Defending The Mission
12 Feb 2016TheDarkLord
Deep Space, Qa’Wakana. Sidewinder.October 3301
“Interdiction Detected”.
The calm of supercruise was rudely interrupted some 2,200Ls from the star, just 400Ls from delivering this latest shipment of Osmium. I executed a series of corkscrewing turns trying desperately to evade the Adder’s tether. The blue and red bars on my HUD danced as the outcome pendulum swung towards and away from me. My Sidewinder fought valiantly. I could hear all sorts of noises from the Frame Shift Drive behind me, but the Adder was too strong in the end. My FSD failed.
An uncontrolled drop into normal space is super disorienting. I dropped out with so much yaw that the Sidey spun through at least 720 degrees. I slammed the throttle forward and deployed hardpoints, wondering whether this was a battle I could win. The Adder dropped behind me, and immediately opened fire. I threw my tiny ship into a boost turn to bring my lasers on target. Information about my enemy streamed in from the scanner. A Mostly Harmless ranked pirate wanted here and elsewhere. I got several good shots on target, causing an ethereal blue glow to envelop my attacker, but my approach speed was too high, and I overshot wildly.
We continued to turn and run at each other for a while. It had turned into a war of Shield Generator attrition. An inelegant brawl of inexperienced pilots. I could feel myself learning combat skills afresh. I started to get more and more laser pulses on target, but this pirate’s combination of laser and frag cannon was certainly giving me some grief.
“Shields Offline,” reported my ship’s computer, and then, in a statement of the bleeding obvious “Taking Damage.” But this fight was winnable. Wasn’t it?
Another jousting pass. I predicted when the Adder would fire its cannon, and turned away just in time, then snapped back around onto its tail. “Target Shields Offline,” reported the computer. The Adder tried a boost turn away from me, but I chopped throttle, and tracked it with my lasers from almost-stationary. His hull percentage dropping fast, but more importantly his weapons pointing uselessly into space. A second boost turn, but this time I had to give chase as he was receding out of range of my puny lasers. The Adder turned on to me, firing everything it had. What had been a battle of shield strength was now one of hull tanking, and on the basis of remaining percentage, I fancied my chances. I engaged full reverse so as to keep my weapons on the target of the charging Adder. I watched the hull percentages falling, ignored the computer’s plaintive cry of “Hull Integrity Critical”, kept firing. Kept firing.
The Adder’s hull could take no more. It exploded in front of me, filling my canopy with fire and fragments of advanced alloys. I took my hands off the controls and glanced once again at my hull integrity.
3%.
An email pinged on my ship computer, from the Pilots’ Federation.
“Mostly Harmless.”