Aurora, Wayward Pt. 06

They were 2 hours out from the contact. He gave the order, "Launch all fighters. Arrow-2 you take point head left and we will swing around them. I got eyes on you. 6x speed."

He watched to see if they were picked up at all. No signs of them being detected.

---

They were 30 minutes out. The Admiral looked over, "All ships, all stop. Attempting to open communications with them. Aurora, jam all long-range communications. Reminder to fighters, our hard shields will be in place on all ships."

They answered comms with no video. They sent a virus over. Aurora shook her head, "They sent us a virus."

He sighed, * Stall, try to talk with them to lower stealth fields. *

"Arrow-2 you take far destroyer, Line up for the middle. I will do the same 400km off. Then we will nail them. Use the targeting overlay from the stealth net to find the middle."

She laughed, "What happened to the shield?"

He smiled, "They are in stealth and they sent a virus. That deserves a response. We cut them in half and they will have to make a greater effort to respond nicely."

Aurora got nothing and she talked for 15 minutes. Hawk of Vengeance, Admiral Rivar finally looked over, "Kill comms. Arrow-1 and Arrow-2 engage."

They flew into the destroyers and punched holes straight through the middle. Those ships were no longer in stealth. In fact, the front half of the ships separated from the back half. The other three decloaked and got shields up. The comms officer Lieutenant Vigil looked to Admiral Rivar, "Memory cores replaced and ready to communicate again."

The Admiral nodded, "Open comms." They sent another virus but they had video communications this time. They looked like some type of lizard based species but had blue scale-like feathers on white bodies. Aurora worked quickly with her cyber guys and they had their language database.

Aurora popped up on the screen, "We understand their languages. I will play the interpreter."

The Admiral looked over, "Tell them they entered our system with stealth, refused to answer our hails, and sent computer viruses into segregated comms systems. For that, they lost two destroyers."

Aurora translated to the creature that was shocked that a 'lesser species' could speak their language.

The alien looked at her, "You attacked by stealth."

Aurora replied, "After you entered our system in stealth and sent us a virus. Two actions. Two ships."

She got the information back and looked at the Admiral, Her eyes glowed, "I count 84 species in their ship; half of which I do not know, 25% are in the Alien Alliance including a human. The other 25% percent are non-alliance races but known to the Alliance. Some of whom have not gotten to FTL even 300 years from now."

Aurora looked over, "Slavers or worse."

The Admiral sighed, "You handle the conversation."

She looked at the creature, "You know the Drakor?" She showed them the image of the Pralon attack. "They would not approve of your activities in the slightest."

The Alien asked, "What happened to your eyes?"

She looked over, "I am pissed off at you. That is what that tells you. Dock your two ships. Offload their crew. Put the prisoners into EVA suits and put them aboard the two cruisers. Then release them. Then we will not fire on you."

All the while she had different teams working to defuse things like auto-destruct capabilities.

It looked over and hit a button.

Aurora shouted out, "They are powering up some type of engine. They're trying to escape! I just dropped their shields! Their drive is segregated and I don't have enough time to stop it!"

Rocan called out. "Maniac, target those pylons. Ram them! One going in and one going out." Maniac headed for one while Rocan eviscerated another target of the 9 pylons. The pylons lit up they crashed through them, each of them hitting 2, one on the way in and one on the way out. That caused an explosion within the ship.

Aurora looked at the creature. It sighed as he was handed something to show the damage most likely. "One chance left to escape. Crawling out on your belly like the slugs that you are."

It looked over, "You destroyed our physics drive. It will take years for us to get home now."

She shrugged, "Your problem. The question is do you want to live? Maybe you will find a race that will let you dock and make repairs to your drive. Again, not my problem."

It called out, "The specimens are in stasis pods. No way to get them in suits. Our suits do not support their environment. We would have to move them to the other ship within those pods. Then nobody to fly them."

She shut off the lights on the Alien bridge and turned them back on but higher, "I could do that with your weapons. I did do that to your shields. We will pilot the ships remotely. We have control of both of them now. We have neutralized your virus. No viruses, no bombs, and no detonation sequences."

The alien captain sighed, "You will not be able to open them safely without the codes and our help."

She sighed, "We will manage. I have the codes from your computers in your medical bay. Get it done!"

She looked at the Admiral. "Working to get them to move their cargo into the 2 cruiser ships. Based on computer records they are another race of collectors for genetic experiments. They try to get 2 of each species."

She left out a ton of information she found in their system. The information she stored internally in an isolated archive within her own body. The information she did not want the Penan's exposed too. She blocked this out from the other AI units, including her own backup unit.

She reallocated them immediately to work control of the ship and peripheral systems and out of their main computer core.

The alien captain looked over, "We could get them all onto one ship."

She sighed, "Then empty the other of the crew. Else I will simply start opening all of the bulkheads and do it for you. We are taking them both. Compensation for violating our space and attacking by stealth. Then we have those two ships you have not found.

They could eviscerate your ship to take care of you if you do not comply with our instructions to the letter. You have more powerful weapons, weaker computers, and shields. You came with stealth and relied on the sword. I have disabled your weapon systems now. We led with the shield until the sword was needed."

He looked over, "How are you capable of doing this as a lesser race?"

She held up her hand and ripped the skin off of it. "Who is lesser? We encrypted your weapons systems and it will take you a month to decipher, given your 'lesser race's capability. I kept it simple so you stand a chance of defending yourselves eventually."

He looked scared, "Some type of robot or AI!?"

She smiled, "Some of us, not all of us. Just those who have control of your ship and your lives at the moment. We were built by their species to aid them. We will do so. No...matter...what."

She put her hand down.

She spoke to the Admiral. "He is scared shitless of AI units or robots. He called us a lesser race. Humanity and Penans apparently. Not counting my Sentinels as we locked out and encrypted their weapon systems. We have control of his ship's systems and he knows it now."

She saw that one ship was empty of people. She closed the airlocks and moved it off and away. Then she took it cold and dead in space. The creature looked irritated. They moved the stasis tubes, all of them into the other cruiser.

They closed the airlocks and released it. "We will leave now."

Aurora sighed, "Your computer for the self-destruct has been cleared on those ships. Even though you isolated it we could still access them. The chips to do that on the power cores were fried beforehand, even on your ship. One of the first things we did.

We took no chances when dealing with a 'lesser race.' I had others of my kind working those precautions as soon as we breached your systems. Your 'physics drive' being the lone holdout but that is all but destroyed now, as you have no idea of how to fix it. You did not build the drive. Your 'masters' built it for you."

He looked pissed and turned his ship and moved away at 4x speed as he ended comms. Rocan thought out, * Admiral, take the graduating squads under your command and follow him to the asteroid belt. Then destroy him and bring back any wreckage. He should not have set self-destruct functions after being warned against taking such actions. *

The Admiral smiled as the ship went invisible. The fighter formed up behind her. As Rocan went and landed back aboard the Spartan with Maniac.

He thought out, * Well Justice Incarnate, did you want all of these people? *

Aurora thought to him, * Some have Drakor blood in them. They are not hybrids. *

Justice Incarnate sighed, * What are you proposing? *

Rocan smiled, * The Terran's jump a colossus base in and take the whole ship and the people. We leave it on the outer edge here floating in space and move off. Tell them to turn off long-range sensors.

The Admiral will be the only one who 'knows' where they are going as you can guide him to the location. That way others in the Home Guard do not see us and our technology. The ones they can help, they help.

They have good AI units and Aurora got the codes for the stasis pods already. The others they will discuss with you. We gain nothing from this other than doing the right thing. The Terran's gain one of their ships for study and analysis of their cloaking and weapons technology.

The other option is you take it to them and leave it with them until they take care of those in stasis. You decide if they keep the ship or not. This is the technology that their doctors and Astra would understand better than us but we will try with the other ship to understand what they brought against us. The other races are your call.

Astra shutdown engines; leave life support. Get us out of the way. They will be fine for a few days that way. It allows us time to get back into the system. The call is yours, Justice Incarnate. I could attach it to the airlock on my battleship and jump it out to them and contact them through the satellite. That runs the same risk of exposure. Aurora, collect the destroyer debris. *

He heard Justice Incarnate, * They will hold. Take them to Samar. Then outside of the asteroid belt. Contact them to collect the ship outside of the system. I do not want other telepaths jumping into that system. *

Rocan thought, * They could do the same. Attach it to a battleship and jump them both away. I will leave that to the head of their order to decide. The crew of Excalibur has already been in the system, they have had telepaths there before. They did not interact with us, other than Astra and the head of the council. Also, my XO when they arrived. They might not have known where they were. *

Justice Incarnate sighed, * Very well, put it in the orbit of the 3rd planet as you have no people there yet. Ask them to pick it up once you are gone. Living bodies from a collector race. Including a human and others within the Alliance. *

Rocan smiled, * Easily done and it was easily missed by them on their first visit. *

They headed back toward the inner planets, Rocan brought all of the governors online via comms. He smiled, "I have another opportunity to learn and cooperate that can be done from the carrier. We have an intact cruiser of alien design and two destroyers that were cut in half.

Plus, whatever is left of the battleship when the graduates of the training program are done working over the battleship we released. Admiral Rivar is out in her battleship with the Colossus base and she is getting her chance to destroy a stealth target. To the best of my knowledge, there are no casualties but that battleship is armed. Their weapon systems should be locked down from Aurora's efforts."

The Trisan Governor sighed, "Why did you not destroy it outright?'

Rocan smiled, "The second cruiser is filled with 84 species captured by these people and we needed to get them off the ship. I will take that one to Samar and leave it for our Terran ancestors as only half of them are known to the Alien Alliance according to Aurora. Others in the alliance might know where the others came from. One of them is human."

The Penan Governor nodded, "You released him from the tractor beam and then destroyed him, like the Caldar."

Rocan nodded, "Yes governor. That is exactly what we are doing. Also giving an Admiral who wanted to take down a stealth target a chance to do it. Along with all of the fighter pilots, I have been training. They got a live-fire target to destroy without a hybrid in their squads. To know their training has a purpose."

The admiral called in, "I got some news. We are collecting the debris but one fighter went rogue on her squad. She broke formation and flew into the engine room. I am guessing here that she shot the place to hell because the back half of the ship exploded. We recovered the wreckage of her fighter, what was left of it. Call sign Screamer. She ignored Shadow and then my orders to her to return to formation."

He sighed, "She was the loose cannon I had to rip into at graduation. Apparently, she tried to do what I did to the genetic bio lab ship. She just did not know what she was shooting inside there. She probably fired into power cores at point-blank range. Else straight into the engine housing as it was in stealth.

Those ships can take a lot but not everything. I told a few others on the Hybrid Council if she ever got to be hybrid, she would be a red blade that would likely go rogue. She was an ace pilot and a tyrant toward her people. I had training on tech from my era and from the night courses additional engineering training.

I could guess relatively well which things were good to shoot and what to avoid. I told them all they would need those courses before doing that maneuver. All of these marines should get subliminal training on engineering.

In order to understand what will explode on them and end their careers with these new ships before doing an engine room breach. This was briefed to them. Stage two of the training if you will, but that is colony based efforts they need to pursue based upon each colony's military guidelines."

The Governor from Ridan looked at him and nodded, "You tried to get through to her. We talked about her and her methods. I looked over her evals after that and asked her commanding officer why he left those details out of her evaluations. He is no longer commanding a fighter wing based on the answers I got. You have one coming back to us though."

Rocan nodded, "She is one of the pilots who made the list, call sign Rabbit."

The governors laughed and he explained how she got the new call sign. Her governor smiled, "It will be interesting to see her fighter when we get to the ceremony."

Rocan nodded, "3 days. Your thoughts on putting together research teams that work across colonies and the technology are shared? They can learn from the Sentinels we have as well."

The Gresan Governor looked over, "I think it would be a good idea to consider. Instead of fighting each other helping each other. The patents would be in the researcher's names and Aurora for use on ship designs. No infringement issues. The weapons manufacturers would have to pay for the use of the patents but it does give us a chance to accomplish more together."

The Ridan Governor commented, "Especially for some of us leaving office in a few years. My political party is elated at the facts you uncovered the corruption and you only uncovered it because the opposition leaders refused to advance the treaty.

You already know it passed easily along party lines. The few independents and smaller parties who ran voted in favor of it as well. Just to help secure our computer systems from Aurora."

Rocan laughed, "She has more boxes she has to check. Yet she can still get in, but more will know beforehand."

She nodded, "True. How goes your hybrid hunt?"

Rocan chuckled, "We are approaching 125 I believe. We will see the next list of candidates from within the Home Guard from now on. We have enough to jump a battleship. We may try a dreadnaught or colossus jump without a battleship, to begin with. See how that goes. It can get repaired on the other side if needed."

The Pena Governor looked over, "Didn't the Drakor tell you to take it slow?"

He nodded, "They also told me to test my limits. I will wait a while longer on that one. I want more telepaths undergoing more training to make them stronger first. Before the issue arises in the future I have something to report.

My MA did jump up to 285 and the Drakor predicted that was where it would go to. They somehow figured it out and they gave me that number and it matched. With this link, I share with Astra and the 2 ladies, I get a 1-point bump from each of them, as do they. To 288 when we are connected.

They said 300 was dangerously high and close to insanity and they are happy to see it stop here. We are still early in the experimental stage with this and it requires a lot of trust with the Sentinel you are paired with.

In the Terran system, Astra is only connected to the head of the Justices this way. She is the only one who provides that service before it was done to me. She does not feed in training that way, a place where Astra and Aurora differ."

He nodded to them and ended the call to let them digest that information.

---

Three days later and 25 new fighters flew into the Penan Regional Air and Spaceport on the edge of their Capital. Followed by Rocan and Vivian in the 2 stealth fighters. All fighters flew in order based on flight leader scores. Shadow led the field and Rabbit brought up the rear squadron. Rocan and Vivian flew in side by side and parked in a V formation in the center before they departed their craft. He had the field being monitored from space for snipers and such out to 3km away for added protection. All 5 governors were present when he walked up and shook their hands.

He looked at the pilots still out by their planes, "Ladies and gentlemen, the first cross colony training class is now present. The last squad is missing a pilot because she went into a stealth battleship engine room with her training craft.

She shot something, something she should not have shot. She went against orders. The thing about her was she was the best-damned pilot of the group. A Sentinel instructor pilot, Lieutenant Summers flew the craft in for us today.

The lost pilot tried so hard to prove herself after she found out what this cross-unit was about. Pilots! Pull back and reveal your planes."

They had ladders on standby for this as they went up and pulled off the flight designation for each craft on the tail. Two-letter colony codes with a dash and an 'M' with a number that ranged from 1-5 on each colony's ships. Then their names with callsigns below the canopy. Finally, they pulled back the letters that spelled out Marine on the side and the wings of the craft. There was a lot of talk within the crowd among the reporters and guests invited.

He looked over, "I crossed the best Marine Corps and Army snipers with the best air breather and space-based pilots as selected by their governors for this first class."

He pulled up his file again and a box flashed around his redacted file title on the large display and then it was stripped away.

He looked across, "I had to teach them to read the battlefield, and learn how to target without a computer. How to find a target that is not picked up on sensors.

Teach pilots to think like snipers and teach snipers how to fly their asses off. Shadow, come up here please."