Galaxy in Flames

[Entaru]

A loud beeping filled the command deck as a transmission from the Cask's fighter escort came in.

The tech officer looked over to Entaru. "Incoming message sir."

"I know that, Grundy!!"  He hated the alert noise for transmissions.  It echoed so much inside his suit that it was almost deafening. "Put it on screen"

As the glass for the observation deck changed, a man in his mid 30's appeared on the screen.  In the image it was easy to tell that he was blonde and somewhat portly.  The man may not have been athletic but he had a quick eye and patience, which served him well as a fighter pilot and as the crew's on foot sniper.  He was the squad leader of the fighter crew.

"You have news Mr. Elliott?" Entaru grumbled This had better be good

"Yeah, and I think you'll like it."  The fighter grinned sadistically at the thought. "We found scavangers!"

Entaru slowly sat upright in his seat in a desperate attempt to hold back his enthusiasm

"Hot or cold?"  His labored voice gave him away

"Hot blood sir.  We did some nasty damage before they jumped"  Entaru began to frown "but they were small vessels so they couldn't have gone far"

Entaru grinned so wide that the pilot thought his head would fall in half, and a old earth quote popped in his head The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea and the pilot laughed.

"I'm sending you the co-ordinates to triangulate their postion.  Anthony, Vaun, Zaha, Sam and I will be with you shortly" All of the fighters were brothers from the same family.

"Excellent! Make it quick though! I want to hit these fools while their still shaking."  Entaru turned from the screen to the senior tech officer "Ms. Zettergren find those flea-bags and get us ready for a jump"  The dark haired woman nodded with a 'Yes, boss.' and got right to work.

Entaru looked back at the screen "Well what are you waiting for?  Move it!  I need you and your brothers on the guns!" The screen turned off with a quick 'Aye, sir!' and the screen became the observation glass once more.  In the distance five red dots were zooming their way to the ship.

Entaru sat in his chair and prepped himself for the short jump.  The fighters were now in full view as they zipped by the observation glass and to the dock.  Entaru drummed his fingers impatiently on the chair's arm.  Finally the words he waited for came.

"We're ready for the jump sir."

"Good."  Entaru pressed the on board communicator on his helmet. "You and your brothers in position Chris?"

-Yep, all set-  The commed buzzed in his ear.

"Perfect!  Be ready to fire on my command.  Prepare for jump in 3...2...1...Jump!"

The Cask careened through space and Entaru's adrenaline levels spiked.  Quickly they came to rest again, this time besides the R-40 Salvage ship.  Entaru leapt from his seat and flung his hand in the direction of the Eph'tan ship "Home" and triumphantly screamed the order.

"ALL BATTERIES, OPEN FIRE!!!!"  

[KittKat chunky~]

The fleet commander of "home"'s eyes widened....

"dear Eph'tan.... bridge! full power to shields, starboard!"
The bridge crew frantically re-routed all available power to the R-40's starboard shield emitters, even as the first shots hit home...

The whole ship rocked with the force of the impact, round after round impacting with the hull, before the shields kicked in... as each shot hit bright, neon blue ripples spread as the shields took the brunt of the fire....

"All crew... hang on to whatever ya got!  all R-20 pilots report to deck and board your R-25's!"


~~~


Down on deck it was a frantic mess of jostling EPh'tan... amongst them the R-20 pilots ran like the attack bees in a hive amongst the confused worker drones... Kitt ran to the first R-25, regular R-20's outfitted for ship combat, all the mining tools replaced with emp dischargers, buzz saws, chainblades and all manner of deadly looking claws and limbs...

"Saddle up team Tango, lets go eat us a ship!"

The R-40 shook again, several shots had made it through the shields, impacting across the hull, even as the R-25's boosted up... limbs moved with great hisses in preparation for their saboutarial work...

Along with the R-25's several R-20A's where firing up... these where very similar, except they themselves bore no weapons other than large missile pods.... the missiles where not of the explosive variaty, and where an experimental "field weapon" that was to get its first test run....

~~~

"Shields at 70% and falling sir! hull integrity failing!"

[Alice The Necrofox]

Shiro saw the ship lifting off, and tore after kitt, landing in the ship just as the door closed.
"I hope you guys have an extra living space, because i am not hanging around back there."

[Entaru]

Entaru luaghed maniacally as the ship took hit after hit.

"HAHAHA...TAKE THAT YOU MANGY THROW-RUGS!!!!"

Entaru's triumph was interuptted as the senior tech officer shouted.

"Sir, Eph'tan...fighters?...are incoming"

Entaru clenched his metal fists and laughed.

"Hah...Good! Send in the 'wasps'!"

"Yes, boss"

The "wasps" as they were called were unmanned explosive drones about 10 feet in length and 2 feet wide.  Sure Entaru had some fighters but not nearly enough to take out the defenses for a salvage ship this size.  The "wasps" locked on to the plasma signatures of ships, programmed to ignore their deploying ship, and would detonate when they were in a proximity of 3 meters from the signature.  That usually meant the engine.  The "wasps" had gotten their nickname from the way they would swarm the engines of larger ships, "stinging" it unitl the engines failed and exploded.  Not only were they effective...they were cheap!  You could buy 100 of the things with only proper I.D., an interstellar weapons permit, and 10,000 credits (a rich man's meal costs 50 credits).

Entaru smiled as the swarm of 35,000 streaked toward their targets and he laughed as an absurd thought crossed his mind.

Fly! Fly! Fly, my pretties! Fly!

[Gabag]

Ol' Jimbo was lounging in a chair asleep, when the klaxon blared. "Is that Zeit again Charles?"

The Senor Lt. looked up "Yes it is.... can you take care of him please i'd rather not die due to someones love of weaponry"

"Aye Aye Lt."
Getting up and yawning, Jameson slapped on his armor and went to check on Zeit, watching everyone freak out, compared to his relative calm.
"Zeit what did I tell you about using experimental weapons NEAR THE ENGINE!?"

[KittKat chunky~]

"How'r we doing with thos co-ordinates?!"

"We gotta lock sir! boosting the main jump drive now! we just need ta hold them off a little longer!"

~~~

Kitt groaned "Shiro! if you goddamn die out here! ugh... we dont have time... sit back and enjoy the ride!" With a lurch the R-25 rose from its platform, and, engine whining, flew towards the large frigate....

"Sir! incoming drones! running diagnostics.... they seem to be some kind of... oh hell! evasive manoueveres, evasive maouveres!"

A loud whining beep sounded, the R-25 dropped and rolled, Gforce throwing the occupants into their seats. Even as several drones exploded above, exactly where the salvager had been only seconds before... Several of the saboteur ships exploded into balls of flame and shrapnell, drones impacting or exploding around them turning them into slag.....

"just keep dodging! clear the way for R-20A's!"


~~~

The R-20A's had stayed behind the main force, missile pods tracking the frigate they unleashed every missile at once in a long sustained volley... the missiles, utilising advanced enginges and AI targetting systems flew around the main combat.... leaving thin white contrails as they flew the missiles impacted on the frigates shields, every one of them exploding... not one made it through to the hull except for what looked like loose metal and shrapnell that slowly came into contact with the hull... for all intents and purposes it seemed the missiles had done nothing, the R-20A's turned and headed back for the R-40...



~~~~

[Alice The Necrofox]

"Dont worry, i know how to survive out here." Shiro said to Kitt, then turned to the pilot. "You dont know how to fly this thing! Let someone who knows how to fly this junker fly her!"

[KittKat chunky~]

"oh yeah sure... and while i'm doing that maybe i'l just blow yer brains across the windscreen with my pistol!" shouted the pilot, he was strainging to keep the ship under coontrol as it was buffeted by multiple explosions...

"Jake! do what he says! however you... if you crash this thing, im gonna personally make sure IM gonna blow your brains across the windscreen!... Jake, you man the claws! Annie, pull up damage control!"


~~~

"sir! several of those drones have made it past the..."

Several loud explosions stopped the bridge pilot in mid sentence, the lights flickered twice....

"Just get this hunka junk ready to jump outa here!"


~~~~


As the scrap metal hit the hull... a scurry of activity flew through the host of seemingly worthless junk.... each small chunk popped open, saws spinning, red sensors lighting up as the buzz droids scurried over the hull like midges... after a few seconds... several where already attacking vents and weapons ports, plasma torches scroing scalding lines of heat through circuitry or weak points...

((once the R-40 has jumped buzz droids become inactive, they also become inactive after fifteen mintues when their power cell runs out... makes it fairer   ))

[Entaru]

"Sir! Something just cut off our communications!"

"WHAT!!! None of their missiles hit us.  It was just shrap..."  Entaru trailed off mid sentence as he saw a small droid scuttle quickly along the observation glass.  "Why those son of a..."

"Sir, power in the mess hall is down to 85%"

Entaru thought for a moment and smiled as he saw the R-25s getting closer, with their claws swaying, their purpose so obvious it hurt.

"Draw power away from all unnessecary systems and prepare for a shield purge on my mark."  That would mean the guns too.  The "wasps" would still wreak enough havoc with the smaller ships but the main ship would get away.  But the shield purge would destroy the buzz droids...and any R-25s that were within the shields.  Entaru waited and watched as the R-25s got closer.

[KittKat chunky~]

"sir, ship ready for jump!"

The R-40 rocked again, lights flickering across all decks...

"damn drones! recall the fighters, everything home! we need ta get outta here.. we're clearly outmatched sir! engines are failing, we have decompression in decks 1 and two... we cant hold longer sir!"

The captain watched the opposing frigate carefully .. he detested to run but....

"recall them... ALL DECKS PREPARE FOR JUMP!"

~~~~


"home command ordered emergency jump! code red people!"

Jake looked from Kitt to the rest of the crew... each and every one of them new what code red meant... an emergency jump straight into the dock of the R-40.... risky, a miscalculated jump, and you'd be left behind.... it was the last resort the fleet ever used... flipping open a panel, his paw hoevered over the large red switch... Kitt nodded....


Every single one of the R-25's that wasnt already destroyed disapeared with a blue flash... those that where lucky re-appeared in the docking bay... smashing into the flooring, crushing any unfortunate enough to be in the way upon materialisation.... the R-40 too disspaeared with a loud ~hroom~ and a blue flash, initiating a jump to a nearby asteroid field, it would give them enough time if they where still persued...

not everyone was so lucky... five R-25's remained, stranded, no help... they where swarmed by the drones... picked apart ship by ship....

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Zeit had a grin that easily read as 'I'm in trouble...' as he looked at Jameson. "Then put the targeting range somewhere else than near the engine, or do you want me to go blowing up the woman's restroom or the mess hall?" he added with a somewhat innocent tone. Of course he didn't have enough sense to drop the weapon, and it was still armed while they were talking.

[Gabag]

"Zeit your really an idiot, you set up your own shooting range here, the OFFICIAL shooting range is on the other side of the ship, and no dont be a perv about it i'm serious, drop the gun or i'll have to beat it out of you" He said in a fatherly tone.

[White Wolf Guardian]

*White was flipping around his Spyderfly 3003 sitting on his bed and then picks up his shotgun and plays with the pump action, letting the plasma slugs fly out as he cocked it over and over* "Blast this place, I'm so bored... I just wish someone would put me on assignment! *He loaded the shells back into the box* "Ugh... I guess I'll just bide my time honing my line of sight at the shooting range." *The wolf put the shotgun on his back holster, grabbed his submachine gun and flipped his knife closed then put it in his pocket* "Time to go kill some red and white... gosh that sounds so pathetic."

*He presses open on the keypad and leaves his room, putting the alarm on* "I will never trust anyone around here, you never know what these dogs are up to, always trying to cause trouble because they too are bored... ugh." *The wolf whistles his way to the shooting range*

[Alice The Necrofox]

Shiro's hands flew on the controls, a blur of motion. The ship dexterously steadied as the blue flash dissipated from around the ship, just in time to stop from splattering four mechanics as they ran to the other ships which were still bouncing around the inside of the R-40. He landed the ship smoothly and without incident.
"Well, that was exciting! Lets do that again sometime!" Shiro stood up from the controls. "You just need to know how to treat them. I guess good piloting comes with being one of the best ex-smugglers in the rim."

[KittKat chunky~]

Kitt spat on the floor of the R-25... "damn! dont you realise!?  we lost easily half our R-20 pilots! every one of them a great friend to me and the rest of this crew!"
Shaking his head he slammed a fist into the door release button, stepping out as the penumatics hissed... Annie stepped over to Shiro, one paw on his shoulder..

"eh... ignore Kitt... he gets kinda emotional 'bout this...."

She smiled back to him as she stepped out with the rest of crew tango... stepping out into a scene of carnage, engineers being pulled out of wreckage, fires being beaten back as they consumed the R-25's.....



~~~~


5 hours later:


"Who the frack where they?! those werent no pirates sir!"
Kitt stood, his very blody composure shouted aggression, and yet sorrow and sadness...
"We lost gad damn thirty pilots sir! not to mention how many engineers or other crew! who the frack where they?!?"

The R-40 commander stood, arms folded behind his back... watching Kitts outburst with a look of resignation...

"we dont know... your right... they werent the usual pirates... that ship outmatched us in every way... and Kitt, do not think you are the only one to have lost friends... i lost my lead bridge commander today.... we all lost someone we knew...  just... just help in any way you can... the cerimony is in half an hour... dismissed"

Kitt looked, from the commander, through the main observation screen out across the hull of the "home"...

"cerimony in thirty minutes... i'l be there sir..."