Episode 89, Validation of concept
12 Aug 2024Ryuko Ntsikana
Episode 89, Validation of concept
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I heard the detractors talking about the weak weapons of the Type 8 even before I was finished with my engineering tour. The old pirate in me smiled, thankful for their views. It would make taking their cargo easier, as they wouldn't see it as a threat or take it seriously until their ship was disabled and their cargo holds breached. If they wanted to part with their credits so easily, then who was I to object.
Though I was engineering her to take care of my business clientele, she was equally capable of taking their business rivals' cargo with ease. If I could pirate a ship using a Dolphin’s twin small weapons, imagine what I could do with five small and a single medium hardpoint. By the time their pilots realized what was happening, they would already be interdicted, their shields would be down, and the packhound missiles would be wrecking their thrusters. They could try to escape, but they would only exhaust themselves in the attempt. They couldn’t outrun her in normal space or at luminary velocities.
Returning to the carrier, there were a few onboard my own capital ship with the same leanings, until they saw Chief Diego’s android team installing the necessary modules. The voices of dissent grew fainter as each one was added, turning instead to muffled gasps and quiet, widened eyes.
The chief, who was not among the dissenters, wore a large toothy grin. “They’ll never see it coming,” he commented, with a gleam in his eye.
Tara, who had joined me and watched the transformation progress, studied the procedure with a studious eye. “I guess business clientele is a term that can be used when both giving and taking.”
That gave both the chief and me a good laugh as Tara flashed her own large smile.
“Will you be transporting the benefactor of your goodwill, or leave them floating in the black, waiting for someone to respond to their beacon of distress?” Tara asked in an after-the-fact fashion, without looking at either the chief or myself.
Chief Diego looked at me as I shrugged; it was all I could do. With a large smile still on his face, he turned his eyes from me to Tara. “There’s no reason to take an unfortunate pilot captive unless their ship is no longer capable of supporting them.”
I shrugged again as the chief looked at me. “Guess it depends on how far they want to test this ship. They want to fight, they will get a flight… in their escape pod. I’m not picky—whether it’s their bounty or their cargo, each is of equal value.”
“There is only one true test of a design,” Tara commented, watching as the androids and the hangar’s automated systems were finishing with their additional module installations. “It would be a shame not to fill her hold, for a proper coronation.”
She had a point, and if I kept shrugging, I was going to give myself a cramp.
“You can give me the nickel tour later,” Chief Diego jovially commented, giving a slap on the back. “Just make sure you bring her back so I can get it.”
I lowered my head, looking out of the top of my eyes at him as he walked away, waving his hands, a deep laugh resonating through the spacious hangar.
As Tara had correctly pointed out, there was only one true test of a design. Ceri, the pilot of the Sedona, chose to be the first test subject of the new ship.
Tara shook her head, looking at the readout from the scanners. “I never understand the human trait of wanting to scan another, before they have had the chance to properly pirate another ship in front of them.”
Again, she had a point. We had picked our target carefully, taking our time to position ourselves first slightly behind and to one side, sliding gently aft. We were seconds away from beginning our attack when the Sedona decided to mooch in, first scanning our target and causing them to take evasive actions, then scanning us.
“An Anaconda is a more fitting test than a Keelback,” I commented, jinking around, feigning to be a frightened freighter versus what we really were, a ship of prey.
“Their cargo isn’t the best, but it is better than nothing,” Tara commented, reading off their short and eclectic manifest. Ceri had been so busy scanning us that she did not detect Tara scanning her manifest in return. While our cargo hold contained nothing but limpet drones, hers had a few selective items from her past victims.
Finding nothing appealing with us, she broke the lock and went after the Keelback we had been targeting, exposing her large glowing thrusters.
Had we been in the Python, which was more purpose-built for this, the Sedona’s shields would have been stripped in the first large fragmentation cannon volley followed quickly by rapid bursts from its twin packhound missile launchers. The Type-8 boasted five small hardpoints, each containing engineered fragmentation cannons, which were well-designed to do the job. Their smaller size meant it would take several volleys to drop its shields, meaning we would have a fight on our hands before we could unleash the lesser seeker missiles into its thrusters.
“Look at the bright side, you get to test the shield engineering as well,” Tara quipped with a sassy smirk on her face.
I kept us within 100 meters of its thrusters, waiting for the moment they opened fire on the Keelback. I would use their blind moment of target fixation to get in a couple of bursts from the fragmentation cannons before they realized that they were under attack from a different quarter.
As the Keelback boosted, I waited for the glow of the Anaconda’s thrusters. The moment she boosted, she would open fire, and her ship's energy state would be low. One of my four fragmentation cannons was engineered with drag munitions. They would temporarily prevent her from boosting again, even if her energy state recharged itself. “Alright, get ready, she is getting into position.”
The Anaconda fired at the same instance a bright exhaust bloom erupted from her engines.
All of my fragmentation cannons were overcharged, with two engineered with incendiary ammunition, which worked wonders against shields. The third contained caustic ammunition, which would do nothing against shields, but any that hit its hull would begin corroding it, reducing any armor she might have bolted on. The fourth with the drag munitions worked their magic as the bright exhaust bloom vanished.
The missiles were locked, but it wasn’t time to release them, not until the Sedona’s shields were down. Its thrusters had already received minor damage, even through its shielding, as my single small burst laser reached out, its phasing sequence engineering allowing a portion of its energy to phase through the target’s shielding and strike the targeted module.
I knew Ceri had to be rattled as her ship maintained course, likely the sudden surprise attack had panicked her as I let go of another fragmentation burst along with another blast from the burst laser. By the third burst, she began maneuvering, pulling hard over, but without the ability to boost, she couldn’t get the extra energy out of her thrusters to flip her ship around quickly on its pitch axis as I continued firing burst after burst, each one damaging her thrusters more, and then her shielding failed.
I was within the arc of her forward laser batteries, which began striking my own shields, but it was too late, as I let loose my missiles. Each one of them was also engineered with drag munitions, further enhancing the effects on her rapidly fading thrusters.
I continued firing fragmentation bursts into her ship’s hull, the corrosive enhancement already having its caustic effect, as more missiles trailed up her thrusters, destroying what remained.
I let off the trigger, watching the Anaconda rotate wildly along its axis, completely out of control.
“Well, that was anti-climactic. Let’s get her heaved to and grab what’s in her hold, then we can ask her if she would like to surrender or find an escape pod.”
“I calculate her compliance at fifty-fifty, depending on if her desperation is greater or less than her anger.”
I shrugged again, as Tara was right. Not that either-or mattered to me. I would rather take her alive. Information was always useful, and I hated wasting a pilot needlessly unless they were a total unreformable ass.
I glanced at Tara, who leaned back in her seat, looking back over at me as I keyed the communicator. “Pilot of the Sedona. We will be liberating your cargo. You are being offered a chance to surrender yourself, or you can find the nearest escape pod, and we can claim the bounty on your ship. Make your choice.”
I didn’t wait for a reply, launching a hatch-breaker limpet towards her tumbling ship while releasing three collector limpets to retrieve the cargo that would soon be spilling out.
