Daniel looked around with his optical sensors.
He knew he could sense everything in the system, but he wasn't quite used to it yet.
He felt better if he could "see' hi surroundings, no matter how inferior it was.
The Laron System wasn't very interesting.
It was a regular yellow star orbited by 4 Terrestrial planets, an asteroid belt, and 2 Gas Giants.
None of the Terrestrials were habitable, and the asteroid belt had been depleted long ago, so it was empty of mining barges.
Daniel was about to cycle the Hovarth drive for the last jump to the Markes System, where he would hopefully catch the Tilan, which was taking a longer, more secure route to the system, when a notification caught his attention.
[Ding]
[3x Parkare-Class Corvettes have activated their Sauveterre Engines and are vectoring to Intercept the Venator]
Daniel gaped his imaginary mouth in disbelief.
Pirates were still a big problem in the settled Galaxy, since anybody with enough Galactics, or violence, could obtain a corvette and outfit it.
"System, what are the specs of the Parkare-Class?"
[Commander, the Parkare-Class has two Liptor Rail Guns on each side, 70 Hit-points in Armor, and no Shield. Their Sauveterre Engines are slightly slower than the Njord-Class, but their position will allow them to intercept you before you reach the Jump Limit and transition into the Beta Band.]
Daniel took a deep breath, drawing on his 30-years experience as a Federation Navy Commander, calmly assessing his capabilities compared to the Pirates'.
He brought up the targeting screen, which was attached to his Sensor and able to predict the pathway of any object traveling slower than 25% of the speed of light.
The Pirates were approaching from -30 degrees relative to him, which means they were below him and couldn't be targeted by the Ullr Rail Guns.
That was an easy fix, and Daniel smoothly rotated the Venator on its side 180 degrees.
The first Pirate would enter his range in approximately 30 seconds, but his targeting system was already locking in the firing trajectory, leading the shot so it would impact the center of the first ship.
Daniel manually adjusted the targeting solution to aim at the back of the ship, hoping to disable the Sauvettere Engine without damaging anything else.
30 seconds later, the Parkare crossed into his range, and he switched to the 3rd Person view to watch the Ullr Rail Guns charge up.
Grey-blue light illuminated the rails, evidence of the Ullr radiating the Hardened Arkan round so that it wouldn't shatter in the vacuum.
The barrel recoiled, and a flash of grey-blue signaled the Ullr had fired without incident.
Daniel watched, subconsciously targeting the second Parkare in the wedge, as the first glowing round hurdled through space, on track to impact the pirate just after the center of the ship.
A moment later, the Arkan round punched through the pirate, energy and oxygen leaking from the hull, signifying a critical hit on the Sauveterre Engine.
The pirate's velocity immediately decreased, dropping behind its comrades, who sped past, still intent on attacking him.
With the Targeting Solution already sent to the Rail Gun, the Ullr repeated its deadly display.
A second Arkan round was sent into space, intent on not being outdone by its predecessor.
It impacted just to the right of the intended target, punching through the fin of the stubby, fish-shaped ship.
The kinetic energy tilted the Parkare to the right.
Suddenly, a flash of white light enveloped the second pirate, instant incinerating the entire ship.
The Sensor told him that the round had apparently sheared off a Reactor valve, destabilizing it and causing it to implode.
Daniel cursed, lamenting at the loss of all the potential Components he could have salvaged.
Unfortunately, this brief explosion of energy threw off the targeting solution on the third and final pirate.
It emerged through the holocaust of its comrade, and Daniel's High-definition optical sensors saw a greenish-yellow speck flash from the bow of the ship.
The two Liptor Rail Guns fired simultaneously, and Daniel could do nothing as the rounds impacted his shield.
He winced at the Venator vibrated, blue energy spreading across the hull.
Thankfully, the Shield Generator had caught all of kinetic energy and dispersed it throughout the field.
Daniel checked his shield's Hit-points, and was pleasantly surprised that the Liptor had done only 30 Hit-points of damage.
The Liptor Rail Gun was a pretty average weapon system, barely applying less damage than the Federation Mk Vll "Faregos" Rail Gun or the Imperial Mk lV "Gordak" Rail Gun.
Daniel pushed that consideration to the back of his processors, instead focusing on targeting the final Pirate.
He took no chances, forgoing the attempt to save any Components by aiming right where the Reactor was.
He'd been able to target with such accuracy since the Sensor allowed him to "see" the layout of the ship once its Sauveterre Engine had lit off.
He fired, and the round punched through the center of the targeting reticle, immediately rupturing the Reactor, and the last pirate joined its 2nd comrade in an expanding white ball of fire.
Daniel instinctively instructed the Sensor to do a deeper scan of the system, making sure he wouldn't be caught unaware again.
He'd been surprised when the Sensor hadn't reported the Parkares before their Sauveterre engine had lit off, but checking back at the Sensor notifications, he could see that they's been reported as intact hulls.
He had to remember that unless they powered on their engines, ships wouldn't be reported as active ships, rather as intact hulls.
He made a mental note to ask the system to pay attention to intact hulls, or any seemingly operational ship or facility, just incase he stepped into another ambush zone like today.
Once the hellfire of the ruptured Reactors had dissipated, Daniel angled the Venator toward the first Pirate that had lucked out, which had since moved past his position and was now sitting inert.
He mentally commanded the Shield Generator to deactivate so that it would recharge, and slowly approached the hull.
The first Parkare looked quite pitiful.
There was a massive hole towards the stern of the hull, which was leaking oxygen and sparking intermittently.
Daniel noted that he had practically direct impacted the bridge as well, without a doubt killing every one there.
Since all of a ships integral systems were run through the bridge, he also doubted that the the life-support systems had survived.
He wasted no tears on pirates.
He coldly commanded the Freyr Drone to harvest all of the Viable Components, as well has any cargo still on the ship.
He watched as the Freyr efficiently stripped away parts of the ship, separating the Rail Guns, a few intact Armor Panels, parts of the Hovarth Drive, and a few Sensor Components that were attached the intact bow of the ship.
The Freyr then turned around, circling the now empty husk and returning to the Drone Bay.
**
[Storage]
- 4x Sauveterre Engine Components
- 4x Hovarth Drive Components
- 3x Armor Components
- 6x Sensor Components
- 2x Weapon System Components
- 2x kg of Cillium
- 3x kg of Thersium
Capacity: 22/25
**
Daniel winced as the [Storage] was almost completely filled from salvaging one pirate Corvette.
If he maintained the accuracy he's displayed on the first shot, he would never be able to collect enough Components to upgrade any of his Modules, unless he jettisoned some of them in favor of others.
Then he mentally slapped his forehead.
Of course he could jettison other Components, then after he used up the required Components for a specific Module, he could just collect the Components that would be floating in space.
Daniel breaths a digital breath, thankful he'd avoided falling into that sort of mentality.
Daniel let the Venator float in space for a moment, before commanding the System to take him to the Markes System.