14. Crimson Red Fighter

After the big fight between the two over the remains of Abyssal’s deceased captain, the two Living Cores had decided to make up with each other and let bygones be bygones. Abyssal apologized to Kuon for resorting to violence and Kuon forgave Abyssal, giving her a respectful bow, showing that she indeed was wrong to trample over her feelings for her captain.

As a sign of friendship, Kapitan’s remains were gathered up and neatly placed within a metal box. The box was then secured to the seat of the cockpit so that the remains will no longer scatter around when the ship is doing manoeuvres in space. Kuon occasionally comes in to tidy up the area, while Abyssal comes over to pay her respects— A.K.A. talking to the pile of bones. Kuon could be seen rather worried for her fleet master every time she does this but decided to not pursue the matter further.

And so, just like that, things went back to normal for the two Living Cores. A few more weeks had passed and it was like any other ordinary day as the two just did whatever they felt like doing. Kuon, just inspecting the ship and tidying up the place, while Abyssal spent some time reading some of the new books that she took from the cruiser. One of the books was rather interesting to Abyssal. It was a book that details the many ways that an object can travel in space and the creation of the 'gateway'.

Faster than light travel in the galaxy is usually achieved in several ways. A few examples are the use of a warp device like the spacetime folder or by tapping in into an unknown dimension that links several points in space called the 'Hyperlanes' or the 'Distorted Dimensions'.

Warp was something that Abyssal knew from playing all those space simulators. It was a concept that most people would find easy to comprehend. The space around the ship is manipulated— folded in such a way that long-distance becomes shorter. You don’t actually go faster than the speed of light, you just make the road shorter.

Hyperlanes was a rarer concept for most people. Very few games on earth covered such a way to travel. The concept is simple enough. Within space, lies unknown invisible points or anchors. Some points connect with another to form a sort of galactic highway. The highway is basically another dimension where physics is distorted. By using the correct highways— possibly a dimension where speed and mass works differently— objects can travel between one point to another faster than the speed of light. These ‘points’ are scattered across the galaxy and fewer are discovered to support FTL travel between systems. Though with the advance in technology, one can build more points to make more hyperlanes— provided one has the resources.

There are other ways to do faster than light travel of course, but these two are usually the most used ones— in this galaxy at the very least. Although these two ways of travel are fast, it’s not nearly fast enough for something to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other. Humans have realised this and have constructed a new form of travel. The scientist took note of the concept of wormholes and by combining the functionality of the Warp Drive and the Hyperlanes, humans were able to construct something known as a ‘gateway’. The name pretty much explains itself of course. It’s a gateway that connects one end of the galaxy to another. More specifically, two different points in space.

‘Woah! So it’s like a wormhole, but like man-made! Using Warp and Hyperlane technology to go double fast?!’ Abyssal thought to herself as she read the book with excitement. Her robotic hands were on the pages of the book, ready to flip to the next page.

Abyssal was hyped to know more about how space travel works. She is, after all, a nerd in anything space-related. Moreover, these are actually real books that she would have never dreamed of reading on earth. Feeling excited to find out more about these gateways, Abyssal turned to the next page.

Or she would have if Abby hadn’t interrupted her with a top priority notification. The notification went right up to her consciousness, interrupting all her other senses. It even came with a very obnoxious sound effect.

‘Urghhh... this better be important, Abby. I’m just getting to the good part!’ Abyssal lamented.

“Emergency alert. High-speed spacecraft approaching our location.” Abby said.

It was then that a low-resolution image was pushed to the top of Abyssal’s mind. It was a spacecraft— a fighter to be exact— flying straight to her position. The fighter had a sleek look to it and was designed to look like a metallic bird with four wings. It had a jet black and red crimson colour scheme. Upon closer inspection, Abyssal could see several red fins on its body, shooting out blue flames— it was most likely the fighter’s thrusters.

‘Ehh?’ Abyssal let out a dumbfounded voice as she saw the image.

“Fighter Craft velocity to Abyssal at 350 km/s. Estimated arrival to the S.A.S. Abyssal in T-Minus 3. Advise cautionary measures.” Abby said as she displayed more information on the situation to the corner of Abyssal’s consciousness.

‘An actual ship? With an actual pilot in it? Ohhh, my first contact is here!’ Abyssal thought to herself as she studied the crimson red fighter. Despite Abby warning her to take action, only silly thoughts filled Abyssal’s mind.

‘Is it a friendly ship? Could it be that it saw me drifting in space and decided to help me out? Has my terrible luck in space finally run its course?!’  Abyssal started to theorise about the ship’s objective.

‘Oh no! I’ve got to figure out what to say to them when they make contact with me!’ Abyssal seemed convinced that the red fighter was there to help her and started to think about the situation. Things like how she’s going to handle the matter, and how best to explain herself and Kuon’s existence.

‘But what if the person who boards me is some handsome prince? Ah! I can’t, I can’t! I may be a maiden now but my heart is still a man! Or rather… What if it’s some super beautiful woman?! Would my maiden heart fall for her? Kyaaa!’ Abyssal continued to think of silly thoughts, not realising that the red fighter had gotten rather close to her position.

“Fighter craft approaching in T-minus 2. Advise cautionary measures.” Abby sent out another warning to Abyssal to knock her out of her fantasies, written in bold and accompanied by a super annoying error sound.

'Geez, Abby. Don't be such a killjoy. We don't even know whether the pilot of that ship is friendly or not. Our communications are busted, we can't make contact. It's probably trying to reach us in order to—'

Abyssal wasn't able to finish her words when a large red beam of light appeared out of nowhere and grazed one of Abyssal's wings. It seemed to have been shot from the red fighter.

'Fue!? Hot! Hot! Hot! What the hell?!' Abyssal yelled out in pain as she felt the sensation of her 'skin' burning.

"Fighter craft now confirmed as hostile. Executing emergency evasion protocols." Abby said as the ship started to execute tilts and rolls to avoid the red fighter craft.

Abby also controlled the voice modulator within Kaon to let out a message: "EMERGENCY ALERT. EMERGENCY ALERT."

Hearing this alert message, Kuon immediately went over to the charging port before securing herself to the ship's hull. Kaon, the first drone followed soon after. Once both drones were secured, Abyssal was free to do more exotic evasive manoeuvres against the red fighter. An action that Abby did not hesitate to execute.

‘Why, why, why, why is the ship shooting at me?! What have I done wrong?! I’m not tasty and I have no loot in my ship! You are just wasting your ammo shooting at me!’ Abyssal let out a panicked voice as she tried her best to avoid the red fighter from destroying her outright.

All while this was happening, the red fighter shot out a few more red beams to the actively dodging Abyssal. Three shots were fired and all three grazed Abyssal, each one of them almost hitting her. Each beam that was fired was twice as long as Abyssal and had the diameter of Abyssal herself. Not only that, but the beams were so hot that it cut through Abyssal’s metallic hull like a hot knife cutting through butter. If she were to get hit by any of the beams, she would be destroyed, no questions asked.

Each graze that hit Abyssal was felt by her. The feeling was akin to someone pouring a tiny bit of boiling hot water onto your skin. It wasn't that painful, but still painful nonetheless. Each little pain caused the growing fear within herself to grow. For the first time in a while, Abyssal truly felt that her life was in danger.

She didn’t want to die. Not so soon, not without being able to explore space to its fullest!

‘Also, what the hell!? This is unfair! A dogfight so soon?! I’m just a shitty ship while the enemy has a large laser beam! What difficulty is this! How does one expect to win this shitty game!’ Abyssal complained as she worked with Abby to get out of the fighter’s sight.

Abyssal’s effort wasn’t that fruitful as the red fighter soon managed to get Abyssal on her sight and shot out another large red beam. Again, the beam grazed Abyssal— slightly hitting her thrusters.

‘Ouch!’ Abyssal yelled out as she could feel the searing hot plasma cut through her hull.

Abyssal was confused as to why she could feel pain when the enemy shot at her but she couldn’t care less about that matter right now. Survival was of utmost importance.

‘Dammit! Enough is enough! If the person wants a fight then he’s getting it! Abby! Divert all power to thrusters and propulsion! Also, prepare the Twin Mass Drivers! We are going to shoot this bastard down!’ Abyssal yelled out internally to Abby.

“Energy Re-routed to thrusters and propulsion systems. Weapon systems are ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Energy Reserves:  40880 / 49 880 MJEstimated Flight Time Remaining: 136 seconds. Energy draining at 300MJ/s.“

Abby replied and set all the necessary information at the corner of Abyssal’s consciousness.

‘It’s time to show my awesome space fighting skills that I have amassed in my twenty-seven years of life playing nothing but space games!’ Abyssal thought to herself as she cracked her imaginary fingers.

Lancetech(obsolete) Twin Mass Drivers Mk.1 Specifications” Rate of fire: 6 shots per second x 2 Energy Used Per Second : 600 MJ/s x 2 Energy Used Per Shot : 100 MJ Ammunition remaining : 174

S.A.S. Abyssal (Fierca Class) Specifications: Ship Dimensions: 60m  in length, 26.1m in height Acceleration and deceleration limit: 30 km/s² speed Limit: 300 km/s Rate of turn: 16°/s

Energy Reserves :  40880 / 49 880 MJ

Note: Directional propulsion system is damaged. Mobility is limited.