The Vulture twisted frantically to avoid the incoming flare and almost made it. The power of the flare explosion was enough to spin the light fighter around and with a series of precisely placed positrons shots through the wings forced the Vulture pilot to break off the engagement. Unfortunately for the pilot, the Behemoth that burned at maximum speed through space had a very active top gunner and the string of heavy gauss tore the remaining armour off and exploded the ship. Tomahawk twisted his ship to engage the next pirate ship, checking the onboard stores as he did so. Three flares left, after that he would be a sitting duck. The pirate Warthog immediately in front of him was pumping strings of gauss into the Behemoth while dodging the turrets' ineffective fire. Tomahawk fired a single flare at the Warthog and smiled when he saw the rocket impact directly on the ship and tear armour off in large strips. The concussion damage was enough to make the pirate lose his target but unfortunately made him point straight at Tomahawk. Twisting madly to get out of the gauss targeting-cone, Tomahawk fired another flare below the pirate followed by his last flare directly at the ship. The Warthog was tossed around like a feather in a tornado before succumbing to the combined fires of the Behemoth and Tomahawk's single AAP. Tomahawk checked his radar and cursed. Still six pirates and only him along with the rookie. He flicked his comms.
"Cat, break off. Or stay, I don't particularly care. I am leaving for Sedina again. T-hawk out."
Hearing no response he chuckled at the memory of being as young as the rookie, as idealistic and even naïve and left the sector.
###
The final carbon atom clicked into place and the buckyball sphere finished the process it had started around one billion years ago. Not that it had been an intelligent process in the least; the buckyball atoms had simply by chance and opportunity formed within the small speck of carbonic ore that was all that remained of a meteorite impact with Sedina II. In the buckyball configuration, which is even more stable than diamond, the carbon atoms could expect to stay together until the end of time. Or until they were smashed against Hortan's Behemoth, whichever came first. What could have been an artefact that displayed how random and beautiful nature is, instead ended as a black smear against the chainglass visor on "Ye Olde Sloth Moth II". Hortan frowned at the smear but there was nothing he could do about it now. He was late as it was, having received Surbius' summons while he was in the delicate process of distilling the very first batch of the newest Helio Mists. It had been a choice of ruining a whole batch of fermented liquid or letting Surbius hold for a minute. No choice really, he saved the Mists and called Surbius back as soon as he could. And now he was on his way to Daltas Hold of all places, all on his own to pick up John Eldritch who was in some kind of trouble. A single Valkyrie entered the sector immediately after Hortan and he started boosting to get away, just in case it was a pirate. His speaker crackled with an in-sector hail.
Atice-> "Hail trader. Have a safe flight. Remember to report any pirates to VPR on channel 4357."
He breathed easily again and sent his own reply in return.
"Peace, love and happiness be with you friend. Fly safe and prosper."
The Valkyrie disappeared before he himself could jump out of the sector, obviously hurrying somewhere. Hortan engaged his own jump engines and slid through underspace to Daltas Hold. Several ships were waiting outside the station as well as a group of semiautonomous Serco assault and defence bots. None were classified as enemies and Hortan pushed the throttle slowly forwards and aimed his ship at the main docking bay. He sent a request for permission to dock via the ships computer and received confirmation in the form of a trajectory, a velocity and a fee. He accepted and initiated the docking procedure. About 1500 metres from the bay his proximity sensor started softly chiming, increasing in volume and intensity as a ship was nearing his own. He looked in the direction of the radar echo and spotted a blue Centurion with shark's teeth painted under the nose of the canopy boost towards him. Hortan panicked and pushed the turbo function, practically kicking his ship forwards with mighty force since the Behemoth was empty. Apparently it was a major surprise to the Centurion pilot as well and a stream of otherwise well-aimed positrons intersected where his ship would have been. Before the Centurion pilot could adjust and fire again, Hortan entered the NFZ and the Centurion broke away from the engagement.
Retractile->"Remember to stop. I'll be waiting for you, next time 200,000 or I won't fire warning shots."
Hortan frowned. What did he mean, remember to stop... He looked up at the fast approaching armoured bulk of the station and applied the front thrusters at full power but forgetting to turn the turbo off. The Behemoth thundered into the docking bay at 150 m/s and jammed itself into the reception cradle. Fortunately for Hortan, the cradle was designed to take the larger XC version of the Behemoth carrying a full load of Xithricite and thus had vastly larger shock dampers than normal. The deceleration was violent but still safely contained. He did his usual post mission flight checks methodically as always before exiting through the small armoured door in the side of his ship. The smell of unwashed bodies, heavy spices and malfunctioning de-humidifiers assaulted his nose and reminded him why he hated going to new stations. He was somewhat used to the smells of Dau K-10, slightly clinical, a tinge of metal and cleaning fluids, and loved the pungent heavy oily smells mixed with the yeasty soy vats of Aeolus Outpost, his home. He was reminded of the old proverb, No place like home. Still, this was not a social call. He opened his PDA and queried for the station security location. Seeing it placed in the opposite end of the station he sighed and started moving.
###
Cat pushed on the right foot pedal as hard as she could to avoid the incoming neutron fire and succeeded only to fly directly at several gauss bolts from one of the pirates. Releasing the right foot, pressing the left foot while twisting the stick and engaging the bottom left rear thruster enabled her to skirt just outside the kill zone and allowed her to tumble to relative safety. If she had been that type of person, a full and very long string of curses would have been the next thing that came flying towards the chainglass visor. Instead she turned her Vulture and tried to spot a hole in the pirate formation that would allow her to re-engage the pirates on a less than four-on-one odds and thus continue to protect the trade ships but in vain. These pirates were very good. Four new radar echoes popped up on her screen. The radar echoes moved slowly towards the convoy and she bit her lower lip slightly in anger. No doubt that these ships were pirate salvage ships for when she had failed her mission. Again. The radar identified the four ships as a Valkyrie, a Centurion Rev C, a Warthog Mk II and a Marauder. Her radio crackled on the hail frequency.
"If you need any help with the convoy, let us know. Have a safe flight. Remember to report any pirates to VPR on channel 4357."
Cat frowned a bit before her brain connected the lines. Apparently they thought that she was the pirate and the pirates were protecting the convoy against her. She punched the sector channel frequency and pushed the message switch.
"This is pilot Cat from the guild KAOS. Pirates attacking convoy right now. They are keeping me away from escorting the trade ships. Please assist. Purple lead, confirm."
The leading trade ship confirmed her message immediately and she received a request for IFF ident from the new ships. Cat sent it immediately and smiled when the four ship's beacons started showing as green instead of yellow on her screen. The pirate ships in front of her had now been forced to shift their focus to cover the four new ships and that meant that she only faced two enemies now. Grinning from ear to ear she stopped backtracking and pushed the throttle to forward. The opposing Vulture dodged quickly downwards but too slow to cheat the auto-aim on Cat's gauss canons and a new set of holes appeared where the incandescent balls of blue plasma had struck xithricite armour. She followed the opposing Vulture and managed to score another hit before the weave of neutrons in front of her ship from the other enemy came too close and forced her to break off. Twin flashes of light painted her cockpit from the top left direction with a larger secondary explosion that was the telltale signature of a Vulture exploding. The neutron fire in front of her had stopped with the explosion and she twisted the Vulture to once more target her enemy, finding the rear end of the ship presenting itself as the enemy pilot tried to get away. A double shot of gauss plasma slammed into the light fighter and tore it apart in a gratifying explosion that made Cat scream out aloud in victory.
She scanned her surroundings and saw only three pirate ships remaining but running for jump distance with two of the Viper’s ships in hot pursuit. One Behemoth class ship had been destroyed with the others severely damaged but still space worthy. The pirates jumped out along with the pursuing Vipers and Cat relaxed slightly again. She queried the IFF of the two remaining Vipers. Strat and Niut'likatsin in their Rev C and Marauder respectively. She thumbed her comms button.
"Thanks for the help. It would have been a slaughter without you."
"No problem Cat. We are here to help. Do you need a further escort to your destination? We can scout ahead if you need it."
Cat counted the distance to their jump zone and shook her head while answering.
"No thank you, that will be fine. I am expecting that we will have station security at Corvus Hold. But thanks again."
"No problem Cat. Feel free to contact us again if you need assistance with pirates. That goes for your guild mates as well naturally."
Cat smiled as the two fighters broke off and moved on separate vectors towards jump distance. The integrity and friendliness they had shown was something worth striving for and she decided that she would try to follow the same path within KAOS. She only hoped that her guild mates would help her.
###
William slowly drooled onto the floor in complete happiness. Ever since he had been dragged out of the ship and placed on the deck plates he had only moved to keep Janice within his vision. He had no idea how she had survived but there was no doubt that he had re-found his reason for existing. So far she looked like she didn't know what to do with him and for some obscure reason she pretended not to recognise him. But he knew, he even recognised her accent and that delicious tingle in her voice when she spoke. Eventually she would have a plan for him and he was happy to play along as long as he could stay with her. Even if it meant lying on a bare floor and drool.
