Chương 68: Chapter 69: FTL Pursuit

As Adam flew through the spaceport and the Spector came into view, he said, "Lower the cargo bay ramp and launch as soon as I'm aboard." [[Affirmative]] As a ramp lowered from the base of the ship and Adam flew his hover bike towards the ramp, the chat had just enough time to make out the dark outlines of objects in varying shapes and sizes before the camera switched to show the ship launching as the cargo bay ramp closed and its landing gear retracted before it shot off into space leaving Palaxia's atmosphere.

Adam reached the cockpit by the time the ship left the atmosphere, and after sitting down, he said, "Plot and intercept course and engage star drive."

"Affirmative," Spector replied over the internal comm just before the ship turned slightly and jumped to FTL.

"Estimated time to intercept is seventeen minutes nine seconds."

"Tactical analysis?"

"Minimal threat. Target ship TD37D-Slingshot is more designed for speed and manoeuvrability than offensive firepower."

"I guess he purchased that ship as a means of a quick getaway in case his activities ever got discovered." [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): Impressive, the TD37D-Slingshot is one of the fastest civilian ships produced by Terran Dynamics; being able to outpace it in FTL is no easy feat.] [Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): It just proves once again how cool the streamer ship is.] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): It must have a more advanced FTL drive than the Terran ship. It seems it's not only the subspace drive that is fast on his ship.] [SciFifanboy (Earth): This is so Sci-Fi, how do you think he plans to stop the ship once he catches up to it? Will he use phasers like in Star Trek?] [Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Unlikely, phasers only work because of how the warp bubble forms around the starship, allowing them to fire at warp. Most energy-based weapons like the streamer lasers would be too slow when flying faster than the speed of light, wouldn't they?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): What are phasers? Is this from another Sci-Fi show back on Earth?] [SciFifanboy (Earth): Yeah, phasers are phased array pulsed energy projectile weapons that emit tiny pulses of subatomic particles.] [Noobkiller9000 (Earth): They essentially look like lasers but are different.] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Riiiggghhhttt. Well, anyway, as Noobkiller guessed, you can't fire energy-based weapons that travel at the speed of light like the streamers' laser repeaters in FTL because you're travelling faster than the energy beam could travel.] [SciFifanboy (Earth): So what, a torpedo then?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): That's more likely, rockets, missiles, torpedoes, or any other projectile weapon can't travel faster than the speed of light themselves; however, they maintain the inertia of the craft that fired them before adding their own thrust on top.] [Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): Still, it's unlikely he would use a torpedo; it's more likely to be a missile.] [Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Why?] [Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): According to the stream description, he needs to capture the target alive. Torpedoes are weapons designed with pure destruction in mind. They're not as fast or manoeuvrable as missiles; however, their destructive capability is much greater, which makes them ideal to use against larger, less manoeuvrable targets like cruiser-type ships or above.] [Handsome3horns (Vinox 2): Don't forget that torpedoes are much larger than missiles or rockets because of their higher explosive yield, so they are generally only carried on larger ships. They are mainly only seen when multiple cruisers or larger type vessels face off.] [Whostolemyduck (Earth): So what you're saying is that since torpedoes are too destructive and rockets lack the seeking capability, should the streamers target try to evade, he will most likely use missiles.] Love this novel?

Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): There are other choices available; however, the most likely scenario is he will use some sort of EMP missile.] [Whostolemyduck (Earth): EMP as in Electromagnetic Pulse?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Correct, EMP weapons are very effective at taking down enemy ships' shields before disabling the ship's systems without destroying it.] Suddenly, Andrew popped up in the chat.

[MercheadAnderson (Palaxia): Damn it, brat, did you have to cause such a crazy commotion? I have the Palaxia Security Chief yelling at me for the chaos you caused.]"Sorry about that, but you asked me to apprehend Cooper, so help me sort that mess out," Adam replied as he read Andrew's message in his chat. [Lizziethetruepower (Palaxia): Hehehe, he has you there. 🤭] [MercheadAnderson (Palaxia): Damn brat. Did you really have to go make a crater in the road outside the hall?] [Lizziethetruepower (Palalxia): Don't mind him, he's just angry that you keep giving him more work and that he can't laze around.] After Andrew and Lizzie stopped talking in the chat, it returned to discussing how they thought Adam would stop the target's ship, and after several minutes, they were almost in firing range.

"Suggestion on what to use to knock his ship out of warp or disable it altogether?" Adam asked.

"Because of the TD37D-Slingshot's focus on speed, it is lacking in defensive capability. It's recommended you use Spark II EMP missiles, and if the target is still operational after dropping out of FTL, follow up with my Distortion Repeaters."

"Good, ready the missiles." [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Thought so, he's using EMP weapons.] Adam continued to gain on the Slingshot until Spector suddenly said, "We are now in firing range. Adam accessed the weapons control systems on his console before selecting the TD37D-Slingshot as the target and locking onto its electromagnetic signature.

It took a moment for the missile launcher to lock, and as soon as it did, the Fire button started blinking red to show it was ready to fire, after which Adam pressed it. The stream switched to an external view of Spector, focusing on the underside of one of its wings, where a compartment slid open, revealing a missile rack containing eight missiles in tubes, which were four across and two high, before one of the missiles ignited and flew out its tube.

The camera panned to show the missile streaking away from the Spector before the view switched to show the image that the missile's onboard camera showed on its nose. [AlamoMatador4thewin (Earth): Damn, the stream even has a viewpoint from an in-flight missile.] [Superior4horns (Vinox 3): It's safe to say that no other streamer has ever done anything like this before.] The chat and Adam watched as the missile got within visual range of the Slingshot in a few seconds and continued to close in on it rapidly before they noticed about a dozen small objects coming out of the back of the Slingshot just before the missile suddenly veered off course to hit one of them, and the camera feed went dead.

The stream view switched back to an external view of the Spector just in time for them to witness some sort of blue explosion that seemed to crackle with lightning happening in the distance. [Netononato (Earth): What happened?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): The enemy ship deployed EM countermeasures. EMP missiles generally lock on and track a target by its electromagnetic signature. The EM countermeasures are small machines that are capable of emitting an EM signature matching the ship they launched from. When too many of the same EM signature is detected by the missile, it can no longer determine the real target and therefore randomly selects one of the available.] [Prestigious3horns (Vinox 2): Still, it's strange for a civilian ship like the Slingshot to carry EM countermeasures. While it does have other defensive capabilities, it normally relies on its speed to escape anything that would attack it.] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): That's true, however, you're forgetting that the one piloting the Slingshot is a traitor who used to work for the Palaxia Defence Force; he already knew that any defence force ship sent after him would be faster than his Slingshot and most likely prepared accordingly.] [Superhearofangirl (Earth): So how will the streamer knock him out of FTL if the target's ship has countermeasures to his missiles?] [Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): We're going to have to wait and see.]"Why doesn't the sensor data of the Slingshot show the EM countermeasures?" Adam asked as he took another look at the sensor data on his console.

"EM countermeasures are not detectable before they activate."

"Suggestions?" Adam asked as he had yet to face this sort of situation in Space Rogue.

"Recommend using Tempest IV EMP Scatter Missiles, while it would take several of the smaller scatter missiles hitting the TD37D-Slingshot to fully disable it, one alone should be enough to temporarily knock out its star drive," Spector replied as she finally got close enough for a visual of the Slingshot via the viewscreen, though it was magnified to the max.

"Understood, load them into the launcher." [Gunlovergirl (Earth): If these Tempest EMP Scatter Missiles are so good, why didn't he use them before?] [Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): Two reasons, first, they are way more expensive than the Spark II he fired before, while each individual missile might be smaller and pack less of a punch, there are eighteen of them, and they use smaller components, which means more expensive. Second is because it would be overkill if the Slingshot didn't have the EM Countermeasures.]