Support Copian Xing Services in their efforts against Brotherhood of Terra Mater
09 Aug 2020Moses8uno
Date: 30Jul3306Location: Calarum, aboard the Tigress
Current Tasking: Support Copian Xing Services in their efforts against Brotherhood of Terra Mater
“Status report” I say to my Second while onboard Tigress headed towards our third Conflict Zone of the day. “Nav is tracking, weapons are on standby. Engineering?” Robert calls down to the power plant. “All good” Dom replies. “Full power on standby for any and all systems.” “Very good, everybody strap up. We are a light second out.” As we close and prepare to drop to normal space, I enjoy this brief respite before the storm that is waiting. Intel has marked this location as a particularly busy zone, so we must be ready for anything. From elite Spec Ops Wings and Captains piloting Anacondas to War Correspondents and even Capital Ships. Although, if a Capital Ship does drop by, its probably going to be on our side. The Brotherhood, being Anarchists, aren’t normally able to justify the procurement of such resources. The damned Brotherhood, the nuisance they have become recently… “Dropping in 3 seconds” my second, Robert, makes the report. I snap back to the present, the musings must wait.
We drop and deploy hardpoints. As we make our way towards the ‘center’, we check in with the Copian Xing Services Combat Commander for this Zone. “o7 CMDR, this is CMDR Moses and the crew of the Tigress, checking in. Available for tasking.” “CMDR Moses, good to have you onboard. Targets should be coming up on display now.” “Roger, we are in receipt of.” “Good hunting CMDR, priority targets will be uploaded once available.” “Roger, entering fray.” With that, we select our first target, a Deadly ranked Anaconda causing chaos for 3 of our ships, a Vulture and 2 Gunships. As I slide by, my scan completes and I think that gets their attention because the nose begins to drop our direction. “Set Pips to Combat default” I order. I boost and slide past as my 3 beams and singular railgun line up. We make quick work of their shields, but they aren’t a slouch either. They burn through 2 of the 3 rings of my shields and are maintaining nose on nose. So I boost to close the distance and fake a ram, but at the last second cut FA off and bring my nose around to match their heading. I slide by, belly to belly and reengage my FA. Just then, they boost, so I match the move, maintaining position on their stern. We make short work of their thrusters with the corrosive multi alternating with the rail. Beams stay near continuous. Soon after, they begin to drift with heavy smoke. Then the accompanying pop. The ships we assisted hit us on comms, thanking us for the support, they weren’t sure they could take that one. We wag our wings and then get ready to select the next target. “Inbound enemy spec ops wing.” As I go to glance at the report, Robert relays the details, “Sir, the wing is Vultures led by a FDL.” Great, bunch of speedsters. Probably the only thing really lacking on this baby is speed, besides some extra shielding. As I’m putting together a plan of attack…”Capital Class signature detected.” “Robert, tag the Wing Lead, get their attention and then take us down the top of the incoming Battlecruiser.” “How do you know its ours?” “Just a hunch Robert.” As we light up the FDL and divert their attention as well as their wingmates, we make haste towards the jump signature of what I’m hoping to be our assistance. As it emerges, it takes the shape of a Farragut Battlecruiser. I glance over at Robert and smile briefly, “Ready to have some fun?” “Umm, sir?” I laugh and then aim towards Battlecruiser. With the enemy wing hot on my tail, I line up with the top ‘plane’ of the Battlecruiser. Then toggle the FA off and flip Tigress around again, mimicking the maneuver I pulled on the Anaconda earlier, but this time against a much bigger vessel. “Sir?!” Robert is now visibly distressed, but he manages to not freak out. Then we are over the top of the capital ship, mere meters away from bouncing off the hull into the black. The FDL realizes what we’ve been doing and tries to turn away, but the emplacements of the capital ship are already opening fire on the entire wing. I toggle FA on again and then boost towards the belly of the now exposed FDL. “Light ‘em up Robert.” “With pleasure sir” the now noticeably relaxed Robert replies. After 4 satisfying pops, I remark, “That was probably the easiest wing we have taken, what do you say?” “Well I didn’t care for the maneuver, but yes, I must agree.” From then on, we focus on the highly ranked enemy pilots or any of our forces being double or triple teamed. Before long, the Brotherhood sounds the retreat and their pilots start scrambling out of the zone. As the last of them jump to SC, on fire and barely managing to keep it together, I pull up the Conflict Zone’s CMDR report. We didn’t take a single casualty. Not the first time, but always a welcome surprise and a bit of satisfaction, knowing we contributed to a few more pilots going back to their families today. “Robert, plot us a course for Darkport, lets cash in and grab some grub.” “Aye aye, enroute to Darkport.”
As we drop out of SC at Darkport, we approach and request Docking permission. Once granted, we throttle back and allow the docking computer to take over and bring us in. As it does each time, the immense size of the Coriolis is awe-inspiring to me. It is an engineering marvel that has been repeated time and time again throughout colonized space. For whatever reason, that fact doesn’t lessen the grandeur of it in my mind. After being lowered down into the bay, I pass on my instructions to the ground crew and then we disembark. “So, where we headed Boss” Dom asks as he hefts his toolbags to his shoulder. “I was thinking Barton’s, what yall think?” “Barton’s Bar and Grill?! That’s perfect, I ain’t in the mood for nothing too exotic tonight.” “Same, kick back with some wings, some brewskis, just chillin’, ya know?” Dom nods his head in acknowledgement. I glance at Robert, “You joining us, right?” “No, I need to get back, told the wife I would spend some more time at home, help with the newborn more…” He trails off. Seems a bit down. “I thought yall were going to use a maid?” “That was my idea originally after kid number two. We have the money, you’ve seen to that. But Hannah is wanting to stick to a more traditional method of childcare.” “Ah I see. Well have a good night, there is always next time, right? We are done for the day out there. Great work too, by the way. I know I may not say it as much as the next guy, but y’all really do make me proud every day, in everything across the board.” “Not a problem Moses, have a good night.” “Thanks, you too man!”
As we walk in, I motion to the barkeep, Kuyper. He acknowledges and points toward our area. He has a corner that he tries to keep clear for us. Nice, a bit away from the crowd, a good spot to hang with friends. “Ski?!” I exclaim in surprise. “How’d you know we’d be here?” “Well, I didn’t for sure. But I took a guess when Dom hit me up and said yall were heading in, I thought this might be the spot.” “Nice!” She gets up and I wrap her up in a big bear hug. Squeeze for a second and then she goes and hugs Dom similarly. We sit down and order our food and drinks.
Dom, Ski and I go way back, to my short stint in the Federal Navy. That’s where we met. It was our first ship for each of us, a Farragut class Battlecruiser, the Bav-E. While Dom and I worked in combat, correlating target data and assisting with track information; Ski worked engineering, becoming familiar with the equipment that comprised the power plant of the behemoths that are the capital ships. We came to find out in ports we hit that we enjoyed 3 things together; learning our jobs to the best of our abilities, drinking and the beauty of women (notice I said the beauty of women, not just ‘women’).
As our entrees are brought out to us, a messenger walks up and delivers a message to me. It bears the holo emblem of HiPS, our allies. I use my signet, which is biometrically enabled, to unlock the communique and quickly read the contents. “What is it Moses?” Ski asks. “It’s a message from Roxy stating that talks have begun between them and the invaders in their system. A mediator has stepped in to assist and seems to be a bit more diplomatic in their approach. Give me a few minutes yall, I need to contact one of my LTs from the Casualties.” I step away as I pull up my communicator.
Tigress departing Darkport for High CZ
