Fracture - Book One of the Glass Galaxy Trilogy

Chapter 3: Pirate Assault

1:46 PM

"Alizabeth! Deploy weapon hardpoints! Set ADAs to active!"

I spun the ship in the direction of our first jump, the inertia of the sharp turn threatening to pull me out of the pilot's chair, and prepared to gravity jump the moment it was possible.

Aria hefted her Rail Rifle, her face set in determination, "What can I do, sir?"

"Just sit still and wait," I commanded. "We're going to be out of this mess quickly."

She shifted uncomfortably, but obeyed my order.

A few seconds later, a motley trio of frigates emerged from gravity jump a short distance away, their weapons deployed and hungry for a target. The ships weren't particularly impressive looking, apparently made in a scrap yard and bearing a large gas-masked skull emblazoned on the front of each one, but they moved with alarming alacrity and fervor.

I hastily targeted the nearest one with a burst from my ship's batteries, two bright waves of kinetic energy tearing chunks out of the enemy hull, but the damage was superficial. The hostile vessels unleashed a volley upon us in return, a mixture of artillery shells and railgun slugs flying wildly past us. A warning from my shields blared as a trio of artillery shells burst spectacularly against them, shaking my ship violently, and in a burst of electricity my shielding began overloading.

I cursed, snapping another burst at my target as they made a hard turn to dodge. I was rewarded with several detonations cascading through their thrusters and tearing them apart, sending debris shooting everywhere.

Then my shielding flickered out, unable to withstand the energy directed into it.

As my shielding fell their bombardment ceased, and the two unharmed ships accelerated forwards after me. I fired at the next closest ship, my scanners now identifying it as 'The Scythe', but while my gunnery was accurate, this pirate ship possessed shielding, and the waves of energy rippled upon it. Their shields also burst into arcing electricity, but I knew that I would not need to fire on them again. I had bought enough time.

I slammed my fist down, sending my ship's jump drive into action to take us away from the marauders besetting us.

But nothing happened.

I glanced at my jump calibration progress, and realized to my dismay that the pirates had deployed jamming measures: electronic interference with my gravity drive that made it think it was preparing to move more mass than it actually was. The closer they got -their smaller ships being faster than mine- the more effective their jamming would be and the longer it would take for my jump engine to be ready .

I snapped my attention back to the pirates as they reached me, pulling my ship upwards as hard as I could in a desperate attempt trying to avoid them, but I could hear the distant shriek of metal tearing as they fired tethering cables into the hull of my ship.

They matched their speed to mine, pulling in close, and with practiced efficiency deployed umbilicals to begin the process of boarding.

What would've normally been a twenty second calibration had now ballooned to over five minutes, which meant that it was time for the ADAs to do their job.

I opened a display of my ship's condition, three different spots on it glowing crimson to indicate hull damage. "Three breach points. ADAs are waiting at each," Alizabeth confirmed.

I scowled, "Damn pirates damaging my ship."

"I'm more concerned about them damaging us!" Aria stammered.