Traveling from hyperplane to hyper lane, eighteen days passed without incident.
A few tis so scout ships that obviously belonged to pirates made an appearance on long range sensors, but they quickly disappeared when they noticed the size of the Moonrise rchant fleet and the number of guards protecting them.
Avery made sure to take advantage of these peaceful days to strengthen his bond with Kasandra and Jasmine.
At first there had been a bit of uneasiness between them, but that had completely faded by this point. When people were stuck together on a small ship for an extended period of ti, they either grew closer, or learned that they hated each other. Lucky it was the forr in this case.
Both Kasandra and Jasmine were getting along swimmingly now. Like they were sisters. And they certainly had no problems showing their affection for Avery either.
While they needed to be sowhat alert when exiting and entering new hyper lanes, there was no reason to be on guard when traveling through one.
Instead, they lazed about reading, playing gas, or enjoying so quality ti in bed.
"Looks like I win again." Jasmine said, revealing her hand to Avery and Kasandra.
They were currently playing a traditional card ga popular throughout the Alliance.
Avery had by far the least experience with it, and while Kasandra was familiar with the ga and had played it quite a bit, neither of them could hold a candle to the experience Jasmine had.
Around seven tis out of ten she beat them. With Kasandra winning about every two and a half tis. And Avery only coming out on top around once every twenty gas. Almost always by sheer luck.
"This really has been fun. It’s almost like a vacation really. When I still worked for the Alliance Police. I never had this much ti to goof-off."
Jasmine was far more relaxed than before. She no longer had any pressure to worry about from the station she once held. And at least for now, she was satisfied that they were doing good work by protecting one of the most reputable rchant companies that operated within the Alliance.
Right now, there was really nothing for them to do but answer the occasional communication. This was simply the nature of rcenary work. A lot of the ti it was just sitting around, waiting for the next big mont to arrive. Sothing that was soon to happen to the Moonrise fleet.
"We’ll be dropping out of hyperspace into interstellar space in one minute." Kasandra said, alert at the copilot’s station.
The hyper lane they were in continued going farther, but in a direction away from their destination. They would need to exit it, and travel at light speed for around seven hours to reach the next hyper lane that would bring them directly to the Phregon System.
"Reentering normal space in three, two, one."
Imdiately upon dropping out of hyperdrive, the Dauntless’ sensors started blaring warnings.
A minefield had been set up outside of the hyper lane exit and was waiting to surprise anyone that ca through the area.
"Sh*t!" Avery cursed as he hastily maneuvered the Dauntless to avoid a mine that was right in front of him.
Thankfully his ship’s impeccable thrusters and reaction speed to commands was enough for him to avoid triggering the mine, but the sa could not be said for the Moonrise flagship.
The mont it entered the area from hyperspace, it detonated several mines that engulfed it in a fiery explosion.
Its shields were just barely able to hold out, but when the other massive cargo ships started to co out of the hyperspace exit, it was forced to move or be crushed.
"Kaiden, Ezra, start destroying the mines outside the proximity of the flagship and clear a path for it. I’ll disable the ones closest to it." Avery said, instantly sending out his orders the mont he recovered from the unexpected situation.
Activating his EMP blaster, he quickly went to work disabling the mines that would cause collateral damage if they were destroyed. Fortunately, they were the type that used electronic sensors to perceive whenever sothing got with in range, rather than having a pressure based chanism that went off whenever it ca in contact with anything. Though the latter type was more archaic and hardly used anymore.
With Avery’s, Ezra’s, and Kaiden’s assistance, the flagship was able to navigate the minefield without fully losing its shields.
So of the other rchants and rcenary vessel were not so lucky, but at the very least none of them were destroyed. Only taking so light damage to their plating and outer systems.
"Setting up a minefield outside the exit of a public hyper lane is highly illegal. How did the Alliance Police patrolling this sector miss sothing like this?" Jasmine said in a huff.
"It’s not too extensive, so I’m guessing it was set up fairly recently. And I don’t think they care about Alliance law." Avery responded, zooming in on the approaching vessel with the main viewscreen.
Now that they had been weakened, the ones that had set up the minefield were coming to finish off their prey.
Around sixty vessels from small to large classification were approaching them. They had been sitting in wait just outside of normal sensor range and bidding their ti while the minefield softened up the rchant fleet.
"They don’t have any signatures… and none of those ships are of Alliance make." Jasmine said in astonishnt as she analyzed the scan data of the incoming hostiles.
Not having signatures was one thing, but the vessels themselves being foreign to the Alliance was another.
While Avery did not have any data on these ships, Ezra fortunately did.
"Those are all military fighters from the Reswen Theocracy. They’re all four or five generations old, but they’re still warships equipped with high output weapons."
Ezra quickly transferred what data he had on these craft over to both Avery and Kaiden.
The Reswen Theocracy was one of the larger powers that bordered the Dramid Alliance. Right now, the two had a tenuous peace, but they had been at war multiple tis in the past. Perhaps this was the start of a return to hostilities.
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