Into the Void

Chapter 31

The hangar cleared and the doors slid open. Nate activated the stealth systems and eased the shuttle out into the void. He glanced around nervously, seeing nothing on the visual feed he switched to thermal. A small heat signature floated a few thousand kilometers away. Double checking the stealth systems he pushed the throttle forwards, gently accelerating towards the signature. He carefully aligned the communications laser with the Dauntless sharing his targeting data with the larger ship. Next he painted the heat signature with the targeting laser. A white hot streak screamed across the thermal display as the Dauntless fired a single gauss round. The cannon round crossed the empty space in a matter of seconds, slamming through the small heat signature and obliterating it. Another heat signature blossomed on the main display. A laser scythed towards the Dauntless, cleaving through the space it had occupied moments before.

He traced the laser beam towards its point of origin and adjusted his course. Firing the engines, he accelerated briefly towards the enemy ship and turned the engine off, coasting. He risked a short scan from the shuttles sensor array, sending a pulse of radar searching for the enemy ship. As soon as the sensor ping returned he nudged the ship downwards, altering his course ever so slightly to avoid any potential return fire. Another laser pierced the void, blowing through space he had occupied a second before. He traced the laser back to its source and fired the targeting laser. The laser reported a solid object floating ten thousand kilometers ahead of him. He lined up the communication laser again and beamed the targeting data to the Dauntless. A heavy tungsten shell flew past the shuttle, sailing off into the darkness. An alarm screamed on the control panel, something had fired a missile at him. He opened up throttle, acceleration pushing him back into his seat. His restraints bit into his shoulders as he threw the ship into a tight turn, the missiles overhot him and pulled a wide turn, closing in on his tail. Sweating, he threw the shuttle into a sharp dive followed by a quick climb, sending the missiles screaming past the belly of the shuttle. The temperature in the shuttle rose as the engines continued to fire, soon the improvised stealth systems wouldn’t be able to absorb the heat and Nate would be forced to vent the waste heat into space. He threw the shuttle into a roll as the missiles angled back towards him. A red light blinked on the control panel, the coolant systems needed to be vented. He slapped the override, preventing the ship from flushing the hot coolant and causing the temperature to spike inside the ship.

The missiles ran out of fuel and detonated above the shuttle, raining hot shrapnel down on the hull. An alarm wailed. The hull was breached. Nate sealed off the cockpit from the rest of the ship and vented the atmosphere from the crew compartment. A diagram of the shuttle appeared on the heads up display, showing a panel on the top of the ship flashing red. One of the stealth panels tore loose as he maneuvered. A guass round narrowly missed the shuttle, coming from an unexpected direction. There was more than one enemy ship out here with him.

Another radar panel spun off into space, and a sensor ping skated over the ship. A thin curl of smoke rose from the control panel. He slipped out of his restraints and hunched under the controls, prying an access panel loose. He ripped a wire harness free, tore a fuse out and spliced the wiring back together. The loose fuse drifted through the air, bouncing off his helmet as he buckled himself back into the seat. The control panel would stay functional now in spite of any power surges but there was a huge chance of it catching fire. It was a risk he was willing to take. The exo-suit would offer some protection from fire and he would rather work with flaming controls than no controls at all. He rolled away from a thick laser beam and fired the targeting laser again, grinning as a three round burst came from the Dauntless’ gauss cannon. The first two rounds missed but the third hit something solid, glancing off armour and careening off into space.

Nate kept the targeting laser steady, watching as the Dauntless launched a stream of missiles. He weaved through space, dancing around a stream of short laser pulses, doing his best to keep the laser on target. The enemy ship wasn’t nimble enough to doge the incoming missiles, the warheads detonated across its hull, tearing long strips of plating free. He swept the area with another radar pulse, lighting up the enemy ship on his targeting display. The Dauntless cut loose, pounding the enemy with a stream of guass shells and another volley of missiles. The enemy ship fired wildly, filling the space between the ships with lasers and missiles. Nate rolled the shuttle up and slammed the throttle forwards sailing away from the arc of deadly lasers. More smoke rose from the control panel, filling the cockpit with a harsh acrid smell. Something hot dripped down from the hanging wires and bubbled into his lap. The heat was too much, the shuttle wouldn’t take much more. Nate flushed the coolant, and deployed the radiator fins, dumping the excess heat. The shuttle glowed like a beacon, sending waves of heat roiling outwards from the hull.