How I Got Here: "First Strike"
03 Apr 2023Columbuss
Commander Justin Estok. Stardate 3-APR-3309."I'll live as long as you don't get us killed."
The Chelsie darts from port to starboard and back again as Brandson and I are pulled hard against the straps holding us in. Behind me, in a custom built seat not standard in most ASP vessels, Finn sits upright, holding on to the arm rests and trying to stay conscious as the ship banks from side to side. I pull back on the stick, burning the thrusters and pitching down just enough to avoid the asteroid rolling past the canopy window above. Behind us, two laser bolts smash against the underside of the hurtling rock as we hug it's frame.
"What ship is that?! How the HELL did he get behind us?!" I yell.
"It's a Cobra Boss! And I don't know, but he's veered off to avoid the debris from that shot," Brandson yells back from the copilots seat on the deck below my chair.
"Divert two pips from systems and give me my weapons back. We're going after him," I yell before turning back to Finn in the chair behind me. "How you holding up?"
"I'll live as long as you don't get us killed," he says back, still concussed, clenching his jaw and eyes shut.
"Well hold on," I say back. "We're about to do some dumb shit. God, I hate asteroids."
Banking the ship to the port side, I pull back on the stick in an attempt to get behind the fleeing Cobra. Toggling the hardpoints, the interior of the ship begins to crank and whirl as the weapons deploy to the left and right of the cockpit window.
"Kid," I yell. "Be ready to paint that target. Where's the Hauler?"
"Still maneuvering the belt Boss. It looks like she's trying to get clear of the asteroids to jump. She's a big girl though. We have a little time."
"Good. Don't lose sight of her. Let's get this son of a bitch."
Where we are, out here dodging asteroids and laser fire, is a resource extraction site Walt turned us on to. After our run in on Whitworth, rather than arrest us for the disappearance of Shorty, Walt made it clear that we're "on the same side". He'd been chasing Lorencian for years and was tired of playing by the book. He wanted Lorencian as bad as I did but after a career of chasing him the right way, through the appropriate legal channels, he was willing to forget about Shorty in exchange for us putting the pressure on Lorencian by "less than legal" means. He wanted to hit The Loha Council where it hurt most. Their wallets.
Out here, asteroid miners under the employ of Astral Projections use cutting beams and seismic charges to crack these mammoth rocks and harvest the minerals inside. Astral Projections brings in the raw material and sells it to refinery's to be processed. However, everything they bring in, it's subject to Federal taxes. To avoid this, Lorencian has his people come out here with a Hauler to skim some of the material off the top. These mining ships, they cut the raw material out of these asteroids, filling up the Hauler first, before filling up their own holds and heading home. The miners take their ships back to Whitworth to get paid and to process the material they gathered, while the Hauler carries unrecorded minerals to a safe place to be sold behind the back of Federal Income Agencies. On paper, Astral Projections is following standard protocol. On paper, everything is being done by the book. As far as the Federal Income Agency is concerned, the material the Hauler took away, it doesn't exist. Of course, an operation like this, never comes unguarded.
The Chelsie levels off as I pull the stick to the starboard side. In the canopy, a red circle forms around the fleeing Cobra, following it closely as it dips behind a large asteroid dead ahead. I'm pinned back in my seat as I toggle the ships booster rockets, the high G maneuver pulling the skin on my face back, in an attempt to close the distance between us. The red circle in the canopy continues tracking the Cobra as it moves behind the asteroid, using it's gravity to sling shot it back toward us. I pull the stick back, maneuvering The Chelsie to the opposite side of the rock, ready to catch the Cobra when he reappears. As the Cobra moves out from behind the asteroid, I throttle back to half speed before boosting the rockets again, but this time, diverting the boost to the thrusters, swinging the ass end of the ASP around until the Cobra is directly between us and the asteroid.
"Full power to hardpoints!" I yell to Brandson, before pulling back on the trigger as a maelstrom of lasers and multi-cannon fire hammer down on the unsuspecting Cobra. Burning red beams of light and super heated tracer rounds streak across the space between us, pummeling the Cobra's shielding and impacting against the asteroid's hard surface behind it. Overhead, The Chelsie Grinn's computerized voice fills the cabin.
"Target shields down. Frame Shift Charge detected."
"He's spinning up his FSD Boss! He's gonna run!"
"Good," I reply. "Let him run. Paint the Hauler for me kid. Let's finish what we came here to do."