#ancient volcano

The engine rumbled like the great beast it truly was, and Zoran  rested a hand on the  hull, content to feel his ship's growling purr  under his palm. 

The Caldera was the most powerful of all the stonebreaker ships and  their flagship. Her heavy plate Armor protected her from the molten  stone below, and she plowed through even the thickest lava flows without  the slightest hesitation. 

"Captain to the bridge"

Zoren left his musings and sat up from his bunk. Vlad wouldn't call  him up if it weren't important, but it didn't sound like a 'pirates'  sort of important. 

When he got to the bridge- one of the few places on the ship with small viewports- Vlad was waiting. 

"Tell me," he said simply. 

"Some tectonic readings about four thousand kliks west," Vlad got  straight to the point. "Looks like a kraton eruption to me. We could be  looking at a diamond pipe."

The reason they were out here in the first place. Diamonds were used  in everything from jewelry to laser focus-crystals. Stonebreaker ships  went all over the galaxy to mine the useful gem. 

A Kraton eruption- a deep-mantle eruption in the oldest parts of the  crust- could theoretically carry a large number of gems to the minable  surface. 

"Head for it," Zoran decided. "But watch those readings. The Caldera  is tough, but she can't take an eruption of that magnitude."

"Aye sir. Also-" Vlad proffered a second set of reports. Now he did look uneasy. "What might be a pirate scout ship above us."

"Nationality?"

"Can't tell," Vlad shrugged. "But she's under heavy sensor cloaking.  We caught her because they got careless- Ilya spotted her outline during  first watch, and we were able to catch her plasma trail."

"Hail her." Zoran said coldly. Mining pirates were claim jumpers at  best and murderous scum at worst. He ran out of mercy for them decades  ago. "If she doesn't respond, shoot her down."

"Yes sir. Pietor?"

"Hailing now."

Vlad didn't like hostilities and was uncomfortable firing the first  shot. He would get over that. Stonebreaker crews had to be as hard as  their ships or the washed out. 

Or died. Their work was dangerous, and not just because of the pirates. 

Zoran listened as their radio tech (not that they used radio anymore,  but the name was coined on Earth-That-Was and no one bothered to change  it) hailed the unknown ship. 

"Unidentified flyer, please respond with identification and flight license. You are in Stonebreaker Caldera's claim-airspace."

Only faint static filled the silence. Pietor tried again. "Repeat-  this is Stonebreaker Caldera. We have you on our scans. Please respond."

Nothing. 

"Unidentified flyer, you are in claimed airspace. If you do not respond, we will open fire."

Nothing. 

Zoran sighed. Violence it was to be. "Shields. Target the flyer.  Mishka, see if you can scramble their cover. Maybe they'll think twice  if we put one in their engines. Sasha, secondary guns."

The bridge team fell into their assorted positions like the well  oiled team they were. The Caldera bucked when her secondary guns fired,  and Zoran watched the torpedos fire into the sky. 

A moment later, fire erupted from what was an empty patch of sky  seconds before. Sasha had a lot of experience shooting at cloaked ships.  Zoran paid him a staggering amount of money for his skill as a gunner. 

The ship was considerably bigger than Zoren expected, and he recognized the distinctive plating. 

"It's the Catastrophe," he identified the ship as one of the more notorious pirate ships. "Fire primaries. No quarter."

"Sir-" Vlad started to protest. Zoran waved to cut him off. 

"That ship fired stonebreaker White Rose," he said shortly. "And  killed everyone down to the rats in Guiding Star Space Station. No  quarter."

He had friends on Guiding Star, and the Rose was captained by his former first mate. He wanted to see the Catastrophe burn. 

"No quarter," Pietor agreed quietly when Vlad kept his silence. 

When the main guns fired- top of the line, despite their beaten  appearance- the whole ship thudded low against the lava. The buck of the  secondaries followed in quick succession. 

The Catastrophe- without shields thanks to their cloaking- took the  hits straight to her hull and immediately tried to veer higher, out of  range. The second and third shots slammed into her wings and sent the  limping ship spiraling towards the lava. 

Zoran just watched as the massive ship crashed through the thick  stone crust and sent a wave of molten stone towards them. The Caldera  took the wave lightly. 

"Getting a distress signal, Captain," Ilya said quietly. 

Zoran hesitated. On one hand, it was the Catastrophe. They didn't deserve mercy. On the other...

"Take us over," he decided. "If it's peace they want, they can have it. If not, the no-quarter command stands."

"Aye, Captain."

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Fossil Trove From 74,000 Years Ago Points to Remarkably Adaptive Humans https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/20/science/early-humans-arrowheads-volcano.html?smid=nytcore-android-share&ugrp=c&pvid=220f583f-dfc0-4244-b018-bff4c392dded

20160528 - Nglanggeran Ancient Volcano, Patuk, Kabupaten Gunung Kidul, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (GPS: -7.8428167,110.5355752)

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