Among Distant Stars (For Ecnalab)

[Weiss Ritter]

The alien clouds part beneath your vessel as it descends from the upper atmosphere. You no longer need to rely on your scanners to see the bustling colony below. Khinereth’s Stand.

As the name suggests and the architecture you can make up from this high confirm, it is not one of the settlements founded by the Terran Alliance. Though the buildings filling the city below are clearly meant to accommodate humanoid life, what would be skyscrapers if built by human hands more resembled spires. A synthetic substance that bore a striking resemblance to gold lined many of the ivory structures, twisting around in elaborate patterns. The Entirians are known for their tendency to favor form over function, and while you are no architect, the engineer within you can’t help but make some comparisons between the alien structures and their more utilitarian Human counterparts.

It would probably be wise to keep those thoughts to yourself, though. You can practically feel the tension growing thicker in the air as your ship draws closer and closer to the landing pad reserved for your visit.

Normally, this sort of thing would be a simple formality. A quick courtesy call or visit in between resupplying to make sure the governor, garrison commander, or whoever was charge of the uncharted areas in the region you were hired to scout or repair beacons in. Normally, though, you’d be dealing with people comfortably affiliated with the Terran Alliance.

“Miss Corvo?”

An Entirian escort greets you as soon as you emerge from your vessel. The feline humanoid stares at you with slit eyes, his ears twitching faintly in the direction of any noteworthy sounds. A coat of short gray fur covers his body, or what you can see of it that is not concealed beneath his uniform at least, but the Entirian’s face is rather…human, for lack of a better term. No elongated snout or oddly-shaped nose.

“Right this way, if you please,” Your escort gives you a quick but sharp once-over before turning and gesturing for you to follow.

Walking though the administrative nerve center of the capital of this world would have been a mildly daunting task without your guide. While you never have trouble navigating the pristine hallways, there’s a constant stream of Entirians hustling throughout the building. On occasion, you catch glimpses of other Humans in the administrative hub, most in formal wear of the highest quality.

One other sight catches your interest as your escort comes to a halt in front of one of the many, many offices filling out this complex. Looking over the force-railing you can see into the lower levels and the plaza below. A glorious golden statue of powerfully built Entirian is enshrined at the center of it all. Wearing what you recognize as an officer-pilot’s uniform, the idealized monument to the Entirian hero projects an aura of regal authority.

There is little doubt in your mind that the statue is of this colony’s namesake. Khinereth, the hero of the Entirian Republic who died fighting to hold this world in defiance of all probability against the Krayari Imperium. It wasn’t enough, and this world fueled the Imperium’s ambitions of conquest for decades until the Terran Alliance was provoked into joining the war and gained this world, as well as other former Entirian holdings, as concessions from the Imperium.

Which brings you back to your current situation: about to meet an official of a local government whose loyalty to Earth extends only as far as a treaty and the Entirian Republic’s current unwillingness to press its claims against the Terran Alliance go.

“Miss Corvo, it’s good to finally meet you in person,” The Entirian sitting across from you at a desk in the office is of a slighter build than the one who escorted you into the compound, though possesses similar features. Short gray fur, elongated feline ears emerging from the upper-side portions of his head. The man’s facial features are naturally on the fair side, but there’s an intensity in the alien’s gaze that prevents you from seriously considering anything about him soft.

“Please, take a seat. You may call me Izuna. What can I do for an…informal representative of the Terran Alliance?”

Izuna’s eyes are boring into you despite the casual air the administrator is trying to put on. While it’s probably safe to say that the authorities here can’t stop you outright from developing the star charts your employers within the Alliance ordered, there’s no telling how much of a headache Izuna and others like him could cause you in the process if they take you for a meddling Human out to fleece their sector.

 

[Ecnalab]

Rebecca found it odd that Izuna would ask what she was doing in his city. As a Alliance-contracted field mechanic, there was no way that the higher ups wouldn't send word ahead of her arrival and business. Still, best to be polite. With your permission, I'd like to use Khinereth's Stand as a port of call while I look into a few local jump beacons on the outskirts of this solar system that have been reported to have stuttering signals. They probably just need a little maintenance. If everything goes well, I should be out of your hair in seven local days, max."

Jump beacons: the large satellites that projected hyper-band signals to and from each other in continuous trails across the stars that ships capable of making hyperspace jumps followed to their destinations. When a beacon began to stutter, however, it broke the chain, forcing ships to drop back into realspace and proceed with sublight engines until they could pick up the signal again. This could turn a trip of a few hours or days, into a voyage of a few weeks or months, depending on how irregular the signal became, so the authorities took stuttering beacons very seriously.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

"I see," Tension lingered in Izuna's body, as did the hint of ice in his tone. The Entirian's green eyes subtly flickered over Rebecca's form in a manner she could be reasonably certain was meant to catch any tells in her body language rather than the usual reason people's gaze tended to wonder around her.

She was correct. The fact that the Terran pilot and field mechanic had this appointment arranged in the first place was obvious proof that the authorities of Khinereth's Stand had been made aware of her important work in this region. What objections could Izuna or his superiors possibly have toward the maintenance of the Jump beacons? A few explanations did spring to mind, but they reeked more of conspiracy than theory. Perhaps they feared Rebecca intended to bug the beacons and transmit all sorts of sensitive data back to the Terran Alliance? That would beg the question of what could be going on here that the colony did not want Earth to know, but Rebecca didn't need to be a career politician to understand some of the strain in the relationship between the Alliance and colonies like this one.

During the war with the Krayari Imperium, the Entirian Republic and Terran Alliance hadn't so much worked together as avoided tripping over each other. The Entirians made it into space noticeably faster than most other known interstellar powers, the Terrans included, and enjoyed an overall technological advantage to match. They had a reputation for letting it go to their heads as a species, though, and diplomatic relations with Earth had been so limited before the war that the delegates negotiating the Krayari concessions either didn't know or didn't care that a good chunk of the territory gained were Entirian colonies that had been held for decades. The prideful people of Khinereth's Stand were taking trading one overlord for one decidedly less inclined to demand slaves or withering tribute about as well as could be expected.

...Pride. That was another possibility. The Terran Alliance was keeping these colonies on a somewhat short leash for the time being. Perhaps not being able to attend to such crucial yet routine maintenance was a sore spot for a species that took such pride in its technological prowess?

"I can't deny that we have been experiencing such problems lately, and the effect even a few of the beacons failing would have on our commerce would be...severe," Izuna exhaled a breath that was a bit too heavy to be entirely casual. "Would you object if our mechanics fitted your vessel with a monitoring device for the duration of this task? I'm sure you're very talented at what you do, but our recent history had lead to a somewhat...mixed nature in certain technological areas. Entirian, Krayari and now Terran..."

It was a pretty transparent way of trying to keep tabs on Rebecca's activities in the region, but Izuna did have a legitimate point. Some things about Jump beacons were universal, but the finer details of alien technology carry the risk of tripping up most engineers. But then, Rebecca Corvo was far, far cry from "most" engineers.

 

[Ecnalab]

"Not at all," replied Rebecca. If a simple tracking device would make the local authorities feel better about her being here, then that was fine with her. Still, she couldn't help wondering; if the locals were aware of the problem, then why hadn't they bothered to fix it themselves. She was about to ask, but decided not to press the point. It was clear that this guy didn't care much for her, and rather than linger where she wasn't wanted, she decided to make her visit as brief as possible. "So, were there any other issues that needed to be addressed?"

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Izuna was silent for a moment and stared at Rebecca in a quizzical manner. She was fairly certain the Entirian was taken aback and perhaps even momentarily suspicious of her cooperation, but the man was quick to recover.

"Wonderful. Thank you. I'll make the arrangements and ensure the process is as quick and painless as possible."

Again, the Entirian grew quiet and there was a hint of scrutiny in the way his gaze flickered over Rebecca. Perhaps she wasn't the only one who wasn't quite sure what to say. Mercifully, the awkward moment did not last long.

"No, actually. At least, nothing that should cause you any trouble. With your permission, I will make the call now. As I said, the work should be done quite quickly. If you need to re-stoke your supplies or simply wish to enjoy what Khinereth's Stand has to offer in the meantime, then-"

Izuna reached for the comm unit built into his desk. The dull sound of an explosion in the distance made him and every one else in the administrative hub freeze. Several more distant yet ominous detonations followed in quick succession. The Entirian's face tightened and he swifly rose from his chair, mouth half-open to say something. Again, he was cut off. This time as every news-spewing monitor flickered and a booming yet feminine voice spoke in a commanding tone.

"People of Khinereth's Stand, I'm here to take what is owed to me, whether you know it or not," Rebecca could hear the people in the hallways murmuring. The woman staring back through the monitor was a Krayari, and a rather-imposing one at that. She had purple skin, golden eyes, and black hair with just enough length to be tied into a practical braid. Her grin exposed the carnivorous woman's worryingly sharp teeth and the way she crossed her arms emphasized the thick and steely cords of muscle that lay beneath her armored pilot suit.

"I don't expect you to surrender. In fact, I hope you don't, but my ships are in orbit, your outer defenses have just been taken down, and your long-range communications are being jammed. My Reapers are going to take what they have sewn here,"

The Krayari woman leaned forward, her grin broadening into a bloodthirsty smirk. "You've got one hour to hunker down in your bunkers and scramble that budding army of yours. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been able to accomplish with my weapons and supplies..."

The holomonitors went blank as the signal ceased its transmission.

"Fucking pirates...!" The sound of Izuna slamming his fist into his desk echoed from behind Rebecca even over the strained commands of the security officers for the crowd to remain calm and follow the evacuation procedures. "Miss Corvo, unless you're planning to put yourself in the line of fire, I'd strongly advise you to follow the others,"

The Entirian administrator pulled a hidden compartment in his desk open and pulled out a pistol and holster. The way he strapped the latter around himself and placed the former within it was much more practiced and efficient than any simple desk-jockey should have been capable of.

The apparent leader of the raiders planning to attack in one hour had said something about a budding army built at least in part out of her pillaged resources, though. Colonial defense was one thing, but the Entirian colonies under Earth's rule had significant restrictions on their standing militarizes and security forces that would likely remain as long as the colonies' loyalty was in question. Add the possibility of dealing with pirates to that, and the Terran authorities were going to have a field day if even whispers of this reached their ears!

...But, whatever Rebecca's politics were- if any -she definitely had more immediate problems to contend with. Joining the civilians in the bunkers would be the safest option, but she'd be relying entirely on others to decide her fate then. The pirates had no doubt set up a blockade of some sort, and for most trying to run such a thing would be suicide, but if anyone could work out a way to dodge their scanners and interceptors just long enough to make it, it was Rebecca Corvo. Finally, there was fight instead of flight. If improvising something out of the equipment she normally used for exploration and engineering work wasn't too her liking, perhaps Izuna and the Entirians could be convinced to trust her with something more...substantial.

Or perhaps the bright young woman had her own, completely original idea! Regardless, the clock was ticking.

 

[Ecnalab]

Rebecca knew a massacre when she saw one coming. There was only one thing she could realistically do; try to find a safe place to hunker down, and wait for the storm to pass. Sprinting back to her ship, she boarded the small star jumper that the Alliance had been kind enough to provide for her, and reignited the generator. As the engines roared back to life and the ship lifted into the air, she punched the sub-light engines and rocketed toward the edge of the city. The colony below her was in a state of pandemonium as its citizens scrambled to run, fight, or hide. She had to dodge more than one personal craft that likely had the same idea she did; get as far away from the city as possible.

The buildings gradually thinned, until they were replaced by the natural landscape of the planet. Rebecca kept going full throttle for as long as she could, and after forty minutes had passed, activated the emergency landing systems. The ship lurched and rocked back and forth as it slowed, and then began to land, coming to rest on uneven terrain, and likely damaging at least one landing strut. Opening the small cargo bay door, and then cutting the power so the ship could at least start to cool, Rebecca made her way to the rear of the ship.

Once in the cargo bay, she walked over to a large, tarp-covered, object. Grabbing the edge of the covering, she pulled it away to reveal the second vehicle that the Alliance had seen fit to provide her with. Standing before her was an auger-class heavy labor mech. She usually piloted the tiny mech, almost a robotic suit, on planets that were less than hospitable to human life. While the twelve foot tall man-shaped machine was not built for combat, it was fitted with armor strong enough to deflect space debris being blown by solar winds, and each of its arms was fitted with a plasma cutter that could slice through rock like butter. At least it would be better than going out in her coveralls.

Fishing the transponder key out of her pocket, she pointed it at the mech and pressed the release button. The mech took a knee, and a small hatch opened on its barrel-shaped torso. Clambering into the tiny cockpit, she started the activation sequence. The auger's tiny engine turned over, and the view screen in front of her turned on, showing her the outside world from the mech's eye view. As a list of operation systems filled the screen, all in the green, Rebecca stood and turned to the open entry ramp before taking her first step out of the ship, and surveying the planet before her.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

The pirates in orbit were no doubt keeping at least some tabs on the traffic below, but Rebecca could be somewhat confident that her flight would mostly go under their radar for the time being. The raiders would no doubt be more interested in surveilling the prosperous city than even well-off stragglers trying to flee, and she more than had the technical prowess to hide her ship's signatures from a few half-hearted scans.

If the city fell and failed to bleed the pirates badly enough, though, that was going to change very quickly.

A quick survey of Rebecca's environment presented several options to her right off the bat, in addition to whatever else the Terran pilot could come up with while there was still time to relocate. The uneven terrain she stood in became outright hilly just a short job in her labor mech away. The hills weren't particularly enough, but they would offer her rather small mech some adequate cover to exploit in a fight. They wouldn't be able to offer her any cover against visual scans, though. It was rather unlikely that the pirates would just happen to look such an ordinary piece of land without something pinging their instruments to draw their attention, but there was still a chance.

A farther away but still easily reachable was a forest. Rebecca's mech was easily large and strong enough to navigate and cut its way through the trees at a reasonable, if potentially graceless, speed. It would offer her more cover and a better place to hide, but if the terrain proved treacherous or the Terran Engineer found herself hemmed in by heavily armed attackers, things could take a rapid turn for the worse.

Finally, far in the distance, there was a chain of mountains tall enough to have snowcaps. Unless Rebecca got very lucky indeed with a hidden cave, she would be stuck with only the possibility of a snowstorm for cover in a freezing and treacherous environment...but, there was hardly a doubt that the borderline suit of powered armor that was Rebecca's mech would be at far less of a disadvantage up there than almost anything the pirates were liable to field.

There was also Rebecca's ship to consider in all of this as well. It may not have been designed for combat, but its sensors and even autopilot functions could prove useful to a resourceful engineer who could assemble and dissemble most of its components in her sleep.

 

[Ecnalab]

Rebecca set the auto pilot on her ship to head a full click to the west and then, realizing that there was little she could do in the last few minutes she had before the planet became a warzone, stepped out and watched her ship fly away. Turning to the forest, she had a break for the treeline. Once under the trees, she began looking for a defensible position. Locating a small gully, she sawed through some of the larger trees on the edges and gave them a good push, causing them to fall over the top of the oversized dich to form a thick cover of fallen trunks, and torn underbrush. With the shelter made, she walked inside, and hunkered down; shutting off all but the scanning systems of her auger, and waited.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(Rebecca: 4 + 2 + 3 + Precision 4 = 13 vs. 4 + 4 + 6 = 14.)

Time passed slowly for Rebecca in her cockpit. She might not have been a front-line combatant in the wars the Terran Alliance had waged against those who threatened it, but she knew from reports and simple common sense that planetary sieges could become protracted quagmires against a sufficiently cunning and entrenched foe even with the benefit of a fleet in orbit. Hopefully, that wouldn't be the case here. The pirates were probably more interested in a smash-and-grab raid rather than an occupation. She could probably rely on them pulling out of the system whether victorious or not before things like food and water became a concern.

Even so, the minutes stretched into hours when suddenly there was a blip on the engineer's radar. A single large signature arrived and hovered not far from where her ship had once been before taking off and leaving three smaller signals in its place. Scout mechs...

The squad split up. One went for the hills, the other toward the mountains, and the third was making their way towards the forest at a languid pace...and just happened to enter it not far from where Rebecca had. The only silver lining was that each step the pirate mech took towards her made it easier for Rebecca's sensors to gather data on it without leaving an electronic trail. The earthling couldn't give detailed technical specifications from what she had so far, but the output from the power core did fall in line with what she'd expect from a relatively lightly armed and armored scouting mech. Probably one armed with kinetic weapons rather than lasers, judging from the readings.

The blip on the radar paused for a moment and then began to steadily advance upon her position. It might not quite have been a dead giveaway, but the trees she'd cut down did give the lucky pirate something of a trail to work with now that they'd been lucky enough to stumble across it. Rebecca could actually feel the vibrations of the bipedal mech's last few steps as it stood just a few meters from where her heavy-labor model was hidden beneath the foliage. She only had a few more moments to try and do something before the scout's scanners or the pilot's eyes ferreted her out.

 

[Ecnalab]

The time for hiding was over, her cover had drawn the enemy close enough for a strike. Punching the ignition, her mech roared to life and rose to its feet, lifting one of the logs of the shelter over its head as it did. Pulling back on the throttle, and forcing the gyroscope, Rebecca hurled the fallen tree at the light mech. (2+4+2+Precition=12). Now that she was up, Rebecca was able to take stock of her opponent. Like most scout mechs, it was incredibly light; little more than a gun platform on a pair of spindly legs. But what concerned her was the long range antenna affixed to its shoulder. If it managed to call for help, then its buddies would be back in no time. Turning her own radio up to full blast, and flooding it with white noise, she attempted to jam its communications. (4+6+3+Intelect 4=17).

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(Rebecca attack roll: 12 vs. 1 + 6 + 5 = 12. HIT!

Damage roll: 6 + 4 + 1 + Precision = 15 vs. 5 + 5 + 4 =14.

Scout takes a full point of damage! [X}

Jamming Challenge: 17 vs. 5 + 2 + 1 = 8)

The nimble pirate mecha bounced back from Rebecca's hiding spot as soon as the Terran's heavy labor unit burst from the ground, but it was too little, too late. The tree smashed against the spindly grey biped and sent it tumbling to the ground before the pilot could even get a single shot off. The gray alien hull crumpled under the sturdy wood, but it was kept pinned against the ground as much by the weight of the improvised projectile as the actual damage inflicted. It wasn't quite finished yet, though. Rebecca's scanners still detected an active power core and the mech's feeble struggling implied the pilot was still conscious and halfway lucid.

The Terran pilot's fingers flew across her cockpit's consoles with rapid yet practiced movements. An even more furious assault of seemingly random noises was transmitted at full blast through the pirate's hacked frequencies. Their systems and ears alike were bombarded with a cacophony carefully cultivated to melt software and eardrum alike. The unfortunate pirate desperately tried to switch to a channel that Rebecca hadn't managed to hijack, but the redhead was several steps ahead of her foe already. Eventually, they seemed to realize it.

The cockpit creaked slowly open, not helped by the damaged servos. An alien woman in a lightly armored pilot uniform emerged with both hands raised high in the air. Her skin was a dull yellow color with patterns of brown dots forming lines that led down either side of her neck. Her...hair appeared to be more like a collection of flexible quills that had been combed back and down. After a moment or two, Rebecca recognized her for a Gallian, one of the comparatively weaker powers the Krayari Imperium conquered as a vassal-state before turning its gaze upon the Entirians and Earth. Judging by the relative quality of the downed scouting mech, she might have been dealing with a former military woman.

 

[Ecnalab]

The auger's hand shot out, seizing the woman around the waist, and lifting her into the air. Its other hand reached out and, as delicately as it could, tore her utility belt off along with her weapons. Finally, Rebecca set her mech to standby, and opened the front hatch. "Congratulations, honey, you've just been drafted," she said. "Now, before you start with the threats and vows that I'll regret this, let me lay out what's going to happen for you. I'm going to take you back to my ship, and your going to give me the passcodes to get by your little blockade, or I'm going to crush you, hunt down one of your friends, and see if they fell a little more cooperative." (4+3+3+charisma 5=15, to intimidate.)

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(Rebecca: 15 vs. 8)

The pirate tensed and Rebecca could almost feel the woman cry out in surprise as cold, steely grip closed around her. The pilot's utility belt and holdout pistol hit the ground with a dull thud, leaving the alien woman utterly at Rebecca's mercy. Even so, the pirate managed to steady herself enough to bristle and glare as Rebecca dramatically rose from the front hatch. Her mouth opened partway to fire off some withering and likely very crude words, but Rebecca's warning cut the pilot off before she had the chance.

When most people looked at Rebecca, the first thing they saw was an absurdly hot redhead who could probably get just about anyone to do anything with a few soft words and batted eyelashes. They had no idea just how sharp those deceptively soft features could be when the engineer decided that a more...firm approach was needed. Rebecca's unwavering gaze cut right through her prisoner's bravado and into the Gallian woman's very soul. Her tone was every bit as cold and strong as the iron grip that could pop the pirate like a grape with just the press of a button.

"A-alright, alright!" Rebecca's prisoner practically deflated before her very eyes and nodded desperately. "You don't have to prove anything, I fuckin' believe you! Gods, I don't think it'd even be worth it by this point anymore..."

The Gallian's eyes flickered over Rebecca's mech. It was a fine model with a myriad of uses, but she was probably right taking it as a prize would barely cover the military-grade scout mech the Corvo woman had trashed already. Not that that would have been much comfort to Rebecca herself...especially if the pirates decided she would make a grander prize.

 

[Ecnalab]

With negotiations concluded, Rebecca shimmied back into the tiny cockpit of her mech, and began trudging toward the area she had sent her ship. The auger only had a top speed of about twenty miles per hour, but that would easily cover a single click in about fifteen minutes. As she ran, Rebecca considered tuning her receiver into the local broadcast stations to see just how things were going in the city, but thought better of it. The last thing she needed to hear were cries for help that she could do nothing about. So, she trudged in silence, and simply prayed that she could make it off this planet and signal for help once she was clear of the pirates jamming efforts.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Rebecca's captive could do little but squirm and pretend she had some dignity left while the auger carried her off like a child's doll. It didn't take too long for the engineer to arrive where her ship had safely landed, but time was still of the essence. The other pirate scouts were going to realize their comrade was missing sooner rather than later, and there was a decent chance they wouldn't even need to find the ruined mech before substantial reinforcements could be authorized.

"...That's your ship?" The Gallian woman stared at the Terran vessel for a moment, stiffened, and threw up her hands in a placating gesture before Rebecca. "It's not bad! I'm just saying...look, my codes are good, but if someone takes a second look at the actual scans or the admiral's pe-, er, confidant isn't busy wrapping things up in the capital...well, you're going to need to get out of there really fast. Or hope they won't try and blow up the whole ship with me in it just outta' principle. if you were thinkin' of takin' me on as a hostage..."

Rebecca's captive would prove cooperative even without the auger's iron grip one squeeze away from turning her into jelly. The pirate would have spoken or typed in the eight-number sequence that she claimed would get Rebecca's foot in the door as far as escaping this world went.

The Gallian woman raise a good point about the possibility that the fleet in orbit possibly getting wise to Rebecca's ruse. Whatever modifications the Terran made to the civilian vessel, any pirate fleet able to besiege a world like this wasn't going to be easy to hoodwink and slip away from.

 

[Ecnalab]

Rebecca stomped onto her ship, and put the auger in rest mode; leaving the gallion woman in its hand, she climbed out. "My ship is equipped with a jump drive, all I have to do is break the gravitational pull of the planet and I'm out of here, the authorities are alerted, and hopefully they get here soon enough to do something. Now-" Rebecca reached back into the cockpit and produced a small sidearm, and hitting the release for the augers hand, dropping the gallion woman unceremoniously onto her backside "-let's get those hands where I can see them, and let's keep them there," she said with a smile before motioning towards the fore of the ship.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

The pirate's lingering efforts to look tough came to a sudden end as the mech released her.

"Kyah!"

She cried out girlishly and "oofed" painfully when she landed bottom-first on the ground. The Gallian winced and glared, but Rebecca's pistol wiped that bit of resistance right off the woman's face. "...Hostage it is, then. Alright, alright..."

Rebecca's prisoner raised her hands and entered the starship without much enthusiasm or deliberately slowing her movements. For better or worse, the Gallian was now literally in the same space-faring boat Rebecca was as far as the pirate's more trigger-happy comrades were concerned.

"Navigator, guide my steps as I stride from star to star..." The Gallian murmured what sounded like a prayer under her breath as the Terran guided her deeper and deeper into the ship.

 

[Ecnalab]

Once they were in the cockpit, Rebecca sat the gallian in the little used co-pilot seat, and instructed her to fasten her seatbelt and not make any sudden movements. Sitting in the pilot's seat, she made the pirate turn her head as she punched the security code into main console. As the ship started up she kept a close eye on the prisoner, finally having a spare moment she was able to take in her features in detail, as the ship lifted off.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Rebecca's prisoner glumly complied and kept her hands firmly in her lap whenever the Terran didn't have any explicit instructions for her to follow. The pirate began to fidget incessantly as the ship lifted into the air with a faint tremble.

A closer look at the alien woman seemed to confirm that, if she wasn't former military, she was no stranger to combat. There were a few subtle scars on her cheek and above her right eye that clearly refused to fully heal even with the application of a dermal regenerator. The woman's face was otherwise rather fair, if one didn't mind her quill-like hair. The armored pilot suit she wore wasn't exactly form-fitting, but Rebecca could make out a respectable degree of muscle definition beneath it as well. She didn't seem too bad off in the chest department either...though, her C-cups lacked behind the perfect triple set of Ds Rebecca's genetically perfected body boasted.

Off to the side and in the distance, Rebecca could just barely make out the capital of Khinerith's Stand. Smoke rose from the once-grand city and dots she was fairly certain were pirate vessels leisurely descended into its heart. It was better not to think of what the raiders intended to do with the people trapped inside. If Rebecca hurried and the Alliance pulled through, most of the colonists might not even make it to the slave markets before a rescue task force could hunt them down.

Blue sky and white clouds began to give way to the cold vacuum of space and the pirate blockade. The ship's scanners offered a less than promising report. While they were stretching themselves somewhat thing, the pirates did indeed have enough capital ships and interceptors to put the entire planet on lockdown. It wasn't unheard of for mere outlaws to be able to muster such force-frequent interstellar war ensured there were always soldiers or violent opportunists left without a nation and the endless frontier of space offered no shortage of hiding places and resources-, Rebecca had good reason to curse her luck as much as whatever the Entirians did to attract this fleet to their doorstep in the first place.

Still, the codes her prisoner had given her seemed to check out. A minute passed after they were submitted, and then two with no sign that the frigates or fighters were moving in to disable her vessel.

"Ha...by the trinity, I think-" The Gallian froze, her eyes widening as Rebecca's systems registered a focused sensor-sweep zeroing in on her vessel.

"Shit...!"

As before, Rebecca's hands flew across the consoles to launch a digital counterattack. The Gallian woman stared with wide eyes as the Terran deployed a barrage of white noise, scrambled signals, and false data in a display of technical brilliance that would have given most people headaches just seeing the output, nevermind the actual engineering.

(Intelligence contest. Rebecca's 15 vs. ???'s 1 + 6 + 1 + Intelligence 5 = 13)

...It wasn't going as smoothly as Rebecca expected. At first, throwing off the scan had been as easy as jamming her prisoner's radio with the advantage of surprise, but after a moment or two the patterns began to grow complex. Much more complex. Whoever worked at the pirates' scanner now was staying was just barely one step behind Rebecca no matter what trick she employed.

"Uh...miss...?"

The Gallian woman cleared her throat and nodded to the ship's radar. Rebecca could spare only the briefest of glances before as particularly focused electronic thrust forced her back to concentrate almost entirely on playing digital cat and mouse. Some of the frigates were shifting formation in front of her. Neither they nor the fighter interceptors were racing towards Rebecca's ship with their weapons charged, but they were getting closer, likely to collect additional scans. It wouldn't be much longer before the Terran vessel was ready to jump to lightspeed, though. Just a few course corrections to compensate for the new formation and-the pirate vessels moved again. The autopilot was forced to make yet another slight change to avoid smashing straight into one of the larger vessels.

So, that was the game the pirates were playing...

Just a tiny bit of manual piloting or minor adjustments to the autopilot's programming would be all it'd take to secure an exit, but that would mean dividing her attention between it and this elite among the pirates' technical crew. Even a moment's distraction could put Rebecca at a disadvantage there.

 

[Ecnalab]

Rebecca knew she couldn't chart a course, and keep this scanner jockey off her trail for much longer. She needed a feint, and fortunately, she had one right beside her. "Open a communication line to one of your ships," Rebecca ordered, not bothering to look at her guest's reaction. "Tell them that you are bringing in the first load of spoils." To add to the ruse, she adjusted her real-space course toward one of the larger frigates. Meanwhile, she kept trying to rout a clear course beyond the blockade. Her plan didn't have to work for long, but if it didn't... She eyed her ships weapons, a single turret mounted laser cannon on top of her craft. It wasn't much, but if she could get a clear shot with it, she might be able to knock out a sensory cluster, or tractor beam projector. For now, she would have to wait and see if they took the bait.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

The silence that followed Rebecca's command lasted for a moment that seemed to stretch out into an eternity. Piloting the ship while engaging in an electronic duel against one of the few technicians who was able to rival her was taking virtually all of the redhead's attention and both hands. If her prisoner wanted to take advantage of the distraction to throw a punch and see if her comrades could board the ship before Rebecca could whip her pistol back out, she would not get a better opportunity.

"...Got it," The Gallian finally said. Rebecca could hear her opening the appropriate comm channel with a few uncertain presses on the console. "ARC squad leader Jzora Atar here. Picked up an unexpected prize during the mop-up sweeps. The tech we're working with here is a little...weird, but should be worth a bundle if someone doesn't get too trigger-happy. Over."

Rebecca could feel her prisoner's worried gaze shift to her. One way or another, the woman had picked a side and it was now up to the Terran engineer to make sure Jzora didn't regret it. The bluff seemed to be working, though. For a brief moment, the intensity of the enemy scans lightened up and frigates held their positions. A few manual edits to the jump drive's route and the autopilot later, and Rebecca was just seconds away from-

(Intelligence Contest. Rebecca: 15 vs. ???'s 15)

The scanning signature from before flared up again! The digital assault was every bit as savage and relentless as the first.The layers of white noise Rebecca generated were being penetrated just as fast as she could throw them up, and each false trail or misleading whiff of sensor data she fed her foe only distracted them for an instant before they homed right back in on the Terran transport. Her head was starting to pound and her heart was beating as if she was running a marathon, but Rebecca was holding her ground...barely. And time was her ally here.

Rebecca's ship suddenly lurched to the side. The frigate blocking her jump was out of the way and barely had time to even turn before the familiar pressure of traveling faster than light pushed Rebecca and Jzora gently into their seats. The stars themselves began to flash by in a blur and the entire pirate fleet vanished from Rebecca's radar. It wouldn't be much longer before she would be able to get a signal to the Terran Alliance.

"Gods, I didn't think that would actually work!" Jzora all but gasped. The alien woman splayed herself out atop the console, holding her head in her hands and chuckling nervously. "I mean...fuck, I figured you knew what you were doing when you didn't immediately get yourself caught, but...holy shit, holy shit..."

Jzora let out another nervous laugh and leaned back into her seat. There was a distinctly apprehensive note in the way she looked at Rebecca, her gaze flickering over the engineer's body for any hint of a tell.

"So...where are we going now...?"

Not a bad question. A message to the Terran Alliance would be enough to get them on the trail of the pirate fleet, but a full report to one of their starbases or planetary military garrisons would undoubtedly help more. There was the matter of Rebecca's prisoner, though. Those same authorities would no doubt be very interested in finding out what Jzora knew, but probably weren't going to take the view that helping the Terran out at gunpoint was enough to make up for a career of piracy.

 

[Ecnalab]

As soon as the micro jump through space was complete, Rebecca began transmitting an S.O.S. along the jump relay trails; informing anyone who was listening about what had happened on Khinereth's Stand. The next few hours were tense as Rebecca made the journey to the nearest Alliance controlled planet. Her ship had no holding cells, so her guest spent most of the trip locked in the bathroom. Once they were planet-side, Rebecca was able to turn her over to the authorities, and provide a more detailed report of the incident. The next few days were a bit of a blur as she gave several reports to both military officers, and the press about her harrowing ordeal, and was forced to see a physician to ensure that she was not suffering from P.T.S.D. or any other form of complications before she could return to work.

Meanwhile the news reports of the incident on Khinereth's Stand, and Rebeca's heroic actions, were broadcast across the stars. While the damage to the colony would take years to fully repair, it was nowhere near as bad as it would have been if she hadn't managed to slip past the blockade and deliver an S.O.S. According to the reports, the pirate fleet had been forced to abort their raid in order to avoid coming into conflict with an Alliance patrol force that had, thankfully, been just a couple hours away. The heavy war ships had arrived just as the invaders were pulling out, and had even managed to down and capture a few of the smaller frigates before the majority of the pirates got away. Sadly, the woman who had apparently been in charge of the raid had managed to elude capture.

In the wake of the political fiasco that ensued, with regards to weather or not hostilities should be resumed against the Imperium, Rebecca was able to return to work after only a couple of weeks of down time. As her little ship raced across the expanses of space to yet another lonely little planet in need of a newly installed jump beacon, she was glad to be away from all the hustle and bustle once again. Her hand hit the last few buttons in the deployment sequence, and the little satellite was separated from the exterior of her ship to float lazily away in orbit over the new planet. Looking down on the blue and green sphere, Rebecca marveled at the unspoiled biosphere. It was an earth-like planet, though a bit hotter than her home world, and over half of it was covered in desert, yet there was enough greenery to make it at least plausible as a colony. She wondered just who the first ones to set up shop would be.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

At least one positive to the unexpected several weeks of downtime was that it allowed Rebecca to fill in gaps she hadn't been able to on Khinereth's Stand on account of her struggles to avoid death or enslavement. It wasn't just any pirate armada that raided the planet. It had been the Merry Reapers. If the name meant nothing to Rebecca before, the minor media circus being broadcasted during her leave made it nearly impossible to forget. Allegedly, the core of the pirate fleet was made up of some renegade members of the Krayari Imperium. The chaos of that war coupled with the advantages military-grade ships, equipment, and training offered them over the usual pirate scum allowed the fleet's powerbase to swell.

Renegades or no, the Imperium's role in the the Merry Reapers' and similar fleets' raids was...contested. Officially, the Krayari Imperium was not sponsoring any such thing. Unofficially, the race of conquerors had a long and respected tradition of their soldiers behaving in the same manner, and much of the plundered wealth found its way into Krayari space one way or another. Tensions were mounting, but nothing had come of any of it yet. Few of the soldiers and politicians the Corvo woman knew were eager to do anything that risked another war with the Krayari Imperium...particularly while Entirian rather than loyal Terran citizens were the ones hit hardest by such raids.

It was all a somewhat distant concern to Rebecca as she hovered above the habitable world. Even if it was half-desert and less comfortable than Earth and the more well-developed colonies, this world had the real potential to be a jewel among the stars. Other exploration teams would probably be coming in behind Rebecca before too long take stock of the planet's natural resources and what riches or strategic benefits the surrounding space offered. Once that data was gathered, it was just a matter of time before one faction or another within the Terran Alliance laid claim to this-

An urgent beep from Rebecca's sensors drew her attention to the console. She'd recorded a few odd readings over the course of the last few days. It was nothing that couldn't be explained by a nearby nebula, solar flare, or gravity distortion, but the readings she was picking up from the edge of the solar system...

Another vessel jumped into the system. One that skirted the line between medium and large. Several smaller signatures almost immediately deployed from it and began to rush Rebecca's position. It was too early to get detailed technical schematics, but the military engineer in her recognized it as a special operations carrier. Such vessels were much smaller than the capital ships that could carry dozens, even hundreds of fighters and drones, but their sensors and electromagnetic warfare capabilities were second to none and coupled with that even a single squadron could accomplish terrifying surgical strikes.

 

[Ecnalab]

Rebecca sent out a hail to the newly arrived ships, wondering just what Alliance military vessels were doing out this far. Had she stumbled upon some secret base, or something? Dismissing the notion as childish, she continued to hail the ships, but began prepping for a micro jump, just in case.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

The fighters were closing the distance at a rapid pace and didn't slow even after the hail. Rebecca's instruments didn't register a weapon's lock yet, but the flight of four were splitting off into a standard interception formation meant to cut off Rebecca's escape routes. Her scanners were able to confirm the vessels as being products of the Terran Alliance's factories at least. A Geist-class special operations carrier equipped with Scorpion-class strike drones, to be precise. That definitely wasn't the sort of technology that got deployed on just any patrol...

The viewscreen flickered to life as the small carrier opened the comm line. A blond man with sharp green eyes stared back at Rebecca. He looked about the same age as her, and his soft facial features would have made him rather striking in a bookish sort of way if not for the severe expression the man wore. What stuck out to Rebecca the most however, was the fact that the apparent captain the vessel was his lack of a Terran uniform and what could only be described as a steel gray collar embellished with complex yet alien markings written in gold. A soft green light rest at the center of the collar, just above the man's throat.

"Our sensors are locked onto you and I personally pieced together your ship's specifications. Surrender now...Rebecca Corvo."

 

[Ecnalab]

"Well, that was enough weirdness for Rebecca and she punched the engines and felt her ship lurch into motion. There was no way her little cruiser would be able to outrun interceptors, but if she worked fast enough, she might be able to evade them long enough to initiate a jump. [evasive maneuvers: 6+5+2+presicion 4= 17 vs. interceptors 4+5+3+speed 3 sound good? =15] Fortunately, Rebecca's timing was good, and she managed to thread the needle between the incoming ships, getting past their formation. However, she was now stuck between a small swarm of fighters, and a very big cruiser. "Who are you!?" she demanded, across the coms.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(The roll is good!)

Rebecca's ship wasn't exactly a top-of-the-line military grade frigate, and the Scorpion class drones moved with speed and precision that went beyond any unenhanced and mass-produced model would have been capable of. Nearly any other pilot would have been caught dead to rights then and there, but a combination of sharp turns and a flurry of almost maddeningly precise adjustments to the vessel's thrusters allowed spun the relatively bulky transport around on a dime and shot it through a gap in the interceptors' formation seconds before it closed.

Adrenaline was already beginning to pump through Rebecca's veins. The drones slowed and swiveled around immediately. They would be right back on her in seconds, and there was no way she could avoid them and the carrier indefinitely. Even if she did manage to get enough breathing room to jump to warp, somehow, that might not be enough. The fighters would be able to dock back inside the carrier in moments, and even Rebecca's prodigious talents would only be able to squeeze so much out of a civilian vessel in a race against a special operations carrier.

"William Hauser, special operative of the...well, I suppose you would know them as the Merry Reapers," The man crossed his arms and his emerald eyes gazed sharply back at Rebecca. "Final warning: power down your ship and prepare to be boarded. Your running of that blockade was impressive, but I've prepared extensively for this and there is no planet-wide siege to distract me this time."

Rebecca's scanners registered weapon locks from both the interceptors and the cruiser.

 

[Ecnalab]

Rebecca realized that her options were limited, to say the least. A jump was out of the question, and while she could try to head planet-side, reentry would make her a sitting duck. With a resigned sigh, she cut the engines and powered down her ship. "Okay, they want to play rough, we'll play rough," she muttered. Heading to the hold of her ship, she bucked under the tarp that covered her auger, and opened the hatch. Sitting in the cramped confines of her mech, she waited.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

For a minute or so, nothing happened. Then a vibration ran through the hull of Rebecca's vessel as the pirate cruiser docked with it. She could imagine the boarding apparatus extending to join with and force open the airlock. Another few minutes passed in silence. The now-empty bridge was probably the boarding party's first stop. If they were expecting to find a meekly surrendering woman waiting for them there, the pirates were going to be quite disappointed...but not undaunted.

(Rebecca Precision Roll: 17 vs. Merry Reaper Special Troopers: 1 + 4 + 1 + precision 2 = 8)

Whether by sound or scanners, Rebecca sensed several figure entering the cargo hold. Only the barest and occasional click of armored boots on the floor betrayed their presence to her ears at first.

Several more moments passed in silence. Rebecca's ship was no cargo hauler, but in addition to her auger, there was a rather respectable supply of tools, replacement parts, and beacons filling out the hold. It was easy to imagine her pursuers getting distracted by all the potential hiding places those crates and bulky machines offered. Training would demand that they fan out just enough to ensure the wily woman wasn't waiting in some dark corner to gun them all down while they were relatively exposed.

The tarp covering Rebecca's mech shifted just enough to give the engineer a warning. Someone was about to pull it down, but the advantage of surprise would be firmly in her corner.

(I'd argue that very skilled but not heroic-level soldiers getting taken off-guard by a mech in relatively close quarters warrants a Super-Advantage roll for the surprise attack at least.

As a refresher, I will quote the almighty Xat: "Sometimes, one die just isn't enough for the epicness of my players. In these shining instances, you'll get super advantage and roll an extra dice in addition to the normal advantage die (five total) and add the highest three for your action. You can imagine that if you do something really, really dumb, this will apply similarly to disadvantage.")

 

[Ecnalab]

As the tarp came cascading down in front of the pirate that had been unlucky enough to pull it, a metal hand reached out and seized him by the head and chest as the auger powered up and stood, before hurling him in the direction of his nearest companion. (Precision: 13, that was a shit-tastic roll. Potential damage roll: 16) Rebecca stood in her mech, and looked around, taking a better look at the scene as she activated the plasma cutters on her auger's wrists; the two oversized torches of white-hot energy lighting up the room.