Log 006: first combat
24 Mar 2023James M. Bailey
Above Raibinan 11Rainbinan System
Contested Space
I grind my teeth watching as shields quickly fall to mere 20%. My untrained fingers slip on HOTAS controls as I try to remember which button activates the shield booster. Finally! The blue sphere around a 3D representation of my ship starts to refill and grow stronger, but so does the temperature. It has already risen above 140% and is still going up. Damn it! Heatsinks.. but which button fired them?! I blindly mash the throttle and - by pure luck - manage to eject one from the ship, dissipating excess heat.
"This guy is too good!" - I hear Tom's voice. I glance at my scanner. We're in a furball with enemy Vulture. My brother is flying a nimble fighter through a VR sim, in reality sitting just behind me in the cockpit of my Keelback.
Now the problem is this: having absolutely zero experience in space battles, we both forgot to check our opponent's status in Pilot Federation's rankings. And as it turns out, he is listed as "Elite".
For my part I equipped the Keelback with powerful beam turrets, shield booster, additional armour and hull reinforcement packages. But now I can clearly see that you can't make a decent fighting platform from a transport ship. Fend off one or two pirates - definitely. Take part in regular space battle and survive - not really.
As I desperately try to dodge incoming laser fire I can't help but think that coming here not the best idea we had. Sure, we want to help the only Federal group in the system - it is always good to have some friends when you try to settle somewhere - but I am beginning to feel that we are biting more than we can chew. Much more.
"Taking internal damage" - information from the onboard computer freezes me in place. The shields are holding, so what is this new devilry?
"Ee.. Tom, we have a problem.." - I say, checking ship's status on the right display.
"I know!" - he shouts back from his VR set.
The ship is spinning out of control now and does not react to any inputs of the stick or throttle. There is an upside to this - a particularly nasty volley of laser fire misses us by quite a bit, as we drift ahead, tumbling. But this is a small consolation.
"Tom, I cannot control the ship. We are in an angry spin and I cannot do anything about it!"
"Wait, I.. oh shit. They got my fighter" - he takes off the goggles and looks around, blinking - "what the..."
Then it dawns on me. I open the module tab and see that the Thrusters are off. And there is no way to turn them on again. Damaged. I inform my brother about this new development, which makes him go pale.
"Try to run repair and reboot, as they taught us in the basic flight school".
"It doesn't work. The whole display is frozen, bro".
"Well, at least we are now pretty far away from the fight - and should be safe. But we better come up with something.. and do it quick".
I can do nothing but agree...
(to be continued)