[CYA] Chapter 179: Hostage? (Patreon)

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AiOW36s-aFKQsV4-HLtQsPpLpBGF4raERFVYRNRVh9M/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Duty Station>

Alex followed Pilar’s promptings to keep the arc of the main aspect beam pointed at the shield frigate, and that one weapon poured the aspect of devouring flame into those shields, weakening them with the least power expenditure possible.

The rest of the Innominate’s weaponry tracked and tried to remove the heavy fighters from the equation.

The Impressa was doing its best, but it barely had more than a factory-standard loadout. It was helpful whenever the Innominate was able to force a pirate ship to dodge closer in, the Impressa’s point-defenses raking the shields for those brief moments.

They were actually able to take out one of the heavy fighters in this manner before the others got wiser. Still, that one was sent drifting away, on a stable unpowered orbit, at least for the time being.

Alex was finally fully understanding space combat in the magical sci-fi sense… which meant he was probably missing at least one thing that was incredibly important, but he’d fill that in when he could.

In magical sci-fi space combat, the first thing was the outer sphere of combat, aspect beams. Generally, these had a light or gravity aspect for speed of propagation. Then, they might be combined with another aspect to deliver the desired result.

A standard was an undiluted gravity variant for warp-denial, but apparently, the actual options were endless.

The pirates were using warp-denial along with beams that looked to have some mix of aspects—Alex couldn’t get a close enough look to see the actual specifics—to hamper the Impressa’s maneuverability and make their shield more brittle.

Ship shields and maneuvering were the primary means of defending against aspect beam weaponry as having aspects imposed directly on the ship would cause utter havoc.

The Innominate’s use of the devouring flame aspect to burn through enemy shields and consume their resources at a highly accelerated rate was apparently a favored tactic for those who could get that aspect.

It was quite obviously a strategic resource and that explained the heavy regulation on that rather empty system. Alex was honestly surprised that they’d been allowed to harvest there, but apparently, the Imperium was free with such opportunities, at least for the ships in their fleet.

I really should take more of that aspect… He made a note to do that and moved on.

In closer combat, the slower but harder hitting beam or pulse weaponry came into play. This came in the form of everything from projectiles to shielded wads of plasma, and it was all of the ‘spray and pray’ variety… Though, now that Alex considered things, that wasn’t exactly what that turn of phrase was supposed to mean… ‘Fire and forget’? That sounded almost right, but it seemed to imply the munitions would seek the target…

Regardless, it was not controlled or controllable once fired, and traveled significantly slower than the speed of light. Still, it only traveled ‘slow’ in space-battle terms. Point defenses were rather good mitigators against this type of attack, though maneuvering and shields still played their part.

Then, there was the ‘smart’ or directed weaponry. Missiles and the like fell into this camp. Alex supposed that it could also be reasonable to put fighters in this grouping. Drones definitely qualified after all.

The Innominate didn’t have any of this weaponry.

Finally, the point defenses came into play. These were very short range effects, trading range for speed, accuracy, and power.

Again, though, this was all in space-battle terms.

The Innominate’s point-defense range was a hundred miles, though it was most effective—able to create an almost solid bubble of ordnance—within ten.

These were best considered ‘sand blaster’ defense, as they could wear away at incoming attacks and at the defenses of ships close enough to hit, but it really was erosion rather than heavy impact.

Alex could see aspect beams being used for point defense in some cases, but it seemed to not be a common strategy.

This flashed through Alex’s mind as he spun and rolled, flipped and twirled, moving his ship in ways that would never work in an atmosphere.

He remembered watching Star Trek as a kid and realized that the way the show portrayed space combat was usually essentially fixed positions slowly approaching one another, trying to grind away at one another. Each side hoped that their shields could hold up for long enough to let their phasers and torpedoes get through the enemy shields.

It was a bit more than that but not by much.

Enjoyable shows, though.

He refocused as he felt a prompting from Lenka and rolled the Innominate slightly, dipping the left side down to keep a point-defense cannon’s arc properly positioned for a half-second more, allowing just a bit more suppressive fire.

Alex grinned, feeling a bit like a ninja flipping and twirling around an injured ally to defend him from… magic rats?

Yeah, that tracked. Maybe magic rabbits… rabid rabbits. Yeah, that was more accurate, magical, rabid rabbits.

A request from Pilar jerked him back to the present, and he tipped the nose of the Innominate up without changing their trajectory—a bit like a speedboat in the water—to allow the fire mage to launch a sphere of ultra-hot plasma unexpectedly into a pirate’s path.

The heavy fighter tried to dodge, but they were too close, and the shot had been too well timed.

The plasma burst across the front of the shield, coating it with enough matter and energy to overwhelm the bubble of defense. The rest splashed across the ship, digging furrows and chewing away at armor.

The shot wasn’t anti-fighter in nature, and as such, it carried far more than enough damage potential to entirely disable the affected fighter.

“Nice shot!” Alex called out. And it was, the weapon used was very slow, all things considered, and only precise timing and incredible accuracy had made it worth the expenditure on their side of the equation.

“Thank you.” Pilar laughed happily even as she kept firing. “Thank you for lining up the firing arc.”

“Happy to help.”

The pirates tried to hail them yet again. They’d been doing so every thirty seconds or so, and with the fight only having been going on for two minutes or so—after they came within close-combat range—that really wasn’t that many attempts.

The remaining three heavy fighters seemed to decide they weren’t in a good position and turned to flee in three separate directions.

That, unfortunately for them, put them in very bad positions.

A hail request came in from the Impressa, and John answered it again, but Alex tuned that out, given the precision needed for this next part.

Pilar sent gravity aspected attacks that were slowed down to deliver a higher payload… which Alex still didn’t quite get.

Regardless, it wasn’t so much slower as to make dodging easy, but it was slow enough that trying to hit a fighter in combat was effectively a non-starter. Even the plasma packets moved faster.

Regardless, the straight-away paths of the fighters allowed Alex to spin the Innominate and give Pilar’s quick-shots the arc coverage to tag the back of each of their shields with sufficient aspecting that they were torn backward momentarily.

Less practiced pilots would likely have ripped their own ships in half, but these pirates flipped their own acceleration to go along with the sudden, momentary jerk, keeping all three fighters intact, but they were now hurtling back toward the Impressa and Innominate.

Only then did Pilar fire up the extra aspect beams, focusing a third on each ship at maximum power—all solely with the particular flavor of gravity magic that had been on the anti-warping buoys—and this heavily focused, they effectively made any gravity based movement null and void.

The only aspect beam remaining focused on the frigate was the devouring flame. So, that one ship could likely have warped away, but they seemed to not have realized that yet.

Alex heard Pike’s voice, yelling this time, and focused his hearing on that conversation.

“What do you mean you didn’t answer their hails? We told you they had a prisoner!”

John sighed. “And if we answered, they’d have threatened to kill her if we didn’t surrender… or some such nonsense.”

Pike growled. “Well, they called us, and if we don’t get you to stop, they’ll kill her.”

Pilar called. “Anti-boarding systems fluctuating.”

Juba’s voice snapped through all their ears. “Launching.”

The quintet of boarding pods fired from the Innominate, crossing the distance to the shield frigate with horrifying speed.

Pilar flicked the aspect beam off and back on—moving it slightly before reactivation—timing it perfectly to allow the boarding pods to impact the weakest part of the defenses, punching through.

The renewed stream of aspecting magic returned in time to keep the ship from compensating.

Alex felt a tap on his attention and moved into Bridge mode.

The Innominate was hovering—well, orbiting—in a rather precise orientation to allow all their aspect beams to maintain target lock for the constant stream of magic they were shooting out.

As such, he could take his attention from piloting for a bit. “Yeah?”

John was standing beside him. “The Impressa wants us to answer the pirate hail.”

Alex sighed. “Fine, but tell them to go deal with the heavy fighters one by one. Capture protocols, okay?”

John nodded. “Yes, sir.”

The other Initiates chuckled while Alex sighed. He’d done it again, taking charge despite not really wanting to… Though, he supposed this is why he’d chosen helmsmen.

He shook his head, pulling up the renewed pirate hail. As soon as he opened it, he saw the all-too-close face of a rather unpleasant looking man.

The man seemed to be mid-tirade too. “—rip the stuffing from this carebear and repaint my ship rainbow! You will power down your weapons and—”

Alex cleared his throat before simply speaking over the pirate, allowing his dissonance to show through, but only a hint. “Hello, pirate frigate. This is Helmsman Alex Johnson of the Imperium ship Innominate.”

The pirate flinched back at the transmitted dissonance, cutting off and being all but forced to listen.

Alex slowly dialed back the effect by restricting energy to his throat, even as he kept talking. “You are known malcontents, operating illegally within Imperium space. It is recommended that you surrender peacefully so that you can stand trial for the crimes of which you are accused.” 

Alex felt incredulous stares upon him, but he continued, unabated.

“Any further resistance will be seen as an admission of guilt. If, however, you were to power down and hand over the Imperium officer that you have so kindly rescued from the depths of space, I am sure that would reflect well upon you when the time of your trial arrives.”

The man had pulled back further as Alex continued to talk, blinking in a mix of confusion and uncertainty.

Alex glanced around and saw something he could only describe as grudgingly respectful bafflement from his companions. As he was only transmitting his own voice, not an image of himself, he shrugged to his friends before turning his attention back to the man. “How can we help facilitate the end of her recovery and the peaceful transport of you and your companions to the local magistrate?”

The confusion slowly faded from the pirate’s face. “Were you dropped twice as a child and only caught once?”

It was Alex’s turn to frown in confusion. “Pardon?”

“Were you used as a sledge hammer as a child?”

Alex barely held back a laugh. “I was… not, no.”

“Then what the everloving TOASTER-CRUMBS are you going on about?”

Alex let the full effect of his dissonance return. “Manage your tone.”

The pirate flinched back as if slapped, and just then, another voice sounded in the background. “Furg! Those were boarding pods. We have intruders!”

The pirate—Furg, apparently—growled. “Tell your boarding party to back off, or she dies.”

The man then dragged a bound woman into the frame. She was clearly unconscious. Alex grunted, tamping his dissonance back down again. “Well done, controlling your tone.”

The man just gaped at Alex, his brain clearly hitching.

“Now, she seems like a lovely young woman, but I don’t know why you tied up a member of your own crew and expected me to care.”

Furg’s eye twitched. “She’s in an Imperium uniform!”

“Ahh, so we shall add collusion in the impersonation of an officer to the list of your crimes? Noted.”

“I’ll kill her! Call you people off.” Furg had clearly decided to stop engaging in Alex’s… oddities.

“Fine. I’m all for minimizing death. Lower your shields, and I’ll call them off.”

“A GOBLIN’S TWELFTH BIRTHDAY! I’ll kill her! Call them off! Do it now!”

Alex let out a quick, harsh sigh. “Your shields are blocking communications.”

That pulled the man up short.

Alex had no idea if that were true, but it sounded plausible. In all honesty, though, he had no idea why he was the person talking to Furg.

If this were a real situation, he’d be tongue-tied in terror, but he suspected that this Jessica was like the other ten ‘survivors’ on the space station mission. She could be saved in theory, but the reality was she was as good as dead. As such, he was just trying his best to get through this.

Furg was talking quietly with someone off screen, and before he could turn back to Alex, Juba destroyed something vital to their communication, ending the call.

Alex sighed. “Well, that could have gone better.”

John was giving Alex a puzzled look. “I mean… she wasn’t dead?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah. He knows he only has that one card to play, and he couldn’t decide if I could actually make decisions, so killing her would have been entirely against his interests.”

John narrowed his eyes, but it was Natasha who asked, “How much of that is utter nonsense?”

Alex shrugged. “All? None? I’ve read a few books on communication and negotiation by hostage negotiators, but I have no idea how accurate any of it was. Seemed to work, though.”

There was a moment of silence before Grant barked a laugh. “Oh, Alex. You’re a madman.”

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