Chapter 40 In space with a junkyard ship

In the last nearly three days, I had mostly focused on my two skills. We did have some instructions on how to train them, but I felt myself simply not knowing enough of the basics to feel like I was making proper advancement.

As for advancement in the skills, I did find an interesting quirk: you could actually change in the status display, how you wanted to represent your skills. If you chose to, you could change it to show levels instead of skill aptitude like currently.

Turns out the reason why skill aptitude was used was because of how skills worked. Even now, I had made minor progress, and that was displayed by the skills slowly growing, getting more complex.

Why almost everyone used the aptitude way of displaying skill progress was because when the skill reached a certain size and complexity, it made a qualitative change which would allow you the use of a much stronger version of that skill. So, getting from novice to apprentice seemed more appropriate the going from level 9 to level 10.

Whenever I thought of skills, my mind often drifted to thinking about the inventory skill Lola mentioned. The more I thought about it, the more powerful it seemed, especially in battle. If you could pull out thin air fully autonomous mech suits, every fight would be so much easier. There was also a flip side: what if someone else had it? That was a truly scary thought.

We had finally reached FTL speed, but before jumping, there was another modifier I needed to make to the booby trap.

It was nice for the ship AI to notify that perhaps we should make it so that the booby trap is destroyed, so none of our technology gets leaked. Especially the fact that we had access to nano machines.

Lola and I felt pretty stupid after that. We really should have thought of it.

What I basically did was add a self-destruct with some proximity sensors and a timer of four hours, so if anything comes close, or the time limit is reached, it should be completely destroyed.

Now that that was done, I made my way back to the pilot seat, pushed the engines instantly to 2.5G, and triggered the FTL device. The transition happened without any problems. In fact, the transition seemed more stable than before, most likely because my ship was now a lot more rigid thanks to the new armor.

Immediately, I engaged autopilot, which now knew to lower the acceleration to the 2.3 G acceleration required to stabilize flight in FTL.

Almost immediately, I got a red warning from the booby trap. After some digging into what that was, turns out that a timer started with a countdown that will trigger the booby trap in 23 hours and 45 minutes.

That brought up another interesting point. In most of the galaxy, days were pretty close to 24 hours. Apparently, it was something to do with the Goldilocks zone and natural limitations of biological life and their need for sleep.

Honestly, I didn’t mind, because it would have been a hard thing to relearn. But finally, I also got to do something I’ve waited for almost 3 days now. Finally, I could activate the gravity generator.

As I did so and dialed up the power usage, the constant acceleration I was feeling slowly disappeared until we were in zero gravity once again.

“I think this might be my new favourite thing.”

In return, Lola huffed in annoyance, and I laughed out loud.

I stayed looking at all the feedback I was getting from all the systems to see that everything worked as expected.

It was still too early to concretely say exact fuel usage, but it seems Lola’s calculations of about a month of constant travel seemed to be about right.

On my main display, the current route had been planned out. It will take approximately seven months to make it there, which means we should plan for eight or nine stops, just in case.

I’m thinking that we should not use refuelling stations but instead trade stations or even trade hubs. Unfortunately, no trade centre like the one we currently left was on our route.

Lola also explained that she didn't know if we could use this station’s credits in our destination's location, but we could certainly use them in other trade centres.

Fortunately, we had enough credits to not need anything that might come from the fight that was hopefully soon going to happen.

It would still be nice if it did happen, and it would take a really long time for the credits to be taken away. What could happen if my account is closed for no activity, so we would have plenty of time, if we needed to, to come back here and claim them.

Zero gravity was nice, and for the next day I worked on the workshop to make some modifications for zero gravity work to be even smoother. Time moved fast, and the timer on the booby trap neared its end.

Back in the pilot seat, I readied to drop us out of FTL as soon as the timer on the booby trap went off. It was kind of nerve-wracking, and I hoped that the work we did was enough to keep us safe. It should be, but still—it was a risk.

Finally, the booby trap triggered with a small explosion that did absolutely nothing. Immediately, I cut the power to the main engines, and soon we were back in real space. I flipped the ship around and opened the front airlock.

Two drones were in the front airlock that now pushed the booby trap into open space, and we watched it drift away from us.

After the manoeuvring, we were back facing the right way. This time, I pushed the engines quite hard, bringing us all the way up to 20G acceleration to get back into FTL.

All of this time, our scanners were working overtime, but nothing seemed to be in the facility. It only took us a bit over ten minutes to reach FTL speed again. With everything seeming to work out perfectly, we reentered FTL. My only regret being that I would not be able to witness the battle to come. Yet I was quite excited for the trip ahead.

POV: Fleet Commander of the 12th Patrol Fleet of Haver Prime

Every time we were in such a situation, I was glad that I made the modification to my office and command room so that I could overlook the fleet command centre below. As it was magnificent to witness the hurried work of my crew when we were working with such short notice.

Moments later, my second walked in.

“Commander, the quantum tracker has activated. We have a location.”

“Is it where it’s supposed to be?”

“Almost dead on, Commander.”

“So be it. Mobilise the fleet. We’re moving out.”

He gave a sharp salute appropriate for his species and rank and moved off.

Now I looked back at the centre of my office. The hologram display showed every ship and was my command station. It didn't take long for our planned route to be displayed. It seems that we were one hour and 15 minutes away from our destination. Exactly as planned. I did enjoy competent support, and it seems that this Mage Captain Remi Graves knew what he was doing.

Those damned Crivordid Pirates have been a thorn in our side for far too long, and I relish the opportunity that we might be the fleet to finally bring them to an end. It was fortunate that we got back from our patrol just in time to be assigned this mission.

Otherwise, we would have needed to send out a weaker cruiser fleet or a battleship fleet. Both would have been either too weak or too strong for this fight.

A moment later, we entered FTL, with hope in my two hearts that we would catch them.

Time went by quickly as the commanders and I ironed out the battle plan. There was a possibility of two fleets facing us. We knew a lot about the Crivordid Pirates. We also knew about the Black Fleet that might be at our destination.

Pulling up the information, it would most likely be a Black Fleet of the Terran Cooperative. A newly established mega corporation that seemed to be following the steps of every other mega corporation strikingly well. Fortunately, they are new, so our intelligence officers are pretty sure which Black Fleet they back and its composition.

They only have one battlecruiser and seven frigates, for a fleet size of eight ships.

The Crivordid Pirates will have—if they bring their entire fleet—four battlecruisers with twelve additional frigates, for a fleet size of sixteen ships.

As expected of non-military fleets, all of their ships are general-purpose, unlike ours. 

In a non-military fleet, anything below the size of a cruiser is called a frigate. Also all cruiser sized ships outside the military are called battlecruisers. Anything larger than a battle cruiser is called a battleship.

Battlecruisers start at about 300 metres in length, and battleships start at 900 metres in length, with the average being about 1.2 kilometres and the largest battleships nearing 1.6 kilometres.

Anything above that would just be for showing off, as bigger ships then that are just too slow and too big for a target to survive any proper fleet engagement—unless they have way too many support ships protecting it—making battleships the biggest effective warships.

My second and four other officers walked in, and after the proper greetings, took their spots around the command table.

“We're about to exit FTL, Commander.”

“Excellent. We’re keeping good time.”

The transition was fast, and already our fleet’s ships were reporting in, as the combined sensors of the fleet started to gather information.

We already had visual on the two enemy fleets. We were about 48,000 kilometres away, I could feel the happiness of the other officers, but it was all tamped down a moment later as everyone got serious.

The pirates were here in force. 16 confirmed ships with their four battlecruisers. The Black Fleet also was here with one battlecruiser and six ships. A moment later, it was confirmed that one of their ships was already destroyed, as they seemed to be in a furious fight.

Seems that they haven't been in battle for long, as their missiles were still heading for each other, but they were in railgun distance, and the overwhelmingly more powerful pirate fleet was doing some heavy damage to the Black Fleet, who seemed to be trying to escape.

“Main focus remains the pirate fleet with 85% of offensive power concentrated on them. Move into standard full shadow formation with maximum approach speed.”

“As you command, Fleet Commander,” was echoed back, not just from the officers in this room but from the commanders of the other ships as well.

Our fleet was 16 strong. Our composition being two E-war frigates, three laser point defense frigates, four railgun destroyers, two laser destroyers, one missile destroyer, one support cruiser, two cruisers, and my command ship, a heavy cruiser.

Usually, I dislike whenever military designs use classifications like heavy or other kinds of unhelpful descriptions, but heavy was quite the apt description for this ship. In a normal fleet engagement, I would never bring this beast. As it was designed to bully anything of its size and below.

Our ships moved into formation as we started to approach the other fleets. The heavy cruiser was up front with everything else trailing behind, using its shadow as protection. The front end of this heavy cruiser could take a few shots from a battleship railgun, and none of the ships arrayed against us were long enough to have a railgun of that length.

E-war had already started, with us making it as difficult as possible for them to identify us, and at the same time trying to scramble as much of their communication as possible.

It was nice to have dedicated ships just for that, as they were able to bring a lot of defense and offense in that department, but every ship was capable of it to a certain degree.

We were swiftly closing in on railgun engagement range, but we wanted to get as close as possible. With every minute passing, it brought the certainty of our victory closer.

Finally, it seemed that the pirate fleet figured out what was going on and launched, most likely every remaining missile they had toward us. The display was now filled with hundreds of red missiles moving toward us.

The space between the pirate fleet and the black fleet was lit up as both sides point defenses lit up, trying to destroy the incoming missiles. With the end result being minimal damage to both sides.

Our fleet started launching missiles as well, with most of them targeting the pirates. The two other cruisers now moved a bit away from our shadow, allowing the smaller ships to pop out from our shadows to start attacking.

It didn’t take too long for us to start feeling the impacts of smaller railgun shots hitting our bow as the pirates started to return fire. Their uncoordinated efforts weren’t even stressing our shields.

The four battlecruisers of the enemy fleet finally started to move into position to fire against us, their main lasers. That had been focused on the Black Fleet’s battlecruiser already nearly disabling it. Before they got that chance, it would be our turn.

“Ready for a full salvo!” I said in a commanding voice for all to hear.

Immediately, our ship’s main engines cut off, with the manoeuvring engines firing at full blast, bringing the right side to bear.

One of the reasons why this was a heavy cruiser was its size. It was 812 metres in length and 252 metres in width, with a maximum height of 101 metres. It was a beast of a fighting ship, but its size wasn’t the main reason it could bully anything of its size and below.

On the right side were the openings for ten 200-metre-long railguns stretching nearly the entire width of the ship that fired 2.5-kilogram projectiles at 0.4% lightspeed. They would make quick work of the enemy pirate fleet’s cruisers. Those railguns took a lot of space, as we had a really good targeting system.

As soon as we were on target, five railguns fired their 2.5-kilogram orealum projectiles. We were close enough that they were going to hit in under 10 seconds, too fast for any ship of their size to dodge.

We had a good visual on the impacts. The first shots were targeting either power concentration or, if possible, engines.

The orealum metal of the projectiles deforms and fragments, sending high-velocity shrapnel tearing through everything in its path.

It took a moment after the flash of impact to regain visibility, as there was much light and sensor disturbance, but all five shots hit.

“Three pirate battlecruisers have suffered heavy damage. One suffered minor damage. The Black Fleet battlecruiser suffered minor damage.”

That was to be expected. It seems that two battlecruisers managed to get a lucky deflection, only suffering minor damage in the area where the shots hit. Usually, we weren't up against so many battlecruisers.

As soon as we had the damage report, we reacquired targets and fired the remaining five railguns. As soon as they were shot, this ship started to manoeuvre again so that our bow, the strongest part of the ship, would be facing the enemy.

The shots hit, with two of the pirate battlecruisers exploding soon after. I reined in my anger when I saw one of the pirate battlecruisers still operational. It seems that they got a second lucky deflection. Two parts of that battleship were now caved in, they were leaking atmosphere, and it seems most of their weapons were disabled, but they were still operational.

"Two pirate battlecruisers destroyed, one disabled, one still operational with moderate to heavy damage. The Black Fleet battlecruiser disabled," was reported by my second for all of the fleet to hear.

"Support cruiser reporting in. The last operational battlecruiser of the pirate fleet is accelerating to enter FTL, with the smaller ships acting as a screen."

"All lasers and railguns focus on that battlecruiser. Don't let it escape!"

The one problem with having so many railguns that were so big was that it took them a while to recharge, eight minutes to recharge two of them. That was what we were capable of with the power generation while still keeping up our defences.

The missile swarms had already passed each other. Our fleet spread out a bit, with the three laser-point-defense frigates taking point ahead of the heavy and two other cruisers.

Their laser fire lit up the surrounding space as they engaged the missiles. Only a few moments later, the enemy fleets fired their own point defense. We watched as the red missiles started to disappear. Two minutes later, there were no enemy missiles left.

Our missile swarm was cut down heavily, but that was to be expected. With more managing to hit than expected.

“Missile volley disabled eight ships, with the rest receiving minor to heavy damage. The remaining battlecruiser suffered minimal damage.”

The pirate battlecruiser deployed space smoke to make our laser fire ineffectual and to hide it from our view. The minutes went by, and slowly we were disabling the remaining frigates of the pirates.

As we focused on the pirate fleet, the Black Fleet remained mostly intact, and they also seemed to be trying to escape.

"Laser weaponry, change targets to Black Fleet!"

My orders were carried out, and the lasers started to target the Black Fleet's ship engines.

We were able to fire two more railgun shots at the battlecruiser, but only managed to destroy two of the screening frigates. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to charge them again.

One of the railgun destroyers managed to hit one of the side engines of the pirate battlecruiser, but it wasn't enough, and it managed to jump into FTL.

It didn’t take long after that for the last shots to be fired as the enemy fleets were now disabled from being able to fight ship to ship battle.

“Launch the drone fighters,” I ordered. My ship had two wings of drone fighters, the other cruisers having one, and the support cruiser having four.

Their job was to get close to the ships that were disabled but not destroyed. They might still have some nasty surprises, and those fighters' job was to disable any kind of offensive capability that might be left and to cut into the ship to disable their reactor.

After that, we will be launching our assault wings that will take the fight inside the enemy ships and crush the remaining resistance. Hopefully, they will surrender before that, but you never know with pirates.

The drone wings had already done their job, and it took them only two hours to pacify all the surviving ships. With two of the three remaining pirate frigates surrendering, we were just waiting to see what the remaining Black Fleet ships would do.

“Commander, it seems that something is happening with the remaining Black Fleet ships. It seems that there is internal fighting. Should we hold off on sending in assault wings?”

“Send them to capture the pirate ships, but wait on the Black Fleet ships. We will see what they do. It was confirmed that they were crewed by humans, yes?” My second-in-command immediately confirmed.

“They are a new species in the galaxy, and a human was the one who set up this fight. I’ve also heard of humans becoming pirates, but also of them becoming pirate hunters. We do not yet know how they will act under duress, so we will take it slow with them. Hopefully, they’re not another suicidal species that would rather destroy themselves than give up and surrender.”

Time continued to pass. We had captured two of the pirate crews who had surrendered, and the fighting on the third ship was coming to an end. Finally, it seemed we were getting some information about the Black Fleet. It made me curious because my second seemed confused.

“Commander, it seems there has been mutiny on every surviving Black Fleet ship. They say they didn’t know what they were doing and that most of their crew didn’t support the decisions of the leaders of the fleet. They had expected to be a part of the official military of the Terran Cooperative. They are willing to surrender.”

“Good... but I see there’s a ‘but’ there.”

“They are requesting to be allowed to fix up their battlecruiser, and then the surviving crew of the Black Fleet wants to use that spaceship to travel back to the Haver station and become adventurers. They assure us they would need only a week or two to get the ship functional again.”

Now, in my nearly 300 years of being in the Haver military, I haven’t heard of such a thing. Cleaning up the battlefield will take at least a month. But I don’t even know if it was possible to give them such an opportunity to fix up a ship that had been our enemy.

“Send the assault wings, but tell them that their request is under review.”

“As you command.”

POV: Vir Kir Dern

“We have finished cataloguing everything, Baron, and are starting to add to the collection now,” my faithful companion said as he teleported in. I looked at him with fondness.

“What would I do without you?”

“You would probably still be just a Lord of entertainment.”

“I do not doubt it.”

Then I felt it, the increase in power as more stories were added to my collection.

“It will take me a while to solidify these gains.”

“We also have another report about Remi Graves.”

“Oh, this I feel is going to be interesting.”

“Yes. Apparently, he managed to bait the Crivordid Pirates and a Black Fleet of the Terran Cooperative to the same location and then tipped off the Haver Prime military. They destroyed the two fleets. They are celebrating the victory now.”

“Well, cheers to them. What’s the non-propaganda report?”

“It’s a strange one. One of the battleships of the pirate fleet managed to escape.”

That came as a surprise to me. That ship must have gotten really lucky.

“The Black Fleet, however, is a more curious case. It took some digging, but they did surrender, with about half the fleet being destroyed. But their battlecruiser was escorted back and is now registered as an adventurer spaceship.”

That made me focus fully on my companion.

“It was a full human-crewed fleet. Apparently there was a mutiny within the human ships. And listen to this: they requested permission to fix up the battlecruiser and use it to become space adventurers. And the Haver military actually allowed them to do so.”

I took a moment and stood up, walking to the window to see the water on the other side. It always brought me comfort to be so close to water whenever I was in space.

“Humans, they truly seem to be as the stories describe them as.”

Concentrating on my collection, and especially the new additions, I began understanding it, trying to search for the connection between the human collection and two others.

“My friend, it seems that your predictions are correct. There is indeed a connection. The humans seem to truly be acting in a way according to their stories. Do you know what this means?”

“It means that if we get more of the two other collections, you could become powerful enough to become a Viscount.”

“And all of this thanks to Remi Graves and the collection he sold me. When we learned of the humans, I expected it would take us centuries to gather enough of their stories, as it seems like their home planet was destroyed as well.”

“Three species separated by hundreds of light-years, yet in their histories... they are connected with stories. With all three of them joining the rest of the galaxy with their home planet destroyed. A wonderful trilogy that might be unique in the universe.”

“I concur, Baron. I still can’t believe the three species that were so far away from each other could be so similar. With the biological data we have been able to get, there is a chance of functional offspring of the mixing of two of the species.”

Immediately, I turned toward my companion, not believing what he said.

“Even if you look at them. The humans, the middle ground between the three species. The ones that live in the plains near rivers. The dwarves, the smallest of the three. Preferring to live underground and in the mountains. And finally, the elves, the regal ones. Preferring old forests as their home.” My companion explained and I listened.

It will take me years to solidify the histories of these three species and their strange connection.

And you, Remi Graves. If you are going to die soon, do so in a legendary way, so you can fuel this epic trilogy.

End of Book One.

----

How does this feel as the ending to book one? And in general, whats your thoughts on the story, what you feel are weaknesses or strengths of it, and what would you like to see more or less off?

Also, on RoyalRoad the story hit 500 followers. If you have the time and you use the site, it would really help me if you left a good review to hopefully get the story to the top 10 of Rising Stars.

And finally, as always, thank you all for the tremendous support.

----