The Hellstrom Deception
22 Jun 2023Creamy Goodness III
This is a continuation of the events that started in The The Bar when Vodan Questioned Meowers about a man he had been following for a while. The last part involving Vodan and Creamy can be found here
Part 1
They weren't exactly crossing the boundless gulf of deep space, but they were heading for the first planet next to the systems second star. In Thargoid occupied space, they may as well be chum in a shark filled ocean. It should have been a flight of five minuets or less, but the alien predators had other intentions.
For the third time, Creamy ignored the escape vector for the interdiction, and tried to keep the destination ahead of the ship when he killed the throttle. His ship, A Knight of Goodness didn’t quite make the perfect speed for outrunning Interceptors, but it was close. Some fancy flying from Creamy made up for the couple dozen MPS the Krait MkII was missing.
As a raider, surrendering and boosting was not a good plan. Vodan had disabled many ships that tried that on him, but it had worked for a third time against the Thargoids now, so he had to admit Creamy seemed to know what he was doing.
“One more dash and I think we should make it to the Maelstrom. I hear the Thargoids are not eager to bother a chap when he’s in the cloud. If that is the case, we’ll stop there and let a limpet or two fill in some dents’ what?” said Creamy calmly.
Vodan didn’t look impressed by the idea, and he didn’t reply.
“Have you worked out how to use the Pulse whats-a-ma'jig yet? I hear it’s damned important” Asked Creamy trying to get something out of Vodan.
“Hm, yeah. Its like the field neutralizer only with added heat, so dump a sink with it. Must be down to timing, and I guess you have to know what you're trying to avoid. From what I’m reading, the titan drops a pulse that will fuck everything unless we pop that thing to cancel the effect. So.. Still not looking like a good plan Cream”
Vodan turned off the holo-screen he was reading and looked at Creamy. Dropping into a Goid system to shake off the hunting parties from Vodans' old command was a good idea. The ships from the carrier he used to run were equipped for praying or miners and cargo haulers. The Anansi and its fleet were infamous along the trade routs, but didn't even register as a threat to the ancient dwellers of the void.
“Listen, we got at best, half hour and change before the master gets a carrier here with strom-capabel ships to hunt us down. In the meantime, we’ll be dealing with the pilots good enough, and crazy enough to follow us into that ..”
Vodan pointed to the cloud outside and rolled his hand thinking of a term for it, as Creamy slowed the Knight ready to drop out of supercruise.
“.. Death Nest. And that’s not even thinking about the Goids or the fuckin titan at the centre. Look man, we’re going to go see the master, so let’s stop fucking about with this, this thing and just go yeah?”
Now he was looking at the Maelstrom, Creamy felt like he had made a mistake. The second star was a small crimson eye casting scant baleful red embers in place of light. The dark stain hanging beside the bleak ammonia world like a diseased leech, looked even more menacing highlighted by the dim inferno-red light leaking from the star.
It was clear Vodan did NOT want to explore the maelstrom, and Creamy couldn’t blame him, but he had been told there was a quiet band outside the body of the cloud where a ship could wait. Goids would patrol the area, but they seemed to have trouble finding a cold ship in the thick miasma. Unless a sort of Thargoid mine that belched caustic gas into the cloud was triggered, they would have some rest-bite, and Creamy was sure two pairs of eyes would be enough to help steer clear of those.
“That's easy for you to say old boy. After all, they were your chums at one stage. All they have done to me is hunt me, abduct me, and try to interfere with a budding relationship between myself and the doctor. That doesn't even elude to the sound beating, numerus injuries, and deeply evil things you.. people did to a woman that was going to be abused just to brake me"
"If you want me to just hand myself over to Vengerfield for round two, I’m going to need a damn sight more convincing, that man!”
“Yeah I get that, but at some point we gotta leave here, and I think its best if..”
Vodan was interrupted by another interdiction, but this time it wasn’t a Thargoid. Their back and forth had made them both forget to watch the scope for approaching craft, and now someone had a tether on them.
“Oh dear!” understated Creamy wrestling with the stick.
They were close to the Maelstrom, and that was close to the planet. Creamy tried to pull away in hopes of ending this interdiction on his terms, but it was too late. Automatic Pilots Federation mandated systems kicked in, and the two ships were snapped out of supercruise by the planet's outer atmosphere, on the edge of the Maelstrom. While Creamy was fighting to regain control of a wildly drifting ship, Vodan checked to see what had tethered them.
It was a Mamba. Only one pilot had a Mamba when Vodan was in charge of the Anansi, and he was a ship-killer not to be fucked with.