True stealth in space is impossible, but we can come close. The most difficult problem is heat management. Magitechnology can be used to replicate a spell to hide heat, and built at scale to cover a starship, but the heat it masks must be accounted for at the time of design, and spacecraft have highly variable signatures. Advanced craft have adjustable shielding, but these adjustments must be made by hand and are prone to user error. It is an expensive and difficult process to hide heat in space, one which rarely pays dividends.
– Admiral Vex Donnan, Coalition Navy Research and Development
APEXILLOS
“We spent far too long in the Laturis system,” Sallus complained. “I’m almost certain they managed to get a courier out to warn them we were there. They won’t have time to pull everyone back, but they’re going to be ready for us. This is the only system left, it has to be the target.”
Apex knew it wasn’t the target, but he did not interrupt. He watched silently, making his own plans. As long as she got what she wanted, Sallus wouldn’t complain. If he was right, he would reveal it then. If he was wrong… he’d have to improvise, and her full cooperation would be critical.
“We probably should have checked this one first, it seems the most likely one to me.” Naven was resting back in his chair, arms behind his head. “Would have saved us a lot of trouble…”
Sallus shook her head and stared at the blank viewscreen as if she could see something useful on it. “It isn’t the most likely at all. It has the manufacturing base, but it already has exports and a sizable population. It also has more records than most. If they’re really producing the baseline for every kaleidoscope-based drug here, they’re hiding it far more competently than even the Coalition military could. That doesn’t seem right. Maybe it’s out in the outer debris disk…”
“Doing something all the way out there would be energy intensive,” Naven argued. “I guess if it’s important enough, that might make sense. But the important thing is they’ll probably be waiting for us, and they now know a lot more about our stealth capabilities.”
Apex grunted. “I think you mean my stealth capabilities.”
Naven gave a little wave toward the monitor – which wasn’t anywhere near where the camera was – and sighed. “Fine. Your stealth capabilities. The point stands, this time we have to assume they’re waiting for you, they know you can hide, and you won’t have the distraction of an ancient pirate poking around the system to keep their attention elsewhere. I doubt you can slip into a highly-guarded planetary space this time.”
“We may have waited too long, but if they’re slow we could still have a chance.” Sallus crossed her arms and drummed her fingers on her left bicep. “We’ll have to stealth up as soon as we can, and make for some place to hide. If they’re prepared, they likely have ships around every usual entry point, but with a relatively unknown system like this I’m not sure I want to try a non-standard entry.”
Naven sat up straight and grimaced. “That’s going to be a problem, then. If they’re ready for us, this will be a short visit. Especially with Apex here still damaged and now low on fuel. How’s that looking, Apex?”
The dragon rumbled ominously. “The damage is largely repaired, but the tank is still not usable until we find the materials for a full replacement. The armor on that side is also compromised. Fuel stores are down to… 17% now. Enough for several more jumps, so long as we don’t do sustained intense burns between them.”
“You tend to be heavy on the thrusters. You might try a more leisurely pace when we aren’t running for our lives,” Naven pointed out.
Sallus immediately cut him off at the knees. “How frequently are we not running for our lives? The loss of the fuel tank isn’t that bad with the extra reserves we have. But under 20% is still pretty low for going into a hostile system. We’re going to need to assess the situation when we arrive. If things are too hot… we’ll have to retreat and come back another time. That will put us on the run and the Coalition will find out about us very soon, I’m sure. We’ll be fighting at a disadvantage.”
Naven nodded. “A guerrilla operation. And I won’t be helping you with that, either. If you’re fighting the Coalition, I’m out.”
“You’ve reminded us of your oaths many times,” Apex growled. “We will deal with that if and when it becomes an issue.”
Sallus muttered, “I don’t like going into a hot zone with outdated information. Damn Gristlemaw… but he did get me thinking. If he knew we’d be doing this, why not just wait here? I can’t help but think we’re missing something. But I’ve checked and rechecked, and these are the only inhabited systems on the charts.”
Apex seized on the idea he already knew to be true. “And what if a system was not on the charts?”
“Impossible.”
“Unlikely.”
Both Naven and Sallus replied to that readily, though with slightly different answers. Sallus seemed to at least consider the possibility, so she was the one to continue the thought.
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“For someone to hide an inhabited system they’d have to build it up over hundreds of years without anyone knowing, or somehow erase it from all known references. Even if they did the latter, I’ve been researching this region for over a century, so it would have had to have been done before that.”
Naven nodded, “Sallus is right. It’s not that it’s completely impossible, but even out here in the fringes, it would take a lot to hide something like that. Especially running a wealthy resort just next door. There are too many eyes on that, someone would notice the Etherspace traffic.”
The low rumble Apex gave ceded the point for now. “If you say that is so…” He paused. “We will be exiting Etherspace in fifteen minutes. I will inform the crew. We’ll find out the situation soon then, won’t we?”
Immediately upon entering real space in the new system, the bridge burst into a flurry of activity. Sensors were consulted, weapons powered, and every other reasonable precaution taken.
Apex was already doing the same thing, but in his own way. And he rapidly determined that the situation was far different than what they had feared.
The entry space was pretty clear of obvious ships. This system had no less than two developed and inhabited planets, along with several stations and a good amount of traffic. Not that far away, a freighter was accelerating toward the inner system, with three escorts that were probably scanning Apex even as he was assessing them.
“I’m seeing an awful lot of Enforcers and some larger escorts, but they don’t seem to be on high alert. This might be just normal caution. Did they not actually inform them of the problem? Are we that lucky?” Sallus sounded incredulous over the comms, but Apex didn’t have the attention to look in on the bridge and see her directly. He was still scanning.
“Those are definitely pretty beefy patrols, if the heat signature is anything to go off of. And if they have more that just aren’t moving, it could be pretty serious.” Naven pointed out the obvious flaw in their scan, with a note of caution. “Some of those ‘small’ ships aren’t moving, they could be heavily-armed.”
It was odd. Apex felt uneasy about the situation, since the immediate area was so clear. He’d been sure that they’d have to fight someone almost immediately and he’d be preparing to jump mid-combat. Instead, it was almost sedate. Even the inner system was quiet, but that was likely because he hadn’t fired up his engines yet. They’d know someone had jumped in-system by now, but until he got underway they wouldn’t have an engine profile.
“This is too easy,” he rumbled quietly. “We’ve had nothing but complications, and this is one of the more valuable systems here. Even if it isn’t the target somehow, we should be getting more attention than this.”
The crew was still strapped in and ready for combat, but they wouldn’t wait forever. Apex knew he had to make a move soon, or the crew would start to get restless. Even with Naven trying to whip them into shape, they weren’t career Navy or anything like that. They were now just no-longer-incompetent civilians and criminals.
“Is it possible that they haven’t had a chance to deploy anything?” Naven himself sounded doubtful, like he didn’t consider it a valid possibility.
“This has to be some kind of trap.” Sallus had a faint note of frustration in her voice, showing more emotion than usual. “Maybe they decided to concentrate their defenses around what really matters, but we still don’t know exactly where it is. I’m honestly not picking up anything at this distance that would qualify. We’ll have to get closer.”
“We are not getting closer.” Apex cut that idea off immediately as he scanned space nearby. They were relatively close to the orbit of another planet, but it wasn’t in alignment with their target, so it couldn’t be used for cover. In fact, the space nearby was incredibly empty, which struck him as odd. Jump entry points always relied on gravitational anchors, and he didn’t see any close by.
He spent a few moments to track and determine what was going on, but it wasn’t encouraging. The gas giant further out was likely providing the anchor despite its distance. Apex thought he had understood everything about how Etherspace jumps worked, and now that he needed to use that, new information was coming in. He’d have to account for this. Which meant his ongoing calculations were taking longer than he’d like.
“We can’t just sit here. There are only a dozen or so entrances for this system, someone will eventually pop in regardless of what we do.” Sallus was showing some of her own rare impatience, thinking she was so close to her first goal. Apex ignored her for now, trying to figure out what to do.
“I will head for the fifth planet.” Apex fired his thrusters lightly, orienting toward the planet in question. “It is far out of alignment with the others, but it should give us a place to observe for a time.”
Not that he intended on staying here more than another hour or two, however long it took to finish his mental calculations. This was a much more difficult problem, but it shouldn’t take that long, now that he knew what variables to apply.
The faint tug of that fragment of his Essence was still there, and now he had three points of reference. All he had to do was translate that into the distance in real space, then make his own Etherspace jump. No need to waste time in this system.
He spent a moment to engage his stealth, then fired his thrusters to start his motion, conserving fuel with a relatively gentle 2G burn for now. That would keep the heat somewhat controllable, as well, giving him more focus to work on his jump coordinates.
Apex had barely started to move when he saw a flash of light his port side. He quickly directed his sensors toward it, detecting the hull of a long, narrow ship that hadn’t been there before.
Then the intense blast of pain flared in his side and chest, registering damage at the same time dozens of warning messages flooded his vision.
The field of stars swirled as the thrusters sputtered and sent the dragon into a spin, then cut out as he felt his ‘vision’ go dark inside. The room cameras he’d unconsciously been monitoring were suddenly cut off, blinding him from the panic within while he struggled to take control of his spinning, flailing body once more.
His last sight was a tumbling piece of debris he hadn’t noticed before, and in his increasing confusion and clouded mindset, all he could think was a single line.
