“Very good,” Rudy said. “Titus, we’re responding to a distress signal in the Gerdon System.”
Titus frowned as he took his seat beside the captain. The bridge layout had two pilots directly ahead of them. The viewscreen took up the entire wall. Their tech officer, Violet Cromwell, sat on the left with a variety of consoles for scans, communications, and system operations. An empty space on the opposite side allowed for additional personnel to work.
“What’s happening there?” Titus asked. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s brand-new. They’re not even out of their first decade yet. Who would be stupid enough to attack them?”
“We’re not sure,” Rudy replied. “They’ll spend more attacking the place than they’ll get even if they steal all the supplies. Foodstuffs don’t sell as well as mining materials. Anyway, we’re the first responder to this one. The mission parameters are simple enough. Stop them at all costs.”
Titus turned to him. “At all costs? That… seems extreme.”
“The message we received from the admin down there suggested two starships hopped in without a word. They were on a hot approach. Scans showed they had defenses up but our database had no matching silhouette. Command doesn’t want us taking any chances. If they are hostile when we arrive, we take them out.”
“And ask questions later?” Titus hummed. “That seems dangerous. If there are more of these vessels…”
“We’ll get what we can,” Rudy interrupted, “from the debris. Scans. But our primary responsibility is keeping our people alive.”
“I’ll mobilize the marines then.” Titus got on the comm, reaching out to the security room. Gunnery Sergeant Kenzo Stefan had been with the service for thirty-five years. He was a serious warrior, one who faced mandatory retirement in a couple years. They were fortunate to have his experience. “Gunny, you boys ready for a field trip?”
“Saving some colonists?” Gunny’s voice sounded rough after a lifetime of yelling at his men. “We’re always up for putting boots on the ground, sir. Just give us the word.”
“It’s given. Report to the hangar. I’ll have a shuttle standing by.” Titus strapped into his seat. “They’ll be ready to extract civilians, at least. Do you have a guess about what we’re facing?”
“I try not to,” Rudy said. “Violet? You have anything?”
“I’ve analyzed the information we received.” Violet turned to look at them. She wore her dark hair in a tight bun, pulled back from her dark skin. Her cheekbones made her look severe, but she’d proven to be one of the gentlest souls aboard. She also had some serious coolness under fire. “Unfortunately, they didn’t send us their scans.”
“Damn.” Titus sighed. “I wonder why.”
“Panic,” Rudy replied. “That’s the only explanation. We can’t expect them to operate at their best under these circumstances. If the intruders were regular pirates or raiders, then we’d have silhouettes. The fact they’re totally new makes this far more exciting than normal folk are trained to deal with.”
You’d think they’d be prepared for anything after coming all the way out here. Titus couldn’t fathom what they might’ve encountered. The most likely explanation involved out-of-date software incapable of reading the latest enemy vehicles. If that proved true, the Triton would be more than sufficient to deal with them.
Most of the colonies had the fortune of at least one or two TCN ships patrolling near enough for a rapid response to problems. Rapid response time tended to be essential to save lives. Seasoned pirates knew exactly how long they had before the military showed up to stop them.
Titus had arrived at many scenes where the criminals had already left. Chasing them down generally took days. He wondered if they’d find themselves in a similar situation at Gerdon. It all depended on what their targets made off with… and how much carnage they left in their wake.
“Scanning the system now,” Violet said. She gasped. “Putting… putting on screen now.”
Titus had never heard her sound so surprised. The stuttering in particular alarmed him. As the viewscreen flickered to life, he squinted at the two objects orbiting the colonized planet. They were far off; way too distant to make out any details. Violet surrounded each with a square and then zoomed in.
Titus had never seen ships like them. They had boxy, squared edges with four rounded thrusters in the back. Each was larger in the back and narrow in the front, but it was like a child had put building blocks together. The scan continued, depicting metal spikes sticking off the ship at various points.
“What are those things?” Titus asked. “Sensor equipment? Some kind of… I don’t know… energy relay?”
“Weapons,” Ronin muttered. “If I had to guess, they’d be weapons.”
“No barrels,” Jane said. “How would they… you don’t think…” She turned to her partner. “Lasers? Beams I mean?”
Ronin shrugged. “Why not?”
“Because,” Rudy replied, “pirates do not have that technology.” He sighed. “Though these ships… where would they have even found them? This makes no sense to me. What do you have on the surface? Anything?”
“The colony has been attacked!” Violet continued to act out of character, shouting the report. “Buildings burning… life readings are minimal. There’s fighting going on down there too. Weapons I’ve not seen before. I’m patching into the satellite for a detailed look at what’s happened.”
A portion of the screen shifted, showing the destruction. Violet zoomed out, showing several black, boxy things on the ground outside. It appeared to be a staging area for the invaders. They couldn’t make out people moving around at that vantage, but it gave a good idea of what happened.
“Open a communication channel,” Rudy said, “blast it out. I’ll address them. You find out if anyone’s left alive down there.” He waited until she told him it was ready. “Attention, unidentified spacecraft. This is Captain Rudy Barrington of the TCN Triton. You have infringed on
