03. There is always hope
09 Jun 2020Archived
Deep SpaceHollatja system
Federal space
He lost track of time. He wasn’t even sure how long was he spinning and how far did he travel. There was nothing in the void to slow him down. He needed to figure a way out and solve the most imminent problems first. Like: lack of power. It was already starting to get cold in the cockpit, and the windscreen was covered with ice. After several attempts, he managed to reach the auxiliary power lever and pull it out. Displays flickered and came back to life, together with the distinctive hum of life support system as it kicked in again.
Quick systems check revealed however that things looked rather grim. Main thruster was destroyed, although some of the manoeuvring ones still worked. Kerensky carefully fired those on the opposite side of the direction of spin end after some time managed to get the Eagle flying more or less straight. Bringing the ship to a halt took a few more minutes, but eventually it worked. The FSD was out, together with shield generator, and the emergency power would only last this long. The only thing left to do was wait…
Deep Space
Hollatja system
13 hours later
“Warning! Power levels critical. System shutdown imminent”.
Vadim cursed. Probably for a thousandth time. With the power out, life support system would last for exactly 14 minutes. 14 minutes to live…
Suddenly, movement outside caught his attention. A ship! Here? How? Kerensky locked up the new contact. An Adder. Things couldn’t get worse than they already were, and he felt slightest glimmer of hope. He saw the newcomer hailing him and as the comms opened, heard:
“I didn’t expect to see you in one piece, after all I read about your.. deeds. It was all over local GalNet, you and this politician, Square. Old man sent me to pick up your black box, but he’ll be happy to see you alive.”
The old man.. which means the group that gave him this job. After royally blowing up the job,, Kerensky doubted that they would like to see him again, and most likely they needed the black box only to wipe it clean and get rid of any traces where the contract originated from. He needed to play this one smartly. Suddenly, three more spots appeared on the scanner. Feds. Vadim spoke.
“Yes, that is nice of the old man. Unfortunately the black box is still attached to my ship, and these three…”
Adder pilot cut him off.
“OK, they are scanning me. Let’s leave the pleasantries for later. I’ll come close to your ship and open the cargo hatch, as soon as you get in, we’ll jump”.
“Alright” - Vadim got up and grabbed a small bag with his personal belongings. He then stopped and enabled the self destruct sequence, before making it for the back of the Eagle.
Adder was parked very close, and Kerensky got onboard without any trouble. As soon as he was in, he tapped the closest intercom panel and shouted: “I’m here, detach!!”. He felt the engine surge, but magboots held him firmly in place, until he heard familiar sound of FSD spooling up. When things stabilised after entering the witch space, he entered the cockpit to greet his saviour..
OOC: Thanks to Commander Rex Creen for the rescue!