Life and Death in the Black
02 Aug 2016Silverdrake220
I was coming back from Trophy camp, Todd had just finished the upgrades to the multi cannons on my Diamond Back Scout, When I was pulled from super cruse by another DBS, and a crack on the Comms Chanel. " What have you got for me." and unknown voice hisses."Nothing, well I guess your ship will have to do for scrap." the Voice Hissed.
Then the energy beams from his pulse lasers started zipping past my Canopy. the n a single dumb-fire missile. I rolled my Diamond back as the flurry of lasers and missiles flew past my ship. I boosted to try to get some distance from the man trying to kill me, but His DBS was almost as fast. Time for a new plan I thought to my self.
See how you like this, I thought to myself. I pulled back on the throttle. the ship lurch forward as the speed bled from the hull. I pushed my down thrusters an the ship dipped down harshly. The pirates ship shot over top of mine. As he passed me I shoved the throttle forward and activated my upwards thrusters coming up behind the pirate's ship, I deployed my DBS's hard points. Thinking to my self " lets see how ol' Tod's weapon modifactions work.
The pirate trying to regain the upper hand pitched hard right after he had flew over my ship. It was too late. I had already locked on to his ship with my gimbled weapons. The first burst of my lasers started chewing on his shields. The second burst pulled half of his shields away, but then he flipped his ship to the left and quickly got out of my sights.
We danced back and forth across the stars exchanging laser fire. he did manage to strip my shields down. To his anger and dismay he came to the sad retaliation that the normally soft skin of a DBS on my ship had been replaced with military grade composites. The pirates lasers pelted the hull of my DBS rattling it some. I rolled as another missile streamed past my canopy. rolling and pitching I had finally got behind him once more. the Pirates shields had just come back up when I stripped them back down with a burst of my own laser fire.
My turn, I has thought to my self as the gimbled weapons locked on to his ship. I squeezed the trigger this time not only the lasers, but the two gimbled class 2 gimbled overcharged multi cannons roared to life, tearing into the hull of the pirates ship.
My adversary being shocked at the level of damage just brought upon his ship jerked the ship left, then right trying to get out of the fight and boost away. Quickly I pulled up my targeting menu and locked onto his thrusters. The Gimbles locked onto the target squeezing the trigger once agen, the quick wizz of the multi cannons drive motors spinning up then the glow of fire as the steel projectiles scream from the barrels. The pirates ship goes lifeless as his thruster are taken off line. I watch as his ship drifts slowly thought the black. I wondered who is this man, who was just trying to kill me.
I maneuvered my ship closer watching the whole ship go dark, knowing he is cycling his systems and rebooting his ship trying to get his thrusters back online. The pirates ship stops drifting. His systems are starting to come back online. I maneuver my ship about 20 or 30 meters away from His so I can get a look into the cockpit, I see a man older them me scrambling to get his ship back up. The lights of my ship glow into the cockpit of his ship, he looks up at my ship. I see his comms comeback on line. I say to him over comms " I do not know who you are, but you may leave I do not want to kill you." My Weapons are still trained on his DBS just in case he dose not take my offer to flee and lick his wounds someplace else.
The pirates response sealed his fate. He spoke very clearly " You offer me a chance to run and hide from you? You, I will kill you and watch your life less body float off into the black as I pillage what is left of your ship."
The nose of his ship started to point up at me as his weapons finally came back online. He had made his decision. I nudged my ship backwards with the thrusters to get a little bit more distance from his ship. I squeezed the trigger, agen the wizz of the multi Cannons as the motors spun up, Fire and steel exploded from the barrels of the pair of multi cannons on My ship. I had already targeted his canopy at this range with no shields the steel rounds from my ship melted right though the glass that separated him from the black of space. The high rate of fire and the close range decimated the nose of The pirates DBS, the whole of the cockpit canopy was gone and the nose of the ship looked like it had been chewed up and spat out.
I watched the lifeless ship float in the blackness of space, its out line blocking out a bit of the star we had fought by. My eyes Strained trying to focus as I see his body, or whats left of it float out of the wreckage of his ship.
How many ghosts haunt the stars and deep reaches of space I thought. Here in the black life and death happens every day. today I was lucky, I get to head back to the space station I call home. the man that tried to kill me will not, and that is how it has to be out here its that simple. help who you can, but not at the cost of your life.
I flip up my navigation screen and set my course for home, maxing the throttle I feel and hear my FSD spool up and in a blink I am gone.