Lading with treasures, the Barracuda exited the lifeless star system and followed the route back home. Both Ves and Dietrich were satisfied with their gains. Lucky was content with the promise of food and went back to chewing Master Olson's gift.
During the rest of the trip, Ves went back to improving his Physics and Electrical Engineering skills. The Society's Star Library offered many books that Ves could borrow for free. He liberally made use of this privilege to rapidly expand his knowledge base.
In order to puzzle a Dortmund back together, it was essential that he knew what he was dealing with. Improving his Electrical Engineering skill helped him in making sense of the Dortmund's blueprint. This allowed him to refine his tentative reconstruction plan and avoid some elementary mistakes.
Shortly after he upgraded both skills to Apprentice-level, the ship sounded an alarm. Ves immediately shut down the projection of the Dortmund's blueprint and raced down to the bridge. Lucky and Dietrich arrived seconds later.
"What's up Ves?" Dietrich asked as he scratched his loose blond hair. "I thought this was supposed to be a lightly inhabited system."
"Lightly inhabited or not, but the Barracuda detected a lot of dormant engine signatures coming to life."
The Barracuda arrived at the edge of this system only fifteen minutes earlier. The coordinated response that followed their entry originated from a nearby asteroid belt.
"The ships are refusing to respond to our hails." Ves stated grimly. "It's safe to say they aren't coming with good intention."
"Pirates." Dietrich spat. Normally, he enjoyed a scrap or two, but the ships and mechs they carried grossly outnumbered them. "Is there any way we can get away without a fight?"
Ves seated himself behind a console and ran the numbers. "Assuming that the pirate vessels are accelerating at their maximum rate, they won't be able to catch up to us if we start running. My ship is a lot faster than theirs."
Ves ordered the Barracuda to flip around and run past the edge of the star system. Her engines started boosting with substantial power. As a modern corvette, his ship was capable of outperforming any rust bucket in the hands of scum.
"These pirates are rather tricky. Even with our engine superiority, we don't have much of a lead. The pirate vessels already followed a ballistic trajectory before our arrival."
"What does that mean?"
"That means that the pirates have a running start. If my ship is just a standard third-rate corvette, then they might be able to overtake our ship before we can transition into FTL."
The Barracuda's FTL engine only took two hours to finish its cycling process. A regular corvette might take at least three hours to do the same.
"The pirates shouldn't be aware of this discrepancy. While they are still thinking of getting close, we'll already be waving them goodbye."
Even as he explained their situation, Ves was not quite reassured. As a mech designer, he knew very little about ships. For example, the pirate vessels might be keeping powerful short-range boosters in reserve.
He also had to consider their mech contingent. "With the relative speeds we are working with, there's no chance the pirate ships can catch up if they aren't hiding any surprises. What we'll likely see is mechs joining the pursuit."
"The ships won't be able to catch up to us, right? What about their mechs?"
Ves inputted some new numbers to the calculator. "We don't have to worry about medium mechs or heavier. The only light mechs stand a chance of overtaking the Barracuda, and that's only when they are geared for speed."
This was good news. They could disregard most of the hardware and focus on fending off the light mechs. While the amount of speed-focused light mechs in pursuit was still up in the air, Ves doubted he'd face more than half-a-dozen of them. A pirate gang of this size shouldn't be carrying too many light mechs.
"Haha, if those flies want to catch up, then they'll be easy targets!" Dietrich exclaimed once he realized he only had to deal with a handful of chasing light mechs. "I finally get to put my marksmanship to good use!"
The situation at the moment devolved in a slow and drawn-out chase. The sensor plot showed that the Barracuda was vastly outnumbered, but if the ship could keep her systems running, she could make it out of the system.
The key was to stall the impending light mechs without sustaining damage. The Barracuda was a corvette, which meant it mainly focused on speed. Her designers never prioritized her armor.
A concentrated barrage by a couple of pursuing mechs could easily damage her vulnerable rear. Ves and Dietrich wanted to prevent a situation where the corvette was forced to stop accelerating due to suffering too much damage. If the pirates manage to inflict critical damage on the thrusters, then the Barracuda would be hamstrung.
Both men descended onto the hangar bay. Dietrich entered the cockpit and optimized his Harrier's settings for deep space action. He already had some experience with fighting in zero gravity.
Meanwhile, Ves ran some checks over the Harrier's exterior and made sure the aerial mech performed up to spec in vacuum. There were many nuances involved in space combat. Ves only scratched the surface in this area. He applied only a limited amount of fixes.
Lucky remained at his owner's side. As a gem cat, his role in the upcoming battle was to keep Ves safe. As the ship's chief security officer, Lucky did not appreciate being taken away from his favorite food.
Due to its extensive rework back in Leemar, the Harrier was in its best shape in years. Ves had already inspected the mech a few weeks ago, so the mech was structurally sound.
"There's nothing else I can do for your mech." Ves finally said as he pulled back from the mech. "I'll return to the bridge and manage the ship from the captain's seat. Good luck."
The Harrier gently slapped the butt of its ballistic rifle. "Hah! I'll be back in no time! Just make sure I still have a ship to return to!"
Ves left the cargo bay with Lucky in tow and returned to the middle deck. After reaching the bridge, he forced the navigator bot off the captain's chair and claimed the seat for himself. He summoned a projection of the pirates and studied them in detail.
The corvettes and light transports in pursuit looked ramshackle. A lack of maintenance and patchwork repairs gave Ves the mistaken impression that these vessels were about to fall apart. In truth, the pirate ships exhibited lots of creative engineering. Most of the ships in pursuit sported additional thrusters that gave them an extra kick.
"These aren't professional mercenaries moonlighting as pirates." Ves informed Dietrich over the comm after scanning each ship's construction. Their quality fell short, which indicated that this gang lacked access to a legitimate market. "They aren't well-funded either if the ships are only capable of accelerating so much."
A speaker flared to life as Dietrich connected to the bridge. "How many mechs are they carrying?"
"They've only brought five light transports which they are likely using as mech carriers. They should each have space for about four to six mechs, so they've brought thirty mechs at maximum."
Only a couple of them were speed-focused light mechs, but the numbers still mattered if the ship suffered a slowdown.
Ves was able to guess the pirate gang's origin from this information. "These are regional pirates. I don't think anyone is supporting them from behind, much less someone I've offended at Leemar. Those snobs are well aware of the Arkon Mark I's amazing specs. Any force they send in my way should at least include faster ships."
"They could be sent by the shady corporation which used to sell those graser rifles we found."
"I don't think so. If they assumed we're aware of their illicit dealings, then they should have thrown more pirates at us. CEOs with a guilty conscience have a habit of overreacting when someone finds out they've broken one of the big taboos."
"I guess we'll know for sure once the mechs show up. If they're armed with grasers, we're screwed."
Ves believed that wasn't the case. They just happen to bump into a random pirate fleet by sheer dumb luck. They seemed to be everywhere you least expected them. That they happened to lay in wait right next to the Barracuda's emergence from FTL could be attributed to chance.
Due to the nature of space, it was impossible to eradicate the scourge of piracy. The rats fled to the vast space between star systems each time someone in power wanted to wipe them out.
His console beeped an alert. The pirates finally hailed his ship.
Ves had no idea what to expect when the pirate captain came into view. The interior of his grimy bridge had seen better days. The mech designer even detected patches of mold, something which should horrify any decent engineer.
"Eh? Who are you kid?" The bearded pirate asked as he scratched his scarred face. "I don't have time to play with juniors! Get your captain on the line right now!"
"My name is Ves Larkinson. You are speaking to the captain and the owner of the Barracuda."
"You?!" The pirate took a good look at the Barracuda's bridge. "Oh I see, you're one of those rich brats gallivanting in the big bad universe. Well, let your granddaddy teach you a lesson how you're supposed to react to the Astral Wolves. First, shut off your blasted engines right this instant!"
Ves hyped up his own status in order to stiffen his nerves and hopefully deter the pirates. "The likes of you don't have the right to order me around. Have you watched the news lately? Do you know who I am? I am the apprentice of Master Carmin Olson. A Master Mech Designer from the Friday Coalition. Touch me and you won't even know when you will die."
His relative youth and shaking voice betrayed his lack of experience.
"Hahahaha! Look at the little brat calling out for his parents! Well, granddaddy is here and I'll be sure to comfort you. So you're one of those nerdy mech designers, huh? I could use a new one after I splattered the brains of my last one!"
The pirate captain kept laughing like a pig and cut the connection. Lawless pirates truly feared no threats. Their confidence came from their ability scurry back to the depths of interstellar space where the nearest star was light-years away. No conventional force could track them down.
Only the Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance possessed the technology to track down these rats. In practice, neither organizations bothered to chase after petty criminals. They only roused their mighty fleets and mechs once someone violated one of the big taboos.
The Astral Wolves launched their spaceborn mechs once the pirate transports came close enough to the Barracuda. Twenty-seven mechs appeared all at once and rocketed forward.
Mechs optimized for space usually incorporated powerful flight systems. While they could not compare to a spaceship in endurance, their relatively high thrust-to-mass ratio allowed them to sprint short distances as long as their fuel and heat capacity lasted.
The pursuing pirate mechs separated in two different groups. The majority consisted of slower mechs in for the long haul. Despite the distance, those armed with lasers started to fire at the Barracuda.
Due to the distance, the mech's vibrations and the inherent flaws of of their weapons, the laser beams weren't able to hit the fleeing corvette. Yet as long as they kept firing their lasers, they might get a lucky hit.
"Our ride is under fire!"
"At this range they're barely able to hit us." Ves reassured Dietrich, though he squeezed his fist in frustration. "Our corvette can't withstand a sustained attack, but it hasn't gotten to that point yet. Ignore the lasers for now."
Since Dietrich's Harrier carried a ballistic rifle, he wasn't able to retaliate. As light-speed weapons, lasers were able to attack at very extreme ranges out in the vacuum of space. Projectile weapons lost their effectiveness due to their relatively placid muzzle velocity.
"It's a shame we don't have a railgun or gauss rifle."
These kinds of advanced projectile weapons packed a formidable amount of punch and muzzle velocity. They were a lot more expensive than conventional weapons due to their high power consumption and their strict material needs. Even second-rate states employed these weapons occasionally.
Ves stuck to the plan for now. He saw five brilliant flares of light gaining in on his ship. He knew they represented the light mechs that formed the actual threat. There was no need to sortie Dietrich early and let his Harrier build up its heat in vain.
Now that the pirates revealed their full capabilities, Ves updated his model and gained some additional numbers.
"Dietrich, if the light mechs maintain their current speed, they'll reach extreme effective range in about half an hour. All we need is twenty-three minutes! Don't let them get land an attack on my ship!"
"That's too long! I can fend them off for about ten minutes, but I'll run out of magazines sooner or later. I need to go back and resupply at least once."
"That will endanger the ship. The cargo bay's hatch is placed at the bottom aft of the ship. Once I open it, a single laser can devastate the valuable Dortmund parts I've stashed in there!"
"Unless you can speed up your ship, there's no other choice. Either your printer goes down or we lose the entire ship!"
The pirate attack put all of their gains at risk. The Barracuda's spare rooms were already stuffed with plundered parts, though the cargo bay held the majority of the spoils. Ves stored them in simple boxes secured to the deck with reinforced cables. It was only one step up from leaving them in a messy pile.
Eventually, Ves was forced to relent and prepared additional reloads for the Harrier's ballistic rifle. Without the Harrier's deterrent, the light mechs would be free to take potshots at his ship.
Shortly after, the pirates managed to score their first hit. The laser beam only happened to scorch a rear panel of the Barracuda, but more was yet to come.
"Navigator bot, please start start dodging!"
The Barracuda adjusted her course. Instead of flying straight, she started weaving in four directions. This threw off the predictive targeting of the pirates, forcing them to work a little harder in achieving a hit.
Ves hoped he bought enough time for his ship.
Thank you for reading my work! If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your power stones!
One of the worst dangers an interstellar ship has to deal with is pirates. Space was big, so the chances of bumping into them should be negligible.
In reality, pirate fleets worked together with observers stationed in neighboring star systems. They observed all traffic going in and out, and whenever a ship intended to transition to the pirate fleet's system, they informed their masters through the galactic net. This allowed the pirate fleet at the other end to prepare a reception for their unsuspecting victims.
This didn't always work due to the inherent uncertainties involved with FTL travel. Sometimes, the arriving ships ended up millions of kilometers away from the pirates.
Considering the odds, Ves could have ended up worse. The Astral Wolves accurately plotted his destination and even took the telemetry from their observer to predict his entry point in this remote star system. The trick with the running start further emphasized the capabilities of his pursuers.
"We're not dealing with amateurs here. These Wolves are seasoned robbers. I don't believe we've seen the full extent of their moves."
The aft of the Barracuda was taking a beating. The enemy pilots appeared to adjust to the circumstances and increased their fire rate to the maximum sustainable limit. While this did no favors to their accuracy, the sheer volume of fire inevitably worked their charm.
The odds of throwing a dice and getting a six was small. The pirates knew that, so they threw the dice faster.
Nothing in the Barracuda's arsenal could slow them down or mitigate their shots. While ships operating inside human space were not allowed to carry weapons, Ves wished his ship came with several defense measures such as security screens or after boosters. Even if they used up a horrible amount of energy, it was better than letting pirates get their hands on his ship.
As the clock ran down, his ship accumulated more stress. The Barracuda held on so far due to boasting thick armor. No matter the ship, even a heavy mech paled in comparison to the amount of absolute protection they enjoyed. This was the intrinsic difference between a bipedal war machine and a self-contained ecosystem built to traverse the stars.
Still, there were limits to a spaceship's integrity. While the long-ranged laser fire wasn't capable of dealing critical damage due to their wide dispersal, they softened up the Barracuda's aft section. If the light mechs came into range and were allowed to focus their fire, the ship could easily suffer an engine breakdown.
Ves desperately tried to figure out what he could do to repel the pirates from his end, but came up short. His ship was essentially a glorified pleasure yacht, a souped up sports shuttle with interstellar range.
"Three minutes to go until the light mechs are in range. Are you ready to swat some flies?"
"I've been ready ever since we arrived at this stupid star system."
"Good. I'm opening up the cargo bay hatch in thirty seconds. Please sortie out as fast as possible. I don't want to expose the interior any longer than necessary."
Dietrich wasn't looking forward to the upcoming fight. His Harrier worked best as mobile fire support and normally relied on studier mechs to hold the line. He did not look forward to trying to defend his buddy's ship while outnumbered five-to-one.
The mech designer might think himself clever for navigating through remote and inhabited star system, but it came to bite them back with a vengeance.
Now the mech pilot had to clean up after the mess. Fortunately his Harrier received an extensive overhaul back in Leemar. His mech might not be able to exceed its specifications, but it wouldn't fall apart from under him after receiving a couple of shots.
"I'm depressurizing the cargo bay. Get ready!"
The air disappeared from the chamber before the imminent opening. Letting all of the air escape from the ship when the hatch slid down was not only wasteful, but also dangerous.
"Ten seconds left!"
With just seconds to go, Dietrich grumbled about his friend's propensity to stumble into pirate attacks. This was the second time they encountered one so far, and they only made a single round trip! It shouldn't be so easy to bump into pirates!
The hatch slid open once the ventilators completely sucked away the air. A black expanse of stars came into view. Dietrich suppressed his instinct to admire the view and flew out of the ship in an instant.
The hatch closed behind him as he positioned his mech below of the constantly accelerating Barracuda. The Harrier had to adopt an awkward horizontal posture with its rifle pressed against its torso in order to keep up with the ship. The mech's modest flight system kept up with the corvette for now.
"What the hell?! You could have mentioned the rain of laser beams!"
"Relax. It's not as bad as it looks like. If you manage to draw away their fire, then that would be best. You're a much smaller target so you'll make a great decoy!"
Some of the distant mechs indeed shifted their aim to the Harrier. Dietrich already introduced some randomness in his flight path in order to cope with the barrage. Ves might had a point about their accuracy, but the pilot took no chances.
He already kept his eye on the approaching light mechs. Their flight systems flared up as bright as a star as they expended substantial amounts of energy or fuel to catch up to their fleeing prey. Detachable radiator panels extended from their backs in order to cope with their enormous heat generation.
The pirate mechs unleashed their weapons once they passed a certain threshold. A light volley of solid kinetic projectiles and explosive shells impacted the Barracuda's vulnerable rear.
"Dietrich! We just suffered as much damage as five minutes of sporadic laser fire! We'll only last a couple of minutes if this keeps up! Get them off my back!"
The pilot didn't need his partner's nagging to know what to do. He already engaged his sharpshooting module and prepared to fire on all five mechs.
He shot a volley of three projectiles at the closest aerial mech. The pirate panicked at the incoming kinetic slugs even though they did not land anywhere close to the target.
Dietrich already shifted his aim. His rifle barked another two shots at a see-sawing mech. The pirate's lazy and predictable dodging pattern allowed the young pilot to land a glancing shot at its legs. While the damage was negligible, it frightened the pirate into pulling back.
He sent a couple of shots in the direction of the other three mechs in turn. All of them paused their aggression in order to regain their composure. He succeeded in halting their relentless assault and disrupted their efforts to cripple the Barracuda.
The Astral Wolves adjusted their strategy. The distant medium mechs maintained their fire on the Barracuda. They were confident it was only a matter of time before the lasers crippled the ship.
As for the light mechs, they split their attention. Two of them kept up their fire against the Barracuda while the other three shifted their targeting systems to the Harrier. Dietrich had to overload his flight system in order to keep his hide intact.
"You're doing a great job, but it's not enough. Get the other two mechs off my tail!"
"I'm kind of busy here Ves!" The pilot spat back as he worked his controls. He increased his rate of fire in order to keep the enemy mechs on their toes. "How's the ship?"
"Her engine nozzles are accumulating too much heat! The shells landing on her hull is isn't helping either."
In the meantime, the Harrier only suffered from scratches and glancing blows so far due to the deplorable skill level of the pirates.
The typical scum who resort to piracy didn't have much choice. Even if they were potentates, their neural aptitudes ranked near the bottom. No decent mercenary corps was desperate enough to offer them a place in their ranks.
A potentate often grew up with an inflated sense of importance. Those with disappointing aptitudes, lazy work ethics or severe attitude problems might not be resigned to living life as a norm. Why respect the laws that held them back when they could use force to indulge in their desires?
Hedonists and degenerates like these never spent much time in polishing their skills. Even as he came under constant fire, Dietrich adopted a dodging pattern that worked well against riflemen who relied too much on their targeting systems. It decreased the odds of getting hit, but the irregular movements also affected his marksmanship.
He ignored the mechs who shot at him and instead fired at the machines who persisted in harassing the Barracuda. One or two shots hardly worked, so Dietrich increased his fire rate in order to put more pressure on the persistent bastards. His ammunition depleted at an alarming rate, but the pilot had no choice.
He achieved his first breakthrough almost accidentally. He shot a casual volley at the furthest light mech, intending to scare it back before shifting his attention to another opponent. By some coincidence, two slugs managed to hit the unsuspecting mech square in the center.
The stricken mech's breakneck speed worked against its favor by amplifying the damage. One slug crunched right through the frontal armor, crushing the flimsy plates. The second slug that followed after landed close enough to slip through the cracks and apart its sides.
To Dietrich's regret, his shots failed to disable the mech, though it halted its chase. The damaged mech sputtered as its flight system lost power. Whether the mech actually lost power or the pilot simply lost his nerve, nobody knew. In any case, it made Dietrich's job easier.
The pirates responded by by firing missiles. Over fifty individual missiles launched from the medium mechs which held back so far. Due to the need to chase and catch up to the Barracuda, the missiles weren't actually travelling very fast. They still presented a very real threat.
"Those missiles need to be shot down!"
"There's too many missiles." Dietrich growled as he kept distracting the light mechs, who flew much more circumspect at the sudden loss of a fellow pirate.
"Then empty your magazines if you have to. Those missiles are not only high explosive, they're also capable of homing in on a specific section of my ship. If you ask me, I'd rather get shot at by pirates who failed their marksmanship class than let those homing missiles chew up my thrusters!"
Dietrich faced a difficult choice. If he relented on the light mechs, they might recover their poise and begin to fight back more aggressively. Still, Ves had a point about the missiles. The mech pilot lamented that his mech lacked the capacity to incorporate a machine gun that was perfect for anti-missile duty.
He shifted his targeting settings and started to fire mech-sized slugs at the missiles. Despite their nimbleness, the homing projectiles had to swim against the current so to speak, which allowed Dietrich to land most of his shots.
While the Harrier methodically destroyed the missile swarm, the other mechs grew bold and focused their fire on the ship again. The pilot couldn't do anything about their opportunistic attacks besides speeding up the destruction of the missiles.
Once he intercepted the last missiles, the Harrier flew back to the ship. "Open up Ves! I need a resupply!"
The battered hatch lowered quicker than normal. Ves had overridden the safety protocols. The Harrier flew back inside even as sporadic shots landed close to the vulnerable opening. One laser managed to scorch the interior bulkhead of the ship before the hatch closed up again.
Ves tiredly spoke again from the bridge. "I need you back out of there as fast as possible. The aft section is almost out of armor and the thrusters aren't looking too good either."
"I know! I'm doing the best I can already." Dietrich replied as he quickly shook off his spent magazines. The empty cases landed onto the deck with a soundless thud due to the absence of air.
Midway through the resupply, the Barracuda shuddered for a second.
"What's that?"
"That's the result of a malfunctioning thruster! I've forced the faulty component to keep working, but it won't do any favors for its longevity. Get back out there please!"
Dietrich didn't bother with picking up the last magazines. "Open the hatch. I'm going out!"
The Harrier exited the hatch and fired aggressively at the pursuing pirates. He changed his strategy. His previous act of suppressing all of the mechs at the same time did not do much in deterring them. Only when he disabled a mech did the enemy pilots pull back a bit.
"You guys want to see blood? Then let me show you what this Whaler can do."
Thank you for reading my work! If you wish to support The Mech Touch, please vote with your power stones!
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