G-Pol

Chapter 12

Loading and placing the six launchers took about eight hours. Moving the Czarina from station to station was turned into another piloting practice exercise for Vixi with Lisa acting as copilot under Tasha's supervision. As they maneuvered through the asteroid cluster, Karl and Bona performed the loading duties prior to the launcher placements with help from Mike and Janice.

That finished, Karl and Natasha planned the route through the cluster, maximizing the difficulty by way of another practice for both Vixi and Lisa. The two of them would be piloting while Natasha supervised. They would make two runs, the first through a course of seventy-two missiles, the second through a heavier barrage of a hundred and eight. Karl would be playing the enemy gunner by remote, observing and recording the weapons system test from outside in his power armor. This application of the human element would make the test as realistic as possible.

By agreement too, Vinny would also be monitoring and recording from the Jessup with its more limited sensor system. Another viewpoint was always a good thing, and it would cost none of them anything except a little time. After the practice was over the two ships would dock and they would all get together to be sure Rachel was where she wanted to be, and so they could all say goodbye one more time.

Natasha felt a little nervous not being in her pilot's chair as the Czarina flew into a simulated firestorm in the middle of an asteroid belt. She trusted her new crewmates completely, but she knew this discomfort was instinctive and wouldn't go away until this was over. Bona was a definite reassurance as she agreed with Natasha on their crewmates' capabilities to do this.

"Okay, guys, I'm in position and everything's up and running." Karl reported a few seconds later, "Whenever you're ready. Har har Har... come on and run me gauntlet my pretties! I'll be a ravishin ya all by this time tomorrow!" that last came over in the stereotypical pirate's rough drawl that had them all giggling. Even Bona huffed a laugh. It hadn't actually been that funny, but it had served its purpose of breaking the tension on the bridge deck so they could relax and work most effectively.

"You heard the man ladies," Natasha chuckled from her command chair, "Whenever you're ready." She was pleased to see that Vixi seemed comfortable in the pilot's seat now. She'd gotten used to the copilot's seat and had a little trouble adjusting at first. Lisa'd had some training and hadn't had that problem though. Interestingly, Vixi was still the better pilot. She attributed this to the fact she'd been an avid simulator gamer in her childhood, often defeating all her predominately male opponents in arcade tournaments. That had only been a small part of her childhood though and only for a short period. Still, it seemed to be paying off now.

Seeing things from this perspective made it impossible to tell where the launchers had been set up Natasha was realizing now. She would have no way of predicting when or where the fire would be coming from. This was going to seem very real! A moment later Czarina's sensors issued a missile launch warning and the automatic point defense system went into action. Vixi immediately rolled the Czarina away from the point of fire to give the system more room to destroy all the missiles, but suddenly a second launch warning screamed over the system.

Natasha was impressed. Apparently, Karl had planned the placements to cover avoidance maneuvers as well as covering the intended course. He definitely had a military mind when it came to this kind of stuff. She was glad these were only practice missiles that would simply shatter themselves on impact with their force shield. That was, if any got through their defenses. Apparently, the system was doing its job with certain aplomb. So far, her personal display showed no hits on their shield at all.

Vixi was diving, rolling and porpoising in an effort to open space between the launchers and Czarina and was having a hard time of it. It seemed like every time she thought she'd found a way to dodge one volley, another was coming at her from the direction she'd chosen! This of course was pushing her off course and she was getting irritated. This time, she turned right into the path of the oncoming missiles and was surprised when she was able to see all six of them vanish in a series of puffs of vaporizing fuel as they were shot down. The system was working beautifully! She went back to working her way back on course and was surprised when the system told her she was where she was supposed to be and clear of enemy fire. Then Natasha was cheering from behind her and she knew they'd been successful.

Karl watched via his suit's sensor and communications systems as the Czarina came into his field of fire. He waited for the optimum firing angle and let fly the first volley. Czarina seemingly miraculously dodged out of the way of his volley before the missiles could even acquire a lock. Being smart missiles though, they could and would acquire and lock on independently. They were all shot down before they could, which made him smile. Vixi's roll though put her right into the field of the second launcher and he let fly. In the meantime, Czarina hadn't yet passed out of the first launcher's field of fire and he let go a third volley at Czarina's port side at near point-blank range for the system. None of them hit. In fact, he actually saw two flashes that indicated particle beam shots had taken out at least two of the missiles. He was glad to see he and Lisa had been right.

As Czarina dove away from the second volley, she flew into the fourth and porpoised to get clearance. She was halfway through the course by now and Vixi was doing a damn good job of staying on it despite having been forced to maneuver violently. Her dodges and maneuvers he was happy to see were smooth and precise and the Czarina's fire lethally accurate. Still, he did his damnedest to hit her as any pirate gunner would. He was surprised when Czarina turned right into the path of one volley, taking them head-on and they were vaporized before they could reach their target. That had been his eighth volley and Vixi's maneuver had given her more clearance than he'd anticipated, and had put her right back on the course they'd planned. With this much space, the test would need a higher volume of fire to be effective, so he launched three of his four remaining volleys at varying ranges at once. The fourth came head-on again. This time the particle beams were far more obvious as bright streaks of light as they lanced out in rapid-fire bursts that told him the system was far more advanced than even he'd imagined! They literally took out half the missiles while the lasers finished off the other half. That shouldn't have been possible under normal circumstances. He needed to look in on the power couplings and supply systems to those turrets. They'd apparently been heavily upgraded! Those turrets' traverse rates had to have been significantly increased as well. He was liking this better and better all the time! Natasha's parents had outdone themselves! He really wanted to meet them now. Those were people after his own heart.

Rachel sat in Vinny's lap as they watched Czarina's first run. She was coming in fast and they clearly saw the missiles launch from in front of her. Rachel was certain she was going to see them hit when the ship seemed to suddenly change direction as if it had sensed the trap and dodged it on its own. Then the missiles were lanced by what looked like movie laser beams which made Vinny grunt. "Those're particle beams. That lady's got a couple of nasty surprises. I'm glad I'm not a pirate! That lil lady's gonna make a mess outta them bastards!"

What followed looked like a rendered down version of a movie space battle. Of course, the explosions weren't fiery enough and there weren't enough visible laser bolts flashing around, but it was still very impressive. They were both happy to hear Natasha's victorious cheer over the com which meant they'd come through completely unscathed. Some of those explosions had looked really close.

Natasha was glowing with pride in her ship. Not only had she destroyed all the missiles, she'd done it with not only the lasers, but the particle beams too. Lisa was looking over the recording and grinning maniacally. "I obviously still have a lot to look over on this baby! Karl and I thought the point defense system was pretty good, but this shows me we had no clue!"

"Exactly what I was thinking!" Karl replied over the com, "Natasha, I really wanna meet your parents and the guy who set this all up! They did a damn good job. Lisa, I think you and I are going to be really busy going through this thing so we know exactly what's going on."

"Actually," Natasha interrupted, "You can read all about it. They left a folder in the computer detailing everything they did to make sure I could get it fixed if I needed to. The guys responsible were Randy, my father's Engineer and Marco, the guy who helped me build my bikes. You'll both love them, they're the best. They were both my best friends when I was a kid."

Their conversation went on as Vixi moved them into position for their next run. Meanwhile Karl was remotely checking all the launchers to be sure they were ready and still functioning correctly. Czarina moved out in a smooth wide arc that would align her for the second run. This would also so completely change the angles and flight path that there was no need to move the launchers in preparation. That was one of the primary reasons for choosing an asteroid cluster for this test.

Karl had expected the previous test to be a challenge for the system. That had proven not to be true. This test had been intended to test the system beyond its capabilities to see just how effective it was. Now he knew that probably wasn't going to happen. They'd drastically underestimated Czarina's defensive capabilities, so he was now expecting only a great fireworks show.

That was why he was so surprised when Czarina was attacked by a lone heavily armed shuttle as she began her run. Natasha's voice was suddenly in his ear. "Karl, we've got an incoming pirate! He's armed to the teeth and coming in fast. I've got an idea though. I'm gonna pretend not to see him and lead him through the fire zone. I don't think he saw what we were up to out here, or he wouldn't be attacking like this. I think he just found us accidentally and I bet Mallory or his bosses put a price on us."

Karl was nodding to himself as she spoke. "Gotcha Babe. I'll keep an eye out for any buddies he might have out here. It's too bad we can't warn Jessup without telling the pirates they're out here too. Anyway, if I get the chance, I'm gonna try and board them like we did when you first got out here. I'll let you know if the opportunity presents itself so you don't accidentally shoot me down too!" He laughed at that because their mutual IFF systems would ensure his safety to that extent at least. His bigger worry would be the pirates themselves. That, or though appreciably miniscule, there was the chance one of them would collide with him by mistake since they wouldn't be able to see him. That would be the end of both him and whoever hit him most likely, at least until he got up to speed. He was accelerating at full power in an effort to match their velocities. For something as small as he was in comparison to those ships, this was far easier to do. Given time and distance, those ships would eventually be able to simply outrun his power armor, but in a short race like this, his acceleration was far greater than theirs which gave him an advantage. It also meant that what he had in mind was possible if normally to be considered suicidally stupid. He'd done this before though and knew exactly what he was doing. In fact, this was a favorite pirate tactic.

Karl enabled his stealth system and moved away from the gigantic rock he'd been using as a base of operations. He moved in closer to the Czarina's charted course and waited for her to reach this point. Having nearly matched Czarina's speed by this time, he let off the acceleration and coasted along, adjusting his angle to meet the pirate shuttle as it approached. It hadn't announced itself yet or fired, but it would be trying to get closer before it did either so as not to give itself away too soon. There was no way those idiots would know just how sensitive the Czarina's sensory systems were, or that they'd long since been spotted and were being tracked. Natasha judged it perfectly. As the shuttle made its first attack run, they were just entering the fire zone as she'd called it. Karl waited until they were right in the center of the field and set the launchers so that they all launched their first two volleys of missiles rapid-fire, one at Czarina and one seemingly at the pirate, though it too was actually locked on Czarina. The pirate not knowing any of this dodged right to where Karl wanted him, just as Czarina opened up on his force shield with her particle beams and missiles while her laser batteries took out the practice missiles with ease. Natasha had positioned them as close as she could manage to directly in the middle of the launch envelope. To the pirates, it would look as if they'd flown right into a military style trap.

Karl opened up with his own weapons as well though they had nowhere near the firepower of either ship. By the time he got his shots off he was firing from almost directly ahead of the pirate and flying backward to do so. He emptied his missile wracks knowing they would do the most damage to those force shields and then spun around to continue accelerating so as to match speed with the pirate. Czarina was relaying her sensor images to his power armor so he could see when the pirate's shields suddenly collapsed. Apparently, his little addition had been just enough to do the job.

He was getting closer all the time and apparently, it hadn't registered to the pirates that some of what had hit them hadn't come from the Czarina. Either they weren't watching their sensors closely enough, or their sensors were simply substandard. Whatever the case, as the pirate passed just a few meters beneath him, he fired a magnetic grapnel straight downward and used it to reel himself in toward the shuttle's spine. Apparently, somebody inside heard the grapnel hit though, because the shuttle suddenly veered off in a dive away from him. He instantly applied vertical thrust and did his best to stay with them. Unfortunately for them, he was too close for them to get away from him that way. His maneuver and the grapnel brought him close enough for his magnetic boot soles to bind him to the hull. He immediately ducked down to attach himself by his hands and knees as well, then began to crawl spider-like along the hull toward the airlock. From what he could tell by looking at the Czarina's sensor images, there was only one airlock and a cargo bay door that couldn't be opened without depressurizing the bay first. They would be expecting him to come in via that airlock, but they wouldn't be expecting someone prepared the way he was. With his stealth system still enabled, they wouldn't have a clue what they were up against.

When the airlock exterior door opened without trouble, he immediately expected a trap. They were probably waiting for him just inside with heavy weapons. Then he saw the foam sprayers welded into the upper corners and laughed to himself. That would normally be effective against even power armor, but he had his own foam guns built in with their release agent capability and he was glad he'd elected to wear his personal armor for this job. His new stuff wouldn't have done well in this situation. He had to get those modifications made first chance he got.

He stepped into the airlock like the gullible fool they probably thought he was, and waited for the pressure to equalize. As he was waiting, he watched the pirate crew come into the passageway through the airlock door's window and assemble to witness his capture and gloat. He just stood there and grinned inside his stealth field. All they would see was an air distortion about the size of a man in a space suit, maybe a small suit of power armor. The only way to tell would be if they had a mass detector in the airlock, which most likely they didn't. That was truly paranoid level security.

The moment the lock equalized he immediately stabbed out his hand and hit the open button. The hatch began to cycle open and at the same moment the foam guns went off, dowsing him in rapidly inflating and stiffening restraint foam. They'd obviously wired the guns to go off when the airlock door was activated. That would've been the easiest way to trigger their trap without any special preparations. A simple on off switch on the bulkhead outside would disable the trap when not in use. Normally this would've been a pretty effective trick.

Just as quickly though, he was spraying himself and the vicinity with the foam release compound. The foam of course had covered the window into the airlock too, and he left it covered. So when the door finished opening, the pirates were surprised to find him standing there and a grenade rolling into their midst. It went off before any of them could react and they were all liberally doused in their own cocoons of restraint foam and fastened to the deck and whatever else was nearest them.

Still coated in release agent, Karl rushed through them and into the rest of the ship in search of any who hadn't been present. He found the crew quarters deserted and with bunks for eight, telling him how many were probably in the crew. He found the captain in his quarters, just about finished getting into his body armor and already armed. Karl foamed him in place starting with his feet and swatted the release agent canister out of his hands before he could employ it. "You know you're a dead fucker, don't you?" the man spat as he was secured by the nearly instantly hardening foam, "I got a crew of twenty, all in enhanced armor. Computer, mrrmph..." Karl silenced him with a further blast of foam to cover his mouth and prevent him giving the computer any orders. Seeing he had no other means of escape, he finished the job and left the man stuck where he was.

He found the next pirate in the dorsal gunner's station which also happened to be in the ship's main rec area, just forward of the crew and Captain's quarters and also containing the galley facilities. Of course the man had heard the captain's diatribe cut off mid-sentence, so he was ready and waiting. Unfortunately for him, Karl had come out of the Captain's quarters quietly and relatively slowly so his stealth system's distortion would be negligible. It was enough to give him the time he needed. He hit the man from across the room with an electro-stunner since he wasn't armored and watched him crumple like the proverbial puppet with its strings cut. Then he moved over to check him out and be sure he had no way of escaping before foaming him in place. If the layout was usual and he knew it probably was, the bridge cockpit would be the door in the forward bulkhead.

In the cockpit, he found the pilot who was alone and in furious combat with Czarina and having one hell of a time. He was obviously doing everything he could think of to get Czarina in his sights and failing miserably. Karl jerked him out of his seat, dropped him on the floor and foamed him in place. Then he took the controls himself and brought the ship to a halt and locked the controls, entering a code that was part of the one he used for his exercise on the bike simulators. It was one he wouldn't forget.

Finally, he contacted Czarina, opening both voice and vid channels. "Hey beautiful! I've got us a little present. The ship's secure so far, but I'm going through now to make a quick check to get the last gunner. I think he's in the cargo bay. Then I'll check the rest of whatever's left to be sure I got 'em all. You will want foam release when you come aboard though. I had to set off a grenade when they tried to trap me. See you in a bit ladies!"