"Tell me when you've reached the far side of space, and I'll give you the disheartening news that space is infinite. I'm an eternal killjoy, and that helps me survive."
1x1x1x1, Grand Year 2007, speaking to Builderman on a mountain peak
The battle began in earnest after the two sides met. The USS Great Justice's offering was ten-dozen small assault fighters. The space pirates had not taken this very well. They had immediately opened fire upon the host, and the Justice's fighters had to split as quickly as they could. Regardless, twenty-three fighters were lost.
Jack swerved to avoid a pirate fighter, and made a swift U-turn to tail it. He reached for the joystick at his side, and distended it from its casing. Two small laser cannons on the nose of the craft swiveled as he moved the joystick to target the pirate fighter. A press of the trigger, and two jets of orange streaked out, catching the pirate craft on the wing. Part of the wing flaked off and fell away into space. The enemy fighter swerved and flew upwards. Jack did the same, following it farther up and up. He fired another shot, which this time hit the right flank. Part of the very wall disintegrated, and Jack saw the pilot sitting in a flat blue seat, hands glued to the controls.
He aimed for the pale head, saw for a brief instant between the crosshairs the pilot's face pulled back in a careless grin. Then the pirate ship was struck again by a laser blast, and fractured, splitting down the middle, and leaving the pilot to freefall.
A few moments later, another two pirates pulled up on either side of him. The side windows facing inwards rolled down, and both pilots emerged carrying some sort of outlandish projectile weapon. Whatever this weapon was, it had a red warhead affixed to the barrel, and looked like a long steel pipe with multiple tubes at the back. Jack concentrated on the pirates' trigger fingers. When he judged that they were almost ready to fire, he pushed sharply down and his fighter descended in a nosedive. Above him there was an explosion as the pirates' shots found each other and reacted accordingly. When Jack had reached the vicinity of the main battle, he leveled out and joined the others.
"You idiot!" It was Helen, squawking at him through his console speaker. "You led them right to you!"
"I did?" Jack asked, making a point of avoiding her fighter.
"Space pirates pick off stragglers! Don't you do any research?! Yes, you led them to you, you colossal dumbass!"
"My bad," Jack said sarcastically. "I'll just stay here and get shot to death, shall I?"
No reply was forthcoming. Jack put his ship on full stop, and surveyed the scene. Thirty pirate fighters and forty-five Great Justice fighters were skirmishing in a great swarm near the Gate.
"I'm joining the skirmish," he reported to GoldBC on the bridge.
"Fine with me," was the reply.
He entered the fray, focusing on pirate ship after pirate ship, mainly assisting those who were in the thick of it. He had trained in helicopter piloting a little after the Associates incident, and he learned of a concept in the piloting community called "Forward" and "Assist". Forwards were the main line of defense against the enemy, and Assists were the backup guys. Assists were supposed to stay alive for as long as they could while sufficiently weakening more powerful foes so the Forwards could take them.
He related this topic to his squadmates, and soon Assists were chosen from among the skilled pilots. Jack led the Assists on a ten-minute solid dive-bombing run amongst the enemy ranks, then split the group into two and began relaying orders. Jack had seen this done once, on an old sci-fi show he used to watch as a kid: they would collect a chain of asteroids using well-placed antimatter mines, and then lead those asteroids into the ranks of the enemy. The squad immediately set to work, dodging laser fire and dropping antimatter mines at strategic locations in a nearby asteroid cluster.
-OOO-
Watching from the bridge, GoldBC saw the antimatter mines being dropped by the deviant ships. He turned to a monitoring officer beside him, sitting at a panel.
"What's happenin' out there," he asked.
"They've split into two groups," the monitoring officer replied. "One's more stealthy and the other's just taking and giving fire, sir."
"Interesting..." Gold leaned the seatback down on his captain's chair. "I reckon those're Spectre Branch tactics... do we have a Spectre agent on the passenger list?"
The monitoring officer bent over his panel, and pressed a series of buttons. A list of passengers was displayed, and the monitoring officer sifted through them until he found one name.
"Yes, there is a Spectre agent onboard. His name's Jack Steel. Why do you ask?"
"Gimme that panel," Gold snapped. He shoved the officer out of his seat and commandeered the panel. He zoomed in on the agent's bio.
NAME: JACK
BORN: LATE GRAND MONTH DECEMBER, GRAND YEAR 2012
GENDER: MALE
AFFILIATION: ROBLOXIA, SPECTRE BRANCH
FINANCES: 1,570 R$, 99 tX, 65 PP
MARITAL STATUS: MARRIED
SUMMARY: JACK STEEL, FORMER RPD OFFICER AND NOW A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL SPECTRE BRANCH AGENT, IS ONE OF THE POSTER-BOYS OF ROBLOXIA'S RESURGENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE. HE HAS RECIEVED PERSONAL COMMENDATION FROM OVER HALF THE ADMINS AS WELL AS SOME HIGH-RANKING ARISTOCRATS AND POLITICIANS.
Gold's face fell. He stood up from the panel. He remembered something someone had said to him offhand, about this Steel. Something that chilled him. Something completely unacceptable.
"That's all I wanted to know," he said. He relinquished the panel to the officer, and sat back down heavily in his seat.
-OOO-
Jack fell back with his squad, and ordered them to get in a line behind him, with spacing of fifty blox between each person. These spaces, he explained, would be where the asteroids would form into a line. Then he ordered all the antimatter mines detonated at once. There followed a series of reverse-explosions, during which small herds of asteroids began to gravitate towards the fifty-blox gaps. His plan was working, Jack thought. And here he'd been under the impression that this was something that only worked on TV!
He led the group stealthily towards the skirmish. As he did so, Helen contacted him again.
"Steel, report! Where'd you go?"
"Just initiating Plan B," Jack said. "Nothing to worry about, ma'am."
He stayed in the shadow of a huge space rock almost the size of a small moon just to the left side of the gate. He watched, and waited, peering around the side of the rock at the battle. Rolling down his side screen, he leaned out and surveyed the scene.
"On my mark," he whispered to his squad, "we go out from behind this rock and send 'em packing!"
"Aye."
"Sounds like a plan, sir."
"Ready when you are!"
"Are you single?"
"NOW!" Jack shouted. He veered out of the shadow of the rock, and as his squad and all the collected asteroids fell in behind him he increased speed, heading straight towards the pirates. The Great Justice's ships were prepared. They scattered away from the flight path of the ships. The line bore down on the pirates, who were trying to turn tail and flee. But it was too late, far too late to run. "PULL UP," Jack barked, and as the ships did so the asteroids, freed from the pull of the ships, sailed into the ranks of space pirates. Ships were tossed around like ragdolls as they disintegrated. Those rocks that did not hit a target on the initial run were bumped and jostled so as to hit more pirate ships, and the destruction ballooned out from there within the ranks
"Oh, so that's where you were," Helen said. "I might just have underestimated you, Jack Steel!"
"You might have at that," Jack agreed. "Although really the whole thing was all luck. They just happened to be fighting in one concentrated area."
"Still, you're no slacker at least," Helen replied. Then: "Enemy fighter docking at the ring. Looks larger than the other ones."
Jack looked over at the gaping wound in the side of the Gate. Sure enough, there sat a large fighter that almost looked like a hovercraft.
"How did we not notice that?" he asked to nobody in particular.
"It must have been cloaked," Helen theorized. "C'mon Steel, we've got work to do!"
They flew towards the Gate. As they drew nearer, small arms fire from the wound seared past them. Jack saw about ten pirates in identical brown sleeveless uniforms firing what looked like semi-automatic rifles at the Assists. Only instead of bullets, these weapons shot laser beams. He banked down, and took a bombing run, spraying the wound with laser fire. Several pirates were flung against the back wall and bounced out into space, flailing and screaming. The rest turned and fled deeper into the Gate's mechanics.
"Blast," Jack swore. "Okay, someone bomb the enemy ship and then we'll park in that spot."
The fighter was demolished by several waves of lasers. Helen was first to park. Jack saw her disembark and stand waiting for them. He pulled in behind her, put the ship into park mode, and pushed the transparent hood up. Getting out, he tested his footing on the ring's interior. It seemed stable enough. John hopped out beside him.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey," Jack replied.
They looked into the darkness beyond only disrupted by the glowing of the few intact generators. Jack unholstered the shiny gun, and held it in front of him, testing the balance while aiming, making sure everything was up to scratch.
"Everyone needs a flashlight," Helen ordered. "If you don't have one right now, look in the back compartment of your fighter. You'll find a slide-on gun attachment. Steel, Derpston, you're with me."
"Yes ma'am," John said, a little disappointed. As they followed her into the Gate's gutted interior, he whispered to Jack, "Why couldn't I just go all Punisher on those pirate's asses?"
"Beats me," Jack whispered back. "It would've made perfect sense. Remember when that guy stormed Admin Tower last Grand Year? Yeah, that worked out."
"But he fell out a window," John hissed.
"No, he jumped," Jack argued. "He survived, made it all the way to Center Station in another man's car. Totally Punisher. QED."
"Will you two stop arguing back there," Helen suddenly said harshly. "I think I heard something in that duct over there!" She pointed to a grate on the far side of the chamber. There was, indeed, a faint scraping coming from the duct. Helen drew a small dagger from her side sheath, and crept cautiously towards the grate. With a sudden violent ululation of "HAIIII-YOM!" she leaped sideways and made several violent jabs between the wires of the grate. Something screeched on the other side, and fell against the grate (which flew off its duct and clanged to the floor). Helen inspected the corpse in the duct, then straightened, shaking her head.
"It's just a Void Monster," she said. "The place is probably infested with them. Be on your guard."
"Void Monster?" Jack asked.
"They're an offshoot of the Noobs," Helen explained. "Very swift, very dangerous, and their fingers are elongated like claws. One of those can tear you to ribbons in a swipe. Now come on or they'll come down on us like a hive of bees!"
Jack, on careful consideration of the room around him, heard soft scraping coming from the ceiling. He looked up, saw a brief dark red flash. He moved from that area into one with a lower ceiling. "Urgh," he grunted.
Something made a clanking noise in a tube-filled corridor to the Northeast. Jack and the rest froze. Helen put a finger to her lips, and craned to hear.
From the corridor, a hushed voice hissed, "Damn it, Ebb, you'll give us away! Stop swingin' your gun or I'll knife you and leave you for the beasts!"
They're in there, Helen mouthed.
The group cautiously crept to the mouth of the passage, weapons drawn. John held his Sig Sauer below his chest; he had a signature shoot-from-the-hip combat style that was usually quite hard to pull off with a pistol. Helen was carrying the dagger from before, plus another from her other side. Jack kept the shiny gun out in front of him, part of his jacket swept over it to stop a stray light ray from glinting off it and giving them away.
As they entered the corridor they saw ahead of them a slightly open door with light pouring from the crack. They flattened themselves against the wall, crept ever closer to the door. Then they burst through it and immediately opened fire. The pirates inside had barely enough time to draw their weapons and duck behind some piping. Bullets ricocheted off the walls.
Jack remembered a time two years ago, on his first day with Spectre Branch, when Namek (now Clockwork) had shown him how to shoot. They had been following reports of a terrorist attack on a market square, and the ensuing gunfight had taught Jack the basics of projectile warfare: never let your guard down, and find a cover system if you have no choice. He had a cover system now, a mid-sized control terminal that shielded him from the lasers of the pirates.
Which all of a sudden stopped.
Jack peered round the edge of the terminal. The pirates had retreated backwards, and drawn swords. One pirate also carried a small hand grenade, which he held so tight his knuckles were white. There was, on closer observation of the room, a fuel tank in a closet at the far wall. The grenade pirate made a few hand signals, and the pirates formed a long line that blocked access to the fuel tank and the man with the grenade.
"It's a common space pirate tactic," Helen whispered. "They're gonna drive us out with swords and destroy their target."
"Swords shouldn't fuck with shotgun shells, bitches," Jack growled, rising to his feet. He aimed at the pirates with the shiny gun, flicked a switch on the side. The barrel widened to allow passage of shotgun ammo. The pirates looked at him, and one of them ventured, "Shouldn't ya be runnin', idiot?"
"Nah," said Jack, "I gave up on that crap ages ago."
He shot the laughing man in the chest. The shotgun pellets went straight over and under the sword, launching him backwards and slamming the dead man against the grenade pirate, knocking them both to the floor.
"FIRE, EVERYONE!" he ordered. The rest of his squad popped up from their cover sources and completely mangled the room. Walls were riddled in bullet holes in under ten seconds, and pirates fell like bowling pins, spurting blood. Jack lunged to the side, fired at a retreating pirate, but the man had already disappeared with a rocket launcher over his shoulder.
"He's got a launcher!" John shouted over the din of gunfire.
"I know," Jack shouted back, "but we can't follow him!"
"Why not? That'd be totally Punisher!"
"Punisher's none of our business right now!"
Jack rushed forward through the smoke, casings, fallen swords, and bodies. He took one look at where the man with the rocket launcher was hiding, then retreated very fast on his heels backwards as the man charged at them. The rocket man stopped, knelt, and fired off a projectile which smashed into the floor and blew up in a billowing orange conflagration. Jack only just dived away from it in time not to get his spine embedded in his hypothalamus.
"Run!" he yelled. They ran as another rocket whistled past their ears.
The group made it back to the docking area, and hastily began to climb into their ships. Jack caught John by the shoulder as the latter was entering his ship.
"Hey," he said. "Listen, you run back to the ship and tell 'em I'll be a little bit late to return, okay?"
"Right," John said, nodding in affirmation. He pulled the hood of his fighter down, and quickly joined the others as they headed back for the ship. Jack stayed behind, watching the rocketeer emerge from the darkness to stand illuminated in the cold blue light of the generators.
"Hey, asshole," Jack taunted. "You gonna put down that giant dick and fight me like a man?!"
The pirate snarled.
"I'll blow you to bloody giblets," he cried, raising the rocket launcher.
"You seem experienced with massive dicks," Jack continued unabated as the rocketeer began to turn red in anger. "Past experience, maybe? Of course it could just be self-practice. Am I prying?"
He hated to stoop to such lows as dick jokes. Usually he delivered a witty one-liner and was off with another successful mission. But this pirate looked impervious to one-liners. He did, however, have the look of a highly macho man (Jack dealt with these in the criminal underworld all the time) whose sexuality had been questioned. The pirate gritted his teeth, and snarled again.
"Put the penis down," Jack chided, as a final touch.
"If I do, I'll kick you in the bollocks," the pirate threatened.
"Oh, you wouldn't do that if you want to keep yours," Jack advised. "Even though, truth be told, you don't have enough bollocks to fill a-"
The pirate suddenly charged at him, arms open and ready to plough Jack off the edge of the Gate. But this was what Jack was awaiting all along. With a careful sideways motion, making sure not to betray any uncertainty, he sidestepped. The pirate, caught in his own momentum, skidded off the edge on the balls of his feet, and plummeted with a furious and humiliated scream.
"-nutshell," Jack finished, as he stooped over to watch the body fall.
He dusted off his hands, walked over, picked up the rocket launcher with effort, and lugged it off the edge to fall with the pirate. Then he climbed gingerly into his fighter, and set a course for the Great Justice. As he neared the warship, he observed the pockmark blasted into the side by that first attack, and the multiple burn marks covering the hull. That, he presumed, would be what was defined as a "narrow victory." But if it weren't for their enemy's stupidity and hive mind tactics, he was sure that the victory wouldn't just have been narrow; it would've been closed.