The Only Good Bug...
24 Sep 2024Doc Scalawag
I thought I knew hell.Seven years as a Federal Marine, I thought I'd seen everything, but nothing prepared me for Shinrarta Dezrha. I dropped out of supercruise a handful of kilometers from the mangled Jameson Memorial Space Station. My comms crackled to life as hundreds of voices filled the cockpit of my brand new Krait, dubbed the <i>Fermi Paradox<i/>. Other AX Pilots corridinating strikes on the several Medusa and Hydra Thargoid interceptors mingled with cries from help within the station. A desperate flight control operator struggled to keep the panic from her voice as she tried to direct the slew of large spacecraft trying to aid the rescue effort. A more disturbing cry echoed above them all, "Bug sympathizers are gatekeeping the mail slot! We can't.-" The line went dead as a Saud Kruger Orca came apart a few hundred meters in in front of the station."
"Please! Those people need our-" Another ship, an Anaconda, disappeared within a fireball.
"Bastards!" I exclaimed, unable to do anything more than watch in my shieldless Krait as, one after another, rescue ships fell beneath the guns of these lunatics, the guns of the dying station behind them doing little to prevent the massacre.
"You here to watch, or are you here to fight, Commander?" A familiar voice rang out across a private channel, as a red and white Chieftain zipped past me, flying dangerously close to my ship, the word "Ambulance" clearly visible on the engine pylons, despite the hastily patched burns and other damage to the spacecraft.
"Abigail? My god, it's been a while!"
"Yeah, it's good to see you too, Surgeon. You ready to squash some bugs?"
In response, I throttled up, quickly matching pace with Abi's ship and forming up on her right "wing." "I'll follow you in. Let's go!"
Abi corkscrewed and dove into the fray, selecting a Medusa that was currently engaged with a pair of AX Anacondas, and opened fire with AX multicannons. A moment later, my Guardian Railguns began singing their own vengeful song. Space was lit with weapons fire, reflecting off clouds of corrosive mist.