By David C. Daoust
Mari sighed as she ran her star ship through its paces. For all her bravado of being a star fighter pilot at long last, she found herself, more often than not, on escort missions between ambassador ships. She could not help but wonder if it was because of who she was, or rather who her family was, that she never saw any real battle fronts.She checked her engines, and made sure her weapon systems were in line. She ran through her squad’s call signs and waited for response, all before she raised the sleek Star Fighter into a hover. With everything and everyone green, she launched up off of the deck, her entire squadron, known as a Wing, followed behind her as she exited the cruiser’s hold, out into the stars.
She joined ‘Fleet’ on her eighteenth birthday. It was the soonest the law allowed. She’d dreamed of the day since she was very young, had it planned and re-planned until the day finally arrived. Her family was not terribly happy about it. Not very many could wrap their heads around the idea of a Royal in a Star fighter.
Mari didn’t care.
Which is how she found herself here, piloting a star fighter, leading a Wing by the age of twenty-two, in a v formation waiting for a transport ship surrounded by enemy fighters, as the ambassador within was escorted from one Star Cruiser to the other, in hopes of ironing out the latest tirade of grievances between the governing powers.
Not all the Royals agreed that the Trade Consortium had earned the right to govern. Many of the trade lines, set up by Consortium, were taken, by force when need be, by these Royals.
The Swans did not advocate war. The Swans felt it was high time for the Royals to step down, as they had outlived their usefulness. They were not alone in this, though there were those of the other families that found the prospect of relinquishing power frightening. These other Royals were scared of losing what they had; most of which, over the years, had developed a belief that they were better than the common man. And, believe it or not, there were other people that believed it as well. It was a guiding principle of their lives; Without the Royals to look to, where then should they look? Business men, lawyers, and fat cats? This is what made up the Consortium. These differences in the royal families led to the separate factions amongst the Royals, those that supported new governments throughout the Onion, ‘the Royal Alliance’ and those that felt it should all stay under Royal control, ‘the Vanguard’. These two faction’s formation led to much bickering and posturing… that eventually evolved into posturing ships over imaginary lines, daring the other to cross.
Mari had developed little tricks to occupy her mind on these types of boring missions. In the old days the majority of star ship battles had less to do with blaster fire and space torpedoes, and more to do with just being able to hack the other ships’ systems faster; Shutting down the competition before they could shut you down. This led to incredibly complicated firewalls being set up throughout the star ships’ systems. That’s not to say that ships can’t still be hacked, just that it would take them a much longer time to accomplish. In the amount of time, it was far easier to start lobbing lasers at energy shields from star fighters, to end the attack before it started. So much easier in fact, that the old ways were lost almost completely. The Swans weren’t known for letting history fall away without a fight however, and Mari was no exception. She spent years studying ways to accomplish these feats much faster, despite the layers of firewalls.
Mari’s little trick, was a tendency to start hacking enemy systems as soon as they came within contact. She told herself she did it for practice, to stay sharp. She had control of, from her tiny module, the enemy escort group that accompanied the ambassador’s transport ship, the transport ship, and the Cruiser’s shield systems all before the small transport group had arrived.
It was an act that could cause a war- if she got caught, but Mari knew she’d never be caught. She was too good.
“This is ‘the Lady’, caravan in sight,” Mari spoke into the comm as the small group of ships met up in the stars, “Orders to proceed, 0956.”
“Roger that, My’lady,” came the voice from Command on the other end, the title ‘My’lady’ a facetious twist on her call sign, which was a facetious twist on her heritage, all of which had become common place amongst those she worked with, “Proceed with escort 0956.”
Mari’s Wing of Star Fighters all followed her as she looped around the enemy group. As their ships fell away, her squadron surrounded the ambassador ship, effectively handing off the transport ship between the two factions.
Mari tried not to yawn as the voice from Command confirmed what she had just done, as she had done countless of other times, which they then confirmed countless of times before. Though as she glanced down at her systems this time, she saw everything start to go red. The enemy Wings’ weapons- suddenly went live. A fact she would not have known, if not for her having a live feed into their hacked systems.
Without a thought, her training kicked in, she began issuing orders, all of which were being questioned from Command. Those of her Wing though, followed them instinctively- as their training dictated. The group systematically split off from the transport ship, the last ship twisting away just as the transport ship suddenly exploded seconds later, a strike that would have wiped her entire squadron, leaving the Cruiser defenseless, beyond its shields and turrets, if not for her early awareness. The enemy Fighters went gunning for the main Cruiser before they even realized their surprise attack had failed.
The orders from command suddenly changed, her weapons went live, something Mari had never seen outside of a simulator. The blood in her veins raced as her mind formulated what came next.
Unfortunately for her dreams of a star battle at long last, she already had this foe in check. She shut down every system she had control of as soon as she was given the go ahead on the attack. That included the forward shields of the enemy ship. Mari wasn’t totally clear on the extent of the ambush planned, but she was in total awe as the Alliance Cruiser launched torpedo after torpedo into the now defenseless enemy Cruiser’s vital system clusters, neutralizing the threat, all thanks to Mari’s little tricks.
