Light and Haze, 16: Know Your Tricks
12 Oct 2021Meowers
Hello again. Ah, where do I start... Yeah, few days passed. Relatively quiet. We were on another planet-mapping 'mission', can't recall its number... 7 or 8 maybe. She's doing awesome. Could afford something like an Asp now... But even a Cobra will be enough to proceed with the same work after passing the PF exams, so, she will cover the treatment expenses just fine and won't be broke... Hah. She even says 'hello' and 'good bye' to Marshmallow each time in the hangar. Aw. That's... cute. So, we were just hanging around independent worlds and throwing probes at stellar bodies while talking about random stuff... Yeah. That 'talking about random stuff and detecting troubling topics' thing. Goes good when she's busy piloting and mapping, since her attention is focused mainly on the controls. Distraction may improve chances of emerging from a bad place faster, with lesser stress... If we graze some of her still unknown triggers too harshly... Can't say for sure, but, hah, it works with me.
Yeah, it was Meliae system, to be more precise. That terraformed planet, New Los Angeles. Who names planets after those ancient cities, anyway? Ummm, so, I said already that... Uh. Things just can't go smooth and planned in that life, there's always stuff that I must remember or predict, but... I can't keep every goddamn detail in mind! I still need it to, you know, think. As people do. Well, I hope, major part of people. But these guys... They definitely don't like that. Yup, these marks on the sensor. I noticed first of them starting to follow us, like, two jumps before... Never had a chance to scan it secretly from the co-pilot's interface, without notifyng Jacqueline, as it was behind us all the time. And she wasn't aware, just doing mappings. So, then a second one appeared and started to hang nearby too. Uh, that's definitely a sign...
"Um... Jacqueline. Seems the situation... Requires my personal attention. So. Let's swap places. Buckle up and hold tight."
I got into the pilot seat and, well, proceeded with doing the same thing. For a bit of time. Pretending that... Whoever was piloting, was still unaware of their presence. And, damn, we had no interdictor to pull one of them out of the cruise mode, therefore, we couldn't strike first. Third one was moving to our direction straight from the nav beacon... Looks like they were amassing forces... So they know that I can put up a fight. Damn. If I tried to shake them off, they would know that I'm aware, and would group more tightly, perhaps... However, time is ticking and with more of them showing up... It wasn't on our side. So, I'd just set up the local starport, Whitson Hub, as the destination on the nav panel and turned in the needed direction... Not very sharp and aggressive, like, it was still Jacqueline at the sticks... And then started to accelerate... Even past the 'blue zone', slowly, but persistently reaching the maximum possible speed... Like, hey, I'm a novice pilot, I was just distracted by something, like, funny cat video on the GalNet... Hah. Yeah, those two guys were following, but lagging behind, and third had to change the course abruptly.
Uh, well, they weren't attacking, but, hey. It's me. I'm not the one to hole up on a station, protected by those turrets! So, when we were approaching Whitson, I pulled the thrust control stick to decelerate as sharp as possible, and we dropped out of the cruise mode right in that split second when the station was in front of us. Then a quick boost to the airlock, docking request... Ah, I see these folks on the sensor... Behind us, exiting the cruise mode as well... Hah. So... I 'accidentally' missed the landing pad and turned around. They were still outside the station, but now in the frontal, scanning cone. Bingo. Delaine's Kumo Crew. Crap... Should I tell... Ah. No time for the talks. Without leaving the ship, I contacted the dock workers, told them to put our trusty probe launcher in a storage and replace it with an interdictor module from their stocks. Yeah, had to buy it, it's kind of an... Expensive move, but... It's showtime.
Then I put a neighbouring system into a route plotter memory, to target it quickly with one button, in case of needed retreat. And we took off... Pointing the nose straight to the airlock. I looked at Jacqueline and nodded, like, buckle up, this is it. And then I boosted. Seconds after, we dazzled through the airlock at five hundred. Hah, I bet traffic controller went grey seeing that... So, here we go. Now it's four of them... Anaconda, a pair of Kraits and one Mamba. In a formation. Pointed straight at me. Uh-huh, here they are. Manoeuvring to slip between two of them, I boosted again and activated the comms local channel.
"Bring it on, you little shits!"
Ah, they seem to become upset. Cute. I slipped just past them at full speed and was heading straight to the no-fire zone border with maximum energy on the engines... Then I left the zone and started to charge the jump. Wasn't planning to finish the sequence, hah. Distraction move. To make their fastest ships chase me, breaking the formation. When the jump was almost charged, I aborted it and turned sharply again to face the opponents, deploying my weapons, setting the power to balanced mode. Targeted the big one. Anaconda was trying to keep the pace, but there were already, like, three kilometres gap between it and other ships. So I boosted again, zipping past them. They fired their first shots at me, but, hah, everything is too fast, and Anaconda turned into an easy target now.
Evading its fire, chaotically moving from side to side, I reached the good position and opened fire with all four multi-cannons and plasma accelerator. Blue flashes of disturbed shields covered the Anaconda's aft part, and I was squeezing the triggers and manoeuvring to stay behind it, as other opponents were closing. So they started shooting eventually and I had to move closer to the big one and start drawing circles around it. Trying not to hit their companion, they were forced to aim more and shoot less... Shields... Yeah, eighty percent at mine and Anaconda's are almost gone. So I targeted its engines and a few seconds later that ship turned into a helplessly drifting and rotating piece of metal with some unlucky slaver at the sticks. My shields were still holding on, so I clinched to its hull, damaging it even more, without stopping my cannon and plasma barrage.
Seeing how inner explosions started to rip Anaconda's battered hull apart, I turned away and boosted. Other opponents instantly opened an intensive fire, my shield indicator became peppered with dots, but just for a pair of seconds, as only Mamba had enough speed to chase me. So I activated a shield cell bank to recharge, avoiding the incoming fire. Then I turned around again to make some shots, while Kraits were too far, but Mamba just slipped past me, losing only a few bits of shields to my cannons. Ah, that boom-zoom tactics with chaff use, damn. Had to change the strategy. Targeted one of the Kraits, trying to evade as much shots as I can, approaching in an arc to outmanoeuvre them, while Mamba was still far away. Krait's shields were flashing with blue sparks from my cannon fire and then, closing up, I started to send plasma charges at it. Both enemies were still firing at me, but my shields were holding on okay, more than a half. Then second Krait tried to ram me and push me away from his wingman, but, hah, I was faster and it just passed by... Did I see Jacqueline showing a middle finger to them? Ah, that was nice.
When the first Krait lost its shields, I targeted the power plant, seeing how cannon rounds started to rip off chunks of armour, and plasma charges were leaving awfully looking breaches. And soon Krait's internals turned into an inferno of a melting metal and exploding hydrogen fuel. Next! Both remaining opponents were firing all they got at me, so I had to evade, still seeing how my own shields were dropping below thirty, so I did another recharge, emptying the last cell bank. Ah. Seventy. Now it's better. And much less incoming fire. Mamba was still testing my patience and evasion skills, but I decided to get rid of the second Krait, as dealing with boom-zooming opponent might be a long story. With only one wingman left fighting, that slower and less manoeuvrable ship was an easy target, so I just came really close and squeezed the triggers, keeping an eye on that Mamba. Lasers were hard to evade, but at least I wasn't such an easy target for the railguns.
So, I already started to punch through the armour, as four more marks appeared on the sensor... One after another in quick succession... Dammit. That Mamba was still bugging me, and I spent more than a half of my ammo already. Ah, crap, I know where it goes... Trying to evade even more incoming shots, while still keeping that Krait under fire, I saw shields dropping below forty percent. Had to finish this fast and leave. With the first signs of inner explosions under the Krait's armour, I pressed the route plotter button, targeting the 'retreat' system, boosted away and activated the jump sequence. They were still firing at me, dammit...
Okay, okay, folks, I'm a bit... On the run now.