FTL-20...Faster Than Life

Chapter 20

*Before…

I was on my rotation in Sense-nav when I heard the news. We just received orders to head instead of to the last five system stops we were going to jump all the way to Zodiac space.

The Zodiac colonies aren’t exactly like the astrological stuff but they are as well. The colonies that rule that cluster are named after the astrological signs but it’s more because the signs are associated with animals.

The Zodiac colonies are deviants.

Deviants are genetic or nano tweaked people that do it for fashion or in the cases of these places as a form or adaptation to their planets they’ve colonized.

The Zodiac colonies are on the edge of Aberrant space.

*And Now…

We’ve all been taking about this the entire time we’ve been getting ready to jump. It’s just there are minor deviation tweaks that some do these days and others that are necessary but these are Patrick and then some. Full on bio-tweaking and they do it right down to in the womb mods for the people there.

I mean technically they’re human but at the same time they’re not either.

We’re kind of scared and a bit excited.

And then we’re being suddenly joined by two frigates The Ballista and The Heritage of Falon.

Okay that’s different as are the orders we get to go to battle readiness.

And suddenly we’re switching off to get out of uniforms and into or K-flex jump suits. Battle gear, web vests and hooking on our vacc hoods side arms and mini breathing bottles.

I’m lucky because we’re in a busy hub and we’re doing too much right now to be the ones that are thinking of what we’re flying into.

My watch commander looks at me. “Stone we want you on scan drones.”

“Yessir.”

I get into the chair and I link up to my station and I’m being tapped out to twenty drones already being prepped and there’s that flash on the screen in my head that warns me FTL jump in progress.

I feel it but don’t as I’m too busy getting synched up to the drones and then the information comes flooding into my head and On-body-computer.

Three ships in four days have been lost all trader and merchant class vessels.

We’ve been requested by the Zodiac colonial sub-council to come in and investigate. We just got word of one of our other ships The Longbow was sent in a few days ahead of us had taken heavy damage.

One message part though definitely got through.

Mines.

Okay I had to take a deep breath because suddenly once again being in Sense-Nav’s a big deal and we’re looking for mines. I’m looking for mines and it’s a seriously big job because this isn’t a drill.

Mines in space are very, very illegal and are only used by the worst of the worst governments. Being out here in a space society you can be killed by the wrong size and kind of rock sometimes.

Mines…space mines are often sensor based and triggered by a whole lot of things like heat, electrical activity, radiation, movement…and in this day and age they are likely to have something like a micro-nuke warhead…not devastating to a big ship like this with full shields but smaller vessels…and the EMP the deliver they can cripple or right out destroy a smaller ship.

The thing is that where’s one mine there’s more.

And that’s what makes them deadly to everyone.

It’s why only the lowest of the low use them.

I’m trying to think who would use them out here and who might be that stupid and insane and I’m at the moment drawing a blank. The Aberrant’s are borderline anti-tech in a whole lot of ways so they’re pretty much a non-issue and even the space pirates like the Balkorans don’t go that far.

There’s a sort of code out here with spacers even with enemies there’s rules and honor even amongst the dishonorable ones.

We’re at a full stop and I’m linked into the other two ships with us and their Sense-nav teams and we’re all flying a net.

One all we need to find is one of them and that’ll give us the string to follow others, they are usually dropped by some kind of mine dropper like ship of some sort so there’s usually a pattern that you can find.

Hour one nothing.

We slowly begin to move the ships.

Hour two nothing.

Hour three nothing.

Hour four…

One of the Sense-nav crew men for The Heritage of Falon gets a blip then another and another their metallic and they’ve moving slowly…but not at a drift speed either but instead in a steady and continuous movement.

We all send some of our drones over to get a look and to help with flushing out the mass of mines and it’s.

“Commander this is very strange?”

“What is it Stone?”

“I think that we’ve found them but they’re not moving like mines.”

“Link it to me.”

I link it over to him and they look like what you’d expect a mine to look like. About two meters long and wide more of a bulging disc than the balls that most civilians think of. Shapes me a lot less in space but in a ship you can carry more flat things in a payload that round ones.

The only thing is the fact there’s these little bumps all over them that aren’t spikes it detonation rods but they’re micro thrusters. I’ve never read about micro thrusters on a mine before but they’re doing these tiny barely visible stealthy bursts of thrust to keep up their movement and speeds.

“Stone.”

“Yessir?”

“Ram one.”

“Sir?”

“Pass the advisory onto the others but let them know we’re going to do a touch test. I want to see what they’re carrying for payload.”

I pass the message along and the other’s pull their drones back hopefully to a safe range so we don’t lose any and I guise one of my drones right at it and set the thrust on it to max power for my drone.

It dodges my drone.

“Sir!?”

“I know Stone I saw it too, bring your drone around….”

My watch commander stops talking as the mines I’m passing move too and then we see them change…mechanical bug like legs slip out of the body and so does a head with a semi-human face only with a mouth like a shark would have and it pops out pincer like arms but with some kind of weapons instead of claws and there’s these beetle shell like bug casings that pop open to free up better thrusters.

There’s a burst of blue weapons fire and my drone goes white and I switch to others and I can see the mines all shifting and all changing and turning around and coming at our drones and we’re losing them fast.

My last drone the last thing I seen on the cameras was one of these shark-beetle things eating the camera…looked like it was coming to take a bite out of me.

“Sir!?”

I’m answered by our main bridge instead as the alert for battle stations goes off.