Venus Shiptrap and Z
01 Jan 2021Immehi
Lakon India Mike Mike, you are cleared to dock. Welcome to Vatermann LLC, commander. We hope you brought brandy with you.Yeah, yeah, yeah, I brought your brandy, alright. It didn't take much to fly and get them yourselves, you know.
"Your orbit entry has gotten much smoother. You must've flown many planetary base missions!"
Her voice came so suddenly from the comm system that I jumped in my seat a little. Zara Wells, the owner of the voice, is my fighter pilot. Fast talking, straight shooting, hot-headed bundle of a pilot. We met in Jones Terminal, when I was settling in and preparing my combat operations base.
----- Jones Terminal, sometime in 3306 -----
"Mighty big ships you have here, commander! Fancy an extra hand to pilot your fighter units? I don't look like it, but I used to serve in the Imperial Army and then spent some time hunting bounties." She uttered without catching a breath.
The way she approached me then, I thought for sure she was going to rob me. Short story shorter, she convinced me that having a fighter unit and a fighter pilot is like having two extra sets of weapons. She's been in my employ ever since.
----- Present time -----
"Don't startle me like that, Z!"
I just spent some time outside the bubble, away from the traders, the pirates, the hunters, and the comm system's range. The solitude made me forget that my ships are linked to a two-way communicator which I entrusted to Zara. As long as my ship is within the range, the device could monitor my ships' status, including when I entered orbit, and when I docked. When I re-entered the range, the ship's signal must have pinged the device.
"-and it's not planetary missions, it's the engineer bases." I added.
"Why did you have to mine for raw materials so far away? Could have taken me with you. Spending too much time alone in the black could drive people insane, you know." How in the galaxy could she have said that many words in a second, does she have coffee in her veins?
"I need you back home to monitor Venus' progress, how's her outfitting going?"
Venus Shiptrap is a T-10 Defender, a flying fortress with fighter bay. She's named after a flora species found in Sol system, wherein it lures its prey to come land on nectar pooling on the plant's huge jaws. Once the prey lands, the jaws close, trapping the prey as it slowly dissolves in acid. The inspiration came after witnessing an officer fought in his T10. He poked the enemies from the distance with laser. When the enemy came strafing, the T10 would rip it apart with all seven Multi Cannons. A beautiful sight.
"Hardpoints are installed, cores are upgraded, we're only waiting on the reinforcement packages and the shield boosters. Oh I asked the techs to paint my fighter unit in purple, it's not a problem right? I won the paint from a bar wager few days ago. This guy De Koning thought that he could drink more than me, proved him wrong, I did." Her voice crackled a little, perhaps I'm still not entirely within the comm system's range. All I gathered was: installed cores, waiting boosters, fighter, purple and De Koning. De Koning? Could it be my dear old frienemy Georgie? Heh, wouldn't that be funny.
She continued, "say, Imme, when Venus is ready, could I take the helm once in a while? I miss piloting freighter ships, reminds me of even older days when I cut my teeth as miner ship pilot. Also, your officer was looking for you while you were away. New mission or updated one, something along that line. Let me come with you this time, yeah?"
Admittedly, since I've been back in the bubble, I haven't once looked at the squad's orders until Z reminded me. Looks like we've won a client's war, and the secondary contract is now bumped up to primary. There appears to be chatter about expansion as well, though this doesn't seem to be something we'll focus on. Squad business aside, I still need to salvage more materials for Didi to engineer my shield boosters. Maybe I should take Z on these missions runs, lest she asked the techs to paint Venus in a festive scheme.
"Alright Z, tell the techs to stop working on Venus. Pack your gear, you're coming with me. Meet me in von Struve City's mess hall."
Lakon India Mike Mike, you have cleared the no fire zone. Fly safe, commander.