A Future Torn: Chapter 6 - Escape
15 May 2016LordPsymon
Previous chapter.A Future Torn: Chapter 6 - Escape
---Hangars - A week since Luke’s death---
Luke’s death was the tipping point for me. The point where I went from talking about ways to steal a ship and break out, to making a serious effort to execute the plan. My plan was to sneak into the hangar, reprogram one of the containers to be marked as an urgent delivery, smuggle myself onto a ship and hijack it. I spent a lot of time observing guards’ patrol patterns during my shifts, looking for a break in their movements that would allow me to slip away undetected.
The opportunity came a week later. The guards were called away to an incident not far out, leaving me the opportunity to sneak away to reprogram a container. Given that this was a normal job, none of the other slaves took notice. I had the container marked as urgent, then I climbed inside and waited.
...and waited.
The alarm sounded for the end of my shift. A guard outside noticed the container and I heard him approach.
"Hey! This container is marked urgent. Why the hell hasn't it been loaded and shipped off?" He yelled.
Another guard responded. "Huh? It wasn't there before." He ran up to the container and inspected it. "Oh shit! This should have left the base hours ago! Where's that Datura slave? Why the hell isn't he in here doing his job?"
"I'll go find him. You load the container into that Cobra over there. Hopefully we can get this sorted before any of the higher-ups notice."
"Yeah, okay. Give that slave a good smack for me would ya? I'm not thrilled to be doing his work."
"It'd be rude not to. Now get on with it, before anyone notices."
He loaded the container into the ship, and I waited until I thought he was gone. I lifted the cover of the container and climbed out. The guard was still aboard the ship and turned around quickly as he heard me climb out.
“What the…”
I took the cover off the top of the container and swung it. It made a loud metallic thump as it made contact with his head. He landed on the floor with a heavy thud, blood trickling down the side of his head. He rolled over as he struggled to collect himself. I reached down and pulled the pistol from his holster then emptied the clip into him. I heard an alarm sound outside.
Shit… That probably wasn’t the smartest idea.
I dragged the guard’s body down the entry ramp of the Cobra and threw him to the ground outside. There was a heavy thump as his lifeless body hit the floor. A group of guards were running toward me.
“I heard gunfire! This way!”
“Over there! It’s that Datura slave! Stop him! Don’t let that ship leave the hangar!”
I made a dash for the cockpit of the Cobra and skipped past the pre-flight checks. The engines hummed, gradually getting louder and higher pitched as they roared into life. I lifted the ship off the ground and closed the boarding ramp as the hangar doors started to close.
“Well, here goes!” I said as I pushed the throttle to full and engaged the boosters. I was pushed against the seat with the sudden acceleration and flew through the closing hangar doors. I was free.
“Woo! I’m out of there! Come get me you arseholes!”
I sat back on the seat and breathed a sigh of relief as the Cobra left the atmosphere. I unbuckled myself from the pilot’s seat and grabbed a pilot’s suit from the back of the cockpit.
---Unknown System - Deep Space---
The relief was short-lived. I was scooping fuel at a star when I noticed a wing appear on the sensors. They were on an interdiction vector. I turned the ship for my next way point, hoping I could charge the frame shift drive before they got a lock on me. The ship jolted as their interdiction module locked on. My attempts to out-run them failed and I was sent spinning after dropping out of supercruise.
I steadied the ship’s flight path and I went to deploy weapons.
No hardpoints installed.
"Well, I suppose I should have seen that coming," I mumbled.
"Simon Datura, power down your engines, or we will lay waste to that ship you took of ours."
"Do your worst. I'm not going back there, even if it means I go down in flames." I yelled back.
"Fine by me. You and the ship are replaceable. Alright boys, turn that Cobra into scrap!"
I turned to my way point and attempted to spool the frameshift drive. It took longer than normal due to the mass of the other ships. I kept firing the boosters to try and gain some distance, but they had opened fire. The shields glowed blue around the ship as it took damage from the enemy laser fire.
Shields offline.
I desperately attempted a few maneuvers to try and shake the enemy, but the Cobra was taking a beating. Sparks started flying from the dashboard and cracks appeared on the canopy.
Warning! Fire detected in starboard engine. Warning!
There was a loud shattering sound as the canopy glass blew out, and the Remlok survival mask from the pilot’s suit rapidly shut itself over my head. All I could hear was my rapid breathing and the sounds of my ship’s voice announcing further damage. I looked around me, convinced that this was the end. The ship veered to the side violently, sending the ship into an uncontrollable spin.
Starboard engine offline. Emergency thruster shutdown. Artificial gravity offline.
“Check the ship, I want to make sure he is dead in there.”
I froze in place, pulling myself below the dashboard. A viper approached the ship slowly, facing toward my shattered cockpit. It lit up as his headlight shone inside.
“Nope. He’s dead alright. There’s no way he survived in there. That Cobra is Swiss cheese.”
“Good work men, let’s get out of here.”
The cockpit went dark as the Viper pulled out. I emerged from below the dashboard in time to watch the wing of ships disappear in a blue flash as they jumped out.
The ship drifted into the black, tumbling slowly. The port engine sputtered intermittently, as if clinging on to what little life it had left. I pulled myself toward the modules console to observe the damage.
***Fire detected in cargo bay***
***Starboard thruster offline***
***Life support offline***
***Artificial gravity offline***
***Power plant integrity compromised***
Well, I fucked that one up didn't I?