The Lord of the (Planetary) Rings

[Don Alvarez]

[OOC] been a long time since I wrote anything creative, but I've been tinkering with the idea of putting a narrative together that's based on my in-game misadventures. So without further ado, here's where it begins. If you like it, rep this post. If it seems like there's enough interest, I'll continue.[/OOC]

The Minor Faction of the Ring

Chapter I

Somewhere in the vicinity of Knight Port, Daramo System

​

“Thrusters Offline.”

“Yes I am quite aware!” I barked to no one in particular as yet another attempt to bring the stricken Anaconda’s engines back to life failed. Scrambling to divert resources to the ship’s field maintenance units, waiting to see some sign of activity from the thrusters to indicate they might come back on line, I winced as yet another missile struck the ships hull somewhere well aft of the bridge. The impact sent cracks racing across the bridge canopy.

“Kate, status report on shields?” Who would name a ships computer Kate? Of all the things to think about …

“Two minutes to shield reformation.”

I didn’t have two minutes. Just then the forward beam laser turrets fired, lighting up the bridge as they targeted my assailant, an Imperial Cutter just as banged up as I was – almost. At least his engines were still working. I couldn’t see him from my chair on the bridge, but my targeting computer could. His shields were down and his power plant was heavily damaged. I could tell without even looking at the targeting display as I saw the neat little trail of coolant he was venting into space. While his shields were offline, my automated weapons were still keeping him at a distance.

Just then a green light winked on the damage control display. Finally. I knew the Cutter was just waiting for me to make a move. My weapons are still formidable, without his shields he didn’t want to risk coming too close. Fleeing was my only real option, and he knew it. He was just waiting for me to retract my hardpoints, and he’d be all over me like an Achenarian sex kitten.

“Initialize thrusters Kate.”

“Are you sure? There’s such a beautiful view of the planet from here”

“Now’s not a good time Kate!” I normally enjoyed her sauciness. But her programming was able to sense the anxiety in my voice and shut it down.
“Initializing Thrusters.” An ungodly groan originated from deep in the ship. Anaconda’s, large and well built, normally didn’t notice at all their engines coming online. My severely pummeled units however, shook the entire structure from the effort. Good Lord I thought, and rapidly secured myself in the captain’s chair for what I was about to do next. If the Cutter didn’t kill me, my own ship might.

Lasers flashed again. The Cutter, sensing the attempt to restart my engines, had turned towards me to intercept. An alarm went off indicating he had launched a missile and my point defense weapons flashed out. A second later a plasma bolt struck the hull just forward of the bridge bathing it in bright green light. The flash had burned into my eyes, like glancing at a star, I now saw it wherever I looked.
“Thrusters Online.” Here we go.

“Kate, divert all available power to engines.” The power status responded accordingly as I pushed the throttle to the stops. The hull vibrated like it was being drug over a rocky moon as it lurched forward. The engines spat intermittently, jolting the ship violently as they did. I yanked back on the controls, pitching the nose of the spacecraft up, turning my engines away from my attacker and said a quiet prayer as I punched the button for a full power boost.

The engines seemed to hesitate and for a moment I had assumed they had all but flamed out. Just then, an unwholesome explosion came from aft and the engines finally responded with their usual smooth power. I felt my stomach come up in my throat as the ship accelerated through the turn. Beam lasers flashed all around, scarring the hull, followed by another plasma bolt. The Cutter wasn’t going to let me leave easily. “Die now, wretch!” its commander’s voice burst through on a direct comlink.

“Kate shut that ole up!”

“Roger. Closing pie hole.” The comlink light went out.

Just then the Cutter came into view and my hud’s target reticles all converged on it. Fire lept from the two large multi-canons on the deck, and a satisfying thump thump thump came from the huge gun under the nose as I pulled hard on the trigger. The shells all hit close around his canopy and he banked away hard to cover it up. We closed too rapidly to keep fire on him for long though, and I boosted again as I flew past. “Retract weapons and plot a course for home.” I knew the Cutter couldn’t turn around very quick, but it could outpace me. I hoped to be out of his range and making my jump before he could bring his weapons to bear. The navigation computer came back with a course, just four jumps to Deneb Algedi. The first just happened to be right in front of me. “Get us out of here Kate.”

“Frame Shift Drive charging…”

“And I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier”

“You can make it up to me later.” That sauce. I managed a half smile as the countdown timer started and the drive began to open a hole into witch-space. Another alarm, and a missile flew past the ship wide as the cutter made a wild last attempt to stop me from fleeing. Another second and I was into the hole, and gone.

 

[Don Alvarez]

Chapter II
Burke Port, Deneb Algedi

​

“Faulcon deLacey, Delta Oscar November, please reduce speed to one-zero-zero”

Like Hell I will. ‘Flight control, this is Delta Oscar November. Be advised, my craft is heavily damaged, both main thrusters malfunctioning….”

I felt a slight irritation when flight control interrupted in its usual dispassionate way. “Faulcon deLacey, Delta Oscar November, reduce speed immediately, there is heavy traffic….”

I slammed an impatient fist down on the comlink emergency override button. ”Flight control, do you know who this is? I don’t wish to invoke executive privilege, but I will if I have to. My ship is heavily damaged, whatever traffic is in my way YOU WILL MOVE, or I will. “

There was a long moment of silence. “Apologies Director Alvarez. Proceed to your landing pad; your path will be clear. “

“I love a commander who knows how to take charge.” Kate chimed in after the exchange. She always knew what to say to break the tension. I often wondered, if Kate was human and not a computer, what would she look like? I pictured a blonde a bit younger than myself, bouncy hair, attractive… short. Most women are shorter than me anyway. I’d hate to see one that isn’t. She also sounds at times a bit bookish. Yeah. Glasses. There's just something about a woman in glasses…

“Entrance is coming up director. Where you daydreaming or something?”

“No, Kate. Sorry. Let’s do this.” If I sounded at all confident before attempting to run the entrance at Burke Port, I sure wasn’t anymore afterward. The ship balked and groaned as I did my best to guide it into the coriolis station, and its sputtering thrusters didn’t manage the Anaconda’s thirteen hundred tons of mass at all. But after taking out of the advertisement signs, striking and bending the safety cage outside the entrance, and knocking down several lighting arrays, I put it down hard on the landing pad. “Not my finest moment. Kate, secure the ship.”

“That’s okay Director. I don’t mind being handled rough on occasion.” A moment later, “There is a visitor at the main gangway.”

“What? On viewer.” The camera showed a single person, slight build, in what looked like a robe trimmed with a lot of gold braid. “Can I help you?” I said a few minutes later to the figure as I descended the gangway.

A female voice replied, “You just coming in from the black? You lonely?” A closer inspection revealed a woman who was likely middle aged, but hadn’t aged very well. “You wanna twirl?”

Seriously? I produced my TLATC corporate credentials, and her face fell. “You have a permit to be working here? Cause last I checked we don’t hand them out for the executive docking area. You here to meet someone in particular?”

“I….I’m looking for my brother. You aint him. I gotta go.”

I called after as she rapidly withdrew, “Well when you find him best not to give him a twirl. That’s another statute altogether, that I WILL have you arresting for breaking.”

“Who was that?” Kate asked as I got back to the bridge. Her tone was unmistakably that of a jealous girlfriend. I actually felt sheepish as I replied “No one. Kate I need you to contact repair and refuel services and get the ship serviceable again. After that transfer over to the Intrepid, I’ll likely be using that tomorrow. I’m heading to the office for the night.”

“Are you not chasing after your lady friend?”

“You’re my only lady friend Kate. See you tomorrow.”

The term “office” is actually a liberal one as it applied to corporate governed system installations. Its actually an office area adjoined by comfortably sized living quarters. The office section is a then joined by corridor to all the other high ranking members of the corporate government. Two doors down was the office of my particular friend, Commander Buchs, the Vice President of Interstellar commerce. At the very end, facing the length of the hall, was the ornate door to the office of Khalin Kilrain, Chief Executive officer of the TL Armoured Transport Company, and by extension governor of the entire Deneb Algedi System.

Burke Port was never well known for its luxurious accommodations. Quite the opposite, it was actually a mining hub built back in the days when the industrial engineers thought low orbit hubs were still a good idea. Burke orbited Deneb Algedi A5, a planet with extremely high gravity, inside the planetary rings. To stay in a low altitude orbit around such a large planet it had to move at an extremely fast pace, which was sometimes problematic for larger freight and mining ships to approach at supercruise speeds. Now stations now are usually inserted into orbit outside the rings, so they move at a more reasonable clip.

I entered the spartan office and closed the door behind me. Leaving the lights off, I initialized the office systems and checked the flight registers for both Burke Hub and its planetside companion station, Leckie Holdings. I was looking for Buchs, but saw no entry. The two of us had ventured to Daramo to help stop the Imperial Incursion in that system. It didn’t fall in with our duties in Deneb of course, but as independent contractors it seemed like a chance to make some easy credits. The Federation effort was large and well-funded, so we felt the risk was low. It didn’t seem that way anymore in the conflict outside of knight port that chased me out of the system, nor to Buchs whom I lost contact with earlier in the fight after I saw him boost off I his Federal Gunship with a wing of Vultures in pursuit. Core Dynamics should have never made those fighters available to the Empire. It pained me to ever see an Imperial brand on a Vulture.

A knock came on the door and I let out a sigh. Only one person I knew still knocked on doors rather than use the digital announcer. Khalin.

“Enter,” I said. We had been friends for almost twenty years, going back to our time together in the Daedalus Heavy Reconnaissance Wing, before Halsey-era cutbacks shut it down and dismissed the entire unit from service. Khalin - then Rear Admiral Kilrain - could have stayed in the service, but elected instead to join his men in retirement. Being from a wealthy family, and unable to sit still, he started the TL Armoured Transport Company shortly after, and invited his former commanders in the Daedalus Wing to join, myself as Director of Fleet Operations. I only had one condition, and that was I would not sit behind this desk. This damned ugly desk.

Khalin was a large man, not quite my size, but older and grizzled looking. He had youthful eyes though, and approaching eighty years of age was still hale, formidable. He had been a great pilot and an even better commander, and even in the unexpected role of governor which he found himself he had proven himself a crafty politician and strategist as well. “The prodigal son returns!” he growled, and with a flourish of sarcasm added, “did you have fun, ‘scouting the trade markets in Gliese 868?’”

I didn’t think that explanation would fool him when he saw I departed in the Anaconda. “Why do you still knock on the door?” I knew the question would irritate him.

“What else am I supposed to do! Stand out in the hallway like an idiot and hope that damn thingy announces me right? I should just kick your damn door down, I’m the CEO dammit, I can do what I want!”

“I’m sure you’re right, Admiral.”

“Don’t call me that Don.”

“And you know my name is not Don.” The title was real once, going back to the days of King Phillip of Spain. These days, it was purely honorific.

His eyes bored into me for a moment, then softened. “All right. How did you make out in Daramo.”

“I’m sure you saw the results as I came in.”

“Yeah, didn’t look like you fared to well. I saw Buchs is not back yet either. No need to worry, that one always comes back somehow.”

“They fight differently now Khal. Not like the old days back in the wing. Next time I’ll know better. We need to stay light and fast, overpowering them doesn’t work anymore. I’ll make sure I shoot off a memo to the fleet in the morning. “

“That’s not why I’m here, though I’m glad you’re back. I really need you to check in at this desk more often. I needed you here earlier today. Something’s come up”

“I know, I know. What’s come up?”

“Not here.”Khalin glanced around dramatically. We both knew sometimes the walls had ears. Even nine months after we’d ousted the Deneb Algedi Corporation from power, we’d still find listening devices in the offices from time to time.

“All right. The usual place then. Half an hour. I’ll pick up the tab, since the federation owes me some credits.”

----------------------

​

The usual place was a pub known only as The Tankard. Away from the nightclub scene, it was a haunt for older mining and security commanders, a few I recognized as TLATC pilots when I walked in, and bought them a round. One I recognized as always being here, a commander named Kastigere who was a top earner. Had a nose for finding platinum and owned his own Python. He had been in the system when it was a lot more like the wild west, but when the TLATC assumed control of the system and brought order back with them, he decided to contract out his services. I made sure I said hello, then bought everyone a round, just as I always did, and grabbed my reserved booth in the corner.

A quarter of an hour later Khalin walked in and sat down across from me, and slapped down a handful of invoices on table. “What’s this?”

“You said you were picking up the tab. Here it is. You owe Core Dynamics a new billboard, the station manager wants the safety cage fixed along with the lights you destroyed. They billed the company, but since you were technically on your own, these belong to you. I’m not paying it.”

I looked at the amounts. “You’d think those lights were made of painite. Fair enough. I’ll square with him tomorrow.” I folded up the papers and slipped them inside my jacket.

“Fair enough. I’m tired so I’ll get right to it. Have a look.” He slid a hologram tablet across the table. When I picked it up, it played a very short recording, a three dimensional hologram of one of our extraction sites around a planet which I recognized as Deneb AB1. The recording caught a glimpse of a large ship just before it cut to static, an Anaconda. I zoomed in on the grainy hull, the resolution was lousy, but I could make out a brand on the hull.

“Jet Mafia”

“That’s what the boys at the lab said.”

“What happened to the pilot that took this video?” I asked, already guessing the answer.

“New guy. Lakon T7. We found the wreckage a few hours later, he didn’t make it.” Khalin took the tablet back and closed the image. “One ship really isn’t cause for alarm. But an Ananconda is a different story. We broke these guys after we exposed the DAC. We destroyed everything of significance in their fleet. Now it seems they’ve come back. By themselves they’re no threat. Any one of our boys from Daedalus is worth any ten of theirs. But this Anaconda is concerning. It means they’re funded, which means they may have allies.”

“Well like you say, they’re not really a threat.”

“No, but whoever their ally is may be. We need to find out who, and how much of a threat they may be. I’ve reached out through my diplomatic contacts as much as I dare without arousing suspicions, but so far have drawn a zero. We’ve been governing this system since last October, but we are still in a delicate position. We have these new factions in from LHS 510 and LFT 1, and the Future Party is just as fickle as ever. Could be any one of those, of even more concerning is someone out there has designs on us that we don’t know about yet. Moreover, they’ve come back right after we moved our primary extraction operations from A5 down to AB1. Not many people knew we were going to do that, so we may have a leak as well and this may all be tied together. We’ve worked too hard to let things come to ruin. I need you on this.”

“You said you needed me behind a desk.”

“I do. After this is done.”

There’s no way after all we’ve been through together, I’d let the old man down. He’d helped me when I was down and needed to get my kit together, helped a lot of guys from the wing above and beyond what the Navy was willing to do. I tossed down my drink and called for another.

“I’ll get started tomorrow - after I find out what happened to Buchs. I may need his help on this.”