Vera stepped into the lab she had been sharing with Ruri and blinked. Noting all the crystals scattered around. She took a second look as her mind raced. That was what?? Twenty billion credits just sitting on the workstations. No security beyond the standard lab locks?

Seeing Ruri walk in from the direction of the bathroom, she inquired, “Um,... Ruri what's with all the Ephon Crystals?”

“Ephon Crystals?” replied Ruri with a cute little frown on her face.

Vera picked one up, probably worth a hundred million, “These! Where did you get these?”

“OH! The unusual resonance crystals. I was taking a look into them. I take it you are familiar with them?”

Vera shook her head, “I’ve seen them a couple of times before, but not really. They are expensive and mainly used in hyperspace engines. Not really my specialty.”

“Hyperspace? I hadn’t considered that they might have any applications there. I was going to look into their applications for our mining lasers.”

“Mining lasers? You serious!?”

Ruri nodded, “Have you looked out a window recently?”

Vera frowned and then after a moment connected the dots, “Wait are you saying these crystals had something to do with...”

“Yep! They magnified the effects of our resonance particle beams. Without them that planet wouldn’t be a debris field right now.”

Vera blinked, “I don’t know much about resonance weaponry, so I have to ask. How?”

“Resonance beams use precisely calibrated pulsating beams to pulverize and shatter targeted matter. A sustained pulse builds in the target until the energy build up breaks down its molecular cohesion. These crystals absorb, magnify and radiate that energy when exposed to a resonance pulse beam. The planet was so rich in them that our pulse waves were magnified to cause quakes and volcanic activity on a global scale. As they bounced between deposits rapidly. I have the computer anayzing the data and working to create a better model on this.”

“A mining laser turned into a planet destroying weapon, fascinating. I would suggest caution however, other powers might be frightened by this. The Krall forced the Voskar into a treaty to restrict their Hypernova torpedoes. They might do the same with you.”

Ruri scoffed, “Its not much of a weapon. This planet is a bit of an exception, but right now we are talking about a time-consuming process. We would need to position dozens of orbitals and the process would take days. Not only that, but resonance beams don’t handle shields very well or armor for that matter. Its really more of a mining device, just scaled up to break down planets and very much still in development. Although these Ephon crystals should be quite helpful in furthering this project.”

“What project is it anyway?”

“Orbital mining, we are working on drilling into a planetary crust to expose valuable deposits and then lift them into orbit. Where they can be processed and put to use. The same techniques are already being applied to asteroid mining. With excellent results.”

Vera frowned, “I uh, see. Why do you need this technology?”

Ruri shrugged, “I’m not sure. Never asked and don’t care. Its fun work.”

“You don’t care?”

The ship shuddered and a moment later she heard, a report, “Minor hit, port shields. Shields holding.”

Turell noted that and focused her attention on the ships they were now engaged with. Her initial volley couldn’t have gone better. She even caught them of guard and managed to get a few more off before the Valorians could raise shields. Unfortunately she had something new to worry about, long range sensors had detected reinforcements on approach. Estimates of arrival put them at eight minutes out. Regardless she did manage to disable the local Champion class, and seven of the eight Protector class cruisers. Including the light cruisers and patrol ships in the area, many of which were out of position or disabled that left her contending with a dozen active vessels. Far more than she would have liked, but this cruiser was better outfitted than her old one. Superior shields and heavier guns, and she was going to need them. Nothing that would have helped against that Refuge ship though, well the shields would have. The guns not so much.

She barked her next order, “Return fire all port batteries. Bring us about to heading one one seven mark two eight. Ready aft tubes to fire.”

Her crew dutifully carried her orders out. She felt the ship turn, as the port particle cannons discharged. Scoring several hits on the light cruiser that fired on them. A Defender to be specific. Her shields flared brightly but held. No surprise there, it was under gunned, but like many Valorian designs well shielded. Her cannons were unlikely to bring those shields down in a single volley, but she didn’t expect them too.

Rather she watched the plots, keeping one eye on that Protector cruiser. It was damaged, several hits scored while her shields were down, but still very much a threat. At least she had managed to damage its sublight engines.

Then she saw what she was waiting for, she smiled, “Aft tubes, fire!”

A series of whooping thumps echoed as the launchers fired. Unleashing 36 Heavy Antiproton Warheads on the cruiser. Bright pink flashes erupted as they slammed into the shields of the cruiser, in a brilliant display. They rippled a thousand colors as the barrier shattered like glass and the last three warheads then slammed into the hull unleashing their antiproton payloads in a fiery eruption of destruction. In an instant, the cruiser ceased to exist.

There was a shout of joy as someone declared, “Target destroyed!!!”

She let herself smile as she checked the plots. The Protector was out of range and still on an intercept course. Three more cruisers were on attack angles and in range. Along with a dozen patrol ships moving to cut off her escape paths. Clearly trying to force her towards the heavy cruiser. A sound plan, but a trap you knew about was one you could use. These Valorians were not very good with their traps, either. Too obvious, no subtly to them at all.

Turell then gave a quick check to the team’s progress. They had managed to evade notice so far but were still a few minutes from clearing the gravity well. She sighed. “Bring us about to course two three seven mark nine zero. Increase speed to full. Standby forward tubes, reload aft tubes.”

She only had some many torpedoes and it took a good number to bring down a cruiser. Turell took a quick glance at her display, noting that she had 396 torpedoes left. That might sound like a lot, but it really wasn’t. Those could run out all too quickly. Especially if she had to waste them against shields. Valorian shields weren’t weak, it took 36 of them reliably bring down a light cruiser. Heavy cruisers were even better shielded and equipped with redundant shield grids. Which sadly meant they could likely take her entire arsenal. Well if she could hit them with about a hundred at once that would do it, but the trickery part was doing that. She only had so many tubes and it took time to reload. Critical seconds with which those shields could shed absorbed energy.

A moment later on the cruisers fired. A volley of plasma torpedoes sailed through space, along with a sustained barrage of low yield plasma pulse. Her own shields flared, as she gave her next order. 

Her helmsmen immediately carried out her orders. A series of thruster ports engaged and the ship rolled. Glowing plasma rounds sailed by them and then the ship shuddered. A couple had corrected course and slammed into the shields.

“Hit, starboard shields. Shields holding, barely.”

She nodded and gave her next order, “Reduce speed, one half power. Brings us around to two-three eight mark zero nine.”

As the ship swung onto a slightly new course, her forward tubes lined up with her next victim, an Ophera class Light Carrier. They were basically defenders, just with a larger hanger. She gave the order. Just as her target unleashed her own volley of torpedoes.

“Evasive! Hard starboard!”

The ship shuddered, hard. As several torpedoes found their mark. Yet the other ship wasn’t so lucky as she went up in a brilliant ball of flames.

“Shields cycling, hull breaches decks four seven and eight. Damage control teams responding, emergency force fields in place and stable. No damage to combat systems.”

“Cloak?”

“Unaffected.”

She glanced at the plot, the team’s shuttle was still a minute out from warp out, but no one was in position to intercept. Reinforcements were still three minutes out. “Engage cloak.” she ordered just before giving orders to change course.

Plasma rounds peppered the hull doing minimal damage as she slipped off the enemy sensor screens. Moments later, the rounds were peppering enemy space as they gave them the slip. Then she set a course to get out of the system. Watching the shuttle closely, when it warped without issue, she finally relaxed. The hard part was over.

Countryman slipped into his office. Ruri was quite pleased and mining teams were now working to harvest anything of value from the newly formed debris field. He already had his eye on the massive gold deposits, there were a number of systems that made use of gold. The precious metal was not only useful as currency or decorative material in jewelry. In addition to the gold there were other metals of interest, such as titanium. The planet had fair deposits of it and now that it was broken up its wealth was there for the taking. Sadly they were going to have to leave much of it behind, but they were certainly going to be rich. He had also noted a number of carbon-based minerals, which would be useful as well. Those carbon deposits could be with a little work employed in virtually any number of applications. 

With such a new wealth of resources, it was also no surprise that he already had requests on his desk. As he settled into his seat he started reviewing them. Noting down what everyone wanted. He looked over anything that would count as basic goods and approved those first before moving on to more exotic things. Engineering got first priority on requests, the ship came first. So her reviewed what Richards and her department wanted from the field. The gold was naturally on the list, along with a long list of materials used in the ship, iron, silver, platinum, tungsten, titanium, carbon, silicon and more were on the list. He reviewed space and requirements and approved those mining requests and factory orders. It seemed Richards was planning to stockpile spare parts and machinery. There was mention of a request for time to conduct an inspection and if needed overhaul of the engines. He approved that too. They would have time for it while they were mining. Yet she didn’t give a reason for all the materials she wanted.

Moving on Ruri’s list was extensive and most of the labheads had lists. Even the newcomer Vera had put in requests. Along with something interesting, she was suggesting they stockpile the Ephon crystals. As many as they could take with them. She said they were used mainly in hyperspace applications and were an expensive trade good. Finding a minerally rich source of them was rare, due to their unusual composition and structure. After reading her report, he was thankful that she explained the name. It seemed like a good plan too, so he started adding an additional collection of those crystals. If they were worth something, he was going to bring them along. Not to mention Ruri had a few ideas for them. Either they would end up using them all themselves, or they would use them as a trade good to get things they really need. Regardless it was a good idea and would certainly be worth the space. Especially if they were as valuable as Vera said, which she likely was right about.