[Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01 — Legacy Forums

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#41

His eye caught, the soft-seeming man behind the bar simply jerks his thumb towards a wall of the bar, where booths sit, nearly completely partitioned from the rest of the cantina. It's the closest thing he's got to offer, in any case, as he continues to work his alcoholic artistry.

One slender finger snagged his controls of the sound system, killing the songs on file, and dimming the lights faintly as a lone Kel'Regar female stalked onto the stage, a strange and alien instrument in her hands. A quick strumming across it checks the reconstituted sound system, while the din of the cantina fell slightly, as her song began. While the artistry of it, perhaps, left a small bit to be desired, and the liquid language fell untranslateable upon many of the ears within the room, the appeal of it, to the spacers, was obvious and needed no translation. It was a challenge, one reinforced by the dark-skinned woman's strut across the stage as she played and sang.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#42

"Kestral. My name is Kestral and I'm a security and protection specialist. I've got a Militiaman docked here as well.
I am currently looking for employment."

Smalltalk was not one of Kestral's strengths...

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#43

"Rustbucket!?" Erik's voice holds a strong tone of cheerful mock-outrage, although his voice is perhaps a bit louder than it needs to be. Chalk it up to what the mad elf behind the bar gave him to drink, then. "I'll have y'know the Karloff is the sturdiest single-man freighter y're like to see! A bit on the warm side for radiation-sensitive types, maybe, but that's just how I like it." The space dwarf's cheery tirade is interrupted, momentarily, by a heavy rumbling sound, and then he thumps his chest. "Pardon me. Seems our friend at the bar gave me a bit extra with the drink he passed me."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#44

"Then, let us discuss the drinks and matters of warmth in freighters, bellies and wallets elsewhere" Danasheth gave them a conspirational twink and led them towards the back booth.

Having them safely seated there, she took a place next to Alice, looked at the diverse bunch. She had confused feelings about the Oraki, truth be said: while she perceived their .. souls, one might call it, they were strange and hard to assess or comprehend. One would believe that being made by man, they would be similar to man, yet the opposite was true. The creations became independent of their sire, most likely much like he intended.
At least if Danasheth spent some time with them, she might observe and learn.

"Welcome gentlemen to our impromptu salvage team. Our prize is a large one, dead in the water. No signs of battle, no signs of life, save a bacon I have muted with one of my own that should keep our target hidden until I get there. According to what I could glean from the brief scan I performed, the ship is a freighter of sorts, no military vessel, three clicks in length and of design unknown. We will hop in, try to get her live, and if it is impossible, drag her off. Afterwards, we split even."

She whipped out her wristcomp and light-pen, and projected a blank 'page'. "Everyone of you, write down what you're best and what you're decent at, so that we can assign tasks accordingly. Let's get to it."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#45

Erik squinted at the 'sheet' dubiously a moment before transferring his moderately quizzical look to Danasheth herself. "So I'm assumin' y'want more than 'if it flies or can shoot at things while mounted on something that flies, I can fix it'?" With a shrug, the space dwarf takes the light pen and scrawls a rough draft of his capabilities, both as a starship engineer and a personal combatant, and an even rougher description of the Karloff.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#46

Kestral thought for a moment, then added to the sheet:

Kestral - Security - both physical and systems, assorted technologies and programming. Fighter Pilot (Militaman)

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#47

"Well, My dear Dana. This is all very nice, but perhaps these fine spacefarers may like to know what we can expect of you, besides the location of a derelict ship."

Turning to everybody else, Alice presented himself:"By the way, I'm Alice. If it has a keyboard, an engine or batteries, and more often than not when it hasn't, I can build it and repair it. I hope anyway!"

"what about you, Mach, how did you end up in this corner of the glaxy?"

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#48

"As for myself - I am but a humble war veteran turned diplomat" she laughed. "Back in my military days, I flew a light fighter - actually, I still do. If ever the need arises, I believe myself capable of aiding Alice's computer exploits as well - if you ever wished to visit my enchanting homeworld, my degree is there."
She sat back, smiling.
"Also, you need not fear for safety, for I am capable to protect you" she added after a second, pointing to a pistol of hers "or at least myself."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#49

"I'm here to be something of a helper to other races. To engender goodwill, and possibly find allies for my people. As for what I can do...Well, I'd like to consider myself something of a tinkerer." he smiled slightly, listening to the boasting of the others. When the 'clipboard' came around to him, he wrote his name, the size of his freighter, and "Tinkerer" on it.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#50

After the others finished their bookwork, Kestral impatiently said - "Great, so we can actually settle much of this en route. I think any minute we waste is time that someone else can find your hulk, so lets get this moving. I'd suggest we settle on an encrypted channel to coordinate our communications."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#51

"Sounds good to me! We can always swap public keys en route. But We don't want to rush into this. Is there anything we need to bring with us from the station? cutting equipment, explosives, engineering supplies? I have some material to work with, but hardly enough for a full scale salvage."

"Or are we just going to have a look, and then come back for what we need?"

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#52

Mach looked at Barnaby with a look of what might be considered inquisition. "Pray tell, what purpose does it serve to travel all the way out to the wreckage and then have to come all the way back here? Why not just take what we should need, and then come back if we need something unforseen? I have till the star grows cold, but I'm quite sure the others do not wish to waste time making multiple trips."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#53

"He does have a point, lets decide what gear we need, get it, and go. The more we tarry, the more likely someone might get the jump on us."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#54

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#55

Mach looked almost incredulously at his scanners. What in starfire were those fools doing? Fighting obviously, but what were they fighting over. He listened to the radio transmission again. Pie-rat-tannical scrags...Pirates? What the blazes were pirates doing in-system? He'd never heard that they were a problem here. Burning stars, this could be a problem. He hit his radio, sending out a message to the others in their little flotilla. "Mach here. I'm quite sure you all have picked up that fight going on. I have a single cannon on this hunk of metal, so I'm not much of one for a fight. If that is the level of our general firepower, I suggest we skirt this conflict. We will do no one any good if we end up space junk."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#56

"Target is 350 million KM away - we can just blow by unless they are interested in us...

Question. Do we want to interfere? Would we want help if we were similarly in trouble?
I've got a pair of railguns and a couple of missles.."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#57

Erik snorted before keying his own respone; he had not doubt that anyone sparing a glance for long-range traces could spot him, with the cozy glow of the Salvorathan frieghter. "The Karloff's armed. Some small things for swattin' purposes and and bigger one what throws rocks." The exact details of his armament were hardly anyone else's business unless he was buying parts for them, of course. "I'd say blow by unless they start to take an interest, normally, but if the transmission was right, they've got rats, and rats tend to need stomped on."

Keying the mic off, he shakes his head. "Bad feelin' about this. Boris! Lock the IDs of the ships in formation and flag 'em as greens. Don't want to feed them a rock if we get in a fight."
"Affirmative. Ships flagged green." The deep voice of the ships autopilot rumbled, and the localspace scans blinked as the respective blips shifted color to burn a steady green hue. Erik nodded to himself, and turned his attention to his scanners, trying to pick out details about the fight ahead of them.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#58

"It has been some time indeed since I let a pirate savour the chill freshness of vacuum, but this time, my ship does not have a single capital leter, let alone being of the capital class."

What if it was us out there?

The question nagged at Danasheth. No Kiranti ship would ignore a call for help - from on of its own kind, that is. Her kind, though, was not inclined to like her, at this time.

Hesitating a bit, she breathed in, and added:
"I wish to fly in. While face to face, the pirates may have a bigger sword, to the back a dagger is more fitting anyway."
She used a human metaphor. Indeed, the Kiranti tongue lacked the term 'sword'. Or 'mace', for that matter. 'Pike' was unknown too.

"If we do, the Karloff should approach from behind those ships we marked as friendly, while the rest of us accelerate now, and float towards the pirate's back, to get a shot at their drives and the associated unshielded parts. Kestral is right - we cannot stand by."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#59

Erik chuckled before he keyed the mic again. "Wise idea, not hangin' too close to me; my hull glows enough to distract them from y'lot unless one of y'has a reactor leak."

He's not kidding, either; even cursory scans at a moderate distance could hardly miss the Salvorathan vessel, glowing brightly on all kinds of radiation bands; this might well explain the reason it looks like a stray scrap of armor plating from a battleplate rather than a ship in and of itself, of course - stealth with something that bright is just about impossible.

"Just be alert if y're in my primary field of fire. Your little fighters aren't likely to take kindly to bein' clipped by my main weapon." The Salvorathan shut the mic off again, and smirked faintly as his attention returns to his screens, checking his vessel for combat readiness even as he continued to try to piece together the fight ahead.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#60

"Suggesting determining the pirate 'flagship' if any and taking that out first - may take the heaviest weapons out of the fight and provide a morale boost."

Even as he spoke, he quickly inputed a set of evasive autoprogramming that took his enhanced G-force resistence into account. He had long isnce overridden the system that assumed a human pilot.

"Anyone have a good reading on the larger ships involved?"

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#61

"Well, I say this could be interesting. Let me see what I can come up with." Alice paused looking at the control screens of the cockpit. Having activated all possible sensors on his ship, he turned to the book he had been reading with a sigh. "Another time, perhaps..."

"Maia, keep watching the battle. let us know whats going on as soon as you know on the group channel."

"Could I remind you gentlemen, that although my ship is probably armoured enough to plough in there, my only weapon is my considerable inertia. Things could get messy if it came to use it."

"Well, What are we waiting for?"

let Maia handle the ship and evasive actions. just plough straight into the middle of the fray, engines blazing, reroute power from secondary powerplant to antennas and attempt to scramble enemy comms and range finding

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#62

"My ship is not heavily armed. I doubt I would be of much use jumping right into this fight. I'll stay on the outskirts and offer support as possible." Reroute power to engines and gun platform, warm up targeting computer...Good to go.

OOC: Into the fray we go! Or rather, you guys go. Mach will sit on the edge of the battle and offer artillery support with his mass driver. Who knows? He might be able to pick up any escape pods that need rescuing.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#63

Erik fiddled with the scanners, trying to make out the events of the battle, before keying the mic again. "I'm agreein' with the Kiranti there. Alice and I should plough in from behind the ones we think aren't the rats, servin' as a distraction and an anvil, while the rest of y'go ahead, and be the hammer on the other side. The ones with the best guns should hit first, while Mach and any other light-armed fighters hang back to pick off stragglers and snipe down heavy ordnance." The Salvorathan pauses, and adds dryly, "I'd rather not find myself eatin' a heat-seekin' heavy missile, after all." At least, this was how the Starvoid clan had usually handled pirate situations, until the last one. He switches the mic back off, and continues tinkering with the scanner, trying to resolve the view of what's ahead.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#64

As your mini-fleet crosses over the long minutes of position and velocity matching between your arc of travel and the arc of the battle, sensor resolution first becomes more and more refined, allowing you to identify both the merchant forces - A customized medium freighter, its frame obscured enough to frustrate the first five seconds of pattern matching attempts, escorted by a significant number of MarsStar Tian-shi, a light fighter that those of you with military and security backgrounds will recognize as a budget model known for its hard acceleration and less-than-stellar controls - and the pirate forces - a hodgepodge of what appears to be frankenfighters and stolen light fighters, along with a single large ship, perhaps thirty meters in length, with an odd, spike-like construction on the front, and massive plates of forwards armor.

And then, the updated image begins to fail, as chaotic chaff and the eletcromagnetic screams of dying ships begin to fill the void, both green and red 'blips' pulsing then fading away as they return to dust among the stars.

By the time you have reached the combat, the void has claimed many a man to feed its unsatiable hunger, a meager pair of the merchant fighters remaining, darting in and around the medium freight's enormous bulk as cover while four of the pirate frankenfighters chase them through the superstructures of the larger vessel, slipping among the fire of its guns, while the larger pirate vessel has apparently backed off, only to begin acceleration towards the medium freighter.

As your fleet begins to approach, the Karloff and Old Benin the lead, jammers on full, two of the remaining pilot fighters begin to peel away from the medium freighter, pods fore-launching chaff as they do so. "This is nun- *kzt*- cern -*csht* lancers. If y-*zzt*- want, ya -*csht*- orderly queue - *zzt* -ait!."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#65

"Unidentified ships. This is incoming freelancer group. We are responding to a distress signal at your location as required by the governing regulations. Namely the convention on the laws of space, section 3, article 18. We require you to desist hostile activities immediately."

"Before you reply please reacquaint yourselves with the aforementioned regulation which allow the use of "reasonable force" to defend one's ship or an unarmed vessel in distress"

Turning towards the ship's control console, Alice's voice betrayed considerable concern when he turned off the external channels.

"Maia. Can you warm up the loader drone. Plot an intercept course with the pirate medium freigter."

Alice thought for a moment and corrected himself.

"Cancel that. Plot a collision course. Have old ben come in at an angle form behind if you can. I don't fancy the look of that forward armour, but the rear systems look more vulnerable. Make sure we land on our most armoured spot, though."

"Make it so that it'll make as much damage as possible without hurting us too badly. If anything, he'll change course when he sees what we're doing."

Well, I better get into my EVA suit. God forbid he calls the bluff.

getting into a vac suit just in case. also keeping a lifepod close to me. opening outer airlocks in case anybody needs rescuing, drone is ready to be cotrolled by alice or maia to help with rescues if needed. keeping track of escape pod course for both friendly AND enemy vessels

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#66

"That horn on the pirate's nose, it is a ram."

Danasheth knew. Back, in her military days, the Bulrathi used similiar craft to tear open capital ships and freighters they raided, their assault parties waiting in a compartment below the tip to storm a vessel, much like a deadly spider injects its venom.

While the pirates were distracted by her peers, Danasheth streaked by the fray, returning from the back, while her vision was flaring with patterns superimposed by her computer. Kizzor was chirping in the fighter's back in his pod - the small reptile loved explosions in space, and the thrill of combat.

Examining the shield pattern near the pirate's drives, where they had to be weakest. She flicked away the safety on the torpedo controls, and pressed the flaring red button. The torpedo would copy her course, and engage its engines once it was close, to avoid detection as long as possible, and conserve fuel for the last charge. A side engine of the pirate cruiser was the target, certain to bring it off course if she succeeded.

Right thereafter, she launched a small dataprobe that would lock onto the ship's communication.
The effect of the emergency lights suddenly flaring, and that sweet computer voice repeating "Emergency. All hands abandon ship!" was not to be underestimated.

Now, she hoped that a pirate fighter would come after her, for some close, personal action. She had some anger to vent.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#67

The Karloff's engines kick to full thrust as the Salvorathan pilot brings the vessel's BFRT to line up on the would-be ramming vessel. "Now, we'll see just how you'll be likin' Salvorathan weapons over some poor bastard merchantment." Erik chuckles after muttering this into the cockpit, keying the Karloff's systems to compute an ideal trajectory to sling a nice, hefty rock along. "Perhaps tanglin' with somethin' your size that can fight back properly'll give you a moment's pause."

Keying the comm band to the rest of the impromptu minifleet, he remarks with an offhand air, "Be sure to watch yourselves. Local space is about to get a bit more cluttered."

As soon as he has a probable trajectory, Erik fires the ship's BFRT, slinging a nickel-iron asteroid into the fray.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#68

Mach had never bowled, and he wasn't even sure if the human game had even survived the centuries since they had moved to the stars, but he knew the general concept of how it was played. You rolled a ball down a smooth floor towards a grouping of standing objects called 'pins', though from all accounts they were more rounded than pointy, and tried to hit the group at just the right point to knock all of them down.

Much was different here. For one, he was fairly sure that the pins in the original game hadn't been mobile. For another, they weren't likely to throw anything back towards you if you missed. But the general idea was the same. Pick a pin, knock it down. He prepped the mass driver for launch, then went to work with the targeting computer, trying to find the most likely target to bowl with.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#69

Understanding Danasheth's gambit, Kestral locked his course to sit in the sensor shadow of Danasheth's ship as he barreled in. Once the distance was closed, he would get in close and personal with one of the enemy ships. If the medium frieghter turned the right way, he would slash in with his guns to damage the ships engines.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#70

Of all the mass flying through the void of space, the first to reach its target is the point defense system of the pirate mother ship, the small coil gun pinging the iron nickel asteroid as it approaches, hard enough to fragment the enormous rock. Yet, easily twice the size of most of the fighters in the fray, the fragmented rock retains a great deal of its momentum, only in smaller packets, slamming hard against the port side of the foe, hard enough that some of the side panels begin to buckle, while the ship's course itself is deflected, the collision of two enormous billiard balls.

The next to strike is the missile fired by the tiny Kiranthi, the missile flaring to life and meeting its destiny, the port exhaust of the armored vehicle. For a significant moment, the vessel's thrust is off axis, twisting it further off both the collision courses set, its own and that of the Benjamin Franklin, the second's bulk missing now by mere meters. Thinking better of the encounter, that large vessel begins to limp away, the better to prey another day, even as the dataprobe claps to its hull, though its viral load does little.

Two of the remaining fighters, too, as their mothership retreats, turns to flee, the others, perhaps more greedy than wise, peel away from the wounded freighter's body, and stabbing out towards the Benjamin Franklin, raking at it with their guns, the weapons managing to do serious damage, bulkheads sealing as the rail slugs penetrate into the bay area. It brings them close enough as well that Kestral is able to engage, though his own burst of rail slugs are flung out into the stars, as they wing past his target.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#71

Erik scowls at the retreating vessel, his dark features twisting into a grimace that would shatter mirrors, were any at hand to witness the display. "Surely you're not runnin' away already? We were just gettin' to know each other." The words once again hang in the air as he calculates odds, angles, and relative veolcities. While unfamiliar with the particulars of the freighter, he knew the basics quite well - well enough that as he lined up another shot with the BFRT on the fleeing vessel, he was fairly certain that if it hit, it would hobble the ship and help prevent them from coming back for vengeance.

As another massive lump of nickel-iron composite is forced out into space and toward the fleeing freighter, the Salvorathan keys a communication frequency to hail the damaged merchantman on. "Starvoid freighter Karloff to unknown merchantman, what is the status of vessel and crew?"

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#72

"Fighters, not freighters!" Kestral screamed to himself, furious that his railguns missed. He savagely handled his controls, pushing the fighter to its limits to bring his guns in line to lead the nearest fighter. Fast as they were, the railguns still took time to reach their target so care needed to be taken.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#73

Danashet's fighter was equipped exactly to battle the kind of foe that approached them now - other fighters. Kizor chirped in anticipation as she spiralled away from the wounded freighter. Her computer fed her data about the attacking pirates, their estimated maximum turning arcs glowing like pale cones around their movement vectors, the firing fields of their visible weapons superimposed over these, other statistics her sensors could glean arranged in neat columns of numbers besides each foe.

Evading, she flanked them and spun her fighter around, bearing the quartet of gatling lasers to bear, blazing away at what she deemed the most advanced enemy vessel; having passed to their six, she let her drives flare and give chase.

The memories of her military days came back with each push of the button - the thrill of the hunt, the dread of combat, evoking that strange dichotomy in her which she was so familiar with, yet unable to analyze deeper. She embraced the feral side of the two-bladed feeling and pressed the trigger once more. There were pirates to kill.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#74

The echoing sound of the slugs was deafening in Old Ben's interior. Alice's angry voice went almost unheard over the thunking noise of metal breaking and melting.

"You damned hounds! Firing at an unarmed freighter. How dare you!"

Looking at the tactical display, Alice saw how dire the situation was. He'd basically flown straight into the two fighters. A sardonic smile crossed his lips. What a fool he had been. Well, problems always came with solutions attached. He plotted an insane course for Old Ben, Trying to bring the two foolish little pilots in the firing line of his companions.

Shouting over the blaring alarms, "Maia, would you give me a status rep-" Alice was rather rudely interrupted as a slug passed all the way through the bridge, sending a shower of sparks that briefly illuminated the shattered consoles. The rapid decompression send various items flying through the cabin at high speed in a cacophony of shapes and sounds. Thankfully, the old space suit's autoseal activated in time.

Repeating his request a second time over the suit's intercom, Alice's face lit up with a strange smile, half wistful, and half like a small child ogling an ice cream cone. Ah, memories...

I'm trying to make it easier for our fighters to get to the enemy. (pilot roll to support Danashet?)
What does maia say about the ship's status?

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#75

Mr. Newton may not have been right about everything, but in this case, he was right: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Of course, the force exerted by the miniature asteroid as it was thrown toward an available target had negligible effect on Mach's ship. Just because the force was the same didn't mean that the acceleration from it would be. Regardless, the flying rock missed it's target entirely and rushed off into the void. Of course, the distances involved meant that Mach had already fired on the pirate mothership by the time the miss was logged by the computer, but such was the norm in space. Distances were far enough that light itself took a noticeable amount of time to reach a destination. The second target looked a bit easier to hit anyway. With a bit of luck, he might even knock out some of the point defense system.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#76

As Maia begins to light the report screens with tracing of the damage, it becomes clear that while the ship is battered, and one of the reaction-mass tanks has been holed, there has yet been no major systems damage - the Old Ben remains fully functional... at least for the moment. As the massive freighter begins to push through it's crazy course, however, the leak from the pressurized vessel pushes it in one all-too-predictable direction as well, enough that the two attacking fighters are able to dive close to the nearly weaponless freighter, using it for cover as they draw the enemy freelancers into their dance.

As the violent swirl erupts around the old ben, the pirates soon show their prowess, their bursts of hard acceleration punctuated with violent twists of the frame, skidding through strafing drifts before darting around another corner of the much larger freighter. In this swirl it is the Kiranti that draws the first bead, her lasers cutting a staggered, interrupted trail of melted metal across the ships frame, moderately damaging it, even as it makes its own retaliatory fire, the blaze of heavy rails slashing its way across the fighter's armor, lighting the bright violet of damage warnings inside its cockpits.

Pouncing next is Kestral, both his forward mounted guns and the tiny turret mounted on the bottom of his vessel shivering to life as they scream with their voice of hypervelocity tungsten slivers. For a split second, they hang in the airless void, their paths far straighter than any arrow ever crafted, before finding their mark in the already damaged vessel with deadly effect. There is an almost eerie silence as the tiny vessel begins to disintegrate, a bright burst of light as the fusion reactor powering the ship loses its containment, and a sudden dull roar, just as sharply ending, as the shockwave of dust passes over the remaining ships. Yet, for Kestral, the ending is not quite so quick, the armor of his fighter screaming in the highest octave, as the thin blue lines of particle beams rip across his vessel, lancing into the maneuvering thrusters, and dealing significant damage to the frame on their way through.

Further away, the guns of the other freighters make their reports within their own vessels, the sounds of the weapons firing ringing through their respective frames, the groan of the rock-thrower, the bark of hypervelocity steel, as Mach and Erik alike fire at the retreating ship, each weapon battering against the retreating boarding vessel, but to little effect.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#77

Her military days have taught Danasheth not to curse over the comm; still, the hits to her fighter were surprising. 'I must really be out of shape!' That, or the pirate was lucky.

Still, no vital system was hit, and her ship accelerated to get to the pirate fighter's six, her guns weaving a net of laser fire to catch him in; aware of where his weapons could reach and where not, she evaded his arc of fire, her programmed ECM routines fooling with his less-than-flawless systems.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#78

Kestral cringed as his fighter was tore up by the particle beams. First he missed, and second, he got hit!

With a little more care - trying not to rupture his damaged thrusters, he attempted to bring his weapons to bare on the remaining enemy fighter.

"Hold together..."

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#79

Having noticed what made his motions so predictable, Alice decided to act:

"Maia, would you kindly send the loader drone to repair the external mass leaks. We're drifting off course."

Alice then connected internally to the ship's system. His implants kicked to life, and Alice was met by the familiar jarring shift of perception to VR. The torn bridge and the dissonant discord of the alarms soon replaced by the placid calm of the artificial whiteness.

Well... It has been a while...

The twisting fighter nearby was now only an insect, moving slowly as if through a thick syrup. The bright cones of death from both Kestral's and Dana's fighter overlapping over the poor soul.

His perception shifted, leaving the dogfight raging around him to a small distraction at the edge of his awareness. The retreating pirate freighter now dazing him as a stream of both visual and intuitive information.

Filtering ruthlessly, the freighter dimmed, the engine flare dissipated, the visual depiction vanished, the weapons systems themselves disappeared at the command of his very thoughts. Very soon, the freighter became pure data, interlinked systems and communication ports.

Alice was home. Maia and Old Ben a mere imperceptible shell of protection around Alice's frail body.

Programming tools came to the surface, called there by his subconscious reflexes. Had you looked at him in real life, Alice had the unnatural stillness of a corpse. Only his lips slowly mouthed: "As for you..."

Hacking attempt on pirate freighter, using computing skill at 6. Aim to slow or strand. Attempting Any Means Necessary(tm) (as long as it doesn't kill anybody) to stop them. Using my racial trait : Improvisation.

Re: [Starkin] The Edge of Civilization - Chapter 01

#80

Erik scowled at the retreating vessel as he lined up his third - and, for better or worse, last - shot at the battered pirate freighter. "I'd appreciate if y'could hang about a bit longer, if y'd be so kind." The jolt of the titanic mass driver was a perceptible vibration even in the bulky superstructure of the Karloff; the blip of the absurdly swift-moving asteroid made its way across the tactical display as Erik turned his attention to the merchantman. "Boris, bring all the scanners we can to bear on the merchantman. Let's see what lifesigns and damage we can pick out from here, and see if you can lock onto any comm signals through the local ECM noise."

"Affirmative." The ship's voice graft echoed through the bridge, as various panel lights blinked through various color signals. "Analyzing."

Erik watched the data streams, paying as much attention to the fight as to the effort to look over the merchantman; any hostile vessel that thought to turn his direction would be in for a rude surprise, even if he didn't currently want to risk firing at the closer target for the risk of hitting the allied fighter vessels.