The next day, the members of Section Nine received a message from Gregory of the Federation of Independent Pilots.

The message read, that their analysis of the data received during the previous scouting mission came to the conclusion that there was a very high chance that the strange heat source found near Carkul Five was the Sigma Hive they were looking for. At the very least, all the local corporations had denied that it belonged to them.

Thus, the Federation gave the okay to post an extermination job request to eliminate the hive, in addition to recruiting additional pilots from nearby systems.

The message included an invitation for the mission, with the generous pay coming through even if they were wrong and the target didn't end up being a Sigma Hive.

With terms like that, none of the four pilots had any reason to refuse, so they all signed up.

The job was to happen in three days, once the other pilots were able to come to Carkul Station and given a little time to rest.

In the meantime, the four spent some time between cruising around the system lining their pockets wherever they could with stray Sigma Drones, or checking out the limited facilities at the station itself.

Overall, it was a boring few days, and all four of them were antsy to have something to do when the day of the mission had arrived.

 

The four pilots sat around a round table in Susannah's luxury liner while they each stared at the floating screens emitted from their personal terminals.

On each of their screens were chat windows featuring Gregory of the local FIP office as well as about two dozen pilots that had come as emergency reinforcements for the upcoming Sigma Hive extermination mission.

"Thanks for coming everyone. I know it must've been tough coming on such short notice."

"Nah. For the pay FIP's promising, I bet there's tons of guys a few more systems away crying that they can't make it in time."

"Heh. I'm glad I stuck around after my last job. I was gonna head somewhere else in another day or two."

"Our squadron ended up paying a penalty just so we could participate."

"Whoa, you sure that's fine?"

"The rep hit hurts a bit, but we managed to get away with just delaying part of the job for a few days, so it's not that bad."

The four pilots sitting around in the White Star glanced at each other.

"Is this really the sort of stuff you talk about in a FIP meeting?"

"Maybe it's because it's basically a mercenary organization."

"Well, I think it's better than being uptight like in some military."

"Well, it's possible that the military groups in this area are actually like that anyways."

Susannah started by whispering, which Sherry responded with her opinion. Kelly, then finally Hawkins added their own bits to the pie before turning back when a familiar voice yelled out through the group call.

"Alright, alright. That's enough. Even though all the evidence we have suggests it's just a small one, this is still a Sigma Hive we're dealing with. I don't want one of you guys to get killed just because you guys got careless."

There was a bit of grumbling left over, but everyone soon changed focus and quieted down.

"Here's the information we have so far, thanks to the wing Section Nine."

The data that the four had sent to the FIP office was collated and analyzed, with the condensed result being transmitted in the meeting.

"What we know is that there is an unusual number of Sigma Drones in the Carkul system, and after our scouting and analysis, we've determined that the likely source is from a small moon orbiting Carkul five."

As Gregory continued the briefing, the scanned data automatically appeared on everyone's screens.

"Unfortunately, the facility was buried quite deeply under the moon's surface. Casual scans didn't yield much information, but following normal Sigma Drone procedures, it is likely a newly installed hive facility brought in from another system."

According to the material regarding Sigma Drones that the group had received from the FIP database, it seemed that Sigma Drones typically extracted material from a system and grew their numbers using a hive as a base until their numbers reached a certain level. Once that happened, they would scout out surrounding systems and probed them until they chose a strong candidate to colonize. From there, they'd construct a small portable hive and have it regroup with the initial waves before being installed at a suitable location, usually one that is protected from direct attack.

At that point, it was considered that the infestation is established in that system, and their numbers would grow exponentially as the hive grew in size until the drones decided to further expand into another system.

Unfortunately, the growth pattern of the Sigma Drones were unpredictable, as the criteria for a good system to settle has so far been difficult to predict. In addition, it wasn't like the drones expended their colonies to immediate neighbouring systems. They often jumped to systems dozens or even hundreds of light years away for no obvious reason.

This was one of the main reasons why Sigma Drones were still an issue centuries after they first erupted, as any concentrated effort to exterminate them had ended up being futile. No amount of manpower was enough to exhaustively search nook and cranny of every system for hundreds of light years around every discovered infestation.

In the end, it was treated as a fact of life, with every infestation being uprooted when discovered, but little additional effort was put in.

That was why even the Federation didn't bother doing much with the discovered Sigma Drones until the probable discovery of a hive was unearthed.

Of course, in Stella Nova, something similar was used an excuse for there to be reoccurring enemies to hunt, spanning a wide range of difficulty levels, from lone drones that even a new player could easily beat to giant armadas that took dozens of veteran pilots to take down. Termite Drones were widely used as an easy, guilt free opponent that could be used anywhere, for any reason thanks to this backstory.

But when such an opponent appears in real life with real lives on the line, such a threat loses its carefree nature and is more akin to a powerful enemy that could become a serious danger from a lack of vigilance, or even just bad luck.

"Do we have an idea where they came from?" One of the pilots asked.

"We don't. Unfortunately, due to the lack of inhabited systems in the area, there's too many possible origins for us to find out for now."

"How bad is it?"

"Umm...this bad."

Prompted by Sherry's whisper, Hawkins tapped his wrist console a few times and a holographic map of the local cluster of stars appeared.

"The blue ones are inhabited, according to the public database."

"I only count seventeen systems out of..."

"The hundred closest."

Hawkins finished Susannah's sentence.

"No wonder they can't find the source."

"It's not like it'd be easy to find it even if most of these systems were inhabited anyways."

Kelly shrugged. Having the blunt truth thrust on them, the other three could only agree. That was just the nature of these drones. For all they knew, the hive that these drones originally came from could've been from outside of these hundred systems.

The discussion continued with a bit more back and forth for a while before the meeting was finished.

The plan, as Gregory introduced, was for all the pilots to rendezvous near the target location and form a blockade around it. There were several ships capable of long range bombardment, so they would start the attack while the rest of the ships held the perimeter and shoot down any Sigma Drones that appeared.

If it looked feasible, ships armed with rockets and torpedoes would fire off salvos from closer in and hopefully finish the hive off.

The plan was simple, but with a large number of pilots and squadrons who've met for the first time working together, a simple plan like this was far preferable over something more complex.

With everyone in agreement to the plan, the various pilots signed off of the virtual meeting and prepared to launch their ships.

 

Even for the slowest of ships, Carkul Five didn't take very long to reach despite being one of the outermost planets in the system thanks to being mostly inline with Carkul Two where the orbital station they were launching from was.

Just like when Susannah and Sherry checked the small moon out, there was a serious lack of Sigma Drones in the area.

The few drones in the area were quickly dispatched and they formed up their blockade, the larger ships facing towards the heat source while the smaller and nimbler ones ready for any drones that supercruised in as reinforcements to the hive once they started their attack.

"White Star, in position." Susannah called out in the comms.

"Crimson Magnum, also in position."

"Field Cracker, ready here."

Of the almost thirty ships participating in the mission, only three were armed with proper long range weapons. Susannah's White Star with it's gauss cannon, as well as the Crimson Magnum and Field Cracker that sported several rail guns each.

The rail guns were weapons that operated under the same basic principal as a gauss cannon, but they were made to be used against smaller and faster targets. The energy usage was quite high for the weapons' size and damage potential, but the smaller projectiles that they fired were shot at a much higher speed, easily three times faster than a gauss cannon's already impressive 1% the speed of light. This high speed made them good at hitting moving targets at extremely long range where optical weapons like lasers would've diffused to the point of being overpriced flashlights.

That said, a rail gun was only able to manage such a high projectile speed by firing absolutely tiny projectiles compared to a gauss cannon. Where a gauss cannon fired a meter long pole, a rail gun fired what was closer to a pencil. But even a pencil being fired at 3% the speed of light still did damage that was in the range of a large bomb on Earth. Of course, that meant that a gauss cannon was doing the equivalent of a nuclear weapon in concentrated power.

That was the sorts of power that weapons in Stella Nova did, and was required to do battle in space.

With the three ships armed with relativistic kill vehicles set up and everyone else ready to handle any reinforcements, they got the approval to start the mission.

All three pilots pulled the trigger on their weapons, and nearly a dozen rods silently sailed off through the void of space. Only the short telephone pole of a projectile that Susannah fired was trackable on everyone's sensors, and even then it quickly zoomed to the limits of their ships' sensor range.

On the small moon itself, a series of small flashes appeared on the metallic surface that was presumed to be the outer plating of the Sigma Hive. The rail gun projectiles hit their mark perfectly.

A few seconds later, the slower projectile hit its mark as well, the tungsten penetrator causing a light to flash as it's massive amount of energy was instantaneously converted from kinetic to thermal. But as quickly as the light flashed, so did it dim.

"The hell?!"

A quick observer that lacked discipline shouted out on the group's shared mission channel.

"Tch! The target raised shields."

Another reported his observations as he quickly read out his sensor readings.

"The target's not some newborn hive! That shield's at least capital class!"

Relying on experience, Hawkins warned the rest.

The readings on everyone's sensors was clear. The rail gun shots managed to do a little bit of damage to the target, but failed to do anything significant. The gauss cannon's round on the other hand was likely able to do serious damage, but in the second or so it took to reach the target after the rail gun shots, the hive managed to raise it shields to protect itself, entirely blocking the relativistic projectile.

"That Sigma Hive, it was actually using camouflage!"

While normally it took a while for a ship to raise shields, it was possible to bypass that time by precharging the shield generator and simply keeping it on standby. There were few reasons to do so, but it was a tactic that ships employing stealth used on occasion. Something Sherry was familiar with, though she preferred to eschew shields altogether while under silent running.

On the other hand, the female pilot had a difficult time accepting that the hive had actually used such a tactic in the first place. The Termite Drones she was well acquainted with had never employed tactics nearly this complex before.

(Is this because this is all real?)

Not only Sherry, but all four members of Section Nine had this thought run through their heads, making them slow to react to the next thing that happened.

"Hey! The hive's opening up! Is that...drones! Sigma Drones are coming out!"

"Fire! Everyone, target the drones and fire!"

Lasers, bullets, and a wide variety of other fire streamed through space, bombarding the mechanical drones as they scurried out like hornets from a disturbed hive. But despite the concentrated fire, a few drones managed to get through and started their attack runs on the blockade.

But a few moments later, even those were shot down as the four regained their senses.

"Everyone! Stay out of this cone of fire and continue shooting down the drones! Susannah! Switch to submunitions and fire at the hive!"

"Got it!"

Susannah immediately did as she was told while Sherry transmitted the firing zone to the rest of the pilots who had started zipping around to go after the drones.

Moments later, a series of white flashes spread across the space between the pilots and the shielded hive. A significant portion of the Sigma Drones had instantly turned into inert debris, including the latest wave to reveal itself.

Taking advantage of the cleared up space her friend had made, Sherry diverted extra power to her ship's engines punched the thrust of her Valkyrie to its limit, not worrying about how brightly she was shining on everyone's sensors.

"Again! Fire another one Susannah!"

As she closed in on her target, she called to her friend once more, who obliged. More angry drones had shape shifted into tumbling debris, earning Sherry time to finish her approach.

The moment she got within an acceptable range, she fired off her torpedoes. Again, and again, and again, and once more. Quickly depleting her internal rack.

"Susannah! A penetrator round this time!"

Ten lumbering torpedoes. sailed almost leisurely through space. And right before the first one came into contact with the hive's shields, a white flash almost blinded Sherry as a rod almost as long as she was tall vaporized against the wall of energy. Moments later, her cockpit canopy dimmed again as another, even brighter flash of white filled her canopy screen. Then again, and again.

Over and over did the white light turn her screen dark as it protected her from the intense light even has her ship's hull temperature rose even from this distance.

Of course even her hull would warm up from such a succession of bursts of intense energy. After all, the torpedoes that Sherry typically loaded onto her ship were antimatter torpedoes.

Torpedo launchers were another weapon platform that could carry quite a few variety of ammunition. Kelly preferred the more common unguided torpedo. Unguided torpedoes were the most basic and cheapest type of torpedo, flying in a straight line. But purely in explosive power, they were the best in terms of cost to performance, and were also one of the most readily available types of torpedoes. But even putting cost to performance aside, the common unguided torpedo was one of the best in pure power amongst any that could be mounted on a single pilot operated ship.

Then there were the guided torpedoes, which were one of the faster flying torpedoes, though a bit slower than unguided torpedoes. But its main characteristic was that it had a proper guidance package, significantly improving the chances of hitting a moving target. While a bit more expensive than an unguided torpedo, they were still readily available. Though they were only two thirds as powerful in explosive energy as an unguided torpedo.

After those two common varieties of torpedoes., Sherry opted to equip her Valkyrie with a much rarer and more expensive type of torpedo: the antimatter torpedo. The antimatter torpedo operated under a lot of the same basics as the unguided torpedo. They fired straight ahead and exploded once they hit something or reached their range limit. But antimatter torpedoes. were much heavier, making them quite a bit slower than unguided torpedoes, making them significantly easier to shoot down. In addition, they were far more expensive than regular unguided torpedoes. A single antimatter torpedo would cost as much as ten unguided torpedoes, which was already considered expensive compared to the ammunition of other weapons.

But antimatter torpedoes, when they hit, packed a punch that far outclassed the ships they could be put on. A weapon that was considered capital grade when purely though from the perspective of power. Sherry had fired ten of them, her entire compliment.

And reading the girl's intent, the moment the light from the last pair of torpedoes dulled, there was another flash of light as one more hammer of god impacted on the target from Susannah's gauss cannon.

Cheering erupted from the comms as the other pilots realized what those flashes were. Not even Sherry could avoid letting a smile creep up onto her lips.

But that smile quickly inverted as a look of horror filled her expression.

At the same time, the cheers died down as the ships' sensor suits cleared up of all interference and started to report the result of the attack.

"Sherry! Bug out! Now!"

There was yelling from the comms, and with all the years of experience, the pilot didn't hesitate to do as she was told.

She threw wide the throttle and zoomed out of there as she cut all of her systems. The moment she felt she had accumulated enough momentum, she finished her procedure to enter silent running and disappeared from everyone's' sensors just as a swarm of angry Sigma Drones tried to converge on where she was.

But the swarm found nothing, having lost her signal.

Unable to reacquire the Valkyrie's signal, the swarm spread out and started targeting the ships that were continuing their blockade.

"Sherry! Sherry, are you alright?"

"Yea. It was a bit scary, but I'm fine."

While still invisible to everyone's sensors, Susannah breathed a sigh of relief as her friend responded to her call.

"Sherry? The moment you can, get back to Carkul station."

"What?! I can still fight!"

The girl shouted back at Hawkins' unexpected order.

"Of us four, you're by far the weakest in this sort of situation. I want you to go and get the Blue Steel!"

"But..."

"We'll hold on here! Hurry!"

Despite her initial hesitation, Sherry well understood that what Hawkins said was the truth. Her Valkyrie was by far the weakest ship of the four in a direct firefight. It was the antithesis of what it was designed for. Even Susannah's dedicated sniper platform of a ship was better in a direct fight than Sherry's specialized stealth setup.

"Hey don't worry. They're just a bunch of drones. What's cannon fodder gonna do to us anyways?"

"I'm not as reckless as Kelly, but even I think we can hold out until you get back, Sherry."

Kelly and Susannah added their own words in an attempt to ease Sherry's worries.

"Hurry. We're counting on you!"

With tears in her eyes, Sherry turned her ship away from the fight and activated her supercruise.