Fracture - Book One of the Glass Galaxy Trilogy

Chapter 19: The Order of Traya

April 28th

3:31 PM

It was two days later that we exited our gravity jump to find ourselves next to three Order of Traya frigates, their peculiar design and massive glowing iconography broadcasting their allegiance into the void. They turned and accelerated towards us just as soon as we spotted them, and I had to stop myself from reaching over Reaper's shoulder to hail them.

"Their turrets are deployed," I observed out loud.

"Well," Reaper responded, "we are pirates."

"Why are Traya ships in Scarlet Wolf space?" I asked, watching them pick up speed as they approached us.

"We're right outside the Crucible Nebula," Abaddon answered from his ship. "They must've made it through and are hunting pirates now."

Neither Reaper nor Abaddon had made a move in response to the approaching vessels yet, and I couldn't help but grow nervous. "So what are we going to do about them?" I asked the pirate pair.

Reaper laughed, presumably smirking under her gas mask, "We're going to run."

"Run?" I asked, confused. "Shouldn't we get moving, then?"

She shook her head, "If we move, then they'll open fire on us, and we can't reliably evade them when they're that far away."

"So you're waiting for them to come closer?" I guessed.

She nodded, staring at the approaching frigate trio, her hand clenching the lever that controlled the ship's thrust. Her left hand hovered over a large, grey button.

"What's that button for?" I asked her nervously.

She answered my question by pressing it. The ship shook slightly, and a colossal cloud of smoke burst into life in front of our ship, blocking both our view and the view of the Traya vessels. Reaper rammed the thrust-lever to full, and I stumbled backwards as the ship leapt forwards beneath me.

We hurtled through the smokescreen as I pulled myself back up to Reaper's side, laboring against the inertia that was doing its best to paste me against the wall behind me. "I must say, I'm impressed." 

She shrugged, her focus on her task at hand. 

We burst out of the smokescreen at the same time as Abaddon, the Order of Traya ships dangerously close to us, and loosed a volley of explosive shells at them. None of the shells hit them, but it was enough to force them to maneuver, and their responding volley didn't even come close to us. Abaddon opened up with his own ship's batteries, a large explosion on the side of one of the Traya frigates confirming a hit, but the ship emerged relatively unharmed.

They fired at us again as we rocketed past them, but their weapons couldn't track us properly and we began putting distance between us and their lasers which lit up the space behind us. Reaper began charging up the gravity drive.

I exhaled, the tension in my body easing as our acceleration slowed down, "Into the Nebula now?"

Reaper just nodded, her frown reaching her eyes.

"Have either of you ever flown inside a Nebula?" I asked.

"I'm afraid not," Abaddon answered through the comms. "This is a new experience for all of us, I'm afraid."

I glanced at the rear cameras, confirming that the Traya ships had turned around and were now doing their best to catch up to us. "They're going to follow us, you know," I said, gritting my teeth.

Reaper exhaled loudly, "I'm counting on it." She hit a few buttons I didn't recognize and then initiated our gravity jump, the universe around us turning into that vast, truly empty void that I could never get used to. Then Reaper turned to me, "We're going to lure them into an ambush."