Chapter 9: The Ghost Signal
The cockpit of the Stray Comet was a different world. The easy camaraderie of their previous trip was gone, replaced by a tense, coiled silence. The only sounds were the low, steady hum of the hyperdrive and the soft clicks of Valerius running sensor diagnostics. Below them, in the cargo hold, sat thousands of credits worth of highly volatile Tibanna gas, a fact that did nothing to soothe the nerves of either pilot. They weren't just a target anymore; they were a flying bomb.
"Alright, kid," Valerius said, his voice a low grumble that cut through the quiet. He pointed a cybernetic finger at the holographic star-chart projected between their seats. "According to that magic trade-net of yours, this is the spot. The Trask Nebula. The Void Hounds like to use the sensor interference from the gas clouds to mask their approach."
Jax nodded, his own eyes scanning the data he'd pulled up on his screen. "Their tactics are consistent. Three ships, usually light interceptors. They fly a pincer formation. Two to flank and draw fire, one comes up the rear to hit the engines with an ion cannon." He zoomed in on a technical schematic. "Their goal is to disable, not destroy. They want the cargo."
'They're predictable,' Jax thought, a knot tightening in his stomach. 'That's good. But predictable doesn't mean they're not deadly.'
"I've plotted three emergency hyperspace jump coordinates," Jax said, uploading them to the main navi-computer. "Here, here, and here. If things get too hot, we can try a blind jump, but we'll need at least ten seconds for the computer to calculate the vector."
"Ten seconds is a lifetime when your engine's been ionized," Valerius growled, stating the obvious. He didn't need to. Jax could feel the danger like a static charge in the air. He felt they needed one more edge. Something unpredictable.
While Valerius was focused on running another sensor sweep, Jax quietly accessed the System Shop. 'Predictable tactics need an unpredictable defense,' he thought. 'Something they've never seen before.'
He found it in the EVE Online subsection, under 'Electronic Warfare.'
Item: Signal Distortion Probe I
Description: A single-use deployable probe that emits a chaotic burst of sensor ghost signals, temporarily confusing targeting systems.
Cost: 20 Points.
He didn't hesitate. PURCHASE CONFIRMED. NEW BALANCE: 236 POINTS. The System informed him the small, cylindrical probe could be launched from the ship's standard cargo chute. He quickly wrote a simple macro, linking a spare button on his console to the cargo chute's magnetic launcher.
"Captain," Jax said, getting Valerius's attention. "I've jury-rigged one of the old sensor buoys we have in storage. If we get into trouble, I can launch it from the chute. It should throw out a massive burst of EM interference… might confuse their targeting systems for a few seconds."
Valerius gave him a long, skeptical look. "Jury-rigged? You're just full of surprises, aren't you, kid?" He shook his head. "Let's just hope we don't need your new toy."
A moment later, a proximity alert chirped softly. Valerius killed the hyperdrive. They dropped into realspace with a lurch. Outside the viewport, the beautiful, swirling colors of the Trask Nebula filled their vision, a cosmic painting of violent purples and deep blues.
It was silent. Too silent.
Valerius's voice was a low whisper. "Alright. We're in their hunting grounds. Power to deflectors. Keep your hand near that 'jury-rigged' toy of yours."
Jax nodded, his own hand hovering over the newly programmed launch control. His eyes were glued to the sensor screen, watching, waiting for the inevitable red dots to appear.
For ten agonizing minutes, they flew through the ghostly currents of the Trask Nebula. The ship's sensors were a mess of false readings and phantom signatures as the dense gas clouds played tricks on them. Every flicker on the screen made Jax's hand twitch, his nerves stretched taut.
'Come on,' he thought, his eyes scanning his console, ignoring the spectacular, violent beauty of the cosmos outside. 'Show yourselves. The waiting is the worst part.'
Valerius saw it first. His real hand tapped a control, isolating a single, faint signal. "There," he said, his voice a low growl. "Starboard side, paralleling our course. Using that dust cloud for cover." He ran a quick diagnostic. "Damn it. They've been on us since we dropped in."
As if on cue, the single ghost resolved into three solid red contacts on the screen. They weren't tailing anymore. They were accelerating.
"Confirm three contacts," Jax said, his voice calm and steady as his training took over. "They're moving into a pincer formation. Just like the profile said."
Through the viewport, he could see them now—three ugly, brutal-looking ships. They were cobbled-together nightmares, asymmetrical things with oversized engines bolted to scavenged freighter hulls and too many weapon emplacements bristling from their surfaces. They looked less like starships and more like angry, rabid animals. The Void Hounds.
"Here it comes," Valerius warned.
The two flanker ships opened fire. Bright, sizzling bolts of blue-white ion energy streaked through the purple nebula, aimed not to destroy, but to paralyze.
Jax didn't wait. He threw the Stray Comet into a hard dive, the ship groaning in protest. The ion bolts sizzled past where their engines had been a second before.
"Shields are holding!" Valerius shouted over the sudden blare of an alarm, his hands a blur as he rerouted power. "But the discharge is playing hell with the power grid! I'm losing containment on the port deflector!"
"Understood!" Jax replied, pulling the ship out of the dive and banking hard to port. "Keep feeding the main engines! I need speed!"
But the pirates were good. They anticipated his move. The two flanker ships shifted, their engines flaring as they cut off his escape vector, herding him like a scared animal. Jax looked at the tactical display. A third red dot had appeared directly behind them. The interceptor. He was boxed in.
'No room to maneuver,' his mind raced, processing the geometry of the trap. 'They're forcing us into a kill box. Damn it.'
From behind them, a new, brighter light began to grow. Valerius glanced at the aft viewscreen, and his face went pale. "Main cannon firing! Incoming! Aft shields are buckling! Brace for impact!"
Jax looked at the screen. A massive, slow-moving ball of crackling ion energy was bearing down on them, an inescapable blue sun that promised to leave them dead in the void. He had a fraction of a second to act.
His hand shot to the console, fingers hovering over the single, unlabeled button he had programmed just hours before. The last, desperate gamble. His toy.
The blue-white ball of ion energy filled the aft viewscreen, a silent, beautiful promise of oblivion. Valerius was braced, his teeth gritted for the impact that would kill their engines and leave them helpless.
'Now!' Jax's mind screamed.
He slammed his hand down on the unlabeled button. Deep in the cargo hold, a magnetic launcher fired. A small, featureless gray cylinder, no bigger than his forearm, shot out from the belly of the Stray Comet and tumbled into the void.
For a half-second, nothing happened. Then, the probe activated.
"What in the…?" Valerius breathed, his eyes wide as he stared at the tactical display.
Where there had been three solid red targets, there were now three thousand. The pirates' neat, orderly sensor data dissolved into a chaotic blizzard of ghost signals. The Stray Comet appeared to be everywhere at once, a phantom fleet erupting from a single ship.
The pirate gunner, his perfect kill shot now meaningless, hesitated. That hesitation was all Jax needed. The massive ion blast, fired a moment too late, sizzled past their starboard side. The discharge was still close enough to rock the ship violently, setting off a new wave of alarms, but the engines were untouched.
"They're blind!" Jax shouted, the words a command. "That's our window!"
Instead of flying away from the danger, he did the last thing they would expect. He yanked the yoke hard, throwing the ship into a gut-wrenching roll and diving down, straight through the middle of their chaotic formation.
The maneuver was insane. The pirate ships, built for forward attacks, were suddenly on all sides of them. A hull plate from a Void Hound interceptor flashed past the cockpit viewport, so close Jax could see the greasy scorch marks on its surface. He pulled up hard, the G-forces pressing him deep into his seat, and weaved the ship through the gap between the two flanking fighters.
He was through. Clear space lay ahead.
"Captain, I need everything you've got to the engines! Now!" he yelled, his eyes glued to the navi-computer. "And get ready with those jump coordinates!"
"Done! Engines are red-lining!" Valerius shouted back, his fear now replaced by the focused adrenaline of a man who suddenly believed they might live. "Coordinates are spooling… five seconds to calculation!"
Behind them, the pirates had recovered. Realizing they'd been tricked, they opened up with their laser cannons, stitching the space behind the Stray Comet with bolts of angry red energy. A few stray shots clipped the aft shields, making the whole ship shudder.
A high-pitched chime cut through the alarms.
"We've got it!" Valerius yelled. "Go!"
Jax didn't need to be told twice. He slammed his hand down on the hyperdrive lever. The starfield outside the viewport warped, the chaotic nebula and the angry red laser fire stretching into silent, peaceful lines of blue and white.
They were safe. The sudden silence in the cockpit was deafening, broken only by the steady hum of the hyperdrive and the frantic beeping of a dozen minor damage alerts. Jax methodically began silencing them, his breathing deep and steady. The adrenaline began to drain away, leaving a profound, bone-deep exhaustion in its wake.
Valerius let out a long, shaky laugh, a sound of pure, unadulterated relief. He looked over at Jax, shaking his head in disbelief.
"That 'jury-rigged toy' of yours… and that flying…" He let out another incredulous chuckle. "Kid, you are either the luckiest or the craziest damn pilot I have ever seen."
Jax leaned back in his seat for the first time, the worn synth-leather creaking under his weight. He managed a tired smile.
"Sometimes you have to be both, Captain."