Stellar Dust 4 - A Simple Raid by Isaac Orr

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Stryler suffered through another two days of general boredom and menial tasks. Early on the third day out from Delta 2 they decelerated out of plus-c well clear of any system. Doran found Stryler in the hangar still tweaking the troublesome gravgen.

"Let's take one of these out for a spin," he suggested.

Stryler eagerly approved the idea and soon he and Doran were strapped into one of the sleek fighters and the hangar was shut down to access from the rest of the ship, becoming a large docking bay as its external door opened into the emptiness of interstellar space. Stryler let Doran guide the fighter out of the bay on manual as he looked over the controls and displays to familiarize himself with their layout.

"These things are pretty nifty," Doran told him. "At least a match for anything enforcement can throw at us. The Empire or Federation probably have better though, but we're hardly ever over that way anyhow."

"Anything special I should know about?" Stryler asked. The controls seemed pretty similar to what he was used to, but it was always prudent to ask.

"Nothing major. In a minute I'll let you take teleconnect and have some fun throwing this thing around a bit. Before we head back to the ship we need to lay some physics mines though," Doran told him.

Physics mines caused a large scale timespace disruption, somewhat similar to the effects of a craft coming out of plus-c, but with a greater localized intensity. Very close, they could be highly destructive. Usually they were deployed as a means of disabling a spacecraft. "What are the mines for?" Stryler asked.

"They have a useful side effect. Very good for blowing a craft right out of plus-c, if you can get them to trigger at just the right moment. Something about disrupting the timespace cavitation."

Stryler nodded. "So I take it our target is going to be passing this way?"

Doran nodded. "We don't always have information this specific about the course of a target. Often we try to pick them off as they emerge from plus-c near their destination system. Doing it this way is nicer though. There's far less chance of enforcement getting involved out here. Anyways, let's try out teleconnect?"

Stryler requested teleconnect. Becoming one with a spacecraft capable of traveling at nearly the speed of light was always a rush for him. He began by accelerating their small fighter to its maximum velocity and then threw it through a rapid pace series of maneuvers which the dampeners were barely able to compensate for, causing both of them to be thrown around in their seats before Stryler decelerated and released teleconnect.

Doran was grinning widely when he looked over at him. "Not bad at all. That was quite a ride. Ok let's head back towards the Anomaly and lay some mines."

Stryler's flight had taken them well away from their original position and it took them several minutes to reach the point at which Doran indicated they should be laying their mines. They scattered a spread of the physics mines across an area a couple of light minutes wide on each side.