10 - Tactical GTFO

"What the fuck did you and your pirate buddies steal to piss off Lu biomedical conglomerate this badly?"

Staring hard at River as he asked that question, Mike clearly noticed River internalising the question for a few seconds before she seemed to remember something, but she didn't seem willing to share it.

"I did nothing, but just know that if those guys catch us, my fate will be far worse than yours."

While Mike wanted so very much to chastise River for her lack of specifics that would just be like the pot calling the kettle black so he refrained from looking like that big an idiot.

"Great, but at least we know who's chasing us now and that my former associates are no longer any concern. Those kinds of people are not likely to leave any kind of survivors behind… And if anything this one time grace is a blessing, now we at least know who you pissed off."

Lu biomedical conglomerate was a major faction in Interstellar online, and assuming they were the same entity in this world Mike had some idea of what they were capable of.

(Ah I wish I had read the lore in a bit more detail, but at least I remember the cliff notes.)

"Let's get to the pilot's guild and get the cash, then GTFO."

"... I'm sorry what?"

"Get the fuck out, stay with the hip yo."

"Have I told you I hate you today Mike?"

"Not today, no."

-

After watching the flight recorder for proof of the completed mission, Beth stared into space for a few seconds before turning to River.

"... How the fuck did you survive all that?"

"I have no idea."

Watching Mike manoeuvre at absolute full tilt in between chunks of ice which could easily crush him if he made a single mistake while lining up shots with a railgun and using it in a knife fight no less made Beth dizzy just looking at the recording, she could hardly imagine how River had felt being strapped into the same ship as such a lunatic.

"Stil, a job done is a job done, great work taking out that base and the pirates too, I'll throw in a bonus… Any idea how the fuck those scum got their hands on cutting edge stealth technology and how did you even find them as they were that well hidden?"

Turning her attention back to Mike, Beth calculated there was about a 30% chance he had somehow been responsible for the situation in the first place. After all, what better way to ingratiate yourself to the pilot's guild than introducing them to a problem only you are able to solve?

"Oh that was easy once you know how to work around stealth technology, I just bet on the fact that it had been improperly calibrated and it was."

"That's not a very clear answer."

Not entirely satisfied with how vague Mike was being, Beth started thinking about impounding his ship and jailing both him and River until she got everything figured out. If pirates everywhere started using stealth technology like this group had done seemingly overnight it wasn't an exaggeration to say society would grind to a halt. If miners couldn't secure their products, prices would soar while trade routes would collapse, from there it was easy to see what would happen to galactic supply chains once the bottom layers were removed without warning.

"As for where they got the technology from, that depends."

"On what?"

"What's the date?"

Glancing over to River, Beth noticed she looked just as confused as she did.

"... The year is 4522, why?"

"Oh, in that case, the pirates most likely stumbled on some sort of cache, it is quite common for black operation units and corporate grab teams to leave supplies in different places, things they don't want people to just stumble over."

From there, things were a blur for Mike, while he managed to convince Beth to restrain the grab team on suspicion of supplying pirates with stealth tech, but he couldn't tell anyone how if his life depended on it, all that continued to go on inside Mike's head was a constant repeat of what Beth told him.

(4522, year 4522… 4522, 4522, 4522, year 4522… Really? Isn't it the year 4525?)

"Mike?... Hello?"

(Year 4522, 4522?... Fuck me, fuck my life, why am I here again?)

"MIKE!"

"Y-yeah, what's up?"

Finally getting through to Mike, River stared at him like he was insane, something Mike didn't really understand until her next words.

"We're well clear of the station, where to next?"

Blinking twice the first thing Mike noticed was that he wasn't wearing his helmet, next thing he noticed was that he was inside the Scorpion fighter already well clear of the station and ready to jump.

"Oh, give me a second…"

Given the information available to him, the things he knew about Interstellar online and what might happen to this world, the logical step would be to get as far away from the galactic centre and avoid what was to come in some outskirts territory on the very edge of a galactic arm, even better Mike could spend the time that was left scraping enough cash together to get a self-sustaining deep space habitat up and running where he could hide out for the rest of his life.

But if Mike had any consistent trait, it was his utter and complete lack of logical deduction and any type of self-preservation instinct.

"I know of a way for us to earn enough creds to found a new sovereign state, wanna do that?"

At this point, River had no idea if Mike was joking or not, but a part of her told her he wasn't. Although she had no idea of to what kind of extent she was just about to change the direction of her life.

"Sure, let's go with that."

"Then we're going to imperial space apparently, the destination is the capital system of a small imperial state by the name of the Trane imperium, an aristocratic oligarchy which has had quite an issue with pirates as of late, to the point that it is threatening to destabilise the entire state."

While pirates taking over a single system might be feasible if enough neglect, gross incompetence and blatant nepotism overtook the governing body of the said system, an entire nation-state was unlikely to fall against pirate attacks, at least not in the current year 4522.

"Pirates overthrowing an entire nation? That can't be everything, there must be someone backing them."

From her own experience dealing with different pirate factions, River was well aware of how hard it was to get them to agree on a single goal, let alone move towards that goal without constant backstabbing and fracturing of factions. With a governing structure that closely followed the 'might makes right' approach and no legal system to settle internal disputes combined with outside pressures such as mercenaries hunting them for bounties, pirate hoards have an intrinsic size limit which prevented them from going large and organised enough to take on an entire nation.

"Definitely, but a job is a job and we need cash to make more cash. Speaking of, I want to save up for a larger ship as soon as possible, perhaps even something that has a proper toilet and can carry a few tons of cargo. Ship secured for FTL jump."

"Oh yeah, an actual toilet would be nice… And some better food would be nice too, in my experience, you can only live on these ration packs for so long before going insane."

"Yeah, I guess… Coordinates punched in, go for FTL charge."

As River and Mike continued chatting, the low pitch of the faster than light drive continued charging as Mike finalised the navigation chart before looking to River for final confirmation.

"Go for jump?"

"Go for jump, punch it."

From one second to the next, space visibly warped around the Scorpion fighter before it disappeared from normal space in a blink. From inside the fighter, all light seemed to be dragged out as stars turned into streaks of light as the ship accelerated to multiple times the speed of light. In Interstellar online, jumping from system to system was done with a loading screen that could be completed in a few seconds (depending on system specs), but in this world, it could take anywhere from a few hours to multiple days to reach a new system.

Letting go of the stick and throttle, Mike checked the navigation system for an estimated time of arrival.

"Okay, the first jump will take about 5 hours then a short refuel before two 3-hour jumps before the final 15-hour jump to the capital system of the Trane imperium."

Reclining his chair, Mike prepared to finally get some sleep when River unexpectedly started up a conversation of her own accord.

"Hey, Mike?"

"Yeah?"

Having just found a comfortable position to lie in, Mike responded absent minded to River without any real deeper thoughts or motives.

"Have you ever been to imperial space?"

"Yeah, I've visited a few different empires and kingdoms… What of it?"

Realising that Mike was slowly dozing off to sleep, River set a timer to wake her up and got herself comfortable too.

"How is it there? I've only ever been to a few independent systems and a single federal one."

"The social structure is very different, instead of corporations and conglomerates running the show nobility does it instead. And they run it a bit differently than most with a very rigid class system with a genetically engineered upper nobility."

Already getting that River didn't understand any of what he had just said, Mike thought for a second before coming up with an alternate explanation.

"Have you ever read some of those super old fairy tales with knights and princesses?"

"... Yeah I think so, why?"

"It is like that but with a lot of eugenics powered by genetic engineering."

"Ah, that makes sense."

Instead of companies like Lu biomedical conglomerate giving out the gift of genetic engineering and anti-ageing treatments to the rich and wealthy, empires controlled those biomedical enhancements on a state level and gave out those gifts of the space age in the forms of royal peerage like that of mediaeval Europe with dukedoms, kingdoms, royal dynasties and families. A backwards and relatively primitive social system like that was only stable when all levels of society were strictly controlled and maintained, a control that was currently failing in the Trane imperium due to gross neglect from the ruling elite.

"Father!"

Blowing open a pair of double doors laced with luxurious gemstones and into a room on the height of opulence a woman at the tender age of 92 scanned the area for her dad, but as he was nowhere to be found the woman quickly turned around and left while frustration only seemed to quicken her already rapid steps. Although she was well into her 90's, the woman hardly looked a day over 20 years old with flawless fair skin, deep blue eyes and long golden strands of hair that shone more brilliantly than the tiara adorned with gems she wore. The woman's name was Lissandra Vi Trane the 5th, member of the Trane Imperium's royal family and 4th in line for the throne.

On the way out of her dad's residence (not to mention on the way in) Lissandra was supposed to stop for a security check, but as the knight on duty who was supposed to do that was sleeping out a hangover on a nearby couch, so nothing stopped her from quickly entering her late mother's residence where she finally found the person she was looking for.

"Father!!!"

"What? Oh, it's just you, my sweetheart. Calm yourself down and take a seat, your mother was just-"

"Mom is dead! More importantly, you had a meeting with the lords an hour ago to implement emergency measures and never showed up! Lord Chen came to me and told me he was the last one to leave after waiting in vain."

Although Lissandra's father was well above a hundred years old, he hardly looked a day over 35 as he lay on his late wife's bed and popped a series of pills which instantly turned his eyes even more unfocused than they had been a second prior.

"Come and play with us little Liss~ Your mom was just telling me about the time you-"

"... I swear to god…"

Well and truly used to how his dad acted, Lissandra knew from experience that she wouldn't be able to reach him for the next few hours. Ever since her mother had passed away about 5 years ago, Lissandra's father hadn't been the same, thrown into a deep depression from losing the love his life he had been married with for a century things had taken a hard turn down when he eventually turned to substance abuse, spurred on by a recently hired physician who Lissandra suspected was taking bribes to keep the king dosed up on psychedelics.

The way things were going, the Trane Imperium wouldn't last more than a year before it violently imploded.