Project - Prometheus Ch. 01

Hello all. Just a quick foreword before the story begins. This is my first foray into writing, and I hope that people like what I have to write about. I have had many ideas tumbling around in my head for years, and this is the first time I have given them any real form. A certain popular writer inspired me (You know who you are, sir!) to give this a shot, and I wanted to say thank you to him, for telling me that I should do so! Now shall we begin?

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The blocky yet agile freighter, the Darkstrider, tore through hyperspace on course with its destination. The pilot confirmed they would arrive at the system they were headed for in a few minutes. She turned her attention away from the blue tunneling glow just outside of the cockpit.

"Are you sure about this?" Inari asked Taal'ani, their lone Fel'caan crew mate and resident computer systems specialist. She stood up and stepped away from the pilot's chair, which turned slightly as she moved. The area behind her doubled as both cockpit and bridge on this old freighter. Several wall consoles and podiums lined the walls, each one displaying various readouts of the ship's systems and status.

A luminescent, yellowish-white light illuminated the area. A holographic projector, which emitted a bluish-white light, took up the space in the center of the bridge zone. The machine displayed still frame shots of a thin and unkempt man in his early forties, with an untrustworthy look about him. Inari Sunara straightened out her red spacer's jacket as she approached, her boots clicking on the floor. Scrutinizing the stills, the captain looked certain, but turned to her crew mate for confirmation.

"I checked the vids we pulled from the security systems and cross-referenced them with stills from before. It's him," Taal'ani replied in her girlish voice while looking up at her captain.

Even at forty-six, Inari still had both the face and body of a woman at least ten years younger. With classically beautiful features, like that of the ancient film actress; Audrey Hepburn, albeit much bustier. Dusky skin, inky black hair, and brown eyes were indicative of her Middle Eastern ancestry. She was always striking to look at, a fact well documented by the amount of looks she garnered while the crew were on shore leave. The simple outfit of dark blue synth-denim pants and bracingly tight tank top was enough to send most men over the edge.

Though the same could be said for Taal'ani, as dozens of men looked at her nearly as often. She was a Fel'caan, a race of cat people that looked like the perfect hybridization of human and cat. She had tiger striped fur, a cat like nose and feline features. The cat girl also had the typical teeth associated with cats, though her teeth didn't interfere with her speech. She had dirty blonde hair on her head like humans do, which oddly didn't clash with her fur. It just made her all that much more appealing.

Taal'ani's alluring, swaying walk always drew eyes to her sizable cleavage and massively round rear. Her beauty marked her as an exotic creature, as she always stood out wherever they went. Though her six-foot-four frame towered over that of her captain's five foot-ten, she knew who was in charge.

Taal'ani would often wear form fitting clothes out in public as she loved the attention. Since they were on the ship, she wore an old torn second-hand t-shirt and baggy cargo pants. She liked to relax when it was just the girls aboard the ship. Her arm computer was displaying the video and still comparison, lining up the faces so they matched.

"So, you are certain it's him?" Inari asked again, her alto tone resonating with power, as she was a woman used to giving commands.

"Positive. Ninety-seven point three percent match. It's definitely him," Taal'ani said to her captain, with a look in her green eyes that almost dared the human woman to defy her. Inari chuckled to herself as she turned and sat back down in her chair. She knew that muley look in Taal'ani's eyes, which confirmed that she had made sure that there were no mistakes in the man's identity.

Michael Phillips, also known as Rat-Faced Mike, was a slippery and weaselly bastard that had a lot of pain coming to him. He was responsible for several brutal murders across dozens of systems and crimes that ranked worse than murder. Though the bounty on his head was considerable, it wasn't the only reason behind their search.

Mike had brutally tortured and murdered the parents of one of Inari's crew. This would be a most satisfactory capture for all of them, one that Inari would relish for a long time. It was also a very personal matter for two of the crew, Natalya and Korsa. Natalya was orphaned as a child and would have fallen victim to Rat Face's darker appetites. If Korsa, their medical officer, had not arrived and intervened, things would have been very different.

Priya, the co-pilot and sharpshooter of the crew, ambled over to inspect the face on the hologram. Priya was Inari's closest and best friend of the whole crew. They served together in the Federation Navy until a certain high-ranking officer wrecked Inari's career. Priya wouldn't let Inari just up and leave without her, so once she had finished her second tour of duty, she put in for a discharge and joined her friend in her new life.

They had been thick as thieves since the academy, and as far as she was concerned, that was one thing that would never change. Priya took a swig of cooled water, having just finished a yoga session in her quarters. Her shirt and pants were a riot of colors, though dampened by the amount of sweat that was present.

Inari eyed the woman in an appraising manner, drinking in the lithe figure, B-cup breasts, and perfectly toned ass. Noticing the stare on her captain's face, Priya flipped the braid over her shoulder and stuck out her ass for the captain to gawk at. She bent over to get a better look at the details on Taal'ani's arm computer, her runners squeaking as she moved closer.

"That's him, all right. I recognize the face. Though the last time I saw it, it was etched in pure terror, wasn't it?" Priya asked as she directed her lilting soprano voice towards an approaching Korsa, while smirking.

Korsa looked at everyone and said in mock surprise, "What? It's not my fault that the boy nearly pissed himself when he saw me charging into the fray."

Korsa was a Khontar; a race that is genetically similar to humans, but with very notable differences. Four arms, enough physical strength to bend solid steel, oddly colored skin and two to four feet taller than a regular human adult. These were the most glaringly obvious differences between Khontarans and humans, but not the only ones. Many were more subtle in how they were expressed, but the same could be said for any humanoid race.

Korsa's head was shaped like that of a human, with wide, expressive eyes, which glittered in the color of burnished gold, high cheekbones and a pert nose. Another unique trait of her race was the ability to change her hair color to whatever shade she wished. Though it would take an hour or so before the change was clear. She had gone a bright cobalt blue this time with silver tips, which oddly didn't clash with her deep red skin.

Despite Korsa's size, standing just over eight feet in height, she was perfectly proportioned. She had hips that matched Taal'ani's in roundness, but much wider than the cat girl's. They were encased in a set of tan cut away shorts, which only accentuated her figure. She folded both sets of arms beneath her breasts, making her massive H-cup rack threaten to tear apart the black long-sleeved shirt she was wearing. Although she was huge by human standards, she was perfectly proportioned.

"Mama K, you would make the most battle-hardened marine shit his pants if he had to stand against you," Natalya stated.

She then walked around Korsa to better look at everyone and the holo on display. As the ship's engineer, she was dressed in dark blue coveralls, which were smudged with grease and coolant. Idly dusting her hands on her clothes and flipping her crest of hair out of her face, Natalya stepped in for a better look, her heavy work boots clanging on the decking.

Giving her adoptive daughter a sassy look, she replied with, "Language, young lady!"

"Yes, mother," Natalya shot back sarcastically, while her musical voice gave over to a bout of laughter.

Natalya was a gorgeous chocolate skinned woman whose attributes matched Korsa's, albeit on a smaller scale. Standing at five-foot-nine, with a considerable bust and a plump ass, she almost looked like a pygmy version of Korsa, minus the second set of arms. The mother/daughter dynamic they had kept them close and was sometimes comical, often sending the rest of the crew into fits of giggles.

"OK, enough!" Inari said, while stifling a fit of giggling. "Let's focus and figure out what needs to be done. We don't know much about what we will find when we come out of hyperspace, besides a patched-up outpost that's been abandoned since God only knows when. There will be some ships lying about, but we don't know how many and what weapon loadout they have."

"We'll be using the stealth drive to get in close, hack their network and then be off," Inari dictated the plan they had agreed upon. "Once we have the information we need, we leave and plan our next move from there."

"Nats," Inari said, looking directly at the young woman. "I know that this is personal for you, but we have to maintain the objective. Which is to determine what exactly is going on and what he and his new 'friends' are up to, so we can get that bastard once and for all. He's been ten steps ahead of us this whole time. Let's get ahead of him for once."

The caramel skinned woman nodded, "I understand Captain. Just as long as we get that weasel bastard, I'll be cool."

Inari smiled warmly, looking around at her crew, proud of each one of them. Though they were all outcasts and different from each other, they all held onto one another. The adventures and hardships they had endured together had made them something more. They were family and no matter what, family always stuck with you.

"OK then. To your stations, everyone. We're coming up on the co-ordinates now."

Everyone bolted to their places and readied themselves. Korsa and Priya split up, going left and right, through doorways next to the main corridor. Heading up the ramps at the left and right of the main corridor which led to the topside cannon emplacements. Both women sat in the chairs and activated the laser cannons from their seats.

As they manned the guns, Natalya sprinted back down the main corridor to the engine room, to ensure that there were no hiccups with the stealth drive. She slid down the ladder and bolted to the main console, checking the power levels and connectors.

Inari hit the switch that dropped them out of hyperspace and into real space. Taal'ani set herself into the Zen like state she would need to be in to pull off the hack. Immediately they saw the abandoned station, sitting orbit around a massive planetary body. But instead of being adrift in the orbit of the gas giant, it literally was buzzing with activity and lit up like a tree on Christmas.

"Stealth drive engaged. Let's hope that no one picked us up on long range scanners," said Natalya as they closed the distance to the station.

Surrounding it was a veritable phalanx of warships. Several light cruisers, a couple handfuls of destroyers, over twenty frigates, and converted freighters. Docked with the station and the larger ships were dozens of fighters. Under normal circumstances, this was a collection of ships that would never harmoniously be in the same area, let alone work together.

"How in the hell did they amass such a fleet, and how is it they're not shooting each other up right now?" wondered Priya.

"My best guess is that they have a contact that is allowing them to attain the framework of those warships. Though you are right, the number of them gathered in one place is both startling and troubling." Korsa speculated, her motherly voice tinged with concern.

"Let's hope no one looks out a window once we get close enough," worried Natalya over the intercom.

Inari had to be careful, as several groups of ships had clustered together to patrol the immediate area around the abandoned station. They seemed to be in a rather sloppy semblance of standard Coalition military formations. Though there were only two patrol groups, there were other ships that were spaced out around the station. It was almost as though they were expecting intruders. Thankfully, they weren't clustered too close together, so they had slipped by with none of the other ships so much as turning in their direction.

"Taal'ani, how much closer?" asked the captain as she took them high above the gathered fleet and over the station.

"I'm picking up a strong signal, just a little closer," she said as she was priming her programs.

The stealth drive they were using was something that Natalya had spent years cooking up. It had taken some time to finish the final tweaks, and she finally got it working several weeks ago. The only drawback was it used a ton of energy just to power it. The rest of the non-essential systems had to be powered down or running on minimal power, so they didn't drain the reactor.

"OK, close enough. Start the countdown," Taal'ani told Priya.

The XO of the Darkstrider hit the holographic countdown display. Seven minutes and counting before someone detected them or the cyberspace defensive systems were set off. Thanks to a particular piece of hardware that Taal'ani designed and built into the ship, they could hack into any system anywhere. As long as there was a signal they could latch onto, they would always manage it.

"Found a way in. Silly boys and the games they play," Taal'ani snickered as she piggybacked off a signal that was being used to play a recently popular galaxy wide MMO.

"What's the count?"

"Five twenty-seven," Priya said. "Working my magic, ladies. Hold on......"

The three-dimensional coding that she had to do was annoyingly complex, but Taal'ani enjoyed a challenge. Thankfully, the system wasn't anything too exotic. Not much beyond the standard defensive programs found in the Coalition military. That these pirates had military grade defenses was a little more than troubling, but that was a fact she'd file away for use later. The rotating cipher was easy enough to crack, but time-consuming. Just one more rotation, insert the next few lines of code and....

"I'm in ladies. Time?"

"Two-eighteen! Must be a new record!" Inari said while she kept the Darkstrider in a stable position. Taal'ani smirked to herself, and she began her data trawl through the pirates' archives.

"Combing through their files.... lots of personal junk in here.... found them! Initiating download."

"Outstanding work, Talon," Inari sighed in relief.

"Also, I got a little something else running while we wait for the download. I hacked the camera system on the station, and we should have a live feed streaming to the main holo... now!" Taal'ani said as she finished hitting a sequence of keys. At the last keystroke, the main holoscreen flooded with the various live images of the station.

"Are we recording?" asked Inari.

"Always captain!" Taal'ani piped up.

"Hold up a second!" she shouted, which caused everyone to jump.

"What is it, boss?" Priya asked, genuinely concerned at the change in demeanor. Inari selected a feed and sized it to fit the whole screen. On the screen were three men, who appeared to be having a merry laugh over something. One man, no one recognized, but by the way he was attending to the consoles on screen, they guessed he was one of the station techs. The other two were of more immediate interest to the group.

"There's your confirmation, Nats. he's here," said Korsa as she watched Rat-Faced Mike sharing a laugh with a slightly rotund older man. He had greasy, slicked black hair, a pointed oiled goatee and wore what appeared to be a.... Confederation military uniform. Seeing this man there, though, had both Inari and Priya seething with rage.

"Captain Joseph Briggs!" Inari spoke with venomous spite.

"He's most definitely the supplier! I knew he had his hands in some shady things, but aiding and abetting pirates?!" Priya said with angry shock laced into her voice.

"Just about done. One last file cache and....." Taal'ani said while still working on her computer. On the screen, red lights flashed, and all three men looked around, wondering what was going on.

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"What is happening?!" Briggs roared at the station tech as the lights and alarms blared out their warning.

"Gimme a sec!" the tech shouted back while he punched up several command sequences on the main console. "Oh shit! Someone's accessed and copied all our files!"

"WHAT?!?!?" Briggs raged as he stepped forward to see for himself.

"Who did this?" asked Rat Face in his reedy, high voice.

"Checking now." The tech's hands were a blur as they obeyed his mind's command to check every avenue of infiltration. "It's not from inside the station, so it has to be a remote signal from somewhere..." the tech trailed off while furiously typing away at the console.

"Trace that signal, NOW!" Briggs shouted, breathing down the tech's neck and looming over him in an intimidating fashion.

"Think he needs persuading, boss?" Rat Face asked with a smirk on his face while reaching for his pistol.

"We still need him to find out who breached our system. I thought you told me that this system was unhackable!" Briggs fumed while backing away. He gave the tech some room to work while shooting a glare at Rat Face, prompting him to move his hand from his weapon. Rat Face put his hands up in mock surrender, a gesture of compliance.

"Fair enough," he said, while backing away.

"It is unhackable! Unless you're better than me and have exotic toys to reach out and establish a secure link...." the tech said, looking at the radar holo. then punched in a few commands, having the station start a full scan of the surrounding space. At first, he couldn't see anything on the radar holo within range, other than their own ships. He was just about to give up when a ghostly single ping lit up the holo. It was pulling away from the station, then faded after maybe a second.

"That has to be it right there!" the tech pointed at the holo.

Rat Face pulled his weapon from his holster and aimed at the tech's head, finger dancing on the trigger. "I see nothing there, boy. Just your imagination."

"Just wait!" The tech screamed while he was re-calibrating and focusing the station's sensor grid. Once he was done, the signal was little more than a ghost signature, but it was steady.

"Why would one of our ships be pulling away from the station so quickly?" he finished sarcastically, his voice trembling slightly.

"Boy, if you didn't have a much-needed skill set in that head of yours, you'd be a smoking corpse by now!" Briggs screamed at the tech, who gulped and nodded in fear. The portly older man stepped over to the comm system and shouted out, "All ships converge on that ship pulling away in sector thirty-seven! I repeat, converge on that ship pulling away in sector thirty-seven! Shoot to kill!"

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The radar holo on the Darkstrider went red and lit up like fireworks. The computer confirmed that there were hostile targets bearing down on their position.

"Damn it!" Inari swore as they were making their way out of the immediate area to make the jump to hyperspace.

"Nats, disconnect the stealth drive! Our cover is blown!" Inari barked over the intercom, shutting down the drive on the main console. It restored some power, but not enough to get them out and barely enough to power the shields and weapons.