Project - Prometheus Ch. 01

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Taal'ani heard the intense and intimate sounds that came from the Captain's quarters. She was busy going through the data they had lifted from the pirates' base as it went on. Despite each room being adequately soundproofed, those two weren't exactly quiet. Hearing the cries of feminine pleasure got Taal'ani riled up a little, but she tamped it down.

Despite being straight as an arrow and being raised in such a manner by her clan, she couldn't help but be curious about what sex was like with another woman. She had had plenty of dalliances with males of many species, but was still interested in what it was like.

Forcing herself to focus, she dove back into the data streaming on her holo screen. Using her interface gloves, she picked out all the messages and streams that were personal and set them aside in the interface. Taal'ani would go through those later, as there were often hidden gems of information in personal correspondence.

Latching onto the files that detailed finances, ship armaments, weapons and so on. She pulled apart her hands, enlarging them so she could go over it all in further detail. Examining the files had yielded plenty of information about what the pirates were doing, but almost nothing about their backers. There were a few subtle points throughout the data, which hinted at a pattern beneath the layers of information.

She spared a look at the chronometer and saw that once again; she'd lost herself in her work as they'd been in hyperspace for a few hours now. Taal'ani gave herself a break. Having trolled through the files she lifted had given her a headache, since she'd been looking them over for so long. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Taal'ani massaged the inner orbit of her eyes, giving herself some relief. She opened her eyes and looked again at the holo, then scoffed in annoyed frustration.

"That damn conduit is acting up again," she growled as she got up to leave her room.

The door retracted in a sideways motion as she approached it. She turned left and headed down a few meters to find the maintenance panel she was looking for. Pulling a multi-tool from the utility harness she usually wore, Taal'ani disengaged the bolts holding the panel in place. Once it was removed, she gained access to the wiring beneath and got to work.

Holstering the multi-tool, she then pulled a scanner and placed it in the relevant section of the internal wiring. She knew this cluster of wiring was responsible for the interference in her computer system. Since she had joined the crew of the Darkstrider, she had upgraded the cyber systems and security protocols for their systems.

The system she had set up in her quarters was far more advanced than anything the Darkstrider had. The only way to upgrade the ship to the same specs was for all the wiring and systems to be yanked out and either upgraded or replaced. The ship would have to be in dry dock while the upgrades and modifications were being made. Until then, Taal'ani had to make do with the buffers and adapters that allowed her system to function as it should, but there were still hiccups from time to time.

The scanner finished its work and beeped back a negative on anything wrong with the wiring in the area. A look of confusion flicked across the Fel'caan's features as she reset the scanner to check the wiring again. She broadened the scanning area to be sure she missed nothing. Thirty seconds later, the scanner again displayed a negative readout on finding anything wrong.

Shaking her head, she went back to her room and ran a troubleshooting algorithm to find out exactly what was going on. Seating herself at the holo terminal, she focused on the algorithm, putting it through its paces while making sure it was functioning normally.

"Odd, it's not intermittent," she said to herself as the algorithm plowed through the various systems that would likely be the troublemaker.

"Primary systems showing no issues or lag. Going through secondary systems," the computer chimed as it continued its diagnostic.

As the system continued its routine, Taal'ani tried a more unorthodox approach. If the interference was being constant, then she should be able to stop it for a few seconds and look at the code to narrow it down to where it was. She waited for the next lag spike, readying herself to find and follow whatever it was.

"One, two, three, four...." she counted out loud, waiting for her moment. "Forty-five, forty-six... gotcha!" she grinned in triumph as she successfully slowed down and enlarged the code responsible for the lag spike. The grin on her face melted away almost immediately, and her eyes widened in alarm as she recognized what was slowing down the system.

"LADIES!" Taal'ani cried out into the intercom, "We've been tagged! One of those bastards must have hit us with a tracer missile!"

Inari's groggy voice responded, "We were what?!?"

"Someone has hit us with a tracer missile! I'm heading out to get it!" Taal'ani panicked as she ran for the cargo bay area, where their spacewalk suits were stored.

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Those chilling, frantic words jolted Inari out of her sleep induced stupor and she hurriedly got dressed, her limbs a flurry of motion. Quickly stomping into her boots, she darted out of her quarters and jumped into the pilot seat. Her hands flew across the controls and less than a minute later, they dropped out of hyperspace on one of the outlying systems of the Kepler Verge star cluster.

The current system was uninhabited, which was a blessing, as they needed to work quickly and unobserved. Priya joined her captain in the cockpit a few minutes later, her face a mask of worry.

"Getting my suit on now, Captain. Shouldn't be over five minutes," Taal'ani called out over the ship's intercom. Not even three seconds later, the Darkstrider's sensors beeped, the radar holo showing that two ships had just jumped in right on their heels.

"Talon, we're out of time! Contact bearing one-five-six, mark five!"

"Shit! How many?" Taal'ani asked as Inari powered up the main guns and shields.

"Ten contacts! Eight fighters and two destroyers, closing fast!"

"Whatever we got must be important for them to throw us such a party!" Korsa said as she hopped into a gunnery chair and readied herself for combat. Natalya was only a few seconds behind her adoptive mother, throwing herself into the other chair, and scanned her readout for targets.

"Damn it! Priya, you have the ship!" Inari commanded as she sprinted from the bridge.

She stopped by her quarters for a moment to fly into her flightsuit before heading to the central airlock at the top of the ship. They customized the central upper air lock to dock and latch her Banshee class fighter on the upper part of the hull. Originally designed to seat one, they made modifications to accommodate one pilot and some small cargo. Or an additional passenger, if needed, which they did from time to time. She climbed up the ladder and shot straight up into the pilot's seat.

"No time for pre-flight checks. Have to get this done now!" she said as she sealed the airlock and bulkheads, detaching her fighter from the larger ship. Quickly fitting her helmet and air supply to her head, Inari powered the engines. She pulled away from the Darkstrider and banked right, bringing her to the frigate's aft section. She opened a comm channel, getting ahold of the Darkstrider.

"Talon, don't fuss with your suit. Get back on your computer and see if you can shut down that tracer remotely. I'll buy us some time!"

"You be careful, love. Don't do anything foolish!" Priya's voice crackled over the comm channel.

"Always, dear," she replied, smiling.

Inari pulled an Immelmann maneuver and sighted in her first target. Putting all the power she could muster into the engines; she dodged the incoming shots of the initial wave of fighters and returned fire. She clipped one pirate fighters' engines, sending him careening into his wingman, vaporizing them both.

Instead of turning around to pursue the other two fighters, she made a beeline for the nearest destroyer. She intended to distract at least one, hoping to buy her crewmates time to shut down that tracer. Her Banshee suffered several glancing shots, but it was nothing her shields couldn't handle. Once she was close enough, Inari opened fire, scoring multiple direct hits, but the destroyer's shields held. Slowly, the destroyer turned to follow her, as she had wanted.

"That's it, you stupid son of a bitch! Follow me!" Inari had passed out of their firing range and headed for the second destroyer, but was dismayed. She saw it was opening fire on the Darkstrider and pulverizing her. There were still six fighters left, and they had formed up on an intercept course for her.

They would not let her interfere with the second destroyer's job. Though she was glad to see her ship weaving and jinking about, doing everything it could to avoid the incoming fire. 'That's my girl' Inari thought as she tightened her jaw in resolve, throttling up to reach those fighters coming after her.

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Priya was pulling out every defensive maneuver she could muster and remember to keep the ship from being blown into scrap.

"Taal'ani, how's it going?" Priya squeaked through gritted teeth as the crew held on for dear life.

"Trying to latch onto the code and start a shutdown sequence, but it's slipperier than a greased up Kash'tuun eel!" she shouted out in frustration.

"Pree," Inari's voice crackled over the channel, "Pull a head spinner. I'm coming right for you!"

"Copy that!" Priya replied. She then spun the Darkstrider in a quick series of rolls to the left, then repeated the same set of rolls to the right. As she did so, Inari buzzed right past them, with all six remaining fighters on her tail. As Inari raced by, several blasts and explosions rocked the Darkstrider.

"Got one!" Natalya cried out eagerly from her gunnery chair.

"Same here! Clipped one of those bastards bad too!" Korsa piped up as they turned their attention back to the destroyer that was trying to close in on them. Priya looked out the window for a moment, and sure enough, she saw they reduced the squad of fighters in size to four. One of them was tumbling away from the battle, out of control, and its engines were dead.

"Good shooting! Our shields are holding for now, but we can't take too many more hits, or we'll be sitting ducks!" Priya said. She tried to dodge another round of incoming fire from the destroyer. But the shuddering of the ship told her she was unsuccessful in doing it.

"Shields are down to fifty-three percent! We can't take much more of this!" Taal'ani shouted. She was working on her arm computer at a frenzied pace, trying to kill the tracer beacon that latched onto their ships' hull.

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A brilliant idea came to Inari as she was trying to shake the remaining three fighters on her tail. She ignited her fuel reserves, speeding up to where the pirates could barely keep up. Both destroyers were close now and bearing down on the Darkstrider, ignoring her fighter completely.

'Clumsy fools! Never ignore even a single enemy fighter.' she thought to herself, mentally repeating one of the tactical mantras she'd learned during her time at the Federation Academy. The pirates were pushing their engines hard to try to stay in range for their cannons. She raced for the nearest one, holding her craft as steady as she could.

'Easy now. Have to time this right!' Laser fire strafed the outside of her canopy, the deadly bolts missing, though just barely. A quick glance at her read-out showed the fighters were barely twenty meters away.

'Perfect!' Inari smiled inwardly.

She blasted right over the wide bow of the destroyer, then drove down the stick, going into a nosedive. Then, she banked left and looped inverted over the top of the destroyer. It was a risky maneuver, to be sure, and she gambled that none of the pirate pilots were skilled enough to pull off such a stunt. As she came about, her gamble paid off, as none of the pirates had wanted to follow her in such a death-defying trick. They opted instead to barrel past the destroyer and come about to catch her.

Inari opened fire with her laser cannons, slagging two of the remaining fighters immediately. The third saw her coming and tried to evade by banking right, but he wasn't quick enough. Her laser barrage clipped on one of his stabilizers and he careened, out of control, into the second destroyer.

The shields on the destroyer absorbed the impact and flickered for a few moments. Inari saw her chance and opened fire on the destroyer. The shields sputtered, then fizzled out. Whooping in triumph, she toggled her firing switch and launched a pair of Hellfire torpedoes. Inari then sharply banked and gunned it, wanting to be as far away from the blast wave as possible.

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Dorian Johnson, Captain of the pirate destroyer Cerberus, stood on the bridge, watching the battle unfold. Frowning in outrage and disbelief, he witnessed the carnage being wrought by the ships he was trying to destroy. The radar picked up two new points of contact, streaking towards the Phoenix. He saw the ship was in the process of turning to avoid the torpedoes, but it was moving too slowly.

"Brace for impact!" he shouted as he ran to his command chair, strapping himself in. The rest of the bridge crew held on as the torpedoes hit home, causing a great deal of destruction on the starboard side of the Phoenix. The impact sent a shock wave of energy that rocked the Cerberus.

"Status update, now!" he commanded.

"Shields at seventy-three percent, sir!" his tactical officer reported. "That freighter is still firing at us, but our guns have almost punched through its shields. We nearly have them!"

Dorian allowed himself a small smile. Normally, he'd follow orders from those who commanded him, but he'd cripple the ship, board it and take what prisoners he could. He wanted to have fun torturing them, slowly, painfully, making every scream count.

Even more exciting was the prospect of female captives. Those were his most favorite, especially exotic alien women, if there were any to be had. It was because of his 'extra-curricular activities' that had garnered both the respect and fear of his men. The respect he didn't want, but the fear...... he craved it, reveled in it. He always wanted more playthings, but his orders had been explicit. Shoot to kill, leave no survivors. But it had been a while since he had any real fun, so orders be damned.

The comm officer walked up behind him and coughed mildly to get his attention. He turned with a bored look on his face and asked, "Yes, what is it?"

"Incoming transmission, sir. Apparently, the Phoenix is still in fighting shape," the officer told him. Dorian couldn't help but guffaw.

"Really?!? Have they seen themselves? Do they really think they're in any condition to fight??" he asked, cackling.

He looked out the bridge windows and saw that despite the damage wrought by the Hellfire torpedoes; the Phoenix was still firing her port cannons on the Darkstrider. The starboard half of her hull was reduced to a melted, smoldering mess. There were many breaches to the compartments on the starboard side, but it kept on its task to destroy that freighter.

"Gunnery chief, keep an eye out for any more surprises. Anything that comes for us, vape it. Understood?" the captain said coolly. The gunnery chief nodded and turned his attention back to dealing with the Darkstrider while keeping an eye out for that pesky fighter.

"I'll give him this much. Captain Baird is one tough and stubborn son of a bitch," the comms officer remarked before stepping back to his post.

Dorian couldn't help but nod. Having met Baird personally several times, he knew the massive bear of a man was not someone to be crossed, figuratively or literally. He also knew Baird was a stickler for following orders, so he had to move fast. If he was going to have his fun, he needed to board that ship before Baird could close with it. Moving at a slower pace than the Cerberus, a plan formed in his mind.

"Mister Smith, increase to flank. I want to catch that ship before the Phoenix does. Do so and you may take part with me in my personal activities this evening."

The pilot smiled and replied, "Aye sir!" knowing catching this ship would be well worth the damage their destroyer sustained.

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"Can you give us any more power, Nats? We can't take much more of this!" Priya screamed into the comm as the Darkstrider rocked from another salvo from the destroyer on their tail. Priya was trying to evade the shots, but the ones that hit them were still rocking the ship hard.

"I can give you a little more, but not much! Otherwise, we'll fry instantly!" Natalya shouted over the comm. Taal'ani was still trying to shut down the tracer remotely, but having little luck with it. Another blast hit them and smashed through their shields.

"Starwitch, our shields are out! We need your help now!"

"Hang tight. I've got a little surprise handy, but you need to get clear fast!" Inari's cool voice said.

"Plan C?" Priya asked.

"Plan D," came the reply. Hearing that, Priya rerouted all extra power to their engines, putting as much distance between the Darkstrider and the Cerberus.

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Starwitch banked around after harassing the Phoenix for the last couple of minutes. She made a beeline for the Cerberus, readying her payload. An EMP torpedo, designed to fry the systems for anything the size of a cruiser. Though it was temporary, she hoped it would take down the Cerberus long enough for them to get away from this firefight. Despite the damage she wrought on the Phoenix, the Cerberus seemed to ignore her.

'Stupid idiots. They never learn.' Starwitch thought to herself as she lined up her shot. Within three seconds, she was in range, another five and she was locked on.

'Suck on this, you cocky bastards!' Inari then fired her torpedo, then banked hard to port, putting all the power she had, even shields, into the engines. The G-forces slammed into her body with all the force of a falling anvil, and she nearly blacked out from the strain. It was only through sheer willpower that Inari stayed conscious as she redlined it to the Darkstrider.

Rapidly blinking her eyes, she concentrated further to maintain her heading to her ship. She knew she wouldn't get there in time, so she prepared to shut down the power on her fighter. Inari checked the clock on the torpedo. 'three... two... one... now!' and she shut down her fighter, drifting through space.

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Alarms wailed as the Cerberus listed to port. All systems were flickering intermittently while others shut down completely.

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!?" Dorian bellowed as he struggled to regain his footing.

"We suffered a hit from an EMP torpedo!" the tactical officer cried out while trying to force the systems to respond. Turning his head, he walked over to the gunnery chief and asked him quietly,

"I thought I told you to deal with any surprises that came our way."

"I tried, but that torpedo detonated before I could line up a clear shot!" the gunnery chief retorted. The man was clearly agitated that his captain was blaming him for something beyond his control.

"Your performance and attitude will not do," Dorian said, as he calmly drew his pistol and aimed it at the chief's head before firing.