Tom Neyman, or as his friends knew him, The Master, stared at the two Light Fighters going at it well within the No-Fire Zone from the bridge of the APM-Klendathu. Obviously, something was up. Anyone Order was shooting at had to be someone who could be negotiated with.
One one side was a Freelancer ID'd and tagged Scimitar named ANC.00?-"Raven"
On the Other, an all-HAMMERFALL Order Primary Fleet Onuris named SD-"Voidreaper"
After an inquiry consisting of
Core|APM-Klendathu: The Master: Oh you two just get a room already.
A response was quick.
ANC.00?-"Raven": She's a girl.
Core|APM-Klendathu: The Master: So?
ANC.00?-"Raven": I don't swing that way.
Core|APM-Klendathu: The Master: So?
After that inspired banter, the Voidreaper continued her attempts to shoot down the all-Debilitator Scimitar, moving into the radioactive ring around the sun in Omicron Delta
Of course, now The Master was duty-bound by The Oath of The Core to protect those who couldn't defend themselves, and an all-Debilitator ship won't scratch the hull of another ship that well.
Unfortunately for his attempts at fulfilling the directives given, Voidreaper ordered Raven, who had told him he could refer to her as "Kole" earlier to redeem herself by attacking the Bustard.
Here's the interesting part. Apparently, this lady was an Order programmed agent, and something Voidreaper did activated her, on the level of "frothing at the mouth attack dog". Obviously, this was further proof of The Order's descent into damnation.
However, The Master knew that this woman could possibly be saved, either by a bullet to the head or expensive and questionable-at-best psychological treatment, and so ordered his gunners to focus instead on the "controller", in this case, the pesky Onuris.
Kole appeared to begin regaining control of herself after the Voidreaper lost direct line of sight to her ship by hiding behind an asteroid so the guns of the Klendathu wouldn't hit her, and suddenly cut her engines. This was a mistake, for as soon as she did, she got three Pulses to the face, bringing her ship to "yeah, it's not going to make it" levels. The radiation damage began to really hurt, as well. She began to run, before making it about 5k before her engines died and life support started to fail. Evidently, sufficient amounts of pain dished out would snap people out of that trance the Order operative put her under.
APM-Klendathu pulled up to her while the gunners had some suppressive fire headed Voidreaper's way, keeping the Light Fighter from interfering with the proceedings for the time being.
She made some noises about her equipment dying on her. The Master ordered Medical to open up a bed and some sedatives for her. The Core would not be deprived of an intelligence/propoganda victory like this.
The Order agent dared to get close enough for the Core Cruiser Turrets to be able to draw a bead on her as Kole's vessel self-destructed.
It is a testament to how well-trained The Core's capital ship crews are, for without The Master even having to give the order, they had locked on and secured the jetsam from the dying ship.
The Master opened the comm for the second to last time.
As the Voidreaper disappeared off of scanner range, Tom wept for his brother that he could not save from her clutches, even as Kole greedily sucked in air, but from which ship was the question.
In Cargo Bay One, the smoldering wreckage that may or may not be the eject pod was approached warily by Core Marines, with a suddenly attentive button jockey looking back and forth from through the window to the "depressurize" button.
This new sentient desk tech was really great, he had to hand it to the eggheads at Durban, even as he joked about them in his spare time with his colleagues. The "recline" function really helped with his back pain, and the electronic nature of most of his stuff meant that he could literally look up at it while lying down and be just as efficient.
The Marines opened the cooling pod, and pulled out a barely-conscious Kole.
She was straitjacketed and rushed to sickbay within seconds.
Golanski and the person behind Voidreaper are free to PM me, because the person behind ANC.00?-"Raven" got back to me and said Klendathu got the pod.
Also, I'm apparently a 2 AM Disco PvPer, according to Wesker. Huh.
Anyway, tune in next time for when I make a Bomber cry (or something).
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