An old friend's revenge

[equinosz]

The Equinox received heavy battering, the metal almost screamed as the rockets hit the hull. One minute till the atmosphere. The ship won't last that long.

-Explosion from deck 2, one of the labs, sir. Heavy structural damage.

More and more alarms and red signals appeared on the consoles of the bridge.

-We have a leak and fire on deck 2! We're losing air.

-Close it down.

-Two are still in.

-I said close it down.

Roy couldn't do anything else. He has just lost two of his crew and who knows how many will die for his "past".
Some alarms went off as the vacuum extinguished the fire. The ship shattered as another rocket hit it.

-We have just lost one of the engines! Also they're reporting that three defense turrets are useless.

-Goddamit... We have to make it to the planet. Try to reach the Colonials!

-No can do, sir. All the communications are blocked. Still 30 seconds to the atmosphere.

The gunboat took evasive manouvers, while kept firing at the pirates.

-Shields are down!

-Let's drop all the mines! I don't want them on the ship if we have to land!

The rockets of the gunboat hit one of the fighters in the tail of the liner, which blew up with a nice yellowish explosion. At the same time a series of plasma hit the storm which was followed by small explosions.

-The rocket launchers are not functioning!

-Try to take them out with the mortar.

-Sir! That's suicidal at this range.

Dmitriy looked at the man.

-You think I don't know it?

The mines exploded behind them and the radar showed less red dots.

---

Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.