The Gathering Storm - Part III
05 Nov 2017Jellicoe
Pleiades Sector IR-W d1-55 , Unknown StructureThat's as much of the alien crap as we can safely take" Kwame Saunders voice came through as the load of mysterious biological matter was secured in the cargo bay.
"Thanks Chief, bring the buggy back on board." Jellicoe replied from the SRV. "Claude, run through the pre launch checks, we'll go as soon as I get there." Even on their second visit this strange place held its aura of fascination and mystery, there was also, despite the lack of any apparent threat a constant air of danger mixed with the uncomfortable feeling that the place may not be quite as dead as they had first thought.
"Coms from the Prof coming in." Claude said as Jellicoe walked onto the bridge.
"Put him through." Professor Palin's holographic form materialised on the Resolution's bridge in his familiar orange lab overalls. "Ishmael, we're loaded and ready to go is there a problem?"
"Possibly." The professor replied, his face concerned, the squint in his left eye becoming even more pronounced. "You're being tracked. Someone has found out about the mission and is out to thwart it, I fear you will be attacked on your return journey."
"Got any details?" Jellicoe asked.
"Just a name, Gunther Elphick, he may not be working alone, we've no more information just keep your eyes open and watch your back."
Jellicoe gave a wry smile. "You know what a careful sort of fellow I am Prof. I'll be at Darnielle's in a couple of hours, tell your contact to be ready." Palin nodded, his face still riven with concern as his hologram shimmered and vanished. Jellicoe turned to Claude. "Let's get moving then, the last thing we need is to get caught on the ground."
Electra System
"Tanks are full." Claude said as the Resolution hung in the upper corona of the systems white star. "Jump drives online."
"Right ho, prep for jump we go as soon as we're clear of the star."
"Contacts." Vik broke in from tactical. "Three of them, Assault Ships."
"Most likely just a navy sweep." Jellicoe replied. "We'll try not to attract their attention and cross your fingers they don't scan us. Jumping in ten seconds."
"They're forming up astern." Vik warned. "Looks like they're going to hit us in a chain."
"Make the jump." Jellicoe ordered and watched as the Frame Shift began to charge.
"Warning!" The computer announced as the whole ship shook. "Interdiction detected." Jellicoe gripped the stick hard, wrestling with both the colossal energies unleashed and struggling for the upper hand with the other pilot, the struggle ebbing and flowing as the ships tumbled through the decaying Frame Shift corridor. Jellicoe was a good pilot and he was fighting against the tether with every ounce of experience and skill he had but the Corvette was not a nimble ship, it was built to smash its enemies not evade them and was never going to win this struggle with the far more nimble Assault Ship.
"Interdiction successful. FSD Failure." The computer confirmed as the Resolution crashed back into normal space.
"He's dropped with us." Vik said needlessly as Jellicoe struggled to bring the twisting, spinning ship back under control. "Gunther Elphick, Deadly rated, Pleiades Resource Enterprise."
"You're working for the wrong people." A hard voice rang round the bridge. "And it's going to cost you."
"The other two have dropped." Vik confirmed what everyone expected. "They've deployed hard points, firing." Jellicoe was still frantically trying to regain control of his tumbling vessel when the first hits registered, three purpose built fighting ships pumping all their firepower into a target incapable of resisting.
"Shields at 80%." Vik said through the cacophony of simulated sound.
"Deploy hard points." Jellicoe snapped as the Resolution finally returned to her captains command. "Mira and La'Niyah scramble fighters, just try and keep one of the buggers busy."
With the fighters launched Jellicoe boosted, maxing the engines for a short burst of speed while pushing his ship into a spinning dive, trying to lessen the tornado of fire his vessel was taking. One of his assailants had broken off to take on the fighters, a second was caught on the hop by the Resolution's sudden acceleration but the third, Elphick himself was still there hard on his heels and firing all the time.
"Shields offline, hull critical." La'Niyah's frightened voice came over the coms net, telepresence had this effect the first time, so real that the senses screaming danger overwhelmed the rational brain.
The boost spent Jellicoe flicked off flight assist and flipped the Resolution bow over stern, a manoeuvre that, helped by the ships highly modified thrusters frequently caught enemies off guard. Elphick himself though was quick to respond, gracefully pirouetted his craft and boosted away, keeping well out of the Corvette's devastating hail of fire but his wingman was not, flying head on into a concentrated barrage of overcharged weaponry that shredded his shields and gouged deep into his hull. Core Dynamics though make tough ships, robust and very well armoured and the unknown pilot bravely returned fire as he accelerated towards the Resolution.
"Third one's leaving the fighters and targeting us." Vik announced. "Shields at 30%." The ship in Jellicoe's gun sights flashed past, boosting away to get out of range before any critical damage was inflicted. Jellicoe again flicked off flight assist, screwing the Corvette round to target the third Assault ship before unleashing a torrent of fire, once more collapsing the targets shields and peppering the hull but again the pilot held his nerve, took the barrage head on and let his own guns whittle away at the Resolution's shields before boosting away.
"Bastards know their work." Vik said, his frustration mounting as the Assault Ships buzzed like angry hornets around the beleaguered Corvette, never giving her enough time on any one target to put it out of the fight.
"How much damage are we doing?" Jellicoe asked.
"Not enough." Vik replied. "Mostly superficial hits to the armour. They're wearing us down."
"Mira, La'Niyah." Jellicoe called down the com link. "Concentrate on the ship with no shields, keep hitting him."
"Wilco Commander." Mira's confident voice replied, La'Niyah sounded much more nervous but both fighters converged on the third assault ship as it extended the distance from the Resolution, firing all the time.
"Turn and burn." Jellicoe said with a chuckle, flipping the Corvette over and boosting toward their preoccupied enemy. "Full power to weapons."
"Lost all trace of the fighter Commander, think it's down." La'Niyah's shaken voice came through, the sheer realism of her first experience of telepresence taking its toll.
"Prep another one then and get back out there." Jellicoe barked, more gruffly than he'd intended, then more gently. "Don't worry about burning fighters we've got plenty."
"Target in range." Vik said tactical. "His shields are still offline. We're taking a lot of fire from the other two though, cell banking."
"Firing." Jellicoe replied squeezing the trigger to unleash the full firepower of his mighty ship into the exposed hull of the Assault Ship, Jellicoe put more power into his engines as his crippled target tried to flee maintaining his devastation salvoes as long as possible. "Mira, finish him off." Jellicoe ordered, turning back to the two enemies still in the fight and switching power back into his wounded shields. Now down to two the Assault Ships were finding it much harder to maintain the constant harassing fire on the Resolution without taking serious risks with their own ships, the darting, stinging interventions of Mira and La'niyah only added to the tilting of the scales away from the aggressors until, frustration mounting an attack was pushed just that little too far and a tirade of fire put a second Assault Ship down.
"Picking up a surge. He's trying to run." Vik said of the survivor.
"Everything into engines the rest to weapons. Fighters concentrate fire on the Engines, I don't want him getting away." Jellicoe barked, but Gunther Elphick was good, jinking and weaving his manoeuvrable ship to stay fractionally outside the devastating cone of fire until he outdistanced the slower Corvette.
"He's away." Vik confirmed as the ship vanished back into super-cruise.
"Resume course for Maia, but signal the Prof, tell him Darnielles could be compromised, switch the pick up to Maia Point."