The Cemiess Crisis Part VI
10 Oct 2016Jellicoe
In the depths of Cemiess system space, around seventy light seconds from the second planet, a black corvette dropped out of super-cruise, changed course and boosted hard. There was nothing in this part of space at all, no planets, stations, ships or even wreckage just empty, open space, which meant that for the commander of the ship it was the perfect place to hide. So long as nobody else followed them through their exit cloud before it collapsed of course. On the corvette's bridge there was silence as the three men in the command chairs intently studied their displays."No contacts skipper, looks like we're in the clear."
"Roger that." the commander replied. "We'll hold position here till the shields re-charge then get back in." For the last four days the corvette Resolution had been engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the system authorities and both captain and crew were running on a cocktail of stims and adrenaline with hopelessly inadequate rest, the strain was beginning to tell. Their mission had initially been to assist any of the smugglers under police attack but as more security forces flooded into Cemiess it had become a series of hit and run attacks on the authorities with the smugglers left to fend for themselves, this combination was stretching the authorities thin but whether it was enough was the great unknown. They jumped back into super-cruise, all eyes still on their instruments.
"Police all over the place." the first officer on scanners and coms broke the silence. "and one of ours, cutter class ship,. He's just dropped, looks like and interdiction."
"Lock his cloud we'll get after him the pilot responded, bringing his ship about and opening his throttle. The flight to the cutters position took less than a minute, but that can be an eternity in a space fight, especially against heavy opposition and sure enough the corvette dropped to find the cutter sorely beset, its shields failing under fire from a wing of Anaconda's and their attendant fighters though the scattered cloud of wreckage ably demonstrated that the beleaguered vessel was giving a good account of itself.
"Hold on old sport, the navy's here. Mind if we join the party?" the pilot asked the cutter maintaining his carefully affected coolness.
"Glad to see you Jellicoe, feel free to join the fun." the cutter commander replied as Jellicoe targeted a shieldless Anaconda with a full volley from the Resolution's massive, overpowered multi-cannons smiling grimly as it blew."
"Target the next Annie." Jellicoe barked to Vik on the tactical station, opening fire as soon as the weapons locked on.
"Wing of Eagle's targeting us." Vik called from tactical. "Shields holding." The target Anaconda's shields collapsed under sustained fire from the Resolution and her multi-cannons bit deep into the target ships hull, the Eagle fighters were a nuisance but the corvette's heavily engineered shields were barely scratched.
"Multiple contacts incoming." Claude called looking up from his scanners.
"Three more Anaconda's, two of the targeting us." Vik added.
"Get clear, we'll cover you." Jellicoe told the cutter. "I want to bag another couple myself then I'll follow." the targeted Anaconda blew up in a rippling series of explosions as her power plant went critical. "Target the lead ship of the new wing." Jellicoe told Vik coming about and firing at the next target. With the cutter gone all three newcomers targeted the Resolution and her shields flared brightest blue under the barrage while another wing of fighters had arrived adding their guns to the storm of fire burning into the Resolution.
"Shields at 20%. Charging." Vik announced and the ship vibrated as the surge of power from the cell bank replenished the shields but the fusillade of incoming fire was relentless.
The lead police Anaconda's shields were down now and the Resolution's guns tore into her hull, staying on target despite frantic manoeuvring from her pilot. The Resolution though was taking a lot of fire and even her heavily engineered shields were struggling to cope.
"20% shields. Recharging again." Vik said. "Last heat sink." The police Anaconda blew, adding her wreckage to the sizable scrapyard already floating in space.
"Right, time we weren't here." Jellicoe said coolly, retracting his hand points and spooling the Frame Shift Drive. "Pop another cell bank if you have to Vik." The ship surged away from the battle under a tornado of fire before dropping back into normal space a short while later.
"This time we take a few hours rest." Jellicoe said firmly.
"You might want to rethink that skipper." Claude replied. "Message coming in from HQ, Cemiess has gone into lockdown. We've done it."