Lost to the wind

[Serpentis]

“Boss?”, the voice was distant, in the back of his head. “Boss??”, Sergei groaned and thought to himself, “More sleep, f*ck off.”. The voice got louder, “BOSS!” and Sergei snapped out of his little nap, the intercom was blinking. He left Karl on the bridge so he could rest for a bit, he clicked the button on the intercom, “Yeah? What’s up?”. There was a moment's pause. “We have someone following us, can’t get a good reading on them.”. Sergei sighed hard and got up, grabbing his jacket, “On my way.” and clicked off the intercom.
He walked through the corridors in the ship, it wasn’t a huge ship, but big enough for ten crew, he enjoyed the ship more and more as time went by, it was.. Cozy? The door to the bridge opened and Sergei stepped in and went to the radar console where Karl was standing, he pointed at a signal behind them, “Yeah? I can se-” and the signal vanished. “Is it remaining out of range?” He checked the distance. “No, it’s within scanner range.” he frowned and checked their location, “Hamburg, we’re getting close.. How long has it been following us?”. Karl shrugged, “Not sure, I first saw it half an hour ago and kept an eye on it.”. Sergei frowned and checked the radar again, pop, “There it is again..”, Sergei frowned and went to the control station and hit a full stop by Planet Hamburg. “We’ll wait for them, see if they want a chat or just wait for us to be vulnerable.”. Karl nodded and kept an eye on the radar, there was a bit of sweat running down his brow, Sergei understood his apprehension, but he himself had been in much worse situations than a tail. “They’re still at eight thousand, boss.”, Karl said after a bit, Sergei nodded. “F*ck this.” and hit the comm panel. “Who ever is tailing us, either show yourself or f*ck off, we can’t be arsed to have you on our ass all day.”, Sergei sat back in his seat and waited.

It did not take more than 5 minutes until a hail connected to their channel, “So, you did see us.. That’s a shame.” a female voice said with a hint of annoyance. “What do you want?”, Sergei was tired of this sh*t. “You picked up something at Rochester, I’d like it.”.. Sergei frowned. “The communications?” he thought to himself. “We are just traders, got some medicines on board, as I am sure you could tell by scanning us.”. After a minute the female voice came back, “We know you picked up some communications from Julian, we’d like it. We’ll pay you for it?”, there was a pause there. “An after thought maybe?” he thought.
“No idea what you’re talking about, stop following us now. Just f*ck off, ok?”. The channel got disconnected and Sergei sighed and looked at Karl, “Keep an eye on the scanners, get ready for an ambush.” He kicked in the engines and kept moving forward, then, suddenly, Sergei stood up and clapped his hands. “F*ck, we have a cloak..”, Karl just stared at him. “Oh sh*t.. Good plan, boss.”. Sergei moved over to another console and checked the cloak's batteries. “It’s at eighty percent, we got enough to get to Bayern and sell our wares and we could pick up some more there to get us back to Northeim.”. Karl nodded, “Sounds good, boss.”. And with that, Sergei activated the cloak, the lights on the bridge dimmed and a weird noise flowed through the Lindwyrm, Sergei looked up as the cloak activated, “Let’s see them follow us now.” and sat down and continued their voyage. Karl kept an eye on the scanners, but they lost the tail after a while.

After some time, they approached Bayern and New Berlin, they halted a fair bit away from the last trade lane and decloaked. As they docked, Karl sighed, “Think the tail is nearby, I saw a click on the scanners.. Could be anyone else though, we’re in New Berlin after all.”, Sergei nodded. “It’s fine, we’ll move off and recloak after selling our cargo.”. Onboard the Bayern, Sergei managed to get a good deal on the medicines with the quartermaster, after having transferred the credits the quartermaster stopped Sergei from walking off, “By the way, be careful of traveling near the Omegas if you are going to trade through there, heard there was some Coalition ships causing issues.”.
Sergei nodded slowly, “Danke, we’ll be careful, have a good day.”. As they undocked, Karl gave Sergei a thumbs up and the Lindwyrm headed off towards Stuttgart. As soon as they exited the scanning range of anything else, they recloaked again and for a while, were safe enough to get to Northheim. Even if they didn’t pick up any batteries, Sergei felt that buying some from the military was a bit of a bad idea.

As they hit Omega 11 and entered the field, their scanners began to send off several proximity warnings and before they had a chance to engage their cruise engines, three ships, civilian fighters began to scan the area heavily, “They had been waiting.. Karl, how is the clo-” and then they heard a screech and the cloak dropped. “F*ck!”, moments afterwards the three fighters surrounded the Lindwyrm and a familiar voice came back on the comms. “Well, it would seem I got you after all.”. Sergei frowned, “How did you know where we were going?”, the woman chuckled on the open frequency, “Because we knew you came from here, now, we are going to dock with you and you are going to give me your cargo, we got you where we want you.”. Karl looked at Sergei, who looked right back, then muted the comm, “What?” he asked Karl, “We could alarm Northeim, we got patrols nearby?”. Sergei nodded, “Go.” and then unmuted the comm, “Mind telling me who you are and why you want the cargo?”, there were a few moments of silence, “Helena, I am working for a.. Rather secretive organization and my employers have an interest in those communications.”, Sergei quirked an eyebrow, “Secretive organization?” he thought to himself, doubting that the Order would be interested in this. “Well, I am sorry, but I really can’t give you what you want, I suppose this will end with a lot of gunfire?”. Sergei was hoping it wouldn’t, but, if it did, he knew that the Lindwyrm was equipped with gunboat turrets and they did not have a bomber, it could go their way. After a while, the woman said, “I am afraid so, we really need that data, but don’t worry, we won’t destroy you, just disable and board you. Toodles.” and shut down the channel Sergei looked over at Karl, “Did you get a message through?”, Karl gave a thumbs up and ran to the turret console, activating all turrets.
Sergei began to move into the field and down towards Northeim, the fighters began to hit the Lindwyrm with all they had, but it had some powerful shields and could take a beating. Sergei tried to maneuver the frigate so the turrets could get a lock on the fighters. The turrets hit the fighters and they veered off and returned on another vector, Sergei cursed, “They know how to fly, I’ll give them that.”, then the Lindwyrm shook as a missile hit their stern. “F*ck..”. Karl was doing well and was forcing the fighters to retreat and come back, giving them more time for the Hessians to get there. As they continued through the debris field, Sergei managed to pilot relatively well, but it was hard to manage to both maneuver so the turrets could aim and also to avoid the bigger fragments in the field. Another three hard hits from the missiles and the shield was at its limits and as Sergei veered off to the right to avoid a large hunk of rock, the Lindwyrm’s turrets managed to get a perfect hit on one of the fighters, which broke off completely, “Nice shot, Karl!”, Sergei shouted. And then another few hits of missiles and the shield was down. Just then, Sergei saw through the windows three Hessian fighters approaching and an open hail went out from them, “Hostile targets, leave the area or be destroyed, we have you outnumbered.”, all weapons on the fighters were in position and the fighters were heading straight for the attackers, it took a few seconds, but they halted fire and broke off and headed back from where they came. “F*cking sh*t, great job guys, danke schön!”, Sergei laughed, a moment later the wing leader responded with a chuckle, “All gut, Lindwyrm, Heinrich is waiting for you, let’s get back to Northeim.” and they turned back towards the Hessian base, with the Lindwyrm close behind.

After having docked with the Northeim, he saw from the windows scorch marks on the hull, he pouted, “They scratched the paint.” and Karl reacted with a chuckle as they walked into the hangar. They met with Heinrich grinning, “Sergei, glad to see you. And you as well, Karl.”, behind them, one of the crew came out with the cargo on a trolley, and Heinrich stopped him, pulled out the case, opening it. Sergei got a glance at the contents, a medium sized storage device. Heinrich nodded and put the case back into the trolley, he nodded at the crewman, “Bring it to my office, danke.” then turned to Sergei, “You’ve done your job well, thank you.” he smiled. Sergei shrugged with a smile. “Only got shot at at the end. Julian said to tell you hello.”, Heinrich chuckled. “He’s a fat f*ck, but he’s honest for a junker. Come on, let’s grab a drink, Karl, want to join us?”, Karl shook his head. “I was thinking of grabbing the rest of my stuff, if you want me around, Boss?”. Sergei smiled and walked over to shake the man’s hand. “Absolutely, you make yourself at home onboard, check if the others want to stay too, yeah?”. Karl nodded and headed down to the crew quarters, while Sergei and Heinrich walked up to his office.

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