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| | == Short abstract == | | == Short abstract == |
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| | [[James K. Winston|Winston]] goes home to visit his family in [[Phekda]], for the first time in six years. However, on the way in his ship is attacked by a Viper with a good pilot, and suffers serious damage. It turns out that coming home is rather more expensive than expected. | | [[James K. Winston|Winston]] goes home to visit his family in [[Phekda]], for the first time in six years. However, on the way in his ship is attacked by a Viper with a good pilot, and suffers serious damage. It turns out that coming home is rather more expensive than expected. |
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| − | == Story ==
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| − |
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| − | An expensive trip
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| − |
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| − | Editor's Note: We decided to let James Winston tell this one himself. We thank
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| − | him for taking the time to write this article for us.
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| − |
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| − | "Ready?" I asked.
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| − | "OK, as good as I'll get" replied Pam Gilmour.
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| − |
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| − | Pam, my new co-pilot, set the Asp's autopilot to point to Newtown. I was going
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| − | to visit my folks for the first time in over six years. A lot had happened to me
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| − | in those six years. I was only 24 years old, but I felt quite a grizzled veteran.
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| − | I had been bounty hunting for two years, and had just been rated "Dangerous" by
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| − | the Elite Federation. The Asp was my latest ship, and I had flown her for just
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| − | over a month at this point. The Asp was also my first two-crew ship, so I had to
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| − | hire a copilot. Pam had worked on large traders and had got bored. She had
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| − | answered my ad for a copilot. Anarchy systems were by now familiar to me, but
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| − | this was her first one. The Phekda system was (and still is) a particularly
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| − | nasty Anarchy; the nearest you ever seem to jump in is around 40 AU from
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| − | civilization...which means the pirates have a good chance of taking pot-shots at
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| − | you.
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| − |
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| − | I watched as the autopilot pointed the ship in the direction of Nirvana. I was
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| − | really enjoying the Asp - faster than my old Cobra Mk III and certainly well
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| − | armed. I was now making good money with bounty hunting - a tractor beam cargo
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| − | scoop saw to that. It was amazing what came out of some of the pirates - stuff
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| − | they'd scooped off someone else no doubt. Every so often you'd get some really
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| − | good stuff that really made it pay. You'd get a decent bounty, then maybe some
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| − | gemstones or even alien artefacts. Often you could find deals on the bulletin
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| − | boards at anarchy systems - most items were in short supply.
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| − |
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| − | I pulled up the star chart and set up our emergency exit system. A policy of
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| − | mine when going to anarchy systems was to target another system so if the chips
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| − | were down, I could just press the hyperspace button and be gone. This had saved
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| − | the day on many occasions. The day I forgot to do this still haunts my dreams
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| − | from time to time... the Imperial Explorer pouring out plasma whilst I
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| − | desperately tried to target a system to hyperspace to. Call me a coward, but
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| − | unless I can get on the six of a beast like that I don't hang around. In the
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| − | bounty hunting game, being a coward that's alive beats being a hero that's dead.
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| − | Any bounty hunter worth their salt knows this. The ones that don't usually will
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| − | not last long.
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| − |
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| − | We accelerated on our journey. There didn't seem to be too much action - for the
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| − | first 30 AU, we were only attacked twice and both attackers (a pair of Adders
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| − | followed by a threesome comprising of a Harris, a Cobra and a Saker) all
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| − | succumbed easily to our guns. I had been nervous about this trip - Phekda not
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| − | only had the long journey time from hyperspace entry to the destination, but it
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| − | also had a reputation for having the better and more vicious pirates. They didn't
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| − | seem any tougher than the ones I usually battled in Reidquat. It seemed rather
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| − | quiet too - normally the pirates find you on a long-range scan and all manoevre
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| − | to intercept. Only two encounters in 30 AU was quite unusual in my experience.
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| − |
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| − | "James, take a look at this"
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| − |
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| − | I looked at the scanner.
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| − |
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| − | "Right here, that ship has been following us for the past 2 AU just on the edge
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| − | of the scan"
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| − | "Perhaps he's just trying to go where we are," I responded. I wasn't too worried.
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| − | "I don't think so - he actively tried to stay out of scan range when we got
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| − | attacked last. I don't think he realizes that we've got a new-generation scanner"
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| − |
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| − | The new combat scanners had another 50 km of scan range. I selected the trace,
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| − | which showed up as a red return. The ship wasn't too big if it showed up as red.
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| − | The targetter was set, and the ship's computer began to analyse the return. The
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| − | ship type appeared on the HUD. Viper Defence Craft, with some decent shield
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| − | generation too. No hyperdrive. This wasn't someone who came into the system to
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| − | go to Newtown - they were based here. I started to get the uncomfortable
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| − | impression that we were being followed. The ship then started to pull back
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| − | somewhat and began sliding off the extreme range of the scanner. Half an hour
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| − | later, with no sign of the Viper, we stopped worrying.
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| − |
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| − | AHHHUGA! AHHHUGA!
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| − |
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| − | The attack klaxon sounded. A hostile had been detected coming for us. I made a
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| − | mental note to change the klaxon on this ship, it made an extremely annoying
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| − | sound. Suddenly the ship's computer said "Incoming Message."
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| − |
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| − | "You'll regret dealing with Michael Nguyen!"
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| − |
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| − | Oh no, not again. I was getting tired of the bounty hunters after me. The
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| − | assasination I had done years ago on Johnson kept haunting me - assassin after
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| − | assassin had been coming after me ever since the deed was done. Necessity had
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| − | forced me to become a good combateer. Pam looked around at me questioningly.
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| − |
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| − | "I'll tell you about it when we get down," I answered the inevitable question
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| − | before she could even ask it.
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| − |
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| − | It didn't really surprise us when it turned out to be that Viper that had been
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| − | following us. A Viper would be easy to send to the dogs. This guy must have been
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| − | suicidal. I got us into a combat-ready position and watched the range counter
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| − | come down. He'd shortly be in firing range.
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| − |
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| − | "Incoming Missile", said the computer softly.
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| − |
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| − | I saw four tiny specks depart from the Viper.
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| − |
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| − | "Holy Cow, he's unloaded all his missiles at us!" I exclaimed.
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| − | "OK, I've got the ECM," said Pam as the ECM activated. "Uh oh, NN-550's!"
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| − |
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| − | The missiles were still coming. Pam activated the ECM again, just to make sure.
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| − | Nothing happened. Suddenly, laser fire came in rapidly. The missiles were coming
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| − | really fast, but I knew I had enough shields to eat them without taking hull
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| − | damage. It would be a close thing, though. We began returning fire. However, we
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| − | could not hit the Viper. He seemed to stay one step ahead of us, anticipating
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| − | our every move. His laser was most certainly biting into our shields though.
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| − |
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| − | Suddenly there was three concussions close to each other, followed by a
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| − | tremendous crashing sound. The missiles had hit! I quickly glanced over at the
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| − | defensive systems console. The shields were down, and the hull had taken damage.
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| − | The laser fire had weakened the shields prior to the missile impact. Alarms
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| − | started going off.
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| − |
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| − | "Shit! We're out of here!" I shouted above the sound of the cabin starting to
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| − | depressurize.
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| − |
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| − | I hit the hyperdrive key, but nothing happened. Suddenly there was the sound of
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| − | a large explosion.
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| − |
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| − | "Drive damaged," came the soft voice of the computer once again.
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| − | "No shit Sherlock!" I yelled back at it. "Pam, you've got it!" I shouted over
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| − | the cacaphony of alarms and leaking air.
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| − |
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| − | I pulled myself out of the seat. I'd have to do something about the loss of air.
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| − | Obviously the automatic systems must have been damaged - the ship should do this
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| − | itself. I could feel my ears popping as the cabin pressure fell. Fortunately,
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| − | the gravity generators were still working. I could feel the occasional tug as
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| − | they tried to keep up with Pam's wild evasive manoevering. I wrenched the
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| − | emegency flight deck isloation lever. I heard the airtight hatches slam closed,
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| − | and the sound of escaping air cease. I jumped back into my seat and pulled my
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| − | harness back down. The cabin pressure showed 700 hPa and increasing, plenty to
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| − | sustain life.
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| − |
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| − | Things weren't looking good. A lone Viper was slowly killing us. Our ship was
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| − | vastly superior equipment, but the Viper was winning. We made another futile
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| − | attempt to hit the Viper. It was if he could see into the future, and not be
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| − | wherever our laser was. In desperation, I launched our only missile, an NN-550.
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| − | Suddenly, the Viper dived towards us, hurtling right over the top of the Asp.
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| − | Quickly glancing on the rearview, I could see what he was trying. The sly old
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| − | fox was trying to have the missile lock onto us instead!
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| − |
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| − | I saw my chance. The Viper was distracted by the missile, and had offered me an
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| − | opportunity I couldn't refuse. I applied full main thrusters and turned to face
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| − | the Viper's rear. This time he didn't evade our lasers - the beam laser started
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| − | to rapidly deplete his shields. He swerved to get out of our beam, but now I had
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| − | him. I hit him a couple more times. Suddenly, the missile streaked by the Asp.
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| − | It hadn't locked onto us, and was still after the Viper. A few seconds later, it
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| − | hit the Viper and exploded with a white flash of energy. I could see debris
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| − | streaming out of our quarry. The hunter had now become the hunted. A few more
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| − | hits from the laser, and the Viper suddenly exploded in a burst of light and
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| − | debris. I watched the wreckage spin away in the blue light of Phekda, and from
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| − | the middle of the wreckage came an escape capsule...
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| − |
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| − | Pam looked at me questioningly as I pointed the ship at the escape capsule.
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| − |
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| − | "Don't tell me you're going to do it!" she said.
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| − |
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| − | I didn't even answer before the laser vaporised the escape capsule and its
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| − | occupant. Pam looked at me with a slight look of horror at what I had just done.
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| − | "Look, I know what you're thinking. But if you don't finish them off, they just
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| − | come back again and try and do you in a second time." My explanation was simple
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| − | and to the point.
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| − | "But still..."
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| − |
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| − | Her voice trailed off. I could see she could see the cold logic of it. I never
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| − | felt to good about wasting escape capsules, but I had learned what happens if
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| − | you don't finish them off. They come back, seething with vengance and equipped
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| − | with a better ship. Whoever we had encountered was a good combateer. I had never
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| − | been in a battle where I felt so out of control. I did not want to ever meet him
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| − | again.
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| − |
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| − | "OK, let's get a damage report," I said in a businesslike manner. We had a ship
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| − | to run.
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| − |
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| − | The damage report duly came. Hyperdrive was inoperative, several hull breaches,
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| − | left thruster damaged and the naval ECM inoperative. This looked quite bad.
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| − |
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| − | "OK, we better suit up," I said. "I'm going to try and check out the damage".
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| − |
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| − | I pulled out a vacuum suit. These items were still rather bulky even now, but it
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| − | would at least enable me to check out the rest of the ship. Pam also did the
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| − | same. She remained on the flight deck, but since there was a hull breach in the
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| − | living section and no airlock between it and the flight deck, the whole ship
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| − | would be a total vacuum once I had re-opened the airtight hatches. I returned
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| − | the emergency hatch lever to its normal position, and the remaining air escaped
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| − | from the flight deck.
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| − |
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| − | It was not a pretty sight. There was a large hole where the Viper's laser had
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| − | penetrated the hull into the living section. There had been a brief fire until
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| − | the lack of oxygen had choked it out. As I went back into the equipment deck
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| − | things got worse. There was a large hole through which I could see open space.
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| − | Two shield generators had been totally destroyed. The brand new Class 3 Military
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| − | Drive was an unrecognisable lump of partially melted duralium alloy. The exposed
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| − | core was blown into two pieces. We had to jettison it before it caused us any
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| − | problems. To my relief, the prime mover was still intact so we'd have no
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| − | problems reaching our destination.
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| − |
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| − | Unfortunately, the jettison system didn't work. One of the mounts had welded
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| − | itself to the side of the drive remnants. The cutting torch soon saw to that,
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| − | and the wreckage was ejected into space. I thought of all the credits it cost to
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| − | fit the drive...this trip was going to be expensive.
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| − |
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| − | It did turn out to be extremely expensive. The repairs to the hull cost a small
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| − | fortune, and I couldn't get a military drive at Phekda. I had to get a standard
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| − | Class 3 and remove a number of shield generators. After visiting the family, I
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| − | went directly to Sol and obtained a new Class 3 military drive. All said and
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| − | told, this little episode cost me nearly 100,000 credits. I was just about flat
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| − | broke by the time my ship was back to the state it was when we started the
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| − | journey. On the bright side of it, at least my family was pleased to see me. I
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| − | did feel guilty about not telling them what I did for a living. I lied and said
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| − | I was a trader. Needless to say, I didn't show them the ship until the repairs
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| − | were complete!
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| − |
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| − | And our friend in the Viper? We went through the flight data recorder and found
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| − | he'd been following us for 20 AU. He had been analysing our combat style as we
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| − | dealt with the pirates. We never could find out who he was. I'm still curious to
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| − | know where he came from, and what his combat rating was.
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| − | © 1999 Dylan Smith.
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| − |
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| − | [The End]
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| | == Downloads == | | == Downloads == |
