That 4-hour mark when the settled parts of the system would start receiving the light of their arrival came and went without a response; they’d half expected to have that pirate gunship suddenly show up, emerge into realspace and open fire on the fake Sapper.

  When that didn’t happen…. Things became a bit more relaxed. Either the enemy wasn’t standing, ready for a fight, or they weren’t looking for one. Or, most likely, they weren’t in this system at all.

  When the scan results finally started to come back from all the sensor drones, they also started getting messages from the bases in-system.

  Zeke sorted through them, Yumi had put them in a text format so he could just look at the list instead of listening to them one by one… and nodded. “Okay, so. The witnesses to the attack say that the gunship popped in, slagged one of the bases and two of the ships, grabbed all the unprocessed ore and anything that wasn’t nailed down, then….”

  He looked up. “Made a short hop out to the furthest part of the asteroid belt, here, which they only know because a termination signal popped up hours later. Probably sorted valuables from corpses before going. We’ll have a complete picture of the area on sensors momentarily, but if they are watching, they would’ve spotted us hours ago.”

  Kyle glanced up. “Captain. Request permission to collect all the drones we dropped off here before we go? They all have enough engine power to send themselves back towards us, and the fighter drones can get them all to us in less than fifteen minutes. We could be prepped to hop in… seventeen.”

  “If its not automated, have Billy handle it. He could use the training and you’re supposed to be our pilot at present.”

  “One button, sir. If they encounter an unexpected problem or a system gets jammed we might have to intervene, but there’s literally just a ‘retrieve ordinance’ button on there that safes all deployed munitions and has the drones pick them up.”

  Zeke gave a nod… and blinked. “In that order? Is it possible to have them not be safed until its time for them to be picked up? Like, for example… grab everything else first, and safe the mines when its about time to get them home?”

  “Uhh… possible? Its not the default, because by default the mines use their own tiny little thrusters to start coming home first. I could program that in, but it’d take a few minutes.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Recover them all, and you can do that for when we find the system these pirates are working from.”

  Yumi looked up. “Captain. Not sure if its anything you care to act on, but.. two of the colonies have put in requests for evacuation. They don’t want to be here. That’s…. Forty-five people in one, over a thousand in the other.”

  “Hmm. How many people can we get out of here?”

  Kyle closed his eyes, thinking for a moment, even as he activated the retrieval program. “I can convert the crew quarters to bunk beds and fabricate the bunks, give us capacity for the forty-five without a problem. Like any ship the Sapper can haul something bigger than herself into Darkspace if we hook her up.. I’ve got a protocol for that programmed into the drones for delivering wreckage to Ash for the credits, and even nets to contain clouds of smaller debris. I could haul hundreds of escape pods, or a single frigate-sized mass, if we arranged everything properly.”

  “Just how big are we talking?”

  “Hmm. A single cylinder about a hundred meters long and forty across could work. If we could get a thousand people jammed into one colonial hab tower, that would be viable, just slow us down a bit.”

  Zeke chuckled. “Yeah, we could get them all. Yumi, any indication they can pay us to do that?”

  “A few of them are offering a reward for us to take them with us. Not the whole group… just individual passengers. Most of the equipment here is owned by BSE, and there’s at least a few hundred former slaves among them that we’d get rewards for bringing in. Though… that might piss off the BSE if we take more than a few. This system was slowly working its way towards self-sufficiency before this pirate showed up, and taking a bunch of people would slow down how quickly they could make a legitimate ownership claim dramatically.”

  She smiled. “There’s a single BSE executive in-system that is actually mentioned in the mission contract, as a bonus if he makes it home safe.”

  “Well then. Jenny has enough room for a passenger, so if we can’t find these pirates, he can come home with us. We’ll let him decide how to handle the rest, since he’s technically in charge of them.”

  ***

  Shortly after the drones had been recovered, they finally had a complete picture of the area in question; the drones still hadn’t reached it… but were now close enough to actually resolve images as a group.

  “Sir. One of the drones picked up the source of the termination signal.” Yumi tapped at her console for a moment, before sending the imagery to the main bridge display.

  The image that floated in midair was both simple, and slightly disturbing. A severed arm, floating in the void, holding something in its fist, wearing a common utility skinsuit glove.

  “Anything else?”

  Another display popped up. “We’ve also got a heat signature in this asteroid right here. Its a good-sized one, a few klicks across, and wouldn’t be a bad candidate for setting up a hidden base. Looking at the trajectory of that arm…. It came from that region. Which means…”

  Zeke nodded. “Which means that its possible they’re actually there, or that this is a spot they dump corpses and useless junk before a freighter takes off out-system with the good stuff. They might have hideouts like this in a dozen systems, poach what looks useful, and then sell it. Could be dozens or hundreds of light-years from here. Good work. If we’re lucky, that guy was implanted, and when we find his corpse we can bring him back for a conversation. Or even some of the other victims.”

  Billy glanced back. “I doubt it, captain. You think uncle Johnny would leave anyone with an intact implant if it were him?”

  “Most pirates aren’t that experienced. Besides, they might want to interrogate them later themselves. No reason not to hope. Alright then. Order all the sensor drones to converge for collection at wherever the best spot is, and prepare a communications package. Send everything we know so far to BSE when we make the jump. We’ll check out that rock, collect the drones, and decide what to do once we’ve had a good look.”

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  Yumi nodded. “Of course. If any of you have other messages you want to pass along, send them. I’ll batch them all together.”

  Kyle glanced at the young woman for a moment. She hadn’t really done anything suspicious he’d noticed. But…. something seemed a bit off. He’d seen a few odd interactions in the first and second levels of security… fortunately the third was air-gapped, but… was she hacking him? He should probably hide one of the comm drones… just to be safe.

  He gently moved a small panel under the console display, and plugged the connector for his HUD into it. As they gathered messages and plotted a hop through Darkspace to take a closer look at the asteroid, he quietly set a command for two of the comm buoys to detach as they left…and one of them to send an update back to the family. With any luck, it wouldn’t be needed… and he could retrieve them when they collected all the sensor drones.

  He closed the panel, disconnecting, and plotted a course… aiming to emerge behind one of the other large rocks, about five light-seconds away from the target.

  Zeke studied the flight plan for a moment, before nodding. “Yumi, let me know once the package is ready. We’ll only be dark for a second or so.”

  “Ready now, captain.”

  “Excellent. Set it to auto-transmit as we go. Mister Smith, take us out.”

  Why did Yumi qualify for her first name, while he was his made-up last name? Didn’t matter. Kyle hit the switch, power ran through the core… and the world vanished.

  ***

  The outer system was a quiet, dead place. Nothing to see, no threats. Asteroid belts usually weren’t much better; handfuls of scattered rock, often with thousands of kilometers between objects larger than a fist.

  The local ones, though? They were formed from a planet that had been broken apart, which meant they were thick, filled with various heavy metals, often in easy to reach pockets. Absolutely perfect for mining.

  It also meant that collisions were an actual risk.

  As the locale resolved itself on sensors, and they reconnected to the nearby sensor drones, they got a better picture of the area. A variety of small rocks, including the medium-sized one they were hiding behind; and a much larger one, with an indentation that may have been natural at one point, but showed visible marks from having been melted; meaning someone had made themselves a home out here.

  “Okay. We haven’t had any signals, no response to arrival in system. So there’s probably nothing there. But. I don’t like to gamble on probably, especially not when we’ve got so many tools available. We’re gonna let Poisseux off the chain, lay mines against both incoming and something escaping from the rock, and let one of the combat drones go first. If the place is empty, then we’ll disembark and check more closely.”

  Kyle nodded. “Twelve mines aimed at the rock, eight out into space, and say half of the combat drones? I’ve got them loaded with a mix of plasma and flak missiles, for gunships or heavier stuff.”

  “Sounds good to me. Yumi, see anything nearby?”

  “Nothing but the rock we’re up against, captain.”

  “Good. Pop us open and let loose the… drones.”

  A soft crackle of static from Jenny in the cargo bay. ~Not going to say ‘Dogs of war’?~

  “You’re one of the things we’re launching, and I’d prefer not to piss you off.”

  A chuckle came over comms, as the ship gave a brief grinding sound, shifting as she opened up on one side… and a swarm of tiny dots filled the display as drones flitted about, taking up pre-planned positions. Aiming at the rock, aiming at the void… and four combat drones took up formation around Poisseux, leaving the other four to stay with the ship as they slowly approached the rock.

  They all waited, out of view of the opening, until everything was in position… then a single one of the drones following Poisseux started to float forwards, entering the entrance to the rock… and moments later, vanished in a cloud of plasma.

  “Oh, fuck! Looks like the pirates are still home, people! Alright, folks, all weapons up, emitters active. Whatever comes out of that hole, I want it gone the moment it sticks its head out.”

  There was tension as they watched; scraps of drone scattered into the void, a secondary detonation as one of the plasma warheads it carried went off…

  Then… an enormous, dark shape burst forth. Far too large to be a gunship, or even a corvette, it looked like nothing more than a serpent, spraying fire into the void as it turned to face the next drone… and every one of the laser mines started firing into it, even as three drones and Poisseux opened fire, launching both railgun projectiles and missiles.

  From her side, Yumi stared at the display in horror… and grimaced. “Captain, we need to get the hell out of here. Right now.”

  “Billy, load missiles, breachers, and come around the rock, fire when ready!”

  “No, captain..!”

  The plasma warheads from the drones left enormous visible flashes of white-blue light against the enormous dark shape, as it shifted, moving back and forth as it snapped down, crushing another drone.

  Yumi tapped the console as Penny unloaded all of the missiles she had; the vibrant flash of Breacher missiles detonating and sending a lance of plasma towards the creature. The far more muted concussion of flak shells sending sprays of kinetic shards towards it.

  “Poisseux, turn and burn. Get out of the area at max speed. Turn sunward and put one of the rocks between you and the creature, and don’t stop.”

  ~Acknowledged. Moving.~

  Even as the monster obliterated the third drone with a burst of plasma, the energy washing over one of the mines sending its invisible pulses of death into the creature without apparent result, Jenny had swiveled and was turning away, engines flaring brightly.

  Zeke stared at Yumi. “Don’t you dare give or..”

  Yumi interrupted him immediately. “Captain, I know what this is, we need to jump, right now. Anywhere. Just do it now. NOW.”

  He stared at her, then at the screen as Penny sped away and the fourth drone was crushed… the monster turning, hurtling towards them at speeds far too great for something that large. Its obsidian shell was pockmarked with numerous holes and cracks, but it seemed undeterred as its wide maw opened, revealing jagged obsidian teeth and a glowing white inner body…

  “..Fuck. Take us out. Just pick and go, we’ll meet Poiss…”

  He didn’t get to finish the sentence. Kyle had already started to enter the command… and the creature had already begun to attack. Even as the ship vanished, a wash of deadly plasma splattered across the magnetic shield the ship had erected on that side, losing coherence… but still striking the hull as a semi-liquid mass of superheated gas, rupturing lines, slagging turrets…

  And then it was darkness.

  Moments later, they were light-minutes away, closer to the sun, with damage alerts springing up over all of the consoles, as engines, sensors, weapons… everything on the left side of the ship had been impacted.

  Zeke stared at the display. They were in the clear… for the moment. But if that thing was able to outrun the Poisseux, she was dead.

  “...That wasn’t a gunship. What the hell was that thing, and how do you know what it is?”

  The composed young woman looked a bit disturbed as she avoided meeting his gaze. She looked closer to his torso, and grimaced. “That…… was a dragon. And while they are a closely held secret… the Empire has known about them for centuries. I have already alerted them to its presence. They will be coming, and soon.”