Short chapter now, longer one at weekend.
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39 - Merridew
The Starsong cut across the desolate black canvas of space. All around, civilian ships in various states of disrepair were making their own journeys, in the opposite direction.
After a couple of chaotic, barely legible calls, I learned that it was because a local habitat station had been found sheltering a Federation Cruiser - my money was on the Kestrel, personally, - and the Rebels had decided to destroy the Federation ship, collateral damage be damned.
Sixteen Elite Rebel Fighter craft against a civilian grade space station.
It was exactly this kind of bullshit I was no longer willing to allow them to get away with.
And so the Starsong engaged its FTL drive once more.
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To say that Merridew Station was less peaceful than the last station had been would have been an understatement.
That is to say, a small Rebel fleet had engaged a single Federation ship, and both sides had apparently agreed on two things - one, space stations make acceptable cover, and two, it is acceptable to shoot through cover.
By the time the Starsong arrived in system, still cloaked, the fighting was over.
The debris of a Rebel Rigger formed an ever-expanding cloud roughly half way between the station and the nearest Jump Beacon, but the dozen or so other Rebel ships were still in one piece, patrolling around the edges of the sector.
The station itself was immense - a lattice of tunnels, hangars, and spires built into an asteroid that was likely now hollowed out from over-mining.
Even just a brief sensor sweep told of severe structural damage across the board. I wanted to help them, but there wasn't much I could do with the Starsong to fix damage of that scale.
If I had a bigger ship, though...
Well, I had been meaning to create a builder version of the Pioneer-class.
And so I did. It was largely similar to the Rider-class vessels, in terms of size and armament. Unlike the Rider, it had only the same level of basic sensors as my other ships - it wasn't a dedicated scout, and so didn't need them. The upper section of the hull was full of vital systems - generators, the FTL drive, both regular and Zoltan energy shields, and a cloaking device. Had I the time I would have implemented a Resource Core or two as well, but they were simply to expensive to be viable on what I hoped to be one of my more basic Orbital Fabricators - since that was basically what this ship was, at this point.
The lower section of the ship was where I mounted said devices - three rows of downwards-facing Fabricators giving it dozens of times greater Fabrication ability than any of my other options.
Brilliant.
I mean, sure, it was a very situational unit, and it was probably more efficient, in terms of cost-to-build-speed, to make regular Orbital Fabricators with FTL Drives attached, but they looked lame and I really liked the aesthetics of the Pioneer-class Corvettes.
In keeping with the loose naming scheme I'd been using, I named it the Pilgrim and saved its design, queuing up five from my various factories.
Designs done, I took the time to investigate the extent of the damage to the station. Three hangar bays had been blown open, presumably by some kind of missile, and one of the umbilical walkways looping around the outside of the asteroid was missing a huge chunk, which looked to have been carved out by some kind of beam weapon. A Glaive or Pike, judging by the length of the cut.
There were several areas leaking oxygen from smaller blast craters, likely caused by Burst or Heavy Laser weapons, and one of the station's larger protruding spires, a living block of some kind, was twisted and bent out of shape, dozens of chunks of torn metal plate and... furniture of some kind orbiting the site of the worst damage.
Some of the plating, I noted, was the bright orange typical of the Rebel Fleet.
Apparently one of the Rebel's ships had lost control - I could see no other conceivable reason they would crash a ship there, after all. Unless they were taking after al-Qaeda, but I hoped that wasn't the case.
The five Pilgrims finished construction, launching away from the Orbital Factories and pointing themselves at my location, several hundred light years distant. Their cloaking drives engaged and, a handful of seconds later, they engaged their FTL drives, racing towards Merridew Station and the ten Rebel ships guarding it.
Speaking of the Rebel ships, though, I wanted to know why there were still around.
Curious, I reached out with my myriad of hacking suites and set to work gaining access to the Rebel's communications network just in time to hear this little gem.
"-at ship should not have been able to escape!" The voice was gruff, and I couldn't shake the feeling of being somewhat familiar with it. "We had theKestrel dead to rights, and yet we lost the Semmi and theViravura and the Feds got away scot-free. If someone could please explain how such a thing was possible, then I might reconsider your punishments."
There was silence over the line and for a brief second I was worried they'd already noted my intrusion, but my worries were proven unfounded. On the bright side, successfully confirmed that it was the Kestrel that had been here.
"Well, sir," a young voice spoke out after a nervous silence, "We weren't expecting them to be packing that Glaive Beam. No one could have seen that manoeuvre coming - their pilot must be some kind of tactical genius to pull it off how he did. Getting the Semmi to crash into the Viravura in such a way that it launched the Viravura at the-"
"I know what happened, you moron! I saw it with my own eyes!" Gruff cut the soldier off angrily.
There was silence across the line.
"Alright, look. We lost the Kestrel. From here, unless they run out of fuel, chances are good that they're going to be able to make it all the way back to Earth. We have no choice but to fall back and rendezvous with the fleet. Helmsman! Get us back to Orrpal!"
The transmissions cut off and the ten Rebel ships all broke away from their patrols, heading back in the direction from which I had just come.
Hm. Rebels were pulling back to rejoin their fleet.
And the Kestrel was nearing Earth.
Earth was the seat of the Federation's power, and, I presumed, the location referred to in game as Sector 8 - The Last Stand.
The site of the final battle between the Rebel and Federation fleets.
It would be an absolute massacre.
But not if I could help it.
