Even a cursory analysis made it clear that almost everything in this system was old. His yacht was still pulling in data from local data networks which did nothing but assure him of what he already knew, that this system was a backwater, and therefore only lightly guarded by the Emissaries’ usual standards.

<We’re coming under fire out here. Can you get them off our tail?>

Working on it, Dakota sent.

She had folded the interface chair’s long petals up around her, enveloping her in silence and darkness. She could see the suited figures of Corso and Perez through the eyes of a single spider-mech hovering in the twisted wreckage of the hold. One of them was using a welding torch to cut away wreckage blocking in a lander.

She switched her viewpoint back to the battle taking place all around the Mjollnir. So far, the Meridian drones in conjunction with the field-generators were doing a good job of protecting the frigate but, for all their extraordinary power, they were being pushed to their limit by the onslaught of scouts. Worse, a godkiller had now appeared a couple of light-seconds away, vectoring towards them on an intercept course.

Dakota didn’t want to think about what would happen if it got within range before they had a chance to jump.

<Dakota.> Corso’s voice sounded terse and strained. <I think something got in here with us.>

She switched her view back to one of the spider-mechs and searched through the shadows until she saw it: the scout that was part hidden in the twisted shadows of wreckage. As she watched, its carapace began to slide apart, revealing a variety of deadly-looking machinery. The hold was now a weak spot, since most of the field-generators meant to protect it had been destroyed during Trader’s jump.

The scout began to cut and burn its way through an exposed bulkhead leading to the frigate’s interior.

I’ve got it.

A Meridian drone peeled off from the rest, darting back inside the wreckage and reducing the scout to white-hot slag within moments.

How’s it going with that lander?

<Nearly done,> Perez replied. <She’ll be good to go just as soon as we’ve finished mounting the field-generators on her hull.>

One hundred and eighty seconds to the next jump. Get back inside the instant you’re done.

<We’ll be done by then.>

Dakota drew the drones back inside the frigate while Corso and Perez retreated through a still-functioning airlock that led into the rest of the ship. Less than three minutes later, the Mjollnir fell once more between the folds of the universe.

The frigate dropped back into space less than twenty thousand kilometres from the surface of the cache-world. The system’s star now filled the sky, huge and terrifying, while the hull’s sensor arrays showed the world itself as a circle of black imposed against this seething light.