David and Goliath

[VioletRapture]

(This series will detail the adventures of Rena Yoshiko as she continues to take on enemies much stronger than herself, and prevail, usually.)


Prolouge

A Teladi Falcon Vanguard was dead ahead of the heavily modified Harrier Hauler of Rena Yoshiko, a rather unkown pirate at the time. Sporting the ability to fire Silkworm missiles as well as increased shielding and speed at the expense of cargo space and agility respectively, it was one of the toughest M5's of its class. Armed to the teeth with overcharged Alpha Impulse Ray Generators and a compliment of four Silkworms attached to the wings, the Harrier sped off, it's sleek blue flame decals shimmering with sparkles in the sunlight.

Almost immediately she was met with aggression.

"Teladi suggests you leave profit be, or perish."

Rena replied with her own colorful remarks.

"Go shove some Nostrop Oil up your bastu and give me your cargo!"

"Teladi not going to waste profit on you. I continue."

Bad move on the Teladi's part. The Harrier quickly and quietly slipped behind the Falcon, and began firing on the engine. Almost immediately, the aft turret reacted, pounding Rena's shields with high-speed particle lasers.

Rena peeled away before her shields overloaded, staying to the side of the Falcon which was still speeding along it's normal path. Apparently this Teladi didn't recognize the M5 as a thread. Bad mistake.

She strafed on the Falcon's starboard side, slowly sliding toward the front of the Falcon, then in a death-defying move, fired a Silkworm missile straight into the nose of the ship. The resulting explosion tore apart the Falcon's shielding and spun the Harrier out of control where it nearly collided with a small rock.

Once the disorientation ended, Rena checked the cockpit. The shields were gone and a fraction of the Teladianium armor plating looked like it had been lodged back in the Falcon Vanguard. Some systems were malfunctioning but it was nothing that couldn't be repaired. Her shoulder-length deep violet hair was a dirty mess and something had torn the side of her flight suit.

Physical injuries aside, the Harrier was still operational. She was determined to get that Teladi's profit.

Rena searched around in space. She noticed the Vanguard - it had slowed down half-way and the shields seemed to flicker over the hull as if they weren't working right. She would have a very limited timespan to fire her last Silkworm- the other two were missing. The worst-case scenario would be that the missile jammed and would remain armed, but not launch.

Still, she rocketed towards the Falcon Vanguard. The engines were having a tough time staying at full speed, so she shut them off, now relying on pure inertia and quick bursts to propel her ship.

Once she got behind the Vanguard again, she restarted the engines. The aft turret had malfunctioned, so she had a clear shot at the rear.

"Wait! Teladi sorry! Do not kill! We can make profit together!"

Fat chance of that happening - the salvage from this ship would just barely pay for the repair to her own. She flicked the switch to fire the missile.

"Silkworm Missile, removed." It was a satisying sight, to hear that, and her heart lifted greatly as she saw the bright blue trail of the missile.

The shields flickered as the missile impacted the engines, a lethal explosion quickly following as the Falcon split in two. Rena couldn't help but let out a wicked laugh as she watched the cargo spill out like a pinata.

The fun was short-lived, a piece of the engine smashed into her ship's nose, spinning her off-course once more and sending her plowing into the bow of the now-ruined Falcon. It promptly exploded, wrecking both hull and shielding of the Harrier and sending it on a collision course with the sector's planet.


To be continued.

[VioletRapture]

Chapter 1



"W-w-w-warning. Enter-r-r-ring atm-m-mosph-phere."

The computer's voice was choppy, due to the extensive electrical and physical damage to the Harrier. It was all but destroyed now, the only things really still working (thank God) were the shield generator and the life support system. But even that was destined to fail once the Harrier started to fall into the atmosphere.

Rena slowly awoke, bruised and cut up by the multiple explosions and jarring caused by the cockpit equipment. Her pale green eyes scanned the area. She was hurtling into the planet's atmosphere - the gravity had already caught her, there would be no getting out now.

There was good news, and bad news. The good news was the planet was only a few thousand kilometers in diameter, so the thin atmosphere would prevent her ship from burning up entirely. The bad news is that the planet was only a few thousand kilometers in diameter, so the thin atmosphere would be difficult to breathe in.

She noticed a small city, a tiny dot on the surface of the ever-growing planet.

"D-d-danger. Ship is ins-inside at-at-at-at-at-"

Rena growled and kicked the Harrier's controls, causing a few hundred sparks. The computer's voice cut off and the cockpit turned red, and her suit's computer activated.

"Interior life support failure in thirty seconds. Please activate suit oxygen cycler."

"Seconds? What the hell is this, a Goner ship? Give me a standard reading."

"Ten sezuras and counting."

Rena's eyes widened and she quickly unhooked the cockpit straps, fitting into her bulky spacesuit in the back.

"Five sezuras."

As she managed to fit on the spacesuit, she could hear an eerie whoosh, and the cockpit began to crack open.

"Life support failure. Altitude is: thirty kilometers. Chance of survival upon ejection: forty percent."

"Damn."

With the remains of a nearby piece of equipment, she beat at the cockpit window until the crack widened and split open. The shattering of the hardened glass was followed by a nasty sucking noise, wind resistance throwing her spacesuit out of her cockpit.

"Now entering free fall."

Rena watched helplessly as the remains of her Harrier Hauler fell to the ground some twenty-five kilometers below. She had never actually had to eject out of a ship in the upper atmosphere, and she didn't think it was very healthy, either. In any case, she needed to figure out something. The jet pack on her suit would only help so much, it was not designed for terrestrial travel.

"Atmospheric output: Twenty four percent oxygen. Seventy five percent nitrogen. Trace amounts of nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon dioxide."

So it was breathable, but still pretty thin. She continued to plummet towards the ground. She hardly had any idea what to do, and the ground was getting bigger, very fast.

"Estimated distance to impact - twenty kilometers."

To be continued...

[philip_hughes]

Nice... I was scared for a minute there that you were just going to write about ship specs and armourments. Nothing wrong with that per se, just theres a lot of that in this forum.

Good that you covered a twist that is different.

[VioletRapture]

Now you understand why we don't put Silkworms on M5's, no matter how tough they are.

[VioletRapture]

Rena awoke spread eagle on the hard, barren ground - the helmet of her space suit had broken open on impact and she had a rather sharp pain in her ribs. Slowly, groggily, she remembered the last sezuras before impact.

"Danger. Five hundred meters to impact."

"Activate jet thrusters."

"That is not recommended in an atmospheric environment."

"Do it anyway!"

The powerful jets fired up, a sudden jolt draining the blood from her head and nearly blacking her out as her speed sharply decreased. But the jets were not suitable for the atmosphere and did not do much good.

"Two fifty meters to impact."

"Ah, damn it."

She tried to brace herself for the impact, spreading her arms and hands out to maximize drag and slow her down as much as possible. But she was still going too fast, in a few sezuras she had hit the ground. Her reflexes told her to roll to the side, but in the bulky spacesuit, she landed like a rock.

Wearily, she tore the space suit off her body and stood up, clutching her ribs in pain. She pulled a small needle and a old-fashioned, magazine-loaded magnetic coil pistol. The needle was chock full of a local anesthetic, which she unceremoniously jammed into her chest and pumped her veins full of the stuff. Soon she could breathe easier, the pain nullified.

The gun's function was ancient - there were about fifteen magnetic projectiles, loaded by a magazine, and a magnetized electric coil that propelled the projectile to supersonic speeds. It was very quiet and accurate, yet the projectiles themselves lacked stopping power and would rather pass straight through.

She stretched slightly and winced, still experiencing pain in a lot of places. She surveyed her surroundings. Barren arid steppe climate, with barely hints of civilization. There was what appeared to be an old path a few meters from her. She would travel along that for a while, she thought.

What she didn't think of was hostiles.

To be continued.