Blue Devil

[Koolmo]

"Ga-YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAW!!"

Eugen screamed his excitement over open comms as the Coalition fighters sprinted towards the fray. Keying his commo array, he sent a tightbeam transmission to the battered freighter, and that oddly shaped fighter.

"Comrades, this is Lieutenant Commander Eugen Weise, of the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army. I believe this might be your lucky day..."

As two Hessian ships exploded in their midst, the remaining pirates swung around to face this new threat. Eugen and his wingman danced and spun, weapons hammering into shields and ships. The Hessian leader, now sporting a bloody nose, snarled a final curse before a firestalker punched though his cockpit, venting his shredded corpse to space. Another turned to flee, only to find Xing's ship on his tail. Try as he might, the mysterious prototype was unshakeable, and without a sound he vanished into the abyss.

Lieutenant Dan Warshovski, Eugen's wingman, laughed like a maniac as the reaming two hessians spun and slammed into each other. The long nose sections of the border worlds vessels jammed into each other, and the pilots yelling frantically over their comms, the pair slid into an asteroid, and muchroomed into a fiery cloud.

"I say, Danny boy, does that count as your kill or mine? I'd say mine, just because my disgusting good looks probably distracted them."

"What? You mean they saw you and decided death was actually the better way to go? I think they're mine, as I was chasing the first one before him and his friend decided to play pole-tag."

"Pole-tag? I'd always wondered what those pointy bits on the end of the fighters are for..."

Xing listened in amazement as the SCRA pilots continued their friendly banter over open comms. As he guided his ship towards them, he thought to himself,

"The Coalition? That's what their transponders say, and that's what this... Weise character said, but they sound more like cowboys than anything I would call revolutionary... On the other hand, they did save our asses. Might as well talk to them, anyways."

As Xing opened comms, the banter ceased, and Eugen and Dan leaned forward in the cockpits of their fighters.

"Well ah, Mr. Weise, I believe we owe you our lives, is there anything me or my crew can do to repay you?"

"Well, you could start with telling me about that ship. It looks... odd. It wouldn't have any alien tech in it, mayhaps?"

At the words 'alien tech', Dan powered his cannons, and swung around in a flanking position, giving them both a clear field of fire and a 66% encirclement of Xing's vessel.

"Uuuh, no, no, nothing of the kind! I designed it, I'm a ship designer, nothing alien about it."

"Aaaalrighty then! You appear to be in a bit of a lynch Comrade, feel like taking a little tour? We were just headed back to base when we saw the party starting."

Xing's options were clearly limited, and although this Weise character was almost certainly insane, he seemed competent enough, and they certainly owed them.

"Certainly, although I think the Red Dawn is going to need a tow. It's other engine is blown, and the one that's left is-"

The second engine gave a mournfull groan and sprayed itself over the side of the ship in a wash of yellow fire. Axel's face could be seen in the cockpit, gesturing wildly and pointing at his headset with a mournfull air. Dan's voice stuttered from the commo panel, it's mournfull air sharpening the rapidly-developing unreality of the situation.

"Oh, sure, it's Lieutenant Dan to the rescue again. Next it'll be 'Lieutenant Dan, these shrimp are really good. Lieutenant Dan, where are your legs? Lieutenant Dan, why are only a Lieutenant, whereas that Weise guy is two and a bit?' I'm tired of it, next time, your ship gets a tow cable installed!"

"Uh Huh. May I remind you of my stunning good looks? How else do you think one gets promoted? Get a better uniform, a shave, and some legs, and you too can have my job!"

"Hah Hah Hah, always with the legs. The prostetics worked so well, you didn't even know they weren't real until I told you, and that was after we had our pants off!"

"I was hammered, you coulda been the Commodore and I wouldn't have noticed."

"I think you would have..."

"Yea, me too, come to think of it, I hope he hasn't been recording my comms again."

"That would just plain old suck, and not in an even mildly erotic way."

"Ayuh-huh."

As they hooked up the tow cable and prepared to move out, Xing noticed their ships seemed old, beaten, and badly in need of a general tune-up. Eugen was flying a Viper Mk. I, rather out-of-date, whose hull was covered in weapons scarring, old patches, and asteroid indents. The single clan patch bore a red star, bright against the squalor. Dan's ship, although an Eagle, was in a similar state of disrepair, with only a bright red star to distinguish it from the thousands of others floating through the sector. Xing reflected that if anyone could use new ships, these men could. Eugen's voice brought him out of his reverie.

"Alright Comrade, we're ready to roll, Lieutenant Dan will tow your transport, and you can fly along. We'll take it slow, don't want anything else to fall off."

The strange procession made its way south, down into Omega 5. There were no jumpholes charted here, but Eugen progressed unnerringly to a single location, and finally, at seven kilometeres, Xing spotted it.

"Omega 52? What's in there?"

"Haha! You'll see sonny, you'll see. This is the base of the best thing that ever came to this sorry sector."

As they reached the Jumphole, Eugen stopped, and launched a missle through. After a three-second pause, he launched another, then gunned his engines, and moved through himself, sending a brief comm back to the others.

"Follow, and stick close."

With those cryptic words, Xing's ship threw itself into the vortex.

---

<span style="color:#FFFF00">&quot;General Solo, is your strike team assembled?&quot;
&quot;Barely, they're pretty drunk.&quot; </span>
SCRA Recruiting--SCRA Feedback--SCRA Message Dump--SCRA Faction Status

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.