A1 - Extended Content - Chapter 13A (Patreon)

A1 – Chapter 13A – Hostile Scrap (Part 1)

Sliding in between Chapter 12 and 14.

Chapter 12: Losses

Chapter 13A: Hostile Scrap (Part 1)

Chapter 13B: Hostile Scrap (Part 2)

Chapter 14: Salute (Old 13)

***

USD: ~Eight weeks after awakening, one day after ‘Carrier Drone Pod Battle Incident 2’

Location: Unknown Yellow Dwarf, L4 Lagrange Point, Nearing Debris Cloud #32

"I’m going to guess that’s the gravitational anomaly and source of the nanite signal you picked up?"

Alex looked at the compact version of Engineering’s large holotable, which was currently displaying an asteroid. An asteroid with a 7.12km circumference and some god-awful amount of more mass than the Shrike. It was also glowing blue from multiple lines in the surface and the tactical screen was highlighting all sorts of weapon batteries and several obvious missile silos.

They were already in missile range, so the fact that nothing had shot at them yet was encouraging.

[Affirmative: Nanite processing signal detected.]

[Informative: Target has no functional Laser-Antenna, impossible to communicate via secure tight-beam. High-band signal handshake would emit a signal that would ensure detection by any EM sensor in the system. Low-band signal range insufficient for communication.]

"So, the only way to talk to it is tell everyone where and who we are, or get closer."

[Affirmative.]

"How much closer?"

[Informative: Low-band range would require less than 0.5ls, with ideal function at lower ranges.]

"That’s well within laser range. We can’t do that, that thing is a fortress and if it wanted it could vaporize us."

[Recommendation: Avoidance and caution.]

"I don’t think we can avoid it forever… that much firepower and hardware represents a huge opportunity. Maybe we can rig a drone to ferry messages back and forth? I saw that was actually how the mail worked in Federation space. Meanwhile we should also look for parts and salvage on the periphery. Hull plates. We need so many hull plates."

[Notice: Mid-section of derelict Federation Heavy Cruiser detected. Course trajectory change transmitted to your display for approval.]

"Yeah, this should do nicely, good job, Nameless."

[Recommendation: Dispatch combat drones for search of derelict hull, before dispatching repair drones.]

"I was just going to say the same thing. Don’t want any nasty surprises again. Do we have the Cruiser’s schematics?"

[Negative: Detailed ship schematics not found.]

[Informative: A James Fighting Starship’s entry is available.]

Alex glanced at the specs of the ship. "It’s got a lot more armaments than the Shrike. We should pull whatever is salvageable and stuff it in our cargo."

[Warning: Large amounts of ammunition stores could threaten ship safety if stowed in unprotected cargo bay.]

"Yeah, there is that. Well, we will figure it out when we get there, it might just be scrap."

***

USD: ~Eight weeks after awakening, two days after ‘Carrier Drone Pod Battle Incident 2’

Location: Unknown Yellow Dwarf, L4 Lagrange Point, Nearing Debris Cloud #32

|GENERAL QUARTERS|

|THIS IS NOT A DRILL|

|ACTION STATIONS|

Alex jumped up out of bed. “Nameless! What is going on!”

[Informative: Hostile Drones have been detected. Stealth mode activated. All non-essential systems have been paused.]

Pulling on her clothes, she hurried out of the galley and towards the CIC.

“How many? How far? Did they see us?”

[Informative: Twelve drive signatures detected. Six have been tentatively identified as Hunter-Killer gunships. Distance is variable, and it is unlikely that we have been detected.]

That calmed her slightly, but as she reached her command seat and brought up the Nav display, she almost felt another panic.

“They are coming up our rear and zigzagging across our course, Nameless! Even if they don’t see us, they are going to when they pass right over us!”

[Informative: Analysis of speed and course of hostile drones indicates Shrike II will reach the debris field before being located.]

[Recommendation: Upon reaching debris field find suitable wreckage to rendezvous with to use as cover.]

So they weren’t going to be nabbed before reaching the field. She didn’t think they’d be able to escape any large force on RCS, and activating it while the drones were so close had the risk of them being detected. At best, they would leave a cloud behind that would be detectable for a while.

Alex wasn’t sure if the drones had the sophistication to do that, but she knew Nameless was capable. “Okay. We’ll do that, but if they get closer than you projected, let me know and we’ll use the RCS to speed up.”

[Affirmative: Monitoring hostile drones course as high priority.]

She shut off the general quarters alarm and let out a sigh. “Why can’t things be calm and simple?”

Nameless didn’t have a reply, and she got up and went to check on Elis. As Alex popped her head into the medbay, Elis was already sitting up on her bed and turned immediately towards her with a concerned look on her face.

“What was that?” Elis asked.

“Umm. What do you know about Federation drones?” Alex asked hesitantly.

Elis immediately became guarded and looked away.

“We are drifting between debris clouds, and there are a dozen or so of them zigzagging along our course. We don’t think they have seen us.” Alex continued.

Alex thought Elis was going to continue to ignore her, but then she opened up.

“They aren’t that smart, but they will work together to locate and destroy hostile elements. Since they attacked the ship before, I assume they have learned it has been captured and is an enemy.” Elis said.

Alex nodded. “There was some sort of signal when the drones in the carrier wreckage attacked. That’s when the Hunter Killers came in. We just wanted the repair drones, not to cause things to start shooting.”

A frown creased Alex’s face. If she had known what would have happened, she would have just avoided the drones. It wasn’t like they couldn’t just slowly build new ones. But she’d gotten greedy the second she had seen all the construction bots lying dormant.

“You realize you’re illegally salvaging military equipment?”

Alex opened her mouth to deny it, but shut it quickly. Elis wasn’t wrong, but…

“No one has been here in decades, from what we know. It is all just floating around and slowly decaying, and we need it to survive and repair. When I first woke up, both our ships were falling apart. I don’t even know what happened to the gunship after it dislodged, but both ships had massive structural and mechanical damage. Still do.”

Elis frowned. “Why was the gunship lodged in the Shrike?”

Alex shrugged. “Don’t ask me. It was like that when I woke up.”

***

USD: ~Eight weeks after awakening, three days after ‘Carrier Drone Pod Battle Incident 2’

Location: Unknown Yellow Dwarf, L4 Lagrange Point, Nearing Debris Cloud #32

Alex gripped the arm of her command seat as the nearest Hunter Killer drone passed by the closest point of its trajectory to them. Nameless had slid the ship up to a massive hull panel that had been ejected from a capital ship, matching the Shrike’s rotation and course with the dead slab of metal and ceramics.

Each time the rotation put the panel between them and the drone, she felt a brief moment of relief that was soon punctured by the next rotation. Each time, she thought that the drone would spot their energy signature despite them having turned everything, including life support, off. The reactors were cold and Nameless’ computronics modules were running off battery power only.

That had been a risk she had decided to take, restarting the reactors would take several minutes. Not that Nameless had managed to repair the Linear Drive, yet.

Elis had sullenly accepted the suit and bottled air that had been provided to her. Alex was sorry to force her, but they really had no choice but to do their best to avoid detection. While life support could run off the batteries, it was a major source of heat and the laser heat sinks weren’t compatible with the system—yet. Alex added that to the things to modify in the future.

She was fairly sure that part of the Shrike II’s stealth capabilities had been a set of internal heat sinks for just this type of event, but they had been lost in the catastrophic damage the ship had experienced prior to her awakening.

Nameless had deployed a small group of their smallest drones to surveil the prowling Federation drones. Tension drained from Alex’s shoulders when those drones finally made their projected course correction burn and began to zag away from them, moving deeper into the debris field.

“We are going to have to be very careful from now on. I think we should keep the ship’s movements to a minimum and just use drones for collecting salvage.” Alex said.

[Affirmative: This unit agrees with Avatar assessment of future salvage operation requirements.]

Alex was quiet for a moment as she thought about what they should do.

“How long do you think we should wait before collecting more stuff?” she asked.

[Informative: Analysis of nearby debris has already begun. Recommend waiting 87 minutes before deploying scout drones to accumulate more detailed information on detected debris. Delaying larger construction bot deployment by at least 12 hours would minimize risk of detection.]

“Okay. Twelve hours. What about the large piece of wreckage that we saw from far away?”

[Informative: Current hostile drone trajectories indicate this wreckage will be subject to drone patrol for an unknown duration of time.]

“Ugh. Ok. So, we’ll avoid the cruiser wreckage for now. Do you think we can safely turn life support back on?”

[Recommendation: Reactive Life Support systems in 30 minutes. This duration minimizes the chance of detection and does not risk damage to organic systems.]

“We’ll do that. I’ll go tell Elis.”

[Recommendation: Avatar should not become familiar with hostile Federation soldier.]

“We need friends. Well, I need friends. We don’t need to be enemies.”

Nameless remained silent. Alex shook her head before standing up to leave the CIC and head to Medbay.

***

Alex hummed to herself while selecting debris for further examination at the main console in engineering. Her chat with Elis had gone as well as could be hoped, and she’d shared some information about herself. Not much, but it was a start. Once life support had come back online, they’d bonded over their mutual dislike of MREs again, and Alex ended up doing most of the talking. Mostly about their current situation and how she hoped to continue to repair the ship and avoid the drones.

A piece of debris was highlighted in yellow and as Alex zoomed in she felt a little tingle of excitement. It was a broken section of a ship, but cargo containers were sealed and secured to the spinning hull. Analysis revealed they had a high chance of not only containing energy cells, but possibly rare metals that would be useful for computronics modules and other advanced items.

It was quite large, too.

She directed the currently idle cargo bots to go out to retrieve it for further examination and marked it so Nameless would take care of… well, most things. She wanted to think of a way to thank him for doing most of the work, but he was so sarcastic towards her sometimes she often forgot how much he actually did.

It took over a day for the new debris she had selected to be retrieved. For some reason, collecting old stuff made her feel excited, and Alex hurried her morning routine to get ready to go examine what they had found.

|3 MRE Ration Crates|

|5 Rare Metals Crates|

|4 Rare Minerals Crates|

|1 Miscellaneous Equipment Crates|

[Informative: Sorting and Labeling of collected salvage is currently ongoing.]

“I told you to wait for me! I want to be there!” Alex yelped, pulling on her jacket as she hurried down the main corridor.

[Informative: There was no rational basis for delaying cargo sorting when Avatar failed to awaken on schedule.]

“I did not sleep in on purpose!”

Just as she arrived at the cargo bay’s entrance, a violent shake of the ship threw her against the bulkhead. The general quarters klaxon erupted and the bulkhead doors around her slammed shut.

The thrum of PDC-Ks opening fire filled the corridor, and Alex shoved herself back onto her feet and regained her balance. Whatever had knocked the ship around must have slammed into it with a lot of force to make the A-Grav plates fail to adjust for the momentum. She had horrifying visions of half the ship’s outer hull flying off again.

“NAMELESS! NOT AGAIN!”

[Warning: Hostile Drones have emerged from the hull plate shading the ship and have begun a boarding action. Hull Plate debris has lodged in the outer hull.]

“Seriously? How did you not see them approach?”

[Suggestion: Focus on counter-boarding actions before critical ship systems are damaged. Combat Drones have been activated and Beeper and Booper are en route to escort Avatar.]

The faint sound of gunfire periodically vibrated through the hull as Alex sprinted to the armory. She had spent minimal time inside of it and everything was a mess. Grabbing one of the pulse rifles, she slapped one of the high-capacity energy cells into its receiver and made sure the charge was good.

Moving back to the corridor, Beeper and Booper were floating in the air their own pulse weapons poking out of their chassis. Each one was covering a different direction.

“Umm. Nameless, can you give me a Situation Report? I’m not exactly sure what I should be doing or how things are going?”

[Informative: Combat is low intensity and is occurring in the space between the inner and outer hulls. Hostile drones are detected on a intercept course. I have begun rapid production of laser lens.]

“Why are you thinking about repairs right now! You said we are—”

A flickering flame appeared on the sealed door, blocking access to the cargo bay. Sparks flew into the corridor a few feet as whatever was laser cutting through the door continued to cut through.

“Fuck! Booper, Beeper, take cover!” Alex shouted, moving back to a doorway and opening it.

She ducked back to the entryway to the armory, then took aim at the door with a cut-out rapidly forming in the middle of it. To her alarm, Beeper and Booper hadn’t followed her. Instead, they had floated up to the ceiling and wedged themselves into the corner behind some duct work. She realized that would probably work almost as well as a doorway but any further analysis was forestalled when the center of the door kicked inwards toward them.

Two bipedal robots ducked down and entered. They had two arms that ended in gun barrels, and that was all Alex needed to take in before she opened fire. They didn’t have time to take cover, and the powerful pulse lances from the rifle severed the first one in half. She quickly switched to the second one and all the sudden her aim adjusted on its own.

[Informative: Assisting with Avatar accuracy.]

A second burst of energy immolated the drone’s head.

Alarmingly, neither drone died. Instead, they adjusted their damaged bodies and took aim to return fire, but two long bursts of weapon fire from Beeper and Booper finished them.

[Suggestion: Hostile forces are concentrating in the ship’s cargo bay. A majority of our defense units are performing blocking maneuvers on other routes of ingress. Avatar team should prevent mass infiltration through main cargo.]

“Uhh, seriously, you want me to go after the bulk of what they are attacking with?”

[Informative: Other resources are unavailable. Main Reactor online in 2 minutes.]

“Fine. Shit. Beeper, Booper, I’m sorry, but you need to go first.” Alex said.

The two drones complied, and Alex followed them up to the door. When all three were ready, Beeper and Booper sped through the hole. Almost immediately, weapon fire started sparking off the cargo bay’s inner walls as the two drones sped furiously through the air in evasive patterns.

Alex leaned up against the hole and poked her rifle out, utilizing the digital scope to avoid putting her head in the line of fire. She located several targets firing on her friends and returned fire. The enemy robot drones were durable, and despite their heads being an obvious target, she aimed for their torsos where it seemed their control mechanism was.

With the first two in sight downed rapidly by her shots, she moved through the hull and dashed further into the compartment to take cover behind a crate. Something started firing at her from a different angle and fiery sparks landed on her arm, causing her to curse.

More enemy drones came out to open fire on her position. For some reason, they all seemed to target her. Beeper and Booper continued to fly around harassing and shooting the Federation infiltrators in the rear while more friendly drones appeared from vents and other unnoticed entry points to fire their small caliber weapons or even move right up to the enemy to zap them with shock sticks or welding tools.

The chaos only lasted for a few minutes, but they felt like hours to Alex as she returned fire and moved forward to support the friendly drones. Slowly, they were pushing the enemy back and reducing their numbers.

A shout came from behind and Alex spun on her heel as she heard Elis. “Help!”

Checking her flank, Alex rushed back to the main corridor. There were two drones that had somehow made it through the confusion into the hull and were breaking into the medbay, the door already destroyed and thrown aside.

Alex took aim and eliminated the two standing in the corridor still, but she could hear clanking and screaming going on still. She sprinted over and, looking into the room, she found Elis fending off the drone that was trying to manhandle her back into the corridor. Elis had grabbed the IV drip pole and was stabbing at it to keep it at bay, but it had bent the makeshift weapon as Alex watched.

As if that was a signal, Alex rushed forward and slammed her rifle into the robot’s back. It spun rapidly and attacked her, a steel fist slamming into her jaw, sending her staggering back, but she didn’t fall. Instead, she punched back.

Fist fighting a robot had not been on her morning schedule, but she made it work. Gaining the advantage through pure brute force, her repeated blows bent metal. A savage kick knocked a robotic knee joint backward, rendering it nonfunctional.

That allowed her to get behind it and bend it backwards at the torso joint before ripping the top of the chassis off completely.

Then she ripped the arms off for good measure.

Blood coated her knuckles where her skin had been cut but the wounds sealed themselves quickly enough to prevent more than minor blood loss. Everything hurt, and she realized she’d lost track of time and everything but her opponent in the adrenaline rush.

Breathing heavily as she recovered, Alex realized Elis had picked up the rifle.

There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other.

Alex finally broke the silence. “Why was it trying to kill you? Aren’t they supposed to be Federation, too?”

“My access codes were invalid. It said they were 70 years out of date.” Elis answered.

Alex wasn’t sure why, but the other girl then set the rifle down and propped it against the wall. A feeling of elation filled her, but she pushed it aside to focus on the situation.

Beeper and Booper floated into the compartment a few seconds later.

“Nameless, what’s our status?”

[Informative: Hostile forces have been repulsed. Combat drones are engaging enemy drones on the outer hull. Estimate complete enemy removal in five minutes. Minor damage has been detected across the ship, however repairs are underway. Laser repair has been completed.]

[Suggestion: Prepare for ship combat. Hunter Killers are en route to our position.]

Alex looked at Elis.

“Umm I got to go. They are about to try to blow up the ship again.”

***

Hi. I'm trying to work on improving A1 a bit in prep for sending it to an editor. I would love if you all could leave comments and suggestions on what to possibly work on improving for the first Arc!

As you can see I'm trying to add a bit more interaction between Alex and Elis here so there are some more action scenes and stuff between them so it feels more natural that they become friends!