Captain Jolu Atrern looked over the readout her science officer was currently briefing her on.

 

“How sure are we that it’s him?” she asked.

 

“100%, Captain.” Senior Crewmate Zeth responded and waved his hand through the holographic projection of the long, sleek ship, highlighting key parts. “The drive signatures and hull markings are identical to the ship he was seen boarding at Barden dock on Nivselana.”

 

“Given the ship is in low power mode, in an asteroid field deep inside the Kokinit Restricted Zone, whoever it is, they’re looking to hide. I’d put money on it being Rimosi.”Centurium Demerius added.

 

Captain Atrern nodded and placed and hand her chin. “No chance it’s a sensor ghost?”

 

“Our drone got to within 2 clicks. These are physical images, not sensor data.”

 

A smile crept up the side of Atrern’s face. The ISS Wanderer’s Bay had been hunting Scylane Rimosi for more than a year now. And not a terran year. And Imperial year. He’d always managed to stay one step ahead. He’d left his family behind, changed ships three times, left multiple sensor decoys and even tried changing his face. He’d tried every trick in the book. But this time, this time they had him.

 

“Helm, lay in a course for system Kokinit 14b76, maximum speed.” Atrern said and strode from the CIC down into the main bridge and took her seat, her crewmates following her. “Order double black throughout the ship and prep Acolytes Niner-Two-One through Niner-Two-Six to launch. Signal the Omicron and tell them we’re heading in. Be ready to pursue.”

 

As the lights across the bridge dropped and an alert tone rang out through the ship Atrern turned to Demerius. “Are your people ready, Centurium?”

 

He smiled and nodded. “Been ready for year now, ma’am. The Jacks are the best weapon the Imperial Navy can fire. We’ll bring him. All you got to do is point us at him and pull the trigger.”

 

“Tell your people to armour up. We get one shot at this and we don’t want to miss it.” Atrern said.

 

“We won’t disappoint you, ma’am.” Demerius said adding an old Avalonian salute, turned and hurried off the bridge.

 

“ETA, crewmate?” Captain Atrern asked.

 

“Thirty eight minutes, Captain.”

 

Atrern sighed. These were going to be the longest thirty eight minutes of her life.
****

Scylane Rimosi stood tall at the rear of the large cockpit of his ship. This was the fourth ship he’d owned since he began his life on the run and it was probably his favourite. It wasn’t big, it wasn’t bristling with guns but it was fast. It looked like a corvette sized Kuklopes-Class cruiser. And that was no coincidence. The Wootna-class brigantine was designed specifically for those seeking to outrun the Empire’s fastest ships.

 

It hadn’t been cheap. But he and several other Federation fugitives had sold their ships and pooled their assets to buy it. And it had worked well. With the help of some loyal and skilled Blockers they had made this far.

 

“Run the scan again,” He ordered.

 

The young woman at the science console frantically tapped at her console and shook her head. “There’s nothing, sir. Nothing out there.”

 

“Then why did an Imperial frigate just start heading towards us at high speed!?” Arno Delk, former head of the Federation Bank, demanded to know.

 

“No ships have been in the area, we’re on low power mode. There’s no way they know we’re here.” Rimosi said. “Clamp us to the side of the nearest big rock and shut down the main reactor. We’ll run life support and sensors off the reserves and we’ll wait them out.”

 

“Yes sir.” The helmsman replied.

 

Arno began pacing. “We should run. Run now while we still can.”

 

“Relax my friend.” Rimosi said placing and thin hand on his fellow fugitive’s shoulder. “They are likely just a shaar being sent down a hole to flush out the tupps. And what happens when the tupps run?”

 

“More shaars are waiting…”

 

Rimosi smiled. “Exactly. They likely don’t even know what they’re looking for. They will fly through this system waiting for a ship to run and leave the chasing to someone else. We won’t run. We’ll just become another rock in space and wait for them to move on.”

 

“Ok,ok…” Arno said breathing heavily.

 

The ship shuddered as its landing legs dug deep into the surface of large asteroid and the lights lowered. The normal background hum of the ship’s power systems faded away leaving an uncomfortable silence in the cockpit.

 

“What now?” Arno asked.

 

Rimosi crossed his arms. “Now we have a cup of kafta and wait for them to pass us by.”

 

 

****
Captain Atrern rested her chin on a knuckle and watched the countdown timer in the top corner of the viewer. Four minutes now until they dropped out of warp and entered the system.

 

“Captain,” Science Officer Zeth said. “Our drone reports they’ve locked on to an asteroid and have shut down their main reactor. Looks like they’re attempting to hide.”

 

A neat trick, Atrern thought. One which would fool Titans. But it wouldn’t fool Humans. They’d laced every hiding place in the restricted zone with dozens of drones, the size of Titan’s thumbnail and virtually impossible to detect. There would be no more hiding here for anyone.

 

“Helm, bring us out of warp a little early and start a passive scan of the system. Bring us gently towards the asteroid field. We don’t want to startle them.”

 

“Aye ma’am.” The helm replied.

 

Atrern went back to watching the clock. Three and a half minutes to go.
****

“They’re scanning the system, they’ll come near our position but it doesn’t look like they know we’re here.” Said the brigantine’s science officer.

 

Rimosi smiled a Cheshire Cat smile and put his arm around his nervous fellow fugitive. “You see my friend. Nothing to be concerned about. All we need is patience.”

 

“I won’t be happy until they’re out of this system.” Arno replied, still clearly worried.

 

“Have faith, friend. I’ve gotten us this far.” Rimosi said. “If we can avoid them for a few more weeks they’ll assume we’ve left the area and we can set down on a nice world with a breathable atmosphere.”

 

Arno grimaced. “A nice blue sea and green trees too much to ask for?”

 

 

****

Captain Atrern watched the live feed which they’d now picked up from the drone. To the naked eye it just looked like a normal rock floating in space. But with the heat map overly it was clear there was a ship clinging to the side of a large asteroid. Without the drone there was no the Wander’s Bay’s sensors would have spotted it.

 

“Helm, nudge us gently towards the asteroid field. Let’s take a path that leaves them about a thousand kilounits off our port side at the closest point.” Atrern ordered.

 

“Aye ma’am.” Came the response.

 

Atrern tapped on the arm of her seat, bringing up a tactical map on the main screen showing the target’s position and their slightly curved course through the asteroid belt. She tapped again and transferred the data to the Acolytes that were standing ready to launch.

 

“Atrern to Demerius, just sent you packet. We’re going to go for a soft launch. Let’s show them that, thanks to people like them, humans are much more practised at hiding. Get as close as possible before getting your engines hot.”

 

“Copy that Captain. Silent approach. Demerius out.”

 

Atrern looked back up to the main screen and the countdown to closest approach. Six and a half minutes. Six and a half minutes and the reactor on the target was still cold. It’d take at least three minutes to power it up. She tented her fingers. They were almost there.

****

Hylk Demerius settled into his seat, confirmed his rifle was secured in its socket and pulled the straps over his arms and locked himself in. He looked straight ahead of him and to his left. He was with three other Jacks, waiting in the airlock of Acolyte 21. There were twenty Jacks in total, spread across Acolytes 21 to 25, ready and waiting to invade a ship inhabited by beings over one hundred feet tall and outnumbering them by two to one.

 

He tapped on his wrist and activated his HUD. All looked ok with his suit. In the top left the countdown timer had ticked under one minute.

 

“Fifty six seconds.” He said.

 

His team confirmed.

 

He breathed deeply.  He hated this part. Strapped in the back of a ship with no control, no visual and no idea what was going on outside until he got the order to jump.

 

“Hold on to your guts people.” The pilot from Acolyte 21 said.

 

There was a rumbling outside the ship and then Hlyk’s stomach lurched as the Wanderer’s Bay had blown open its hangar bay doors and ejected the six small ships into space.

 

“We’re on our way…” Hylk spoke over the comm.

 

****

“They’re moving away.” The science officer spoke with an audible sigh of relief.

 

Arno Delk also sighed audibly. “Once more you are right, my friend.”

 

“I am rarely ever wrong.” Rimosi said. “If Cecil had recognised this we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

 

Arno gave him an almost sincere smile. “I am sure you are correct. How does this little encounter impact our schedule?”

 

“I think it should put us back a day. We’re better waiting here until all Imperial ships have cleared the area.” Rimosi said.

 

“Very well.” Arno nodded. “I’m going to retire to my cabin and open a bottle of kapavi. Care to join me?”

 

“Perhaps later. I’d prefer to oversee things here for the moment.” Rimosi gestured towards the door. “But you go on.”

 

“Well done. Again.” The banker said and left the cockpit.

 

Scylane took a few steps towards the science console and watched the readouts. The Magilna-class frigate was still moving away, its course unchanged. Though something caught his eye. Something very small. But something that didn’t make much sense.

 

“What is this?” He asked the science officer. “Just debris sir. Nothing to worry about.”

 

He tapped on the screen and brought up an image and zoomed in on it. There were six shapes, like arrowheads floating in space.

 

“That’s not debris. They look like ships!” He half shouted. “Are they moving!?”

 

“No…no…they’re just drifting through the asteroid field.” The woman spluttered and tapped on her console trying to get more information out of the limited passive scans. “They’re far too small to be ships.”

 

“They could be Human ships!” He yelled and ran across the cockpit to the engineering screen.

 

The science officer looked confused. “Humans can’t make ships!”

 

Rimosi shook his head and swallowed the urge to shout at the junior. There was a reason blockers were loyal. They believed in the supremacy of Titans. He didn’t want to start giving them reasons to doubt that.

 

“I’m bringing the main reactor online. I want power to engines, turrets and active sensors in that order!” He ordered. “Get us out of here! And take out anything that tries to get near us!”

 

 

****

“Ma’am, they’re powering up their main reactor.” Crewmate Zeth said.

 

“Dammit…” Atrern muttered. She’d been hoping the Acolytes could have gotten all the way to the target quietly. “Atrern to all ships, your cover is blown, go hot. Repeat, your cover is blown, go hot. Helm, turn us around and get us to the target!”

 

“Acknowledge Captain,” The response came over the loudspeaker and from in front of her. “All ships, we’ve been spotted. Engines to full, weapons hot. Form up on me, delta formation.”

 

The viewer showed the wing of ships quickly form into a neat formation and starting to move at speed towards the target. They’d intercept Rimosi’ ship in three and a half minutes. He’d have reactor power by then. They’d lost the element of surprise and Rimosi was powering his weapons and preparing to run. With a bit of luck they could still make it through this operation without loss of life. But it would be a close call.

 

****

“The Magilna has turned to intercept!” Rimosi’s science officer shouted.

 

“Power available for engines!” A crewmate said over the comm.

 

Rimosi tapped the pilot on the shoulder. “Go! Go! Go! As fast as you can!”

 

The ship shuddered and lurched as the dampeners struggled to compensate for the massive acceleration.

 

“Can we outrun the small ships?” Rimosi asked.

 

“Negative. They’re far faster than we are. Faster than something of that size should be.”

 

“Set course away from the frigate. We can outrun them. We’ll just have to try to smash our way through.”

 

The pilot grinned and pulled on his stick and wiggled his feet, flipping the ship around. Rimosi sat down at the weapons console and started to pick his targets.

 

 

****

“Break! Break! Break!” The commander of Acolyte 21 shouted to his wing.

 

The six ships split in all directions as a torrent of blue energy bolts flew at them and chased them as they ran. The small ships, dived, weaved and span. By the time the firing had stopped the brigantine had cleared past them. The chase was on.

 

“All ships, pursue the target. Watch the splash and target turrets.” Acolyte 21 commanded.

 

The Acolytes flipped on their axis and burned full throttle. Trails of weapon’s fire snaked towards them, this time harder to dodge as they attempted to close with their target.

 

“Count two rear facing turrets. One Dorsal, one ventral and one fore.” Acolyte 22’s weapon’s officer spoke.

 

“Concentrate on the aft. We only need access to their starboard side.” Acolyte 21 ordered.

 

A few more seconds of dodging later and Acolyte 23 opened fire. The first shot was absorbed by the brigantine’s rear shields but they immediately buckled and the second struck home.

 

“Scratch one rear facing turret.”  Acolyte 23 shouted.

 

“Make that two!” Acolyte 25 added.

 

“Great work people!” Acolyte 21 said. “Now strafe both sides, don’t hit anything critical. Two-Six, you know what to do. The rest of you meet me inside!”

 

The fighters surged forward, three on each side of the target vessel. They fired, keeping their shots relatively low powered, attempting to jolt and disorientate their target rather than case any actual damage. Except for Acolyte 26. Acolyte 26 strafed the starboard side at full power, blowing off pieces of the hull and critically, blowing off the brigantine’s cargo bay doors.

 

“The door is open!” Acolyte 26 called. “The Door is open!”

 

Acolytes 21 through 25 pulled around in a tight curve and flew tightly along the brigantine’s starboard side and swept into the open cargo bay.

 

“Centurium Demerius, this is where you get off. Good luck!” The commander of Acolyte 21 said. The drop light went green and the airlock in front of him opened.

 

“Move, move, move!” Demerius shouted to his troops and bailed out of the back of Acolyte 21 with his weapon drawn.

 

His magboots clicked as his feet hit the deck of the ship. He looked around, mentally counting all nineteen of his troops were there. He turned to give the Acolytes the clear to go, but they’d already made their move.

 

They were on their own now.

 

****

The problem with having multiple owners of one ship was you couldn’t really order them out of the cockpit in the event of an emergency.

 

“Please! Friends!” Rimosi shouted. “Go back to your cabins so I can deal with the situation!”

 

The panicked squawking continued. Rimosi drew his sidearm and fired it into the air. The squawking immediately stopped.

 

“Friends! The cockpit is now off limit to civilian personnel! Go back to your cabins! Or I will throw you all out an airlock!” He yelled.

 

The group of once powerful men and women, not normally used to taking orders, sheepishly but swiftly exited the cockpit.

 

“Report.” Rimosi said.

 

“Multiple hull breaches. Weapons and shields are out. The enemy fighters have withdrawn but the frigate is still pursuing. I think we’re clear.” The science officer said with a sigh of relief.

 

Rimosi stared blankly at the sensor readouts. She wasn’t wrong. They had them. They were unarmed and defenceless, why hadn’t they finished them? And then it hit him.

 

“Where are the hull breaches?”

 

“B deck fore, C deck fore, cargo bay, B deck aft…”

 

“Cargo bay!?” Rimosi cut across the junior crewmate. “Status!”

 

“No atmosphere or gravity at the moment. Power is down.” She reported.

 

“Get down there, now. We’ve been boarded.” Rimosi ordered.

 

The blonde woman’s large blue eyes widened further. “Me sir? I’m science…not combat. I can’t take on a boarding party!”

 

“You’ve got boots on. The boarders are the size of your finger. You’ll be fine.” Rimosi said.

 

The girl realised what he was telling her and smirked. This was always something she’d wanted to try. “I won’t disappoint you sir.”

 

 

****

Demerius and his troops had hidden themselves inside the base of a crate that had been secured to the floor. While they had gained access to the ship, the lack of atmosphere had force the automatic sealing of the cargo bay. They would need to wait for someone to come and start repairs before they could make a move.

 

“If we get through the main door it’s two hundred metres to the engineering bay. The computer systems are nearside, second floor.” One of Demerius’ Jacks said projecting a schematic of the ship on to the wall.

 

“Why is it always the second floor on Titan ships?” Another trooper grumbled.

 

“Once we have access to the ship, heavies will remain here and set up a hard-point. Runners will provide support. Stealth troops will make their way to the main computer and execute standard incapacitation.” Demerius said.

“Now all we need is for someone to fix the outer doors, repressurise the cargo bay and welcome us on board.” The same trooper quipped and the rest of the troops laughed.

 

And then the crate started to rumble. One trooper peeked out. There was still no air in the room which meant no one had entered the room unless they’d depressurised the whole ship. The emergency doors were being sealed.

 

“Emergency outer doors are being sealed, sir.” She reported back.

 

Demerius smiled. That didn’t take long at all. “Ok folks, showtime. Hemony, it’s your turn to lure.”

 

“Awww man…” Hemony complained, got up and left.

 

“I want two goo guns and two electrics prepped. No hard take downs unless absolutely necessary. The rest of you stay here and wait for the clear.” Demerius ordered.

 

They knew the drill. They’d done this before. For real and in practice. Eight troopers and Demerius moved out. The centurium took up position behind a strut that gave him a good view over the cargo bay and the four teams used their RCS thrusters to quickly position themselves on the top of two crates.

 

The doors finished closing and then air started to rush in. At first silently but then with a roar as the fresh atmosphere allowed sound to travel. Hylk felt his lunch drop a little inside of him as the room’s gravity kicked in.

 

“Ok, any second now. Be ready.” He said.

 

The troopers confirmed they were in position and ready to go. Hemony a little more reluctantly than the rest.

 

The door opened.

 

A towering woman stood in the doorway. Young, slim and blonde with large blue eyes. Aside from being gigantic she looked innocent and harmless.

 

“Do I have to run from her Centurium? I kinda want to invite her out for coffee instead.” Hemony said.

 

“Oh little Humans! Come out, come out! It’s ok. There’s someone here who wants to meet you…”

 

“See Centurium! She’s not bad…”

 

“The underside of my boot!” The gigantic blonde yelled and stomped her foot to the ground for effect.

 

Hemony decided that was his cue.

 

“Ah ha!” The blonde shouted and grinned. “Got you!”

 

Hemony ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He always hated this part. It didn’t matter that no one had ever been killed doing it. He just didn’t like being bait. And it still felt wrong to run away from a gorgeous blonde no matter how large and stompy she was.

 

“Come on little guy! What’s wrong? Scared of my boots? You things really are pathetic…” the blonde spoke, quite pleased with herself.

 

“Eh guys, shoot her already?” Hemony said as he ran.

 

“How could you ever think you could ever look after yourselves, never mind being equal to Titans?” she laughed.

 

“Seriously! Shoot her!” Hemony shouted.

 

Two pops rang out and the woman squealed. Hemony kept running until he got behind a crate. He knew better than to mill around in the open when a Titan had been gooed. He turned and looked. She had stopped dead, her hands were clawing at her eyes. The goo gun was just that, it fired a ball of sticky goo that stuck to the eyes and couldn’t be removed without a special cleaning agent.

 

“I can’t see! I can’t see!” She screamed. “Help! Help me!”

 

“I almost feel bad for her…” Hemony said.

 

Another shot rang out. A metal canister landed on her clothes and shot two spikes into her skin and fired an enormous burst of electricity into its blinded target and she dropped to floor, unconscious.

 

“Jobs and good un chief.” One of the heavy troopers confirmed.

 

“Alright, stealth troopers. Move out.” Centurium Demerius ordered. “Runners, restrain the target. Be safe everyone.”

 

 

****

“Any word from crewmate Damora?” Rimosi asked.

 

“None sir.” The helmsman replied. “Should we dispatch someone to check on her?”

 

Rimosi stroked his chin. It was just him and the helmsman left on the bridge. The engineering bay was mostly empty as well as most of the crew were attempting to patch up the breaches in the hull before they could jump to warp.

 

“No, no. I imagine crewmate Damora is just enjoying taking care of our infestation.” Rimosi said with a saccharine smile and returned to monitoring the pursuing ships.

 

****

Crewmate Damora was not having a good time. Crewmate Damora was currently lying prone, blind and in some amount of pain on the cargo bay floor. She had tried to stand but it felt like she weighed five times as much as she normally did.

 

 

“What’s your status, Tentanus?” Demerius spoke into his comm.

 

“Making our ascent now…” a strained voice replied.

 

Tentanus sounded strained because he was rather strained. Even with mag boots and one third gravity it was still quite arduous trying to climb one hundred and sixty metres straight up a bundle of cables inside the walls of the engineering bay. The only other route they had was to use a lift in the engineering bay itself but that would draw too much attention.

 

So climbing it was.

 

Tentanus and his team eventually reached the second floor. The other advantage of climbing up the cables was it brought them out right into the computer room.

 

“Over there.” One of the stealth troopers said and pointed to a large rack of computer equipment.” We’ll need to climb up and plug into a cable between the firewall and the core.”

 

Tentanus sighed. “Why are we always climbing?”

 

Several minutes later the team were sitting on top of the core computer and one was using a knife to cut the insulation from a cable. She jammed the metal pronged end of her own cable into the exposed bundle of wires.

 

“We’re in…” a trooper with a laptop said.

 

Tentanus tapped on his pad. “Let’s hope these override codes are still valid.”

 

“Otherwise we’re going to have to float home.” The laptop trooper said.

 

For several minutes the stealth troops watched pad’s screen nervously as the codes cycled through. Piece by piece the ship’s computer traffic was decrypted until eventually the laptop had full access to the ship’s systems.

 

“Centurium,” Tentanus said. “We have full access to the ship’s computer.”

 

“Excellent work. Execute standard containment protocol.” Centurium Demerius ordered.

 

“Yes sir.” Tentanus turned to his comrade with the laptop. “Lock all terminals, kill the engines and set gravity to Earth standard.”

 

The trooper smiled.  “With pleasure, sir.”

 

 

****

“Sir…” The helmsman spoke unsure. “I…I seem to have lost access to my console.”

 

“What!?” Rimosi snapped and then his own console locked up. “No, no, no!”

 

He got up and started to stride across the cockpit to another terminal.

 

He didn’t make it.

 

The humans had been kind, honestly. They could have made the transition immediate, flipping the switch straight to 3.03 GAp. That kind of transition could have broken backs and snapped bones. It could have killed, depending on the position the Titan was in, and what the sudden acceleration did to their brain.

 

Instead, the Jacks dialled the gravity up, giving Rimosi the brief sensation of suddenly being pushed upward, like he was standing in a lifting ship with faulty grav controls.

 

That was half-right, of course. The gravity climbed quickly, and he staggered. It kept climbing, and he fell to his knees. It kept climbing, and he fell to the ground, landing painfully on his side. He rolled himself onto his back, and lay flat.

 

Earth gravity isn’t fatal to Titans. Not immediately, anyhow. Titan bodies, like human bodies, are better at withstanding horizontal G-forces than vertical. Everyone in the Empire who’d piloted a ship knew that if the gravity failed high, your safest move was to lay flat, and try to access the computer using voice commands. You then shut off the gravity, and then yes, you’re in zero-G, which has a whole bunch of other issues related to it, but which is less of an immediate danger.

 

“System access, emergency,” Scylane said. “Disable gravitics. Authorization Plural-Zhe-Ashay.”

 

“Authorization not recognized,” the computer helpfully replied. “System locked out by the Space Exploration Corps, Jacks Unit 13, under Imperial Transit Regulation 98.4 § 79.”

 

“Medical override!” Rimosi shouted.

 

“Medical override not recognized,” the computer reiterated. “System locked out by the Space Exploration Corps, Jacks Unit 13, under Imperial Transit Regulation 98.4 § 79.”

 

The lift opened.

 

This should have surprised Rimosi, but he was too aware of the dreadful sense of constantly accelerating upward, or being pulled downward – it was the same thing. He tried to rise to face the intruders, but he lacked the strength.

 

His sidearm. It was in his chair, hidden in the armrest. He tried to roll, and made it over once – getting to his side was easy, but he fell hard onto his face and stomach, and gasped as he was winded. All the while, he heard them shouting – small, quiet, tiny shouts of command.

 

“Rear bridge secure!”

 

“Affirm, Mr. Hemony.”

 

“Helm officer secure!”

 

“Nice work Ms. Cenu,” the leader said. He was close, now. Rimosi forced himself over again, landing on his back with a thud, and looked up at the command chair.

 

A human stood upon it, wearing Imperial battle armour.

 

Hylk Demerius had to admit, this wasn’t strictly necessary, and it might be a bit reckless. But damn it, he thought, this deserved a bit of showmanship. So he kicked in his suit’s gravitics, and leaped toward the giant laying prone beneath him.

 

He landed on the man’s forehead, and turned his gravitics back full. He could feel the man struggling a little, perhaps considering trying to flick him off. So Demerius strode purposefully between the giant’s eyes, and up the bridge of his nose. He turned, and levelled his weapon, right between the crossed eyes of his quarry.

 

“Scylane Rimosi,” Demerius said, “You are under arrest for High Treason against the Emperor, and Class One Sedition against Federation Province. If you do not resist,” Demerius said, “I won’t use this to bore a hole into your skull.”

 

Rimosi glowered. But he kept his tongue. There was no point in arguing. There was no point in fighting anymore.

 

It was over. He had lost.

 

 

 

 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

Author’s note: Thanks to DX for the assist with this chapter.

 

One more to go.