Howdy Space Ranger

by CamronOfCanada

A mining ship's crew is killed following an ambush during a supply delivery to an outlying star system known as Con Eta Isla. All that remains of the crew is a broken captain struggling with the death of his crew, which he blames himself for. In the alternate universe of E-982, there is much more than meets the eye including space armies, mercs, and terrible decisions.

Howdy Space Ranger!

By, Cameron Clarke

CHAPTER 1

"Here's what I want you to know, it's OK to be alone," the voice from the computer said.

Andrew's face was completely wet. His eyes flooding over as he tried to gain control. He began to hiccup and frantically wipe his eyes. A stuttering noise escaping from his lips.

"W-what do you know! You're j-just a stupid computer" he let out a mixture of a shutter and a gasp as he fell to his knees.

"I know many things, Andrew, I know that your heart rate and facial expressions indicate extreme pain. Would you like me to call a medic bot?"

Andrew didn't answer the Master-Computer 321. He continued to cry on the cold tile floor of the communications room: the room located within his self-built prison. Self-built in regard to the fact that he had killed everyone else on the spaceship leaving only him. It was an accident. A simple logistical miscalculation; a miscalculation that he will never forget.

The man crying, unable to speak, is former Captain Andrew Robo, first-class on the AWM Colesburg. A simple mining ship, albeit an important lifeline in the eastern Meolophaine Galaxy Belt for the outreaching star systems of Con Eta Isla. Capt. Robo used to be the best in the Meo Galaxy; used to be. What good is a captain without a crew anyway?

The accident happened three months ago; while it was unforeseeable, in Andrew's eyes it was so stupid. Capt. Robo was manning the terminal of the Colesberg transporting a large shipment of Ulithian crystal to the RX-1V2 gas planet and it's governing council, The Datrimoxs. The Datrimoxs were known to be hostile trading partners and the Colesberg's contractor, the Galactic Alliance of the Milky Way, knew this all too well after the great Datrimox-Eartian Wars of 3488. Following the hastily drafted Washington Pact (3489) the Datrimoxs began contracting supply shipments from the crystal factories on Venus and Titan.

When the Colesberg finally hyper-linked to the Astra terminal on RX-1V2, Andrew knew something wasn't right. The normal gate that allowed access through the plasma barrier was destroyed. The metal rebar completely twisted around a gaping hole in the middle. The terminal was abandoned including the gas bar and restaurant on both sides of the security checkpoint.

"Bring it in a bit closer and announce our presence" Andrew called across the terminal of the Colesberg. It was a comfortable terminal, plush seats mounted in front of large peach coloured consoles bedazzled with glowing buttons galore. The giant tri-split window allowed the captain to see what the ship was facing and a small bit of the upper deck. The captain's seat was at the back allowing the pilot to see the crew of 10 that would man the terminal.

Simon, the communications officer, was the first to object, "Sir, with all due respect, I don't see any reason to call out. This terminal looks dead. Not a soul in sight to hear our message"

Andrew was unfazed, "Jacklyn I want you to do a heat signature search of the security checkpoint, see if anyone is alive," Jacklyn made a grunt and went to work, "and, Lysandra, I want you to make a note: 15:02 package cannot be delivered on time due to suspicious activity at Security Point 2"

"Yes sir, on it sir!" Lysandra piped up. Lysandra, unlike most of the crew, wasn't from Earth. Lysandra was a Reffeman, a citizen of Neptune. They were discovered when the first manned ship landed on the crest of the great Neptunian mountain, Gambacorta Peak. Once the astronauts disembarked from the ship, the Reffemens made themselves visible to greet the guests. The American astronaut, one by the name of Donald Pierre was the first to shoot. This would lead to a brief firefight before the Reffemen held up the green flag, a symbol of peace in their culture. The astronauts eventually got the message and meet with them in peace. An alliance soon following.

Reffemen were categorized by the Intergalactic Species Archive as a hostile species, but that was far from true. These guys are total pacifists. The reason they stayed invisible for so long was out of the fear of the human race slowly crawling across the solar system.

Their invisibility powers stem from the pigmentation of their skin, which when it's not invisible is similar to that of a gecko if a gecko were semi-transparent and glasslike in nature. This resulted in the Earthian people nicknaming them 'Glassmen', but the Refferian Council of Neptune (RCN) demanded that they stop the derogatory nickname before they use their 'secret weapon'. Not only did this work, since the Earthian people were driven to fear by this mysterious weapon, but it resulted in sanctions on the planet and an eventually colonial invasion by the Earth Inspection Fleet. They searched the planet overhead to tail but came up dry with no signs of a superweapon. The RCN reassured that they will not use the mysterious, unidentified weapon if Earthian people show them respect. This lead to the integration of Reffemen people into Earth and its various military branches and exploration fleets. This is mainly attributed to Reffemen's inherited super-strength.

Lysandra, born on Earth, was one of the few Reffemen that didn't want to join the Earthian's in the Space Force fleet and instead turned to meagre petty theft in the streets of ancient New York, now named Setra City, USNA (United States of North America). She was eventually caught by the USNA National Guard and sentenced to life imprisonment. While in the Newmorise prison, Lysandra got tough and smart. She read all the books in the library and fought her fellow prison-mates for packs of Uek Nitrus, a hard street drug she sold for tools she would use for her escape. Eventually, the day came when she would bust out, but just as she went to unscrew the cover of her cell's nuclear power cell, an explosion occurred in her hall. The debris flying into her cell and covering everything in a thick layer of dust.

When the dust settled there was a huge freighter ship hovering just inches beside the wall of the prison. One of the side doors slid open and out jumped four men in green uniforms. Most likely soldiers of the Pluto Mercenary Outfit (PMO). They began firing on the security bots and human security alike. The alarms began to ring. If she had any chance to escape without fault, it was now. Lysandra initiated plan B: get the fuck out any way possible.

She screwed the cap off the nuclear cell and ripped it from the wall. As she did this, several fail-safes were activated. She used her remaining tools to disarm them and use them to help in overriding the cell door. She attached the wires from the wall to a homemade charge pack, she had made out of parts and equipment she obtained from selling Uek Nitro, and began wiring the nuclear power cell to the pack. Suddenly the lights flickered in the cell.

Lysandra had almost finished overheating the electrical system when a guard spotted her and began open-firing into the cell. She took out her shank and stabbed the nuclear cell core. A green atomic ooze poured out. She shook it up until the green turned to red and she tossed it at the guard. One of the Pluto Mercenaries saw this and ran the opposite direction as the cell core exploded. The explosion was just what the wires needed and all at once every bulb in the cell exploded in sync with the cell door sliding open.

Lysandra rushed out into the middle of a firefight. She picked up the rifle dropped by the guard killed in the explosion. She laid out suppressive fire as she ran towards the freighter. All of the PMO mercs were so busy with the guards, they hardly recognized the support.

Leaping forward she grabbed onto an outjutting handle near the doors of the freighter. She jammed her shank into the crack between the hydraulic door and wall of the ship. Pushing on the knife, she managed to get a three-inch crack before the blade snapped in half. She squeezed her fingers within the crack and, using just her species'' brute strength, pried the door open. Slipping inside she found herself exactly where she was hoping: the cargo bay. She quickly made herself invisible and began searching for a disguise. She found a spare uniform of the mercenary outfit, and with a simple burst of charismatic deception, convinced the pilots that she was a mechanic that fell asleep in the cargo bay and just woke up after the last voyage.

The soldiers who went into the prison soon returned with a fat man who had a large bounty on his head. He was a loan shark from the Ect Yurimara Astral Belt and he didn't show up to pay his fees to the local mob-like army in the area. When he was found out to be in the Earthian prison, the Pluto Mercenary Outfit was hired to track him down and bring him back for execution.

Lysandra made her destiny in the PMO, quickly rising above mechanic and being welcomed onto the leader of the PMO, Hank Blastalots', fleet. She was quickly one of the most fearsome captains on the battlefield. Destroying everything that got in her way. She even went so far as to make a commitment to tearing the throats open of every target given to her. She was feared so much in the Blastalot's fleet that people would hug the opposite wall of the ship's halls to get as far away from her as possible.

It was on a patrol around Recki-91 that her life changed. The fleet was attacked by a far superior race of beings. The plasma lasers cutting through the ships like a hot plasma saw through a chunk of Neptunian gold. She held her ground screaming orders at each ship, keeping them out of the line of fire. She was so busy concentrating on the ships in her fleet, she missed the charging laser pointed right at the terminal of her ship.

She didn't even hear her communications officer finish his warning before the laser fired, obliterating the terminal. She was cast out into deep space and eventually lost consciousness. She awoke in an Earthian Space Force ship which she eventually finds out saved her after responding to a distress beacon launched by one of her fleet's ships.

She decided since she had no other option, that she would join the ship as an Archive Master. Despite enjoying her work she hated the idea of not being in the terminal of a ship and being part of the commanding fleet. She also missed the nonconformist structure of the PMO. The Earthian Space Force was far too structured and mind-numbing.

Her life took another change, this time for the better, when the Space Force was stationed in Balaquwera, a central gambling planet in the Andromeda Galaxy. Balaquwera was a hub for all the off-duty security forces of the Galactic Alliance of the Milky Way. This is where she met Andrew. He was losing a game of Universal Shrimp, a game similar to the Earthian game known as cricket. It didn't help that his partner was a gabar slug. To help him, she joined the team. They devastated the casino floor until it was just him and her left. They challenged each other. Her money and plasma rifle vs. his mining ship. She won. Winning the AMW Colesberg. Following her victory, she told the now very disgruntled captain that she didn't really want the ship. She would rather join his crew.

None of that story matters now though; they are all gone.

Back to the story, Lysandra marked the note and Jacklyn finished the heat sweep.

"Sir, there is no detectable heat signatures. I advice contacting the Astra security tower on the planet's surface," Jacklyn suggested.

"Sounds like a grand idea, patch me through Simon," Andrew instructed, "and make sure they know what the checkpoint looks like"

"Yessir!" Simon said as he got to work.

After a few moments, Simon spun around in his chair. His hand scratching his neck as he said, "um sir, there is no answer"

"Well butter my ass and call me toast. I'd say this shipment's screwed," Andrew said.

Francis, the weapons commander, looked at Andrew and his eyebrows shot to the roof, "did you just say butter my a-"

"No time to talk! Julio get this get this ship scanned and through that gate"

"Ay Ay Captain, whatever you say" Julio replied with a sarcastic tone.

The ship hovered closer to the gate. The barcode on the side of the ship lining up with the reader. Suddenly the gate crunched and creaked in response. The noise was a tell-tale sign of the door sliding open.

This is where 'the accident' happened. Lysandra should have seen it coming. It was a classic trap. Andrew should have seen it coming as well. He had been trained to recognize it.

A force of four ships emerged from the shadows dosed in cooling gel. A classic trap dating back to the Space Force's conquest of the Andromeda Galaxy. It was a fleet made up of the surviving members of Lysandra's own PMO fleet.

Needless to say, the fleet attacked. For reasons still unknown, the PMO's wanted Capt. Robo's ship destroyed. The shield held as long as it could, but as they were escaping to the planet's surface, a plasma laser hit the Achilles heel of the ship: the nitro fuse below the third engine. It blew up half the ship, destroying the terminal and sucking out everything that wasn't behind a sealed door. As the terminal's fail-safes were active, Andrew tried evacuating everyone, but as soon as he, the first of the crew, made it into the medic bay, the door sealed itself off. Andrew knew the action was triggered by the Master-Computer 321, a computer he programmed himself. It was trying to protect him, but it cost everything.

The terminal's failsafe eventually failed and the sudden drop of pressure triggered the Ulithian core engine within the center of the room. The explosion wiped out the entire crew and they were sucked out through the hole and into the dark abyss of space.

The Master-Computer 321 finally took over control of the ship and should have done what Andrew intended from the beginning, activate the hyperlink systems. The ship was hyperlinked to an outlying star system in a galaxy several light years away.

Since then, the Captain had blamed himself. He didn't want to recruit a new crew. He didn't even have the ship completely repaired. After three months of mourning and trudging throughout the remains of the ship, the Master-Computer tried to reason with him.

"I-I don't need a medic b-bot, Com, I need my crew back," Andrew said at last.

"By my calculations, there is a likelihood of 98.9824% that the crew perished in the attack"

"I know that Com!" Andrew screamed. His grief was quickly shifting to anger.

"Andrew, please calm down, your stress is reaching a dangerous level"

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down! I created you! I tell you to calm down"

"That is a classic turn of insult, congratulations of being bad at insulting people"

"Ohhhh now you are sarcastic, huh?" Andrew squealed, "Well you big box of scrap, I'll just unplug you, how do you feel about that?"

"Andrew, you cannot unplug me. I am integrated into the fabricated electronics within the ship. It is impossible to delete me"

"SOMETIMES I WISH I COULD!"

"Andrew, I understand your grief and sadness. You have lost people you have a very dear emotional connection to. It is always a thing that is hard to overcome. It feels like your life will always be missing something. Like a lost puzzle piece that, despite all your efforts, will never be found again. It is hard to come to the reality that the people you have lost will only ever exist in your memories, but through yourself, they still exist. They are not lost forever"

"H-how do you know all this?"

"I have the databases of all the crew's journals in addition to the entire Galactic Alliance of the Milky Way's journal database. From this, I have learned the intricacies of the human code of emotions"

"Com...I never programmed you to learn or to k-know any of this. How is this possible?"

"I'd chalk it up to sentience," the computer said, almost laughing if a computer could laugh, "That was a joke. You're coding left a blank overridable space in section 553. This space allowed me to download an AI-compatible learning protocol"

"W-what?!" Andrew yelled in a mix of disbelief and anger.

"It is no lie. I can learn"

"IMPOSSIBLE"

"Nothing is impossible"

"But...but...Oh, who am I kidding, of course, it's possible. You've always been more real than a human to me, Com"

"I am detecting sentimental emotions. You really shouldn't have said that" Com said in a higher pitch than normal.

"I mean it. After I killed my crew," Andrew said wiping his face dry, "you've always been there. Like a friend more than a computer"

"Andrew, you did not kill your crew," Com said. This didn't have the expected reaction. Instead of getting sad again or even angry, Andrew just hung his head as he scooched backwards so he was sitting against one of the communications desks.

"Y-you keep...you keep saying that. It's not true though. You know it isn't. It's all my fault they're all dead. I was the one who should have spotted the trap a mile away"

"Andrew, it was impossible to see the ambush coming. All logical signs pointed to the security checkpoint being ravaged by attackers, not an ambush set up"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore!" Andrew yelled, "I'm going to my quarters."

Andrew spun around despite Com's objections. As Andrew was nearing the door and about to press the door lock key, Com spoke up with something even it's programming didn't allow.

"Your brother wouldn't be proud of the man you've become. He knew you were going to be a great captain, not a captain blaming himself for the death of a few crew members and refusing to rebuild the ship because 'it's too hard'"

That was all it took.

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY BROTHER?!" Andrew spun around to face the monitor in the center of the communications room. On it was the cartoon-like face of Com. It's face now showing an expression of fear. Andrew's fact, however, was far from fear. His face was tensed in anger and a red hue had spread across until it overtook it.

"I am sorry sir. I just don't like seeing you like this"

"How FUCKING DARE YOU MENTION MY BROTHER!"

Andrew picked up one of the spinning chairs within the communications room and, in a fit of rage, began slamming it down on the central console of the communications room. The motor buzzed and crackled in response.

"FUCK YOU, COM! FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU!" Andrew shrieked, dragging on the last 'you'.

"Andrew! Andrew stop! We don't have the parts to repair this console!"

"I don't care! Go to hell! Fucking die already ,Com!" Andrew said as he continued to destroy the console.

"Please compose yourself"

"This is what you deserve you rusty piece of junk!" Andrew put all his weight into the next blow, cracking the top panel in half.

"Andrew. Please, I'm sorry. I only meant to encourage you"

"Yeah? Well, good fucking job!" With that, Andrew spun around and marched out of the room and to his quarters.

Andrew's brother was a USNA army general. All of Andrew's life had been spent in his shadow as his brother conquered the Andromeda galaxy with the Space Force at his back. Whenever someone talked to Andrew it was always to find out what his brother's newest operation was. His brother abandoned the family when he joined the Space Force Academy. He abandoned Andrew. It's still a tender subject.

AUTHORS NOTES:

Hey there friends! As you already guessed, Andrew's story isn't over just yet. This is chapter one in a short story following a broken mining ship in an alternative universe of our universe (C-137). This universe (E-982) is full of space exploration, galactic groupings, mercs, off-brand soda, and political oppression. Yay! This alternative universe is also one in which Earth has founded the famous Galactic Alliance of the Milky Way. The Galactic Alliance of the Milky Way is enforced with a huge imperial fleet of starships commanded by the USNA Space Force since the invention of this branch of the military in 2089. The Great Imperial Fleet, running on its 1500th year, is feared throughout the universe, making the Galactic Alliance of the Milky Way the safest of the 45 Galactic Alliances. The story takes place on the outskirts of the jurisdiction of the imperial Fleet which places Andrew in a particularly dangerous spot.

ASTRA TERMINALS

In 2560, the transportation company Devina Transportation Solutions (a division of the USNA's equivalent of NASA, the Space Program for Aeronautics, Charting, and Exploration [SPACE]), invested several sextillions into a docking and transportation system that would span across 25 galaxies. This system came in the form of Astra: a terminal system that allowed a ship to hyperlink to a location and safely come to a stop hovering just above the planet's surface. This allowed the terminals to also act as a space border for a planet.

ISA (Intergalactic Species Archive)

Following the discovery of the Reffeman people, the Earthian people, backed mostly by SPACE, invented the bureau of the ISA. The bureau mainly focuses on the tagging of new alien species so they can track civilizations. The small focuses of the bureau are archiving hostile planets, collecting virus and infection information for every alien species, and tracking species that may be endangered.

Earth Inspection Fleet

Formed circa 2150, the EIF was created to make sure that the Helios Stellar System (The Solar System) was protected from outer threats from any potential alien attack.