(Til Death Do Us Part) 6: Retaliation
09 Feb 2023Silvia Sharpe
A ship drops out of supercruise in front of Ripjaw and immediately deploys its weapons. Venus selects the ship from the contacts panel and fires off a heat sync while boosting towards the ship. The ship fires its thrusters and rolls out of the way. The name Genesis can be seen as Venus passes by. Venus fires another heat sync canister hoping to keep temps low so as to avoid being targeted by the ship.The pilot of the ship toggles flight assist off and flips Genesis around quickly then toggles it back on. She lines up behind Ripjaw and fires her beam lasers quickly disabling Ripjaw's Shields. Once the Shields are down they know they have to act fast, she targets the ships thrusters and fires.
Ava looks at her targeting panel
Thruster module 80%.......60%........30%........
"FSD charge detected"
20%.......10%...........5%........*come on you dog just fail already*.........0%. Ripjaw's brilliant violet thrusters flicker dark as she begins to drift. Ava catches up to Ripjaw and slams down on the top to drive the ship towards the planetary surface. She was angry and rightfully so. Venus had drugged her, stolen her ship, and ran off. There is a loud scraping and crunching sound as Ripjaw makes contact with the planet and digs into the ground. The right side main thruster is torn from the ship and large panels are ripped from the hull. Venus is thrown from her seat and slams into the console. Her head strikes the cockpit canopy and is knocked unconscious.
Ava touches down next to the wreckage and suits up. She grabs her plasma rifle and proceeds into the ship through a breach in the hull. Passengers are heard screaming and crying not knowing what had just happened. Ava hears their cries and realizes what the note that Venus had left truly meant. *Damn it Venus you are better than this.* Ava runs through the ship checking on all the refugees fear in each of their eyes. She creates a tally for all passengers onboard and calls for immediate extraction for them.
Venus regains consciousness and struggles to her feet. Her helmet visor is covered in blood from a gash on her forehead. She stumbles through the cockpit and grabs her rifle from a hidden compartment near the cockpit door and proceeds through her wrecked ship. The interior lighting is flickering and sparks rain down from broken terminals and cables. Venus can barely see through the blood smeared visor and haze inside the corridors. There is movement in front of her then a large woman is seen running full sprint at Venus. Venus raises her rifle up and only manages to fire off a few rounds each striking the aggressors Shields and armor, glancing off before she is tackled by Ava.
The two of then struggle to gain control of the other. They roll around exchanging blows. Ava manages to get behind Venus and puts her in a headlock. As they are making their way to their feet Venus grabs a bar off the ground and swings it around striking Ava in the head. The blow is enough to slightly stun her and Venus forces the two of them back against the corridor wall. Ava has the wind knocked out of her and releases her hold on Venus. She stumbles away from Venus catching her breath. Venus turns around swinging the bar again at Ava's head.
There is a loud metallic clang as Ava puts her right hand up to block the blow. She grabs the bar tightly then rips it out of Venus hand. Venus looks around for something she can use to stun Ava enough to get away. She notices an exposed high voltage line down the corridor. Venus ducks out of the way dodging the bar Ava is swinging. She runs towards the cable and Ava throws the bar at Venus. It strikes her in the middle of her back, the impact sends a wave of pain down through to her feet causing her to collapse to the ground.
Ava approaches Venus cautiously breathing heavily from the struggle and between breaths chastises Venus for her actions.
'You are damn lucky I dont have you put in a jail cell. You drugged me on my own ship and "stole" it. Then I find you here with refugees onboard. I didn't quite understand what you meant in your message at first but now...... now I see you were going to condemn these poor souls to a life of slavery.'
Venus groans and watches as Ava approaches. She makes her way back a little further towards the power cable and pulls herself up and replies in a pained voice.
'You don't get it Ava. You never do. I have no other options. I can't let Silvia stay there.'
'You don't get to make that choice! You are the one who outright.........'
There is a bright flash of light as Venus jams the live cable into Ava's suit sending enough voltage through to disable all suit systems and causes Ava to fall unconscious. Venus grabs both rifles and props ava against the corridor wall. She makes her way out of the ship wreckage and runs over to Genesis. Once inside she activates the ships self-destruct sequence and runs out before calling for an Apex shuttle to pick her up.
There is a loud boom and a brilliant explosion of all different colors as Genesis is destroyed. The Apex shuttle touches down and Venus asks to be dropped off at the nearest station.
Ava regains consciousness after half an hour when a rescue team arrives to collect the passengers and checks her over. Her head is pounding and her body is sore. She looked around and grew angry. The emergency personnel asked Ava what had transpired. Ava recounted the struggle and proceeded out of her ship.
When she stepped out through the breach in the hull she found her ship scattered around the area, a large crater sat where her once beautiful Clipper sat. Ava grew angrier than she had ever been with Venus. She called in a favor and had a second ship brought over this time she wasn't taking any chances.
Ava sat and watched as the last few refugees were loaded up onto the rescue ships and waited for the arrival of her replacement Clipper to arrive. She pulled out her data pad and flicked through the tabs opening a tracking app. A smaller version of the Galactic map appeared though it only encompassed the bubble and immediate surrounding area. A single star pulsed and Ava tapped on it. The map opened up and Ava located the station on which Venus was hiding out.
She sent out an encrypted message utilizing Venus' semi functioning comms array. The message was directed to Venus' data pad only. She wrote *Venus you will regret leaving me and those refugees stranded I know where you are*. She shut down her data pad as her ship arrived and departed for the station. Venus would indeed regret her actions and Ava was going to ensure she made her pay.