Spoiled Brat A Mile Long 3

I will have the chapter as links to download at the bottom of the post. As well as a link to the Google Document page.

Halla System.

Thalia.

Light travels at the speed of light.

Okay, I guess that is a little redundant. I mean, obviously light travels at the speed of light, so what?

Well, the problem was that this had major implications for when something was traveling faster than the speed of light. For example, oh I don’t know, a jumpship. When entering a system a jumpship was suddenly in an environment with ‘old’ light, the state of the planets, stars, ships, astronomical objects, the light from them was already present, already just hanging around. 

So they could just see stuff. Instantly, they could take note of what was around, where was around and why was around.

But what about all the people, like me, who were already there?

Well, they would not see anything until the light from the local star had bounced off this new arrival and returned to them. This meant that depending on where you entered into a star system using faster than light travel in relation to other people in that system you could have the advantage of up to four or even eight hours of time depending on where everything was situated in a star system. As in, if you entered the system it could be hours before anyone knew you were there to begin with.

Hours of time where whoever was already in that system had literally no possible way of reacting to your presence. There was no way to counter this, there was simply no indication that you were present, nothing that could possibly be detected according to the fundamental laws of physics. So it was hardly my fault when the light reached me from a Jump ship entering the system before deploying its sails and making a lazy burn towards the star. A ship that had been scoping out the system for about four hours already.

This was the first time a Jumpship had entered the system in almost six years. The only guaranteed source of germanium I had encountered and potentially the only way for me to avoid a century in the darkness between stars. In an instant after I saw the ship I dedicated every resource I had at my disposal to processing this new element to the system.

I was roughly two astronomical units from the star in a gas giant's system of moons, not quite on the opposite side of the system from the interloper, but quite far away. Roughly thirty astronomical units from the Jump-ship. So it was hard to get any good visuals of the ship but I could make some estimates using the low resolution images I had. It was about five hundred metres long with a solar sail unfurling at about double that. 

It was likely an Invader class jump ship, or at the very least a class similar to the Invader class. They had minimal armour, weapons, everything according to my database as well as three docking collars for dropships to attach themselves to. From here it sorta looked like they were occupied, well, the two I could see were at least, with what looked to be a Leopard-class dropship on one collar and something big on the other. Could be a mule or something else.

I could assume the one I can’t see was also occupied. What was the worst case scenario? Well, None of the ships should have true naval class weapons, however the Leopard could carry fighter craft according to my database. As well as two Particle Projector Cannons, three long range missile systems that could each fire twenty rockets at a time. A battery of seven medium lasers as well as five large lasers. The armament was spread out across the ship so it could only hit me with so much at once, if it was head on I would be getting all of the missiles, the pair of PPC’s and some of its lasers. 

The Mule came with an autocannon class five as well as a pair of short range dumbfire missile launchers, a trio of large lasers and a battery of medium lasers. If I were to assume that there were two of them, the ‘worst case’ scenario would mean that I was dealing with effectively a very large range of lasers that were only useful in point defence roles and exactly four weapons systems that could even possibly be a threat to me.

The twin PPC’s, the autocannon/5’s, the LRM/20’s and the two fighters. Nothing else that fleet had could do any effective damage to me. With only around one third of my point defence systems... somewhat functional I still had eleven missile defence systems with a fair amount of ammo as well as six laser defence systems at my front that would quite effectively mitigate the small amount of LRM’s and fighters. 

That left the PPC’s and autocannons, but honestly it would take some incredible shots to do more than superficial damage to me. Perhaps one of my weapon mounts or sensors could be damaged in a worst case situation. So there was very little risk of me being killed or anything, so I could relax, take carefu-

Wait.

Wait what if they boarded me?!

If they had a Leopard then they could have four Mechs and... and while the mule would be unlikely to host even an improvised mechbay the other dropship might contain more Mechs! I only had a light compliment of Mechs myself, exactly three thirty-ton Mechs and a twenty-ton!

I was going to have to prepare for that, if they tried to board me... I shoot them.

Yeah, that was a good idea, if they tried to board me with a mech I would just use my capital ship weapons to shoot them! Simple. Huh, that was a pretty easy solution to that problem shooting things was a pretty versatile solution to a lot of problems as it turned out. I would have to remember that. 

I sent pings to the three functional naval cannons that could point forwards and gave them a little test.

Huh, yeah two of them were blind and that... was pretty fine actually, I could just use dozens of other sensors to guide the guns that could not see. I knew where they were pointing, in general, might impact accuracy a little bit but I doubted it would be a major issue. 

It had taken me half a minute since I had become aware of the Jumpship that had entered the system for me to come to the conclusion that they were only a minor threat. With that in mind I lit my torch drive, wincing as my two functional auxiliary reactors spooled up to eighty percent output with only some very minor concerning errors and I began to push myself forwards towards the Jump point. It was very likely that they had already detected me as it had already been in the system for four hours, time enough to stabilise its KF drive and process the incoming sensor data. But the moment I lit that drive and started to accelerate they would absolutely, definitely see me.

Oh, I should message them so they know I am friendly and just need a teeny tiny bit of help with repairs and perhaps some Germanium, I could even pay them, yeah. I quickly compiled a transmission and sent it though my new communication relay on a tight band for that Jumpship. Hopefully they were not pirates or anything, that would suck.

I watched as the mining base that I had pretty much totally stripped away faded into the distance, I had not left anything down there other than parts of the hab I had no real need for at the moment. In the months since I had begun to strip that facility I had almost fully repaired my superstructure and patched over almost all of the holes in my hull.

I had even used my exoskeletons to repair some of the maintenance robots in storage. At the current rate of repairs it would still be years before I was at an acceptable standard, so long as I could find enough raw resources that is. That meant that none of my sensor systems were screaming at me about structural integrity failures when I began to push my ship up over three g’s of thrust, approaching four g’s.

I got a big warning that my crew was going to die however, OH NO! MY NON-EXISTANT CREW WAS GOING TO DIE! 

Stupid computer.

Wait, that computer was a part of me...

Dangit.

I dismissed the notification but set a limit at four g’s of acceleration. Without an organic crew I was reasonably sure I could go harder but... while it was painful to admit, I was actually quite a big girl and I likely needed more repairs before I could push past that safely. Besides, as it was, I would reach that Jumpship in just over eight days anyway, including my deceleration period, I could wait for that.

Then I could get some help repairing my Jump drive.

Or else. 

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Halla Zenith Point 03, T+45 Minutes since arrival at Halla System

Captain Darius Holt, Captain of the Jumpship ‘Corsair’s Luck’, leader of ‘The Black Harriers’

The cargo bay lights buzzed faintly overhead, turning the rows of faces below into a restless sea of shadows and glints off battered helmets and grease-streaked cheeks. The Corsair’s Luck’s cargo holds were never meant to host meetings like this, but these were the only spaces big enough to gather everyone without spilling into the corridors.

There were sixty five souls assembled before me out of a total of seventy two across all four ships. We were a light and agile force made up of hard men and women who knew their trade well. The small number also meant that each person would get a larger share, absolutely necessary on treasure hunts like this. 

We’d barely unfurled the sails when Captain Mira of the “Scourge of Kittery” started pestering me for a briefing. It was a fair point, the crew deserved to know why we’d burned a jump charge on a half-forgotten rock like Halla. She also had more pull than most considering that our Mech lance were loyal to her owing to the fact that she controlled our only Mech bay. 

Now, looking out at the mixture of raiders, smugglers, mercenary washouts, and desperate souls that made up The Black Harriers, I felt that familiar knot in my gut tighten. “You’ve all had questions,” I began. My voice carried in the cavernous bay, steadier than I felt. “About why we came here, why we jumped blind to a dead system. Some of you figured it was a raid, you aint far off, you know I love a good raid, but you know what I love more? A GOOD RAID THAT WON’T FIGHT BACK!” 

The holo-projector whirred to life, filling the air behind me with a spinning schematic of the Halla system. A dull yellow star, a scattering of planetoids, and a wide belt where the Star League had once carved out minerals. “Old Star League records mention a series of deep mining bases somewhere in this belt,” I said, zooming in on the orbital band. “Abandoned near the end of the twenty-eighth century. Until a few months ago, it was assumed that anything here had been stripped clean. That was until one of these mythical bases started sending out a distress call. Yours truly just so happened to have the right contacts in this region to hear about this before any other bunch of bastards could beat us to the score!” There was a roar of approval as I lifted my hands. 

“At least!” I shouted over the din. “At least that is how it’s meant to go, I got no idea why they suddenly started squawking. I would put my money on some kinda malfunction, but we might not be as alone out here as we want to be.” I warned the crew as they started to calm down. “So for the next week, our job is simple. We stay put. Sails are out. We need a full recharge cycle before we move anywhere. The faster we charge, the faster we can get on with finding ALL OUR FUCKING MONEY!” That earned a wave of cheering too. “I don’t expect anyone is going to be looking at us all the way at the edge of the system and if they are we should get a fair warning if they want to have a scrap.”

Out of the corner of my eye, Mira Vance leaned against the railing, arms crossed, braid hanging over her shoulder. Her expression looked conflicted. She’d been itching to fly her Leopard since we’d left homebase and if things went well her Lance would not be seeing any action at all. Fuck it, let her seethe, she would get paid regardless. 

I glanced over at Gerda Strahl, captain of the Mule ‘Prospector’s Folly’, she just gave a short, gravelly chuckle. She’d been in this game longer than me. She knew what old bases usually meant, salvage or trouble. Often both.

“We’ll send in ‘Whispering Gale’ first,” I said, nodding at Elen. The young Danais-class captain straightened, practically glowing under the attention. “You’ll do a wide sweep of the belt going spinwards after we are charged. We take the other side of the system.” Elen’s ship had our best sensors and was nimble enough to run away from any trouble she found. She was the best choice to go solo.

She gave me that cocky half-salute she thought made her look charming. “Crystal clear, Captain. We’ll have your prize picked out before breakfast.”

I was about to wrap up when one of Mira’s sensor techs burst through the side hatch, panting, clutching a datapad. “Captain, sir, we've got something.”

The crowd shifted, heads turning. “Report.” I ordered.

He swallowed. “Passive array just flagged a mass anomaly. Two AU’s from the star, in a Gas Giant system. Roughly thirty klicks off one of the planetoids. Big.”

“How big?” Mira’s voice cut like a knife, eyes glinting.

He glanced down at the pad. “Resolution’s garbage at this range, but… big enough the computer flagged it as artificial. The numbers are fuzzy, but, yeah. Could be a station. Or a ship.”

Mira, of course, was grinning like a hunting dog. “If it’s that big, it’s valuable. We should get a recon moving now. Before someone else stumbles on it.” Of course she’d say that. Mira’s never seen a fire she didn’t want to stick her hand in.

I lifted my hand for silence again. “No. Not yet.”

She started to protest, but I cut her off with a glare. “We’ve got at least three hours before whatever’s out there even knows we’re here. And over a week before we can jump again. That means we set the pace. We finish the recharge. Then we move. We play this cool Mira, pros.” I looked at the ex-Lyran bitch and dared her to countermand me, but all I got was a few groans, some nods. Typical mix.

“Good, keep up on your duties boys and girls and in a few months we’ll all be rich!” I called out as people started to filter out of the cargo hold. I turned on my three fellow Captains and said in a hushed voice. “Keep an eye on that anomaly, I got this feeling...”

“Yeah, yeah, I got my boys on it.” Mira waved her hand and I relented, looking out over at the crew jostling and laughing about what they could find out here.

“Just a feeling...” 

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T+8 Hours since arrival at Halla System

The bridge of the Corsair’s Luck always had that faint smell of burnt ozone and recycled air that never quite left, no matter how many filters we swapped. I’d grown used to it over the years. Compared to the scent of Mira’s impatience coming through the comm speakers it was almost roses in here.

“Your sensor team dragging their feet up there, Holt?” Mira's voice crackled over the narrow-beam link from Scourge of Kittery. “We’re reading something strange. Passive array just spiked.”

I leaned forward in my chair, rubbing the tiredness from my eyes. The starfield glittered cold and indifferent on the bridge’s forward display. Out here at thirty AU, everything felt static, as if the universe itself was holding its breath. The solar sails stretched out like the Corsair’s Luck was embracing the void.

My sensor officer, Kellen, adjusted his headset. His console lights were flickering more urgently than I liked. “Captain,” he said slowly, “you should see this.” 

“You always say that before I gotta see some bullshit.” I muttered before I looked over at the holo-screen in the middle of the bridge as it flickered to life, displaying a faint icon deep in the system, the same mass anomaly we’d flagged earlier, parked beside a planetoid like a shark resting in shallow water. For hours, it had sat there, silent and unremarkable except for its size.

Now, a sharp flare bloomed at its aft section.

“Contact’s lit off something big,” Kellen said, his voice suddenly very small in the humming bridge. “Fusion drive, maybe more than one. Acceleration profile’s… uh, sir, it’s climbing fast.”

“How fast?” I asked.

“Three gee already,” he said. “Four, maybe. Still ramping.” For a heartbeat, the bridge was dead quiet except for the low thrum of the life-support systems. I leaned back slowly, a cold weight settling in my stomach. An almost two kilometre long object burning at four gravities straight toward us wasn’t a mining station. And it wasn’t sleeping anymore.

“Give me confirmation,” I said flatly.

He swallowed and tapped through diagnostics. The bloom sharpened on the display, a spear of light pushing the contact’s vector outward from the inner belt. “Confirmed,” he said. “It’s moving. Plotting trajectory now…” I didn’t need to wait for the result. There was only one place in this system we stood still long enough to make an obvious target. The jump point some hours behind us.

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. “We can’t move or we are never getting out of this system. Turn us around and park us on that fucking point.”

Gerda Strahl’s face appeared on one of the secondary monitors, framed by the dingy interior of her Mule’s bridge. “Holt. We’re reading it too. That’s not a station. And that’s not a friendly ship.”

“No,” I agreed. “It’s not.”

Mira cut in next, her grin obvious even through the static as she switched to visual coms. She looked off screen at something and nodded. “Told you it was a ship. Hell of a drive profile, too. Could be a Star League battleship. Maybe automated. We shou-”

“No,” I snapped, sharper than I intended. “What we should do is finish our recharge, go cold, and pray that whatever that is doesn’t get here before we can jump.” first we could not see the bastard since it was too far away, now even if it got much closer the drive plume would obscure whatever the hell it was enough that we had no chance of identifying it until it was far too late.

She raised an eyebrow. “Four gees from the inner belt? We’ve got time.”

“Eight, nine days if it keeps that burn,” Gerda growled. “And we need eight for a full charge so long as we don’t have any issues, hell, you know the old girl. I don’t like those odds.”

Neither did I.

Kellen was already running time-to-intercept estimates, his voice betraying growing nerves. “At current acceleration, intercept in approximately eight days, fourteen hours” he reported. “Assuming straight burn, no coasting and that includes deceleration time.” I stared at the flare on the tactical plot. Just over eight and a half days. 

“Maybe it’s just moving to another orbit,” Gerda offered.

“Four-G toward us isn’t ‘just moving.’” I countered as I took a breath. “All ships,” I said, my voice steady even though my heart was hammering in my chest. “This changes everything. From this point forward, you keep your engines cold and your transmissions tighter than a nun’s arse. Things are going dark because every drop of power is going to the KF, that means from all of your ships, no hot showers, no hot food, nothing. I hear you so much as watching a fucking cartoon and I will beat you bloody! We finish the recharge as fast as possible, and the second that drive hits green, we’re out of here. Clear?”

Gerda gave a sharp nod. “Crystal.”

Mira leaned back in her chair, smirking faintly, though I caught a flicker of unease in her eyes. “I hope you’re sure, Holt,” she said. “Because if that’s what I think it is, we’re walking away from the score of a lifetime.” I looked at her and then back at the display, at the flare that was burning brighter with each passing minute.

“I’m sure.”

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t8LOisrAIIQf7O7Q0BSNy4XhquFthnzIJkmwhNTVPf0/edit?tab=t.0