#16
21 Aug 2021MoonSeeker2020
Ever had one of those moments when you were expecting one thing and were totally surprised upon discovering that what you expected was horribly incorrect? Yeah, I know lots of people that have had this happen repeatedly but when it happens in a life or death fight, it's incredibly scary.I picked up a contract to haul some Industrial Materials to Apalar. It was a pretty lucrative deal so I took the offer and loaded up my cargo racks. While the jump wasn't very far and the in-system trip was short, it was also incredibly boring. There wasn't really even enough time while loading to do more than catch a quick meal or grab a short nap. My ship, The Stark Raven, isn't currently rigged for massive cargo deliveries so loading her up and refueling isn't really a time consuming process.
On one of my deliveries; I was interdicted. I'm a fairly cautious pilot but this contract must have been just dull enough to take away my edge. That can be deadly in the black between stars. I was caught so off guard that I couldn't evade the interdiction cone that disrupts the ships star-drive. Getting yanked out of "supercruise" is a disorienting experience. My ships sensor systems are frankly the best I could get my hands on. Probably shouldn't even own this type of tech, to be honest, but it was a good deal and I didn't question where the seller got the equipment from. Alarms were going off in every module but with some quick work; I got my ship under control again. My scanner was showing just one ship where I was dumped out. I was quite shocked to see that ship was a Vulture-class Superiority Fighter! At first I thought it must have been one of the System Authority Ships that pulled me down for a surprise inspection. That happens now and then from what I'm told. I've actually never been stopped by System Authority without any warning though. Usually if they want to run a scan or even board and search, they will at least get on the com-link first.
Apparently either some rich kid decided to play Pirate or Pirates are getting some really good funding these days! There was no communication. This quipo just opened fire on me without even so much as some maniacal laughter over the com-link first. I admit that I was still reeling a bit from the surprising revelation that not only was I caught off guard, but that this guy was in a very high-end heavy fighter and meant me some significant harm! Trying to out maneuver a Vulture is almost pointless. Those ships might have some significant power plant issues but they have some of the best thrusters and maneuverability systems ever designed. This fight was going to test my skills. He started off with a salvo of heavy laser fire into my dorsal drive area which told me that he was looking for a quick kill by blowing my power plant. I rolled over and kicked my boosters into a flat spin to bring all my guns to bear on him. On the first pass, I know he must have been shocked at how much damage he took because I ripped his shields apart under sustained fire. Before he could turn and burn out of my fire cone, I was already turning and tracking. There was no way I could keep up with a dedicated fighter though so as soon as I saw him start to turn in on me for another pass, I set my countermeasures systems to work. I guessed that he was using targeting software based on his movements. Sure enough, his next pass only grazed my shields, and while I rolled to keep him away from my power plant, I also got him back in my gun-sights. This time I tore his drive section apart.
He went into a spinning roll that must have been very disorienting. I opened up a com channel to his ship and told him that under Federation authority, I was binding him by law, and beamed my Hunter credentials over to him. His response was surprising and disgusting at the same time. When he opened the channel on his end, I'm pretty sure I heard him vomiting but then she said "I'll never let you take me in, Federation dog! FOR THE EMPIRE!" She shut down the channel and I began to program a few drones to attach to her hull and stabilize her ship so that I could tether it and tow her to the nearest station. Before I could finish, her ship exploded!
I spent the better part of the day searching the wreckage for an escape capsule but I had no luck. Even with my ships sensor systems, I found nothing in the spinning wreckage.