In the Navy: Chapter 3 - Vipers
31 Jan 2017Nicholas Locke
Well, that didn’t exactly go to plan, now did it? I sped through the valley at as high a speed as I could without hitting the ground at either side of me. The Eagle I had found moments before was a pile of wreckage a few kilometers behind me. The first missile had knocked out his shields entirely, the second tearing off his left wing as he tried to turn towards me.
What I hadn’t expected was that he had two viper friends nearby that didn’t read on my sensor, because they had been hidden behind one of these valley walls. My eyes darted between looking at my sensor, where I was flying and over my shoulder. I pulled back on the controls, rising up slowly to get a quick view of my surroundings. In front of me clear sky, with more valleys below snaking around the countryside. Sensors clear. A quick look over my right shoulder and…
A lone black shape pulls out from behind a hill, and proceeds to turn towards me. My Eagle starts beeping warnings at me, the continuous tone of the lock warning as it automatically deployed chaff and flares.
Immediately pulling the stick to the left, pulling, and pushing the throttle to maximum, I bank towards a hilltop, pass over it and dive into the gorge below to evade it. I take another glance over my left shoulder, past the launched flares. Nothing yet. Eyes back to my direction of travel, the ground rapidly coming to meet me, another pull to the left, following the valley to where I had seen the Viper.
I cut through the radio silence with a single plea,
“Gaius, Two vipers searching for me, would appreciate some assistance.”
As ever his curt reply came quickly.
“Inbound, hold out.”
Easier said than done.
Against a single Viper, I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with attacking in the Eagle, but it was easier than trying to take both of them on at once, and if I surprised him, I actually stood a chance.
I looked above me during the turn, scanning the horizon to see if he was chasing me, or if I could manage to catch him unaware.
Turns out, Vipers are a hell of a lot faster than I gave them credit for.
I saw a shadow fly above me, and I turned to chase it, before a seeker slammed into my shields, causing them to fail, the force disabling my sensors, and along with them, the majority of the information displayed on the HUD.
Warning tones blared through the cockpit, and the onboard computer started listing the ship failures. An orange light turned bright inside of a button labeled ‘Master Caution’, just in case I already didn’t fully understand the situation I found myself in.
The computer finished spouting its list at me, bringing the total list of failures to, shields, Reaction Control Systems, primary power, and, the sensors.
Shields, RCS and the power I could live without, but missing the sensors I lacked altitude tapes, distance readouts, terrain mapping, and most importantly, the ability to lock missiles.
They could still be fired, of course, but they’d be left to find a target on their own, which could hit the enemy I shot it at, or just as easily hit a friendly.
The viper passed over my nose in one of its turns, and I accelerate to chase it, the Eagle reacting strangely without its automated corrections. Pulling the trigger on the stick, I could hear and feel the Multicannon above me firing, and missing completely before I could correct its aim by sight. It occurred to me around this time that Gaius wasn’t here, and I didn’t have to worry about a blue on blue incident yet.
That’s not mentioning that in this condition, the Eagle wouldn’t be airborne for long. My thumb moved to the flat red and black button on the top of the stick, pressing it four times in a slow, deliberate way.
With the sporadic multi-cannon fire and the missiles striking it, the viper went lurching into a valleyside, and I was left limping through a canyon, with no eyes searching for the second viper.
A white streak of a missile trail blazed in front of my ship’s nose, continuing on a solid path to the left, before being followed by the white blur of a courier, letting all weapons loose upon a contact that I was blind to.
As I was no longer the primary target of anything I knew was there, I opened up the right side display to view the integrity of everything that was holding me together.
Shit.
At least, what was trying to hold me together. Landing gear, Powerplant gone, Auxilliary about to give out, along with the drives. Power distributor, frame shift drive, radar warning, communications, all gone. Chaff was pretty much useless when it was working anyway, nothing of value lost there. A fire warning was displayed over the integrities.
I half heartedly reached through the holographic display towards three T handles, pulling all three and I heard the fire extinguishers deploy. I looked around leaning back into the pilot’s seat and saw Gaius’ courier flying next to me, his hand raised, pointing up.
I shook my head at him, and he pointed downwards.
A quick nod in reply. He stared at me for a long moment, before quickly banking and pulling away.
Looking down, I stared at a final yellow and black T-handle. With one final glance to the white courier shrinking into the distance, I pulled the handle, and launched myself into the air.