How I Got Here: “A Shot In The Dark”
13 Aug 2022Columbuss
Commander Justin Estok. Stardate 13-AUG-3308."What choice do you think we have?"
In The Black, when you're being shot at, beam weapons are a good sign. When someone's trying to kill you, the best thing you can see are those streams of hot light flashing across your bow. In a dogfight, the pilot using beam weapons more often is the pilot who's losing the fight. Combat pilots know this because anyone who's been in combat can tell you that energy weapons don't kill ships. Energy weapons kill shielding. So if you're still seeing beams, it means you're still alive. Some pilot's prefer stronger shields to absorb more damage before having to recharge, while other's prefer the bi-weave style, which can take less punishment but requires less time and energy to charge back up once it's knocked out. Whichever way you lean, once you start seeing tracer rounds whizzing past your cockpit window from behind, its time to pop your chaff canons, boost your thrusters and run.
Unlike smaller ships, capital ships have tremendously powerful shielding which is why it usually takes other capital ships to bring it down. These confrontations are usually brief (we already discussed this. See Part IX) and it's usually the smaller ships that come in to finish the job. So when we arrived over B3 and saw the Al Minaan capital ship, Osiris, with a hole punched in it where the bridge used to be, we knew that a serious fight had taken place. Head lamps of rescue ships scoured the wreckage, ducking in and out of debris fields looking for space suits. Scanning the wreckage for little puffs of CO2 exhaust from suit helmets. Something big had happened here. But whatever it was, we missed it.
"Admiral O'Rourke is dead, John. The Osiris is in literal pieces. We have no command ship. How EXACTLY do you intend to continue?!" This is John and I standing in the board room where the resistance leadership meets on Gilleken Terminal. This is John and I listening to Councilman Patrick Gryll, self declared figurehead of the Al Minaan resistance, chastise us over losing the fight over B3.
"The Dynasty is massed somewhere out there, licking their wounds from the fight over A3 and whatever happened here. Let me take my people and go after them. We can avenge the Osiris and what happened he..." but Gryll interrupts before John can finish.
"The Osiris is dead because of YOU! Because you and your fool hardy band of militants pursued the Dynasty fleet in the first place!"
"Councilman Gryll" said Councilman Pomellroy, "that's not exactly fair to John. We all agreed on his course of action."
"And look where that's gotten us!" barked Gryll. "Now, we have to go back to the table, hat's in hand and sue for peace."
"You're not ACTUALLY considering that..." asked John.
"What choice do you think we have?" asked Gryll, rhetorically, before abruptly storming out of the room.
The council convened as John and I walked into the foyer. We stood silently for as long as John could stand it, which was just a moment. He'd start and stop several sentences in that time, unable to complete a thought. When someone is that angry, they don't have to tell you. You just know. John let out a small but audible growl before storming off toward the flight deck. I followed close behind.
"Get with the wing commanders, in secret if you have to. We're not going to just SIT here and watch our so called leaders grovel back to the Dynasty's table. We're going after them."
"Where, John?" I asked. "We don't know where they are."
"We don't," John said. "But I know how to find out."