some had glowing particulate leaking from various areas. They each had a white mechanical fist painted somewhere on the hull.

Alice asked, “are you listening? Do you want to dock?”

Thaum replied, “yes, dock in the visitor's area. Look up the refueling procedures and stock everything. I’ll be gone a few hours.” Thaum stood up and went to change.

Alice yelled after him, “you are leaving me alone in your ship?”

Thaum laughed, “computer tell her some of the safety protocols to do with ship theft.”

[In the event of a hijacking, the ship will initiate rapid environmental heating then cooling cycles. If life signs are still detected the ship will vent all oxygen and initiate rapid maneuvers without inertial dampening. Then short warp jumps without dampening. If further action is required, the ship will automatically self destruct]

Alice’s “what the fuck” reached Thaum in his room. He chuckled and got changed into the previous host's best clothes. A suit that looked like some sort of combat uniform minus the combat. He then remolded his face because it didn’t hurt to be highly attractive when negotiating.

The moment his ship docked he stepped out and found the cafeteria. He made sure to attract attention with his stride and even spun his laser pistol before handing it to the robot confiscating weapons.

Thaum sat down with a laughably overpriced tray of food and began to people-watch. Most in the room were humans, a few strangely colored folk from green to pink, but all mostly humanoid. There were more varied forms in Thaums previous universe. Magic allowed even quadrupeds to use tools, albeit usually with less finesse. So finding an intelligent race of dogs was not unheard of.

A woman shuffled into the room that grabbed his attention. She looked like an elf but purple with longer ears. She was beautiful. However, it was her arm that caught his attention. It was a white robotic prosthetic that matched the insignia of the damaged miner fleet.

She took a tray of the cheapest food then slumped into a chair in the corner of the room. Thaum picked up his food and sat next to her, “attacked by bandits.”

She looked up with a raised brow, “pirates? Yes, our convoy was hit a few days ago. What do you want.”

Thaum replied, “the location of said pirates.”

“a thousand credits,” she said before going back to her meal.

Thaum said, “fine,” and waved his credit chip in front of her playfully.

She pulled out her chip, “I only have definitive coordinates where we were attacked.”

Thaum transferred the money and said, “that’s fine. I only need a good trail to follow.”

She nodded and fiddled with her communicator for a minute before displaying a map hologram above the table. This is where we were attacked. They came from behind the asteroids we were going to mine. Oh, and there are rumors that their base is roughly at these coordinates.”

Thaum nodded, took out a pen and paper and took notes. Ignoring her surprised expression at the old-school method of taking notes. She asked, “so why are you after the pirates.”

Thaum pocketed the note and stood up and said “hunting.” then left. He knew her fleet was going to stick around for a while. So he could come back to finish the plans he made the moment he saw that damaged fleet.

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Thaum left the station giving Alice the new coordinates to fly to. Then went to his room and brought back the intergalactic internet terminal. He said, “grab this. I want you to research everything about the raw form of Appolimus, location. What it looks like. Composition ect”

She looked up, “why don’t you already have a fortune of the stuff.”

Thaum sat down into his seat, “yes, a fortune I can’t sell or use without attracting attention.”

“right,” she said before she noticed what was in her hands. She quickly opened it and ran a finger along one of the dents. “This is… this stupid thing is the reason I fucked up my life. I wanted to--

“don’t care,” Thaum interrupted as he messed around with the controls and brought up a TV series on the cockpit monitor.

Alice huffed, “you have already seen that episode three times, and we have barely said a sentence to each other since I got here. Would it kill you to talk?”

Thaum said, “I wiped my memory of this episode after watching, so it's fine.”

“riiight,” she said, sounding unconvinced, “how about I use this to download more episodes for you in ex--

Thaum sat up, “you can do that?”

“yes,” she sighed, “in exchange, let's talk a little, or at least listen to my backstory.” Thaum paused the show and made for an exaggerated listening posture. She continued, “okay, I grew up” Thaum rolled his eyes. Alice said, “fine, just the highlights. There was a lot of oppression from the aristocrats. I wanted to change things, but that was impossible to do through the system. So I aspired to be a teacher. Everyone was kept ignorant, so they couldn’t do anything. So I found a guy that could get ahold of a… well, this thing.”

She lifted the terminal in gesture, “I had it for three months. So initially I wanted to get all the teaching materials I would ever need. However, I was in debt from some assholes to borrow the terminal and looked up an easy way to make money…

Well, I got carried away and spend most of my time figuring out ways to make money. Like if I had enough, then I could easily start a school or several. And keep this damn thing. However –

Thaum interrupted, “you started businesses. Made money, then the aristocrats got in the way, or the thugs or both. Until you ended up a prostitute.”

Alice glared, “no--”

Thaum laughed, “okay, my mistake, a prostitute in waiting.”

Alice sighed, “you are a terrible conversationalist.”

Thaum started the show again, “I’ve just heard it all before so it's boring.”

Alice stood up with the terminal, intending to go somewhere with a desk. She said, “well sorry that my life bores you.” then sarcastically added, “why don’t you just wipe your memory. Maybe you could actually be less of an ass.” She then left the cockpit.

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A day and a half later.

They were nearing their destination. The coordinates of the attack. Thaum came out of his room and sat down, “yellow alert” The lights dimmed, and both their seats harnessed them automatically.

Alice asked, “why are we going on alert when the sensors aren’t picking up anything.”

Thaum replied, “I’m sure the miners had sensors too, and they got ambushed. You stay on sensors. I’ll be focusing”

She gave an affirmative hum and directed her attention to her displays. Asteroids were on the viewer. Their backsides invisible to the sensors. Thaum closed his eyes and sent out wide-area sensory magic. He felt a twinge of pain in his head. Thaum never developed sensory magic for anything larger than a planet, and the distances in space were a new challenge.

Thaum recalled the spells and started modifying them. It would take years to make anything he was satisfied with, so he cut everything from the spells. Invisibility detection, mana detection, etc. If it wasn’t range and life detection, he cut it.

Several minutes later he sent out the new spell, and one pinged back a response. A purple mist hid behind the third to the left asteroid. It was faint, but it was there and probably inside the rockface by Thaums estimate.

When he opened his eyes, Alice was staring at him oddly. He said, “red alert, they are inside that asteroid” The lights took on a red tinge. On the outside of the ship, shields shimmered into existence on thinner parts of the hull. Or where vital systems were housed.

Thaum pushed down the throttle and flicked a screen lowering the inertial dampener's effect. Alice gave a slight squeal as they were pushed into their seats. Thaum wanted to feel what the ship was doing, so only maneuvers over two G’s would be dampened.

They rounded the asteroid. Thaum thumbed the fire button. The primary weapons flaired, sending a blast of plasma into the rockface. It flashed and bloomed when it hit in silent destruction. The rock flung away revealing a dock with several ships already aiming at him. They must have sensors set up around the area and were hoping to be left alone when they saw Thaum's armory.

Thaum said, “put me on general comms.”

“done,” Alice said.

Thaum announced, “hello bandits, surrender now or die. Resistance is futile.”

He cut communication and began targeting the two lead pirate ships. They were modified miner ships. They took off anything used for mining and switched it for weapons. Thaum scanned dozens of autocannons just welded to the hull. Plasma cannons in the place of the drills. And one pirate ship even had an old-style cannon taking up half of the ship.

The pirates began moving out of the dock two at a time. A video popped up in a box on the monitor. A pirate was “surrendering” He said, “fine, you got us. Since when did the military start poking their noses into tiny sectors like this”

Thaum replied, “The make of this ship is military. However, even an idiot can tell that this thing has been modified to hell. Still, more importantly, you don’t need to move to surrender” Then he fired his primary weapons.

Before the front ships could even react, plasma bloomed across their vessels. Drillships were designed to be tough from the front, but Thaums weapons were large for something double his ship's class. The hull breached. Crew were pulled into the vacuum of space.

Both front ships fired back, but there were few survivors to man the guns. Shells flew towards Thaum, taking several seconds to cover the distance. Then exploded when they neared his ship.

Thaum's ship shuddered slightly. Its thick hull and shields designed to bear far worse. He fired again. The weapon cooling system hummed to life, and the two front ships exploded.

He moved the controls and flew over to the side of the dock entrance. Now only one ship could fire on him at a time if they came out. And they did. The ships behind rammed their dying allies' ship aside to freedom. Ignoring the possibility of survivors in the wrecks or simply not caring.

The second row of ships pulled out, and Thaum immediately fired his main weapons again. The plasma cannons flaired. A warning light lit at the corner of his vision. He noted that he would only have a few more shots before he would have to wait for the weapons to cool down.

The ship he was aiming at took the plasma shots to the unarmored side. It immediately exploded before even firing a shot.

He glanced at Alice. She was gripping her armrests tight and was pale as a ghost. She was doing good so far, but this is only the beginning.

The ship that came out with the side-hit ship came out mostly unscathed and came about. Thaum fired his main plasma cannons for the last time before they overheated. The next unlucky ship to be coming out of the dock flashed. The holes left almost bisected the vessel, but it didn’t explode. Its engines cut and it started drifting only to be rammed by the person behind.

Thaum's ship started shaking again. Autocannons were firing now that several ships were out. The autocannons were not a concern. The enemy plasma cannons were even if they were tiny in comparison to his.

He threw the ship into maneuvers almost randomly. They were both shunted into their seats with only their restraints keeping them seated. Silent autocannon explosions occasionally rocked the ship, but most missed entirely, and direct hits were rare.

Thaum began laughing. This was an entertaining way to fight. Alice screamed for a second as a plasma bolt shot past the front of the ship. They were getting more accurate or lucky.

The cannon ship that Thaum was keeping an eye on had finally came out. If that thing only had a solid shot, the chances of being hit were tiny unless he stopped changing directions. However, if it shot some sort of nuke, then accuracy wasn’t the issue.

Thaum sent a thought through the halo system. His weapon systems on the HUD greyed out, inoperable and the oversized inertial dampener that took up a fifth of his ship screamed to life as he overclocked it.

The pirates saw their enemy flip and turn in unsurvivable maneuvers and became impossible to hit.

Thaum and Alice violently shook in their seats as the dampeners delay between turns threw their weight around.

Thaum put all available energy into engines and shot around the enemy fleet. He was watching the cannon ship as it lumbered its cannon towards him. Its side thrusters maxed but still lagging behind his turn.

Soon Thaum was beside the thing and reset everything to normal, and drifted for a second. His weapons powered up, and He shot his primary weapons at the cannon ship. The bolt arced for a moment. The cannon ships thrusters flaired in a futile attempt to dodge.

Two massive holes appeared in the ship. Thaum realized that the cannon went deeper into the hull than he expected, which kept the ship in one piece. But the gun was disabled.

However, as if waiting for this moment, the three remaining ships who could turn without the weight of a physical cannon fired at Thaum.

Thaum ripped at the controls sending all power to maneuverability again. It was too late. Two plasma bolts slammed into his rolling ship. Several more flew by the monitor.

The shields flared several colors. The ship shook for a moment as the second bolt melted a creator in an unshielded part of the hull.

[hull damage detected upper plate 56%, upwards thrusters 83%]

Alice breathed out a sigh of relief. Thaum switched to regular functions again during the firing gap and fired his own. The third ship exploded. He started maneuvering again before they could fire again.

Auto-cannon fire peppered the hull. They had only managed to damage a single heat sensor so far. Plasma bolts flew past often. They were firing in succession in an attempt to stop Thaum from having any time to come about.

This went on for twenty or so seconds before Thaums weapons were cooled enough. He waited for a lull, followed by a tight firing, and used the timeslot to turn and fire. A single bolt shot out, and a warning message popped up on his screen [plasma cannon two overheated]

“Fuck” The janky modifier doubled up on the heat sensor, using it for both auguries and the after-market plasma cannons sensor.

His shot hit the enemy. Thaum could see debris shooting out, so the hull was breached, but both ships were firing at him. Annoyed, he turned around and took distance, making dodging easier. Perhaps he could just sit outside their range and repair. All he would have to do is disable the heat sensor and wait for his weapons to cool, and he could easily win the fight.

However, as he was leaving, he noticed that the second ship was slow. He had done more damage than he initially thought. He spun about, throwing them both into the sides of their seats, and spammed the fire button.

Several errors popped up before one of the cannons fired. They were so far apart now that several seconds passed. The ship's side thrusters flaired, but even from here, Thaum could tell more than half the thrusters were off or not working optimally.

He smiled as the plasma bolt careened into the ship, and all thrusters stopped. It started drifting, probably unpowered. Thaum ignored the incoming messages and send a single one of his own. “Everyone in life pods lives when I come back” Then took enough distance.