More Than Nicole Bargained For
30 Jul 2022Ember Lacson
So, a few days ago Nicole was checking information in the AXI knowledge base when she saw they were having an event tonight. She decided she wanted to see what AX combat was like with a ton of other people watching her back, so she hopped on another CMDR's carrier and headed out to the Morningstar. She didn't let me know until she requested docking, and I happened to be on the command deck at the time. When I heard my traffic controller call out "DeLacy November India Charlie," I told her to patch me through, and Nicole and I had a brief chit chat about her reason for visiting. She said she wanted to see a Thargoid up close and she knew I was probably going out with the AXI, so she bummed a ride. We agreed she would just be there to watch, and she would let me and the COVAS handle all the flying, shooting, and so on. She strapped into the co-pilot seat, and we jumped over to HIP 22460. The AXI were fighting around the FNS Varian Scott again, so that meant she would be in for a wild ride. I asked if she wanted to turn back as we approached the drop point, and she said, "Hell no." We dropped out of supercruise about eight klicks away from a Hydra, with a dozen ships' worth of beam lasers lighting it up.
"Oh my God," she said.
"That's a Hydra," I explained. "The meanest, toughest Interceptor. I've only been able to scratch them with the whole team here." I deployed hardpoints and started blasting away at the hull. If you've never fired a Guardian Gauss Cannon, the recoil makes the whole ship shudder. Nicole shrieked at the first shot, and I reassured her that everything was okay, that we were safe. Sure enough, the Hydra paid us no mind, going after the juicier Corvettes and Clippers that orbited it in a colorful dance of death. They had already knocked off three of its hearts, so it wasn't long before the thing was done for, and she sat stunned, mouth agape as it let out its death cry and exploded three klicks away.
"So, what do you think?" I asked as we vacated the area to await a fresh wave of enemies.
"It's goddamn terrifying," she said. "That's what we're up against?"
"It's the worst they have to throw at us," I replied. "But usually they send two at the end of every major skirmish."
"Two?!" I had never seen such fear in her eyes.
I nodded. "No big deal for these guys. Strength in numbers, power in skill. I hope this didn't scare you away from it."
"Are there smaller Interceptors?" she asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, three classes, plus little Scouts. Annoying as shit, but usually they're wet tissue paper in these kinds of skirmishes." Right about then one of the CMDRs in my wing signaled that new hostiles were seen converging on the Varian Scott and it was time to go back. I asked Nicole if she wanted to throw in the towel, and she asked if there was a chance to see the smaller Interceptors. I explained that there tend to be two waves of Interceptors in each raiding party, and that the first wave is usually the smaller Cyclops and Basilisk variants, with an occasional Medusa. She told me she wanted to see them, so we headed back in for another battle.
This one was different. It really helped her to see how insignificant the Scouts were, especially under the Varian Scott's laser volleys. And when the Cyclopes came knocking we knocked harder, and under our concentrated fire, each one disintegrated just after losing the first heart. A Medusa came in along with them, and while it took several minutes to knock it out, it wasn't that hard to hit. I even nailed a couple of final blows on its hearts. After that, several more waves of Scouts flew in, and things got pretty boring. Once they were dealt with, I handed over the controls and taught Nicole some lessons about maneuvering thrusters and FA Off—which I admit I still don't know jack shit about—as we orbited the midsection of the Varian Scott. After a few minutes of fun and laughter I asked Nicole if she was feeling better about the whole thing, and she actually smiled and said yes.
Right then Celeste, my COVAS, alerted us about a frame shift anomaly. "What's that?" Nicole asked.
"Hydras," I replied. The mantle of stars tore open about six klicks in front of us, and one of them emerged. I sidled up to one of the bigger ships, many of which have shutdown field neutralizers. The wave enveloped us but had no effect thanks to the nearby Corvette.
"What happens if that gets us?" she asked.
"Thirty seconds, dead in the water," I said. "I can't bring one of those neutralizers without sacrificing a shield booster or heatsink, so I just run like hell and take it."
"Do you ever—" She shrieked as a massive object slammed into our shields and sent us for a tumble. "What the shit was that?!"
"Clipper," I said, checking my radar and seeing both Interceptors at a safe distance. "It can get bumpy when we're in tight like this."
"Do the Interceptors ever damage you when you're drifting dead?" she asked, finishing her question.
"Almost bought the farm one time," I said. "I don't mean to scare you, but c'est la guerre." By now the target Hydra was down a heart. "This is dangerous stuff, after all."
"I'm just going to shut up and let you fly," she said. And she did for another half hour as we hit the Hydra with everything we had and finally saw it go. She kept quiet, eyes fixed on the canopy, hands gripping the arm rests, until she noticed the second Hydra turn and face us down. "Is that—?" It loosed a volley of rapid fire, high damage plasma rounds, and she shrieked.
"Yup," I said, looking down at my shield indicator. I'd been running with three pips to engines and three to weapons for maneuverability, and by the time I dumped to systems, Celeste announced, "Shields offline."
"Oh my God!" Nicole gasped. "We're going to die!"
"This girl's a tank," I said. "She'll hold together." I dumped power to shields and engines and boosted the hell away. But the Hydra would not let up.
Armor down to eighty-five. "Caustic damage detected." I ripped a full volley with the Gauss cannons. "Warning—temperature critical. Taking heat damage!" One more volley. "Caustic substance removed." Dumped a heatsink. Nicole still screaming. Hydra still angry.
"Hang on!" I said, and I dumped full pips to engines and boosted in the opposite direction, out to about six klicks. I maintained that distance until my shields were up, when I dumped power back to them and rejoined the fleet, who had taken aggro back from me. "Bail or stay?" I asked. Nicole said nothing. "Bail or stay?" I repeated, concern in my voice, looking over my shoulder to her.
"S— stay," she stammered. Her mascara had run down her cheeks, and all color had left her face. Her mouth hung open, lower lip quivering.
"Are you sure?"
"I— I want to see this through."
"Roger." I jammed the throttle forward and we accelerated toward the Hydra. The Hydra's shield was back to zero again, so I started ripping volleys with the Gauss. The collective might of the AXI tore off two more hearts before I strayed too close and the bug painted a target on my hull. Nicole melted into terrified screams again as the Hydra tore at our shields, but I caught it earlier and boosted away sooner, and thankfully this time the it lost attention after a few seconds instead of what seemed like a few minutes.
I looked over my shoulder again, asked Nicole if she was okay. She said, "No, but don't stop."
"Okay," I said. "It's almost done now. I'll keep my distance and let the big ships deal." I stayed back and sniped at the exerted hearts from almost the full range of my Gauss Cannons. I don't think I did all that much, apart from helping exert and re-exert the hearts. But after a few more minutes we emerged victorious and the last Thargoid of that raiding party was no more.
We stayed there for a long moment as the other fighters started to move away from the Varian Scott, eyes locked together. "How do you feel?" I asked at length.
"Get me the hell out of here," she said, and I set our destination for the Morningstar again. We high-waked out as soon as we could, and on the two thousand light second supercruise flight I apologized for the scares with the second Hydra, saying that it's unavoidable but not really that common when fighting with the AXI. I asked her if she had any regrets coming out here or wished she had waited longer. And she shook her head. "No. I'm glad I did. I've seen vids of this kind of combat, but nothing compares to the full experience. I'm not ready to fly in this shitstorm, but I want to be here when they set off the Proteus Wave. I want to see the aftermath. And then I want to see the first Guardian site. A tour on foot, you and me."
"That can be arranged," I said.
We didn't speak much until we had landed and disembarked. As soon as the elevator hit the hangar floor she took the deepest breath I had ever seen a human take and said, "Good to be back under the protection of station-grade lasers."
"It's a good place to be," I said. We walked together to the elevator, and we turned to face each other as we waited for it to arrive. She stood there, blonde hair no longer kempt, makeup smudged, face streaked with dark mascara and eyeliner mixed with salty tears...and without a word she rose to her tiptoes and kissed me full on the mouth. We had to re-summon the elevator, because we couldn't break away from each other when it opened. It wasn't how I imagined our first kiss, but I'm not going to complain.
From there she went to grab a shower and clean her face off. She grabbed the quarters next to mine—which I'd been saving for her—and after she had freshened up we grabbed some food together. Now she's meditating in her quarters and I'm finishing this entry up before I drop by The Dweller's place, which is a stone's throw from my old stomping ground in Dahan. I haven't used my remote release flak launcher like at all. Apparently it's because the Guardian tech is pissing off the bugs and they're not using their Thargon swarms like they usually do. So, once I'm done here I'm planning on heading back to the Varian Scott for another couple skirmishes, but this time I'll have a big ol' thermal vent beam laser instead of the flak launcher. (Update: by the time I got the thermal vent mod installed, the AXI was fighting xeno sympathizers in addition to the bugs themselves, and you couldn't pay me enough to be in that fight at this point in my combat career. So back to the Morningstar and off to bed.)
Nicole will be living on the carrier for probably a few months, so we can see where things go with "us." I'm also going to encourage her to start posting logbook entries when she gets back to the Pilots Federation Zone, so when she does I might shoot y'all a link. Until then, fly dangerously...but not too dangerously. o7