There may be a few errors in there that make you guys go WTF but you know how it is with second language hehe My excuse anyway.
Enjoy.
‘Shields failing. Hull integrity critical.’
‘Hull breaches in upper quarters.’
‘APPC destroyed. Hull 7%.’
The impartial voice of the onboard computer kept announcing what everybody had already realised. This ship was on the brink of becoming a mini super nova.
Everybody? Val looked around. It appeared as though she was the only one left alive on the ship, there were no steps, no screaming, nothing. And should she not manage to open the airlock anytime soon she’d be dead, too.
The automatic opening mechanism was long gone. With all her strength Val pulled the lever and finally it opened. The EVA suit only had oxygen for 2 stazuras, hardly enough to make it to the nearest station. However, if the Split saw her she’d be history anyway.
Val pushed herself off the ship and drifted towards the near asteroid. Not too soon did she manage to hide behind it when the Dragonfire exploded. The destruction of the flagship corvette signalled the end of the Dragon clan. The Split had finally had enough and destroyed the clan that had paid for a quarter of their military budget. Why? Val did not know. At this point in time she did not even care. She needed to get out of here, if possible without the enemy pilots noticing her.
In her current position she was safe, the mass of the asteroid made Val invisible to their gravidar. Due to her limited oxygen, however, she could not remain hiding for too long. Her heartbeat slowly returning to normal, Val looked around. Debris of small and medium fighters, crates of missiles and energy cells, nothing really useful at this point in time. While carefully drifting around the asteroid she saw an opening. Slowly Val manoeuvred into the rock. The tunnel was not very wide and only short. Approaching the other end she could see the Split heavy fighters and corvettes move away, most of them damaged to some degree. It appeared as though they did not bother salvaging the debris.
There was nothing left of the Dragonfire, the explosion of the propulsion system must have dispersed it in small particles over a huge distance. In some distance Val suddenly saw a faint reflection. There it was again! She could not imagine it but should there be a ship stranded without power and left behind by the Split?
Carefully Val left the shelter of the asteroid. She estimated the distance to be approximately 2 km. It’d take her some time to get to the source of that reflection.
Half the distance lay behind her and now Val thought she could distinguish square shapes. After further painfully slow passing 30 mizuras she reached her destination. To Val’s pleasure and surprise she found a battered Split M5. The small insignia on the wings indicated that this was Jag’th, the black scout ship that was docked to the Dragonfire. How did it survive the explosion? The docking clamps must have released it beforehand. No other explanation was possible.
Val slowly approached the air lock. After tapping in the code the lock opened with a hiss. Her heart jumped. From the outside the ship was not exactly in pristine conditions, but if she were lucky it would still have enough power to start up and take her out of Split territory. The air lock closed behind her and a look at the instruments indicated breathable atmosphere. Relieved Val removed the helmet and stepped out of her suit. The ships systems had to be operating as temperature and gravity were at normal levels.
After a quick look around she stepped through the door into the cockpit. A brief scan of the sector did show no ships nearby, a least not in range of the Duplex scanner. The cargo bay was almost empty so there was room for the loot.
Val switched the ship to main power and started all systems. The readout showed 91% hull integrity and all shields and weapons operational. If she did not make any stupid mistakes then this ship would be her ticket to freedom.
Quickly Val gathered all the loot she found and plotted a course that would take her outside main scanner range towards the south gate. At maximum possible speed she should get there in seven stazuras.
Only now Val realised that she had not actually taken the time to look around, let alone search the ship for food and useful items. She was starving and tired. Sleep had to wait.
“Computer, is there any food aboard this ship?”
“There are rations for 20 tazuras in the cargo bay. Your current state of fatigue implies that they will only last 18 tazuras. The nearest station outside Split territory is located in Company Pride. It will take approximately 2 tazuras to get there.”
How..? The computer voice was identical with that of the Dragonfire. Not only this, it obviously also was of a higher intelligence rating than normal ship computers. Val did not even have to instruct it to calculate an eta.
“Arox?”
“Yes, this is my identification.”
“It is great to hear your voice! How did you get onboard this ship? I was not aware you were loaded on both ships computers.”
“Two mizuras prior to the destruction of the Dragonfire I established a link to this ship and initiated an emergency release after uploading myself.”
“Why did the Split not destroy this ship?”
“They could not see it.”
“How is that possible?”
“I scrambled the signal so their scanners cannot identify it.”
“Does that mean we are practically invisible right now?”
“No, the signal is too strong with main power switched on. We can, however hide when the ship runs on auxiliary power. It will reduce the possible velocity to 210 clicks and shields will be offline.”
“Does this only work with scout ships or also with bigger ones?”
“The system has only been tested with this ships but has potential to work with larger ships.”
“Who developed it? I was not aware any of our people did?”
“The initial plans have been obtained by a raid of a Boron freighter in Nopileos’ Memorial. Sor t’Nkr completed the work two mazuras ago.”
“Sor?” This name she was familiar with. He had mentored her over countless tazuras. Her programming expertise was the result of his patient efforts. “Where is he now? He was not aboard the Dragonfire!”
“I have no information regarding his current location.”
Val took a deep breath. This was just amazing. Not only did she survive the destruction of the Dragon clan, she also managed to take possession of a ship with an AI that was smart enough to safe itself from certain destruction. That is, if the computer allowed her to do so.
“Arox, can you tell me who the owner of this ship is.”
“This ship now belongs to you. Previous owner was Cho t’Krk, leader of the Dragon clan.”
A thought shot through her mind. “Now, you can scramble signals, can you also improve scanner resolution?”
“Positive.”
“Can you by any chance increase the scanner range of our Duplex scanner? I’d hate to be surprised by more Split fighters.”
“I have already increased the range to its maximum. We are, however, still short of that of a Triplex scanner by 7%.”
“Hmpf. Let’s hope we are lucky.”
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