Battle over Veroandi A 4 A
19 Apr 2022Claude Lecardunoie
Here I am, in the briefing room, along with other pilots of my squadron. Many locals, youngs and olds, all from the Revolutionary Party of Veroandi. There were also more experienced looking pilots, mercenaries, I thought.The briefing was held by Otis Stephenson, military delegate of the Party. He was a former lieutenant in the Imperial Navy, around 50. The deal was simple: reinforcing the fleet already fighting over Veroandi A 4 A, and defeating the invading Blue Netcoms Inc. ships, all detached from the Federal Navy.
As soon as the meeting was over, I went to the hangar. My Cobra MKIII was docked among Lakon transporters converted into combat ships. I wondered how these would perform in a battle. Fortunately, the mercenaries were there too, with Pythons, Eagles and even one Vulture.
Leaning on my ship, were two people, a woman and boy. "I'm Ilia, engineer and this is Jorge, my technician" said the woman. "We have been dispatched to prepare your ship". They came with one big Spatioport Mobile Workshop. They had some modules for my ship, of course, that didn't come for free. "Hey, you're not from here, you are just a mercenary, what did you expect", said Ilia. "But we'll help you out for free", added Jorge, smiling. They had packages for hull and modules reinforcement, a chaff launcher and a shield cell bank, all E classes or so. I transfered the credits using the workshop terminal and the three of us spent the next five hours working on my ship. It was pretty much the same on the other pads.
Finally, we took off. The plan was to fly seperatly and to meet around Veroandi A 4 A. The battle was on when I arrived. The fight was tense, I tried to protect my ship as much as I could, while trying to destroy enemy ships. I had two on my own, a Cobra MKIII and an Asp, I think. My own Cobra took a lot of damages. I burnt almost all my shield cell. and as I helped my mates taking on a Federal Gunship, I blew my last. My ship was agonising. Retreat was my only option. Before going to supercruise, I saw the Federal Gunship explode, unfortunately taking with him an allied Sidewinder.
Back to Panshin Hub, there were no greetings. None of the two side had the upper hand. But Blue Netcoms, they have the Federation support, so they'll come back. I had a short meeting with my officer and he was straight forward: "You're not good enough for my squadron", he said abruptly, "may be with a Vulture or a Python, and with better modules. Just repair your ship, get the money for the few combat bonds you collected and report to the headquarters, there are other ways to help the cause. Who knows, they may have some other missions".
As I left the hangar, Ilia and Jorge were already working on my Cobra. I went to the Party headquarters looking for something to do: an assassination and a courier. I guess that will do for now, until I get a better combat ship.