The Annals of Tereus Mitchell

[Errant.Venture]

Tereus woke to klaxons blaring.

Enemy vessels approaching, 15 kilometers and closing, spoke the ever so calm AI.

Rogue Gunboat Patrol...Time for some fun, Tereus smiled as He powered up the ships systems and charged the SNAC. Finally some excitement!

The Spatial sprang to life with the roar of the six modified Ageira engines. In the cockpit Tereus was manning the controls, punching buttons in preparation for the battle that would ensue. Initiating the cruise engines, Tereus closed to five kilometers, before returning to normal cruising speed. It would take roughly ten seconds for his weapons systems to store enough power for him to fire the SNAC. The patrol was closing fast, and powering weapons. Three kilometers, four seconds left. Two Kilometers, one point eight, one point five, Tereus opened fired with the Advanced Debilitator turrets, and Archangels, One Kilometer, Tereus fired the SNAC.

*Kabloom*, Tereus was rewarded by a pretty explosion emanating from the Rogue Gunboats shields. Warning, Shields failing. The AI said ever so casually. The two escorting Bloodhounds had taken advantage of the splash damage from the exploding SNAC, multiplying the damage absorption of His Adv. Barrier Shield. Tereus used some reserve Shield Batteries. Shields restored, the AI stated.

Tereus swung his spatial into position, fifty meters behind the Rogue Gunboat at a three degree offset below it. The Gunboat paniced, trying to increase speed.

To late, Tereus fired another SNAC round, and continued to chain fire the debs and Archies. Moments later he was rewarded by the jettison of life pods, and the chain of explosions slowly building up, until in one final cresciendo, it exploded sending debris in all directions. Tereus used some more shield batteries, and swung His spatial around, engaging the Bloodhounds, who continued to pound his shields with concentrated fire. Unfortunately for them, they were rookies, had class four weapons, and made the fatal mistake of maneuvering into a jousting position, while in formation. Tereus opened fire, and the pilots were dead before they could finish their screams, as the energy blast from his four Archangels dissipated melting the cockpit bubble compromising their flight suits, and melting the flesh from their bones...Ahh Liberty, never a boring moment.

After tractoring in the life pods, salvageable supplies and weapons, and after securing the prisoners in the hold, Tereus set course for Norfolk Shipyard. He was hoping that he could off load these prisoners to the Liberty Navy or LSF, and save a trip to the Texas System. Besides Sugarland and Huntsville always became a headache, regardless of the increased payout. 1200 sirius credits per head was not enough of a profit to have to fill out paperwork in quadruplicate, or the painstaking docking process, and multiple scans, and it most definitely was not worth the lost time smiling like an idiot at that fat bastard of a warden. Tereus grimaced...how such a pig of a man ever got such a high level position was beyond him. All he knew was that the pungent odor that emanated from that man, along with the sweat stains which plagued that 300 pound oafs uniform, was enough for him to take a paycut.

Tereus manueverd out of the Debris Field, and began docking procedures with the trade lane to West Point Academy. ETA to Norfolk, 10 minutes, stated the AI. Ten seconds after that statement, Tereus was dropped from the trade lane. Wonderful..Lane Hackers.

Spatial, surrender your prisoners, and pay tithe of 2 million Sirius credits for your act of treachery against us and our friends! Demanded the lead pilot.
Tereus sighed. They never learn. He keyed his comms. Hacker Pilot, you must be drunk. I would like to point out that your small party of Dagger Light Fighters, and your one Sabre are no match for me, or this ship. Now be good little rejects and run along to play with your dolls. Tereus unkeyed his comm. and charged his weapons, ready to return fire as soon as the inevitable firefight broke out.

Why you insolent, nomad sucking...Engage that fool, He needs to be taught some manners. The comminque ended there, and the shooting began there. Typical gullible Lane Hackers, that was another 2800 credits ahead...

Tereus began evasive maneuvers. While the majority of the group was using low powered weaponry, the Sabre was using codenames, and sunslayer torpedoes. Unfortunately, He was overconfident, and not overly skilled. While the Daggers danced around his ship, barely denting his shields, The Sabre Pilot fired away with Krakens, and was lining up a shot with a sunslayer torpedo. Unfortunately for The pilot, that is exactly what Tereus was waiting for.

While the sunslayer torpedo was the best torpedo available to fighters, it had one critical and deadly flaw. It lingered in its firing cradle for a few seconds while building up momentum, and once released accelerated slowly. As the Sabre Pilot fired, and the torpedo began to build momentum, Tereus executed an engine kill, and 180 degree turn, and reversed thrust. The Sabre Pilot was clearly surprised, and that look of surprise was most likely imprinted on his face after death, because Tereus fired a volley, which hit the sunslayer torpedo as soon as it left the cradle. The volley of fire detonated said warhead, well within the Sabres shield. The poor bloke never got a chance to pull his ejection handle. Oh well, Thought Tereus, I warned him.

After seeing their fearless leader vaporize into nothing, the remaining three light fighter pilots, wisely tucked tail and ran.

By this time the Trade Lanes had come back on line. Tereus initiated docking procedures, and with an almost instantaneous *woosh*, His spatial was zipping towards West Point once again.

Minutes later the spatial did a hard deceleration, and exited the trade lane a few kilometers from West Point Academy. The comm. crackled to life: Freelancer, this is Liberty Navy Iota 1, Standby for a scan of your cargo hold...Your clear. Do you require escort to Battleship Missouri?

Tereus Keyed the comm.: No escort is necessary Iota 1, thank you though, and safe flights!

Roger Freelancer, Be advised there has been heightened pirate activity in this area. Intelligence believes its because of all the mining traffic coming out of Pennsylvania. Your clear, safe journeys. With that Iota 1 rocketed away.

Tereus Docked with the trade lane to Norfolk Shipyard. Two Minutes down the lane Tereus detected another lane hacker raiding party ahead, 5 kilometers and closing fast. Moments later He screamed by them, and could almost hear them cursing as they had dropped the lane a second too late. Tereus Chuckled.

After a short trip, the spatial once again decelerated, and Tereus began weaving through the trade traffic, slowly making his approach towards the massive Liberty Dreadnaught Missouri.

Tereus Keyed the comm.: Battleship Missouri, this is Colonel Tereus Mitchell, Requesting permission to dock. I have prisoners to transfer, and will require basic amenity access. He unkeyed his comm. and waited.

Colonel Mitchell, this is Missouri Flight Control, you are cleared for landing. Please proceed to hangar bay 3, a security detail has been dispatched to aid in the offload of the prisoners, and take them into custody. Credits will be transferred to your neural net account, minus docking and amenity usage fees. You still hold fifty thousand dollars worth of credit with our dock master, therefore fuel charges will be waived at this time, pending posting to your credit account. Missouri Out.

Thank you Missouri Control, maneuvering to hangar bay three, ETA one minute.

There was a hiss and a clank as Tereus set the spatial down on the hard metal deck plates of the hangar bay. As promised a heavily armed security detail was ready and waiting. Tereus signaled them from the cockpit, and lowered the boarding ramp. He walked to the cargo hold, and addressed the imprisoned pirates: This is your stop boys!

The leader of the armed escort stopped at the top of the ramp, threw a salute, then spoke: Permission to Come aboard Colonel?

Granted. Tereus stated as he dropped the containment field surrounding the prisoners. The security detail promptly secured the prisoners, and escorted them towards the brig.

One last thing Colonel, The leader of the security team stated, I need you to fill out these forms...

Damn, thought Tereus as he took the datapad, how I despise paperwork...

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The reports of my trying to imitate the revered Michal Golanski are greatly exaggerated...my avatar should prove this.

[4:17:08 PM] Michał Golański: I knew you have some prehistoric backing to kick them in the nuts.