Faster Than Light (Open)

(Go ahead and skip me.)

((I apologise for the delay, I'll have a post up tomorrow, I hope.

((It's fine))

Rena gave a polite wave as Terra darted off, and the moment that she was gone promptly checked her ear and winced. Good God that woman was loud. Still, at least she was offering cooperation and such. Letting out a long sigh, Rena returned to her final preparations for a little while, grabbing her tablet to do one last check on all of their cargo. It was possible that she was delaying intentionally, but nobody needed to know that.

Eventually though, the time came. After checking that everyone was aboard the ship, she went into her place at the helm, got on the horn and called the flight control tower, then announced over the comm. to everyone. "Prepare to push off. If anyone needs to piss, now's the time to do it" A few moments later, confirmation came down from the tower and she was permitted to launch. After the reactor began its soft hum, the engines roared to life, briefly shaking the entire machine with their growl before finally coming to a smoother speed. And then, with one more clunk the landing gear came off and they were free. With the doors closed and PA off, Rena looked around towards the door, checked where everyone was to make sure they were far enough away. And then, as she slammed the throttle forward she did something she always wanted to do. "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

After a few minutes, they began approaching the nav beacon and she started looking at the 'traffic report', and she turned on the ship's internal comm. system, "Okay folks. So, we've got a couple places to look into. There's a mining station that's been claiming pirate attacks. There's a region which ships have gone missing in. And then there's a nebula, which could have anything really. What do we want?" She was making this a democracy for this sort of thing, she didn't want to make the crew do something they didn't want to. She was personally debating between the first two--she didn't like the idea of going into a nebula, but if they really wanted it she wouldn't deny them.

Lazerus returned to the Weapons Control Room, to which he again locked down all the doors and exited his suit. after a quick glance around the room, began moving towards the variety of consoles before him. He ran a few more routine diagnostics, making sure all the weapons were functional and in optimum condition. He then checked their ammunition supply, and after, the targeting array. Everything seemed to be in working order. Lazerus didn't quite like that. There was nothing he could do until a possible enemy ship was spotted, and they hadn't even taken off yet.
To pass the time, Lazerus brought up the camera feeds of other rooms on his monitor, seeing what the other crew were doing. The Zoltan was in her Medbay, cleaning from looks of it. The Commander was apparently checking things on her data tablet, and the strange girl Terra was yet to be accounted for.
He contemplated for a moment putting his suit back on and searching for her, but decided against it. It wasn't worth the effort.

Before too much time had passed, the Commanders voice was heard over the intercom.
"Prepare to push off. If anyone needs to piss, now's the time to do it"
Lazerus didn't understand the whole sentence, but he understood that they would be departing soon.
He moved his suit to the back of the room, then made sure there was nothing else that needed to be secured down.
As the hum of the reactor gently grew louder, countering the much quicker increase in the volume of the engines, Lazerus decided he too should be secured. And so he sat down in the chair, adjusting his body to fit its awkward human shape, then gripped his clawed feet into the flooring beneath.
The ship yanked forward beneath him as the craft quickly departed, the flight at first a little rough but slowly smoothing out as they gained a more constant speed.
Several minutes passed and the Commanders voice could be heard over the intercom once more.
"Okay folks. So, we've got a couple places to look into. There's a mining station that's been claiming pirate attacks. There's a region which ships have gone missing in. And then there's a nebula, which could have anything really. What do we want?"
He knew that the first two options would probably lead to combat, in which he would have something to do, but he also knew that the nebula may in fact prove safer, depending on if it contained any hostile occupants or not. In the end, he decided that he would allow others to decide, and he would focus on the consequences.
"I would recommend the mining station ma'am. It's a threat we're well equipped to handle and we have an idea of what to expect."
He did not expect the Zoltan to actively seek conflict. Her choice was unexpected.
When he realized it was his turn to reply, he once more activated the ships broadcast system, interfacing with the entertainment system he had used to communicate earlier. However he had remembered the feminine voice of the program, and quickly went about altering the pitch and tone of the voice as much as he could, until it was high enough that no specific gender could be discerned.
"No opinion on the matter. Lazerus will accept the Commanders decision."
He de-activated the program, as the three waited for Terra to respond.

Well, one vote was better than none, and to be perfectly honest Rena was already debating going with the mining situation anyways. It was the most pressing concern. "Mining station it is then, warming up the FTL drive." Honestly, Rena was a little nervous about this moment, not because of the concern of combat (though that was on the list), but she was just worried about the FTL drive. She had taken a look at the engines and, while it all looked fine, she had never worked with this particular system before and she always felt jittery when on a new ship. The entire ship moaned as the drive warmed up, and even before they began into the jump she could practically feel the quality of the engineering in the ship... or lack thereof. It was rough and crude in some regards, less of a smooth vibration and more like a muscle car vibrating, though to those who didn't know engines it wouldn't seem all that different. However, it was also clearly functional, without the slightest slip in the drive before finally the frequency of the jitters tightened to become a constant hum and she activated the drive.

A short while later, the ship came out of FTL at the beacon nearest the mining colony. Plenty of transport ships could be seen with drones and a few small escort ships, but for the most part the area was dominated by an orbital refining station perched above a largely barren planet. Scans would easily show that the body was mineral rich and capable of sustaining life, but bitterly cold to the point that most people wore environmental suits simply because it was easier than trying to bundle up. And it was abundantly clear that the place had seen better days. Several of the ships they passed by showed weapons damage and even the station took a few shots, though the presence of a vibrantly-colored derelict wreck told of how well that went for the attacker. As the Horizon approached, they were promptly hailed by the station. Rena handled the conversation, though she had no complaints if the rest of the crew decided to listen in. Essentially, the situation was thus: lately the region has been attacked by a small group of pirates. They weren't particularly well-equipped, to the point that some of the ships they had seen didn't even have shields, but they were good at avoiding capture. Every time a freighter fell under attack the station sent out its security squadron, but by the time they arrived the pirates had started warming up their FTL drives and ran for it. Most of the time, the targeted freighter was saved, but it was eating into profits something fierce and many people were fleeing for greener pastures.

The station also had a good idea of where the attacks were coming from: a nearby gas giant, probably one of its moons. With their briefing handled, Rena turned the Horizon in that direction and set them up to start scanning the moons for targets. "We don't know just how big an infestation we'll find," she told the crew as they began approaching the giant, "Keep our shields up and weapons charged. If we stumble onto the nest, we'll decide what to do based on its defenses." As they approached, she kept looking to her own sensors, but couldn't help but shake the feeling that they were being watched, "Lazerus, you see anything?" This was making her jittery... she had often been on hunts like this before, but she had never been the one deciding what to do. She had a job, keep the engines going, and that was it. Now she felt under a lot more pressure. Come on Rena. Just focus on what you need to do and keep your eyes peeled.

No answer from Terra. Lazerus thought it odd, but did not bother investigating as to why. It was decided that they would go to the location the Zoltan had chosen - the mining station. The FTL drive began its slow start-up sequence, then with a few small shudders throughout the ship, they were gone.
The ride to the station was quick as expected, and the ship didn't come out in a thousand pieces, so they knew the drive was in working order. As they approached the station, Lazerus brought up his own sensors. Damaged ships strewn around a damaged station. Unsurprising.
Before long, they were contacted by the station, who proceeded to inform them as to what had been going on in the area of late. He gave a quick glance towards the mostly white planet beneath, and then began running scans on the damaged ships and the station itself. Once complete, he waited until the Commander finished speaking to the station staff, before text would appear on her comms.
Lazerus:
Damage report complete. From the hull damage of many of the nearby ships and station, it can be assumed that the attackers were using MK1 Burst Lasers, Basic Lasers and Pike Beams. Enemy ships are likely numbered between eight and sixteen, however this is only an estimate. That is all.

Soon after they departed the mining station, heading towards the reported location of the pirates. As they began closing distance towards the gas giant's moons, the ship once more echoed with the voice of their Commander.
"We don't know just how big an infestation we'll find, keep our shields up and weapons charged. If we stumble onto the nest, we'll decide what to do based on its defenses."
In response Lazerus began charging the weapons, making sure they were ready to fire as soon as they made contact.
"Lazerus, you see anything?"
Lazerus reached over to the comms panel.
'Negative.'
He began scanning the area in front of them, but they weren't coming up with anything. Checking the sensors as well, he couldn't see anything around this particular moon except a few damaged husks.
Lazerus examined the husks briefly, likely the ships that had also come to hunt these pirates down and were destroyed. Only there was something off about them, Lazerus was sure of that. He zoomed in the sensors several times on the husks, and that's when is optics finally noticed something out of place. The brief flicker of maneuvering thrusters behind two husks.
That's why the sensors weren't picking them up, they were hiding behind destroyed ships.
They didn't know they had been spot, and thankfully weren't quite ready to open fire yet. Interfacing with both the weapons control system and the intercom, Lazerus began very slowly pivoting the weapons towards the husks, while at the same time projecting the artificial voice over the intercom system.
"Two hostile ships located behind the destroyed ships thirty nine degrees to starboard, twenty six degrees above. Targeting will be complete in fourteen seconds. How should we proceed, Commander?"