Existential Threat: Chapter 6 Part 1 of 1 (Patreon)

Chapter: 6

08/07/2242

Luke ‘rolled’ down Sphere World Two’s corridors in his repair bot. Repair tools blue and red light flashed everywhere, the broken being cut out, the new installed.

He panned his camera as he moved down a catwalk that had been hit with something, half  of it broken off, the other rippled and twisted. It gave a view of the factories beyond, holes from rail rounds, from impacts, scorches from high heat nuclear of explosive detonations.

The signs of damage were everywhere, but the simple size of the station still stunned him. Decks rose above and dropped below, dozens of them, the top and bottom of the Sphere World just white patches.

He focused on driving over the buckled decking and towards the refrigerator-like servers that dotted the hallway.

If I never see a server again in my life I’ll be happyll be happy.

“Alright, last section,” Luke moved to the right as Jynx passed his left. Luke felt like he was in one of the tanks, he drove forward and backwards with his feet, he came to a relative stop next to a server, he connected his arms, as he moved his head his vision panned. His arms connected to those on the repair-bot, allowing him to ‘grab’ the server and pickup a repair tool. He disconnected the server while humming to himself, pushing it to the side, he used his feet to roll forward and repeat the process.

“More servers, yay,” Moose rolled up in his bot, grabbing the servers, magnetically locking them to his ‘top’ grabbing two more. “See you in a bit.” He rolled back the way he came.

The way Dana reacted to him asking if she wanted to go to dinner with his family played out in his head again, it had all day.

He pulled another server free, Shiro rolling up.

“Cheers,” He loaded up and headed off.

“Going to be hard without Fin,” Jynx said.

“Wonder what he got called off to do.”

“Seemed pretty important the way he left.”

“Well, anything other than ferrying servers back to a collection point would I’d jump to do as well,” Luke muttered.

“True,” Jynx snorted. They lapsed into silence again.

“You ever invite someone over to your family and you feel like they don’t want to?”

“Well that’s a little specific and out of the blue. Sure I think I had one boyfriend like that, didn’t make it to see my parents. Remember Arthur?”

“Oh, yeah, that dude was a space case.”

“Says the freighter kid.”

“You asked him a question and you could hear it echo around in his head.”

“He picked his words carefully. Think he was just anxious now, looking back on it. Was pretty nice, took me on a stroll through a zoo.”

“A zoo for a high school date?”

“Maybe a little old school, but he was sweet, though would have been nicer if he’d actually talked.”

“He didn’t talk?”

“Like barely a full sentence,” Jynx laughed.

“Poor guy.”

“Hey I had to go on the date with him, was awkward as hell. Thought he was really nice, invited him to meet my family and he was like stunned out of his helmet. Then I dunno what happened and we broke up.”

“Wonder what he’s doing now.”

“Probably in university studying animals. I think he liked the zoo.”

“Huh, didn’t know.”

“So why the random ass question? Dana don’t want to meet your folks? Didn’t she spend like a month on your freighter?”

“Well yeah, but like we weren’t dating or nothing, this is different.”

Moose rolled up again.

“What we talking about?”

“Luke got girl problems.”

“Fair ‘nough, lemme get the hell out of here,” He speed loaded his servers and rolled out.

“It ain’t that bad!” Luke growled.

“Yes sir, aye sir, admiral’s boyfriend sir.” Luke could hear the grin in Moose’s voice as he rolled down the hall. He groaned.

“Meeting the person you’re dating’s family is tricky. Plus when you care for one another like you two do. It makes it mean even more. You ask her about it?”

“I tried to.”

“Pretty sure your mom would say the same thing as my dad. Relationships are built on communication. You don’t talk, you don’t figure out a damn thing. If a relationship was a plant, then communication is the water, the shared experiences the nutrients.”

Luke’s stomach twisted, a hundred scenarios running through his mind.

“Look the worst happens, she dumps you.”

“Not helping.”

“Shit, an Orion ship just attacked a Federation supply freighter!” Shiro yelled on squad chat.

Luke turned his camera at Jynx’s repairbot, her camera facing his.

Oh fuck.

***

Ramirez jumped into his bot aboard the Ice Cutter. Weapons, Sensors, Helm and Ronnie at communications were there already in their bots too.

“How is the ship looking?”

“We’re good, the Destroyer Smith family and Inkarnation are ready to go as well.”

“The other fleets?” Ramirez opened up his screens around his command chair, checking everything was how he wanted it.

“Readying themselves and tracking their targets.”

“How are our targets looking?”

“Fat, happy an no idea we’re about to come knocking,” Ronnie looked at him in her faceless bot, but he heard the nervous grin in her voice. Mimicking the rolling fear in his gut.

“Very well, Helm, coordinate with the rest of the fleet for jump.”

“Aye Commander.”

A timer jumped up on the screen. He had picked out every person that had helped build the shipyard and crewed a destroyer. Each of them had lost someone they cared for, family or friends to ‘pirates’. They had tried to fight back against the Federation through normal channels, through the news, through talking. They’d been frustrated, shamed and stepped on by others, the Federation laughing in their faces, calling them crazy or terrorist lovers.

He'd found them in the corners of the net, in the message boards. Miners, freighter crew, the people that kept society running from the grungy pits. The under-appreciated, the taken-for-granted’s.

He thought he would have been found out, but they had held together, those that trusted and made it out becoming a part of the whole.

Now it would be their first test.

Ramirez had two maps next to one another, one showing the fleet on the float between star systems. There was something different between ships that were manned and those that weren’t, though he couldn’t place why it felt that way.

He glanced at the second map, a jump-freighter entering a lagrange transition point.

“Opening wormhole,” Helm called out. “Advancing.”

On both maps a new wormhole appeared. Ramirez looked ahead at the twisting marble of light, his fleet of three destroyers pushed through the wormhole.

“Transition complete.”

“Lock railguns on the target, open a channel with them, charge capacitors, prep run and wormholes and get the clock running,” Ramirez said.

The wormhole timer cleared, a new one with eight minutes appearing.

“Channel open.”

“Freighter Allmonz Fourteen, eject your freight or prepare to be fired upon.”

“Who the fuck is this? What the hell are Orion warships doing here!” A woman yelled.

“Victor Ramirez of the Rukian Family Co-op fleet. You have three minutes to comply.”

“Are you fucking crazy this is Federation space!”

“Two and a half minutes.”

“Do you know what will happen to you for this stunt! The Federation will hunt your ass down.”

“Two minutes, do you value your life or your cargos?”

The channel muted the woman.

“Federation military are trying to establish a channel,” Ronnie said.

“Fuck ‘em.” Ramirez jumped back to the other channel.

“Look I don’t want to kill you, but I will. You support the Federation, in my mind you are part of the system that perpetuates pirates throughout human space.”

“I don’t support no pirates!”

“You support the military right?”

“They’re not pirates! You are!”

“Ninety seconds, your cargo or your life.”

“You fire on me and you can kiss your lives goodbye!”

“Want to test it?” Ramirez cut the channel, forcing his knee to still. Just eject the damn cargo. You owe them nothing, insurance will pay out.

The timer dwindled down, but there was no change.

Ramirez pressed his eyes closed, at least no one could see him while he was in his bot. He opened the channel.

“Final request for you to eject your cargo.”

“I have honor you fuck!”

“Then I hope that comforts you on the other side,” His voice was soft, he left the channel open. “Fire.”

Ramirez’s three destroyers fired, the recoil transmitted through the ship’s deck.

“You-holy shit! Shit!” The shock, the disbelief was thick.

“Be at peace,” Ramirez cut the channel.

It took only a few seconds for the rounds to smash into the freighter. Containers were tossed free, the ship shuddering as the rounds punched through several containers at once, shredding the ship as dozens of rounds riddled the freighter Containers, shrapnel, parts of the freighter itself came apart.

His stomach twisted at the sight of the broken pieces spiralling outwards from what had been the freighters, ice and gasses shone like star-caught diamonds and ethereal smoke

“Ready to transmit.”

“This is Victor Ramirez of the Rukian Family Co-op fleet. For decades the Federation has preyed on those that it deems less than them, those that work hard to make a living out in the corners of space. Freighters, miners, recyclers, friends and family members that risk their lives to improve their lives. To improve the lives of their future generations. Some will call us pirates, murderers and butchers, to that I say, are we not honorable, upstanding and valiant defenders? Isn’t that what you call your Federation military as they murder innocents and steal their life’s work?

“You have judged us, from your net suits, from your towers, from your stations, behind your military, your pirates. You attacked us, you killed those that wanted nothing more than a chance at life, you have killed mothers, fathers, children, brothers and sisters. You care not for what your pirates do in your name. So let this be our reply. You are scum, you are bullies, a scourge upon the human race. Too weak to control your military, your government, or directly supports their murder of innocents.” Ramirez took in a shaky breath, bringing himself back under control. Looking through his bot’s eyes right at the pickup.

“We are the Free Alliance, we are the defenders, the avengers of those killed by Federation Pirates, as you attacked us for the resources we have, we now return the favor. When the weak have power, then empires might shake and factions fall.” Ramirez made a cutting motion with his arm.

He cleared his throat a few times. “How long till jump?”

“Three minutes commander.”

“Ra-mir-ez, Ra-mir-ez,” Ronnie’s chant spread to the four other members of the crew, rising in volume “Ra-mir-EZ”

He opened his mouth as his name repeated through the open fleet chat. “Ra-MIR-EZ”

His eyes flicked to it, it wasn’t just his fleet, it was all the fleets in the alliance. “RA-MIR-EZ, RA-MIR-EZ, RA-MIR-EZ! RA-MIR-EZ!!”

It reached a fervor pitch, the bots on the bridge, slamming their feet against the floor in time.

His name rolled through his chest, through his head.

“RA-MIR-EZ!” He shot to his feet “Free Alliance!”

Cheers and yell ripped over the channel. His muscles bunched, but a power, beyond the physical, beyond what this ship, this bot could give him flooded his veins.

“Attack!”

Howls filled the channel.

“Dephira Freighter Fleet jumping!”

“Horus Mining Fleet jumping.”

“Lomos Family Shipping jumping!”

“Azora Refining Jumping!”

Here is our retribution. His stomach hardened, this was the first blow, but there would be more blood before it was done.

“Opening Wormhole,” Helm called out, a wormhole snapped open, the three destroyers passing through, leaving the expanding wreckage of Allmonz 14.

“Exiting wormhole.”

“Prepare to hit our second target, wait till we have two ships charged,” Ramirez said.