Merc Ops 7 - Goes Before The Fall
05 Feb 2018Leon Falkner
ArbudaNovitski Oasis
Leon started up the systems on the Fer-de-Lance. The new ship powered on as soon as the start sequence loaded, the engines purred a low thrum.
He had been in Alliance space not a few hours ago, working to win the favor of the faction for access to their pet engineer to do some work on his new ship while he was still in the celestial neighborhood. He'd received a text mail from none other than his local contact CMDR Barrett, asking for some help on a takedown run and to see if he was still interested in helping stamp out the Arbuda Gold Brothers.
Never one to turn down a job, especially taking out some pirates, Leon turned the new combat ship towards the system indicated. He did a small drop in on a target in a Vulture which nearly vaporized under their combined fire. After helping Barrett locate some cargo he needed for a contract in Arbuda, they ventured out together towards the Conflict Zone in system, where the AGB was in conflict with another local faction.
Leon and James jumped down and laid into the pirates, but after a few minutes, Leon noted that something was wrong. His scanner showed only hostiles on local scans, and everyone started shooting at him! He pushed the ship to the limit and exited the zone with all due haste until he could turn around with shields raised again. James peeled into a fight with a few smaller ships while a pirate controlled Corvette caught Leon's attention. Though he put the new ship through its paces and nearly destroyed his canopy, Leon was able to come out on top of the much larger ship and blast it to pieces.
After a quick stop and repair at the local pirate controlled station (This is why we don't trust auto flight control protocols. Leon thought as the station accepted his docking request as a neutral party even though he'd destroyed many of the Brotherhood ships that day alone.) And the two Commanders were off again to fight.
This time, the Brothers' Forces took no quarter.
Within moments of rejoining the field, no less than eight bogies turned and started laying into the FDL's shields. Leon juked, burning hard for the edge of the battle, but there was not enough space that could separate himself and the pirates.
"James, it's getting a little hot in here!" Leon shouted over the comms.
"Shields Offline" The ship informed him. "Incoming Missiles"
"Well shit." Leon said. He threw the FDL into a sickening spin and boosted as hard as the ship would allow without killing him or destroyed the engines. The ship rocked as missiles found their target: the FDLs large exposed thrusters. He was sent into a spin, barely able to keep control of the ship.
"Barret! I'm FUBAR if I stay here. Bugging out now!" Leon shouted, sparks dancing from his brand-new ship's console. He threw the switch to jump to supercruise. Four more missiles were converging. The spool up sequence was going agonizingly slow. He counted the incoming missiles on the scanner. 400 meters. 300. 250. 2 Seconds to jump. 100 meters. 1...!
The FDL sparked into life as it jumped out of the zone just in the nick of time. Leon hung his head, panting.
"Barrett, I don't think they liked it when I took out that Corvette," Leon laughed, relieved to not be sucking vacuum right now. Then he checked the scanner. James hadn't made the jump out. "Break attack, Barrett. I repeat, break attack and disengage."
No response.
Leon checked his system status on his Wing Link. No shields, and hull below 25%. We swore and brought the FDL around. "James, Break off attack and disengage! Get the hell out of there!"
Only static responded. As Leon brought the limping FDL back into normal space, he was just in time to watch Barrett's Vulture separate into a rapidly expanding fireball.
"Barret!!" Leon split power between power and engines and swooped back into the fray. Lasers glancing off his shields, he found his target: a single man escape pod, Core Dynamics make. With only a slightly shaky hand, Leon guided the FDL to scoop the pod into the pitiful cargo hold. He pitched up and sped away back into supercruise.
Leon pulled James from the pod a few moments later. The other man was physically fine on a cursory glance, but pale and shaken. Leon brought him back up to the flight deck, where he pointed the ship back towards the nearest friendly station.
"I'm going to kill every single one of those bastards." James said, staring out the viewport.
"Not today, these engines are being held on by hopes and dreams." Leon said, pointing to a systems display that read the engine integrity at hovering around 32% of nominal. They'd gotten cocky, Leon in his new ship that he wasn't so familiar as with the Python. As they turned into the station James sighed.
"You know what the worst of it is?"
"What?"
"They blew up five crates of Dublin Reserve. That whiskey was for you."
Leon's hand tightened around the flightstick.
"Those bastards. Now it's personal."