Interesting Times - Chapter 35

October 19th, 2173

15:53 EST

Hades-Gamma-Cluster

Anateus-System

SSV Hyderabad

Flight Lieutenant 2nd Class Roger O'Brian

Following the command of Alpha-1 to keep the comm channels clear of chatter, Tobias and Roger stayed silent for the next minute.

And it wasn't just them that stayed silent. It was like reality decided that most sounds were unnecessary at that moment.

The quiet but steady humming of the engines?

Gone.

The occasional notifications of the systems?

Muted.

The echo of his breathing was the only thing Roger could still hear.

He could feel his heart beating in his chest with unprecedented clarity.

It was like the world was taking a deep breath before all hell cut loose.

Yet, that moment came to an end when the voice of Alpha-1 calmly ordered:" Enemies in range. Lock onto your targets, fire your missiles at my command, and accelerate to combat speed."

Nobody vocally acknowledged her command, but it wasn't necessary anyway. It was the standard opening move of the Alliance in a battle between fighters and had become ingrained in their flesh and blood since they left the Academy. A command to fire would have been enough, but just as the preparation for the move had become routine, so too had the call to prepare for it.

Roger's targeting computer signaled that it had a firing solution for one of the pirate fighters, and not even three seconds later came the words: "Fire" through the comms in the calm and detached tone of a person used to ordering the deaths of other living beings.

Two missiles detached from Roger's fighter, one from each side, and accelerated toward the enemy fighter his computers selected.

He watched how they got ever closer and how his opponent tried to change his flight path to doge certain death. But, in the end, it would be of no use.

The missiles followed the changed course, their in-built targeting matrixes ensuring they could keep up with him.

A skilled pilot could evade them with enough space between their fighter and the missiles, but that wasn't in the cards for the pirate.

If it was because of a lack of space or skill, Roger didn't know, but, in the end, it didn't take long before the missiles made contact with the pirate fighter, and it exploded in a fiery ball of destruction.

And his target wasn't the only one hit. Half a dozen fireballs bloomed in front of the Alliance fighters, yet everything was still silent.

One would expect explosions like this to be loud, and they would be correct as long as they didn't happen in space. In that case, they would be utterly silent.

Sound didn't carry without a medium, and it could be irritating at first until one got used to it. The disunion between expectation and reality could frustrate and distract an inexperienced pilot heavily. Seeing an explosion and expecting a loud boom but getting nothing was somewhat surreal.

It was nothing like the videos of space battles one could find on the extranet.

There were some programs that generated the expected sounds for the pilot, but Roger didn't use any of them. He got used to the quiet and didn't want to be distracted by the explosions happening around him at the wrong moment.

Furthermore, they took up valuable data space that one could better use for other, more useful programs that helped operate the fighter.

The pirates, those lucky enough not to have been targeted by the missiles, returned to their previous course of coming directly at Roger and his fellow Alliance pilots.

Without waiting for any more orders from Alpha-1, Roger and Tobias broke from the group to the right in order to get a good line of fire on their next target.

"T-7 is the next closest of our targets," said Tobias, and Roger deaccelerated his fighter for a moment to fly slightly behind him to create a staggered line.

"Alright," he responded, "then let's get him."

It didn't take long until the mentioned target was in range, and with a press of a button on the top of his controls, Roger sent a burst of mass-accelerated bullets at him.

The short flashes in the corner of his eye told him that Tobias was doing the same, adding his own bullets to the attack.

This time, his target was flying a bit better, and without the targeting systems, it took two more short bursts before the pirate fighter got hit often enough that his shields collapsed.

Another burst from Tobias ended his flight forever.

Yet, before they could coordinate which target would be next, Roger had to bank hard to the left, evading a missile that came from above narrowly.

Too narrowly, he thought, cursing himself for focusing too much on the target before him and ignoring his surroundings.

A pirate fighter followed the flight path of the missile, and shortly after, an Alliance fighter was hot on his trail.

"Target 9 is next," called Roger, eager to get the shock out of his system and get back into the fight.

"Understood," responded Tobias, a sliver of relief in his voice. Nearly losing his wingman had shaken him, as it would Roger if he lost Tobias, but the two of them were professional enough to leave those emotions behind for the moment. In the middle of battle, there was no place for such feelings. Afterward, you could cry, rage, and scream as much as you wanted, but not before, or else you would be joining your wingman sooner than you wanted.

It sucked, but that was life for you. And in return, you held every happy coincidence and moment close to your heart.

The battle around was growing more chaotic as the pirates started to get used to the Alliance fighters and coordinated better among themselves.

It got even more so when one of the two pirate frigates finally got close enough to add its Point-Defense guns to the fray, and Roger had to look out for their lines of fire too.

Suddenly, he noticed something, and a quick and simple plan formed in his mind.

"Tobias," he called over the comms, "there's a pirate fighter coming up behind you. He seems to have you in his sights. Turn slightly right and shift more power to your rear shields. I'm going to take care of him."

"So, I'm the bait?" responded Tobias. "Alright, but don't take too long. A few lucky shots too many, and the energy of my shields needs longer than necessary to replenish."

They immediately started their plan.

Tobias directed his fighter to the right in a slight curve while Roger deaccelerated and shifted his own to the left to make it look like they were splitting up their team. That way, it would make going after Tobias more tempting.

Any second, Tobias would call over the comms that the pirate was on his tail, and Roger would change course to come up behind him.

Yet, that plan went up in flames when his systems started to warn him that something was coming up behind him.

His eyes widened, and he wrenched the controls around to perform a barrel roll to the right to evade the burst of gunfire that flew through the position he previously occupied.

"Fuck," he cursed, and over the open comm channel Tobias asked worriedly:" What's wrong?"

"He didn't go after you. He went after me. He's sticking to me like a fly," Roger answered while trying to lose his tail with erratic movements. But no matter what he did, the pirate kept following him, and Roger was too preoccupied with evading the pirate's gunfire to even think about how he could turn the situation around.

"Stay alive! I'm coming," said Tobias, and Roger tried to do just that.

He swerved right and left and tried a roll to get behind the pirate, but none of his tricks to lose him worked.

But that didn't mean that his maneuvers were without any use. They certainly helped to keep the damage to his shields low, but if it continued for a bit longer, then his shields were guaranteed to collapse at one point.

Still, even that became a minor problem when his computer informed him that he was being targeted by the automated targeting systems of the pirate in preparation to send missiles after Roger.

While he had multiple ways to counter missiles, from flying erratically to flares to confuse them, it wasn't a good situation nonetheless.

"Where are you?" he called through the comms, hoping for a good answer.

"Just where I need to be," came the calm response from Tobias, and the pirate that stuck to Roger's tail suddenly disappeared in a ball of flames.

Roger dared to turn his head to see what was going on and could see how Tobias' fighter appeared out of nothing and settled to his right.

"That took a bit too long for my tastes," chided Roger, but was relieved nonetheless that his friend got him out of this situation.

"Sorry, sorry," apologized Tobias, "I had to make sure that he didn't see me coming. There's not much cover around us to hide one's approach. The only thing that we could use is that asteroid field over there."

Roger looked toward the field Tobias mentioned.

It hung around the moon of one of the two gas giants that inhabited the Anateus system, and from the looks of it, it would provide enough cover to confuse the detection systems of any fighter-grade ship. Depending on the composition of the minerals in the asteroids, it could even fool and confuse the scanning abilities of the high-grade equipment installed on cruisers.

"Too far away," dismissed Roger, still looking at the field. Something had caught his attention, but he couldn't put into words what it was. "He would've whittled my shields down to nothing if I had flown that way."

"If you say so," said Tobias and accelerated his fighter so that he flew in front of Roger. "We've drifted a bit off from the main battle area. We should get back to it. It doesn't look like they need our help with the remaining fighters, but the Hyderabad looks like it."

Now that Tobias mentioned it, Roger could see it too.

The Hyderabad was fighting admirably against two pirate frigates at the same time. The Hyderabad was more modern and better maintained by Alliance than the two pirate frigates and dished out a large amount of damage to both, but it was still in a fight of two vs. one.

It would win the fight, Roger didn't doubt it for one second, but no matter how much more advanced it was, if it had to do it without additional help, the Hyderabad would limp out of the fight with some serious damage.

"I understand, then let's get on with it," responded Roger, but before he followed Tobias, who was already directing his fighter toward one of the pirate frigates, he threw one last look at the asteroid field. For a second, he thought he saw something in it, but when Roger looked again, he didn't notice anything that could have caught his attention.

He lightly shook his head, banishing any excess thoughts to concentrate on the battle. Yet, there was still a feeling that didn't let go, and that was that inside the field was something dangerous.

"I will try to get as close as I can to the frigate," stated Tobias. "When I'm close enough, I'll send out my flares. Hopefully, it will overload their sensor enough to give you an opening to get your missiles through."

"Perhaps it would be better if I do that. Don't you have more missiles than I do?" Roger offered, aware that he already fired a third of his missiles.

"We should have the same amount. I also fired some in the opening move but missed my target. So that shouldn't matter that much. On the other hand, your shields are still recharging."

"They're back at maximum strength," countered Roger.

"You know that that's not what I'm meaning," sighed Tobias. "You know as well as I do that the redundancy needs some more time to recover after the shields were depleted under a certain power level. Don't worry so much. I'm going to be ok."

A grimace formed on Roger's face. In all their missions, Tobias had a tendency to propose plans that put him in danger. To be fair, he always came out of these situations without any excessive damages to his ship or person, but it would only take one lucky shot, and Tobias's name would join the long list of those fallen in battle.

"Alright," agreed Roger reluctantly. While he would have preferred to do it himself, after all, he was the better flier of them in his opinion, he knew that arguing with Tobias could take a while, and they definitely didn't have the time for that at the moment.

The closer they got to one of the frigates, the denser the defensive fire got. The shields of Roger's fighter dropped some percentages every few seconds due to glancing blows hitting them, but thankfully, they never dropped to a level where a direct hit could take them out in one shot. Furthermore, the recharge time was still short enough that those lost percentages recovered before another glancing blow hit him. But it was just a matter of time until the redundancy systems that were responsible for the fast charge-up time overheated, and Roger lost that advantage.

The same was true for Tobias too, and perhaps more important to his situation. After all, he was the one flying in front of their formation and thus the one the counterfire from the frigate concentrated from.

"Shields at 63% and dropping fast," said Tobias and confirmed Roger's thoughts that the fire from the frigates got too dense for them to advance any closer. "Shooting flares in five. Get ready!"

At Tobias' command, Roger's hands flew over the controls, getting every remaining missile ready to fire. He didn't bother with engaging the targeting systems of the missiles. The computed flight vector would be enough to ensure they hit the frigate since it wasn't fast enough to change its position so that they would miss, unlike a fighter. Besides, the cyber warfare programs that were responsible to get an accurate lock on the frigate had to compete with their programs to deny such a thing, and the time needed to come out on top, if they even managed that, would take longer than their window of opportunity. Furthermore, most programs shared their data with other systems, and it could lead to their Point-Defense systems targeting the missiles with priority.

"Flares away!" called out Tobias and a group of shining red balls shot out from his fighter. Roger waited another second before he hit the button to release his missiles which disconnected from his fighter and flew in a straight line into the mass of flares. They blended in with the lights, and since they were on a directed path, the signal interference from the flares didn't affect their flight. Most of the defense fire was concentrated on the flares so the missiles could fly unhindered for a time before they got too close, and some of the fire shifted in their direction. One of the four missiles was hit almost immediately, and a second one was hit shortly after. Thankfully, it was already close enough that the shockwave from the explosion hit the frigate. It didn't do much, but everything helped. The two remaining missiles hit the frigate unhindered, and the shielding at that portion of the ship started to waver. The shield didn't collapse, but its wavering was enough for the Hyderabad to capitalize on it.

The powerful cannons of the Alliance cruiser concentrated their fire on that portion of the pirate frigate and brought the shields down.

After the shields collapsed, the fire didn't stop and hammered into the hull of the frigate, punching through it in the process and dealing immense damage to it.

In a fortunate turn of events, it seemed like the Hyderabad hit something critical as explosions started to appear all over the frigate.

Taking no chances, the cruiser continued to fire on the same spot until the pirate frigate couldn't hold itself together anymore and broke in two at the point where it was continuously hit.

Roger and Tobias watched this happen from a somewhat safe distance, having changed their course after Roger fired his missiles. Tobias' shield went down to just over 40% during the end of their attack, and if one direct hit at a place where the shield was weak, then it would've meant the end for him.

Fortunately, this never happened, and now that they were out of the immediate battle zone and the frigate destroyed, Tobias' and Roger's shields had the chance to regenerate and the redundancy to cool down.

"Seems like our plan worked," commented Tobias happily.

"A completely hare-brained and insanely dangerous plan, but you're right it worked," agreed Roger. "But we can't do a repeat performance, even with the rest of our fighter force." He looked towards the remaining pirate frigate, which had changed course, and put everything it had into its thrusters. "The frigate is flying hard toward the asteroid field, and it won't take long until the main guns of the Hyderabad will get out of range. If the pirates are smart, they'll reroute the energy from their main weapons to their shields, and even a barrage of missiles will be hard-pressed to get through."

"I see what you mean," replied Tobias and was about to comment further when the voice of Alpha-1 appeared over comm.

"Good work Delta," praised Alpha-1 but didn't comment further on their maneuver. It wasn't her style to heap praise on somebody, and neither Tobias nor Roger needed it. They knew what they had done and were proud of their achievement.

"New orders. Rally around the Hyderabad. We're going to chase the pirates for a bit to make sure they're not coming back."

"What about the freighter?" asked Roger, wondering why they were leaving it without protection.

"It continued toward the jump point to the next system while we distracted the pirates. We got confirmation that a group of Ad Astra ships is in the next system. They will be taking over our escort duties and make sure the freighter arrives at the mass relay safely."

"Understood," replied Roger, feeling a bit better after knowing that their efforts wouldn't be wasted if more pirates were in hiding to ambush the freighter.

Without any more questions, Tobias and Roger directed their fighters to the Hyderabad. The rest of the fighters also flew to it, and as Roger looked around he noticed that some of their comrades were missing.

"Do you see Epsilon somewhere?" he asked Tobias.

"No, I don't," Tobias answered after a minute. He opened the channel to the rest of their fellow pilots and asked the same question: "Hey, does anyone know what happened to Epsilon?"

"Bad luck," came the deep voice of Beta-2. "Epsilon-2 got hit by a pirate, and while trying to avenge him, another pirate, who lost control of his fighter, rammed right into Epsilon-1's ship. I think she didn't even realize what happened before it was over."

"Fuck," cursed Tobias, and Roger thought that this word summed up the situation perfectly. Everybody went into battle with the knowledge that they could lose their life or their comrades, but it would always be a shock to hear or see it happen nonetheless.

The thought that he wouldn't see Epsilon-1 and Epsilon-2, Daisy and Marc, the next time he went to the cantina or work beside them in the hangar on their fighters, was one of sadness.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and let the happy memories they shared flash before him before he shoved the thoughts to the back of his mind. Roger would deal with them later when he had the time to grieve for them.

For now, he let thoughts of them strengthen his determination to see these pirates pay for what they had done.

For the next few minutes, nothing extraordinary happened.

They kept close to the Hyderabad and flew beside her, watching how the pirate frigate got farther away and closer to the asteroid field than them.

Yet, it seemed like the frigate was slowly losing power since its speed dropped, and the Hyderabad had a chance to catch up.

But something didn't feel right to Roger. There was this feeling of dreadful anticipation that just kept getting stronger inside him, and he could tell that there was something wrong with this situation.

The pirate frigate hadn't looked like it was damaged enough to lose energy so fast that its speed would drop to this extent.

Normally, it would have enough power to get to the edge of the solar system and initiate an FTL jump to the next one.

Of course, exterior damage didn't equal internal damage, and the latter could be higher despite minimal signs on the outside if the Hyderabad hit something critical, but as far as Roger knew, the shields of the frigate hadn't failed for a single moment during the whole time of their battle.

The Hyderabad slowly got into attack range but did so with less speed than before.

Apparently, someone on the cruiser had the same feeling as Roger and counseled them to approach cautiously.

It was this cautious approach that probably saved the Hyderabad from being destroyed by the surprise attack that came out of the middle of the asteroid field.

Roger only saw how a few asteroids suddenly exploded before something hit the left side of the bow of the Hyderabad, and its shields flared up in a striking blue color.

His eyes widened in shock. For a moment, he could only watch uncomprehendingly how the wavering of the shields settled down and the blue color disappeared.

From the silence of the comms, it wasn't hard to guess that the others were dealing with the same issue he was.

It wasn't anything special that kicked him out of his almost trance-like condition, he just blinked, and suddenly it was like the world came back into focus. Adrenaline shot through his body, sharpening his senses and reflexes.

His eyes followed the trail of destruction inside the asteroid field, intent to figure out where the attack came from.

"There's another ship inside the asteroid field," he called out, activating his comms beforehand.

"Where exactly?" asked a voice he couldn't pin down. But it was one full of authority and command that Roger couldn't help but answer as precisely and fast as he could.

"Vector 34-21-67," he dutifully answered after checking his onboard computers.

"Understood," said the same voice from before, and only then did Roger notice that in his haste to inform the others, he hadn't just opened the comm channel to the rest of the fighter pilots but to the Hyderabad too.

A quick burst of shame ran through him, and he could feel his cheeks heating up at his mistake, but he squashed the feeling as fast as it came up. This wasn't the time to feel something like that.

Besides, it seemed like his mistake helped identify the position of their new enemy for everyone. With this information, the Hyderabad would be able to counter the attacks of this new pirate ship.

"Attention to all units," the voice which had talked to Roger spoke, "We identified the newly appeared vessel. It's a Batarian cruiser of the Da'shok class. Be advised, it carries a fighter contingent which could already be hiding inside the asteroid field. Fighters, keep your eyes open. Use half of your remaining missiles to destroy the asteroids surrounding the cruiser. The debris should strain their shields enough for us to punch through them and take the ship out of the fight. Ignore the frigate. We will deal with it. The cruiser is the priority target. Captain De'Vall out."

"A Da'shok cruiser, huh?" said Tobias, and thankfully for Roger, who was still coming to terms with the fact that he talked with Captain De'vall, it was over their private comm channel. "You can't tell me that the Hegemony isn't involved in this. I mean, we all knew they were working with the pirates, but that cruiser isn't one that any two-bit pirate can get their hands on. It's too modern by Batarian standards that they would let it fall into the hands of pirates without getting something out of it."

"You can say that again," agreed Roger mockingly. "But that's exactly what they're going to tell the galaxy. Oh, sorry, it was stolen. We had nothing to do with this attack."

A harsh laugh came over the comms as Tobias's answer. "Wouldn't be the first time, after all. I bet when we blow the cruiser up, we're going to see a crew composed of only Batarians. But of course, they're not part of the Hegemony but some pirates living out in the Terminus systems."

"You're probably right, but that doesn't change what we're going to have to do now."

"I just hope our reinforcements are coming soon."

"We just have to stay alive long enough for that. And I, for one, am aiming to greet them with the wreckage of a Batarian cruiser."

"That's a plan I can get behind," laughed Tobias, with a bit of surprise at Roger's bold statement.

What he didn't know was that Roger didn't feel as brave or bold as his statement led him to believe. Rather, Roger tried to convince himself with this claim that everything was going to be okay.

Nonetheless, he followed his fellow fighter pilots into the deathtrap that the asteroid field was going to be without any hesitation.

After all, they had a job to do, and it was one Roger wanted to see the end of.