A droplet of sweat dripped over my eye and trickled down one side of my nose. I had stepped up the suit’s fans to maximum but I still felt like a baked soja bean. We had stopped just short of the gate, only just out of scanner range of the Split ships but within clear vision of them. I just hoped they did not see us before the right moment. The Dragon had made three circles of the gate and I had a faint idea of the route she was following. My thumb anxiously hovered above the launch missile key on the top of the control stick. Just a little further…..
“NOW!” I yelled down the comm. I hit the launch button once and a jet of flame flared out of my port tube as the first Hornet rocketed away. To my right I saw Reaper jet off into the cloud towards the gate. Her four Beta Particle Accelerator Cannons burst out purple globules of light at the nearest Mamba. I hit the fire button again and the second Hornet burst from my starboard tube. I watched for a second at the two missiles receding into the distance. Come on, I urged them, come on! As I watched the missiles head for the Split M6, the subconscious part of my mind noticed the Dragon stir and a faint red glow flutter around the engines. My eyes burned out into the monitor that showed the first missile. The red blur raced at a tremendous speed toward the Dragon. Then I noticed that the Dragon was now facing the oncoming missile directly. My heart jumped up into my throat and I tried to swallow it back down again. The Hornet was so close. The Dragon began to fly toward me. So close, the Hornet was only Sezuras away. The eerie orange glow glinted off the Dragon’s carapace. The Missile only meters off impact. Suddenly, the Dragon took a steep nosedive and the top turrets opened fire. Green plasma from the dorsal GHEPTs ripped into the first Hornet missile and completely obliterated the warhead. A huge explosion rocked the nebula as the warhead exploded and gamma radiation spewed out in all directions. “NO” I yelled, taking my hands off the controls and banging my helmet with such a force it moved back an inch and my nose was painfully squashed against the faceplate. “Jo it’s failed, the first missile didn’t make impact, disengage and get the hell out of here, I said DISENGAGE!”
After a crackle of static, Jo replied. “I cant disengage, if I deviate one inch this guy will tear me to pieces!”
I looked on at the battle before me. Reaper was surrounded by all five Mambas and she didn’t have much time. I hit the throttle and boosted Nova’s engines up to maximum, I was so fixed on saving Jo that I completely forgot about the second Hornet. A huge flash momentarily blinded me. The Dragon had failed to avoid the second warhead and it had punched straight into her aft shields as she turned to home in on me…
Mystery of the Scorpion
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KiwiNZ
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RSDark_Angel
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The second Hornet missile had impacted in the small space in between the engines of the Dragon; the weakest point. I looked at the M6’s schematics on my hostiles computer and saw that the Hornet had done the job, the Dragon’s shields were gone, but for how long? I turned Alpha 1 around to face the oncoming Dragon. Careful to avoid the angry Alpha PPC fire that headed my way, I spun Alpha 1 in a barrel role, still flying toward the Dragon, and unleashed a barrage of High Energy Plasma straight at the Split vessel’s nose. The Dragon turned hard to port to avoid my onslaught and I saw my plasma bolts strafe the side of the ship, leaving a neat set of black scars running up the length of the front end. I jolted the control stick to starboard to avoid a collision but I was too slow, My right gun casing grated along the length of the Split Dragon. I heard the rendering of the tortured metal as the casing was torn free, leaving the BHEPT exposed. I checked the vital systems for my port gun, all in the green, no system damage, just the whole protection casing ripped free. I spud Alpha 1 around and got in behind the Dragon. The twin GHEPTs of the rear battery pounded my shields relentlessly and I was forced to pull away before I could even get a shot in.
My comm. unit crackled to life, making me jump. “Joules, HELP!!” It was Jo. She was in mega trouble. I looked at the data stream coming in from Reaper. Damn, shields were down and her hull was at 78%. I took another look at the Dragon, now coasting by me not firing a single shot, I must have been in its blind spot. Still, it was a stalemate as I couldn’t get a shot in from this angle either. If I left to help Jo, the Dragon’s shields would surely reactivate, but if I stayed on the Dragon, Jo wouldn’t last long. Damn, either way we were both toast. I disengaged the Dragon and spun over to Jo. Surprisingly, the skirmish between me and the Dragon had taken us into the combat with Jo and the Mambas. A Mamba fell into my view as it swept around for another attack on Reaper. I instinctively opened fire and saw my green bolts of Plasma melt the shields away and hit the starboard wing. The wing disintegrated in a flash of molten metal. The disabled Mamba drifted bizarrely with its starboard wing a melted stump. I opened fire once more and this time hit the cockpit. What was left of the Mamba exploded directly in front of me, causing me to swerve through the small cluster of debris it had left behind. Small scraps of metal bounced off my tinted screen as I flew through the wreck.
Then Reaper came into view. The Bayamon had suffered heavy damage to its lower arm and where there should have been a Beta PAC there was now a deformed stump.
“Joules, I can’t hold on much longer, she’s breaking up!” Jo screamed in terror.
“I thought you said you had been through worse” I said humorlessly as I dropped in behind the Mamba hugging onto Reapers tail. I opened fire and the Mamba was forced to dive as its shields died and white hot plasma raked the hull. I pulled hard on the control stick, performing a whole loop and found myself back behind the Dragon once again. Who had been hot on my tail as I flew to assist Jo. To my horror, I saw that the shields were back up and climbing. If I didn’t act soon, there would be no way to take down the shields again…
My comm. unit crackled to life, making me jump. “Joules, HELP!!” It was Jo. She was in mega trouble. I looked at the data stream coming in from Reaper. Damn, shields were down and her hull was at 78%. I took another look at the Dragon, now coasting by me not firing a single shot, I must have been in its blind spot. Still, it was a stalemate as I couldn’t get a shot in from this angle either. If I left to help Jo, the Dragon’s shields would surely reactivate, but if I stayed on the Dragon, Jo wouldn’t last long. Damn, either way we were both toast. I disengaged the Dragon and spun over to Jo. Surprisingly, the skirmish between me and the Dragon had taken us into the combat with Jo and the Mambas. A Mamba fell into my view as it swept around for another attack on Reaper. I instinctively opened fire and saw my green bolts of Plasma melt the shields away and hit the starboard wing. The wing disintegrated in a flash of molten metal. The disabled Mamba drifted bizarrely with its starboard wing a melted stump. I opened fire once more and this time hit the cockpit. What was left of the Mamba exploded directly in front of me, causing me to swerve through the small cluster of debris it had left behind. Small scraps of metal bounced off my tinted screen as I flew through the wreck.
Then Reaper came into view. The Bayamon had suffered heavy damage to its lower arm and where there should have been a Beta PAC there was now a deformed stump.
“Joules, I can’t hold on much longer, she’s breaking up!” Jo screamed in terror.
“I thought you said you had been through worse” I said humorlessly as I dropped in behind the Mamba hugging onto Reapers tail. I opened fire and the Mamba was forced to dive as its shields died and white hot plasma raked the hull. I pulled hard on the control stick, performing a whole loop and found myself back behind the Dragon once again. Who had been hot on my tail as I flew to assist Jo. To my horror, I saw that the shields were back up and climbing. If I didn’t act soon, there would be no way to take down the shields again…
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KiwiNZ
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RSDark_Angel
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I fired off a volley at the Dragon, but the plasma simply rippled the Dragon’s rapidly ascending shields. I gritted my teeth as I spun Alpha 1 away and brought her round for another attack run. The Dragon began to fly around in a wide arc to try and give her dorsal turrets a clear shot at me. I tugged the Strafe Drive lever and maneuvered Alpha 1 back into the Dragon’s blind spot. I was thinking fast. What could I do to stop this thing? This was one of those moments where I wished I was sat in the command chair of the GSS Logos, my personal Centaur that I traveled in most of the time.
Alpha one’s shields began to fluctuate; the Dragon’s superior speed had moved it away and I was no longer safe from its batteries. A barrage of Gamma scale plasma rocked my Nova as they impacted on my Port shielding. The cockpit was momentarily filled with green flashes before I took a nosedive away from the stream of death. Alpha ones shields and weapon energy were low. I looked at my rear monitor to find out that the Dragon was diving after me. This is it, I thought as the Dragon leveled out and its forward Alpha PPC opened fire. I grinded my teeth together, sweat dripping off the end of my nose. I took Alpha 1 into a spin, successfully avoiding most of the fire from the PPC but taking two or three shots. There was a fizz and a crackle from behind me and a shower of sparks cascaded over me onto the console in front. I twisted in my helmet to take a look at the damage. The rear turret was a smoldering wreck, the GIRE was gone and the view port cracked and charred jet black. The control unit must have overloaded inside the turret compartment, causing the shower of sparks as I could not see any breeches in the glass and when I turned back to the schematics screen, there was no pressure drop in the turret compartment. Even though the inside of the Nova was pressurized, I always flew with my space suit on because you never knew what to expect, and if the hull had been breeched, I would have exploded in a messy shower of blood and gore. I silently praised the Argon Shipwrights in Omicron Lyrae for building damn good ships and Jo for sealing my suit correctly.
I pulled away from the Dragon’s line of fire and headed back up to the gate. As I manipulated the controls, the elbow of my suit caught a switch to my left and the onboard computer chimed
“WARNING, BETA HIGH ENERGY PLASMA THROWER, REMOVED.” I cursed under my breath and turned to flick the switch to reinstall the gun. However a series of blinking icons caught my attention. They were the symbols for the other guns on board. The icon for the recently uninstalled BHEPT blinked next to an Ion Disrupter and a Mass Driver. It was the Mass Driver that caught my attention. I pulled up Alpha one’s freight bay inventory. I had 42 rounds for the Driver stored in my cargo hold. I knew that the Mass Driver ignored shields, but given past experiences, they had only proved useful when engaging M5s or M4s. I thought about it for a while and then installed the Mass Driver into my Port gun placement. Hell, I thought, it was our best hope given the situation.
Reaper seemed to be pulling out of her near death situation now that one Mamba was down and another damaged. Her shields were back up to 25% and the hull was now at 71%. I opened the comm. unit and spoke to Jo.
“Jo, the Dragon’s shields are back up, but I have an idea.”
“Great, anything, just hurry” She sounded tired, drained of all her energy “Oh and I’m fine by the way!” I had to grin. The poor girl was probably frightened to death. It took a lot of guts to fly a suicidal mission against five M3s and an M6 in a Pirate Bayamon! I can’t even remember the last time I was in a fight quite like this!
I flew Alpha 1 around in a wide semi-circle to face the Dragon once again. With renewed hope I throttled up to maximum and flew directly at the Split M6’s starboard side. I opened fire with the Mass Driver and my other BHEPT. The plasma punched into the Dragon’s shields, causing them to ripple once more. But I saw the tiny dots of the Mass Driver rounds on the surface of the Dragon’s armor plating. Yes, the weapon penetrated the shields, but the damage it caused, well, merely scratched the paintwork. I narrowed my eyes and spun Alpha 1 away to the right, pulling back round to my left and halting behind the Dragon. I targeted the engines and opened fire. The weapons blazed away once more. After the two sezuras it took for me to fire, the shots hit the Split ship once again, the plasma simply bouncing off the shields and the Driver rounds hitting the starboard engine covering. This time however, I saw a small burst of gas as some piping along the engine was hit and its contents spewed out into space. I turned slightly and targeted the aft turret control section. The rounds smashed the plasteel window and the pane shattered as the bullets weakened the structure and the air inside the cabin escaped in a single rush of wind. I saw the Split occupant expand and blow up, making me heave inside my helmet. Fortunately, I managed to keep the contents of my stomach where they were and twisted the control stick to the left, sending Alpha 1 away from the rear of the ship. I looked once again at the inventory and saw that I only had 14 rounds left. The Picture of the expanding Split in my head gave me an idea. I throttled up and spun around to the port side of the Dragon. My Nova at full throttle was flying past the Dragon at twice the former speed. I must have damaged and a power conduit when I shot the starboard engine. I shot past the Dragon and flew ahead another few kilometers. I then turned the ship around and found myself looking at the face of the oncoming Dragon. The red U shaped screen at the front of the M6 leered as the damaged ship limped toward me. I took in a lungful of the sweaty air inside my helmet and powered up to full speed. The Dragon was now flying at the fastest speed her injured engines could manage. By now both ships were flying straight for each other, a Split Dragon and an Argon Nova in an insane game of chicken. My breath grew shorter, my heart pumped faster, sweat poured down my face, steaming up my visor. I squinted to see through the glass of my visor as we drew nearer. My finger tightened on the trigger, my other hand gripped the throttle control. We drew closer and closer. I took a final aim at the Dragon, shut my eyes tight and pulled the trigger…
Alpha one’s shields began to fluctuate; the Dragon’s superior speed had moved it away and I was no longer safe from its batteries. A barrage of Gamma scale plasma rocked my Nova as they impacted on my Port shielding. The cockpit was momentarily filled with green flashes before I took a nosedive away from the stream of death. Alpha ones shields and weapon energy were low. I looked at my rear monitor to find out that the Dragon was diving after me. This is it, I thought as the Dragon leveled out and its forward Alpha PPC opened fire. I grinded my teeth together, sweat dripping off the end of my nose. I took Alpha 1 into a spin, successfully avoiding most of the fire from the PPC but taking two or three shots. There was a fizz and a crackle from behind me and a shower of sparks cascaded over me onto the console in front. I twisted in my helmet to take a look at the damage. The rear turret was a smoldering wreck, the GIRE was gone and the view port cracked and charred jet black. The control unit must have overloaded inside the turret compartment, causing the shower of sparks as I could not see any breeches in the glass and when I turned back to the schematics screen, there was no pressure drop in the turret compartment. Even though the inside of the Nova was pressurized, I always flew with my space suit on because you never knew what to expect, and if the hull had been breeched, I would have exploded in a messy shower of blood and gore. I silently praised the Argon Shipwrights in Omicron Lyrae for building damn good ships and Jo for sealing my suit correctly.
I pulled away from the Dragon’s line of fire and headed back up to the gate. As I manipulated the controls, the elbow of my suit caught a switch to my left and the onboard computer chimed
“WARNING, BETA HIGH ENERGY PLASMA THROWER, REMOVED.” I cursed under my breath and turned to flick the switch to reinstall the gun. However a series of blinking icons caught my attention. They were the symbols for the other guns on board. The icon for the recently uninstalled BHEPT blinked next to an Ion Disrupter and a Mass Driver. It was the Mass Driver that caught my attention. I pulled up Alpha one’s freight bay inventory. I had 42 rounds for the Driver stored in my cargo hold. I knew that the Mass Driver ignored shields, but given past experiences, they had only proved useful when engaging M5s or M4s. I thought about it for a while and then installed the Mass Driver into my Port gun placement. Hell, I thought, it was our best hope given the situation.
Reaper seemed to be pulling out of her near death situation now that one Mamba was down and another damaged. Her shields were back up to 25% and the hull was now at 71%. I opened the comm. unit and spoke to Jo.
“Jo, the Dragon’s shields are back up, but I have an idea.”
“Great, anything, just hurry” She sounded tired, drained of all her energy “Oh and I’m fine by the way!” I had to grin. The poor girl was probably frightened to death. It took a lot of guts to fly a suicidal mission against five M3s and an M6 in a Pirate Bayamon! I can’t even remember the last time I was in a fight quite like this!
I flew Alpha 1 around in a wide semi-circle to face the Dragon once again. With renewed hope I throttled up to maximum and flew directly at the Split M6’s starboard side. I opened fire with the Mass Driver and my other BHEPT. The plasma punched into the Dragon’s shields, causing them to ripple once more. But I saw the tiny dots of the Mass Driver rounds on the surface of the Dragon’s armor plating. Yes, the weapon penetrated the shields, but the damage it caused, well, merely scratched the paintwork. I narrowed my eyes and spun Alpha 1 away to the right, pulling back round to my left and halting behind the Dragon. I targeted the engines and opened fire. The weapons blazed away once more. After the two sezuras it took for me to fire, the shots hit the Split ship once again, the plasma simply bouncing off the shields and the Driver rounds hitting the starboard engine covering. This time however, I saw a small burst of gas as some piping along the engine was hit and its contents spewed out into space. I turned slightly and targeted the aft turret control section. The rounds smashed the plasteel window and the pane shattered as the bullets weakened the structure and the air inside the cabin escaped in a single rush of wind. I saw the Split occupant expand and blow up, making me heave inside my helmet. Fortunately, I managed to keep the contents of my stomach where they were and twisted the control stick to the left, sending Alpha 1 away from the rear of the ship. I looked once again at the inventory and saw that I only had 14 rounds left. The Picture of the expanding Split in my head gave me an idea. I throttled up and spun around to the port side of the Dragon. My Nova at full throttle was flying past the Dragon at twice the former speed. I must have damaged and a power conduit when I shot the starboard engine. I shot past the Dragon and flew ahead another few kilometers. I then turned the ship around and found myself looking at the face of the oncoming Dragon. The red U shaped screen at the front of the M6 leered as the damaged ship limped toward me. I took in a lungful of the sweaty air inside my helmet and powered up to full speed. The Dragon was now flying at the fastest speed her injured engines could manage. By now both ships were flying straight for each other, a Split Dragon and an Argon Nova in an insane game of chicken. My breath grew shorter, my heart pumped faster, sweat poured down my face, steaming up my visor. I squinted to see through the glass of my visor as we drew nearer. My finger tightened on the trigger, my other hand gripped the throttle control. We drew closer and closer. I took a final aim at the Dragon, shut my eyes tight and pulled the trigger…
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KiwiNZ
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bladeuk
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RSDark_Angel
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RSDark_Angel
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I held my finger on the trigger until I heard the rattle of the Mass Driver cease and then yanked the control stick upward to avoid collision. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but the orange mists of the cloud swirling before me. I tugged back on the throttle control and twisted the control column hard to starboard to try and see the Dragon. There she was, continuing on her daring chicken run as if I were still there. I boosted up my engines and chased the Dragon, which by now had passed my former position and was plowing on through the mist. As I reached her, I expected a hail of fire lay into me from the dorsal battery, but it remained dormant. I slowed down enough to run parallel with the Dragon. I leaned forward in my seat and pressed my face against my damp helmet visor to try and catch a glimpse of the front of the Dragon. This was a huge strain even with the aid of the suits servo-motors. I managed a quick look at the front end of the Dragon and flopped back into my chair in relief. The U shaped window across the front was shattered. Only jagged sections of plasteel remained in the corners. The crew must have asphyxiated when their breathable air had been sucked through the open gash. My plan had worked; the Mass Driver had done its job of smashing the front window and killing the crew.
An image of Jo suddenly popped into my head and I spun Alpha 1 away from the Dragon and headed back to the gate. Reaper was still hanging in there. Jo had managed to take down the damaged Split Mamba, but three M3’s on an M4 did not sound like my idea of fun. I flicked the switch that uninstalled the now useless Mass Driver and reinstalled my Beta High Energy Plasma Thrower and targeted the nearest Mamba. Right, I thought to myself, time to end this.
An image of Jo suddenly popped into my head and I spun Alpha 1 away from the Dragon and headed back to the gate. Reaper was still hanging in there. Jo had managed to take down the damaged Split Mamba, but three M3’s on an M4 did not sound like my idea of fun. I flicked the switch that uninstalled the now useless Mass Driver and reinstalled my Beta High Energy Plasma Thrower and targeted the nearest Mamba. Right, I thought to myself, time to end this.
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The Zig
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RSDark_Angel
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The Mamba tore apart at the hands of my vengeful plasma throwers. The explosion flared bright in my cockpit, blinding me for a sezura. The debris flew in all directions. I swerved Alpha 1 to avoid any of the large chunks. I cut the engines and sent Alpha 1 into a barrel role, avoiding the fire from the second Mamba hot on my tail. Suddenly pulling up on the control stick, I pushed the throttle lever to maximum and pulled up, away from the Mamba. But the Split pilot anticipated my move and pulled up earlier. I heard the shields screech as Alpha plasma fire bore into them. I twisted the control stick to port and spun out of the way, putting Alpha 1 into yet another spin. The Mamba came up below me this time and I narrowly missed a Dragonfly missile as it thundered out of the Mamba’s tube. Holy Frak, I thought to myself, these pilots must be desperate, firing missiles at point blank. If that missile had hit me, the Mamba would surely have gone up as well. I manipulated the control stick, skillfully weaving Alpha 1 in and out of the Mamba’s fire. I dived down and circled around underneath the Mamba. This time it was not fast enough and as I came up behind it I opened fire. The volley of Plasma ripped into the back of the Mamba, draining the shields and obliterating the cockpit. The burnt remains of the starboard and port wings drifted idly mixed in with the smaller chunks of charred hull.
I targeted the last Mamba, turned toward her, and saw her break apart under the fire from Jo’s three remaining Beta PACs. Reaper spun through the debris and her engines slowed down until their red glow had died away completely. I flew toward Reaper and pulled up along side her.
“Well” I said down the comm. link. “That was fun”
“If you call that fun then you truly are mad” Jo replied, sounding exhausted. “It might be ok for you mister company owner. Your loaded, what about me, how am I going to pay for the repairs on Reaper?”
“What? You’re a Captain for Fraks sake! That’s one of the highest payed jobs GSS offers! I see you kitting yourself out with a nice new Teladi Vulture complete with mining equipment and Ore collector and here you are saying you cant afford some repairs and a new PAC?!?!?”
Jo’s voice sounded a little sheepish “Erm, well yeah, I suppose I could…”
“Oh, I’m sure Gardna Space Systems could dig up some spare cash if that’s what you want!” I said with a stupid grin plastered across my face. Thankfully, no one could have seen me anyway. I fell silent. We both did. I don’t know what she was thinking at that moment but I was thanking whatever gods there were that she was alive and well. I had known Jo for a very long time; she was a good friend to me. But I had never before felt like this about her. Oh of course, I have always found her attractive. I remember my feelings toward Saya Kho, oh boy I do! But they were just male hormones, and that was about 8 Yazuras ago now, and nothing like what I was feeling for Jo Rider now. Images of her smiling, biting her lip, laughing, all sorts of stuff like that. Was Julian Gardna experiencing something more than sexual desire? I kidded myself for it. Don’t be so stupid, I though to myself, now is hardly the time anyway.
“Look at your property in this sector.” Jo said, bringing me back to reality. I did as she said and saw Alpha 1 next to Reaper. Thankfully, Helios and Prometheus were still kicking. Samarkand was not on the screen. Probably sat on the other side of the Ministry of Finance gate. But there was another ship on the system map that was defiantly not there the last time I looked. Written in the friendly green of personally owned ships were the words: Dragon of Family Rhy Rattlesnake
The Split Dragon had locked onto Alpha 1’s signature during the combat and transferred its information and legal electronic documents over to GSS. The M6’s onboard computer had acknowledged the deliration of capturing ships act and I now owned a battered, battle weary Split Dragon…
I targeted the last Mamba, turned toward her, and saw her break apart under the fire from Jo’s three remaining Beta PACs. Reaper spun through the debris and her engines slowed down until their red glow had died away completely. I flew toward Reaper and pulled up along side her.
“Well” I said down the comm. link. “That was fun”
“If you call that fun then you truly are mad” Jo replied, sounding exhausted. “It might be ok for you mister company owner. Your loaded, what about me, how am I going to pay for the repairs on Reaper?”
“What? You’re a Captain for Fraks sake! That’s one of the highest payed jobs GSS offers! I see you kitting yourself out with a nice new Teladi Vulture complete with mining equipment and Ore collector and here you are saying you cant afford some repairs and a new PAC?!?!?”
Jo’s voice sounded a little sheepish “Erm, well yeah, I suppose I could…”
“Oh, I’m sure Gardna Space Systems could dig up some spare cash if that’s what you want!” I said with a stupid grin plastered across my face. Thankfully, no one could have seen me anyway. I fell silent. We both did. I don’t know what she was thinking at that moment but I was thanking whatever gods there were that she was alive and well. I had known Jo for a very long time; she was a good friend to me. But I had never before felt like this about her. Oh of course, I have always found her attractive. I remember my feelings toward Saya Kho, oh boy I do! But they were just male hormones, and that was about 8 Yazuras ago now, and nothing like what I was feeling for Jo Rider now. Images of her smiling, biting her lip, laughing, all sorts of stuff like that. Was Julian Gardna experiencing something more than sexual desire? I kidded myself for it. Don’t be so stupid, I though to myself, now is hardly the time anyway.
“Look at your property in this sector.” Jo said, bringing me back to reality. I did as she said and saw Alpha 1 next to Reaper. Thankfully, Helios and Prometheus were still kicking. Samarkand was not on the screen. Probably sat on the other side of the Ministry of Finance gate. But there was another ship on the system map that was defiantly not there the last time I looked. Written in the friendly green of personally owned ships were the words: Dragon of Family Rhy Rattlesnake
The Split Dragon had locked onto Alpha 1’s signature during the combat and transferred its information and legal electronic documents over to GSS. The M6’s onboard computer had acknowledged the deliration of capturing ships act and I now owned a battered, battle weary Split Dragon…
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KiwiNZ
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RSDark_Angel
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Spin off story
Hi, I'm mister Dragonfly missile. I was once loaded into a Split Mambas rocket tube. I was fired during the fight with Julian Gardna, Unfortunately I completely missed my target and hit a poor unsuspecting Spacefly
My death went unnoticed by the viewers bacause they were too busy with the actual fight.
The End.
Hi, I'm mister Dragonfly missile. I was once loaded into a Split Mambas rocket tube. I was fired during the fight with Julian Gardna, Unfortunately I completely missed my target and hit a poor unsuspecting Spacefly
My death went unnoticed by the viewers bacause they were too busy with the actual fight.
The End.
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RSDark_Angel
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Sat, 25. Jun 05, 12:33
I throttled down as we reached the Dragon. Reaper stopped just off her port bow; I stopped just off her starboard. The fuel tanks must have been exhausted because she was now flying at about 20 kpm. I called up her command console and ordered the engines to stop. Opening a comm. channel to Jo I said: “I’m going over”
“I’ll come with you” she replied. “Might as well have someone watching your back in case there were any Split smart enough to get into their suits before you took out the screen.”
“Cant argue with you there, make sure your armed” I told her, no sense in getting blasted apart by a survivor.
I unclipped myself from the safety harness, which was stretched to its limit because of my bulky space suit. That familiar feeling of weightlessness came over me as I floated out of my chair. It made some men feel ill, but to me it just felt normal. I grabbed the aid rail next to the control chair and swung myself over the back of the seat. Well, I didn’t really swing over, more like coasted over. I grabbed the Blaster Carbine from its rack on the back wall that separated the cockpit from the turret compartment and tugged on the lever for the hatch. The double door hatch opened silently outwards. In any other M3, there would have been a circular hatch behind the cockpit, but because of the turret, the hatch was in the small floor space in between the control section and the turret section. The armored doors were as thick as the hull and they carried the coolant pipes and other necessary electric cables through them just like the rest of the hull. I pulled the small propellant attachment off its rack opposite from where I had taken the carbine and attached it to the connection points on my suits backpack. I hit the activate switch and the control arms turned on their hinges upward ninety degrees to they were comfortably where I could manipulate them. I flicked another switch and the small panels at the ends of the arms slid back, revealing a network of controls. A tiny control stick that was no taller than my thumb rose from the end of my right control arm. I took hold of it and rested the four fingers of my left hand on the control pad of the left extension arm. I took one step forward and kicked the bulkhead so I spun upside down. With another kick at the ceiling, I was floating out of the hatch and away from Alpha 1. I activated the controls on the left control arm and the propellant unit’s maneuvering thrusters burst to life. They automatically corrected my sudden movement and I hung in space for a moment, taking in the surroundings. Even though my visor was tinted like Alpha one’s screen, the nebula seemed more orange when actually outside. I operated the controls until I was looking directly up at the underbelly of Alpha 1. The Nova was scarred and dented from the previous skirmish. Its starboard gun was exposed to open space, more worrying, to the nebula. I hadn’t actually scanned the nebula for anything harmful, but so far the only things seemingly hostile in it were us. I thrusted up to the gun to take a better look. The gun seemed to be ok, just a little blackened. But I could clearly see the damage done by the near miss. The casing used to go around the top, side and bottom of the gun. Now there was just a jagged piece of metal where the casing was once connected.
“Ahem” Jo’s voice made me jump. She made me jump a second time when I spun around to find her floating just behind me. “How much damage did you take?” she asked, her black helmet visor looking past me at the Nova.
“Not too much” I replied. “Just a few scratches and this” I indicated the missing casing.
“Oh, no systems damage?”
“Only some minor damage to the boost extension nozzle. Nothing to worry about”
“Right, come on then” Jo’s space suited form turned on its axis and flew toward the Dragon. The bulky suit was not very flattering. I tried to picture her underneath, but then though she was probably as hot and bothered as I was.
We reached the Dragon at last. Jo’s suit was faster than mine and she continuously had to stop and wait. I asked her if it was her who had tinkered with it or if she had paid for it. All I got in response was a raspberry down the microphone. When we got to the airlock, there was a nasty gash that ran right the length of the outer hull. I remembered it from when I had strafed the side of the ship when her shields were down. Now that I was up close to the Dragon, I could see how much damage I had actually done to it, which was pretty bad. There were at least five scars like this one that ran down the length of the ship towards the prow, where they disappeared from view with the curve of the ship. The depth of the scars was also pretty worrying. As this ship was now mine, I had to take in the repairs costs. The scars ran deep into the hull and if I shone my helmet lamp down the gash I could see fried cabling and burst piping. Holy Earth, this was going to cost a bomb. I took my attention away from the scar and turned it to the laborious task of prizing the outer airlock open (my shot had fused the metal of the outer hull and the airlock door together, typical!). Jo had a laser cutter in her hands and was trying to free the door by cutting through the fused metal. So far it was working and coming along nicely. I floated ready, my carbine pointing at the door. Jo finally cut through the metal. I brought the gun up to my visor and aimed down the barrel. Jo swiftly swung the outer hatch open to reveal the inside of the airlock. A gust of air rushed out, missing Jo but hitting me head on. I didn’t feel it, but I began to drift away from the Dragon quite quickly. I let go of the carbine and pushed it back towards the ship. I then thumbed the controls on my propulsion unit until I was back on track for the Dragon. I grabbed the carbine on my way back and safely planted my boots on the hull. The automated magnets activated and I stayed attached.
“Ok” Jo said “Ready?” I looked down the barrel of my carbine and said “Affirmative”
“Right, let’s go inside, if the airlock was still cycled then maybe other parts of the ship are still pressurized”
“Ok, I’ll keep my wits about me.” We cautiously made our way into the airlock and began to manually open the inner hatch.
“I’ll come with you” she replied. “Might as well have someone watching your back in case there were any Split smart enough to get into their suits before you took out the screen.”
“Cant argue with you there, make sure your armed” I told her, no sense in getting blasted apart by a survivor.
I unclipped myself from the safety harness, which was stretched to its limit because of my bulky space suit. That familiar feeling of weightlessness came over me as I floated out of my chair. It made some men feel ill, but to me it just felt normal. I grabbed the aid rail next to the control chair and swung myself over the back of the seat. Well, I didn’t really swing over, more like coasted over. I grabbed the Blaster Carbine from its rack on the back wall that separated the cockpit from the turret compartment and tugged on the lever for the hatch. The double door hatch opened silently outwards. In any other M3, there would have been a circular hatch behind the cockpit, but because of the turret, the hatch was in the small floor space in between the control section and the turret section. The armored doors were as thick as the hull and they carried the coolant pipes and other necessary electric cables through them just like the rest of the hull. I pulled the small propellant attachment off its rack opposite from where I had taken the carbine and attached it to the connection points on my suits backpack. I hit the activate switch and the control arms turned on their hinges upward ninety degrees to they were comfortably where I could manipulate them. I flicked another switch and the small panels at the ends of the arms slid back, revealing a network of controls. A tiny control stick that was no taller than my thumb rose from the end of my right control arm. I took hold of it and rested the four fingers of my left hand on the control pad of the left extension arm. I took one step forward and kicked the bulkhead so I spun upside down. With another kick at the ceiling, I was floating out of the hatch and away from Alpha 1. I activated the controls on the left control arm and the propellant unit’s maneuvering thrusters burst to life. They automatically corrected my sudden movement and I hung in space for a moment, taking in the surroundings. Even though my visor was tinted like Alpha one’s screen, the nebula seemed more orange when actually outside. I operated the controls until I was looking directly up at the underbelly of Alpha 1. The Nova was scarred and dented from the previous skirmish. Its starboard gun was exposed to open space, more worrying, to the nebula. I hadn’t actually scanned the nebula for anything harmful, but so far the only things seemingly hostile in it were us. I thrusted up to the gun to take a better look. The gun seemed to be ok, just a little blackened. But I could clearly see the damage done by the near miss. The casing used to go around the top, side and bottom of the gun. Now there was just a jagged piece of metal where the casing was once connected.
“Ahem” Jo’s voice made me jump. She made me jump a second time when I spun around to find her floating just behind me. “How much damage did you take?” she asked, her black helmet visor looking past me at the Nova.
“Not too much” I replied. “Just a few scratches and this” I indicated the missing casing.
“Oh, no systems damage?”
“Only some minor damage to the boost extension nozzle. Nothing to worry about”
“Right, come on then” Jo’s space suited form turned on its axis and flew toward the Dragon. The bulky suit was not very flattering. I tried to picture her underneath, but then though she was probably as hot and bothered as I was.
We reached the Dragon at last. Jo’s suit was faster than mine and she continuously had to stop and wait. I asked her if it was her who had tinkered with it or if she had paid for it. All I got in response was a raspberry down the microphone. When we got to the airlock, there was a nasty gash that ran right the length of the outer hull. I remembered it from when I had strafed the side of the ship when her shields were down. Now that I was up close to the Dragon, I could see how much damage I had actually done to it, which was pretty bad. There were at least five scars like this one that ran down the length of the ship towards the prow, where they disappeared from view with the curve of the ship. The depth of the scars was also pretty worrying. As this ship was now mine, I had to take in the repairs costs. The scars ran deep into the hull and if I shone my helmet lamp down the gash I could see fried cabling and burst piping. Holy Earth, this was going to cost a bomb. I took my attention away from the scar and turned it to the laborious task of prizing the outer airlock open (my shot had fused the metal of the outer hull and the airlock door together, typical!). Jo had a laser cutter in her hands and was trying to free the door by cutting through the fused metal. So far it was working and coming along nicely. I floated ready, my carbine pointing at the door. Jo finally cut through the metal. I brought the gun up to my visor and aimed down the barrel. Jo swiftly swung the outer hatch open to reveal the inside of the airlock. A gust of air rushed out, missing Jo but hitting me head on. I didn’t feel it, but I began to drift away from the Dragon quite quickly. I let go of the carbine and pushed it back towards the ship. I then thumbed the controls on my propulsion unit until I was back on track for the Dragon. I grabbed the carbine on my way back and safely planted my boots on the hull. The automated magnets activated and I stayed attached.
“Ok” Jo said “Ready?” I looked down the barrel of my carbine and said “Affirmative”
“Right, let’s go inside, if the airlock was still cycled then maybe other parts of the ship are still pressurized”
“Ok, I’ll keep my wits about me.” We cautiously made our way into the airlock and began to manually open the inner hatch.
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KiwiNZ
- Posts: 3512
- Joined: Wed, 6. Nov 02, 20:31
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RSDark_Angel
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Sat, 25. Jun 05, 12:33
We were inside the Dragon now. There was no way of looking around me for hostiles inside my helmet so I kept my eyes on the heat sensors on my visor HUD. We had drifted through the airlock compartment and were now on the top floor’s main corridor. A Split Dragon had two levels with the stairs accessing each level at the front. The top level consisted of the main airlocks, the crew’s quarters and the bridge. The lower level held the cargo bay, the engine rooms and the weapon and shields generators. Also the M5 hangar bay which housed the tractor beams that suspended the M5 when docked was also on the lower level. I knew the entire layout because GSS already had a Dragon: The GSS Cobra.
As we floated down the main corridor, a body drifted out in front of us and nearly made me wet myself. I instinctively raise my weapon but Jo’s gauntleted hand found mine and gently lowered it back down again.
“Their probably all dead Joules” her voice crackled over the comm. “All of the compartments we’ve gone by have been opened. Possibly by the depressurizing”
“True” I said, still fighting to control my racing heart.
We drifted, because the GravTech system was offline, up to the front of the ship. There the corridor continued along until a round hatch could be seen in the floor leading down to the lower level. To my immediate left and right were two small flights of metal stairs that led up to an open space: the bridge.
“Don’t we need to see if the equipment downstairs is ok?” I asked Jo as she pushed off the floor to get up to the bridge.
“Might as well check the bridge whilst were here” she replied. I tried to shrug inside my suit, failed and kicked off the floor to drift up next to Jo. The scene before me was utter carnage. Three Split bodies drifted around the bridge, there were bullet holes in the bulkhead behind us and as we found out whilst floated round inspecting the damage, in the command chair as well. I imagined it; the Split Captain sat in this chair, watching the main screen as an Argon Nova hurtled towards him, streaming out a payload of death. I squeezed my fists as I imagined the bullets shattering the glass and ripping into the Captains chest. I unclenched them and flexed my knuckles. It was kill or be killed I said to myself.
The fourth member of the bridge crew was nowhere to be seen, probably had been sucked out of the window when the plasteel shattered. Most of the systems on the bridge were working, but a lot of lights were in the red, especially the ones showing the engine’s systems. After a thorough check of all the consoles, we diagnosed that this ship was operable from here, but the damage to the engines probably needed seeing too. Jo flicked a switch on one of the helm consoles and weight returned to me. My heavy boots clumped back onto the decking and my arms suddenly felt very heavy in the bulky suit. Jo turned to me instantly jumped to her left yelling “Joules take cover!” I turned around in time to see the space suited form of a Split aiming its gun at me…
As we floated down the main corridor, a body drifted out in front of us and nearly made me wet myself. I instinctively raise my weapon but Jo’s gauntleted hand found mine and gently lowered it back down again.
“Their probably all dead Joules” her voice crackled over the comm. “All of the compartments we’ve gone by have been opened. Possibly by the depressurizing”
“True” I said, still fighting to control my racing heart.
We drifted, because the GravTech system was offline, up to the front of the ship. There the corridor continued along until a round hatch could be seen in the floor leading down to the lower level. To my immediate left and right were two small flights of metal stairs that led up to an open space: the bridge.
“Don’t we need to see if the equipment downstairs is ok?” I asked Jo as she pushed off the floor to get up to the bridge.
“Might as well check the bridge whilst were here” she replied. I tried to shrug inside my suit, failed and kicked off the floor to drift up next to Jo. The scene before me was utter carnage. Three Split bodies drifted around the bridge, there were bullet holes in the bulkhead behind us and as we found out whilst floated round inspecting the damage, in the command chair as well. I imagined it; the Split Captain sat in this chair, watching the main screen as an Argon Nova hurtled towards him, streaming out a payload of death. I squeezed my fists as I imagined the bullets shattering the glass and ripping into the Captains chest. I unclenched them and flexed my knuckles. It was kill or be killed I said to myself.
The fourth member of the bridge crew was nowhere to be seen, probably had been sucked out of the window when the plasteel shattered. Most of the systems on the bridge were working, but a lot of lights were in the red, especially the ones showing the engine’s systems. After a thorough check of all the consoles, we diagnosed that this ship was operable from here, but the damage to the engines probably needed seeing too. Jo flicked a switch on one of the helm consoles and weight returned to me. My heavy boots clumped back onto the decking and my arms suddenly felt very heavy in the bulky suit. Jo turned to me instantly jumped to her left yelling “Joules take cover!” I turned around in time to see the space suited form of a Split aiming its gun at me…
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LeeE
- Posts: 1592
- Joined: Fri, 29. Oct 04, 12:23
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KiwiNZ
- Posts: 3512
- Joined: Wed, 6. Nov 02, 20:31