So,"It was so far beyond hairy that without a Jump Gate the light from hairy would take decades to make the crossing." does that not contradict fact that there is no hair in space? Try opening your helmet visor and breathe.
Okay, very bad one I know but come on!, 'Light from hairy'?. I know about carbon buckeyballs, tubes etc, I just about grasp quantum mechanics, am aware of the search for the Higgs-Boson particle for example but now you expect me/us to understand the concept of 'Light from Hairy'? Beyond me!
Just keep on writing. I am but mortal!... (I think!)
So, Shuggie starts to roll over and take one of the Blastclaws under HIS guns. The Shugenja of legend is a great magician, and even as a Mamba Vanguard now instead of the Elite he started out as, Shuggie is too, but even the greats have their match out there and while the Mamba is a pug nasty ship the Blastclaw is nastier. Still, one on one my Shuggie would have taken the M3+ Pirate super fighter, I would bet money on it. But could he handle two of them at the same, and an Elite and probably even that damned Harrier chiming in? Even Shuggie has his limits. I broke him off the fight, which galled his fighting heart no end. I sometimes think I should have called him Samurai. But one thing he doesn’t do well is take care off his own precious hide. He’s a terror in battle, but the Mamba is an under shielded glass hammer and glass shatters. I set the Starburst on a near collision course with Shuggie and set up the Transporter, just to get reminded that I was having my own problems too.
That damned lead Scorp had gotten used to my shifting and while I had my mind diverted he scored a couple more shots across my backside. Hoots and alarms broke out as the very slightly rejuvenated shields went bye bye again and more of the hull was slagged away while some of the systems now baked too. One of the shields was now so damaged that it would never come back on line, part of the sensor package was slag, my mineral scanner was no more and for a split second I thought my fate had been sealed by knocking the Transporter offline. Those bloody things are sooooo sensitive, so fragile, but luck was with me and it was the Triplex Scanner that died. Shooting sparks, the cabin filling with smoke, I just had time to dog my helmet down before I hit the transporter key…just about precisely the time a missile that I hadn’t even known was there tore the Starburst to starbursts.
Sitting in Shuggie wasn’t as much of an improvement as I might have hoped though. The shields were all but shot and must have worked back up to the 7% they were sitting at because Shuggie was calming telling me about hull damage and outgassing from the second shield generator that had taken IT off line too. Perfect! Here I was in a Heavy Fighter with one shield and that at 8% by now and hull damage with one of the best M3s in the Pirate inventory, a pair of very nasty M3+s, two fast and lethal M4s and that damned M5 Harrier thrown in just for kicks. And even as I thought that, the just for kicks line, it started firing Wasps at me.
I love the Wasp. It’s a great weapon. Eight moderately smart seeker heads and decent speed, especially when you are closing with them. Now normally a heavy fighter with shielding barely notices a Wasp sting, but when you have only one 25MJ shield and it just now hitting 9% as light IRE fire from one of the Scorps kept my shields low, the thought of flying into a cloud of those buggers was not on my to do list. Jumping out was HIGH on it on the other hand, if I got a few free seconds to set a jump up.
Quickly though that too became a null possibility for me as more fire stripped even that little protection and ate, again, into the hull. One of those two damned Blastclaws had effectively herded me right under the guns of the Elite. In doing so it got the hull down to 85%, further decreasing my speed and yep, scorching my Jump Drive. Did I mention this had gotten hairy?
It also pissed me off though and centered my somewhat fractured and shell shocked mind on a single course of action instead of trying to formulate six at once. I had to get that damned Elite first, then those two Scorps and the Harrier as I could, if I were still in one piece afterwards, outrun the Blastclaws… unless any more of my thrust manifold got worked over. As it turned out, it did get worked over, badly. But as my writing this proves, I lived through it, barely, as did Shuggie, just as barely; more so. You may be asking yourself where the hell the local defense forces were in all this. I know I was. But they did have a good excuse for not being there, at the south gate, a carrack and a marauder with their escorts were kicking up a fuss. That was probably where this wing of heavies had been headed when my transponder code, or to be precise, Shuggies, caught their attention and their avarice. I had a hell of a bounty on me and even though he was an AI, Shuggie had one that would have definitely whetted their appetites. Whatever the reasons though, it was me against the world, with Shuggie riding with me, ready and willing, but without a back turret to operate for me, without much he could do.
The Elite pilot was good, and as I know from my time in one, those bloody birds are extraordinarily equipped for fast passes with tremendous, deadly firepower. The Elite sports ten front mounted weapon slots and any good Elite pilot keeps one turret configuration reserved for a panic fire of everything in the inventory. And as I said, the Elite pilot was a good one. I broke high after sending a Wasp at the closest Scorp to keep him busy and cork screwed in an firing pass that melted a good half of the Elites shields, but the nearer Blastclaw almost took my head off on the hook around so I had to shuck and jive, evade and send a Silkworm his direction to keep his head down and another Wasp to keep his turrets from blasting the slow damned thing before it got to him.
My Wasps were generally annoying the people they were supposed to and I was able to duck under the other Scorp when he tried to open me up and in doing so I had the broadside of the Elite in view and I let him have it with a withering burst and then sweep away before he could really come to bear on me. But then the second ‘Claw chimed in and I was to busy corkscrewing and hair pining to take advantage of the low state of the Elite’s shields. I sent another Wasp flight roaring out at the second Blastclaw and was lucky enough to have one of the Scorps that was evading the last few of my Wasp flight in his direction wander right past my nose. Shuggie may not have a ten slot, but the eight slot of panic fired everything in one burst was more than enough with very little tracking needed to waste the boys screens and pulverize most of his hull; and then again ‘Claw shots here and ‘Claw shots there and that bloody Harrier in the middle turned me into a tumbling, twirling twisting twining demon and some how I managed it, even with an Aurora from one of the ‘Claws and a few missiles of some sort or another I didn’t have time to catch added in, to keep mostly out of harms way and my shield (that is an uncomfortable word when it’s just one of them) was recharging nicely. When it was at better than seventy percent I decided to go for the last hurrah on the Elite, who’s own shields were inching back up to.
Using one of the BlastClaws for inadvertent cover, something he certainly didn’t appreciate, I whipped under him, left him a Wasp flight to keep him company and came around on the Elite, who I thought I was going to catch with another broadside to me. No such luck this time. He swerved and dove and came up at less than half a klick almost face to face with me and panic fired his whole BIG shebang. He flayed my shields right off again, knocked down another six or so percent of my hull and generally worked me over good, but made a huge blunder.
I don’t know what missile he was trying to launch, but doing it in a jousting pass is more than moderately stupid. Maybe he was really panicking. I mean hey, I had been flaying his hull worse than he was mine, so he tried to get the launch off and I explode it while shooting at him, right about in his launch tube I would guess. At any rate there was a gahd awful explosion, I barely avoided getting caught in it myself and it disoriented the second Scopr who must have been almost right on my tail, so as I juked under it he shot through the expanding ruins of the Elite and set himself up , as he tried to double back, for a long, full panic burst blast.
Scratch one Elite and one Scorp within sezura of one another. I was still hard damned put to keep the ‘Claws, the pair of them closing in as this little drama played out, off of my now again all but shieldless ass long enough to see the shields creep back up. That wasn’t easy either. I had two T Bolts sitting in the missile racks, but REALLY wanted to save those for the ‘Claws, when I had knocked their shields down on a pass where I could do a quick dip, show the missile who I wanted annoyed and kick it in the bum to set it on it’s merry way. But the bloody ‘Claws were still throwing so much hate and discontent into the areas I was trying to fly through, while generally ignoring my Wasps, which were also in dwindling supply, that I was strongly considering just letting on of those knock a ‘Claw on it’s back before I attacked and use the opening it would create. This though is not a winning move. It is a move of desperation and would likely be seen as one.
Of course, I really WAS desperate so…
No, damn it, make a plan, adjust it as needed, but only as NEEDED, otherwise, follow through.
Twisting, turning, trying frantically not to be where they thought I would or should or must be, trying to be anywhere else in fact, I was pulling some many twirling tumbles that sometimes in doing that I had a target tumble past my nose…and I’d hate to have any of those fellows think I had overlooked their presence, so I kept dishing out Wasps and quick bursts and soon enough that wounded Scorp zigged when he should have zagged and I was now down to three opponents; one of which I all but ignored, since the other two had orders of magnitude more fire power than the silly assed Harrier Hauler. That, as you will see, was down right dumb.
I did now have just slightly more breathing room though. I could out twirl and skirl the ‘Claws, as long as they kept the missiles out of it, as they had been doing. So, of course, they started hot feeding missiles into my environment. Wonderful guys those ‘Claw jockey’s.
My Mosquitoes were now gone and while I could pretty easily out turn, or shoot down the Silkworms these two seemed to live by, doing that left my butt exposed to one of my two real foes and that annoying little bugger that like a blister, kept making my day just a touch more difficult and stopped me from getting to far away from those two ‘Claw jockey’s, the Hauler pilot. Sometimes there are just too many variables, and sometimes, even though it seems preposterous, having more foes works for you. There was now enough room for the ‘Claws to both flail around without fear of scorching one of their own so flail they did, and while I was dodging that ok, it kept me from doing much to them. This fight just seemed to go on and on and one and on and so forth and so on and… you get the message. But the clock disagreed with my perception of it all. It said that the subjective wozuras we had been at this had taken less than six mizuars. Stupid clock!
But the good thing about that was it meant that they were running low on ordinance too, since they kept sending so much of it my way, they should have! I was wondering if the Harrier especially hadn’t been throwing missiles he was supposed to be delivering somewhere. It seemed every time I laid eyes on him he was launching another one, or since so many of them were Wasps, another objective eight. Finally I’d had enough of him and took a chance to go and punch his ticket for him. I lined the little bugger up, lead him just right, and let him have a Wasp to get his attention and took my now more than half regenerated 25MJ worth of shielding and ran his little backside down. Yes?
No.
Just as I got all but on him he spun towards me and let loose a missile. I’d never seen a Wildfire before. I almost never saw anything afterwards. It took him out neatly too, since he was all but in my view port when I got hit, but ohh, did it do a job on me. My shields folded and took another big chunk of hull damage…and lost one of my two T-Bolts. It shook me up to, I tell you, but maybe that big kaboom was what finally got the attention of SOMEONE in the Boron defense forces. I suppose that the Mako had just come through the gate, which our broil had now lead us near again, and while it didn’t last long, the two ‘Claws turned mostly on it the moment it opened up on one of them, so I had a few seconds breather and even got some separation between us. The problem was, they were both now faster than I was and I was mad as hell on top of it, so this was not my chance to slip away, it was just my chance to get ready. Which I did.
Just as one of the ‘Claws was shredding the Mako, I got on his nine and opened up with everything I had left, including a Wasp and the final T-Bolt afterwards. And, it did put paid to the bugger, just as sweet as that, with my shooting killing off the rest of his shielding and three of the Wasps heads letting him have it nicely, before the T Bolt put the exclamation mark on it. I was so intent on flying through his debris though, howling, as it happens, that I didn’t notice that the other damned ‘Claw had me now dead to rights and that was almost all she wrote in spades. My final shield went bye bye for the last time, giving up the ghost and not capable of being coaxed to give it even one more try. That pass also took out my sensors and my transporter, not that I had any use for it at the moment, the docking computer and two of my PACs, leaving me two A HEPTs and a B PAC in a twenty jazura old M3 with no shields, that was slower than he was, with no missiles and holes on it’s holes against what was, in essence, an untouched M3+, with 100 MJ of shielding, and burning space around me every second.
That I write this means I made it. I actually killed the bugger too, but at the end a containment leak in one of the HEPT housings gave me a bad dose of rads, and poor Shuggie, when all was said and done, was worse off than I was. Almost no operant systems and 3% hull and a sunburn. Yep, that was a successful fight. Maybe my best ever.
Not quite a newbie anymore, but still able to ask the most stultifyingly silly assed questions imaginable.
Aha! If you assume 'Cantankerous' is human then yes, would be awkward for any human to write two stories in parallel.... BUT, and its a big BUT..? No!, Not his Butt... he ain't human. I have heard stories that in America they have Yuman beings and they eat Erbs.. Ergo....!!
Anyway, so much for that rumour mill! Nice going yet again Cantankerous.
Edge of the seat stuff, almost brown stuff an' we ain't talkin' adrenaline! (Please excuse my Grammar, it was my Grandpa's fault really!)
What you waiting for? A Knighthood? Get scribbling!
*lol* Thanks guys. really. But hey Ghostrider, it's not two, it's seven others at once. Four heroic fantasy, a ghost story these two and one soon, oooh hell, today to be revealed. Now it's just in the nascent stage, but ehh, it'll give me insentive.
Not quite a newbie anymore, but still able to ask the most stultifyingly silly assed questions imaginable.
Man, there are times that you just know the whole galaxy is out to get you. Usually, you wake up the next day with a slightly clearer head and decide it was all in your mind, but sometimes, sometimes it takes longer.
I was in healing tanks and taking regeneration treatments for three wozuras. My eyelids, at one point, were removed surgically to further the re-growth and stimulation of cellular regeneration of the eyes themselves. Even in a haze of drugs and with gauze coverings, it feels wholly unnatural to have no eyelids to close. You don’t sleep properly, but rather drift in a haze, with the light still felt if not fully processed, even though the gauze actually admits less light than the eyelids do.
The Shugenja too was undergoing reconstructive surgery and while it was Shuggie sent for the Dominatrix as I was going to be up and running again before he was. Strapped into that haunted monster I re-evaluated the asteroid and then jumped directly back to Kingdoms End and by way of thanks was saddled with a couple of delivery jobs and very little in the way of satisfying explanations. I just sort of shut my brain off and did them. The shipyards of the Paranid and Split Capitals, in that order, in next to no time as I jumped directly to one and rendezvoused with one of my transports that was in the area to top off the E-cells and while my mind spun with the condemnations of the big mouthed ‘Nid about how long he had to wait.
I remember thinking something along the lines of: Well, excuse me dipweed! For the last several weeks I had no eyes, just a sort of healing soup in the sockets, no eye lids over said soup, so it boiled too slowly I guess... and most of my lung tissue was being re-grown prior to being replaced, so if I wheeze a bit forgive me. My heart bleeds for your impatience. In fact, maybe I should head back to that clinic and let them see if it IS bleeding. I was in moderately poor shape, but some over active something in me hates with a passion not meeting a deadline to as soon as the transporter socked in the last of the E-cells, I jumped.
And yet, of course, I got the same damned treatment from the Split bugger. Now maybe they had a reason, even if I had worked some of it out by now, if only barely, by my playing boy hero in some of their frontier sectors while waging my private war between my corporation and the Death Knell Pirate Clan. I may have officially even been lauded as a Comrade by now, but few of these guys probably had forgiven or forgotten how often I “recruited” their ships. At least I hadn’t showed up there in the Shugenja. That might have been too much even with my newly applied status. But with this guy too complaining his ohh so superior Split backside off about my tardiness, I was over joyed to jump back in to Kingdom End and tell the fishy that I had had enough.
But then I heard, clear as a bell, the voice of that poor Boron pilot who had kept saying how he didn’t understand, that we were at peace, and the ghosts of the Dominatrix got me to put on a stoic corporate face and tint the face plate of my helmet a few shades darker before I walked into the ammonia filled atmosphere of Kunkla Lo's office at the Shipyards to tell him that it was all attended too.
Well, the next part was anyway; because this was just the start. Next was on to Great Trench, a sector I know fairly well. I found the guy just as advertised but unlike the ads this bozo wanted something, something nearly suicidal sounding, before he would give up the, shall I call it that, the pay data. Hey, no big thing. Just place a satellite dead center of a certain sector. No sweat huh?
Did I mention it was a heavily defended Xenon Sector?
Not quite a newbie anymore, but still able to ask the most stultifyingly silly assed questions imaginable.
Thanks to those of you who have been reading...and this will, after a hiatus, likely start up again, but right at present I have TC and my Reunion stories are waiting a bit while the Muse in TC gets here time on stage.
I am probably going to tie all of the Reunion stories together with the TC story (the story that is comprised of eight stories ) in the not too distant future as the continuing tales of the X-Verse, in case anyone is interested.
So, for all three of the Reunion threads, you'll be asked to kindly be patient with the TC Muse, who seems to want to just talk and talk and talk. Thanks again.
Isshia
Not quite a newbie anymore, but still able to ask the most stultifyingly silly assed questions imaginable.
