Eleven old friends
Fifteen years ago
After five long years Matthew Boyle had left Colonial Fleet just six months ago his grandfather had passed away joining the Gods and leaving Matthew with some credits and a dying wish, leave Colonial Fleet before it gets you killed, he had and now he was between jobs. He wanted to buy a ship of his own and chart his own path but even with the substantial amount of credits he'd been left with he would need a job to get his ship.
Now on Saggitaron in a Fleet bar he sat and waited as he'd been told to waiting for the job opportunity to come by. As he nursed his second Ambrosia another man sat beside him, he was in his late 30s more than ten years Matthew's senior he was dressed in a loose-fitting shirt with a waistcoat over the top just like those terrible renegade pilots from the science fiction films. After five years in a Viper cockpit he knew the difference. The Cylon War had been over for fifteen years yet men and women still died in training accidents and defending shipping lanes from unscrupulous individuals' intent on breaking the law.
A drink was placed in front of him "drink up" the man said Matthew finished his current drink and pulled the new drink to him taking a sip it was Ambrosia but of a different vintage with a stronger sweeter taste. "I hear you're looking for work? My names Wilkes, Justin Wilkes, I'm looking for an able body that can follow orders and do the job that's required." He said looking at Matthew "I heard you're looking for a well-paying job?"
"I am, there are limits though" he replied he was an Ex-colonial pilot he wasn't ready to shoot down former colleagues. He sat there drinking the Ambrosia allowing Wilkes to consider it.
"We won't kill anyone if we don't need to" Wilkes promised him "if you do well, you'll be well paid and in the frame for another job."
"I'm in" Matthew replied making a decision as he downed the rest of his drink.
A few hours later Wilkes and Matthew were in a hanger on Sagitarron inside sat a large freighter, called Mother, with twenty to thirty people standing talking. They stopped and turned towards the two men "you're late" one of the men said he seemed irritated at Wilkes.
"I needed to pick up newbie here, this is Matthew Boyle, he's going to rear gunner Hunter Four." Wilkes said introducing him. "Don't worry he comes recommended."
"Foster was going to gunner four" the man replied another behind looked a bit surprised and was looking Matthew up and down sizing him up.
"Foster is leading seizure team, you're the best damned man for the job" Wilkes said looking at the second man "Boyle has the experience and the chops to gun Hunter Four." Wilkes said looking at the younger man "I fought with his grandfather in the War, I vouch for him."
Hours later Matthew was on board the craft known as Hunter Four it was perhaps two or three times the size of a Colonial Raptor with two bulbous gunner positions at the front mounted on stubby winds while a third turret was positioned between the engines at the rear which was where Matthew was now seated. The ships were inside the hold of the freighter he had counted another five Hunter craft on board which was a significant amount of firepower that the Colonial Military would like to know about.
Matthew Boyle had no access to Mother's navigation system they just didn't trust him enough all he knew was the freighter had been underway for some time and they hadn't jumped meaning they were still near Sagittaron. He had found out there was a common area in the middle of the ship with rack space, a unisex head like military ships and a compact food preparation area he didn't know the crew so had kept away.
"All Hunters we're approaching launch time our target is a cubit transport from Libran which is defended by up to eight corporate manned Raptors. We don't expect them to resist since this money is not theirs and the banks have plenty coverage but if they do, we'll knock them out anyway we can." He said briefing them Matthew sat in his gunners' position and realised there and then that he'd fallen in with those he'd seen fellow pilots killed by while hunting them down. He looked at the firing controls to the pair of Kinetic Energy Weapons (KEW) which were housed in his turret and wondered if he could shoot down another pilot for cash. He had killed in Colonial Fleet service, he was sure of that, he had seen pirate ships explode and crash following his attacks and he had been paid at the end of the month where was the difference? He wondered what line was he about to cross?
Suddenly he was jolted from his thoughts as the floor below the ship was retracted and the six Hunters were in open space. Around him space was black and vast with only his instruments for illumination now free from the freighter he had access to sensor data from the Hunters and from the freighter he could see they were rapidly gaining on the freighter and its six strong Raptor guard. If they were civilian model Raptors, they were likely non-Jump capable with rear guns, known as "Flying Pillboxes" in Colonial service, instead of the powerful ECM suites seen on military variants. Against the heavily armed Hunters they wouldn't stand a chance.
"This is The Rising Tide of Change to money runners, we have you outgunned surrender now and you go home in escape pods resist and I promise you that you'll go home in body bags." Wilkes transmitted over the wireless it was a threat and a warning.
"Pirate Force this is Raptor 32 of the Nemesis Security Group, you have no authority here" the pilot said as one of the Raptors raised out of formation to engage them. "Withdraw before your actions are reported..." his message was cut off as his Raptor was hit by two missiles fired from one of the Hunters upon impact with the craft the missiles exploded consuming the craft and its crew in a fireball. With at least three people now dead the other Raptors had a decision to make surrender or fight. Boyle watched as the remaining Raptors and the freighter surrendered one after the other until all had powered down.
"Hunter Four and Six you'll take care of the Raptors while Foster's group goes on board the freighter" Wilkes commanded. Boyle felt the ship move to the side slightly and the remaining five Raptors could be seen moving to a single area he trained his guns over them inside their forward cockpit he could see the two pilots inside vulnerable under the Hunter's guns but he had no intention on firing.
There was no resistance in boarding the freighter and quickly the crew were rounded up and put into escape pods and jettisoned into space. This left the freighter in their sole control and the five remaining Raptors. "Each Raptor will land and the crew will go into escape pods. Failure to do so will result in your destruction." Wilkes said over the wireless Matthew Boyle was glad to hear that he was honouring his word with unnecessary killing. The crews left their ships one by one entering escape pods before being ejected into space the Hunters and both freighters moved away leaving the pods in space.
It took several hours to reach their destination, an asteroid in deep space, there all of the ships landed and the crews disembarked entering a complex built into the rock. Matthew followed the rest of the Hunter's crew following them to a recreation area there were people waiting for them with food and drink. Sitting down at one of the wooden benches a plate of food was placed in front of him he wasn't complaining and quickly started to eat. Wilkes soon sat down in front of him "you did well."
"I sat in a seat guarded some defenceless pilots" he replied continuing to eat "no unnecessary killing."
"There was none. If that Raptor had been allowed to fire the others would have to which I couldn't allow." Wilkes said "not every mission will go like that and some will be worse there will be some deaths." He explained "it's up to you are you in or out?"
Boyle sat there for several moments before turning towards him "I'm in" he said making peace with the choice.
Six months later
After several missions Matthew Boyle had made some serious savings and had looked into buying his own ship a former Colonial Military vessel which he'd seen in a junkyard at Picon but he wasn't there yet and was still sitting in on missions with the Rising Tide of Change. He'd been assigned to a different Hunter, Number Two, captained by Amelia Brand she was a hard one to break through to but once he'd gotten her talking, she seemed to feel similarly to him about no unnecessary killing.
Unfortunately, a raid against the Colonial Fleet at Sagittaron had turned badly the freighter they had planned to hit had been carrying four Colonial Vipers as limpet craft on its back. Obviously, someone had gotten sick of their little spree and called in reinforcements the pilots of those Vipers would have been in their craft for hours waiting for someone to try their luck with the freighter but already they'd been effective.
Facing military Vipers with trained pilots the Rising Tide had scattered into retreat one Hunter, his old bird Hunter Four, had been destroyed and their targets gone with the Vipers now in hot pursuit chasing them. From his rear gunner position Boyle opened fire with the paired Kinetic Energy Weapons in his turret aiming below or above the Vipers position intent on keeping them at bay instead of outright destroying them. They'd killed the crew of Hunter Four but Boyle's rationale was that they were just doing their job and a different side of the coin from him he didn't need to kill them just stop them killing him. When one of the Vipers got too close, he'd aim to disable the fighter targeting the ships wings or ventral fin to cripple them or aiming for the fighter but away from the cockpit which would allow the pilot to escape. The defence fire was not enough to stop the Vipers who dived down on the Hunters strafing them with their own KEWs causing armour damage.
"Hunter Two, taking fire, Mother we need an assist!" Brand snapped throwing the ship to port trying to shake off the pursuers. The Vipers were smaller, faster and more agile even if she was a better pilot they weren't getting away.
"We're almost ready" Wilkes responded from the freighter which was ahead of the Hunters.
"Not soon enough…" Brand said watching the two lead Vipers spiral towards them firing as they came their fire directed into the ship's cockpit. "Seal your suits!" Brand called out as bullets slammed through the cockpit glass creating a vacuum. Hunter Two began to spiral out of control as the pilots were either killed or incapacitated. As the ship spun the freighter finally acted ejecting several cargo pods of cargo into the path of the incoming Vipers creating a massive debris field which caused the destruction of two Vipers immediately and forced the other two to break off turning into the fire of the remaining two active Hunters.
"Hunters get onboard we need to get the frak out of here!" Wilkes called out. On board the spinning Hunter Two Matthew Boyle fought his way through the spinning ship to the cockpit as he made his way through the ship, he saw both side gunners were unconscious. Forcing his way into the cockpit he saw that both of them were injured the co-pilot was likely dead while Brand didn't look good either. "Hunter Two, we've got more Vipers incoming status!"
"Two to Mother, one crewmen KIA, three WIA and non-responsive." He said dragging the co-pilot out of his seat. "The ship's open to vacuum." He said giving a running commentary. "I'm bringing the engines back-online." He said seeing that one of the thrusters were still operational. He nudged the Hunter forwards closing the gap between the Hunter and the Freighter close enough for the deck crews to fire harpoons into the ship Matthew felt the impacts of at least three in the hull. The crew onboard the ship then dragged the small ship onboard before the Freighter jumped clear of the area.
Two years later
Following the disaster, the Rising Tide of Change had all but scattered with all but a handful of crewmen on the Freighter and crew for the two remaining Hunters remaining. Amy Brand's Hunter which had been badly damaged during the battle had been stripped for parts further reducing their resources. With reduced firepower and options, they had abandoned Helios Gamma completely and moved to a more legitimate trade of protecting freighters in the Helios Beta system near the gas giant of Hera and its twenty-nine moons.
During this time, they had modified their Hunters and Mother to fit more in with the local traffic and tried to avoid major confrontations with Colonial Fleet instead playing the part of legitimate traders. They'd painted the name Descubierta on Mother's side and falsified registration papers on Virgon for the ship. They'd taken regular freight jobs, courier jobs and even transported a cargo of livestock from one moon to another. When they did need to deploy the Hunters more often than not Matthew Boyle found himself paired with Amy Brand in one of the remaining Hunters with had given them plenty of time to get to know each other. One thing had led to another, and another, and they'd started a physical fling giving each of them a release from the pressures and sometimes from the boredom.
Lying in bed onboard their Freighter Boyle felt Brand move her head on his arm "morning" he said looking at her "how you doing?"
"I could do with a few hours more sleep." She admitted "what do you think of Wilkes plan?" She asked Wilkes had briefed them the night before that their current line of jobs was barely covering the freighter's running costs and that the only option, he saw was to go back to pirating making the most of the traffic around Hera while they could. He'd never been a huge fan of their freight running practices and had always wanted to take on edgier deals but the crew had more often than not argued otherwise.
"It's not a great one." She admitted she'd gotten used to helping people and she liked the lack of trouble they'd been in since arriving at Hera even if it didn't bring in much cash.
"What do you want to do about it?" He asked continuing to push as she shifted on his arm trying to go back to sleep.
"There's not much we can do the freighter is jump capable the Hunters are not." She said while it was possible to travel between planets without an FTL it was a lot less efficient and time consuming. The Hunter probably had the range but with a full crew it would be uncomfortable going too far.
"I had an idea." He admitted he'd been up most of the night coming up with the plan but it would take her help to pull it off. "Victoria, Chara and Holden are with us. We take a Hunter and we go let Wilkes cause trouble for himself, we go and make our own lives." He suggested essentially breaking up the group.
"You get your freighter?" She asked smirking he knew that wasn't the life she wanted but he knew it had to be better than working for Wilkes and becoming a pirate again, be his own boss.
"We'll see" he said "we're going to have to cause a little hassle for Wilkes to give us a head start, destroy the FTL leave him stranded here." He proposed he'd figured out where they'd need to hit the ship to make a difference.
"We'll be going at sub-light he could easily follow us." She pointed out, at sub-FTL speeds there wouldn't be much between them.
"Not if junction box 42 encounters an accident before we launch." He said she shot him a look Box 42 was one of the main switches on the entire ship everything including life support was patched in through that section. "It won't leave them stranded, or dead unless they decide not to fix it, but it will give us the time to get the frak out of here." He said hitting the box would cripple the ship but not immediately kill anyone it was an option.
"I'm in"
