Roddy and Rita

[Qunitinius~Verginix]

Part 2! I know you guys were all waiting for this so here it is!:

The Jammy Dodger was cruising through the omega 41 system at a leisurely pace. Roddy was asleep and snoring loudly at the helm, and Rita was sifting through some navigation charts they had picked up, hoping to plot a course through the edge systems. They had been exploring the house systems the last few weeks, stay mostly within the protection of the militaries and occasionally going through the connecting systems like the sigmas and Taus.

This was the Jammy Dodger's first real test of strength, all the stories Rita had heard of these places were that of horror and piracy. The corsairs and outcasts were supposed to board any ship they came across and do horrible things to the occupants and then slowly kill them. Not to mention the mysterious 'nomads,' The aliens they were starting to here more and more about, and the reason they had gotten the Jammy Dodger in the first place.

She located the approximate place of the Zoner base, Freeport 5 (ooc: not sure) and she left the bridge to head for the gunboats small galley for a bite to eat and a drink.

Roddy was having a nice dream. He was lying in his old bed in the apartment on New London and the sun was shining in (which was a surprise, it usually rains!) and he was enjoying it just sitting there, when a strange hooded man came and started making beeping noises into a large megaphone. It was getting annoying and then the figure shouted "RODDY" about 3 times before Roddy stood up in his pilots chair on the Jammy Dodger. Rita was shouting in his ear and the unknown contact alarm was beeping in he back ground.

"Get up already you lazy oaf!" she said. "I think there are corsairs in bound!"

"Wha-, huh?" Roddy muttered. "What is it?"

"Damnit!" She splashed a small amount of her luke-warm coffee on his face.

"Holy crap! Corsairs in bound!" He shouted, suddenly wide awake.

"Bout time too....." Rita muttered.

The scanner screen showed a squad of four heavy fighters and one super heavy fighter. The lead one flew up to them.

"Halt! You worthless scum gonna any gifts for us?" said the Lead one in a scruffy voice

"Quite frankly, no. Our holds have been empty for some time now, and all were doing is exploring really" Replied Rita, smartly

"How much money you got?" The Corsair said again

Roddy saw their credit balance said somewhere about 10 million. "Oh About 100thousand. We got raided by Hessians coming here." He hoped his voice did show his lie.

"Well, how many did you kill?"

"All seven, cept the leader."

"We any enemy of the Hessians is an enemy of ours. You guys can leave."

Roddy and Rita stopped and stared at each other "Are you guys supposed to be really evil or something?"

"Well why would we attack you guys? You have nothing of value and you appear to hate our enemies. Your rep shows it. Feel free to land on any of our bases if you wish. Just dont get too comfy."

And with that final note, the corsairs left, leaving the crew of the Jammy dodger stunned. "Well that was, strange." Said Roddy. "No kidding..... Well, no cense sitting around. Lets keep going to Freeport 5!" Replied Rita, and the Jammy Dodger moved deeper into the edge worlds.

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The Jammy Dodger came through the Jump Hole from Omega 41 into Omnicron Gamma. The radiation was bad, but not as bad as the Black star of Omega 41.

"Well? where too next?" Said Rita.

"Im not really sure," replied Roddy. He turned on the system communicator. "Ahoi! Zoner chap! Were kinda bored here and we dont know what would be a good place for some explorers to check out?"

"Whoa! Random but alright! I'll give you guys a hint." Replied the dromedary pilot, surprised he was being asked that. Not many dared explore the Edge Worlds. "I heard, that if you are really brave and your ship is good enough, you can go deep into the artifact cloud to the north of Gamma, and find a jump hole. Supposedly it leads to planets run by strange beings who see the most expensive equipment know to the colonies. Be careful of the aliens though. They are also said to patrol around that area. Thats all I know! see ya later, freelancers." And with that the zoner left through the jump hole to omega 41.

"An unknown jump hole eh? This sounds like fun!" Said Rita and before Roddy had a chance to protest, she set a course for the artifact cloud.

"Are you sure we should be doing this......" He said

"Of course! Why are you afraid of the aliens! They can't be that bad."

"But, well, oh alright. Lets go....." He sat down in the pilots chair and wonder what kind of things awaited them

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The Jammy Dodger floated amongst the dead hulks of countless corsair fighter. It was a very quite place, with little activity, save for the odd rock floating by.

Rita scanned the area for the jump hole. "Roddy I have a strange anomaly, it could be an active hole. The zoner was right after all........"

She was about to hit the jump activation rune, when four enemy contacts appeared on the short range scanners. "Pirates!" She said to Roddy. "And this time it appears they mean business!" Roddy flicked a few switches on the command consol, sending more power to the shields and guns, while Rita sat down in the main gun targeting chair.

He spun the Jammy Dodger around to face the fighters. They were still about fifteen kilometers away, just under effective shooting range.

"Locked on!" Said Rita. "Firing main cannon and two missiles at target three!"

"Fire at will!"

The Jammy Dodger shuddered slightly and a large ball of fluorescent-green death erupted from the gunboats main gun. It flew towards the fighters who were about 10 kilometers away and just under visual range.

It stuck the first one dead on, and shortly after, a pair of Rheinland missiles found home on the enemy hull. When the interference from the weapons had cleared, Rita looked at the screen and said "Kill confirm-" She was half-way through saying the enemy was dead, because anything that was hit but that combo of weapons was dead, there was no way any human ship could stand that, when she realize the target had half its armour remaining. "Target still coming!" She said with awe and surprise.

"Holy sh!t! What kinda ship can take that hit!" said Roddy in disbelief.

"Nothing made by the colonies, thats for sure....."

By this time the fighters were in visual range. At first glance you could tell they were alien. They were pink and clear through out the entire ship, save for a mass of energy at the center. They reached optimal range for their weapons and the Aliens opened fire.

The shots did horrendous damage to Jammy Dodgers shields. The gunboat had powerful shields, to show its superiority over fighters but these were not regular house fighters and they quickly brought down the Jammys shields to 50%.

Rita fired her main cannon at point blank range this time, and the alien had to time to turn out of the way. It was struck and then the shot was followed by the Dodgers turrets. The alien had taken a lot of punishment but this was too much. Its armour crumpled and the ship exploded.

"Nomads" spat Rita in disgust, for that was clearly what they were.

Roddy spun the Dodger around again, facing the nomad ships that were spinning around for another run. They opened fire and Rita answered with her guns, missiles and Cannon. The nomad guns stuck the prow of the Dodgers shields and Roddy had to go into a steep barrel roll to avoid the brunt of the attack.

One nomad ship flew over head, its armour weakened from the Dodgers salvo and Rita managed to get in two more missiles at the passing ship. It soon became another chunk of vapor in the Artifact cloud.

The nomads, obviously startled that their comrades had been killed, were taking their attacks more cautiously now, dart from in and out of the asteroids in the area.

This tactic didn't faze Rita, she fired another shot of the main cannon at the next asteroid a nomad ships was flying behind. The powerful shot annihilated the asteroid and stuck the crippled nomad fighter and it was no more.

The last nomad attempted to rush the Dodger from behind but Roddy pulled the ship so its side was facing the fighter, and with out comment Rita fired, taking the alien down to almost no armour and it stuck the dodgers shield when it exploded silently in the quiet of space.

Roddy, pushed a button and the junk from the battle was pulled on-board by the dodgers tractor beam.

Rita sat back in her chair, exhausted from the fight. "That wasnt too bad! I can't wait to see Unknown!

Roddy sighed to himself. "Here we go again......"

End Part 2

OOC: wow there ya go mates, hope you enjoy part II. I wrote it more along the lines of how real space would be, with ships being able to shoot each other from father away and having longer short range scanners (i.e., 10kilos)

Remember this isnt the end of their adventure, so keep the advice coming! And sorry about any typos

Also If you read PLEASE make a comment. I really appreciate it and like to hear what people say.

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