Arrival at the Renegade, and a Rescue Mission.
06 Jun 2022Ember Kurokishi
Ember had made it to the DPHS Renegade, she'd never been aboard the carriers despite having seen them in orbit around the various planets. These hulking behemoths of ships, came about after the start of her career with the Pilots Federation. Her Python touched down, and immediately drops below the deck. As soon as she was clear, she disembarked and headed straight for the command deck. "I have something to share with you and Commander Cayce."
Captain Hudson replied : "You just missed him I'm afraid. However I will take a look at what it is you have to share."
Ember copies the message to the comms console next to Captain Hudson and immediately follows up with a question.
"He went to look didn't he?"
Captain Hudson only Nodded as he started to listen to the message
"Did Phoenix leave any ships aboard the Renegade? I'd like to help. She's a damn good friend and if I can help find her I'd like the chance too."
"You know this isn't standard procedure right? Pilots aren't allowed to take ships not registered too them. If I let you take one of her ships and it is destroyed we will not be able to replace it." Hudson spoke with a level of understanding and a stern undertone. Ember could tell he had a military background.
"My Pythons not equipped to jump that far without needing a refueling stop, she's a combat vessel first and foremost. Refitting it could take too long, if I thought it'd make it in time I'd already be off!" Ember replied.
Hudson thought for a moment "Well if she doesn't come back it will just sit here until we find a way to either transfer ownership or the thing falls apart in the bay. Get the ship ready on Pad 10. Commander Ember if anything happens to that ship you are financially responsible." he gives a serious look.
Ember smirked : "I can afford it, don't you worry bout that. Also, thank you."
"It's the only ship she left on board with us, all others remain on her carrier the Alexandria. Commander Cayce is out there searching for her and I refuse to lose another Commander to whatever is out there. Make sure he comes back, and that will be enough of a thank you for me" Hudson gave an affirmative nod and went back to work."
Ember makes her way to Hanger 10 and when she gets there what she finds is an old Alliance Crusader.... Thing looked like it hadn't flown in awhile, and was missing a fair bit of paint right down to the name plate being worn off to the point of no longer being legible. Dust and dirt could be seen from the various worlds it had landed on. Some rust in places where the paint had long ago worn off.
"What can you tell me about her?" Ember looked to one of the deckhands.
"I can tell you she's armored well enough to withstand a fight while having a solid jumprange for one of these ships.. Approximately 40 Light years, and is packing an SRV baby with 2 scorpions and 2 scarabs which appear to be in better shape than the ship herself. As well as Missile racks, to put it simply Commander, she was made to assault ground targets and carry a fireteam into the fray." The Deckhand replied.
"All I have to ask is will she give me any trouble?" Ember asked curiously as she started tossing her gear into the ship.
"It might be a rough take off the gear had issues when she came in to land but if you can get them put away, she should be fine otherwise... all systems check out despite her rough outward appearance." The deckhand chuckled. "Trust me we looked her over"
"Well no time to waste then. This is Commander Ember requesting to launch" The ship was bought back above deck and released, it lifted off the pad fine. Sure enough one of the landing gear gave Ember a bit of trouble.
"Comon old girl, don't be stubborn with me!" She applied some downward thrust and hit the offending gear against the pad below... which forced it to comply. "No time for repairing that I've got people to save"
Soon the Crusader was outside of the No Fire Zone and then it was away. Other than the incident with the landing gear all else with the trip seemed to work smoothly. Ember's own explorer ship was undergoing repairs after a Cobra MKIII crashed into it leaving a station, and it was also unarmed. All she could hope as she jumped from star to star .... is that she wasn't too late.
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When she finally arrived in the starsystem, DG Canum Venaticorum she realized she hadn't asked which planet she was looking for.... luckily the ship seemed to find friendly signals on A 4 A. Ember pointed the Crusader in its direction and matted the throttle to escape the gravity of the star. The Crusader had the system maped out already, likely due to Phoenix scanning out the system prior, after all it was her ship. As Ember approached the planet, she noticed a strange named signal Iraxon Lane.
"This is odd, a named base in the middle of an unpopulated star system? That must be what Phoenix went to check out." Ember immediately puts the Crusader into a descent and glide towards the base... and what she finds when she gets there looks like a warzone. An Anaconda was circling the area around the base there was a wreck of an SRV that Ember could see was on fire and gunfire being exchanged within the base itself... The Anaconda registered as a friendly contact on the Crusaders Radar.... "That must be Commander Cayce."
Ember opens the comms : "Commander if you can hear me, get clear, I've got a really stupid idea!" She says as the Crusaders Hardpoints deploy. multiple size 1 and size 2 missile racks deploy... with the size 3 failing to deploy and shutting down. "I swear... I am going to fix this thing if we make it home!" Ember notices a Black SRV engaging what appear to be multiple opponents. "Those must be the baddies" after seeing a friendly signature on the SRV too.
All that comes back over the Comms : "I'M A LITTLE BUSY AT THE MOMENT!"
Ember hits the boost closing the range between her and the base, with the hardpoints ready to fire she takes aim at those assaulting the SRV at range and squeezes the trigger. A volley of missiles leaves the Crusader and cause quite the explosion as it zooms over. Incapacitating several of the assailants. Ember circles around again, looking for more targets. The ship would be easily recognized by Cayce and he'd know there's no way its Phoenix flying it.
Cayce shouts over comms : "WE'RE GONNA HAVE A TALK WHEN THIS IS OVER! THAT SHIP SHOULD NOT BE FLYING ESPECIALLY WITHOUT PHOENIX!"
Ember : "TIME TO END IT THEN!" The Crusader does another, slower pass, this time shooting anything that wasn't too close to Cayce. Before boosting over the nearby ridge and taking out yet another baddie at 400m/s.
"Five Hundred tons of ship to the face... not a good way to go..."
She circled around one last time, deployed the landing gear. This time they actually deployed properly, and the ship set down. Ember opting to drop in one of the scarabs. The Crusader sat, with a few more battle scars from rounds that had bounced off and marks where plasma rounds had struck her hull. There was also a nice bit of red on the Lakon logo from the unfortunate soul that was splattered. Ember kept her wits about her realizing she may not have killed everyone and this was a very dangerous place. She pulled up next to Cayce. The Alliance patch on her shoulder was pretty noteworthy, "Not who you were expecting I take it? I have something to share with you." She beams the message from Phoenix to Cayce's comms panel. "She was never the type to be paranoid, she knew something was wrong. Seeing it for myself though, I have to wonder why they attacked."
Cayce : "All I care about is finding Phoenix, we can worry about who or what the fuck we're dealing with afterwards!"