The Hellstrom Deception 3
28 Jun 2023Creamy Goodness III
Find Part 2 here
They were running too hot for Thargoid encounters already, and Creamy had only used the boost once. Interference was glitching the display and the ships external camaras, making Creamy a little tense. Escaping a raider was normal space flight for him, but doing it in a mine field with unreliable instruments and damaged engines was another matter altogether.
“Launch the damn sink Cream, before the hull starts to dissolve” called Vodan gripping the arms of his seat.
“Heat sinks won’t help with that. We ne..”
“Not the fucking heat sinks, the caustic sinks or we’ll.. Fuck this” cursed Vodan leaning over Creamy and finding the caustic sink button for himself.
“You’ve never actually flown in a maelstrom huh? And I guess Errand of Mercy built this ship for you, and you just pay-rolled it right?” he asked
Creamy looked coy as he flew around a caustic generator. It was pulsing orange and started to follow them, ready to explode. Keeping the speed up, Creamy gently twitched the stick, using the generator and its deadly cloud as cover from the Mamba chasing them down.
“Well, they are a charity you see, and I’m not up on all th..” Started Creamy defensively, as a wild shot from the Mamba hurtled by not even close to hitting them.
Creamy hadn’t imagined any of the raiders would be so dedicated to the hunt, that they would jump into a maelstrom system, let alone follow them inside the blinding minefield its self. After Meowers had kicked the nest, and the raider fleet had been decimated by the angary swarm she stirred up, Creamy thought that would be the end of the chase.
Now, he should be sitting here calmly chatting with Vo.. Vo-Something, about the chaps cunning plan to save them both from the somewhat single-minded Vengerfield. Not running for his life deeper into the heart of alien wrath. It was clear Creamy didn’t know what he was doing; he didn’t even know the ship had Caustic Sink Launchers, and Vo___ had spent the only peaceful few minutes they had studying the Maelstrom Operations Manual, Creamy didn’t know Errand of Mercy had installed on his computer.
“Ninette, give this chap co-pilot clearance please”
“Bout damn time Cream” said Vodan getting back in his seat “Now try to lose penis-breath back there or we're both dead”
That is what Creamy had been doing. He was watching the rear view in his helmets hud as closely as the interference would let him, keeping out of view. The Caustic Generator behind them blew, and Creamy used the explosion as cover to change direction, looking for another to use in the same way.
The Knight was still hot enough to trigger the silent centuries of the maelstrom, but his ship wouldn’t be anywhere near as hot as the pilot firing blind rail shots in hopes of hitting a target using ephemeral cover. The following Mamba had to turn hard to avoid hull- devouring slime left behind by the detonated generator.
The main tool Creamy had to use against this pilot was manoeuvrability. There wasn’t a lot in it, but Mambas’ were built for straight line speed. Seeing the underside of the Acinonyx, and its heading thanks to the green trail, Creamy made a turn and looked for another generator to fly behind.
The interference caused by the maelstrom was getting worse the deeper his ship sank into the stagnant murk. Holo-displays flickered and projected to the wrong place. Fragments of the display formed on the scope making it unreliable. Even the feed from the rear camera snapped on and off, freezing or getting cut into nothing by white lines of static. The only reliable navigation instruments Creamy had were his eyes, and memory. At least he had twenty twenty vision.
Creamy spotted a generator along a flight line that would work, but this time he didn’t boost. He was banking on the Mambas’ slower turn, and the few moments it would take the Pilot to spot him on the glitching mess of the holo-display, and the thickening mist of the maelstrom.
Still too warm, the Knight tripped the drifting Thargoid defence, and it started pulsing as it gave chase; a clear warning it was going to explode. Creamy dropped a heat sink and turned-on Creeping Frost. Everything that wasn’t defensive or necessary to fly, turned off, including the weapons and life support.
“Ninette, turn the hud back to default, and make the exhaust accent orange please m’dear” whispered Creamy.
Until now the Knight had been leaving blue trails, so the change in colour may add a level of confusion, and orange would blend in well with the Thargoid mines, and the red lightning back lights.
With every light off and the cool blue holo displays back to PF Orange, the cockpit of the Knight seemed just as dark and the maelstrom outside. For a moment, the only sound either man could hear was their own breath inside their sealed pressure suits. The rear display was useless, and the scope was twitching so much, the Mambas’ contact appeared to be in front of them as often as it was behind.
Distant red lightning cracked bronze in the mist, momentarily illuminating the Silhouettes of generators, and other Thargoids ahead. Creamy gave the main drive a quick burn to keep them ahead of the caustic generator and closed his eyes. The after image of the lighting was a bright green streak in the darkness, but the Silhouettes it had cast were fading into blobs of blackness.
Picking one blob that had seemed close when his eyes were open, Creamy waited, concentrating on its location according to the fading after image. He imagined how he would fly if he was in the Mamba chasing this ship, and flew to keep the Generator between them. Soon, he felt something like a breath of wind flow up the stick, and guessed it must have been the generator exploding.
He dropped a heat sink, and heard another pop from the caustic sink launcher too. His co-pilot was on top of that thankfully. Quickly he changed direction, heading for where he felt the next generator was with just one push from the engines before he cut them to drift.
The sound of frost forming on the glass made Creamy open his eyes. If it wasn’t for the glitching display highlighting the cockpit in orange, opening his eyes hadn’t much difference. Still aiming for the next hiding place, the Knight drifted through Thargod fog so think, Creamy watched it peel away from the canopy like smoke.
Another crack of lightning lit up the cloud and the caustic Generator a scant few hundred meters ahead of Creamys’ ship. Resisting the urge to jerk the stick, Creamy gently drifted down, around, and back up behind the generator using nothing be the manoeuvring jets before bringing the ship to stillness.
Both him and Vo-Whatsit held their breath looking at the useless scope, waiting for another volley of super accelerated death to smash through the frosted canopy and take their lives. Neither men were moving, hardly breathing, just waiting to see if they would live to take a next breath at all.
After a lifetime of anticipation, Vodan exhaled long and slow, before letting his spine and shoulders relax. Double checking his helmet com was only broadcasting to Creamy, he finally spoke.
“That was some escape Cream, you slippery fuck, but the Acinonyx is still out there. Mutara is in too deep to run, I guess. I’ll bet he’s watching his hull melt away and thinking he’ll take us with him”
Creamy knew he was right, naturally. If the man had come this far, he wasn’t going to run now. Unless he had Caustic Launchers, his ship would be in a bad way. Vodan watched Creamy thinking, and knew what was in his head. Creamy was not a killer, he was good at running until he could jump. In here, jumping was not an option. Mutara is a killer, and a very efficient killer at that.
“Cream, give me the stick. You’ve given us breathing space, now let me finish playing cat & mouse with Mutara”