Ein langer Weg .. ( a long way)

[Schattenkralle92]

Orbit above New Berlin, New Berlin
November 27, 835 A.S.

“Watch out on the left!” shouted Lutz when he noticed the huge Colossus train on their flank.
“Ja, ja, I know,” shouted Karl back as he jerked the steering stick back at the last moment, narrowly avoiding a collision. Shortly thereafter, several plasma projectiles fired by their pursuers struck the transport ship.

More than ten 72-ARKM-G3 "Banshee"-class fighters were only seconds behind them, firing all their weapons at the small freighter.
With uncanny precision, Karl steered the ship through the crowded corridor, out of the planet's upper atmosphere and straight into more trouble.

Another squadron of "Banshee" fighters was already waiting for them and immediately greeted them with a barrage of plasma weapons.
While Karl was still busy with the evasive maneuver, Lutz finally realized the gravity of the situation.

“They've blocked the trade routes to Frankfurt and Essen with gunships. We need to get up to cruise speed quickly and get out of here.”
“Let me catch my breath first.” And then the next salvo of gunfire struck the shields of the small freighter.

At full thrust, they flew away from the docking ring and into the nearby asteroid field.
“I just can't get them online. These damn interceptor missiles keep interfering with the loading sequence. This is never going to work!” Karl grumbled as another salvo struck.

“Try to shake them off between the asteroids, maybe we'll gain a few seconds that way.”
“Yeah, I'm doing that. By the way, you can shoot back if you feel like it.”

“What do you think I'm doing here?” Lutz replied excitedly.
The smaller and more maneuverable fighters were not easy targets, and he was just managing to keep them at a distance.

After they had entered the asteroid field, at least the larger gunships gave up the chase, but the smaller fighters remained with them.
“Let's try the kleiner-Willi-270!” Lutz exclaimed before another volley lit up the shields and threatened to collapse them. Only the courageous use of some shield batteries saved them from this fate.

“This will be the end of us. There's a big one at 9 o'clock, that should do the trick. This could be interesting.”
“Less talk, more evasion.” replied Lutz as another salvo hit the ship.

Karl maneuvered the freighter on a direct collision course with a larger asteroid and gave full thrust with the afterburner. In order not to lose contact, his pursuers did the same.
Shortly before impact, however, the freighter dove downward to fly a parabolic loop along the asteroid.

It came dangerously close, so close that Lutz felt he could touch it if he just reached out his hand.
During the loop, the freighter lost speed and the pursuers were able to catch up. They passed the asteroid almost completely.

Now the aforementioned maneuver came into play. With a jolt, Karl pulled the freighter upward and shot past the asteroid again, pushing the engines to their limits.
The Imperial fighters had to do the same or they would lose sight of their target.

Lutz had been waiting for this and fired several mines from the rear-facing launcher.
As agile as the smaller fighters were, there was little they could do in the current situation to escape the mines.

Several explosions lit up the area and at least two of the fighters broke off the pursuit. A third, blinded by the explosion, flew into another asteroid and disappeared in a fireball.
Karl immediately used the precious seconds to put plenty of distance between himself and his pursuers.

Although he still couldn't get the cruise engines running, at least they had gotten far enough away to no longer be exposed to constant fire.
The small freighter fled deeper into the field for about six minutes when suddenly several unknown contacts appeared on the sensors.

“Achtung! This is Squadron Hermann to incoming Freighter. We are sending you new coordinates for a rendezvous. Change course to 11-3-10 and go full throttle, we'll take care of your pursuers in the meantime.”

Just a few seconds later, several TR4c-T0R "Sichel"-class fighters shot past Karl and Lutz, forcing their pursuers to turn away and engage them in a dogfight instead.
Now Karl could finally activate the travel engines and fly to the new coordinates.

---

With the start of the wildfire . . . its the end of an empire
In the death of a desire . . . its the end of an empire
again . . . again . . . again . . .
At the edge of the hellfire . . . its the end of an empire
In the line of the gunfire . . . its the end of an empire
again . . . again . . . again . . .
Through space and time . . . you can't escape this paradigm
At the close of a lifetime . . . its the end of an empire
this time
Another ending that's beginning to unfold . . . its the end of the Rheinland empire

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BUND|Schattenkralle -|- BUND|BTs-Steinbrecher -|- BUND|BFr-Schiller -|- John.Lugan