Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (7 page)

“Probes away, Master,” said my science officer.

The plan was that the Dust Dragon and Nevermore II would stay hidden, and the probes would check all six planets for signs of occupation. The probes were tiny and speedy enough to cover most of the system faster than our ships could even reach the first target.

“Now we wait,” I said. Waiting was Dusty’s game and I was never good at it. It was a constant bad mark that followed me through my naval career. I was constantly considered to be too reactive, never slowing down and thinking things through. The problem was not that I did not think things through; at least I did not think so. I believed the problem to be that I could see more and think faster than most people could. That made waiting on my navy superiors hard. Over the years, I had improved my ability to wait, but still preferred action to inaction. I chuckled as I realized that that was what everyone said about Flame when she had become a wizard. We seemed to be more alike than different after all.

It was hours later when Stalker finally said, “Master, we got something.”

“About time,” I said.

“Master, it appears to be a mining platform around the fifth planet. It is currently idle, but I would guess it is used for gathering various gases from the planet when they are needed.”

“Keep a probe on it for the moment. If we do not see them anywhere else, we might catch them heading to that platform to resupply,” I said. “Anything from the other probes yet?”

“No, Master, but it will not be much longer now.”

As we waited, I wondered how Dusty was doing. I knew he could not contact us without risking his cover, but it was still difficult waiting to hear how his first mission was progressing.

True to his word, it was not much later when Stalker said, “Master, reports are coming in now, and it looks like their base is on the third planet.”

“Excellent. Flame, set a course but do not execute it yet. Stalker, what can the probes see?”

“Master, it looks like the base is almost completely underground. Without risking detection we cannot scan deep to see what is there, but it does look like the surface spaceport is empty. The base is well defended by numerous anti-spacecraft batteries on the surface. All appear to be online and fully operational.”

“We do not want to get close enough to trip any alarms. Can we tell what their range is?” I asked.

“Master, they appear to be Imperial Navy surplus, so I would say at most a light minute. The world appears to have no atmosphere, which is unusual for a body of its mass. This could potentially increase their targeting accuracy and range, but that is just a guess.”

“Flame, adjust our course so that we do not get closer than five minutes to the planet, then. Relay this information to the Dust Dragon, and let’s move in under full cloak,” I said.

“Sure thing, Shadow,” she replied.

“Stalker, based on what we now know about the system, see if you can predict the most likely jump exit points for them and send some of the probes out there to give us early warning.” They were in a stealth vessel, so they would need to cloak the moment they came out of jump space. We would have a very short window to detect them, and the probes would increase our chances of catching them in that short period. “I think it is safe to assume that after a successful run they would head back to their base, so you can use that to narrow the possibilities a bit,” I said.

“Master, should we finish sweeping the rest of the planets first?” he asked.

It was unlikely that there was anything else to be found, but there was wisdom in his suggestion. “Yes, that is a good idea.”

It would be a while before anything more developed at this point, so I had all my key staff take a break early. I wanted to make sure we had a well-rested crew when the pirates were discovered. They had a proven track record of being deadly in combat, and we could not afford to underestimate them.

Several days had passed since we entered the system, and Flame and I were enjoying a wonderful, intimate meal in our private quarters when I felt a surge of energy that I immediately recognized as a starship jumping into local space. My head shot up, and Flame asked, “What’s wrong?”

“They are here,” I said.

“Go! I’ll clean up and join you,” she said.

I rushed up to the bridge as “Master Shadow to the bridge!” came over the ship’s comm system.

“Already en route,” I replied.

As I rushed through the halls I reached out with my awareness and tried to get a fix on the position of the pirate ship, but it was too far away to be found without a high degree of concentration. This I could not achieve while avoiding collision with
crewmen heading to their stations.

“Report,” I said as I reached the bridge.

“Master, as expected they jumped in and cloaked right away. Based on their last known location, and assuming they head straight to their base, they should be here in a few hours,” said Stalker.

“Okay. I do not plan to wait here for them. Slowly move along their predicted flight path. I want to be as far from their base as we can be,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” he said.

“
Phoenix, they are coming. Hold your current position in case they get by us. We will shortly be out of telepathic range, but do not break comm silence until you have to,”
I sent to Phoenix.

“
Understood, Master,
” was his reply.

We slowly drifted towards where we expected the pirates to be flying under cloak. Sitting in my command chair allowed me to focus more on the search, and I slowly expanded my awareness outward along the path between us and the jump exit point of the pirates until I found them.

“Stalker, I have them. Flame, adjust heading to 15 mark -3 degrees,” I said as Flame entered the bridge and took over at the helm.

“On it, Shadow,” said Flame.

“Tactical, we appear to be heading straight for them, and they will be in range of our torpedoes in about thirty minutes,” I said.

Stalker moved to take over tactical and said, “That would mean they are moving a lot faster than they should be able to under cloak, Master.”

“Aye, and by all reports that ship is too small to have such a powerful cloak,” I said.

“Just like the Dust Dragon,” said Flame knowingly.

“Then we need to assume they have at least one magus aboard,” said Stalker.

“That will significantly complicate things,” I said. Then I noticed something troubling. “They are accelerating. Why would they do that?”

“They must know we are here and are preparing for an attack run,” said Karlith as he came on to the bridge and took over at tactical. Stalker moved to the science station. Excellent, now I had my full crew in place.

“I don’t think so,” said Stalker. “We are far bigger a target than they would normally stick around to fight. If they saw us, they would run.”

“True, so perhaps it is the Dust Dragon they noticed?” I asked. “Flame, reduce forward velocity by 50% and prepare to turn back and head towards the Dust Dragon. Let’s see if we can trap them between us.”

The next hour passed very tensely as we flew
closely by the cloaked vessel and moved into a position directly behind them. I could not risk contacting the Dust Dragon and warning them that the pirates were bearing down on them, as that could give away our own position.

“Master, at our current velocity we will be in range of the Dust Dragon’s last known position in a few minutes. That makes it reasonable to assume that the pirates will also be in range soon.”

“Okay … ” I had started when the ship’s tactical alarms went off.

“They are firing!” called out Stalker.

On the screens, I saw that they had dropped their cloak and opened fire with their energy weapons at the hiding place of the Dust Dragon.

“Direct hit!” called out Karlith.

“Report!” I said.

“Dust Dragon has dropped its cloak and raised its shields, but its jump engines have taken a direct hit,” said Stalker.

“Quick, return the favor, and take out their drives!” It was likely that their jump drives would be too depleted to jump in the near future, but I was not going to risk that. I though it possible that their plan was to cripple the Dust Dragon and then run for their base or a jump exit.

I felt the ship’s weapons systems power up as our cloak fell and the exhilarating burst of power as they fired.

“Direct hit! Their armor absorbed most of the blow, but it still looks like we crippled their ability to run,” called out Karlith.

“They are coming about and locking weapons on us,” said Stalker.

“Shields up, and fire torpedoes,” I said. “I only want to cripple them, so be careful where you hit.”

I was not concerned about their weapons, as they were no match for the Nevermore II alone, even less with the Dust Dragon coming up rapidly behind them.

“Sir, Dust Dragon has them effectively jammed. They’ve lost their lock,” said Stalker.

“Excellent,” I said as our first wave of torpedoes was sent on its way. The Dust Dragon was holding its fire and trying to close the distance to the pirates when the pirate ship banked hard and powered its engines to full.

“They are fleeing,” said Karlith.

“Do not let them get away,” I said.

“Direct hit from our torpedoes,” said Karlith. “I do not think they will make it very far now.”

“Karlith, prepare a boarding party,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” he said and left the bridge.

I activated the comm and said, “Phoenix, we are sending a boarding party over, so continue to hold your fire.”

“Understood, Master,” was his reply as he maneuvered his ship to block any escape run they could make.

“Is a boarding party wise?” asked Flame. “They seem to be quite skilled and probably have at least one magus on board.”

“You forget, Flame: Karlith will be bringing Dark Knights. The pirates do not stand a chance,” I said.

“They are turning on the Dust Dragon, Master!” called out Stalker.

“Quick, forward cannons, take out their weapons!” I said.

I watched on tactical as the pirates opened fire on the Dust Dragon just before our weapons hit their ship. Huge explosions ripped through the pirate vessel as our cannons cut right through their hull into their weapons bay.

The Dust Dragon’s shields held under the pirate attack, but the pirate ship continued to accelerate towards the Dust Dragon. “They are going to ram them!” I called out.

“Sir, Dust Dragon will not be able to get out of the way in time,” said Stalker.

I knew there was no way that the Dust Dragon could take being rammed like that. “Blow the pirates off course, and tell Karlith to hold on his launch.”

I watched as our cannons blasted holes in the side of the pirate ship trying to take it down, but it stubbornly stayed on task. The Dust Dragon was attempting to move out of the path, but it did not have enough time. All I could do was watch in horror at the impending doom.

“The Dust Dragon is reconfiguring its shields. This is going to be a close call,” said Stalker.

A single torpedo would make all the difference in the world, but it would take too long to reach the fight. Then a thought occurred to me, and I said over the comm, “Phoenix, fire your anti-matter missiles and take them out.” Since the pirates would be traveling towards the missiles launched from the Dust Dragon, there was enough time to get them there, but it would still be close.

Phoenix did not respond, but judging by the amount of shield reconfiguring he was doing, I assumed he was too focused on that to take the message. Someone over there must have received it, though, since the Dust Dragon launched a wave of anti-matter missiles.

As the missiles were flying through space I felt power building on the pirate ship. “Destroy it, now!” I ordered.

Several things seemed to happen all at once. The Dust Dragon’s missiles hit, another salvo from our cannons hit, there was a brief but large power surge on the pirate ship, and a bubble of power erupted from the Dust Dragon, pushing the pirate ship off course. When it was all over, the pirate ship was destroyed and the Dust Dragon had been able to avoid most of the hit but had some heavy damage from the glancing blow.

“Phoenix, report,” I said over the comm system.

“We are pretty beat up over here, Master, but no casualties,” he said. There was a level of exhaustion in his voice that worried me.

“Well done, Phoenix. That shield bubble of yours probably saved the day. Bring the Dust Dragon in for repairs, and get some rest,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” he said.

“Karlith, send your boarding team to the wreckage and see if anything is left. Be careful, some may yet live. They are vicious fighters and will not allow themselves to be taken captive.”

“Yes, Master,” said Karlith.

I was not very happy about how this fight had gone. There were too many unanswered questions. Why did they see only the Dust Dragon and not us? What was that surge of power near the end of the fight? Why did they stay and fight instead of fleeing when they saw the Dust Dragon?

Karlith reported back that they had found no bodies in the wreckage of the pirate ship. Somehow they must have left the vessel before it was destroyed. The only refuge for them close by was the base we had found on the third planet. That meant we would have to launch an assault on this base.

This would not be easy for a conventional assault team, as the base’s defenses were more than capable of stopping any assault cruiser’s approach, but we were the Dragon Guard and had other means of entry.

As I was making final preparations, Stalker approached and said, “Master, with all due respect, this is foolish … ”

“Stalker,” I said, cutting him off, “we have been over this already. I know the former Imperial Navy would not allow a ranking officer like myself on a strike like this, but I am the only spellweaver, and therefore the only one who can get everyone safely past the station’s defenses. You have command until I return.”

“But, Master,” he started.

“Enough,” I said sharply. “As soon as we begin our attack, start scanning the base and building a map. We will need it once we get inside, but I do not want to tip our hand any more than we have already.”