• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Chapter 4: First Trial

As the assault team waited for the signal to launch, James' fake distress signal yielded results.

"This is the MDCS (Mining Drone Carrier Spacecraft) Lovey Dovey." A harsh South African accent with audible suspicion. "GFS (General Freighter Spacecraft) Au---"

The statement wasn't even finished before the comms turned to static. James' malicious code latched onto the incoming communications' data signature like a shark smelling blood in the water, tracing it back to the weak, protective cage that was the Lovey Dovey's firewall. It would've been a far riskier operation that would've taken longer, enough time for the ship to send out a distress signal. But Alex's insider information paid off, telling James' pet shark all the cracks and rusting sections of the cage, tearing it apart within milliseconds.

As the comms of the lovey Dovey turned to faded as the Audentes' modified comm array deconstructed whatever signal it was attempting to put out, the ship's thermal signature started to fade as well, with James' shark tearing through whatever it could find violently, seemingly shutting down power to various systems. Though how long they stayed down remained to be seen.

"Whew..." Alex sighed as the internal temperature of the Audentes dropped with the radiators coming online, releasing the waste heat accumulated from the intense cyberattacks. "Assault team, if you want to go, do it now." He turned around to make a small smile at James and Cindy. "Good job with that code. Just keep an eye on the our own systems for now." He then nodded to Marius. "Keep your trigger finger ready on the coilgun."

Alex pressed a few buttons. A visual popped up, showing the asteroid as a small dot and the Lovey Dovey as a pixel next to it. "It'll be a minute before we get a better view..." He remarked to himself.
 
James took the open door into the lovey dovey opened by his virus and started copying over the data, memory, company codes, manifests and anything else he could get his digital hands on. He didn’t open any of it, not wanting to step in any traps left in the system, he would go through it later when he had an open sandbox. He left monitoring their own systems to Cindy as he stole and reinforced his control over the other ships.
 
As James scoured the Lovey Dovey, he found schematics, logs. Mostly boring bureaucratic items, environmental control logs, engine data that wasn't particularly useful, the most recent screaming that it was shut off abruptly. The most interesting bits of data that James could scrounge up was the code used to override the miner drones' automations and take manual command.

Data pulled over just as the ship's hard overrides came in that beat the shark with a metal bat and chased it out.

"Shit..." Alex should've expected this. The Lovey Dovey's drive was still offline, but it looked like it got control of its thrusters, moving around the asteroid, attempting to get into its radar shadow where the jamming beam couldn't reach. Its laser looked to also come online, as warning signals from the Audentes popped up for a high energy beam that was growing stronger and stronger. Soon enough it'll be able to damage sensors.

The crew aboard the makeshift frigate didn't have time to react as the Audentes' drive lit up, sending it into a hard breaking burn as linear gravity returned, pulling everything to the floor that wasn't secured. "Marius, I need fire on that ship now," Alex ordered, then spoke to the assault team. "Your timeline just moved up. I reckon you have ten minutes before they're able to send a distress signal."
 
KB-231 responded to Skolos without emotion, as the situation worsened slightly around them. "I will survive. The vacuum of space is nothing to me, and I can be repaired far more easily than you can." With a semi-condescending pat on the head of Skolos, the machine reasoned, "But at the very least you might make a good meaty shield."
 
"Yes...uh...Yes sir."

Marius's hands are slick with sweat inside his gloves, gripping the joysticks as he nudges the ship into position. His rapidly narrowing tunnel vision almost helps him focus, he stares down the ship in the display. He's aligned, the coilgun pointed at its target. If he doesn't fire, there's very little stopping him from being thrown out of the airlock, who was he kidding, Phoenix hadn't put him on this mission because it was in Stellar's interest to see it succeed, this was solely so they could reap a bigger share of the profits. But if he pulled the trigger he'd be complicit, people were going to die as a result of his direct involvement.

Marius hesitates for a few excruciating seconds, trembling. He couldn't do it, he couldn't--but he had to.

Marius closes his eyes and fires blind.
 
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Skolos thought of himself as relatively brave compared to most people, but the combination of KB's kind words and Alex's tone over the comms made Skolos's tail stand on end. He also felt a small bead of sweat roll down his forehead and he was glad he had a suit on.
"Um, thanks for the confidence booster, KB. Glad I'll be of some use to you. But, uh, we might want to head out now, yeah?"
 
The cargo chamber's top hatch swung open violently, throwing the makeshift drop pod out like a child throwing a ball up in the air. And like the ball, the drop pod quickly fell engine-ward of the Audentes, past the ship entire and down towards the Lovey Dovey, using the velocity inherited from its mothership before it went into a breaking burn. Gas spewed out from the thrusters rigged onto the drop pod, adjusting course, aiming for the flatest, largest face of the target vessel: the drone bay.

The assault team's launch coincided with Marius' burst of fire, bracketing the Lovey Dovey in a shower of tungsten and depleted fission materials, causing it to shudder. The Audentes itself rocked slightly, firing off its own thrusters to keep the coilgun's aim on target vessel.

Alex threw up a telescopic visual onto a free monitor on the bridge, smirking. "Nice work Marius." It was immediately apparent where the compliment came from. While the Lovey Dovey was still attempting to maneuver behind the asteroid, a few rounds of the coilgun landed onto the laser, stopping it from burning the Audentes' more exposed systems. The rest that landed perforated the hull, causing atmosphere to spill out into the void like blood in water. The crew on the bridge also got to watch the drop pod land onto the Lovey Dovey's hull.

It was far from pleasant on the end of the assault team. Were it not for the crash couches, the g-force of the impact would've at least sprained an muscle, at worst, cause bone fracture that led to internal bleeding. Instead, the two biological members of the team managed to get off scot free besides a few bruises beneath their suits. The breaching charge strapped to the drop pod exploded, tearing a hole in both the crate they were in, and the hull.

The drone bay the assault team found themselves in was similar to the cargo chamber of the Audentes, except slightly more specialized with robotic arms mounted along the inner walls that handled harvested rocks and the mining drones themselves. The HUDs displayed the bridge "beneath" them through a single personnel access hatch that was now shut tight.

"7 minutes remaining." Alex reminded them through static-filled comms.
 
Sovanna immediately jumps out, always watching through her scope as she scans the room. “Looks clear, let’s pop this hatch.” She puts her gun on the floor next to the hatch as she examines it.
 
James kept digging into their systems and going beyond the viruses programming. He removed the current opperating system taking a full copy before placing a more helpful system. The reboot took seconds as the update was forced through the modified ransomware inplace.
 
Marius opens an eye to see blinking hit indicators popping up around the ship on the monitor and releases the joysticks, all the tension in his body replaced by guilt. He slides downward in his chair, not responding to Alex.
 
"Hey, KB. Can you do what you did to that hatch to this door?"
Skolos examined the locked door that led to the bridge.
"Then you can use it as a shield to block their bullets while Sovanna and I hit them with ours.
 
KB-231 didn't give any indication besides wordlessly moving to do as offered, blazing heat pouring from his palm to weaken the door at it's hinges before ripping it off with his intense strength, holding it at the mortal's chest levels so they could shoot as he walked forward with his new shield.
 
A burst of fire pierced through the makeshift shield, harmlessly glancing off of the robots chassis. As Sovanna and Skolos emerged from behind him to aim their rifles at the defenders, they saw pistols floating in the air, two men and a woman, all in jumpsuits standing behind the firearms with their hands in the air. "We surrender!" The woman shouted in a professional tone, attempting to suppress her fear. "I am Captain Adisa, and we surrender."

"No survivors." Alex coldly stated, his fingers interlacing as he monitored the comms. James, Cindy, and Marius could see that their captain had his eyebrows knit, sunk slightly the crash couch. It was as if more than the thrust gravity itself was weighing on him. Nonetheless, he repeated his order. "Kill them all, and take control of the bridge before the ship gets behind the asteroid."
 
James didn't question the order, it wasn't directed at him and it wasn't like he had clean hands before this mission. Not as if he had much choice to assist or hinder with the ship powered down. Though once it was back up and running he would have free rein once more.
 
The other two crew members besides Captain Adisa screamed. Not that the assault team could hear them, with air having long vacated the bridge. They died all the same as KB and Skolos put bursts of rifle rounds into their bodies.

"Good work. Now get control of the ship and clean out the rest of it." Alex leaned further into his crash couch. "We're heading off to Io to collect our pay."
 
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