Into The Fray
03 May 2020Maggie Oz
"Hey Ya Maggie ! " Al called from across the entrance hallI waved and turned back to completing my clearances for entry to the station.
"Hello Al, thank you for coming to meet me" I said once I was clear of the checkpoint.
I bent down to give him a hug, and a peck on the cheek. Where I was tall and willowy, he was rather short and solid.
"My pleasure fer shaw" he said in his thick Federation accent "Dat noo ship a yours looks preeeetty sweet"
"Doesn't she just? I've fitted her out just as you advised, hopefully, I'll make a better showing this time"
"Ahhh I know you will" he replied, "When are ya headin' out?"
"I thought in an hour or so"
"Ok." he said, I could see he was hedging about asking something
"I .... ummm, I don't suppose you might like to ride shotgun?" I asked, hoping I'd guessed right
"Oh boy! I thou't you'd never ask! " He laughed.
"To be honest I'd really appreciate an experienced hand in the co-pilot seat, this is all a bit new to me"
"You gotta deal"
"Oh I almost forgot," I said and rummaged in my flight bag for his cigars," I picked these up for you"
"Woooeee, very classy"
"Nothing but the best for the crew of Witchy Woman" I said with a wink
"I tink I might get to like this crewman thing. I'm gotta go an' get my flight suit and crap, so I'll meet ya at da airlock in 60, OK ?"
"Sure thing"
To calm my nerves I decided to take an hour and treat myself to a lunch at one of the restaurants on the station.
I was surprised to find a "Maxime's" this far out, I was amazed that the standard was almost as high here as it was even in Achenar.
"Table for one Madam?" the Maitre d' asked
"Yes please," I said, showing my Maxime's Member's Card, Platinum. "Platinum Maxime's card" roughly translates as "bring the good stuff, she tips big"
"Oh yes mad'am, right his way," he said and ushered me to a table by an expansive window with a stunning view of the rings.
I ordered champagne and a light pâté de foie gras, which arrived promptly but without haste.
I sat looking out the window and saw, off in the blackness, a flare of light.
-One of them? Or one of us? -
It was surreal to be sitting in opulence watching the struggle for survival between two species being played out like a football match.
A match I would soon be joining.
I became aware of a strident conversation at a table just across the way
I couldn't really hear but caught "I refuse to pay for a meal spoiled by allowing ... that in here" and "Mad'am she is not doing any 'arm... "
Without thinking I looked toward the commotion, straight into the eyes of a woman at another table, looking at me with what I can only describe as disgust. She was at a table with several other women, they had the look of a gossip coven, with little better to do with their time than spread poison.
The Alpha Bitch looked me in the eye "We know you, you're that .. creature from Aztlan, it was all over the Galnet on that ridiculous Foundation Day. We saw you, telling everyone how you are so much better than everyone else because you're a clone. Prancing about, all those medals for murdering and enslaving"
I remembered it differently but said nothing. (Foundation Day)
Her outburst caught the attention of the others in the establishment, few, if any, were sympathetic to me.
I was a long, long way from the Empire and they all knew it.
"You're a freak, it's wrong what you do, grown in a vat, no different to that champagne they are wasting on you." this brought a wave of venomous laugher.
Encouraged, she went on with a sneer "Come to size up the sector as a slave farm have you?"
"No." I said meekly, fighting back my tears and rage.
"So why are you here, freak?"
This was my one chance to get out of this with dignity
"I have come to assess the level of threat in this sector as a preliminary to raising a force from the system I administer to resist the advances of the Thargoids. I felt I might have a unique perspective as I fought in the last Thargoid War." I said a levelly as I could, loud enough for all to hear and in the most formal and heavy Imperial accent, I could muster. "Now if you would excuse me, I must attend to that task"
As if on cue there was another flare in the window behind me, another starship of souls lost to the void.
The room fell silent and I stood. I paused and regarded the patrons for just as many seconds as it took for everyone to feel awkward.
I walked, unhurried, to the Maitre d' station
"Please charge everyone's meals to my account," I said in a tone that invited no argument.
"But .... " started he started, then "Of course Madam"
"Add 50% for you and your staff as well"
"Yes Madam, and thank you. You are most kind," then he added in a low tone "Please accept my apology, we ... we are a long way from the Empire here"
"I understand, Jean-Paul," I said, looking at his name badge, "I should have been more aware, I am so terribly sorry"
He returned my credit disk by placing it on the counter, seemingly not wanting to risk touching me.
I left to the murmured sounds of the coven telling each other how clever they were.
I stormed to the space dock,
"Hay ya Maggie are you ready to .." called Al as I arrived
"Bloody oath Al, I'm in the mood to kill something"
We boosted out of the station and I set a course for the zenith. Al was on the scanners, checking the signal sources.
"Here ya go Cap, I got a Non-Human Signal Source bearing 0-5-0 at 200ls," said Al .... I wondered who "Cap" was, "scanning now at Threat Level 3"
"Roger, turning to engage" I aligned on the waypoint and commenced the run down to within frame shift drop parameters.
"Systems check, all green, we are good to go," said Al, his experience taking over now, it was all business.
The drop cue came up and I reached across and squeezed his hand
"Here we go!" I said
"Let's kick some ass!" he growled,
Witchy Woman slid smoothly out of frameshift and banged into real space.
Having learned from the past, I immediately firewall the throttle and punched the boost, we flew forward as a hail of alien phaser fire lanced through the now empty space where we had dropped.
I executed a chandelle to port pushing through the ecliptic as the hardpoints deployed, I then Immelmaned off the top to swing back down onto the targets as Al locked up the first one.
"I got two T'argoid scouts, no heavys on scope, foist one is locked up" he chanted
"Rog" I replied, a little tense
I rolled in on the first target, punching boost again and bringing the turrets online, the 4 sighting pips clustered over the Scout ship.
At 2000m I punched the pickle and a hail of AX shells blazed out at the target, it flipped and turned but the turrets held true and peppered the hull.
The scout then turned back towards us and opened return fire, I hit the side thrusters which moved us out of the line of fire for a few more moments then broke left and punched the boost to get away from his shots.
I stood the ship on one wing and hauled her around, punching boost again, fighting the G's, as we banked as hard as we could to line up the scout again and let fly. The AX cannon savaged it and it exploded in a fireball.
"Don't fly t'ru the fireball!" yelled Al "It's acid!"
I barrel rolled over the debris as best I could to avoid the caustic cloud while Al searched for and locked up the second scout ship.
"Ok got 'im"
He was at our starboard rear quarter but looked to be making a run to escape so I punched all the pips to the Engine and boosted Witchy Woman as fast as she would go, rapidly closing the distance
As we closed the Thargoid realised it couldn't escape so it turned to attack, he flew towards us and I mashed down the fire button and a steam of fire tore into him, our shields took a battering from his return fire but held, just.
I flick rolled into another bank to come around on his tail and he did same, racing at each other like jousting knights. His fire blazed across our shields punching through and hitting our hull, dropping us to 90%.
I had my finger on the trigger but nothing happened.
We both turned at the end of our run and charged towards each other again.
"Maggie! Check your power pips fer Christsake!" Al bellowed
I looked down, I had forgotten all power was on the engine, the shield and weapons capacitors were empty, shields with two pips, weps with none.
While I was distracted the Scout took advantage and hit us hard, structure to 80%
I boosted, using the full engine to give is some breathing space then frantically pushed the shield to 4 pips to get it back up, all the while avoiding the Thargoid's fire. Once the shield was up I set the power to 2 for each and swung about, going back on the offensive.
I must have caught the Scout out as he didn't move at all as I swung about and the AX cannon raked his hull as we flew by, I saw the ship stagger but regain.
This time I pulled back and did a half loop into a split-S to come around on top of him as he banked for another joust, the turrets clustered on him and in a moment he was gone......
"Holy crap girl, you pasted dem! What did you have fer lunch? " Al laughed
"Bitch, I had bitch for lunch" I replied
We took stock for a bit, we were still looking good so decided to go again.
This time Al found a Threat 5 zone.
"You up fer it? This'll be a bit tougher" Al asked
"Sure let's do it"
We dropped in, as it turned out there were 2 other human ships in the mix and 6 Thargoids.
"This is goo- ta - maya Whiskey India Tango, we are inbound on your bandits from 2-5-5" Al called to the other ships
"Roger Gutamaya, welcome to the party!" replied one of the other ships.
"Uh oh, looks like there's an Interceptor here too, gettin' serious now" Al called as he worked the scan
We entered a maelstrom of whirling ships and slashing phasers, we were a bit outgunned in this fight but gave a good account of ourselves, I managed to take down three scouts but the last one blew just as it went by the cockpit and we were showered with acid.
"Holy shit Maggie, get us to da station NOW!" Al cried "We're gonna melt"
I checked my readout, 60% hull, caustic damage, shields out. Time to go home I think. I boosted away from the dogfight as the other human ships looked to have taken the upper hand.
I cued up the station, 1.3 ls away, mercifully close
"It's OK, Al, we've got this" I assured him
We F-shifted back to the station and docked, just like a trading run, except we were steadily dissolving as we went. On touch down the ground crews swarmed over us and dowsed the acid off the hull. We were down to 43% by the time it was all gone.
"Well, that was a pretty good day's work there, girl" said Al, slapping me on the shoulder. "You don't need me teachin' ya nothin' no more"
"You're too kind Al, I nearly got us killed"
"Hey anyone can forget stuff in the heat a da moment. It's what you do to fix it dat counts"
"Sure" I replied, "Fancy a drink?"
"I thou't you'd never ask! The hotshot is buyin' " he said pointing a stubby finger at me