Starship Engineer

I watched the plot as the second Sylvan scout ship evaded nearly 30 missiles before being destroyed. There were rumors that even small Sylvan ships had FTL communication. I guess we would find out soon. Humanity still relied on large station arrays to transmit messages FTL.

Eve said the steward bot had activated everything. But she was having trouble communicating with the bot now. The unexpected interference generated was playing havoc with my comms to the pirate. Eve said the planetoid should be vibrating now and I should contact the pirate leader again.

Putting on my best poker face I opened the comms again. It took him a few minutes to respond and Henry said a few pirate ships were retreating. My best guess was the appearance of the elves had scared them off. Rolling with this thought I tried to play the elves up as my allies. Unfortunately my acting wasn’t believable enough and he cut me off and with some tightness in his voice asked what the fuck I was doing to his planetoid.

My smirk was genuine. I said destroying it. He looked more than agitated and said well at least there should be enough wealth on my burdened ship to make up for the loss. So this was a game of chicken? Our banter of threats was interrupted by another Sylvan ship, then two more almost right after…and they were coming from different vectors. The pirate ended comms to deal with the threat.

He obviously hadn’t dealt with space elves enough. There had to be a city ship nearby. Could it be the city ship that I ditched at Silverstream station? No…the odds. I told Henry to put out a request to the Sylvan ships for aide against human pirates. They were hunting us and I didn’t want to be associated with the ships that destroyed their brethren.

Henry said the a Syvlan ship sent up a retreat corridor. But what spooked me was they used the name Devon Wellspring. It had to be the city ship from Silverstream then. This was turning into a very bad day. Another Sub space disrupter went off close to us. Fuck!

The good news was there was a space engagement breaking out. The Sylvan scouts had great defensive ability but weak offensive. They were definitely drawing a fair amount of pirate attention. I checked the plots…47 ships on a vector to intercept us…looking at IFF and most were heavy fighters and gunships…and a inter system courier? That would be the fastest ship they had but it should have no weapons unless the pirates packed in a surprise. It had also just caught the pack and was pushing past them.

Henry said he had a tight beam communication and was trying to figure out which ship it was coming from. I already knew. I told him to put it through to me. A haggard Samantha was on the other end of the comm. Was she here to gloat or another reason.

She started by saying that things did not look too good right now for me. But she could help us escape. But I had to take her with us. I paused before saying ok but what could she do to help us? I really didn’t believe her. My guess is she was trying to get close to my ship for some type of sabotage but I was grasping at straws.

Samantha said only three pirate ships had the sub space disrupter missiles. The ship she had come from was one of them…I paused to look at the plot…another Sylvan scout was destroyed. She had planted a remote operated device in their missile stores that would prevent them from launching more from that ship. I asked about the other two ships with missiles. She said one was ready to flee due to the Sylvan presence and the other one was greedy and already in a city shaft. I only had about 2 hours before I was overtaken by the pirates. They wouldn’t have trouble taking out my shields and engines with their array of craft. I said if she delivered and got to our ship we would take her with us.

Samantha’s plan if genuine was a massive long shot. Two more Sylvan scouts appeared. The pirates now had their hands full. I needed to get the hell outta here before city ship showed. Then another ship appeared, a Sylvan war chariot. Basically a corvette sized warship. Thankfully it was closer to the pirates than my ship. I watched the plot and when the pirates didn’t fire any disrupters I was about to dance for joy and get ready for FTL. But the fucking War Chariot took over with it’s own disrupters. So much for getting away and Samantha’s plan.

The Sylvan disrupter was much more powerful than the pirates and caused them to panic. I only had Samantha trying to get to me…the rest of the smaller pirate ships were fleeing to their carrier vessels. Eve pipped into my awe at the plot. She said she could control the steward bot on the planet any longer. Yes Sylvan disrupters we’re very good and affected more than sub space. Well it didn’t matter. I was resigned to answering to my elf overlords. It should hopefully not be as bad as pirates.

The plot showed the War Chariot under heavy assault from the pirate forces. Only one scout ship remained. Then two more scouts and another War Chariot arrived. I grimly watched as the pirates gave up fleeing and tried to fly into the city shafts to hide. They were just cornering themselves. I made preparations to lock Samantha’s courier ship to the belly of my ship. No point in her dying as a pirate today. She was 20 minutes from our ship when the city ship finally arrived.

The massive ship was over 600 km. It emitted a disrupter pulse then burst like a hornets nest. Dozens of ships launched and headed for the remaining pirates. Eve interrupted my study of the radar plot. She said the planetoid was harmonizing. The steward bot was continuing with its directive to shatter the planetoid. Oh shit! The Sylvan city ship was headed for the planetoid and two War Chariots were headed for me. Eve couldn’t stop the steward bot so I told Henry to warn away the city ship. Eve said the planetoid would just crack and break apart. Ok maybe we didn’t need to warn…

The planetoid collapsed in on itself and after a brief pause it exploded outward. I had just enough time and piece of mind to swing my meager shields in that direction. The explosion threw large chunks out randomly, some would definitely hit the city ship. I guessed almost all the pirates would be destroyed being so close. Then the follow up pulse and shock wave washed over my ship. I had hoped my ship shields would help but the ship shook violently and all my generators and power cores went down instantly. Including Eve right next to me. I felt lightheaded myself and my nostrils smelled ozone. What the fuck just happened?