The Forward Momentum had no chance of getting away.
It was not for lack of trying.
The Vanguarders crewing the vessel employed desperate measures to traverse as much distance as possible.
Bots and mechs were throwing away as many supplies and equipment as possible. It wasn’t enough to dump their spare parts, their ammunition stores, their material reserves and even months worth of food and water into space.
The crew of the Forward Momentum also tore out as many non-essential equipment as possible!
Mechs roughly tore out heavy equipment such as 3D printers and structural components such as decks and bulkheads and physically threw them out the nearest large-sized hatches.
Of course, the Fridaymen didn’t forget to trash any of the valuable equipment and goods they got rid of. They didn’t want their pursuers to pick up a bargain.
While it sounded a bit silly to speed up a ship as long and heavy as a fleet carrier in this fashion, the actions did make a difference, if only modestly.
It was too bad that too much of the Forward Momentum was still stuck to the hull. The hull plating and structural components such as the keel accounted for most of the mass of the fleet carrier. Removing them was either time-consuming or not doable if they actually wanted to keep the ship together when she transitioned into FTL travel.
In the end, the Forward Momentum lost her primary sub-light propulsion systems.
While she still possessed numerous secondary thrusters and so on, they were mainly responsible for performing delicate maneuvers and adjusting the ship’s orientation. In other words, they were only responsible for turning and spinning the Forward Momentum around. It simply wasn’t doable to rely on their meager power to outrun a mech or starship!
Even when the Forward Momentum’s escape was blocked, Ves didn’t pay much attention to the vessel.
“There is no way for the Vanguarders to run away far enough before my Transcendent Punishers robs them of their mobility.”
He held no doubts. He knew his mechs the best, so he could already predict the outcome.
Even though his artillery mechs already fired their weapons more than a thousand times, even though their weapon barrels were already showing heavy signs of wear and tear, even though the entire fleet’s reserve of gauss ammunition and high-density mech-grade energy cells was running low, the Transcendent Punishers were still capable of finishing the job.
Of course, Ves did not look forward to the aftermath. The mechs had been in combat for so long that many of them were only just a few steps away from breaking down. Even the undamaged mechs required an extensive round of maintenance to fix all of the damage they accumulated over the course of firing their powerful weapons.
While it was not impossible to force them to take part in another battle, strictly speaking they should pretty much be out of service after this engagement.
Ves silently groaned and pressed his hand against his helmet. He felt the urge to palm his face or rub his smooth-shaven chin, but it was not wise to remove his Unending Regalia at this time.
While there was pretty much no chance that the Fridaymen managed to infiltrate the Spirit of Bentheim, it was best to be cautious to the very end. He had already paid for mistakes of underestimating the Fridaymen before.
In order to cheer him up, he turned his attention elsewhere. He focused his sights on the projection of the Auralis.
The Gauge Dynasty-built fleet carrier had fallen dormant ever since it got hit by the energy wave unleashed by the Penitent Sister battle formation.
A lot of people were initially scared and hesitant to approach the Auralis. The surviving Fridaymen all learned that the crew of the massive ship had died in an instant when the wave passed through the hull.
Over 20,000 humans died in an instant. None of them succeeded in resisting the unstoppable attack. Who knew whether some of that ‘death energy’ still lingered on the lifeless capital ship!
It was only belatedly that General Pierce compelled the forces under his command to dispatch marines to escort a takeover party to bring the Auralis back online.
“We can’t leave this ship floating around in space! We can’t let our opponents get our hands on her either. Gain control over her propulsion and her FTL drives and bring her away if possible. Blow her up if you can’t or if our enemies have a chance of capturing her. The Auralis is the property of the Friday Coalition. There is too much sensitive intelligence and classified technology in her hull. She cannot fall into the hands of outsiders!”
This was easier said than done. When the Fridayman shuttles initially arrived next to the eerily-silent vessel, they had difficulty getting in. The Fridayman boarding parties were stuck outside for a very long time as they waited for a mech to breach one of the entry hatches.
It got worse as they went inside.
Every compartment and hallway section was locked.
“Damnit, the Auralis isn’t accepting our codes or communication requests! The stupid ship AIs don’t want to let us in. They’re treating us as rivals rather than allies!”
The AIs were never programmed to deal with this unprecedented situation. A ship as valuable and sensitive as a deep strike fleet carrier possessed extremely high security. The Auralis boasted the best physical defenses and virtual defenses the Gauge Dynasty could stuff in a capital ship.
Bang!
A frustrated virtual security specialist slammed his fist against the console. Trying to gain access into the Auralis’ internal network was as hard as pulling out an exobeast’s teeth!
The suited and armored figures of this specific boarding party all impatiently shuffled their feet. If the Auralis accepted their identities and let them in, then they would have been able to reach her primary engineering bay at this time!
Instead, the ship acted like a traumatized survivor who had become horribly paranoid to anyone else. She closed herself off from her former friends and allies and trusted no one except for other Gaugers.
This ordinarily shouldn’t be a problem. No matter what catastrophe the Auralis suffered, she was so well-armored and well-protected that it should have been impossible for all of her crew to die at once.
In the imagination of her shipwrights, the only instance where all of the crew would die at once was if she flew into a sun, crashed onto the surface of a heavy gravity planet or got struck by a superweapon.
In any other instance, at least some of the 20,000 crew members of the highly-compartmentalized vessel should still be left alive to take over command.
Even if every crew member died except for the junior cook, the Auralis would instantly recognize the survivor as the highest-ranking service member on the ship who was still alive.
This simple cook would gain a huge amount of authority and become capable of commanding the fleet carrier’s AIs and automated systems.
This was enough power to command the Auralis to flee from the battlefield or initiate self-destruct procedures!
Yet this did not happen! Every single crew member had died without exception, so according to the programming of the AIs, the Auralis was locked unless a senior officer of the Sundered Phalanx came to take over command.
“What kind of stupid demand is this!?” A marine captain roared. “I’m a citizen of the Gauge Dynasty!”
Unfortunately, the Auralis ignored the officer’s pleas.
The marine captain served in the Coalition Reserve Corps, which was a separate military branch.
The man was also an infantry officer, making him unqualified to ‘unlock’ a ship as valuable as the Auralis!
“Wait, don’t we have any surviving Sundered Phalanx mech pilots left, sir?” A combat engineer suddenly proposed. “The mech pilots of the Bloody Herons and the Holvein Grenadiers are part of the Auralis’ original crew complement. As long as we bring one of them back, the Auralis should recognize them and hand over command authority.”
As soon as they conveyed this suggestion back to their superiors, they were met with a long period of silence before they received an answer.
“Not a single mech of the Bloody Herons and the Holvein Grenadiers have managed to disengage from the battle. The enemy mech forces have essentially wiped them all out.”
A heavy weight fell on the shoulders of the boarding party.
It didn’t matter if other senior Fridayman officers came. As far as the Auralis was concerned, people from the Konsu Clan, Vanguard Group and other Coalition partners couldn’t be trusted.
Who knew if they were looking to steal the Auralis for themselves!
These strict instructions reflected the general wariness that Coalition partners held towards each other. Even after they merged in a single state, they still maintained a competitive outlook towards each other!
Not a single Coalition partner was their friend. They merely allied with each other out of necessity. It was impossible for the Gauge Dynasty to program their most sensitive military assets to roll out the welcoming mat to their rivals!
“..If that is the case, then we have no other way to go deeper aside from breaching every hatch and blast door in our way.”
That was going to take a long time. When a fleet carrier as valuable as the Auralis wanted to keep people out, the barriers in the way could stall intruders for hours or even days depending on their breaching equipment!
“Well, at least our opposition will have it even worse.” The combat engineer quipped. “The Auralis doesn’t want to let us in, but she doesn’t recognize us as hostiles either. If any of the Larkinsons or Hexers try to step aboard, the ship’s active defenses will immediately wipe them out. Even if they manage to sabotage these countermeasures, they won’t get the core systems in time. We have a head start on anyone who comes afterwards.”
Ordinarily, the Fridayman combat engineer should be right.
Yet the first infiltrators the Larkinson Clan had sent was a single stealth shuttle.
The invisible vehicle had actually launched from the expeditionary fleet shortly after the Auralis became a ghost ship.
Even while mechs were still battling it out with each other, the stealth shuttle stayed far away from the hot zones and quietly slipped to the underside of the Auralis.
When the shuttle hatch oriented towards the ship slid open, two figures floated into view.
A heavily-suited woman and a cat clad in form-fitting black armor landed on the hull of the lifeless capital ship.
“You know what to do, Lucky.” Calabast transmitted to the cat. “Follow the routines and instructions that I’ve sent to you. The ship diagram, hacking software and false data provided by DIVA should work. Even if they don’t, just switch over to the backup plan. One way or another, we’ll be taking over the ship, and it will all be thanks to you. Now get going if you want to have free rein over the ship’s vault and material stores!”
“Meow!”
Lucky phased straight though meters of solid hull plating and other material designed to repel outside intrusion. Once he entered one of the outermost compartments, the cat was careful not to appear in open space.
Instead, he kept ‘swimming’ through solid decks and bulkheads, preventing even a shadow of his presence from getting detected by the ship’s vigilant monitoring system.
When a ship like the Auralis was in lockdown mode, then her security systems became incredibly alert to any intruders!
It was one thing for other Fridaymen to step aboard the ship. It was another thing for Hexers and thieves to sneak their way inside!
Calabast had warned Lucky over and over again not to stick his head out. The cat had to rely on other senses to make his way to the center of the fleet carrier. Fortunately, his progress was fairly quick since not a single solid obstacle was able to stop a phased commando cat.
Lucky eventually passed through the reinforced layers that protected one of the core sections of the Auralis.
The primary data vault housed the AIs and much of the essential data of the Auralis.
This was an incredibly sensitive compartment. The core AI that governed the highest levels of the fleet carrier was incredibly sensitive towards any form of intrusion.
Not even the Hexers managed to figure out a way to hack or subvert the core AIs employed by the Sundered Phalanx.
As long as the core AI or the ship’s systems detected anything amiss, the AIs would quickly activate a contingency plan that made taking over the ship impossible!
Fortunately, Lucky didn’t need to mess with the core AI. Instead, he moved over to one of the data banks and retrieved a tiny chip from one of his Misfortune Harness’ pockets.
He carefully took advantage of his phased state to attach the chip into an internal server port in one of the closed data storage units.
Immediately, the software and data inside this tiny chip went to work!
What was strange was that the Auralis did not reject the intrusion.
It would have been different if Lucky appeared into view and tried to drill a hole in the storage unit.
Yet because the chip appeared spontaneously, the initial actions of the hacking software took effect before the security systems put up its guard.
As long as the hacking program managed to get its foot in the door, the rest was easy!
It only took a couple of seconds for the contents of the chip to do its job. Soon enough, it broke apart into specs of dust.
Outside of the Auralis, Calabast and a boarding party from the Black Cats patiently waited. Upon receiving a subtle signal, the spymaster attempted to open the outer hatch.
It slid open without resistance. Calabast and her subordinates effortlessly flew inside and landed on the deck as soon as the artificial gravity took hold.
The ship greeted the new arrivals.
[Welcome back to the Auralis, Captain Arnlend. This ship is currently under lockdown. Your orders, ma’am?]
Calabast grinned. “Kill any unauthorized intruders. Don’t leave any of them alive.”
