Small ships aren't all that much smaller, proportionally speaking. But wrecked civilian ships are… Depressing. Someone put a lot of work into building this at some point, and now it's just torn apart. I can see the cloud of ice crystals where the plumbing has been holed and exposed to the void, the ships inner workings just as visible as the cargo hold and main drive. Bodies, too. Anyone close enough to the points of impact was fried or blasted apart, then exposed to vacuum. Anyone wanting to identify them would have to perform a genetic test. Further in, the bodies are more intact. They appear to have had enough time to seal their suits before the borders shot them.
Clearly not interested in prisoners for ransom, then. Probably easier to raid their stores and systems without a crew to defend it... Or they were just assholes.
Oh. And it's just now occurring to me that I didn't check Krypton for bodies. And I'm not spiritually motivated this time; Amalak's situation has made me extremely aware of the necessity for preserving the genetic diversity of species that are nearing extinction.
"An interesting offensive use of spatial distortions. Not only does it bypass standard shield technologies but it also muddies their trail."
Oh,
now you think of that? Too bad, the station the Renegade picked up has probably fallen into the sun or something by now...
I settle for turning up my empathic vision and looking around-. There. It's not hard to find pirates. Privateers. Enemies.
"But you can track them anyway?"
Hardly a challenge for a Coluan, after all.
"Certainly. The calculations aren't so complicated that I can't perform them. What I'm more curious about is how they stopped this ship in interstellar space."
I didn't pick up anything in the wreckage, but a ring can't show me things that aren't there.
In other words, there's no trace of whatever caused them to stop here. Could have been a fake distress beacon, could have been a gravitational interdiction field. Who knows?
"No clues?"
"I would guess that they were able to get ahead of their target and create a disruption which forced them to return to normal space. Ordinarily I would assume that they had advanced notification of their target's planned route, but the sheer volume of space would make a simple betrayal insufficient for their purposes." She shrugs. "It will be easier to interrogate them than to attempt to deduce it based on the available evidence."
So, time to go track down the gits. Easy peasy.
I sigh, and she frowns curiously at me.
"You must have seen things like this before, surely."
Two years experience, remember? And a lot of that as on Earth - no space travel.
"Have you ever seen an exploded planet?"
"No. Am I likely to?"
"Depends if you got to Rao or not."
It would be quite the tourist destination, if not for the shattered planet... And the radiation... and Rao knows how many killer AI defence stations lurking...
"Rao? Krypton? I knew that it was destroyed, but I assumed that whatever did it was limited to the surface."
"No, the whole place went up. The core exploded, and huge amounts of the planet's mass got converted into radioactive crystal. It just.. occurred to me; I assumed that their records would have been completely destroyed, but it's not impossible that some record of Amalak's species survived. It's not likely, but I'll… Try and find time to check."
And perhaps find a certain lunar station and its' resident memory engram?
"I'm trying to calculate what could cause something like that. It would be very strange. And there's little point; the radiation would have destroyed any data storage unit on the planet that the explosion didn't."
"Unless they had a backup off the planet." I shrug. "It's not very likely, but there are only so many possibilities. How do you want to handle this?"
To be fair, whatever blew up Krypton
was weird. Enough force to shatter a planet, but not destroy the chunks entirely, nor the little starships carrying the last of the Els...
"Our best information is that the privateers aren't advanced enough to stop even one Lantern. I would surmise that the Reach intend to spread the war as widely as possible, since they have demonstrably failed to stop Lanterns by force."
"Logical enough. Though I think it's more that they've manoeuvred themselves into a corner."
Operate on too wide a front for the NEMO command to manage? Possible but it stretches their own forces thin as well...
"How so?"
"The Reach don't have allies. They have thralls, slaves and puppets. Who exactly could they get help from?"
Like I've said, anyone who isn't an actual Reach citizen is an asset to be used, exploited and eventually disposed of. It's a pity so few of the races they trick don't catch on until it's too late.
"Qward."
"They can buy stuff from Qward. I could probably buy stuff from Emana, that doesn't make us allies."
Of course, Kalmin will be sorting
that out soon enough...
"Our records on Qward make it clear that this behaviour is out of character for them. You encountered an elite qwardian warrior during the initial negotiations which led to the founding of L.E.G.I.O.N.. It may be that Varthanon has a genuine alliance in mind, and is prepared to take such a risk. He was after all prepared to leave Kalmin alive, which must have involved a certain amount of risk."
"Or he's planning to conquer the Reach from within." I shake my head. "If a Thunderer throws a qwa-bolt at my head you can say that you warned me."
I honestly doubt this Varthanon is wily enough to play so long a game. But we'll see soon enough, no doubt.
"That doesn't sound productive. If they do, you'll already know. And I think I will take the lead. I'm concerned that my time away from the front line has dulled my reactions. A few years ago I wouldn't have been hit by that neural impacter. But… You saw him, didn't you?"
"I saw hostile intent. The gun was a surprise to me as well."
Of course, OL isn't so foolish as to
not wear the heaviest armour he can get away with... What's Lantern Gozzi wearing again? Basic field gear AKA the leather onesie?
"And you didn't warn me?"
I shrug. "Your construct armour looked solid enough to me. Are you aware that you can set your ring to move you out of the way of an attack as soon as an attack is detected, without needing a conscious decision from you?"
Would she
accept that lack of direct control?
"Yes, but I'm Coluan."
"You're a Coluan who got shot."
"I can think faster than any-. I can't think faster than a Maltusian AI, can I?"
See, this is why the Computer Tyrants got one over on the Coluans. Meat can't work as fast as metal or crystal.
"I would be surprised. And impressed."
"Follow me."
Think she's getting a little annoyed?
The stars ripple as she bends space, then she's gone. I give her a moment or two to arrive, then
appear
next to her.
Heh. Looks like the privateers didn't go
too far, it seems. Far in interplanetary terms, at least...
There isn't a base so much as a larger ship with four smaller ones attached limpet style to its hull. Not that unusual a configuration; the larger ship is probably the only one with a faster than light drive, while the others are designed more for agility and sublight speed.
"Attention raiders. This is Lantern Gozzi of the Orange Lantern Corps. Surrender now. This is your only warning."
No need for subtlety here, I see. Hopefully she's got the sense to avoid the firing lines of any of their heavier weapons.
Construct armour and shield for me, but Lantern Gozzi appears to simply be masking her energy emissions instead. We're far enough away that that's a reasonable response; space is vast, and their guns don't look like the sort to be able to affect a wide enough area to hit us that way.
Ah, yeah, yeah, they're looking, and the generators on the parasite craft are increasing their output. Looks like they're going to try and fight…
This will be quick. Five precise shots and they get a taste of their own medicine.
I narrow my eyes and try to spot the familiar outline of Reach neural programming. No, but they're all reasonably committed. If the captain says fight, then a fight's going to happen. I might be able to repeat what I did last time and talk the rest of the crew into shooting their commander, but I'm content to let Lantern Gozzi handle this.
So, what approach shall she take? Diplomacy? Precise disabling shots? Or...
She handles it by surging forward, a construct breaching charge blasting a hole in the mother ship's hull to allow her access. I drift in that direction, using her ring to monitor her progress as she engages the crew directly, their weapons failing to penetrate her personal shield as her construct sidearm finds their vital organs. She's already made it to their bridge as I set on board, the few crew who were trying to attack her from behind throwing down their arms as they see me.
"Illustres. Bridge secure. But their database suggest that we may have another problem."
...The sledgehammer method, eh? Well, they really were outclassed, weren't they? She could probably use the win after her showing in the last system... Sure, she's not showing it, but she must feel
something over having been less useful out there.
