Angel of Death

[stardust47]

Junction Base, Kansas System
September 2nd, 819 A.S.

Catherine polished the steel that now made up the frame of her right arm. From the shoulder downwards, cables intertwined with steel framing, passed through mechanized elbow joints capable of impressive feats of strength and ended with the hand; an arrangement of wires and servos that controlled five powerful mechanical fingers, each ending in powerful electromagnets that she could activate with a thought. The forearm was detachable and could be fitted with anything Catherine needed- a weapon, plasma cutters, anything.
Catherine felt satisfied with the arrangment, but it still needed testing.

Battleship Derby, Leeds System

James was awoken by the stern voice of a Lieutenant shouting at the other Ensigns to get up and scramble to intercept a Kusari raiding party that had shown up in Leeds. He got his flight suit on and ran for his Templar, which was in the docking bay. James clambered in, just as the fuel line had been disconnected. Checking his helmet, he gave the signal that he was ready to be deployed. The bay was sealed and the air was vented. After his fighter was turned downards, the doors opened and the electromagnetic rails launched his ship out into space, without making a sound.
Just before he left the confines of the battleship's shield array, James flicked on his own and engaged the engines. A Kusari battleship, flanked by several destroyers, gunships and fighters was pounding the Derby.
"This is Barett, reporting in," he said to any friendly pilot who would listen.
"Ensign Barett, this is the HMS Kingsclere," came the voice on the toher end, from the captain of a Bretonian destroyer, "We're being swarmed by fighters and our flak cannons are being taken out by bombers. We need assistance immediatley!"
This was James' chance. Engaging the afterburners, James charged at the swarm of Chimaeras that surrounded the Kingsclere. James waited for the right moment, and let loose with a Sunslayer torpedo. the fast-moving projectile exploded after colliding with a bomber, instantly destroying it and disabling several other enemy ships.
"Good work, ensign," said the captain of the Kingsclere.
The battle lasted for several hours, but eventually reinforcements came in to drive the Kusari ships back. Their battleship had been heavily damaged and left virtually undefended, making a clean escape difficult but not impossible.
James returned to his quarters after debriefing. Space was in short supply among most battleships, at least in Bretonia, so James was the only pilot in the room, which he shared with a Second Technician. Second Techincian was the second-lowest rank on most large ships, the role of which was to make sure the officers could rely on the vending machines to dispense tea rather than toxic waste, but because of numerous costcutting methods, James had said, nobody could really tell the difference.
The technician often told James that, in the days of old before there were even Jump Drives, before the War of Sol, huge mining ships that flew between the planets carrying valuable ores mined from asteroids were where the technicians really shone. On long journeys that took many months, sometimes even years, a technician's job was important for 'morale reasons'. James didn't know much pre-Sirius history that wasn't to do with battles, but he was certain the technician was making things up.
James settled down in his bunk and started reading his book again.
The book was one of those books that could waffle on for hours, days or even weeks (depending on the reader- in James' case it was minutes) and still remain interesting. This chapter delved into the realm of conspiracy theories and, by an improbable (to people who have no idea how to write fiction, at least) coincidence, was about the Angel of Death project.
(You read about this in the last chapter, so I'll skip this bit.)
James was intrigued by this. Reading further into the subject...
Yeah, it may actually have happened, the subject's consciousness may have escaped into the Neural Net...
You read it before.
James put the book down and went to clean the old Webley revolver his father had left for him.

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