Phantom Star

“Targets received! Received! Ten enemy ships! Oh no!”

“We’ll be okay!” I called back, as my Tab filled with the data the Octavius sent over.

Ten enemy Pirates. Mostly Civilian retrofits. Lots of weapons and things but still just Civilian ships not really designed for combat. Weak to no armor, and a power system likely not designed to handle the load.

Not that strapping on tons of weapons on a ship made them less dangerous regardless.

I stared out into the field of stars. The crystal glass view port was reactive. Even though I had only hooked up the most basic functionality. It still came alive, with sensor markings showing where things were.

While still a window, it was more like a massive Tab screen. I could even zoom in on things If I needed.

The icons shifted as we moved, showing speed, and distance as best as the Phantom Star’s sensors could tell.

There was already a lot of disruption. Chaff, either physical, or electronic was screwing up the numbers making them shift a little erratically.

Then most of them shifted, growing clearer and colors appeared as data from the Octavius was sent over. I now had my targets, as well as better information to work with.

It was a dizzying amount of data especially since I was a complete novice, but I had AI specifically for this.

“Clear up the data, we’re focusing on just one at a time. Give me a firing solution for our target. And I need a double check of the Thermal Lance!” I demanded, and my Crabbit with their orders jumped to work. I could see the Thermal Lance charging up and I relaxed as it held power.

Whether it would fire accurately was another issue entirely.

I had built the damn thing out of scrap parts, Nanopaste and dreams, and the laser emitters that guided the plasma volley were finicky.

While taking all that in, I noticed I was falling behind the Octavius a bit too much, and pushed the engines a bit harder.

I could feel the strain in the two nacelles as the acceleration felt sluggish.

Ignoring that I just focused on trying to keep up.

“Warning! Warning! Hostile ECM detected!” I looked up and most of the targets seemed to glitch and shift just centimeters to the left and right on the viewscreen.

That didn’t seem like much, but in space that difference was more than enough to be immune to retaliation.

One of those ships had serious ECM systems. Which made perfect sense for a group of pirates.

“Ah! Octavius is responding! Good good!” The same Crabbit on sensors called out, and I noticed the glitching mostly went away. Obviously the electronic warfare specialist on the Octavius was fighting back. Would the Octavius, being a military vessel, overpower these pirates on that field as well?

Normally, I’d say yes, but pirates are pirates, attacking vessels is their speciality and you need someone skilled to jam comms and make sure even a civilian vessel can’t call for help.

But there was still enough interference to make accurate long range shooting pointless.

“Gather a few hands and sync up. I want to make sure our target is a clear shot!” I called out, and nodded with that done. A few Crabbit floated in not long after and joined up with the sensor Crabbit, tying themselves together to try and clear up the interference for the perfect shot.

The targets cleared up a bit more, but every few seconds it would glitch out again before clearing.

Someone on the other end of that ECM knew what they were doing.

I took a deep breath in and out. I wasn’t an electronic warfare specialist. I knew about as much as anyone that used Tab’s and other computer systems in this age knew.

Which was nothing when it came to that level of high end warfare.

I’d just have to hope that the Octavius had someone a bit more specialized, and the Crabbit could help…

“Crabbit. Try to connect to Octavius's electronic warfare specialist. See if you can work with them.” I didn’t know if the person in charge would even want to work with a young AI but I would ask.

Better than just leaving it to the Crabbit.

The fact was, they weren’t the best at learning something from scratch. Sure I could teach them, and they’d pick it up quickly enough, but they were still like children, and would make mistakes, or get distracted.

Or just have pure misunderstandings on what to do like they did with the navigation.

Putting that out of my head. I noticed the distances grow closer and closer, and set to work.

“Firing solution!” I demanded and the Crabbit responded.

“Null! Null!”

Too far still. But I urged them anyway.

“Get me a solution anyways, Keep it updated. Try to ignore incorrect responses from the ECM.”

“Hmmm. Okay! I’ll do it!” The Crabbit at the tactical station called out. The reason I had put this one on weapons was because it was a bit aggressive and willing to try things even without fully correct data.

The creation of the Diamond Drive had caused a few of the Crabbit to become a bit more experimental.

Not something entirely safe, but it had its uses.

“Warning! Enemy fire detected!” I quickly tabbed the throttle to give myself a shifting trajectory and jerked to the port. The ship shifted to the right altering our course, where we would be. And then I waited.

A moment later, I saw the attack. A laser shot passed, I watched in fear as it wiggled a bit trying to confirm our location at such a distance and with the ECM of the Octavius hiding us, and then it ended.

That was scary. Especially since it was invisible to the naked eye, only my Crystal Glass viewport highlighting it even let me see it.

It could also dim the beam in case someone got smart and decided to try and flash fry someone's eyes with a high visibility laser.

“No hit! Evasion successful!” I felt my heart pounding, as I started adding some evasive maneuvers into my flight plan. It set me even farther behind the Octavius, but they had added some maneuvers to their flight as well, not that it slowed them nearly as much as It did me.

It’s fine.

I was backup, they were the main thrust here.

Then the target lights on the view port shifted color.

Range was getting close enough for combat.

“Shifting to Engagement speed, get me a firing solution!”

“Yes! Processing processing, accuracy!” I wanted to laugh as next to the target marker the Crabbit added a little percentage which was their assumed accuracy. I watched as the number went up, but every shift in the Phantom, or the enemy maneuvering caused the number to drop.

Not exactly comforting.

But we weren’t a long distance ship. Space warfare took on two factors, long range, and knife fighting.

ECM was so effective it was nearly impossible to use long range weapons reliably to do more than pepper enemy shields.

As I continued getting closer and closer I watched as the Octavius opened up with their laser batteries. A dozen beams of directed energy lashed out, all of them focused on one or two ships to try and weaken shields for when we got closer.

The pirates continued to attack back, but they were not nearly as accurate. And only a few much smaller lasers lashed out and even touched the Octavius’s shields in return.

A few pot shots were taken towards me again, but at this range again with just minor maneuvers nothing touched the Phantom.

And all the while, I tried to keep pace with the Octavius, and failed, while watching the firing solution for our target shoot up and down as the computer and Crabbit tried to get the shot on target.

Then it happened. The Octavius in front of me, crossed the distance into knife fighting range where the ECM fields would interact and start tearing each other apart, and I nearly jumped as everything suddenly went to hell.

Cannons silent in the vacuum launched massive projectiles, lasers flared, and plasma lit up the dark.

As both pirates and Noble Frigate fired everything they had. It was a clash just like two ships on the old sea getting close enough to start firing their cannons.

The blue glow of shield arrays flared as attacks were stopped cold on both sides, although undoubtedly the pirates had the worst of it. The much smaller ships that were struck by the Octavius’s Plasma Cannon had their shields flare first blue then purple, and red, and then they popped like soap bubbles. The moment they did, secondary cannons or lasers struck them, carving into their hull, and when weapons struck the pirates hull there was little resistance.

I looked away from that and instead focused on the battle ahead of me.

“Prepare for combat!” I called out and pushed forward, going for speed to catch up as even with that first strike, the Octavius was in trouble. It was slow compared to how many smaller ships were flying around it, and they were going all out to take down its shields.

“Missile Launch detected!” I nodded, watching as the screen zoomed in and showed one of the pirate haulers, an old transport ship, a long square of a dozen different hangar components. Each of them opened up the bay doors. Sacrificing any hope of armor to rely on the shields, but within each of the modules was missile rack after missile rack.

They started launching and it was just an endless barrage.

I guess I now knew why the pirates were so aggressive despite the Nobles Frigate being in sector. I couldn’t comprehend how many credits they were shooting away, but I suppose, if they thought they’d have access to a broken frigate, and an entire sector afterwards for long enough to hit the station and more. It would probably be worth it.

“Lock onto that ship!” I called out. It had maneuvered under the Octavius where less of its weapons could fire back. A maneuver only possible from the sacrifice of the other pirates.

The Phantom Star shifted, as I jerked her around to line up the bow.

The reticle on screen appeared and started calculating.

Between the fact the ship wasn’t moving as fast, trying to keep its missile racks pointed, and that it was firing constantly sending up a massive heat plume the accuracy of the firing solution shot up, I winced as the Phantom was jolted.

A laser burned into the front of the ship, sparking and causing an explosion of sparks and metal as my armor did what it was supposed to and ablated.

My fingers did their best to keep the Phantom straight. To keep her gun on target. Both ship and turret making minor adjustments to keep the target in their sights, and then…

And then it was time.

“Firing!” I called out as I hit the fire button.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then two lances of light shot out, just lasers at first. Each barrel of the Thermal Lance was actually three laser batteries, it made a sort of triangle shape as the three emitters all connected their beams into a single shaped beam. The point was to create a path within the shape of the lasers that was perfect for Plasma to propagate through without deteriorating.

The lasers struck, confirming a lock, and the blue of the freighter's shields lit up as it resisted the beams of light.

Then the entire ship rumbled as the weapon actually fired.

For a moment there was nothing but light, as the front view port lit up, and then I got to watch in shock as the Thermal Lance showed why it was considered something you equip onto capital ships.

Down the barrel of light the lasers had created, shot two plasma trails. Launched out at incredible speeds the laser paths let the plasma not dissipate despite the distance, and nearly instantly struck the freighter.

The blue light of the freighter's shields buckled as the two lances of plasma struck, impacting hard enough I could practically see the shield emitters on the ship spark and go up, as the attack continued on.

The Freighter had almost no armor. It was also carrying enough ordinance to take out a Frigate.

I got a zoomed in view of the energy weapons piercing the shields, popping them like soap bubbles, and then continuing on, the plasma slamming into the weak armor, and lighting it up with enough energy it couldn't hope to withstand.

A moment later and it was all over. The armor had shifted to a bright red and then white, as it was boiled off as the plasma struck first the metal plates and then into the much weaker decks below. It pumped out the other side as a fireball of plasma having lost all the coherence the Lasers gave it, but that was already overkill.

The freighter had a single last gasp after the beam ended before everything started exploding. Missiles not yet fired along with whatever other ordinance it had, caused the entire ship to erupt in a furious explosion.

And then it was over. The Octavius listed a bit, as its shields hadn’t managed to survive the brutal missile barrage, but then as the attack was over. The trained crew took over, shifting the ship to try and protect that side of it from the pirates as they continued attacking. The Octavius started lashing out angrily in return.

“Direct hit! Fear me! I have math!” Crabbit cheered out, but I just stared at the still dying explosion. At the fact I had just destroyed that ship, and everyone on board.

Life or death was always a strange feeling having died once before. But now I was responsible for sending however many people were on that ship to their next life.

It was only when the Phantom jolted and I winced at the alarms going off that I stopped zoning out and focused on the fact I was in the middle of a spacebattle.

“Find the next target! Focus on those shooting at us! Give me a new firing solution!” I called out and the Crabbit in charge of weapons cheered.

Little devil just wanted to see the gun hit things.

I wasn’t being ignored anymore though. Now two of the pirates had split off and were firing at me, and every hit was a chunk of armor scored off.

I gripped the controls and spun. Spinning us upside from our former direction, letting the bottom of the ship take some damage.

“Firing solution?”

“Not in shot? Upside down?”

“I’m gonna spin us back. Just get me a firing solution for after I turn the ship again!”

“Oh! Roger!”

I nodded, and as it appeared I nodded and once more spun us so the gun was actually in sight. Then I just lined up with the target on the screen, the Crabbit made a few corrections with the turret, and then.

“Firing!”

The pirate dodged, but it was still a major hit. The plasma lance seared a trail of superheated metal straight across it’s armor practically ignoring it’s paltry shields. The pirate immediately broke off to try and escape after taking such drastic damage.

Then weapons fire continued to smash into the Phantom, armor ablating off in massive chunks.

It’s fellow seeing that it was alone suddenly launched everything it had, missiles, and lasers scoring the Phantom’s Bow as I jerked in the seat as the missiles tore craters in my girl, but then when it was done. The Pirate was fleeing having used its attack to try and escape.

With that I looked over, the Octavius was badly damaged, but the pirates over there were running too.

I breathed in and out. White knuckled on the controls as I stared into the field of drifting ships and debris, and realized we had actually won.

“Message incoming! Octavius Operations! Good job!”

“Tell them… Good job back.”

And I slumped into my chair as I gently brought the Phantom to a stop.

“G-get a scan of all the debris, including drifting parts! And uh… Just log them I guess.” I mentioned as I stared out into space.

This had sure been… Something. I needed some time to process.

—---

I sighed in relief as the docking process finished. I wasn’t home, but actually meeting up with the Octavius.

Baron Ritz wanted to talk. I might be more nervous about it, but I was fairly certain we both had the same thing in mind. Loot.

Technically I had been hired as a sort of mercenary, not quite system Defense Force force, not quite random addition.

So what I would be owed for this battle was a bit hazier than normal. It’s not like I had thought to discuss things with the Baron beforehand.

On the other hand, I just shrugged, whatever I get, would be enough. I would make it enough. My home was safe.

I got up out of my uncomfy chair and walked to the back of the bridge sliding through the still open emergency ladder hatch, because the elevators were a dream for the future, and then walked down the hall.

“We won! We won!”

“Math victory! Math is best!”

“Yaaaaaay!”

I moved through the horde of celebrating Crabbit, as they bounced around the hallways cheering and happy. I couldn’t help but smile at their delight. I should be like them happy that I had won, had survived, but I only felt a pit in my stomach at the fact I had killed people.

Then I reached the docking hatch and pressed the buttons to get it to cycle, and when it finished and equalized it opened to a few soldier types standing firm in front of me.

“Uh… hi.” I said awkwardly after a moment, as I looked up at the two burly men.

“Captain. We’re to escort you.” One of them offered, surprisingly kindly and I relaxed, it wasn’t a secret boarding action then. Not that I thought it was, but for a moment it had run through my head.

I walked through the docking ring and blinked at the slight difference in gravity. Shrugging it off, I realized that gravity was pretty much whatever the captain wanted to make of it.

Maybe I’d have zero gravity days on the Phantom? Just float around for a while? That could be fun. Not that the Crabbit would even notice. The cheaters.

I followed after the massive men down the long hallway of the ship, and winced at how frantic some of the techs running down the hall were.

The Octavius had definitely taken a beating, and unlike the Phantom, getting it back in fighting shape was integral.

After all, without the Octavius the pirates could just come back.

To my irritation the Octavius had a working lift, and so a moment later I was brought not to a private room like I expected, but the actual bridge. I almost didn’t step off but the guards both stepped out and looked at me, so I followed. Onto the bridge of an actual warship.

People were all over the place, looking at consoles, or working, coordinating repair crews from what I could hear of their calm speech.

“Ah excellent. Katherine, please join me.” The Baron called out as he stood at the front of the bridge in a little area with an actual wooden table and high back chair looking out over the view…

That was the mostly noble thing I had ever seen, and it made me cringe at how out of place it felt.

I walked over, and noticed he had a few officers standing around with him, but not Eugene the Chief Engineer, which I understood, but wished he was here to at least have a familiar face.

“Congratulations on your first victory.” He offered to me as I arrived beside him as he was standing with his back to the table and just looking out into space.

At the drifting hulks we had taken out.

“Thanks? You-” I cut myself off, not going to make that mistake again. “You fought well. Thank you for protecting the station.”

“It’s my duty. But it was not yours. You saved my ship today, from that surprise freighter.”

“It was an easy shot for me.” I demurred.

“Regardless, my life was in your hands for a moment. I won’t forget that fact. Now onto business before pleasure. Hamlin?”

“Sir. There are currently four retrievable wrecks. Not including the Freighter that Captain Katherine took out for us.”

“Well. Four is better than none.” The Baron offered and turned to me. “Under wartime standards, the transfer of equipment is clear, but I am not a miser, all of this is likely to end up at the same place regardless. Two of the wrecks will be yours to do with as you please. As long as what you please is handing them over to your home station.” He offered, and I realized he was joking a bit.

“Oh that’s fine… I uh. Mostly need the parts, maybe some hull for repairs, but that’s-”

“Not something you’ll need to worry over.” He interrupted. “As service for defense of the Kenish Duchy, and an important wartime strategic asset, I’ll be ensuring a stipend is offered as thanks to help repair your ship. I noticed you relied entirely on your armor?”

“Yeah… The shield emitters weren’t ready. So I only had my deflector.”

“You went into combat without shields?” The officer, Hamlin, beside me spoke and looked up at me, and I sort of shrugged. “You’re either foolish, or mad. Perhaps both. But in this case I’ll thank you for your madness.” He said and I blinked at the surprisingly… Kind compliment? Insult?

“Indeed. Your armor held up well.”

“Oh! Yeah. It’s my own design.” I offered smiling happily. “It’s a bit complicated, but I figured out a good method to produce and repair it.”

“Ah! I was hoping to ask about that!” A new voice appeared behind us and I turned and offered a smile to the man, mostly in relief at a familiar face. Eugene was walking across the bridge in a power walk. “My dear, you simply must tell how you decided on an ablative design!”

I opened my mouth to talk about it a bit, but the Baron interrupted.

“Eugene, as delightful as it would be to hear your discussion with the young captain, perhaps later. Now Artemis tells me the ship won’t be ready in case of another fight?” He asked, and Eugene the Engineer shook his head.

“She needs some real attention, my Baron. That missile barrage cracked her hard. She’s nearly bent out of shape. We can limp back to the station, but I do mean limp. We’ll need dock time.”

“Dry dock?” The Baron asked specifically, sounding like dread, but Eugene shook his head.

“No. The work will still need some time spent motionless, but we can repair her ourselves.”

“How long?”

“That depends on how much the Scrapper Station can help. Two weeks to be safe. Maybe more.”

I winced, because that was a lot of time.

“Then we will get to limping. Captain Katherine. The wrecks will need to be recovered, but the Octavius is in no shape to haul them back.”

“Oh… Umm. I should be able to? My Deflector is still functional, as far as I know.” I muttered the last part, because the Phantom hadn’t come out unscathed.

“Then if I can ask you to focus on that task. We don’t want to leave this scrap around for the pirates to come back and claim.

“Yes.”

“And it seems I will be asking for more of your assistance in the future. At least until the Octavius is repaired. I hope to have your assistance?”

As much as I wanted to rush back and fix up the Phantom, I understood that I was just a sitting duck against the pirates without the Octavius.

“Yes. Leave it to me, I’ll contact Great Uncle Kyle and get the ships stored away.”

“Good. Then as the Noble Authority in the Sector. I sign off on these two ships to your holding. The credit stipend will be transferred soon. I hope that is satisfactory?”

“Yes! Thank you Baron.”

“Good. Now my dear Captain, we have work to do. Eugene, do leave her be for now.” He added instantly as the Engineer looked like he was about to jump on me for a chat. I hesitated, but in the end, I tapped on my Tab that I pulled out to trade comm frequencies. Who knows if I might need his advice for something. He was a chief engineer.

He laughed and nodded, as I was escorted out.

So much was coming down on me, and I had to take a breath just to focus. I had work to do.

—--

It took hours to push all four of the wrecks towards the Station and get them locked down.

I had done a bit extra having flown around and dropped some of the Crabbit off on smaller drifting scrap piles to see if there was anything worth grabbing, but overall it was a lot of boring flying back and forth while my Phantom struggled under me.

Then finally. I gathered up my Crabbit, finding only a few minor things, and pushed the final ship to the Station. Once it was locked in, I docked and finally let the Phantom rest from her battle.

Her song had gone spastic after the fight, and while I was confident she’d be fine completing the task I had been given, I hadn’t exactly pushed her in any way in fear of her giving out.

Damage was damage after all.

“Report Report!” One of the Crabbit offered and my Tab updated, with more damage reports. They had been scanning through the Phantom to find all the problems, but I just shook my head.

It was too much right now, and I needed sleep.

“Start to work on minor repairs, but don’t go crazy. I need to sleep.” I told them and got a salute in turn.

Then I walked through the Phantom leaping over the still open floor panels and finally reached the station. The air was different, as I stepped inside. Warmer, more familiar. I walked in and was instantly attacked.

“Kat!” Mom leapt at me, and I bent a bit to accept her hug as I just took in the fact she was here, and then I realized it was safe, and my eyes wavered.

“No. Don’t cry.” I told myself, but Mom noticed it and her gentle smile as she reached up and pressed a warm hand on my cheek and it was too late. I was bawling.

“I shouldn’t be like this! They were pirates!”

“It’s okay.” Was all Mom told me, and I grabbed her in as tight a hug as I could manage.

—-

Mom placed a warm drink on my hands. I took it, letting the heat seep into my fingers. I still felt myself sniffle, tears had stopped, but I still felt like I was right on that verge again.

I had killed people.

Right now, my family was running over the shipwrecks. I knew what they would find.

Dead bodies floating, and they would do what they always did. They’d gather up all the bodies and depending if they were civilians or pirates would either process them for funeral rights or just launch them into the sun with a shuttle sending them on their way.

Since these were confirmed pirates, they’d be stripped down and launched off.

And… My family would know it was my doing. That those dead bodies were because of me.

“I always knew you were a sensitive girl.” Mom said pulling me out of my wandering thoughts as I looked up into her oh so familiar face.

She had always looked older than she was. Cosmetics had done a good job to hide the lines on her face. Despite Dad being five years older than her, she had always looked older than him.

And now her face was full of worry lines as she looked at me.

“I’m not.”

“You are.” She said her face shifting into a gentle smile. “My little builder. So good with her hands, not so good with her heart. I never wanted you to get into this sort of trouble. You might have the body of a soldier, but your heart was always so gentle.” She reached out and ran a cool hand over my cheek, wiping some tears along with it.

“I’m not gentle.” I grumbled a little petulantly, I was big and strong!

“You have your father’s gentleness. I was happy about that, you know? That you didn’t get my own coldness… But maybe you need your mother’s words right now. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’d rather you kill those pirates a thousand times then ever put yourself in danger. You want to be a captain my little engineer. Fighting and killing is part of it.”

“I know.” I said, but I looked away because… I hadn’t been ready for it. I thought I would have more time, that I’d end up killing pirates eventually, but that it wouldn’t bother me. I should be okay with this!

Mom was beside me, pulling me into a hug that I slumped into, she might be smaller, but she was still Mom. It was weird that despite knowing I had another Mom at another time, it hadn’t really changed my connection with this woman.

She had still done all the baby stuff with me, and there was a part of me that always felt that connection even now.

“If you could do it again would you run away?” Mom asked then and I instantly shook my head.

“Then it sounds like you did the right thing. Did the only thing you could do. Don’t be ashamed of yourself Kat. You saved not just all the men on the Baron’s ship, but the station too. Trust me. I would not like to find myself at the mercy of pirates. I’m proud of you. For fighting.”

“I guess.” It was a lot to take in, a lot to process. This… This was part of the future I wanted. To explore the stars was to find yourself in conflict sometimes.

Could I pull that trigger again?