One Roll of the Dice......Chapter Three

[Witchking]

Chapter 1 Click Here

Chapter 2 Click Here




Chapter Three

As he approached the tunnel exit, Geiger shifted the thruster control to neutral, he had no idea what was waiting for him out there and didn’t want to charge out into an ambush. He glanced at his scanner, but noise and interference made it next to useless. He reached out to move the control forward but as he did so a pyramid shaped shadow passed barely 50 metres in front of him. He froze as the enemy M3 and it’s attendant wing of M5’s passed, like a shoal of predatory fish and disappeared into the swirling clouds. After a while Geiger realised he was still holding his breath and released it hissing through his teeth.

That had been so close, if they had been a couple of stazuras later, he would have flown right out in front of them. Indecision momentarily gripped him, should he stay or should he go. The old fighter pilot instinct re-instated itself and he slammed the thrusters to max, his engines roared, briefly illuminating the veins of ore running through the asteroid. As soon as he cleared the rock, he turned the Falcon roughly in the direction of the north Gate and hit the afterburner. This was no time for caution, if this was his tazura to die then so be it, bring it on, he’d had enough of hiding.

The sudden onset of gravity forced him back into his seat as the clouds whipped past him, thrust from his engines tearing them to shreds, leaving them swirling in crazed spirals behind the ship. His eyes flicked to the readouts 294.6m/s, at this speed he have no chance to avoid an asteroid if one was in his path. For an instant he thought he caught a glimpse of a Khaak ship just off to port but no sooner had it registered then it was gone, like a ghost lost in the mist. Sweat ran freely into his eyes, he tried to swallow but his mouth was as dry as a desert. Without even realising he was doing it he mouthed a prayer to the ancient gods of the Goners, yeah so most people believed the Goners were mad, but what was the saying “There’s no unbelievers in an asteroid field”.

Event Horizon was shaking badly as it entered a debris field, the remnants of a catastrophic collision. Rocks, some the size of small vessels peppered the shield grid causing the computer to intone “Shields 60% …..”. ….”Shields 50%….”. The vibration increased in intensity and just as it reached the point where he was sure the ship was on the brink of shaking itself to pieces, he was clear, the clouds parted and starlight once again filled the cockpit. “The Gate, where’s the damn Gate”, there it was off to starboard. Geiger hauled on the control column and turned the ship towards it.

In the rear monitor the nebula seemed to erupt in multiple places as the Khaak ships punched through the clouds and swung as one, in his direction. Purple beams lit the space behind the Falcon, sweeping and reaching towards him, like the antenna of insects. He tore his eyes away from the Gate which was now filling his forward view and glanced at the afterburner readout 10 mizuras….9 mizuras…..8.

An explosion rocked the ship as a Kyon beam glanced off one of his engines ….”Shields Critical” The starboard thrust readout plummeted, the sudden shutdown causing a regulator to disintegrate, parts smashing through the nacelle plating as the trail of debris arced away from the ship. The shuddering increased as torque from the port engine tried to force the ship into a circular trajectory. Geiger leaned his entire weight against the column to keep the ship centred on the fast approaching Gate 4 mizuras….3 mizuras…2, then without warning and with the gentlest of tugs the Gate reached out for him and he was in the warp field……safe….for now.

Home of Light, what a wonderful sight. Geiger smiled ruefully to himself as the Gates speed control disengaged and he pushed the throttle forward. His top speed was now hovering around 58m/s and he wanted to get out of the main shipping lanes as quickly as possible, in case a TL decided to jump in behind him. After all he’d just been through, surely fate had better plans for him then to end up as an inconspicuous stain on the hull of a Hercules but he was taking no chances.

He glanced apprehensively at the rear monitor. So far all reported encounters with the Khaak, suggested that for some unknown reason, they did not pursue ships through gates, that in itself should have been comforting, if it wasn’t for the fact that the vast majority of ships who ran into the Khaak, didn’t survive to make a report.

A Manta glided effortlessly past, Geiger tried unsuccessfully to ignore, the laughing faces of the children looking at him through the view ports. It was a dream to have a Manta of his own one day and watch the credits roll in from those “Tour of a Lifetime” jobs he seemed to see on every other BBS. Bringing up the sector map, he targeted TerraCorp Hq, at 160km distance it was gonna take a while to get there so he tried to relax and enjoy the company of having shipping passing to and fro around him as well as the knowledge that the local sector patrol, 2 Argon Centaurs were now in position between him and the Gate behind.

After what seemed like an age, he finally came within comm distance of the station, he even managed to smile at the docking controllers post scan humour when he suggested that Geiger couldn’t dock cos they didn’t have five or six docking bays available for him park his ship. The relief that flooded through him when the docking lights turned green and the outer doors slid open was immense. He wasn’t sure, as he glided into the docking tunnel, what was holding his ship together but he was fairly sure it wasn’t much. For the third time, this tazura he found himself holding his breath as Event Horizon reached her berth and the maintenance droids hooked the ship up the stations computer network.

As anyone who has ever worked the docking level of a station will tell you, it is the one place where real honest work is done. A place inhabited by those with the grime of honest toil beneath their fingernails…or claws, depending on the species. Of course, this is a load of Argnu shit, people here will screw you or stick a shiv in your back as quick as anyone else, but it sounds good to the unwary and they don’t last long enough to figure that out for themselves.

As Geiger stood at the access tunnel entrance and looked up and down the D/L’s main thoroughfare the first thing that struck him was the smell, a potent mix of oil, grease, ore, sweat and whiskey. The raw ingredients of life for those not fortunate enough to live in the levels above.

[ched]

great story mate

going to get myself a falcon in my game

[Sagan]

It's as good here as when I read it on TMG...

Great Stuff

[Howlingmad]

It's as good here as when I read it on TMG...

Great Stuff

What he said.