Outsider

[Laowai]

The Corsair Gunship “Outsider” thrummed her way through the thick, orange asteroid strewn cloud on approach to the Battleship Fes. Inside, her crew were in good spirits. They had had periodic scrapes with scattered groups of Hessians on the way in and had fared well; they were looking forward to spending the money they would get from the salvage in the Fes’s bar. A notoriously small and cheap establishment, it was one of the most isolated of Corsair outposts and thus her inhabitants were always more than welcoming to visitors.

“Roger that, your request to dock is granted” the voice of the Fes’s dock officer crackled over the comm. – “Please proceed to dock one”
Captain Ben Laowai stretched out his hands, cracking his knuckles as he did so. “Take her in Phillip” he said to the helmsmen sitting at the station in front of him.
“Aye” the young man answered “Fes’s docking control is now online, handing over and commencing shutdown”

The Outsider’s engines began to quiet slowly and her maneuvering thrusters sputtered into life, she lifted slowly upwards into the waiting docking area of the Fes, whose onboard docking computer now had control of the Outsider’s helm. Laowai stood up, “well gentlemen, here we are, make yourselves at home, my business in this system will tie me over for a few days”. There were various forms of confirmation voiced from the crew and Ben turned and made his way off the bridge and down the narrow corridor that connected it to the rest of the ship.
From outside he heard several metallic “clangs” and the ship jolted slightly. He stood at the forward exit hatch and waited as the hiss of the thrusters gradually diminished; finally when he could hear them no more he unlocked the great metal bolts in the door and pushed it out and open with a loud metal whine.
He stepped down the ladder outside and dropped onto the flight deck of the Fes, smoke from the thrusters still drifted around the room.
“Well well, look who wanders on in” a voice greeted him as a man walked through the smoke toward him. His hand outstretched and a wide grin on his face. “Laowai you crazy old bastard – welcome back!”
Laowai took the hand offered him and shook it heartily. “Tomas, still putting your feet up out here I see?” They shook hands warmly; Tomas, slapping Ben on the shoulder, turned and gestured him towards a nearby door, “Come my friend, I have Baijiu waiting for you in the bar”.

Tomas de la Corez was the communications officer onboard the Corsair battleship Fes as well as an old drinking companion - one of the few who would actually drink Baijiu on occasion. Laowai had known the man for many years, but they did not see each other often. Laowai’s own commands and work kept him closer to Crete and the house systems, and the Battleship Fes was on permanent station in its current location. Indeed, a posting on the Fes was often referred to as “exile without being exiled” - constant harassment by Hessians and her distance from any major Corsair port made her a world unto herself. She was supplied monthly from Omega 41, a run in itself that was unpopular with the pilots who did it, owing to the volatile nature and the effect on ships of Omega 41 and the sheer number of Hessians that one was sure to face along the way. Her Captain and crew had long lost any sense of formal discipline on board, dressing casually and working as needed. That was not to say they were sloppy, far from it for this was dangerous space, and eccentric though they often were, the crew of the Fes were hardened fighters.

Battleship Fes was not the only Corsair outpost in the system. There was another, though most Corsairs did not know of it, in fact. almost none save the old or those extremely well versed in Corsair history did.
Fortunately, Ben Laowai fit both those categories.


Planet Tangier was an isolated, cold and harsh planet in the middle of the system which almost a century ago had been settled by a small group of Corsair colonists. Despite high hopes for a new beginning the colony had not been a success. Tangier was an inhospitable world, whose scant natural resources required expensive financial and technological investment to utilize. As tensions between the Corsairs and her many enemies at the time increased, the small colony of Tangier faced great difficulties in getting supplies. Finally, when the Hessians appeared in system in force, the supply ships stopped coming all together. With no form of industry on the planet, and no way to leave – the corsairs of Tangier faded into obscurity, lost in the midst of wider conflicts, forgotten by people at home and then finally, with the changing of generations in the council of elders, By the Corsair government itself. Many years later, an under funded, undergaurded orbital survey of the planet carried out by a group of scholars from Crete itself found nothing.

But the corsairs of Tangier had not perished, as was believed. A small group had clung on and over the decades etched out a life for themselves, they adapted to their environment, they grew accustomed to its fickle nature and weather - and more, they grew accustomed to living without war. They began to know Tangier as home.
As he sat in the small booth onboard the Fes, waiting for Tomas to bring his Baijiu, Laowai cast his mind back to the day, some thirty years ago that he discovered that the Corsairs of Tangier still lived, a fact that only he and a few others knew still to this day.

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Thirty two years before:

“This is Corsairs Delta 4 – I have taken damage but (static)right, request(static)ocation, I cannot eje(static)essians(static) have shot down two pod(static) attempting to….

Signal lost.

Corsair relay station Omega 41 log.


Laowai struggled inside the cockpit of the Titan; smoke was beginning to fill the small confined space making his plight all the more desperate, the blast from the Hessian missile had caused a freak power fault in his flight control systems, which were now randomly shutting down and starting up various systems within the ship itself. A targeting system relay had exploded when the overload that caused the flight control malfunction hit, catching fire. As the smoke continued to fill the cabin he swung the ship around in a desperate attempt to avoid another Hessian missile and found himself staring at a bleak green grey planetscape, its vast bulk filling is vision and growing increasingly closer at a dangerously fast pace.
He knew without a scan of the planet he would not be able to find a suitable atmospheric window – a place where atmospheric resistance to orbital entry would be least – with any kind of certainty; in fact, he would have no chance other than blind luck. Hitting the atmosphere at these speeds would turn him and his Titan into a brief but spectacular fireball.

A blast of energy fire shot over his bow and he realized he didn’t have a choice, he pushed the Titans stick forward and dived.
The Hessians, believing he intended to suicide, peeled off and went back into a high orbit, as they did so they did’nt see the Titan level suddenly against the edge of the atmosphere, its hull beginning to glow a bright red… Laowai fought desperately to slow her down, but without flight control from his onboard computer he knew he had no chance. Battling the buffeting the hull was taking he saw his shield power indicator steadily going down… “Dammit” he cursed.
The control stick threatened to leap away at any moment and he fought with all his strength, gripping it with both hands to keep it steady. His one slim hope was to somehow slow his decent and control the angle enough so that he might make it through the atmosphere.
His shield energy indicator was almost gone.
“Dammit dammit DAMMIT” he screamed, he slammed his knee against the flight control box next to him, “Of all the stupid things to die over a blasted electrical fault!!! DAMMIT!” he slammed his knee into it again in sheer frustration.

It was then that the voice of an angel, as if from heaven itself came over his internal comm system:

“Flight control engaged, warning, shield failing, warning, hull temperature critical. Atmospheric entry emergency procedure engaging, do you wish to over ride?”


Laowai burst into hysterical laughter – “No no no no no no NOOO I do not want to override! Computer negative, engage the emergency procedures” Suddenly the control stick moved back of its own accord and the ship jolted as several thrusters were fired. Tears of relief filling his eyes Laowai took his hands off the controls and let the ship take over, taking off his gloves he used them to smother the small fire still burning on the targeting computer.
“no no no computer you just take her on down”

He leaned back into the chair, relief and exhaustion washing over him.

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