The same morning ritual for
Maegen. Get up, lounge about, show off her scars, slap Rick for a stupid joke,
hug him to make up for it, get dressed, go to the hanger deck. Rick still
stopped to see his favorite picture before he left.
"Good morning, Rick and
Maegen. Hope you two had a good rest, you'll need it. Today you're escorting
the Drayman from yesterday back to the jump point so it can get back to Confed
airspace. Careful now, we're expecting at least light resistance, we've found
the main source of Kilrathi resistance in the Enyo system." Maegen
wondered about it.
"What is it, may I
ask?"
"Good question. It
appears to be a small fleet of two Ralari-class cruisers and a Falthi. We have
to get rid of them before we can pull out here, more Exeters will replace
us." Mollo looked over to their Scimitars, then back to them.
"In case you see
something unusual, come back and tell us about it." The two nodded.
"Well then, dismissed,
you launch in three minutes. Good luck."
Four minutes later they were
shot out the launch tubes, screaming past the slow Drayman.
"Welcome back, ready to
go?"
"Affirmative Delta
Flight, let's go back home." Rick smiled with a chuckle as the Drayman
struggled to catch up to the already slow-moving Scimitars. Meg got over to
it's right flank, Rick it's left.
"Rick, think I'll see
my cousin again?" She got on a private channel with him...Worried she
wouldn't see Magis again, didn't want to never see him again.
"Don't worry, the
Broadsword is coming with us when we pull out." She nodded at him.
"Thanks Rick." She
looked out her canopy frame, noticing that there was some rather large space
debris up ahead from an earlier battle...
"No problem..." He
looked up at his radar, several objects flying at them. It wasn't space debris
anymore...
"Oh crap! They were
already here!" Meg looked out her canopy frame, six Salthi fighters flying
at them. She shook off the shock and armed her Mass Drivers.
"I'll stay with the
Drayman! Go out and attack them Meg!" A simple nod over the green
vid-comm. was her reply as she targeted the lead Salthi with her scanner and
gave chase.
It flew over to the Drayman,
trying to get a good shot. Unfortunately for the kitty inside Meg had her Mass Drivers
on him. Within seconds the green bolts had ripped through the fighter, roasting
the kitty. She looked up at the radar again as soon as the lock disappeared,
trying to find another one...
The rear shields started to
fade away. She let out a shriek as she looked behind her, two of them on her
tail.
"Delta, help me out
here!" She turned around to the right, knowing the Salthi wouldn't be able
to chase her very far that way...Still the shots came, several penetrating the
weakened shields.
"I'm here for
you!" Watching back she saw one of the Salthis explode, hit by a
heat-seeker. The other broke off to the left, unable to go right, due to it's
shoddy construction. A very bad defect since Delta was heading right towards
his side.
"Get out Swordblade! Find
the Drayman and stay with it!" He watched from the corner of his eye as
her Scimitar headed for the Drayman, smoke puffing out of it's engines.
Something was wrong with her ship...
Inside it was getting very
bumpy, Meg being shaken about as she afterburned out...Looking down at her
damage display she saw that the Acceleration Absorbers were offline, Meg being
able to feel that fact at the moment.
The leftover Salthi didn't
have much of a chance, Rick already in position to attack it's weak left flank.
Knowing he wouldn't be able to shake the Scimm the Salthi pilot tried to pull
up, to no avail as Rick let off another missile. The heat-seeker had found the
heat off of it's engines and was giving chase. As a last ditch escape attempt
the little fighter tried to speed up - And got the missile up the tailpipe. The
shields faded instantly and the Salthi turned into a flash of orange before
vanishing...Rick letting out a yell of joy, watching the Javelin hit over his
right VDU display due to it's missile camera.
"Swordblade, are you
okay?" He flew back to the Drayman, Meg's Mud Pig next to it. Making sure
that the remaining three Salthis were far off he made his way over. Checking
her over the scanner, he saw that the back shields were gone and the rear panels
were red, something was definitely wrong.
"My engine block was
hit, the shields failed! Accel Absorbers are down and my Ion Drive is
damaged!" Rick suddenly jumped up in his seat after hearing about the Ion
Drive, realizing what this meant.
"Go back home Meg!
You're sitting on a reactor that could blow any second!" She shook her
head at him.
"And leave you
alone?" Rick stared at her, at least the fuzzy light green image of her
over the vid-comm.
"I can take care of
things! Just make it back alive!" She thought about...Nodding her head
after several seconds.
"Merci..." She
afterburned out while she still had time, watching the other Scimitar and the
Drayman getting smaller and smaller as she ran away...
In the meanwhile a Salthi
tried to make a run after her, Rick speeding up at it to intercept.
"No...Not yet!" He
primed up his Mass Drivers just in case, watching the red crosshairs appear
once again in his targetor...
"How much longer until
you can jump out?"
"At least five more minutes!
Can you hold them that long?" Rick watched his last heat-seeker lock onto
the Salthi.
"Yes, just tell me if
you're in trouble!" He fired it off; it ran right into the fighter's rear
and gutted it out as it headed into the cockpit, breaking the fighter up into
pieces.
Meanwhile the other two
Salthis were surrounding him, trying to catch him in a trap. He didn't fall for
it though, as he headed after the one on his tail, Mass Drivers charged.
The cat decided to play
chicken, coming at him firing two shots. Rick responded with a salvo of fire,
ripping it apart. The flames reflected off the canopy glass of the Scimm, Rick
feeling happy about his kills. In the meanwhile the Salthi's shots were quickly
absorbed by the front shields.
"Two more minutes, be
aware there's another enemy in the area! He's heading towards us!" A
Dralthi came flying after the Drayman, finding Rick instead and started after
him with guns blazing as he popped up from behind. The Scimitar shields held,
unfortunately for Rick they were weakened for the next assault. As soon as Rick
could turn around to see him the Dralthi was on top of him, turning around at
his side and firing, knocking the right Mass Driver gun off of it's mount and
into space.
"Scimitar pilot! Leave
your transport now if you want to live!" Rick looked down at the vid-comm.
while keeping an eye on the Dralthi, which was floating silently about three
thousand meters away. As the pilot came through Rick saw that it was a
particularly hideous Kilrathi staring at him, ice in his eyes, never moving.
"Sorry, can't do that!
This Drayman's my pal." The kitty suddenly had a grin on his face.
"Well then...Let it be
known that Baktov Blacktooth shot down you and your pal." Rick had an
expression on his face as if to say "Who?", he locked onto the
Dralthi as it started to gun his engines, keeping an eye on the Salthi.
Baktov came at him at full
speed, firing off several bolts. They went past Rick as he boosted out of the
way, he got ready to fire his own attack. As Baktov got in the way of
crosshairs he let loose, the Mass Driver seeming to work faster with just one
cannon online.
"We're jumping! Sorry
we can't help...But thank you!" The Drayman stopped in place, suddenly
replaced by a flash of light.
"No problem..."
Rick watched the Drayman disappeared into the void, the light fading. The
Dralthi still kept charging.
The Mass Driver found it's
mark, several shots making it past Blacktooth's shields and hitting the
Dralthi's wings, green particles flying through the void.
"Baktov! They made
their escape! We lost this time!" The cat looked over, the Salthi making a
quick get-away.
"Damnit Sabbath!
Scimitar...I shall return for you later...What is your name, Red Unicorn?"
Rick smiled proudly as he flipped off the kitty over the vid-comm.
"Rick Eyven, callsign
Delta! Tell the cats over at Port Hedland that I'm gunning for them!"
Baktov let out a growl.
"I shall, Rick...That
is if you live to get back there again...Farewell for now. Baktov flew off
after the Salthi, the wounded Dralthi showing signs of engine trouble.
Rick felt cold for a while
heading home, looking back to make sure the two kitties weren't trying anything
sly. As soon as they couldn't be seen anymore he started to afterburn back for
home...He smiled once the Regal came into view again.
Forward To Chapter 6
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