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Out of Space and Time
A tale of Horror and Suspense in the Battletech Universe
by Jason M. Knight (Deathshadow) |
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Before leaving the station we managed to trade the remains of the ruined Transgressor for a small shuttle. If it were a mis-jump it was unlikely we would encounter heavy combat, and a shuttle would be much more suited to transporting our boarding parties over. Chops was somewhat upset that I had said no to every pilot we had interviewed as replacements, especially since two of them had their own fighters. It took a bit but I was able to explain it was obvious those we were talking to were merely fluff bunnies, having no real skill or experience. One of them was an out and out liar, and I was willing to bet he had never even been in the cockpit of a real fighter. If this was typical of those hired into pirate bands, it was a miracle we did as well against the Concordat as we had.
The trip out took close to three weeks, twelve days of that coasting at no thrust. In most star systems we would have maintained at least a one gravity burn the whole way, however due to the restrictions in radar and visual range traveling too quickly could result in an unavoidable collision with some bit of debris, an asteroid or even worse another craft. From the moment we left everyone’s mood seemed to brighten, which again surprised me. It seemed as if the crew had completely put to rest the demons that haunted them after the last mission. Inquiries on my part kept getting the same answer: “A pirate cannot dwell on the past or the future.”
As we closed to the point visuals became available, I felt a cold chill. Never have I seen such destruction wrought upon a jumpship. The difficulty in their manufacture and repair had made attacks directly against such vessels almost forbidden, so seeing one in such disrepair was extremely rare. Severing a jump sail or puncturing the helium tanks to strand one was acceptable as those systems could be repaired or replaced, but the rest of the vessel was strictly off limits.
The data pouring in from the various sensors aboard the Pale Horse let us put together a plan of action. It was obvious that the port dropship, what appeared to have once been a Buccaneer was a complete write off. By all indications over 90% of its mass was unaccounted for, with all that remained being a portion of the ships outer hull. If we boarded the jumpship using the shuttle, those remains could probably be cut loose allowing our ship do dock in its place, at which point we could fan out to secure the jumpship. The Com Guard force accompanying us could then disgorge to take their prize dropship.
Comstar’s analysts had missed one detail however; as it was not a Merchant class Jumpship, but a disguised warship. This was evident as several hull plates had blown clear, showing what appeared to be concealed gravity decks where the superconductor ring normally appeared. Towards the aft of the craft the edges of a much smaller compact K-F drive could be seen poking out. This mistake was likely the reason for them letting us have the jumpship, as to a casual visual inspection it would have appeared that the entire jump drive was in fact missing. Without a star drive the vessel would have had no value except for any parts we could have stripped, forcing us to destroy it rather than leave it behind. |
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