Atra’s eyes shifted quickly from side to side scanning the airlock for any sign of movement. She twitched, a shiver of her nerves. It would only open for a few seconds, tops and she’d need to be through it even quicker. After she was out… well that was the easy part. Things were all but out of her hands then. The Aeliod hard runner made a groaning noise and shook violently. Atra pulled her hand to her chest and took a deep breath. She could feel her timelock necklace beneath her fluid suit.
“From light to dark, we move forth” she cast out the old Aeliod prayer, a chant from the time of the expulsion.
And then the door opened. She burst forth in the vast expanse of space!
The cold blast was so intense that she almost inhaled. Fluid suits only partially protected the wearer from the dangers of space, and didn’t allow more than a few breaths at most. Usually they were used on planets with poor atmospheres or asteroids that were in the process of being teraformed- not the violent emptiness of deep space. She counted 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and opened her eyes just before colliding with the tangled metal mass before her. As Atra entered the temperature rose, she was inside the dropships life shield which afforded some protection from the infinity that lingered just feet away. She watched as her own runner fell away, its two rail guns stopping fire. Atra cracked her shoulder with a solid pull from her hand. “Time to get to work”
Atra had been taught shield slipping by her mentor and best friend Dalios. “There are four steps, the first three are essential. One is locate all the casing nodules,these project a stronger life shield outside of the ship but don’t affect the interior. They’re a design weakness that they didn’t expect us to discover, with such a thick hull the ship can’t project its own life shield without either operating a separate one outside or placing the nodules through the hull.”
“How do you know where they’re placed”
“You don’t, but look for something indistinct as if its just trying to hide. Monoti design is usually very flat, which helps. They need to extend at least a few centimeters.”
“Uhhh… got it.”
“You will, you’ll see.” Atra had a vague memory of him patting her on the back, that rogue smile. She shook her head. “Time child!” Scolding herself. This dropship was a modified Monoti, red markings indicated that the owner had manipulated in Doi powder mobiles to increase range. The inefficiency was technically illegal by council standards but it wasn’t usually policed. “Inefficient” allowed two to three times the distance, reducing the risks involved with porting. It also meant that the casings were particularly easy to spot. Little black knobs in an otherwise ruddy red wise-guard.
“Next you’ll need to drill down using a hand pull. Five inches down should be enough, and boy will it feel like it.”
Dalios was right, digging into hardened metal, even if only steel, was quite the pain. It was half the reason for the fluid suit. Traditional hard suits were too stiff to allow reasonable motion. The repeat twisting motion started to hurt her arm but she pushed on. I’m not here for a holiday. After the third her arms were on fire, and by the time she finished the last of the six she was sweating in space without a hard suit.
“The last essential piece is to plant those charges” in the memory Dalios was carrying five holios disks, but today her bag contained six alpha ray transponders. These would match the emissions of the rail guns so that the crew couldn’t identify what happened when they called SOS. It helped keep everyone confused, but also hid their methods much better. She planted the black bead charges and took a deep breath.
“And that’s it, you’ve successfully carried out a shield slip.” Dalios smirked and did a little juggle with three of the disks. “They’re detonated remotely, so you can sit back and watch the sparks fly.”
“But how do I get away?”
“Ehhh?” He feigned suprise. “Oh you want to live through the process too, you kids and your dreams.”
“Dal!” She’d punched him in the arm.
“Alright, alright, you’re gonna need a rope swing with a balla weight at the end. When your runner comes back, take a deep breath and shoot off in the opposite direction.”
“Opposite direction? Why?”
“Enemies gonna be looking at your crew, figuring out what they’re up to.”
“But then how do I get back?”
“Sheesh do I gotta tell you everything? They’ll -” but the memory cut off. Atra saw her runner coming back, she packed a breath deep taking little gulps of air to top it off and shot directly away from her ship. Almost instantly hit her like a - well like a ice storm. She fought the urge to gasp and scanned the field of vision before her. Come on, come on she thought.
Behind her came a series of loud explosions. It had worked, she pierced the outer life shield allowing them to cut through the hull. No one would be looking this way anymore. They’d be trying to preserve oxygen in the side bays, maybe gearing up to fight off the on-boarding. That didn’t matter to her right now, in front of her was vast emptiness. Atra felt a powerful need to breath, shyup! The fluid suit made a slapping sound as it compressed further on her body, it wasn’t good at filtering air in space. She had maybe one more breath before it would be almost all waste Co2 and she’d pass out. Where the hell is he?
Off to the right she saw hope. A small escape drone buzzing all about. Atra waved her arms rapidly! Look over here you idiot! She kept floating forward, her momentum carrying her without the friction to stop it. Finally, she saw the drone pass in her direction, its eyes buzzed a deep red, indicating that it had locked onto her location. She took her last minibreath, the pressure building up in her chest becoming unbearable. Don’t lose consciousness. As it approached, a spindly metal arm extended from the top. She felt a sharp pinch as the arm grabbed her by the waist and stuffed her into its cabin. The space was barely big enough for her to sit in, having to keep her head down as the cabin cover closed but she took a few deep breaths. “Air!” She coughed out in exuberance. “I did it!” The drone wriggled around, and now safe, Atra watched the scene she created unfold.
Her heavy runner, which was a classification of the ships weapon capacity rather than its size or armor, had already docked onto the dropship. Aeliod pirates were usually no match for any 9 ship bigger than a slip one on one, they simply didn’t have the tech but watching the explosions coming from the landing bay Atra knew that they’d caught their enemies off guard. This would be their sixth ship taken in three months. The 9 still thought these random casualties were part of their cold wars with one another, that’s all they thought Aeliods good for afterall - lying, stealing, degrading dirty work meant only for un-planet-ed squosh. But now it was time, time to strike into the core worlds. Atra watched with a wide smile growing on her gaunt veneers. Time to cause some panic!
