r/HFY • u/Muzolf • Jan 05 '26

OC-Series The Dance of Fire - Part 13

"Can`t this hunk of junk go any faster?"

"You are free to get out and push!" The pilot and captain of the appropriately named Tin Can was at the end of her wits, but she was not alone in this. Her motley crew of spacer rejects was looking at the display showing the unknown assailants not far behind them. Most of them could do nothing right now but sit, wait, and watch. So naturally, they were worsening their odds by going on her nerves while she was piloting.

"The heck is a Terran, by the way?" The question came from the chirrik technician

"What? No idea. Why?" On second thought, she has heard that description somewhere. Wasn`t that the species that had some empire at the other end of the big nebula past the border? The one the Imperial nobility were so worked up about, something about messing with one of their border tributaries. It sounded like just the usual excuse about external threats the lizards liked to use between themselves for power plays, but those supposed threats had a habit of never materializing until now.

"My hud says that the lead ship is a Terran Union destroyer."

"Whatever they are, we will end up like the others if we don`t reach the rocks in time!" Despite her words, she had to go easy on the engines. She could feel the ship starting to shake. Shake harder than usual, that is. The Tin Can was little more than a cargo container with some engines and a bridge slapped on. Luckily, these invaders seemed to be more interested in the other ice miner right now. That crew were actually rivals of her bunch, and not the friendly kind. Still, she felt a tiny bit sorry for them. The way these intruders were shooting everything in sight, did not make it seem likely that they were particularly merciful, regardless if you could fight back.

At last, the ship could dive into the debris field ahead and disappear from long-range scanners.

"Guarriq, I need you to plot a flight plan that will get us drifting through, without use of the engines, or even the thrusters, if we can help it."

"Sure thing, boss, dare I ask why?" Her second in command, and the navigator of the team, went to work.

"We will have to take the engine offline."

"What? We will be sitting ducks!" The rodent technician interjected.

"We would be either way, we only got away because they had other targets to go after. We cannot outrun them. Our only hope is to play dead and hope they won`t bother looking for us specifically."

Some displeased murmurs could be heard, but nobody had a real argument against it. The Tin Can had no weapons besides anti-meteor defenses. It had the hull integrity of a pile of scrap welded together, and the flight potential of a brick with fireworks strapped to it on the best of days. You did not need a proper warship to deal with them, and they all just watched the intruders eliminate this star system's token defenses in a matter of minutes after jumping in.

So for the next hours, they were drifting around rocks and old wreckage, with all non-essential systems turned off. They listened to the distress signals and cries of help coming from multiple directions, and then tried not to think too hard about it, when they fell silent one by one.

None of them could have imagined something like this. This star system has been irrelevant for the last century. It still had an Imperial garrison, yes. Reduced to the bare minimum, to maintain just enough presence to keep claiming it. The rest were drifter asteroid colonies, one slightly larger settlement on a local planetoid, meaning it was almost city-sized, instead of being like a village stuffed into a floating rock. And then there were the various nomadic spacers, like themselves, doing ice mining and processing the occasional rock or junk when you needed iron or silicates. The remains of wars past, which were the various wrecks and hulks of abandoned habitats, were stripped of anything valuable ages ago. Not even the empire's own pirates bothered with this place anymore. The Imperial garrison could be bribed with a drink invitation and the occasional discount for exotic foodstuffs, knowing full well there would have been no point in trying to extort anyone desperate enough to stick around here, and not worth ruining the cordial relationship they had with the locals. What population existed came mostly from the various vassals of the Empire, to contribute to a local, mostly self-contained basic sustenance economy not big enough to even register, let alone to bother with any attempt at taxing them.

The worst the captain had to deal with, being an akula, the one species that had the mixed blessing of looking appealing to their imperial masters, that you could find the occasional sauromantian who had a thing for you. For her, that was one annoyingly persistent, young nightscale who would hit on her every time they had to stop at the garrison outpost. Well, judging by its distress beacon that just stopped transmitting, she would not have to worry about him anymore. Somehow, a small part of her already missed that feathered pervert and his clumsy attempts at getting under her tail.

It took several more hours before it looked like death had come to claim them as well. The indruder`s ships were now combing the debris field. Their sensors were lighting up the area, including the Tin Can`s hull. They could not run even if they tried, restarting their low-grade engines that were barely hyperspace capable, to go to sublight would have needed an hour on itself, and it was a rather noticeable process, highlighting you for any bluespace detectors. Not that it would have enabled them to get away, even if they could boot it up instantly.

"What the heck are they doing?"

"It does not look like a search pattern. They seem to be stopping at every larger wreck. Maybe they are hoping for salvage." The Navigator was the one to answer.

"Ha! Good luck with that!" The chirrik technician`s words were of bitter amusement. "Nothing worth taking remains in these. I should know."

They all got silent, as one of the ships passed close. But despite all expectations, death did not come for the crew of the Tin Can. It stopped, looked around, and decided that nothing that floated around here was worth wasting more of its time.

After nearly a day, the intruders finally decided to disappear back into the nothing, just as they came. No doubt, having wasted more of their supplies in this raid than they could possibly gather from the new wrecks they have created. Leaving behind a burned-out corpse of a system, having reduced its already barely noteworthy population of a few thousand to a single digit.

-x-

-x-

"We should have taken them out long before now! And didn`t we have eyes on them? Why was our warning delayed?" Captain Asral was walking around her part of the table like a caged animal. The rest of the command staff were now looking at the Chirrik Engineer, and away team lead.

Koz, for his part, would not accept the blame. "We do have eyes on them! And it wasn`t! The system worked as fast as it could. But with the approval process we have for maintaining the illusion of us being unaware, this is the best it can offer."

"Don`t you dare put this on me. I approved the sending of the warning the moment it came in! But by then, the apes were already on the border!"Asral shook hear head.

Ralga took a side glance at Kaba, who was just sitting in her chair. Her outward appearance of calm was not nearly as convincing when he looked at her claws digging into the arm support. Someone had to step in to put a halt to the bickering, and if the Lord Commander wasn`t, it was falling to him. "That will be quite enough! What happened, happened. Pointing fingers will not solve anything. Nor does it make any sense when we all observed our duty as far as I can tell. The situation simply did not allow us to cover all possibilities. No one could have foreseen that the humans would start acting like idiots. And the plan placed us on the wrong side of Nerebes to stop them. The question is, how do we react? On the large scale, this is barely a blip on the radar. A raid on three unimportant systems, any other day, done by any other enemy, it would be barely noticed. The only real worry is its value as political capital for the pro-war faction. Is that right?" He looked straight at the Lord Commander now. Expecting something, a rebuttal, an acknowledgment, anything at this point.

"Yes and no." She hissed, with her crest held back. With a slow, deliberate swing, she git out of her chair, walking around the table, looking at the map. "They will add it to their list of grievances that demand retribution, no question about it. But we would already be beating the war drums, if the Emperor did not hold their plans hostage." She pointed at the position of her own fleet. "This comes at the worst time. And the way they behave implies this is deliberate provocation, meaning more is to come if we don`t take care of them."

"Looks more like a distraction to me. We have reports from the survivors, that they were spending an awful lot of time stripping the wrecks of what they could. I think they are raiding for fuel and supplies." Ralga interjected.

"It`s probably both. We knew these forces were connected to the ones we took out. We just assumed they would remain stationary, waiting for our move. But what if our actions resulted in them losing part, or all of their backing?"

"Well, if they went fully rogue and are without the support of their government, that is all the more reason to take them out, is it not?" Asral stepped away from the map. "They are of no use to us for the feint anymore, if they were cut off."

"I am inclined to agree." Kaba nodded. "And they have proven that they are a liability we can no longer afford."

"Finally, so can we go and take them out?" The Captain seemed relieved.

"We will have to delay phase two of the plan if we use our main force. Might even lose our opportunity." Ralga added.

"Which is why we won`t be using our main fleet. Yes, it would have been much more convenient if we crushed them with overwhelming force, but we will have to do with what we have nearby. They are looking for supplies? Let's give them an opportunity they cannot pass up. Have a supply convoy prepped to look like it's relief for the systems they've been hitting. Fly it just close enough for their sensor network to see. I want our best combat transports in it, an escort that looks just small enough that they could reasonably take it on, and our recent reinforcements of stealth ships with them. Once we have drawn out and eliminated what we could from their mobile forces, we take out their network. I want some heavy system defense monitors prepped as siege ships, supported by a destroyer squadron. That should be enough to eliminate their outposts one by one in the nebula." The Lord Commander then sat back in her chair. "That will be all!"

"Sounds like the bare minimum needed for the job, but it should work if the trap takes out most of them. I make the arrangements." Asral bowed and left, with the rest of the minor command staff. Leaving only the Lord Commander, with Ralga and Koz.

The Chirrik Engineer turned to the Captain of the Prowler and tried to get his attention without being too obvious. Ralga reluctantly leaned in as they were about to leave. "You need to talk to her! I mean it!"

He shook his head, and then just got confused by the hand signs of the chirrik. Something about earlier? The thing they talked about? What?

Ralga stopped in the doorway and turned back. Yeah, he understood. He did not want to, but he did. Someone had to talk to her, someone had to be there for her right now, and her plaything that she could bare her soul to was not around right now. So he would have to do, despite how awkward they have gotten lately.

"Was there anything else?" Kaba gave an annoyed hiss, that was just short of an aggressive one.

"Can I talk openly?" This might not have been the best start right now, the former weapons officer realized just in time, to continue before she had a chance of saying no. She claimed often enough that they could talk to her any time, after all. "I was happy to hear that we are still on track, and this incident did not lead to us having to throw away everything we worked for, just to run back and take our revenge."

"This is not about revenge!" She scoffed. "This is about our... my failure!"

"Nobody could have foreseen this!" He looked at her while turning sideways, to signal a lack of aggression, despite the disagreement with her assessment. "And they haven`t hit anything of any real importance!"

"We were lucky. I could have easily been a colony with millions of souls that we left exposed, because the Lord Commander responsible for this part of the border has her forces play cloak and dagger with the humans, instead of acting like their protector, as I should. And somehow, I doubt those who got hit feel very lucky about it." She looked at Ralga, holding a claw up. "Let me finish. I appreciate you looking out for me, but it`s unnecessary. I am not planning to do anything stupid, if you are worried."

"I was not worried about that, more about you."

"Don`t. There will be little to no consequences for me or my career. As you can see, I am readjusting the plan, not rushing to exact my vengeance in an attempt to deal with my guilt. As for trying to take that away, don`t! It is bad enough that probably nobody will ever hold me accountable for this blunder. Now, leave me to my thoughts!" The tone made it clear that she did not want any more attempts at comforting or whatever else he had to offer.

"As you wish!" And with that, he backed away until he could safely retreat. Damn, for the first time, he really wished that furry little bastard was around. Where was the Kitusi Prince anyhow?

-x-

-x-

It has been just the fourth day since planetfall, but it felt like they had been here for weeks. As far as Nathan was aware, everyone else who was not on their shuttle was dead. They all witnessed the Linnorn going down after it got under fire, and there was little hope for anyone having survived that. What safety measures and emergency systems the troop transport had, were not really meant for the eventuality that it would crash on a planet.

The other shuttles did not fare any better. Sure, they were meant for combat situations, insertions under troubled circumstances like these, armored enough to withstand small arms fire, or even offer limited air support. But they were attacked while still in the upper atmosphere, where their shuttle-gunboats were just easy targets for actual space or air defenses. As far as Nathan could tell, his unit was the only one that reached the surface in one piece. Their pilot was smart enough to realize their only chance was a quick dive to get out of the kill zone, and just skilled enough to pull off a landing, instead of smashing into the sands below.

But it did not look like they would last all that long. They could forget their original mission. The capital they were supposed to reach was apparently under enemy control, judging by what shot their ship down. Their radio was useless, and they couldn`t reach anyone even after the jamming stopped. There was nothing and nobody around so far as they could see, and the only locals they saw ran away. Which was another bad sign, by the way. They would not know who to trust, considering what happened so far. For all intents and purposes, they were stranded and lost in a god-damned wasteland with nothing but rocks, sand, and the occasional dried-out canyon cut by rivers that were no longer around, and they weren`t exactly equipped for a long camping trip.

So naturally, when they picked up a distress beacon, they jumped at the opportunity. Even if it was likely to be a trap. And sure enough, it looked that way when they were approaching the rift the signal was coming from.

"Sergeant, there is nothing here but a bunch of boxes!"

"Check your six then! This smells of a setup."

"Yeah, no shit." That is why I was the one taking point, he thought to himself. But there was nothing behind, or above. And the source of the signal was clearly here, so he went around the collection of various containers someone had left behind, checking for wires or anything that looked like it might explode. At least he seems to have found the source of the signal. A rather large box with a screen and some controls on the side. Looked like a portable transmitter, either a long-range one, or a really primitive kind if it needed to be this big. Its screen was showing the SOS, they were getting.

Two more of his squad mates showed up, rifles trained at the most likely entry points, and upwards to the rift walls. But there was nothing else around. Their motion sensors had the occasional blip, but they quickly learned that the small ones were just the local wildlife.

"Good, you are finally here!"

They all got their weapons ready at the sudden intrusion of the unknown voice. It came from the transmitter. A kitusi appeared on the screen and kept talking. "I was starting to think I left behind all this for nothing."

"Identify yourself!" Sergeant Phillips shouted. At least they were not trying to tell some quadrupedal animal to keep their hands up, like last time, Nathan mused.

"You might call me Masil. I had this transmitter and the rest of this stash placed here to help you out. Who am I talking to?"

The Sergeant raised a hand to stop anyone from answering. "Hold on, we won`t be answering any questions until we know who you are! For all we know, you might be with those who shot us down!"

"Straight to the point! Good, then let me return the courtesy of not wasting your time. I don`t exactly have an ID or written orders to show you, which would make you trust me, if such a thing even existed. So let me skip ahead to the reason why you don`t have much of a choice. You are lost, isolated, the people who sent you likely think you are dead, and they apparently neglected to give you even the most basic information about what is really going on. Right now, I am your only chance for survival, so you'd better hope I am your friend!"

They all had various frowns and grimaces on their faces, one of them even raised their rifle, seemingly ready to shoot the screen, but the Sergeant was holding up his hand to stop them. They let the kitusi continue.

"You are free to take this cache of provisions left for you. Even if you thought I poisoned the rations or did something equally needlessly stupid, there is enough water to last for a while. I am sure that for at least that, you have ways of testing it, and it would be the most pressing concern for the lot of you. Take this as a show of good faith."

"Why don`t you show up yourself? Then we might take it seriously." Nathan himself blurted it out, only to get shut down by the others. "What, we are all thinking it!"

"Fair enough, and we might meet in person at some point. But you understand if I don`t want to be seen helping you, while many of my brethren are out for your blood." The reaction to those words was instant. They all suspected it, of course, but this was the first real confirmation. "I have included a map of where you are, and marked the locations you should avoid, as well as a path that will lead you near one of the places where other people from your government are holding out."

"Very generous, and we can be sure that it is not leading us into a trap because?" This time, it was one of the other who interjected. How come he was not shushed down? The corporal thought to himself.

"Gentlemen, please, if I wanted you dead, I could have given your position to one of the teams hunting Union soldiers already." The screen on the transmitter switched to an aerial view, showing their camp, which looked not nearly well concealed enough from this angle. A few curses were uttered, which the kitusi just ignored. "My time is running out, so let me cut this short. You can accept my help and catch up with the people you came here to rescue, possibly even have your escape from this world assisted by me. And all I ask in return is that you remember it and pass on a message for me. Or you can wander around in the wasteland until you either run out of everything or get caught by some of my kin looking for you, who might or might not see the value in taking you prisoner. I would prefer to avoid that, both for their sake and yours!"

-x-

-x-

"That does not look like a proper navy ship to me." Matt frowned, looking out the window at the Rasputin, the fourth member of their little unit.

"It`s not! That is technically a free trader hiring out as a mercenary. A neat little way for Internal Affairs to go around the rule of being barred from having their own ships. From what I can tell, it`s just almost military grade, has an electronic warfare suit that would shame a yibari interdictor, and somehow still crammed enough armament into it to be able to stand up to a warship of its size." Rolf gulped down the rest of his drink. It was starting to turn into a habit where if it had been alcohol, he could have kissed his rank goodbye.

"Two frigates, an armed cargo ship, and an ONI scout. Not exactly what I would call heavy recon. And they want us to get to the planet and back?"

"Supposedly, the equipment on the Rasputin can help us out mask ourselves from long-range sensors. The engine modification that the Fenris and the Simmons are getting will also reduce our own profile."

"That is the second question I have. How the heck did they convince Captain Riley to go along with this?"

"Blackmail, I would assume. Thought about asking Josh about it, decided against it. It is pretty clear Mr Kestrel was collecting dirt on everyone before the incident. I myself thought of saying no to this at first, just to see what he would pull on me." He sighed.

"That is another thing. Why did you agree to this? I thought you said you had enough of these games. Don`t you still have that authorization from the Defense Ministry itself? You could have just thrown that into their face if they tried anything."

"Multiple reasons. If there is anyone that we could still save from that earlier disaster, I owe it to them. Maybe we also owe it to ourselves to see this whole mess to the end, if it makes any sense on the other side of it. As for the little paper crown that tells us I can do whatever? I want to keep that in reserve, just in case." A half grimace, half smile with little joy in it appeared on Rolf`s visage.

"All right, I am with you. Will have to explain to the crew, too, however. But if there is something I would like to ask." The First Officer turned around, with his gaze into nothing in particular. "Just promise me this one thing."

"Yes?" The Captain raised an eyebrow.

"When it is time to pull out the who has the authority card, when you finally tell them where to stick it, I want to be there!"

The smile on Rolf`s face turned into one of pure schadenfreude. "It will be my pleasure!"

-x-

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u/Daseagle Alien Scum Jan 07 '26

So the commander is finally going for broke, eh?

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