2976.225
The Quantum Slipstream, En Route to Dakona System
The prismatic hues of the strange other realm continued to surge and flicker around the tiny red and yellow craft as it raced though the chaotic planescape, nebulous strands of gaseous clouds flitting in exchange as they glided over the extending curved wings of the craft and the main hull. Ever since its mad escape from Zebes, the tiny vessel had been traveling through the mysterious plane known to the Chozo as the slipstream, yet still had not emerged to its destination despite being capable of speeds in the range of ten parsecs or more an hour.
Whether it was a malfunction or a quirk of its locked-in autopilot commands, the small craft was still speeding through the hyper-dimension. It was inside that the wear of what had happened on Zebes became evident. The blonde girl whom had barely turned eighteen years of age was curled up still in the pilot's seat, her cheeks stained from the tears while a soft blue light was projecting down on her, a stabilizing stasis field that kept the young woman in a sleep for the journey to her destination. Food and drink was less concerning with the stasis field, allowing her to extend what supplies had been stored aboard longer than if she had remained awake.
Yet it could not take away the nightmares that had plagued her all her life, compounding even more with the invasion she had narrowly escaped. Reliving the events that had been the massacre of K-2L, feeling herself locking up and unable to do anything, had been just as traumatic as enduring the Kromus invasion itself. She didn't want to remember, but everything haunted her now. Azure Path's broken and wound riddled corpse, Platinum Chest's horrifying screams, and the wet crunch she could hear as she and Maru had fled.
Maru. His last act of locking her in the small runabout craft and setting the autopilot to the nearest friendly territory, all before he had thrown himself into the fire and fought off as many Kromus as he could. She had no idea if he was still alive or dead, but Kromus were not exactly known for taking prisoners. She had been the only survivor of K-2L, a testament to their brutality that no one else on the colony had escaped. That fact had been enough keep her from coming out of stasis for days now. The thought of losing her strongest example of a parental figure and often her only emotional support was enough to make Samus withdraw completely.
"Deactivating stasis field, preparing to depart slipstream. Restoring life support levels to active."
The blonde girl slowly blinked as the blue field fizzled and faded, returning her to the waking world. After a moment, Samus sighed and sat up in the pilot's seat as her eyes blearily looked around and took in what was going on. "Are we finally there?" she muttered as she walked about at the main cabin. Her powered suit and its containment chamber were at the back of the ship, status readouts displaying the constant array of diagnostic tests being run. In a storage divider at the central area of the cabin was a small station for food and drink dispersal, which she had been using sparsely as she didn't know how long it would take to arrive at Calliope IX. Normally, a flux drive of mark two or better grade should have been able to get a small ship like this from Zebes and into civilized space within a few standard day units. It had been seven, according the chronometers, since she had escaped Zebes. Something had to be wrong if the ship could maintain slipspace travel this long, yet was taking a week or more to reach its destination.
And then, as stated by the ship's navcom AI, the cascading realm of the slipstream began wavering moments before the tunnel-like plane withdrew from around the craft and deposited the tiny vessel into normal space. Immediately she could see the Dakona system; two main sequence stars ranging with over thirty astronomical units between them and a much smaller dwarf star in the further distance. Navcom renders revealed six gas giant planets in orbits around the trinary stars, and dozens of moons that could be considered planets themselves orbiting those. One of the gas giants, then, was Calliope, with one of the habitable moons in orbit being Calliope IX.
"I need to contact Dane." Anxiety was already kicking up at the thought of that had been going on back on Zebes since she left. "Confed has to know, they have to send the fleet out there, secrecy be damned..."
Sublight engines roared to life and brought the lithe little ship about on a course for the third gas giant from Dakona-A, the smaller yellow-white star of the primary two solar masses. The Navcom had brought the ship back into normal space just outside the orbit of Calliope, and more importantly, outside of the gas giant's gravity well. That meant based on the cruising speed the ship was at, she'd be arriving within just an hour and a half.
Somehow, that didn't help calm the panic attack she could feel building up.
Clio City, Calliope IX
Of all the planets considered to be throwaway backwaters that no one would miss if it suddenly ceased to be, Calliope IX would be in the top ten of the list, despite being a moon. The colony was one Terra often wished they had not been forced to settle, but the early days of reconstruction following the Machine War had been one of careful politics with the Galactic Federation as they had all but in official words forced 'membership' on the humans. As a result, the colony had been dumped unceremoniously on the muddy moon after surveys had found what seemed to have been vast quantities of titanium in the crust. It had been prosperous for the first few decades, as mining operations rooted and expanded over the surface, but easier processed sources and the development of compressed durasteel alloy left the colony with a recession once resources began to become expanded for sooner than thought, until any desirability it once had held was gone.
After that, the only thing of value had been the quartz, moldavite and peridot veins, as well as the occasional platinum and tungsten finds. Beyond that, Calliope IX was more useful as a penal colony since the throttling of its economy, and sending prisoners to serve as indentured labor there was cheaper than trying to sell legitimate migration of new blood colonists as an option.
At the center of it all was Clio City, once the original mining outpost almost two hundred years ago, now developed into what passed for a capitol for a total population of maybe a few hundred thousand, excluding the prison sector. Named after some long nearly forgotten figure of mythology of same roots as its mother planet's designation, Clio had taken a ramshackle visage as of the last few decades, as the last of the titanium veins had been cleaned out during the Kromus War, leaving only a few precious metals and the gem veins. Even the civilian residents, many having been born into mining families that had been on the moon since it was first colonized, had become more than a touch embittered and resentful of the Federation at large, as well as with the Confederation for not offering more than token support since the war ended.
Yet remaining a colony of the Confederation was better than defiant "independence". The Dakona system was on the opposite side of Confed controlled space from the Border Worlds Union, leaving it without any semblance of protection if, in the extremely low chance of it happening, that they were raided. And after the Landerich had been effectively wiped off the galactic charts during the Kromus War, it was better to be a token effort than to be all alone. It also didn't help matters that an entire sector region of the moon was the penal colony, and as minimal as it was, the presence of the containment staff and Confederation military police kept them in better relations than the more obviously negligent Federation.
Just a number of kilometers outside Clio City was one of the main moldavite mines. Equipment breakdowns were unfortunately common, requiring frequent repairs that often were preformed by prison sector inmates than actual contracted mechanics. One of those repairs had just been completed, allowing the primary drills to resume operations even while smoke was belched out of its engine drive.
"Why can't we just get one of those new Axium plasma drills and just be done with it?" One of the junior supervisors sighed and set his data tablet down on a table while looking out the plexisteel viewport at the ground operations. "This rust bucket laser bore has been in operation since before I was born."
"If you have twenty million seguru lying around, seeing as Cortamin refuses to take Confederation credits, and the jeweler companies sure as hell isn't going to pony up the cash when the laser bores are still working seventy percent of the time." The primary unit manager looked up from her work load, noting the morose expression on her subordinate's face. "Facts are facts, Gil. This mud pile hasn't been relevant to the Federation since Daiban came and tapped out all the titanium veins right in the middle of the war. Confed wasn't happy about that, because they needed it for the shipyards, and my old man never got a straight answer back when he ran operations here as to why Daiban nearly screwed over the fleet."
A shrug. The old history lesson was an often repeated one. Much of the operations management was family held, as the manager had noted, but nepotism was hardly the issue. The lack of any real oversight from a company management had been something the colony and operations had come to accept long ago, and so long as the person in charge was competent at their job and could earn the respect due to their position, who they were related to didn't matter.
"Miss Keiths, this Clio City space traffic control, please respond."
The woman blinked for a second in confusion before reaching over to the comunit and tapping the response switch. "This is Chief Keiths, confirming. Not often I get a call from you boys."
"I tried contacting the local MP unit, but they just told me to get you and let your office handle this." There was a tone of apology in the voice coming from the small communication unit. "There's an untagged craft that appeared out of nowhere just past the magnetosphere, we're still not sure how it got there."
"Probably some new Confed slipspace capable test craft and they don't want Daiban seeing it in the central systems," Gil said with a grumble as he walked over and sat down by the hard metal desk. "Someone probably didn't think we were worth notifying."
"It's registering as just a bit over fighter craft sized, sir. Too small for a slipdrive, and none of the usual energy readings from a Jump or a slipspace vector have shown up. It just literally appeared without any sign of how it got here...and its coming in for landing just outside the mines you're at."
That information got Andrea Keiths' attention as she looked at Gil and frowned. Even slipdrive was obvious in exit vector, just as much as a jump point. They might be a backwater mining colony on a mud ball of a moon, but she still knew basic subspace travel. "Gil, get site security. Have them meet me where this thing lands. Control, I want a projection on landing, relay it to the security team here."
"Make them actually work for their paychecks?"
Keiths gave an amused snort as she opened the drawer of her desk and pulled out a large taser shock gun, checked the power cell, then slipped it into the back band of her pants before clipping her comunit to her belt. "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that if this is some kind of pirate raider, their rent-a-cop asses are still useless." She checked the messages coordinates for projected touch down of the vessel and gestured for Gil to follow. "You drive better than I do, Watts. Let's hurry and get there before it does."
With a nod, Gil Watts followed his supervising manager out of the main site control office and down the lift to a waiting transport carrier. "Keep that drill going while we check something out!" he shouted to the main crew, then loaded himself into the driver's seat of the repulsor craft while Keiths slid in on the passenger side. After confirming his authorization to operate the vehicle and powering the engine drive, Gil pushed the throttle lever and steered the craft down the main road until they saw the streak of an object flying down toward them, still glowing red from atmospheric entry. It was an odd design, red with a yellow bottom section and a pair of elongated wings jutting out from under the cockpit to curve back and frame the main body. Definitely not what one expected for a pirate craft, and it was being far too obvious in its appearance and descent for a scout or a lone raider.
By the time they reached the projected landing coordinates, the local security unit was waiting for them. Most of them were locals, hired by an out of system corporation that had been given special license by the Federation to the sector for how much they cut costs and had paid off the senators who had sway over the contracting offices. The upside was, no off-worlders of note with an ego and a badge that made them think they were in charge. The downside was, no one outside the prison sector military police had any skill worth a damn if things blew up. And even that was debatable.
"Are we really out here for some lost cargo hauler again?"
"Stow the jokes," Keiths growled as she pulled herself out of the carrier and raised a pair of electro-binocs to her face. The microcomputers ran calculations as they locked on the incoming craft and gave a gauge of how quickly it was approaching. "I know Mej'ith pays shit, but it's not like you actually have to do much for a hundred credits an hour." It was coming in decently fast, and definitely under power as it was exceeding thirteen hundred kilometers an hour. "They sure as hell are in a hurry, whoever they are."
For a moment, it looked as if the craft was in fact out of control and on a course to slam into the moon's surface at full atmospheric thrust. Yet just as it was near enough to make the group of half a dozen men and women drop for cover, there was a high pitched roar of retrojets and overclocked repulsors firing to bring the craft to a sudden and surprisingly controlled halt. The energy field and rapid air pressure shift was enough to blow a couple unprepared members of the security team off their feet as the craft reorientated itself to a clearer landing area, then settled into place with the repulsor field allowing the vessel to hover above the ground.
And then, other than the low hum of the repulsor field, it was quiet. Keiths looked over at Gil, uncertainty in her eyes, but the situation was here in front of them. She took a step toward the craft, cautiously approaching it and running a hand over the cooled yellow lower hull. It was then that the woman noticed faint precision etched markings in the surface, a writing system, maybe, that she didn't recognize. That wasn't too hard as the Dakona system was rather isolated save the occasional cargo hauler and once in a blue moon precious gems merchant coming through.
"Do you think anyone is actually in this thing?"
As if on cue, there was a banging from inside the craft. Keiths took a step back, turned her head, and groaned to see the security unit trying to subtly back away themselves. Her repeated comments about 'rent-a-cops' were sadly proving more true than venting frustration. If the military police over at the prison sector wasn't so eager to brush off things like this, despite it being their job to investigate the kind of situation they were looking at, this would be much better handled.
"Is there a hatch on this thing, or an access panel? Someone is in that thing!"
And then there was a hissing sound as something swung open from the rear, revealing a cargo hatch of some kind that landed one side against the ground and revealed a girl, no more than seventeen or eighteen, who stumbled out and caught her footing just in time to not fall on her face. She looked around, blue-green eyes wide with could only be described as panic, and her blonde hair was clearly disheveled and a bit grimy after what looked to have been days since she last showered. The same could be said for the blue jumpsuit she was wearing, with several blackened stains in the fabric.
"I need Dane...Someone get me Admiral Dane, right now!" She looked around, as if expecting some kind of immediate response to her wild demand. "Why are you all just staring at me? Someone call up Confleet headquarters and get me Admiral Castor Dane, this is an emergency!"
The lead of the security unit gave a gruff snort as he walked toward her, hands raised to lead her into assuming him non-threatening. "I can tell a hypo-junkie when I see one. Probably stole the ship from some rich Confie with too much money and got too much of a high before they started hitting jump points." Now his hands were lowered to show he intended to make sure she didn't struggle. "Come on, let's find out where your parents are, kid. I'm sure the guy you stole this from will be nice and not press too many charges."
She looked at him in abject horror. "What? No, I told you, I need to reach Admiral Castor Dane, it's the Kromus!" The blonde girl was clearly past the edge of panic as she backed away from the approaching security unit. "They've taken Zebes, he has to know and mobilized the fleets!"
"She's probably on stardust combined with a mental breakdown," one of the other security officers stated as she pulled out an elecro-stun baton. "No need for the MPs, we can handle this, Miss Keiths. A nice million volt charge to knock her out and a few nights in a cell should sober her up, and we can find out who owns this thing."
Her eyes went narrow suddenly as, just when the security officer approached, the blonde girl whipped a hand out and swat the stun baton away, then moved almost like a blur as she slammed her other hand like a piledriver into the uniformed woman's chest. The impact sent the security officer flying back almost ten feet, leaving her curled in a fetal position and clutching her sides. The girl, meanwhile, had taken up a hunched guarding posture, centering her weight in the fashion of someone who had clearly been military trained.
"I said...I need to talk to Admiral Castor Dane, Seventh Fleet, Confederation Naval Operations Command." The blonde glowered at the stunned group before her, her feet shifting to root her center of gravity in case she had to further act. "My name is Samus Aran, I'm the daughter of Captain John Aran, and I need to warn the fleet that the Kromus have taken Zebes!"
"Little girl, do you know where you are? Whatever shit you're on, doesn't change that Confed ain't exactly a warm welcomed group here since dumping a penal colony sector on us."
Another one of the security officers stalked in on her, causing the girl to give what almost sounded like an angry bird chuff. Ignoring it, the larger man made his way in, only to be welcomed with a rapid series of impact against his head and chest as the girl moved almost too fast to be seen. A pair of quick punches caused him to spit out a glob of blood and saliva, leaving him open as she twisted her own form around and brought a sharp scissor kick in an upward motion that caught him by the chin, and with a faint crack, sent him to the ground.
"Admiral Dane," came her hissed words, her eyes narrowed like a hawk preparing to strike prey. "Zebes has been taken, this is not a joke. The Chozo need help now."
The lead of the unit took a moment , drawing out the hand blaster harnessed at his leg, but the speed at which the girl moved was blinding as she did the same, and her weapon discharged a flaring bright blue burst that slammed into him with a loud crackle while his body convulsed in reaction to the high energy electrical charge he had been shot with.
Yet when she spun toward Keiths, the girl found a pair of wires latching to her chest in the split second before she was hit with an electrical charge that normally would have dropped someone twice her size. Instead, it made her grind her teeth and drop to a knee as she could smell the ozone from electrical burns, but she was still conscious. "You assholes attacked me first, all I wanted is-"
Another surge of the taser shot through the wires, this time charged as high as the device could go, causing the blonde to scream, but she was still resisting, against all logic. Keiths was close to panic, as the hand unit she had brought only had so much charge, and this girl who couldn't weigh more than a hundred and fifty pounds was all but tanking over ten million volts at almost sixty milliamps. Enough in anyone else to nearly kill an average grown human adult, but she was gritting her teeth and trying to grab the tether wires. Yet the time it took for the girl to wrap her hand around the wires, a second set of electrodes snapped out and caught on her skin, allowing a second high charge to hit her nervous system. Seconds later, the girl collapsed, an occasional twitch from the high voltage that had been run through her.
"Shit," came Gil's exclamation of shock as he unlocked the load cartridge on his taser hand gun. "She just took like...that had to be over twenty million volts and enough amps to kill a bull elephant. How the hell was she still functioning after you hit her with that first surge?"
Keiths only shook her head as she dropped the hand unit she had been holding and walked over to where the girl was still having small twitches. She was breathing still, but the fact she had taken all that charge just to go down was indicating there was something else going on besides just a high strung addict. "Even stardust doesn't hype the system that much," the woman muttered under her breath. What was going on here?
"Holy hell, you see the size of this hand cannon she was packing?" The remaining security officer who had not been incapacitated was standing over the girl, examining the large silver hand blaster that had taken their local lead person out in a shot. Compared to the tasers they all had been carrying, the blaster was massive. "Its like a DE-45 Eagle Magnum they used to give the ÆSIRs as standard issue in the war. Those things had enough recoil tear a man's arm off, how the hell was she one handing this beast?"
Keiths didn't respond. Energy based or not, the size of the hand blaster in question indicated it could have done a lot more than just incapacitate the target, and that they had been lucky. This girl wasn't anymore than maybe five foot nine, looked to weigh about a hundred and fifty or so pounds, and yet she had taken out three trained and armed security officers on her own. Admittedly, they had threatened to electro-stun her when she had just been begging them for help for something regarding...Zebes? But that wasn't exactly something they were likely going to admit to if they could avoid it, not when they were technically five miles off the mining grounds, and legally not on company fielded property. And as long as no one went into the video files of the security unit's body cams, no one would call them out. "Call Captain Harper at the prison, tell him we got a crazy one...and see if they can get this thing towed out of here so we can figure out later where they both came from..."
For once, Andrea Keiths wished things on Calliope IX had stayed dull.