Post by anarusinoba on Mar 31, 2014 23:18:54 GMT
Hastily undocking from the Corp's hangar, Harvorix RedSun plots the fastest course to the Assembly plant in Unpas where Vigdis was supposed to be checking in on the manufacture of some more missiles. Stressing that he cannot raise his Wing on comms, he swears when nothing he tries can shorten the trip to fewer than sixteen jumps, even as he engages the warp to the first system gate.
Finally arriving in Unpas he flies into the flotsam and debris of disabled ships... including a too-familiar, yet ominously sundered Caracal. Desperately, he begins scanning the space around him as a wing of Gurista frigates drops out of warp around him. As he begins locking targets numerous Destroyers drop out of warp, to support the smaller pirates ships. Slug's alarms blare as one ship breaks away from the middle of the fray, aligning to the Shihuken system gate and warps.
Slug's voice rumbles from the speakers, "Target breaking contact. Pursue?"
Rereading the reports of his scan, confirming no sign of either a capsule or frozen corpse, "Are you kidding me?! Chase him down, Slug!"
"Multiple bogeys blocking direct warp path."
Frantically, Harv slams his hands on the console, "You have shields! Blow through, damn it!"
"Affirmative."
As Slug's microwarpdrive spins up, Harv targets the first two frigates in the path with his new assault launchers. The missiles impact hard, dropping the Guristas' shields just in time for the ships hulls to buckle and crumble like tinfoil against hardened shields as Slug rams its way through them.
The restrained AI's voice resonates as impact warnings sound, "Shields at 79... holding at 64%." Displays warn of missiles lock, then fall off as the drake enters warp, following its target to the system jumpgate.
Coming out of warp Slug immediately begins plotting attack patterns while his sensors register the full strength of the Gurista incursion fleet deep in Caldari space. “Analysis: Gurista presence far exceeds required strength for current operation in Caldari space. Excessive presence and engagement of CONCORD forces draws undue attention; unnecessary for the hunt of a single target. Reinforcements advised.”
“Yeah, thanks for the heads up, Captain Obvious. Get us back on that damn BC and prepare to engage.” He continues as he jumps out of the Captain’s chair,” I'm handing you missile control; I have to get suited up.”
“Probability of defeat in current engagement is 87.695%. Advise reinforcement before engaging.”
Harvorix growls in desperation and frustration at, again having to argue with a sentient computer, “Engage! Now!” As he swiftly readies himself in the armory, “and call in backup!" He staggers, barely staying on his feet as a volley of missiles slam into the ship, while klaxons begin blaring.
“Energy drain in progress, shield hardeners offline in 45 seconds at current rate of drain.”
“Reroute all available power to the hardeners!” Harv swears as he scrambles through the armoring process, “Shut down environmental controls; turn off life support if you have to just keep those damn hardeners online!” He staggers as the ship rocks from another heavy impact and alarms blare. “Lock onto the draining ship and give him everything we've got!”
“Environmental controls are now off-line; power is being rerouted to shield hardeners. It is going to get cold.”
“No shit; where’s my backup?”
Comms crackle, filling the cabin with the piping of Anaru Sinoba, “Oh noooo… Harvy is in trouble, Minerva, we have to save him!”
“I have sent an alert on the distress channel; there are limited members of the Corp available to respond with enough speed. Analysis: Limited supply of reinforcements and superior numbers and armaments of hostiles indicates unacceptable risk.” As the ship rocks violently from another missile volley, “Advise to disengage hostiles and return with CONCORD counter-terrorist fleet.”
“This is Ichi Takiwa, what's your location RedSun?”
“Shut up and fight, Slug! Track down that cruiser; it jumped out for a reason, and I want the intel from that ship!”
Accepting the idiosyncrasies of his pilot, Slug responds to the corp comms, “Pilot indisposed, life support at minimum, shields failing; Gurista incursion in progress, ammunition status low. Mission: Search and Rescue; Subject: Vigdis Engsten, status: Captive. Aggressive force: Gurista.”
“This is Am-Ra Tsasa, do we have a system?”
“This is Slug, AI restrained to the battle cruiser of Harvorix RedSun, Pilot, Ensign to Night Raven Task Force, requesting assistance; System: Shihuken.”
A Dramiel, piloted by Minerva Serekar, drops out of warp, deploying a trio of combat drones, and opens fire with all guns, drawing the attention of some of the dozens of Gurista battle cruisers, cruisers, frigate, and destroyer support; several of the frigates and destroyers changing target to the fresh ship along with six of the cruisers. While Serekar unleashes the best of her ace piloting skills, combining expert targeting and evasion tactics to herd a few of her less-skilled pursuers into crashing into their fellows, while she unleashes lead and rockets into others, eliminating some of the smaller enemies, Anaru’s tears of panicked distress can be heard faintly over her still-open comms.
Slug reports to his scrambling pilot, and the fleet, “Reloading; port launchers: numbers 2, 4, and 6, inoperable.”
Minerva Serekar slams open her comms to Slug, "Focus all fire on enemy cruisers; transfer all power to shields, overheat everything if needed!"
Anaru Sinoba chimes in, “I'm on my way. Only five more systems out...”
While Minerva does her best to keep ahead of the enemy, making every attempt to force them into firing on their fleet mates, Slug continues taking a pounding from the battle cruisers; the ship’s shields flickering dangerously with each impact, but seem to hold, although the ship seems to have stopped firing all together. Eventually, a rare and very expensive Scimitar class advanced logistics cruiser drops out of warp next to the listing ship.
Anaru’s normally perky voice breaks the tension in the silent coms, “Stay still, this is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you...” Slug shakes violently and the shields blaze with vibrant, visible strength. “Oops...” Anaru surreptitiously powers down two of her shield transporters as five of the remaining Gurista battle cruisers lock onto the Logi and open fire with every gun on board, eliciting a scream from the young capsuleer.
Slug’s voice resonates over the comms, cutting off Anaru’s scream, “Pilot active, systems rebooting.”
With the Guristas losing more and more ships due to the continued active harrying of Serekar, and the continued support jumping to assist their prey, two of the battle cruisers extract themselves from the fray, and align for warps. Quickly following a signal, the cruisers scatter and the frigates quickly follow suit. The pirate battle cruisers locked on the logi, however, continue firing full, until, recklessly chasing Minerva, a frigate slams into the side of its ally; disabling one completely.
“Get on those BC's! They've got Vig's location! Don't let them get away!"
Holding the attention of the remaining pirate forces, Anaru moves her left hand up to the top of the pod over the emergency thermodynamic deregulator, just in case, while Minerva’s voice rings clear over the channel, “Do you know which one, precisely; I can paint the motherfucker if I know which one."
Slug obligingly transmits the ident of the ship he was tracking, highlighting it on the Corps’ displays. “Cease fire on target; specialized projectile loaded... firing.” An inordinately large missile of unknown design departs the Battle Slug and slams into the side of the lit up battle cruiser.
As the two remaining BC's stop firing on the logi and begin firing on their own ship Harv’s voice comes through in a static-filled transmission, further disrupted by gunfire in the background, "Assault in progress, making my way to the bridge. Don't let them scuttle this damn thing!” Sinoba launches her small fleet of repair drones and monitors all friendly ships for quantum field disruptions.
Quickly thinking, and preventing an untoward escape and capture, Minerva initiates a warp scramble on the indicated BC, “Anaru, start repping him!" While she redoubles her efforts to draw the fire, and disable, the remaining enemy ships. The pirates, with no hope of out damaging the Logi's systems and taking heavy fire, align to warp, and escape. One successfully aligns, and warps away; the other explodes in a brilliant display as its warp drive initializes.
Flush with success, Serekar contacts Harv, "Need assistance?"
“Just made it to engineering...” His transmission crackles, “stand by...” From outside, a sudden cloud-like puff emits from the ship, filling the space around it with flotsam, and Harv can be heard laughing quietly over the radio. “Love mag-boots; they’re spaced... I'm going to track them down on their systems... Can someone get Slug some more missiles; this isn't over yet.”
Minerva Serekar chuckles, "I've already put in a requisition order at the station nearby; dock up, and you'll have all the missiles you'll ever need.”
“Woot woot,” pipes up little Sinoba, “Cupcakes for everyone!” As she continues taking aside to her crew, Harv’s voice cuts through the corp’s comms…
“Okay, transmitting the encrypted location, setting self-destruct and punching out. Slug, come pick me up!”
As the wounded Drake begins moving, the mechanical voice resonates, “En route.”
Finally arriving in Unpas he flies into the flotsam and debris of disabled ships... including a too-familiar, yet ominously sundered Caracal. Desperately, he begins scanning the space around him as a wing of Gurista frigates drops out of warp around him. As he begins locking targets numerous Destroyers drop out of warp, to support the smaller pirates ships. Slug's alarms blare as one ship breaks away from the middle of the fray, aligning to the Shihuken system gate and warps.
Slug's voice rumbles from the speakers, "Target breaking contact. Pursue?"
Rereading the reports of his scan, confirming no sign of either a capsule or frozen corpse, "Are you kidding me?! Chase him down, Slug!"
"Multiple bogeys blocking direct warp path."
Frantically, Harv slams his hands on the console, "You have shields! Blow through, damn it!"
"Affirmative."
As Slug's microwarpdrive spins up, Harv targets the first two frigates in the path with his new assault launchers. The missiles impact hard, dropping the Guristas' shields just in time for the ships hulls to buckle and crumble like tinfoil against hardened shields as Slug rams its way through them.
The restrained AI's voice resonates as impact warnings sound, "Shields at 79... holding at 64%." Displays warn of missiles lock, then fall off as the drake enters warp, following its target to the system jumpgate.
Coming out of warp Slug immediately begins plotting attack patterns while his sensors register the full strength of the Gurista incursion fleet deep in Caldari space. “Analysis: Gurista presence far exceeds required strength for current operation in Caldari space. Excessive presence and engagement of CONCORD forces draws undue attention; unnecessary for the hunt of a single target. Reinforcements advised.”
“Yeah, thanks for the heads up, Captain Obvious. Get us back on that damn BC and prepare to engage.” He continues as he jumps out of the Captain’s chair,” I'm handing you missile control; I have to get suited up.”
“Probability of defeat in current engagement is 87.695%. Advise reinforcement before engaging.”
Harvorix growls in desperation and frustration at, again having to argue with a sentient computer, “Engage! Now!” As he swiftly readies himself in the armory, “and call in backup!" He staggers, barely staying on his feet as a volley of missiles slam into the ship, while klaxons begin blaring.
“Energy drain in progress, shield hardeners offline in 45 seconds at current rate of drain.”
“Reroute all available power to the hardeners!” Harv swears as he scrambles through the armoring process, “Shut down environmental controls; turn off life support if you have to just keep those damn hardeners online!” He staggers as the ship rocks from another heavy impact and alarms blare. “Lock onto the draining ship and give him everything we've got!”
“Environmental controls are now off-line; power is being rerouted to shield hardeners. It is going to get cold.”
“No shit; where’s my backup?”
Comms crackle, filling the cabin with the piping of Anaru Sinoba, “Oh noooo… Harvy is in trouble, Minerva, we have to save him!”
“I have sent an alert on the distress channel; there are limited members of the Corp available to respond with enough speed. Analysis: Limited supply of reinforcements and superior numbers and armaments of hostiles indicates unacceptable risk.” As the ship rocks violently from another missile volley, “Advise to disengage hostiles and return with CONCORD counter-terrorist fleet.”
“This is Ichi Takiwa, what's your location RedSun?”
“Shut up and fight, Slug! Track down that cruiser; it jumped out for a reason, and I want the intel from that ship!”
Accepting the idiosyncrasies of his pilot, Slug responds to the corp comms, “Pilot indisposed, life support at minimum, shields failing; Gurista incursion in progress, ammunition status low. Mission: Search and Rescue; Subject: Vigdis Engsten, status: Captive. Aggressive force: Gurista.”
“This is Am-Ra Tsasa, do we have a system?”
“This is Slug, AI restrained to the battle cruiser of Harvorix RedSun, Pilot, Ensign to Night Raven Task Force, requesting assistance; System: Shihuken.”
A Dramiel, piloted by Minerva Serekar, drops out of warp, deploying a trio of combat drones, and opens fire with all guns, drawing the attention of some of the dozens of Gurista battle cruisers, cruisers, frigate, and destroyer support; several of the frigates and destroyers changing target to the fresh ship along with six of the cruisers. While Serekar unleashes the best of her ace piloting skills, combining expert targeting and evasion tactics to herd a few of her less-skilled pursuers into crashing into their fellows, while she unleashes lead and rockets into others, eliminating some of the smaller enemies, Anaru’s tears of panicked distress can be heard faintly over her still-open comms.
Slug reports to his scrambling pilot, and the fleet, “Reloading; port launchers: numbers 2, 4, and 6, inoperable.”
Minerva Serekar slams open her comms to Slug, "Focus all fire on enemy cruisers; transfer all power to shields, overheat everything if needed!"
Anaru Sinoba chimes in, “I'm on my way. Only five more systems out...”
While Minerva does her best to keep ahead of the enemy, making every attempt to force them into firing on their fleet mates, Slug continues taking a pounding from the battle cruisers; the ship’s shields flickering dangerously with each impact, but seem to hold, although the ship seems to have stopped firing all together. Eventually, a rare and very expensive Scimitar class advanced logistics cruiser drops out of warp next to the listing ship.
Anaru’s normally perky voice breaks the tension in the silent coms, “Stay still, this is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt you...” Slug shakes violently and the shields blaze with vibrant, visible strength. “Oops...” Anaru surreptitiously powers down two of her shield transporters as five of the remaining Gurista battle cruisers lock onto the Logi and open fire with every gun on board, eliciting a scream from the young capsuleer.
Slug’s voice resonates over the comms, cutting off Anaru’s scream, “Pilot active, systems rebooting.”
With the Guristas losing more and more ships due to the continued active harrying of Serekar, and the continued support jumping to assist their prey, two of the battle cruisers extract themselves from the fray, and align for warps. Quickly following a signal, the cruisers scatter and the frigates quickly follow suit. The pirate battle cruisers locked on the logi, however, continue firing full, until, recklessly chasing Minerva, a frigate slams into the side of its ally; disabling one completely.
“Get on those BC's! They've got Vig's location! Don't let them get away!"
Holding the attention of the remaining pirate forces, Anaru moves her left hand up to the top of the pod over the emergency thermodynamic deregulator, just in case, while Minerva’s voice rings clear over the channel, “Do you know which one, precisely; I can paint the motherfucker if I know which one."
Slug obligingly transmits the ident of the ship he was tracking, highlighting it on the Corps’ displays. “Cease fire on target; specialized projectile loaded... firing.” An inordinately large missile of unknown design departs the Battle Slug and slams into the side of the lit up battle cruiser.
As the two remaining BC's stop firing on the logi and begin firing on their own ship Harv’s voice comes through in a static-filled transmission, further disrupted by gunfire in the background, "Assault in progress, making my way to the bridge. Don't let them scuttle this damn thing!” Sinoba launches her small fleet of repair drones and monitors all friendly ships for quantum field disruptions.
Quickly thinking, and preventing an untoward escape and capture, Minerva initiates a warp scramble on the indicated BC, “Anaru, start repping him!" While she redoubles her efforts to draw the fire, and disable, the remaining enemy ships. The pirates, with no hope of out damaging the Logi's systems and taking heavy fire, align to warp, and escape. One successfully aligns, and warps away; the other explodes in a brilliant display as its warp drive initializes.
Flush with success, Serekar contacts Harv, "Need assistance?"
“Just made it to engineering...” His transmission crackles, “stand by...” From outside, a sudden cloud-like puff emits from the ship, filling the space around it with flotsam, and Harv can be heard laughing quietly over the radio. “Love mag-boots; they’re spaced... I'm going to track them down on their systems... Can someone get Slug some more missiles; this isn't over yet.”
Minerva Serekar chuckles, "I've already put in a requisition order at the station nearby; dock up, and you'll have all the missiles you'll ever need.”
“Woot woot,” pipes up little Sinoba, “Cupcakes for everyone!” As she continues taking aside to her crew, Harv’s voice cuts through the corp’s comms…
“Okay, transmitting the encrypted location, setting self-destruct and punching out. Slug, come pick me up!”
As the wounded Drake begins moving, the mechanical voice resonates, “En route.”
