In the Queen's Service

[LancerZero]

"Now! Hit him with the hullbusters!" At Martin's command, waves of destructive energy poured forth from the gunboat's forward gun and battlerazor, tearing into the Corsair gunboat's heavily armored hull. The two warships could have been evenly matched; but the pirate vessel was armed for anti-fighter work and destroying transports. The Defiance, however, was made for this sort of battle. That, combined with late - but no less appreciated - fire support from a mercenary gunboat, was too much for the pirate ship to handle.

The space over Planet Cambridge blossomed with fire and debris as the enemy vessel's hull finally ruptured, and a wave of cheers erupted, filling the bridge of the Defiance with jubilant noise. Martin couldn't suppress a smile of his own as he thanked the mercenary - Sam Motion - for his services and checked the scope for Captain Windsor's Hussar and the Benitez Titan she'd been fighting. Nothing. Worried, the young officer made an inquiry; "She's in Omega-5!" came the answer, "And the Corsair is there, too!"

"Then we'll celebrate later. What's our damage situation?"

"Some minor hull damage aft, and a scarred bulkhead on deck 3. Low on batteries, but our nano stock is solid."

"Good. Nav, get us to Omega-5."

"Aye, sir."

Omega-5 is rocky as all hell...it'll be tough to even maneuver in there with this monster of a gunboat, still less to catch up with a pair of fighters that're God only knows where. But I don't have time to run back to Leeds and get my own Hussar, so I'll just have to do the best I can. "Captain, what's your location?"

"By the jump hole!" came her terse response; obviously, she was engaged with the Titan.

"We're en route!" Not a moment later, the Defiance jumped...into Omega-3. "Nav? Why didn't we take the Cambridge/Omega-5 jump hole?"

A pregnant silence. "...there's a Cambridge/Omega-5 jump hole, sir?"

"By God..." Martin mumbled; then, louder: "Get us to the Omega-5 jump hole in the southern asteroid field, now!" Should've spent more time mapping...I know it's there, but this ship's system map didn't.

"Aye!"

Thankfully, there were no further delays in getting to Omega-5 - except for the delay upon jumping in. Since the Cambridge/Omega-5 jump hole wasn't mapped, and Captain Windsor's tracking device was malfunctioning, Martin had no way of knowing exactly where she was. After brief consideration, he barked, "Set a waypoint just northwest of Cadiz Base; that's where the jump hole from Cambridge dumps you out. I'll take the helm." And take it he did, guiding the gunboat through the asteroids and mines with all possible speed.

In seconds, the two combatants came up on the scope. Martin adjusted his course accordingly, and came within firing range just as Captain Windsor's Hussar was destroyed. "Dammit! Tractor in her escape pod, then CD that bastard before he gets away!" While the tractor did its thing, Martin centered the primary turrets on the fleeing Titan, loosing a series of volleys that destroyed its shields and much of its hull.

But before he could finish the job, the Titan fled around Cadiz and towards the Omega-41 jump hole...under cover of fully a dozen Centurions loaded with cruise disruptors. Frustrated, Martin used the gunboat's thruster alone to follow the Corsair all the way to the jump hole. The Benitez got away...but the Centurions were not so fortunate, as they were spaced one by one within view of their base.

When they were done, Martin breathed a sigh of relief. "Nav, get us back to Planet Cambridge, if you please. How is Captain Windsor doing?"

"She'll be alright, sir. She's resting belowdecks under the doctor's orders."

He nodded, then keyed the ship-wide comm. "Tonight, we fought our first real battle against a worthy foe. All of you know we fought a Corsair; but most of you probably did not know that it wasn't just any Corsair. The gunboat we destroyed today belonged to none other than Senior Elder Custo Benitez, and we gained the upper hand on him one-on-one. Well done, everyone. None of you will have an empy glass on Cambridge tonight as long as I have a credit to pay the bartender with; that includes Captain Windsor, who kept the Titan off our backs at the cost of her own fighter."

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Current Stories
Linus' Lackadaisical Logs(upd.3-1-10)
Archived Logs
In the Queen's Service(upd.4-21-10) | The Finer Things in Life (upd.4-8-10)
Silvy's Story(upd.2-29-08) | Conrad's Flight & Fight(upd.1-14-08)