Unknown Heroes: Chapter 9

[Warenwolf]

Edit 01: Changed GalNet to IBC.

I couldn’t get any sleep tonight so I decided to finish the chapter 9. Enjoy!
From this chapter on, I have added the sign * behind every new word that has explanation in the Glossary, e.g “Liberty class gunboats*”.


By the way, I will encourage people to write what they DON’T like about my story. Especially stylistic criticism will be appreciated. I have noticed that only one of fifty that reads this chapters coment on them and never had a negative comment been given.
Without such critisism I can't evolve as (hobby) writer. The whole point of this story is to give me "combat experiance" for more advanced stories which I plan in future (A warstory and cyberpunk novel not set in X-Universe).



New Player


------------------

Links to other chapters:
Chapter 8: The Hunt Begins
Chapter 7: Among the rogues
Chapter 6: Anger of the Giants
Chapter 5: Awakening of the storm
Chapter 4: Trade run to Hell
Chapter 3: Old connections
Chapter 2: Means for revenge
Chapter 1: First kill

Glossary of Unknown Heroes
-------------------------------------


“I have no time to question him. Put him on the prison ship to the Argon Prime then we will see,” Jane instructed, quickly slipping into her pilot suit. She was speaking, via COMSAT, to the chief of Sector Police in Herron’s Nebula. On their regular patrol, Police had discovered a light ship on autopilot, broadcasting S.O.S. As the two ship patrol approached the vessel, the HQ warned them that the ship was just been added on the wanted list. Taking no chances, the patrol called in a corvette equipped with a tug laser. The Discoverer was then towed into a Carrier where an assault squad, using the blowtorches, opened a hole in the ship’s hull and stormed its interior. Instead of fierce resistance by a cyberborg, as they were warned of in the dispatch from Argon Prime, they found a bound and drugged pilot.
“I got them!” Stella interrupted Jane who quickly finished the conversation and turned her attention to her A.I. Jane presumed that she was talking about Erich Campbell,
“Three questions, Stella: How? Where? Are you sure?”
“I used the E.Y.E. I centered on the moment the Discoverer entered the nebula. There is no point of going further back – the ship never docked with a station or ship during its travel from the pirate station PT2345-ST6, also known as “Carrick’s Lair”. Only three ships entered the nebula: The ship carrying suspect known as Erich Campbell according to the intercepts, another light ship of Harrier class, YK-185-THS-568, ”Salvager’s Luck”, registered to a suspected criminal Otto Dahl. The third ship was a Goner Ranger that has not yet exited the nebula. The facts speak for themselves,”
Stella said. In a attempt of imitation of human humor, she added,
“Knowing Mr. Dahl, as you should remember, Goner has met a dismal end if he had attempted to convert Mr. Dahl…”
“Sorry, I don’t remember any Mr. Dahl,” Jane said arching her eyes upwards.
The A.I. imitated a chuckle, saying mockingly, “Human’s memory, it is so temporary, as I always point out… Otto Dahl has a file that needs thirty DSDs to be stored. He is the one who fired that missile on that poor Goner in Argon Prime. You let him go, remember?”
“Yes, now I remember… The Universe is getting smaller…” Jane said asking herself whether also Mr. Campbell was on that ship at that time. Probably not, but still… The ship was within firing range with no chance of escape. If she had only chosen differently that day, ordering the ship to the nearest docks to be examined instead of letting it go. But wondering of “what ifs” are waste of time, Jane concluded and instead asking the most essential question this morning, “And now to where part…”
“They crossed the Boron border, entering the Kingdom at Atreus Cloud’s West gate.”
“Excellent, we have enough time! Which Rapid Deployment Force Teams are available?” Jane asked, referring to the small, jump capable, elite forces available to law enforcements forces, intended for special operations.
“Within the range of Atreus Cloud sector? Only the Echo team at Argon Prime.”
“Composition?”
“Saladin Light Frigate*, carrying two Busters Mk5 and one Discoverer 960R”
“More than enough firepower. Inform Borons and order the Echo team to launch and await my arrival,” Jane ordered the A.I. and raced towards the docks. She wanted to be inside that frigate when it went into the action. She almost run over a secretary, ignoring the man’s angry yelling. She attracted few looks racing like that trough corridors – her colleagues were used to such behavior from Jane.
Within the three minutes, she was inside her own Discoverer recon fighter, ignoring the safety procedures, asking the flight control for emergency departure. Being a field agent, she got it immediately, placing her at first place in the outgoing queue. She exited the docking tunnel as a missile, almost colliding with a Laser Tower as she accelerated towards the Light Frigate that was already waiting.
“I guess you assume that “Salvager’s Luck” will try to reach the independent systems?” A.I. asked Jane as the ship was rapidly approaching the waiting engines.
“Where else? Teladi border is long way away and Boron Kingdom has no safe heavens for them,” Jane answered. She opened a channel to the frigate, “Prepare for a “beam over” in two seconds.”
Simultaneously she pressed the update button on her PDA that uploaded the latest changes in Stella to her PDA. Just as the transfer finished she was beamed over on the command deck of the light frigate.
The ships crew around her ignored her arrival, their entire focus on their tasks. Highly professional, Jane thought. Normal crew would be gawking and work left unintended. Not this crew.
Her glance found the captain, fifty years old man with obvious charisma. Jane knew that he was a elite’s elite, with numerous medals.
After a brief salute, captain asked her simply, “Where to?”
“Farnham’s Legend, entry at North gate,” Jane answered, wasting no time to finding her chair and preparing herself for the jump. Captain immediately yelled out an order and the frigate entered a blue tunnel. Time seemed to freeze in place, but just as the brain registered the fact, time resumed as normal and computer announced their entrance into the independent Farnham’s Legend system.
“Damn, I hate the cold jumps,” Jane uttered as her morning coffee insisted of coming out of her nose. There were two types of jumps – warm and cold. In the former body’s molecules arrived at same time, while in later method molecules arrived one by one. The cold method was faster but far more unpleasant, despite scientist claiming that it shouldn’t be…
A petty officer, manning the scanners reported, “Immediate area clear, two locals are observing but not approaching, sir”
“What kind of ships and id?” The captain inquired.
“Just two old Liberty class gunboats*, sir”
“Then it seems that we can focus on our primary objective,” the captain said turning to Jane.
“Bring the EYE network up”
Captain turned his head towards another of his officers and a motioned his head. The officer approached the desk in the middle of command deck and ordered the computer to start the holograph projectors. He turned to Jane, “Which parameters, ma'am?”
“Atreus Cloud, Harrier light fighter “Salvager’s Luck”, 12X Zoom”
The holograph now showed a brightly colored Harrier traveling slowly towards the sector’s South gate. A report from Boron Royal Police showed that a scan revealed two life forms aboard.
“This is our target. We must capture the crew alive. Use your weapons do disable her but don’t kill her,” Stella gave her concise orders. The captain would not ask for the reasons behind the mission, or who the two men were – he did not need to know.
“Are we sure they are heading here?” he finally asked after studying the holograph in fron of him for few sezuras.
“This is the most logical choice”
“But not the only one,” he pointed out. A crewmember handed him a coffee cup from he took a sip before continuing, “There is probably a pirate base somewhere to the horizontal west of the South gate. Then there is that independent research station in Rolk’s Fate that we all know is smuggler’s base. I suggest that we deploy the Discoverer and trail the ship for a bit before we strike”
“Wise idea captain,” Jane conceded, “I will leave execution of the operation in your hands”
“I thank you for your trust,” captain said giving her a polite smile. He walked over to the intercom and ordered the launch of the Discoverer. During the launch, the captain gave the pilot brief instruction of what his mission was. Unlike the ordinary military ship, the men and women serving in RDF, Rapid Deployment Force*, were given a large degree of freedom on the operational level. The Discoverer pilot would, aboard an ordinary Navy ship, be briefed about the main plan, reserve plan, second reserve plan and retreat plan. Jane admired how the captain had such confidence in his men to simply send them into the action with few words. She turned her eyes towards the hologram watching the “Salvager’s Luck” progress.





“Who would knew that she would be that furious? I mean she TOLD me that our thing was just one night thing. People driven into each other by desperation or something,” Otto argued. He was again trying to persuade Erich that the bounty on him was based on misunderstanding.
“Twelve years younger cabaret dancer made her furious,” Erich reminded Otto, which rolled his eyes over his friend’s inability to understand his arguments.
“At least you had enough wits to use the false name”
“Yeah. I really hope that the bounty hunter that tracks down a Pete Notting, checks with Elisa whether he got the right man before deciding to remove his “family jewels”. I never understood women…” Otto said increasing the range of his scanners by focusing their scan. He did it out of old habit not because he felt in danger. Once again, his habits saved his day.
“Damn…We are followed!”
“What…Where?” Erich asked, looking at a magnified picture of a ship he recognized as a Discoverer.
“960R. Perhaps a 964R. In any case – military hardware…”
“You sure?” Erich asked, looking at the picture of the Discoverer. He had to admit to himself that all Discoverers looked alike to him. Erich could not even tell the military from the civilian versions.
“Yeah, I’m sure. They painted it in civilian colors to blend in the traffic. That means a RDF team is lurking somewhere around or some other special force,” Otto said already turning the ship around and heading back towards the West gate.
“We are going wrong way back into the Federation”
“I know, but Kingdom and Federation are like two sides if same coin. Wherever we go, we will face battle. If we reach President’s End we can hide with a girl I know there”





“What!? He spotted the Discoverer,” Jane shouted seeing the Harrier turning around.
“Sound the Jump alarms! We are jumping through Atreus Cloud’s West gate!” captain ordered, while running to his seat. Jane promptly strapped herself into her own seat. Within few seconds she saw for second time in this tazura a jump tunnel opening. The usual nausea followed, then subsided. Once she reoriented herself a missile launch alarm sounded.
“Type and impact time report,” the captain asked.
“Four Mosquitoes, 56 to 59 sezuras,” the officer manning the scanners reported.
“Ignore them. Position us so the dorsal gunner has clear position if he tries to pass us. Man the battle stations and report! And turn of that alarm”
The crew immediately obeyed and trough the intercom report came in:
“Dorsal gun – OK! Ventral battery – OK! Missile battery – OK! Left side gunner – OK! Right side gunner – OK! Repair and medic crew - ready!”
At the same time Jane felt how the ship tilted as it came into new position, giving the dorsal gunner maximum field of fire.
“Give me the channel to the Harrier!”
“Channel to the Harrier open and ready, sir!”
“Surrender or be destroyed. You have no chances…”
Before the captain could finish his threats, four explosions rocked the ship. For the first time Jane could see shock in otherwise emotionless face of the captain.
Damage alarms sounded throughout entire ship and light went out.




“You didn’t expect that, did you?” Otto mocked the frigate’s captain through the com before ordering the computer to block the channel. The “Salvager’s Luck” flew past the frigate into the gate’s vortex without the frigate reacting.
Once on the other side, Erich asked, doubting that their troubles were over, “You took them out?”
“No, they are just shell-shocked. They will be blazing after us soon enough,” Otto answered.
“Aren’t this ship faster than the frigate”
“That’s a light frigate which means that’s she is pretty fast one although rather lightly armed. If the captain micro jumps, he will place her next to us each time… She will probably launch her fighters now too. They hoped to scare us into surrender but after I used my special ordinance, they will take their gloves off”
“And I guess that they will call in entire Federation on our head?”
“That goes without saying. Speaking of the devil – all ships have just been warned to stay clear of us and sector militia has gotten their mobilization order...”





“Damage report. Launch available fighters in pursuit,” captain spoke calmly. He did not appear affected by his bleeding forehead. Few chairs away Jane organized the police forces across Federation in such way that “Salvager’s Luck” had no chance of escaping the second time.
“Preliminary damage report, sir: Dorsal turret stuck and two of six missile tubes out of action. Four battery cells down. Otherwise, only shock damages to the structure caused by the explosions. Crew damages light. Fighters launched without problems. Sir, there is another thing…”
“Yes?”
“Our shield levels remained undisturbed during the attack...Missiles went straight trough them…”
“Report received. Carry on as usual,” captain said. Jane, having overheard the damage report, wiped the blood from her chin. She was not a weapons expert, but she knew enough about the missiles to know that they should have exploded the moment they entered the shielding field.
“Shouldn’t they have exploded before hitting the hull?”
The captain turned his head towards her and nodded, “Yes… We are lucky that this ship was build after the invention of Mass Drivers. Otherwise many would have died today…”
“How so?” Jane asked. Clarifying, she added, “Why are we lucky that this ship is rather new?”
“Saldin class is build around a ceramic armor cylinder, intended to give it protection against the Mass Driver projectiles. When the missiles penetrated our shields and exploded hitting our hull, the mentioned cylinder kept us together. Otherwise explosion would have ruptured our hull, leading to critical decompression.”
“I did not know that missiles existed that did not explode when coming within shielding field. I should have paid more attention at the weapon developments briefing”
“I am rather sure that we are among the first Argons to have witnessed such technology. The magnetism from shields is enough to destroy guidance and detonation systems aboard a missile. It also creates induction that leads to too early explosion. That is why missiles are considered proximity weapons like mines. What we witnessed was a new type of technology”
“Paranid?”
“Not in the hands of criminals. More likely Independent Systems*. Which doesn’t bode well for us”
Their conversation was interrupted by intercom crackling. It was engineer reporting that engines could be started again without danger.
”Allright then. Should we continue with our hunt,” the captain asked Jane.
“By all means, yes!”
The great engines of the large ship roared for few moments, their voice subsiding as they reached their targeted efficiency. The light frigate turned towards the gate and accelerated.





“Well, well, it seems our friends have joined us again. And I bet those Busters that have followed us last mizuras belong to that frigate,” Otto commented the arrival of the pursuing frigate.
Erich used the external cameras to see the frigate better. It looked like a mini version of a destroyer. It did not appear to have any damages after Otto’s missile attack.
“I am betting that they will attempt a microjump soon,” Otto commented glancing at tactical display. He adjusted his computer to give him a warning whenever the frigate disappeared from the gravidar. The computer warned him that a flight of Discoverers that have locked on him. They were approaching fast from “Salvager’s Luck” rear.
Few of those light recon fighters tried to bring down the shields of Otto’s Harrier without succeeding. Whenever a Discoverer came behind him, Otto used their greater speed to his advantage. They would come in too quickly, trying to spray the Harrier with laser fire. Otto moved his flight stick just enough to avoid incoming fire, and as Discovers came at his side, he would fire few shots using his twin Alpha PACs, causing great damage with his precise shooting. Already four Discoverers were limping back to their bases. Rest of the fighters stayed at a respectable distance, trying to get some hits from extreme ranges. Obviously, they waited for reinforcements before attacking again.
“Militia! Shooting like bloody Borons after a swim in Space Fuel,” Otto derisively declared.
“When do you think that the frigate will microjump?” Erich asked.
“They had waited until now probably to see how Sector Militia would perform. Soon they will try to surprise us by micro jumping,” Otto answered. The very next moment ship’s computer sounded the alarm as Otto had programmed it to do. Otto’s Harrier had no way of directly knowing when the frigate’s captain would order a jump. Otto used the jumpdrive’s peculiarities to his advantage. Whenever a ship entered the jump event, the moment before it disappeared, its gravidare signature disappeared, giving Otto advance warning that a ship was to enter a jump tunnel.
Hearing the alarm, Otto quickly turned his ship to right. The frigate appeared just where Otto predicted, shooting where Otto would have been if he had flown on a straight course. Otto launched rest of his modified missiles, four in total, hoping again to strike the frigate.
This time the frigate’s captain was not going to be fooled again – one by one, all of the four missiles were shot down as all of the frigate’s guns turned their fire towards them.
The missiles were not totally wasted – they gave Otto chance to disengage and to use his superior speed to escape.
The frigate followed him and despite being one of the fastest designs, the distance between two ships increased. “Salvager’s Luck” was only few mizuras away from the sector’s South gate when frigate’s fighters decided to join in. Using their own jumdrives they jumped and entered the sector from it’s South gate.
“Not stupid,” Otto admitted to himself. Driven ahead by the frigate, right into the hands of two waiting fighters. “What now,” Erich asked realizing that they were in dire situation.’
“I still got tricks in my sleeves,” Otto self-confidently said. He waited just before he entered the firing range of the two Buster fighters, before ordering the computer to open the rear torpedo tube.
Then he opened a channel to the frigate, “This is “Salvager’s Luck” to unknown frigate. I am standing down. I repeat I am standing down”
At same time Otto did indeed shut down the engines. The frigate’s captain’s voice could be heard over the com, “Shut down your shields and discharge your weapon’s energy storage”
“As you command,” Otto said shutting down the channel. He lowered the shields and just as the shield indicator reached zero, he gave the computer a new command, “Engage the rockets”
The “Salvager’s Luck” vibrated in what seemed to a prelude to critical disintegration which spaceships experienced when entering a planet’s atmosphere too quickly. The sound of the two chemical rockets that Otto had installed inside the two rear torpedo tubes reverberated in the bones of the two men. The G-forces were incredible, as the ship accelerated from 0 to 1534 km/h, giving Erich’s implants that tried to compensate, hard time. Otto, having no such implants, drifted into unconsciousness. He would awake few sezuras later when the ship entered the South gate, only to drift back into unconsciousness when the ship again accelerated to 1534 km/h.
Back in the Hole sector, the captain of frigate, to Jane’s surprise and irritation, laughed. Seeing Jane’s questioning look he answered her unspoken question, “Come on, you have to admit that was a great trick!”





What seemed to Yoshiro Fujiwara as yet another uneventful watch, changed with the sounding of “Orange Alert” and arrival of the commander Khama. The newly appointed, stern-looking commander quickly walked to the center of Tactical Operation’s room, looked around him to see if everybody was present before he spoke,
“Attention! We got information from the HQ regarding the fugitive by name of Erich Campbell. This fugitive has been sighted in the Atreus Cloud’s sector. An ambush was prepared for him by one of RDF teams, but it failed. This criminal is trying to reach the Pirate Sectors by any means possible. Currently he is in the Wall system, heading here. We must prepare for his arrival. Our orders are to apprehend this criminal alive. Any questions?”
“Yes, sir. Why do we have to go to high alert status, when forces in The Wall can easily deal with a runaway fugitive?” asked a corporal. The commander Khama looked on the corporal as if the later was a retard. As Yoshiro learned quickly when commander had been appointed to this post, the man was of the old school military, when soldiers never asked their superiors about mission’s purpose. After few uncomfortable sezuras passed, the commander finally answered,
“Sector Militia and Police though the same way in The Wall. When fugitive’s Harrier entered their North gate, it blazed trough few ships they had posted there, using some kind of chemical rocket. It was in the middle of the sector before they managed to turn their ships around… Apparently commander there,” here commander Khama paused, gritting his teeth. Yoshiro had figured out that relationship between commander Khama and The Wall’s commander had been frosty for some time.
“Apparently commander there ignored the warnings from the Navy’s Intelligence, taking this criminal lightly. We shall not repeat that mistake here!” Commander then looked every man in the eyes to make sure that anyone understood. Finally he pointed to Yoshiro and said,
“And I want you to be extra alert! The coordination of operation depends on the Scan doing their job!”
The Scan was an informal term for the section Yoshiro commanded, Signal Company. He was responsible for scanners in entire sector. Most of the time it meant dull hours of watching the emptiness of the space, briefly interrupted by some unexplained signals that always turned out to have natural explanation. His communication unit started to vibrate warning him of incoming call. Yoshiro ignored it until the commander walked out of the room, and then he excused himself, pretending to be going to the toilet. He quickly walked trough the corridors until he reached the toilet. Yoshiro looked around to see if it was empty and then turned his communication unit on. He knew already whose voice he would hear.
Tim “The Vulture” Ericsson worked for New Gazette, one of those news services with large pictures with little explanatory text that specialized in stories about people’s sexual habits, celebrities’ weddings and other not-important information. To boost his income Yoshiro sometimes cooperated with Ericsson in exchange for credits.
“Hello old boy, how are things up there in control center?”
“What can I help you with Mr. Ericsson?”
“Quit that Mr. Ericsson thing. I told you to call me Tim! And beside I am just calling to check how my buddy is doing. Have much to work lately?”
“If we can agree on price, I will readily complain about my work…”
“All right, all right, I see that my buddy is to smart to be fooled into giving information freely! That’s what I like about you. How about 700 Credits?”
“Make it thousand and I will tell you why Police is craping themselves from here to Boron border”
“Ok, but only if you work exclusively with me,” Tim Ericsson agreed.
“Deal. They are chasing this fugitive Erich Campbell. Apparently he escaped the RDF trap in Atreus Clouds and fought his way through two sectors. In ten mizuras time, he will be here, entering through North gate. Entire sector is on orange alert”
“Nice stuff buddy, you keep me in this business for another wozura. I’ll see you around, I am now going to check this stuff out. If it is the real thing you’ll get your thousand in no time…”
Yoshiro turned off his communication unit and smiled. Once again, he earned easy, no risk money. Perhaps he will surprise his girlfriend tonight with dinner in some fancy restaurant. Yoshiro whistled as he walked back to his post.

Tim “The Vulture” whistled too. He recognized the name of Erich Campbell. That was that Slaughterer from Vega, Tim hoped, rapidly entering the name in his PDA to check if it was true. When the response he got from the New Gazette was positive, he danced a little dance, startling the people around him. His thousand credits would be small investment compared to the profits he expected.





Jane Freedman rarely criticized the Federation, but this tazura was an exemption. Of course, she did not do it aloud. Although the captain seemed a decent man, a soldier’s soldier, she did not know how much she could speak in front of him. A wrong word at wrong place and time, have stopped many careers. Therefore, she only cursed the sector’s commander in her thoughts.
Most of them, and certainly the woman that commanded the sector’s militia and law enforcements was, politically chosen for their position. Good social network meant more than professional skills.
Apparently, the sector’s commander had not taken her warning seriously. The few ships that commander had sent, did not stop the Harrier that now traveled well above thousand km/h.
“That ship should have been easy target,” the captain commented.
“How so?” Jane asked.
“All that acceleration...Must have created heck of lot G.”
“Perhaps they are still unconscious,” Jane suggested, hoping that it was true.
“I wouldn’t bet on it. That pilot has sleeve full of aces…”



“Otto!Otto!!!Wake up damn it!” Erich yelled at his friend. His IR told him that his friend was unhurt – mostly… Past mizura the G-forces had been stable as the speed was constant. Yet Otto did not show any sign of waking up anytime soon and that worried Erich who watched freighters passing by few meters away. If the “Salvager’s Luck” collided with any of them… Erich reached for the flight stick but it did not respond to his movements.
His audio implant caught the tiny sound of movement. Erich turned again towards to his friend. It seemed like blood was flowing again as it should trough Otto’s body.
“Am I dead?” Otto asked, barely audibly for even Erich’s augmented hearing.
“Well, not yet technically”
“That explains the pain,” Otto mumbled, opening his eyes.
“The controls are dead and we are moving at speed just below disintegration point”
“The engine...”
“What about it?”
“It is turned off. Lateral thrusters don’t work with engine turned off. Therefore you can’t control the ships direction. Don’t worry – we’ll be O.K,” Otto explained as he was recovering. He turned his head towards the tactical display. They were halfway through the sector, heading towards the South gate.
“So we have a good chance of escaping this mess?” Erich asked.
“A small chance. We have to go to the Presidents End system. That is resupply point for the navy. They got a destroyer and couple of corvettes in there. And believe me – no one does a flyby with a M5 by a destroyer and lives to tell the tale…”



“So do we have any aces up in our sleeves?” Jane asked the captain. He smilingly replied,
“Oh, I believe I do…We have used our jump energy, so we haven’t chance to overtake that ship now. So when that Harrier enters the South gate, I am turning this frigate to Argon Prime.”
“I don’t see the ace, captain…”
“That’s because he isn’t here. I know a certain Wolfgang Lüth who serves aboard “Constellation”, destroyer currently positioned at President’s End system.”
“I have heard about him…Isn’t he the first Federation fighter pilot to score over 200 victories?”
“245 to be precise. I had pleasure to have him under my command as he started his career. Unfortunately, I lost him when he got his own squadron. He is now Wing Commander aboard the “Constellation”, last time I checked”
“And as Navy’s Intel officer, I can order whatever officer, even a Wing Commander to be at an exact position I wish…”
“Like at the Presidents End’s North gate…It will also ensure that this time coordination between military and civilian authorities goes smoothly,” captain said. Jane understood perfectly what he meant by “coordination between military and civilian authorities” going smoothly. Less chance for some wannabe hero to screw up…
“Give me a channel to the “Constellation”. And arrange rendezvous with a ship which can take me to the Presidents End”
“Immediately ma’am,” the communication officer acknowledged.





More out of habit than a belief that he would see something, Yoshiro started to check the so-called “outer grid”, which was a term for the network of satellites placed long distances out of inhibited part of the system. They showed nothing, as usually. He quickly checked trough the satellites, his mind more on which restaurant he would take his girl to, than empty space he was looking at. He activated the feed from the satellite C56, looking again at a depressingly empty portion of space, and was about to switch C57 when the computer informed him that new object had appeared. Probably an uncharted asteroid, Yoshiro thought. He looked at clock hanging on the wall. He had still five mizuras until the arrival of Erich Campbell. More to pass the time than because his sense of duty, Yoshiro asked the computer to analyze the new object, intending to plot the trajectory of the new asteroid.
“Object is a spacecraft of unknown design. Start point or arrival direction unknown. Arrival by jump drive is 99,789 percent likely. Further data needed on this object,” computer reported in its monotonic voice.
“What the…” Yoshiro said surprised. The commander Khama turned towards him, raised his eyebrows and asked, “Anything you care to share with us Lieutenant Fujiwara?”
“We have an unidentified spacecraft in C56, sir”
“Probably one of the anomalies your sensors pick up all the time”
“But, sir…” Yoshiro tried to protest.
“Ignore it, Lieutenant! I need your eyes on that gate in less of a mizura! I need his speed, structural modifications and direction of the travel the moment the outlaws exit that gate! Understood?”
“Sir, yes, Sir!” Yoshiro acknowledged, bringing up feed on holographic projector from the satellites covering the area around the North gate. He had nagging feeling that there was more to that object than simple anomaly.





Tim Ericsson cursed the Creator. The space around the gate was crawling with journalists. Somehow, they had smelled the blood. Every major TH Network was here, deploying their camera drones. The Militia was already firing their first warning shots to keep everyone away from the gate.
He wondered how other journalists have picked up on the story. Well, they all probably had their own Fujiwara as I do, he concluded. He activated his external cameras on his ship and checked if he had enough memory storage for one hour of recording. He had hoped that recordings of the battle would give him tens of thousand credits profit. Now it seemed that he would be lucky if he could sell them for few hundred. Still he could earn few thousand for good still pictures, so it was not all that bleak. The position of the destroyer puzzled Tim. “Constellation” should have been placed near the gate, in such way that it could rake with fire anything that passed trough that gate. Instead, it was entire four kilometers away and only one Navy fighter was near the gate, almost under the gate’s ring. He zoomed in on that fighter. A number that did not said Tim much was painted on the side. Small red colored dots were also painted on the hull. Tim zoomed on that portion of the fighter’s hull.
“Those are not just dots…” Tim commented looking on red circles, first two large ones and then over forty small ones. Using his PDA to get the relevant information, Tim confirmed his theory – that circles represented kills in combat. Tim whistled in appreciation. The pilot had over two hundred kills…





“Something nasty is waiting for us at other side,” Otto commented, looking at the approaching gate. The rockets were spent and they were using the ordinary engines again. Erich looked at his friend and through IR vision, he could see that his friend was worried. He decided to ask for the reason,
“How so?”
“Look at the fighters trailing us. They do not try to intercept us – it is more like they are herding us towards the gate”
“We could simply go somewhere else?”
“Where? If we don’t go trough the gate, the only other option is space behind. And let me tell you – for hundreds of light years there is only emptiness. Our engines will last long time but our food and life-support will not. We have no other option. We have to go through that gate…”
Two friends watched silently as the ship approached the gate.
Otto prepared himself for what was coming. He guessed that they had placed a destroyer on the top of the gate on the other end. Anticipating that, just before they entered the tunnel, he pushed his flight stick back and to side. At same time, he pushed the acceleration boost button.
When the ship exited the blue tunnel, it accelerated quickly in a spiral trajectory. For any of destroyer’s laser batteries he would have been a difficult target to hit. However, it was not the streaks of laser beams that hit the “Salvager’s Luck”. The ship shuddered violently and at same time engine malfunction and hull breach alarms sounded.
“Quickly, into EVA suits,” Otto yelled, knowing that they had been struck by Mass Driver projectiles. Erich was already at the supply locker, almost tearing the door off. He picked up one of the suits and threw it to Otto. Taking the other, he took it on breaking his own record.
“What about steering that thing?” Erich asked pointing to the flight stick. A ship flying straight was an easy target, something even Erich knew.
“Doesn’t matter. With one engine off and its plasma chamber damaged, the ship will suspend the other as well. The downside of Teladi design…”
“So it means it is over”
“Afraid so…”
“Incoming transmission,” computer informed them in its impersonal voice.
“Accept,” Otto said. A bored male voice could be heard on the other end,
“Since you are alive, you either had not sustained a decompression in the **** or were wise enough to get into your EVA suits. Either way my mission is accomplished. You know the procedure: A M6 will tow you to the trading station, where civilian authorities will take over. Over and out.”
“Well, since we are getting a free ride to the prison, let us at least relax and try to get some decent sleep,” Otto announced tumbling clumsily in his EVA suit, towards the bed. Erich could not argue with such logic. After all, there was nothing else they could do.





“I didn’t know even that such modifications were possible,” commander Khama commented to Jane. She had insisted, upon her arrival to the system’s Trading Station, to inspect the “Salvager’s Luck”. Sector Commander had insisted on personally guiding her. She did not like the man or his attitude towards lower ranks but she could not avoid having him around.
The commander was right about the ship. Teladi vessel was greatly modified to the point where only exterior of the ship looked like the original design. Inside, the cargo hold was full with extra equipment. She was not technician so she did not understand the functionality of the hardware she was seeing, yet even she understood that pilot of this ship must have traveled around the half of the Known Universe just to obtain much of the components. She turned to one of the mechanics that were dismantling the ship, “Where is the Master Mechanic?”
“You are speaking to him,” the man answered, briefly looking at her before continuing his work.
“What is your assessment of this ship?”
“Heavily modified. Must have cost a fortune. This thing there,” he stood up and at pointed to a cylindrically shaped object, “is a towed scan probe. Now that thing alone cost around 300 to 400 hundred thousand at the black market. Only the rich pirate clans can afford one and they don’t put it in one M5 class ship. Now that thing there is modified adding another hundred thousand. He could have bought fleet of five Harriers at that price. And he has plenty of such devices on his ship…”
Jane made a mental note to herself about what mechanic was saying. Perhaps the pilot belonged to a powerful pirate clan like Sculls or Tsien Clan. Definitely something to find out.
“Can you tell me where this ship has been?” she asked.
“Not really – the logs are destroyed.”
That did not really matter, Jane thought. She could use the EYE to track the ship’s movements. At least, around the Argon Federation and the Boron Kingdom.
“I saw what I wanted to see. The ship is from now on property of Naval Intelligence,” Jane said.
“Do you want to see the Control Center. It is the most advanced outside the Argon Prime and among the most efficiently run,” the commander boasted.
“Of course, commander. Lead on,” Jane accepted, not because she was interested to stare in tactical displays, but because she believed that her prisoners should sweat some more.





Two decks below, Erich and Otto were trying to sleep. Unfortunately, for them, they were placed to very talkative Boron that was overjoyed to have finally someone to talk to.
“The Boron is very pleased to meet new friends. My name is Ni Lan,” the Boron introduced himself, almost glued to the glass wall. He had been repeating the last sentence ten times, obviously not understanding that Argons were not interested in talking with him.
“Erich, the bush is speaking to me,” Otto commented.
“No bush, no bush. Ni Lan – a Boron,” the Boron was repeating, waving his tentacles.
“Nay, I think you are having illusions. Too little sleep will do that to you,” Erich replied.
“No illusion, no bush. A small Boron! Strange Argons…”
“What do you want stinky!?” Otto asked, irritated that the Boron did not take the hints.
“To get acquainted, of course!”
“Well, the fellow over there is Boron Slayer and I am Bane of Borons. Who are you?”
“Ehh…A talking bush? Definitely not a Boron,” Ni Lan carefully said. He also tested with his tentacles the solidity of the wall. Satisfied that this Boron Slayer and Bane of Borons could not get to him, he calmed down.
“Don’t worry Ni Lan. He is just irritated over not being able to sleep properly last tazura,” Erich said.
“Oh…Well, I always drink Mud Tea when I have sleeping problems. Fixes all problems,” Ni Lan happily suggested.
“I’ll remember that,” Otto answered, still grumpy.
“What are you in for?” Ni Lan asked.
“Just as any prisoner we of course are innocent,” Erich smilingly answered.
“That is sad,” Ni Lan commented, not being able to interpret Argon facial expression, he could not see that he was being joked with.
“I am too innocent. Well almost. I just wanted to take a look,” he said, seating himself on the floor.
“Where did you want to take look?” Erich asked.
“Inside this computer system. It is capable of changing stations commercial signs content”
“Why did you want to do that?”
“I wanted to change all commercial signs to NL-Intruder.”
“Who is NL-Intruder?”
“That is my network name. If I managed to change commercial signs in entire sector I would be immortalized!”
“You sure about that,” Erich said, again smiling of Boron’s naivety.
“Well…”
“How many hackers from last century do you remember?”
“Ah…Actually…None,” Ni Lan said, feeling slightly insecure.
“Exactly. And back then there were not even a tenth of the numbers of hackers today. Nobody would remember your name next mazura. Not that it matter much now…”




“Did you saw his face when he came into the Media Lobby,” Roussel de Bailleu, told the information-gatherer director Maria Jade, pointing to Tim “The Vulture” sitting across the lobby. Tim gave him an icy stare back before turning to Jade and giving her what he thought was an irresistible smile. Jade smiled back, silently commenting,” The fool haven’t yet realized it”
Maria Jade had pretended to be charmed by Tim, when he had tried to seduce her on the last annual branch meeting. She had even slept with him that evening. When he finally had drifted to dreamland, she had quietly taken out the memory chip from his PDA and put in a PDA that was exact copy. Whenever Tim used his PDA to send request for the information, Jade received the copy of request and replay to her own computer. Tim was well-known for his ability to dig out the dirtiest and most bloody stories, but the last few mazuras IBC TH team, Roussel de Bailleu and Maria Jade was always nearby.
Although working officially for IBC, Jade was not above selling information to other networks, something the IBC newscaster Roussel de Bailleu did not know. Jade smiled inwardly. All her life she found men to be easily manipulated.
In the corner of her eyes, she saw that one of the other journalists present listened to the small communication unit. She signaled to Roussel pointing with her eyes to the journalist. He started to take out a directional microphone. She shook her head. To many obstructions, she formed the words with her lips. She took out a frequency scanner linked it to her computer and started a scan. After few false signals she found the frequency. The words of the conversation were shown as text on the screen. Jade and Roussel knew instantly that they had a story that would overshadow the capture of “Slaughter from Vega”:


“This is Zulu Patrol to Central. We are in deep trouble here”
“We have you on the gravidar from one of the satellites. What is your status?”
“M4s bought it and we are out of here. Zulu 4’s communication is gone and my encrypting hardware is dead”
“Describe the enemy”
“Deadly!”
“Calm down, pilot. Give me all the information you remember. We are mobilizing the “Constellation”. We are sending also Auxiliary Flight 201 to your position and an armed merchant”
“Keep them away, Central, they are going to get slaughtered. They got Zulu 4! I am only one left. I am running towards Laser Tower Zone 4.”
“Who are attackers, Zulu? Xenon?”
“Perhaps, but those are some kind of other ship types. Triangular. And use weapons I have never seen before. Beam weapons, high range”
“Anything else?”
“Sorry, that’s all, Central”
“We got it, Zulu. Armed Merchant “Picket 23” should be there and visible on your gravidar. Leave the enemy to them, Zulu”
“I really think you should pull them out, Central”
“Don’t worry, they can handle it Zulu”


The channel went silent. Jade furiously tapped in new commands to her frequency scanner until she found the channel between the “Picket 23” and Central Tactical Control.


“…outside the range and our shields are down to 78%! We are continuing our attack run”
“At which range did they open fire?”
“Shields are down!”
“Picket 23?... “Picket 23”?....Anybody there?...This is Central to Picket 23. Do you receive us?”





“What are those,” Ni Lan asked, unfamiliar with Argon’s audio signals.
“Alarms…Means that we are in trouble,” Otto said, fully awaken now.
“Station under attack,” Erich further explained to the Boron.
“Oh…” Ni Lan said. Even the naive Boron understood that prisoners were last to be evacuated under if station faced destruction.




Wolfgang Lüth was enjoying his free drink that the proprietor of “Meeting Point” bar gave to every fighter pilot, when he received a recall order from his superior, Group Captain Guynemer,
“Wolfgang I need you back at the “Constellation” immediately”
“I thought I deserved some time off catching two dangerous criminals”
The casual tone between two men developed out of a deep friendship and mutual respect.
“Something big is happening; we have recalled all pilots and all leaves are cancelled. The skipper got message that many unidentified ships have jumped in.”
“Xenon?”
“No, they have never seen such designs. But they have engaged a picket ship already.”
Both men knew that President’s End was vulnerable now. The three corvettes normally patrolling the system had been sent to Ore Belt to prevent any new upsurge in conflict between NSM and TerraCorp. The alarms were sounding all around him when Wolfgang climbed into his Nova.. The civilians were looking at the infoscreens for information about what was happening. The panic was slowly but surely spreading.
“What do we have,” Wolfgang asked, traveling through docking tunnel.
“63 functional fighters, in standard 4-2-4 combinations, plus three special functions fighters.”
The so-called “4-2-4” combination indicated that combat flights had four recon Discoverer fighters, two heavy Novas and four medium Buster fighters. On the paper, it seemed like a formidable force, but Wolfgang knew that only twelve of those fighters were professional fighter pilots in military version fighters – the rest being a motley collection of volunteer Sector Militia.
“And Wolfgang – don’t count on fighting a delaying action. Jump Fleet are fighting a Xenon raiding fleet in Black Hole Sun system”
“We’ll bleed today, sir”
“Yes, we will. Yes, we will…” Group Captain grimly said.


Glossary of Unknown Heroes

[Captain Chris sTc]

so will the destruction of presidents end be their salvation?

[Warenwolf]

so will the destruction of presidents end be their salvation?

I assume that you speak about the main characters of the story. Since they are main characters I am kind of forced to let them live .
On the other hand... I am not foced to let them ALL survive
We'll see who will live and who will die in next chapter...

[KiwiNZ]

Excellent chapter! I'd be tempted to say it is the best one so far. Great action and nice tricks that you pulled out there.

Yeah, I assume the Boron will have his place in the escape, being a hacker and all. But are they going to escape in the damaged Harrier? Have the mechanics perhaps repaired the drive system sufficiently?

Looking forward to the next chapter.

[Warenwolf]

Excellent chapter! I'd be tempted to say it is the best one so far. Great action and nice tricks that you pulled out there.

I ask people of to give me critical criticism and instead they give me praises
Next week I will ask my boss for reduction in my pay (all other tactics have failed....)

Yeah, I assume the Boron will have his place in the escape, being a hacker and all. But are they going to escape in the damaged Harrier? Have the mechanics perhaps repaired the drive system sufficiently?

Looking forward to the next chapter.

I can give to much of my plans for chapter 10 (I will however say that next one to two chapters will have apocalyptic feeling over them).

Now about that Harrier. You haven't perhaps noticed that, but I have tried to have a certain degree of realism in my story (yeah I know - realism in sci-fi ...). One-time-pad cipher exist, MAM howitzers are on the drawing tables in several countries, "EYE" = todays Carnivor, a major on spintronic is being finished these days, etc... So you have to ask yourself - how can mechanics repair engines within a hour? While station is soon to face an attack

Next you have to ask yourself - who are heroes? A murder (basicly) and a pirate (he calls himself a "salvager").
And with that, I conclude that I have given enough hints for today....

[Warenwolf]

A short extract from chapter 10:



The panic was spreading like fire in the dry grass. It was contagious, starting in the bars with few people, spreading quickly to the corridors. The people were wild from fear. Already fifteen mizuras after the news of attack began to spread, the Station Security had lost any resemblance of control. Everyone was fleeing towards the docks, creating jams in the corridors. But the worst was yet to come.
Suddenly, few Argons began to run, just as the alarms increased their sound even higher indicating that the battle between station and the yet unknown enemy was imminent. Within few moments everyone was running towards to docks. The screams of those trampled over, were ignored as if the panic had driven the people into mindless frenzy…
At the F Docking bay, a man and woman looked at the chaos. The woman was calm and collected, while man looked somewhat desperate.
“This will be the story of the century and I can’t get to the Viewpoint level,” Roussel de Bailleu declared desperately looking for some way to get past the ocean of people that were trying to reach the docks.
“The network promised me 260.000 for direct broadcast…We have all equipment in the place…Now we can’t…”
“Try the fire shaft,” Jade Maria suggested, interrupting his moaning.
“They are locked,” Roussel de Bailleu said sadly.
“Not when an emergency alarm is sounded”
Roussel’s eyes brightened, “You are right, why didn’t I think of that!”
Because you are an idiot and a disgrace for human race, Jade thought, her face not revealing her inner feelings.
“Ok, off I go then. While I set up…”
“I will use my contacts to gather information about our attackers. I will patch it up to you as soon as I get it,” Jade interrupted him before he could involve her in anything stupid.
“Nice! Then I can report it directly to the viewers. I am sure that Network will give you a bonus if you manage to dig it up,” Roussel de Bailleu said, trying to encourage her to greater efforts. He knew that everything Jade dug up would reflect positively on him.
Yeah, they will send me flowers on my funeral, Jade thought watching Roussel de Bailleu go.
She turned again to the docks, looking for a face. She knew that she had to escape from here if she would stay alive. President’s End forces were deployed outside the system and the locals knew it. Why else would they try to run away so desperately before even a beam had been fired from station’s laser towers?
Around her pilots with ships were holding auctions for desperate people who needed a ship.
“Come on people, bidding starts at 15.000 credits, take it or die here when this place goes down,” one pilot was shouting few meters away from Jade. People were already forming offering whatever they owned desperate for a place on that ship. The end price was 34.000 and some jewelry. The bid was won by a woman. A teenager boy, obviously her son, was desperately looking at her, his mouth forming words that never came out. She kissed him on the forehead, stroked his hair and sent him with the pilot. The boy’s eyes were on his mother, tears streaming down his face as he walked beside the pilot. His mother was smiling, but Jade could see that the smile was forced.

----------------------------------------------------


The new chapter will be ready in short time. I have also added a poll to the glossary to check how much people use (and have need for such thing)

[KiwiNZ]

Very good new part! Particularly the last scene brings the desperation of the situation across nicely.

[Warenwolf]

Very good new part! Particularly the last scene brings the desperation of the situation across nicely.

I didn't see your post until now so I am sorry for late reply. The fact is this not the continuation of chapter 9. This part may very easily end up in the middle of chapter 10 (and by the looks of it, indeed it will)...

You see I have this kind of "modular" story writing. It is strange, I know but bear with me...

Glad that you like it, by the way. Gives me motivation for further writing