"So how do we find a needle in a haystack?" Boomer asked, Jaeger glancing out of his canopy at the formation of three fighters that were lined up beside him. The dim glow from the nearby star reflected off their angular, stealthy hulls, like black glass when they caught the light.
Only their canopies were illuminated, the glow of control panels and readouts lighting up the tiny pilots like someone holding a torch beneath their face while telling ghost stories around a campfire.
They had been tasked with scouring the Oort cloud for more Bugs, the Beewolf fighters small and light enough to cover a decent amount of ground. Pretty much every bird was in the air, split into groups of four and tasked with searching for contacts amongst the asteroids. They were skirting the wall of ice and rock right now, running long-range scans to pick up thermal radiation or any strange emissions.
"We got lucky last time," Jaeger said, "we have a vague idea of where they might be hiding. Those fighters that we encountered were short-range, which means there's a hive ship somewhere nearby. Find the hive ship, kill it, and we kill the Bug fleet. They can't operate without it."
When Bug fleets took to the stars to colonize a new planet, as was part of their life cycle, they did so in one or more hive ships that were roughly equivalent to a carrier. The massive organic ships were not only used to transport other vessels and personnel, but also the crucial supplies necessary for founding a new colony. A hive fleet was both dangerous and vulnerable at the same time. It was the stage of their life cycle when the Bugs were at their most aggressive, but at the same time, they were at their most exposed. Kill enough of the hive ships, and you would negate their ability to found a successful colony.
"Unless they've already colonized the inner planets and there are a billion of 'em further in-system," Baker muttered.
"Not likely," Jaeger said, "there'd be a lot more activity if that were the case. Besides, I heard that there aren't any habitable planets in this system, only a couple of gas giants."
"Doesn't mean they can't colonize the moons."
"That isn't our problem right now," Scratcher chimed in, "just keep your eyes on your sensors. If we pick up anything bigger than a fighter, we're supposed to call in backup. And make sure you get a positive ID on it before you call in the whole fleet."
"Yeah, y'all remember your three Ds," Baker scoffed. "Be nice to the aliens."
"I prefer double-Ds," Boomer added.
"That's Scratcher's line," Baker chuckled. "Remember the cans on that Borealan he got caught with? Bigger'n his head, they were."
Scratcher's voice came through on the radio, attempting to talk over their laughter.
"Alright, alright. Keep your heads in the game, guys."
The chatter quietened down for a while, but there wasn't much to do or see out here, the sky was pitch black save for the twinkling of the far off stars. Contrary to popular belief, many of the beautiful nebulae and clouds of colorful gas that people imagined when they thought of space weren't in the visible spectrum. They might be seen through telescopes and other such devices, but not with the naked eye. To their left, the infinite wall of rocks passed them by. They were traveling at immense speed, and it was hard to get a frame of reference without checking the counter on the console.
After maybe an hour of cruising, Jaeger picked something up on his scope, a heat blip somewhere in the asteroids.
"Eyes up people," he called out, alerting his companions. "Picking something up on the infrared band. Something out there is kicking out a lot of heat."
"I got it," Baker added, "it's hotter than the fighter we found yesterday."
"Peel off and spread out," Jaeger said, "we're going in for a closer look."
He gripped the stick, hitting the forward thrusters to shed velocity, straining against the straps that kept him secured to his seat. His squadron did the same, the thrusters on their bellies flaring and their engines burning brightly as they banked towards the asteroids one by one. They maintained formation, but they put some distance between the fighters, making themselves more difficult targets. Jaeger joined them, every change in velocity causing G-forces to tear at his body. He watched the small map in the bottom left of his visor that showed the locations of the other fighters relative to him, along with the red blip that they were now racing towards. The amount of heat either meant that whatever it was had been burning hard, or it was larger than what they had encountered the last time...
"Remember, don't take any hostile actions until you can confirm that it's a Bug ship," Scratcher said. His voice sounded strained, they were still shedding velocity as they neared the cloud. "Or if it starts fucking shooting at you, either way."
"They aren't going to give us the same courtesy," Jaeger warned, "be careful."
The loose formation of fighters slowed enough that the asteroids were navigable, each vessel making tiny adjustments with bursts of gas from their thrusters as they avoided the debris, perpetually rolling and dodging as they advanced deeper. It was enough of a challenge to keep from crashing without having to keep their eyes out for the enemy too.
"Can we extend our railguns?" Boomer asked, "is that considered aggressive?"
"Fuck that," Baker replied, "I'm goin' hot."
"Alright, but don't point it at anything until we get a positive ID," Jaeger said as he flipped the guard on his trigger. There was a rumbling sensation that reverberated through his boots as the hatch on the back of his ship opened, and the railgun arm extended, the targeting reticle appearing on his HUD.
"Fuck!" Baker exclaimed, Jaeger's heart racing as he looked around for where the attack was coming from. "Fucking rock bounced off my wing," he added.
"You asshole, Baker," Jaeger complained. "Maintain radio silence unless you see something."
This time the heat signature wasn't fading, and the four fighters slowly maneuvered through the asteroids as they neared the source. One of the larger rocks slowly rotated amidst the cloud of debris, it must have been a few kilometers wide, jagged and pockmarked from a millennia of collisions. Jaeger pointed his scanners at it, watching as his computer drew a wireframe image of the object and overlaid it on top. The desire to target his railgun was strong, instinctual, he had to make a conscious effort to keep his finger away from the trigger as he scoured the surface of the rock for activity.
"There! Got something," Scratcher announced. "Feeding you video."…