Ravens of Eternity

93 Chaos Theory, Pt Klaxons rang all throughout Tartarus Base as the Admiral’s lockdown order went into effect. Civilians, merchants, and contractors fled to their habs, closed their blast shutters, and sealed their doors shut.

In contrast, military and combat personnel swarmed in droves to do their duty. Armored hoppers sped from all corners towards the hangar bay, their bellies filled with eager Federation servicemembers of every discipline.

Those who were already in the hangar were busy gearing up to be the first wave out. Pilots climbed into their cockpits as their techs did the final checks on their chassis. Gunners climbed into their secure pods and powered on their turrets.

All were suited up and eager to defend the base. But it was more than the simple need to keep themselves secure.

Tartarus was a secret base that protected the most sophisticated experimental lab in the Federation. Its secrets needed to be kept hidden, even if it cost everyone, everything. It was their entire purpose of being.

At least, that’s what they all swore to when they accepted their assignment.

“Sitrep,” commanded the Admiral.

“Drones sent a preliminary count before they were neutralized,” said an officer. “Twenty-four frigates, sixteen light, eight heavy. Frigate escort: one hundred fighters each. No detailed loadout scans. Visual onscreen... now.”

A recording of the attack drones’ final moments splashed onto one of the displays on the bridge. The Admiral froze the video just as the enemy began to fire on the drones, and observed their liveries for a moment.

.....

“Fucking pirates,” she muttered. “Always looking for shit to steal.”

She then turned towards the Promethean pilots on her comms display.

“You four – doubletime back to your pads back in the hangar. Whoever’s attacking us brought in some serious guns.”

“Wait,” cried Eva. “We can help! You know I’m a combat pilot, and-”

“No, we can’t help,” interjected Redstar. “We don’t even have guns! And if we did, I still wouldn’t fight. I’m more of a lover than a fighter.”

“What, you can’t be a lover and a fighter at the same time?”

“What all of you are is grounded,” said the Admiral. “I’m not going to risk getting any of you, or a single Prometheus core getting blown to hell. You’re all too damn important for this petty pirate BS! Now get in the hangar so I can concentrate on defending all of us.”

“The Admiral is correct,” said Miko. “We should get out of any potential combat space. Right now we are in the way.”

Eva grumbled, but ultimately complied with an indiscernible acknowledgement.

“Thanks for seeing reason,” said the Admiral.

Redstar didn’t even wait for any sort of acknowledgement and quickly sped back towards the hangar. Eva and Miko came up right behind her. They watched as a handful of frigates and fighters exited the hangar bay just as they entered it.

Eva sighed in jealousy as they passed.

“Do not worry,” said Miko. “We will have plenty of opportunities to fight people again once this contract is finished. Scumbags are plentiful in this galaxy.”

“I know, I know. But just imagine being in a dogfight while in a merge, though. It would be so amazing. Not gonna get a chance to feel that thrill, ever again probably.”

“You’re both crazy,” said Redstar. “I’d rather run from a fight, not towards it. Shit sounds like suicide to me.”

“Well sure, you’ve got racing in your blood. But you got this drive to be number one, right? To be considered the best, or whatever. That’s me too, except in terms of wrecking shit.”

Eva flipped her ship backwards as she landed, and eased back into her spot with skill and grace. Her mastery over Prometheus had increased significantly, and piloting had become like breathing to her. All of them, really.

Both Redstar and Miko landed on the pads close to hers, their movements also filled with precision and control.

And once they were all safely landed, the realization hit them that one was missing.

“It appears we have forgotten someone,” said Miko.

~

Merlin grit his teeth as he sped towards the inner edge of the asteroid field, and away from Tartarus Base. He needed to get out of there as fast as he could, before anyone could even think to stop him.

The Admiral immediately came on his comms display. On her face was a mix of anger and disappointment.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“Sorry Admiral, but I’ve got other plans, ya know? Your little core here’s gonna get me a serious payout. Gonna make me a rich man.”

She soured darkly as he let out a raucous laugh.

“You’re going to wreck years of work just for a few lousy credits? You’re scum of the worst kind. You know what selling Federation secrets are gonna do to our security profile?”

Merlin simply shrugged in response.

“Who cares what happens to the Federation’s fuckin’ security profile? Or to the Hegemony’s, or the Drogar’s, or whoever the hell else’s sec profile. You’re all the damn same with your secrets and bullshit and whatnot. It ain’t like anything changes if one little one gets stolen. But you all sure act like every single one is worth the fuckin’ galaxy.”

“It’s because their very existence helps prevent wars! Knowing that we’ve got technological superiority keeps every aggressive nation out of our territory!”

Merlin laughed again.

“Naive bitch! All the arms race does is make waste! Waste that ends up being used against normal people. Waste that ends up massacring normal people. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“Hypocrite. You’re literally the one stealing it and putting it in those hands.”

“I don’t make the chaos,” he uttered. “I just profit from it. Sorry Admiral. It’s just business.”

Merlin then cut the line and left the Admiral fuming in deep anger.

“Sure, just business... Send a drone detachment to terminate Merlin’s contract.”

“Yes Admiral. Squadron now en route.”

The closest squadron of drones sped their way towards Merlin’s position, their guns poised to fire. They watched as he sunk deep into the asteroid field at great speed and didn’t even hesitate to follow in after him.

Their logic circuits went full bore as they calculated their pursuit trajectories around the huge rocks all around. Their guns took a few potshots as they dipped in and out of range.

His agility and speed was just far too good, even against their tuned digital intelligences. Because he was deep in a Promethean Merge, he was able to easily calculate all of their trajectories through his core’s operating intelligence.

However, the drones were far faster and lighter, and could take those turns at far steeper angles. Their logic circuits recalibrated their pursuit vector to swarm him from multiple angles.

They collectively calculated the most optimal routes to intercept and determined overlap layers in order to increase kill probabilities. Then, in the blink of an eye, all twelve drones spread out in different directions, each with their own separate pathways.

Merlin watched on his sensors as the drones spidered out with alarming speed in every direction. He quickly calculated the trap that the drones intended to lay out for him, and banked his fighter hard left in response.

Instead of running from the drone squadron, he instead pulled a maneuver to gain advantage against one of his pursuers. Just as it shot past, he pulled into a left roll to face the drone, which was now turning back to face him.

It was forced to slow down drastically in order to turn around and maintain its pursuit, and that opened it up a great deal.

For a moment, the drone was in his sights. But without any weapons, he couldn’t do anything but push his speed to the maximum. And as he passed, he clipped it with his portside wing. His fighter jerked slightly with the impact, but the drone was far less fortunate.

The difference in weight and speed caused it to spin uncontrollably into an asteroid. It crashed unceremoniously into the side, and pieces of it broke off as the whole thing powered down.

Merlin grinned as he dusted off his flightsuit with the swipe of a hand.

Though he had slipped through his pursuer’s net, and gained a bit of distance from his pursuers, he knew it wasn’t long until they caught up again. So with his throttle at the max, he concentrated deeply on his route out of the field.

It was basically suicide for anyone to go over a hundred meters a second within the field, but he didn’t have a choice. He had Prometheus, and was confident he could make it out alive. The very fact that he was able to outwit drones that easily while flying without a wing was testament to its capabilities.

Combat pilots with this kind of tech would dominate any battle they were in. Who knew how much it was worth? Billions? Trillions? Didn’t matter.

“Pay. Day!” he cried happily.

By the time they had gotten back in attack range, Merlin noticed that a few of the drones were missing, luckily. He believed that they had fallen behind a great deal, or met unfortunate accidents along the way.

But he believed incorrectly. They didn’t meet any accidents nor did they fall behind. Instead, they crept up on his flank with their signatures at the minimum. They spread out into their determined positions, powered up their guns quickly, and aimed to fire.

A stream of chaingun fire suddenly shot from the side. It swept past Merlin’s fighter and into a drone. It was accompanied by a number of other streams of fire, and swept away the drones that flanked Merlin.

He didn’t even realize that he was being ambushed until that very moment.

“Payday indeed,” said Valos.

The Templar appeared on Merlin’s comms display, a huge grin on his face. Outside, fifty fighters swarmed the drones that were in pursuit, and perforated them into scrap.

“Thanks for the assist, brother.”

“Don’t mention it. Now fit your ship into the docking bay and get on board.”

“Hell yeah. Can’t wait to get the fuck outta here.”

Templar Valos laughed heartily at Merlin’s remark. Leave? Where was the profit in that?

“Get out? What’re you talking about? Did you think we all showed up just to get one measly core? We’re all here to clean the whole place of loot.”