Never Ending Story begins here

[Mercenary]

Ybit scratched his chin in thought, 'Paranid secret ship, that'll be worth a few credits to someone.'


The Pirate convoy had reached Thyn's Abyss, Lsal t'Njjk was responsable for getting them through the next sector and ordered the uprated Mandalay's to take formation. The fast Bayamons in support.

The remainder of the convoy to support the lead ship and it's cargo. His ship.

He studied the nav, "Where's S'en?"

A voice came back, "He stopped to take out a freighter! Haven't seen him since!"

Lsal t'Njjk cursed, 'too late to go find him now.' He thought then ordered, "Proceed with the first stage."

[carran]

Lsal t'Njjk thought some more, transiting the Xenon Sector to Black Hole Sun was going to be risky even with S'en and his Mandalay, now they were missing it was going to prove more difficult, what to do?

One last try "S'en, can you hear me? we're leaving without you, we cannot spare time whilst you bring that fat slug of a Mule with you, meet us back at base or en-route, you know where we'll be"

That's it thought Lsal as the first Mandalay entered the jump gate

[Mercenary]

Moments passed as the fast Bayamons followed.

"Lsal to all ships, follow me!" He engaged the engines. With fingers crossed that the fast fighter would draw away the Xenon ships in a futile chase and buy the slower Orinocos' time to get across the sector. Lsals' ship entered the jumpgate.

[carran]

"T'ggt Frnnt, race to the centre of the sector and drop a Nav Sat, that should distract them"

"Bog off and do it yourself, I'm not getting killed for no-one"

Lsal roared over the net "Get your butt over there now and do as I say! remember who is paying you!"

T'ggt changed course and headed towards the centre of the sector.

The Xenon were on form and reacted quickly to the Pirates sending 2 L's and 2 M's to intercept them.

[Mercenary]

So far so good, the front runners and decoys had created the necessary distraction. Glancing across towards their position he could see the odd plasma burst from the Xenon ships. The engine glow of the Mandalays scattered and heading out in different, diverging vectors. The fast Bayamons now a good distance ahead to draw Xenon forces from the destination jumpgate.

Lsal steered his ship towards the Black Hole Sun gate it's engines running at maximum thrust.
Quicker pirate ships forming a shield between him and the Xenon.

He relaxed for a moment then the first call,

"I'm under fire."

"Shields g..." A burst of static.

Lsal glanced at the Nav, "Damn!" he murmered, it was an M1 Xenon Capital ship and a fast one closing in on the decoy Mandalays.

[carran]

Then the second call "Mayday, mayday...pfsssttttt" a puff of smoke, flame then nothing....

"Damn, nothing for it but to keep going, they knew the risks" said Lsal trying to justify sending his fellow pirates to their deaths. Inside his stomach knotted, his mouth went dry and he broke out into a cold sweat. It wasn't this difficult on the way through last time he thought.

Gritting his teeth he pressed on, calculating convergence angles in his head, seeking any advantage that would get them through to the south gate. Glancing down at the gravidar he noticed the Nav Sat ejected by T'ggt, maybe...

[Mercenary]

use it as a beacon. He could wait until the Xenon were closer then use it as a focal point to relay false attack messages. The Xenon would be sure to pick the messages up and divert their attention.

Out in the sector T'ggt was swerving around the incoming ships. Plasma arcing across each side. The Mandalay small and swift darting through. The Xenon M1 closing swiftly with a singularity of purpose.

The last of the decoy ship stuggling and fighting the panic whilst trying to return back through the Thyn's Abyss gate.

[carran]

Meanwhile the Xenon L's and M's were racing towards the south gate, it looked like they would be too late. Just as Lsal thought he would make it they turned arcing towards the Bayamons

This is it he thought, outnumbered but hopefully not outgunned, grateful for the shield upgrade he'd carried out with half the advance for this job.

"Bayamon section engage, I'm coming in right behind you" he lied. Lsal had no intention of getting wrapped up in the dogfight that was about to break out, he had more important things to do - like live!

"Slasher, make ready the Silkworms, target the M's, two missiles each" that should be enough to convince the Bayamons he was committed whilst he made his escape.

"Relay via the Nav Sat - Ogrist wing, attack the M1"

"Message sent, M1 disengaging"

Miraculously T'ggt's Mandalay was still intact

[Mercenary]

The Xenon M's changed direction, missiles chasing and Bayamons close behind. The Xenon L's responding to the nearest threat.

"Distance to gate?" Lsal asked.

"Target gate eight k's and closing."

"Send message to Nav, order Thrulk Wing to engage station."

He glanced at the HUD map quickly and went pale. Two new M2 Xenon ships, faster than the M1 were hurtling through the sector.

"Intercept time with M2s" Lsal ordered.

T'ggt's Mandalay shot past. He had changed direction, but was not staying for the fight. "I'll see you on the other side!" T'ggt signalled.

[pixel]

Edit: [Ooops!! Sorry Mercenary!! Entered this just after you!! Ignore my post!!!]

Lsal grinned as the incoming Xenon fighters peeled away from their attack vector and make all speed towards the M1, "they must have been told to turn back and protect the M1 from the new attack, must have one chicken command computer!!". Shouts of relief were coming in over the comm from the other Bayamons.

"Well done T'ggt!, you'll be getting a bonus for that! All ships, follow me through the gate, we'll regroup on the other side."

Lsal switched off the comm and flicked some switches "Now, lets see how our cargo's doing...

[carran]

All indications were good, the cargo showed no signs of distress at being thrown about - the grav harnesses are doing their stuff thought Lsal

"Alert! M2's closing, within Hornet missile range in 30..29..28..27.." Lsal knew instantly there was no possibility of outrunning an M2, but the distance was closing to the south gate. A quick glance at the gravidar showed 3km left, with the M2's coming in from the East.

"All Pilots, head for the west side of the gate, we'll exit the system from behind the gate, that should buy us a few more seconds"

[carran]

Bump

[Mercenary]

The Bayamon down and to the right of his wing exploded as the Xenon ships closed the gap.
The others in the tight formation, peeled away.

Lsal swung away and took evasive maneuvers as plasma sprayed from the M1 cruiser.

The ships computer commented, "Gate one k."

"All ships follow me when you can!" Lsal shouted and rolled his ship in towards the gate.

[carran]

Maneuvering his ship to use the surviving Bayamon as a shield Lsal's ship shuddered violently as an M2 blasted plasma through the last Bayamon.

He made it to the gate, just as T'ggt's Mandalay disappeared off the gravidar, exploding in a puff of vaporised metal. "No need to pay the bonus after all" Lsal thought as he plunged through the gate.

Meanwhile, Ybit sat nursing a drink and wondering what to do with his new found knowledge

[carran]

"good days and bad days" mused Ybit, even if he took the reward for the pod he would make a tidy profit, enough to pay off the remaining loan for the Mule plus he still had the Mandalay, all in all not bad.

The question was - did he really want trouble with the Paranid?, any race with 3 eyes was distinctly odd looking, difficult to gauge reaction and response, though Ybit was certain the Paranid was not joking.

Funnily enough, the Paranid hadn't asked if he had opened the Pod, would that make a difference to the reward if they found it had been tampered with? would that give them sufficient reason to hunt him down to make sure he didn't tell anyone? Or was he being paranoid?

[Mercenary]

'Paranoid like a Paranid' Ybit chuckled to himself before knocking back the rest of his drink.

Swaying slightly he rose and meandered back to the docks. Time to see if he can open the pod.

As he apporached his ship he could not fail to notice the big black, heavily armed, Prometheus parked beside his Mule on the left side and on the right a small lightweight Pegasus. The pilots for both ships, dressed as mercenaries, were waiting for him.

[carran]

"No doubt there will be others waiting out of sight for me too" he thought. "Well, nothing for it but to brave it out and hope they don't do anything silly" He patted his pocket where the pistol was concealed and walked slowly back to the Mule.

"You must be Y'bit, you have something for us?" Y'bit turned to face the mercenary who had spoken. "Maybe, but have you got what you offered?" The mercenary moved forward holding a holo-cube showing Y'bit's bank details - there it was, 300,000 Cr richer. He wondered how the mercenary had got access to his account but put immediately that to the back of his mind.

Speaking into his communicator he ordered Grissom to...

[carran]

Bump

[Mercenary]

"Open the cargo bay door!"

The quiet mercenary moved forward and inspected the pod. He attached a grav lifter and uncoupled the oxygen supply.

Y'bit, felt the eyes of the remaining mercenary watching him.

"So you going to tell me what's in there?" He asked.

There was the brief flinch of a smile. "No!"

The pod glided out and rather than directed to the Prometheus it headed towards the smaller, considerably faster Pegasus.

[carran]

"Now keep quiet about this and you'll be fine" warned the other mercenary as he turned to rejoin his ship

Ybit flinched as if he had been struck, the menace in the mercenaries voice was tangible.

"Grissom, close the cargo bay and prepare for departure" No need to hang around he thought, but not until the mercenaries have cleared the system.

Entering the Mule Ybit sat heavilyat the control desk. "Grissom, get an autopilot for the Mandalay and what's the best priced cargo here?"

Grissom replied "No best priced cargo available, recommend Energy Cells from Power Plant Beta at 8Cr"

The mercenary ships undocked and drifted lazily away from the station before disappearing in a bright flash.

What was that! they must have a jump device, how much would I give for one of those! he thought. "Grissom, get the Mandalay inventory", time to see what it was capable of