The Dead Ship - Conclusion
Location: 7.9 Million Km from the gas giant Chywan in the Winston System, Querion Subsector
Imperial Date: 133-1100
On the bridge of the Corsair Reperul:
Captain Zorale Zazalen, "Move to intercept, but stay outside the line for now."
Kika: "They are heading toward Chywan at 1G, I don't think they have seen us."
Bing on second sensors: "They look shot up, running light. Correction: That's not battle damage, not laser shots, maybe faked."
"They either have half full fuel tanks and no cargo or empty tanks and a half empty hold."
"Moving into firing range".
Captain Zazalen on comm, "Halt and prepare to be boarded!".
"Stay alert, I am suspicious of a ship that lightly armed in this area. Anything else out there?"
"Nothing visible Sir."
"They are turning to decelerate, but tracking us with their turrent".
"They are opening their cargo bay door, probably thinking of dumping their cargo and running, hoping we will go for it. We'll take them and come back for it later."
"Zbol! What was that?"
"They have a gun mounted in their cargo bay, triple laser. Missed us."
Comm: "YOU prepare to be boarded."
Comm: (in background) "Wolfpack, this is Lame Duck. We got one, come on in."
Kika: "I don't see anything else on scan, its bulshyt."
Captain Zazalen: "It's a trap, Mister Bing, jump to B."
"Kika, when we come out of jump, send a message to Wade, Kroger and Mooch that that ship is KOS."
"Mooch probably sent it".
"That's what worries me."
Aboard the Skylark, 1100-133 0000 ship time.
With Skylark just a few thousand kilometers inside the minimum jump distance (100 planetary radii - in our case from the gas giant) and having been told to "Halt and Prepare to be boarded."
We executed our best plan, with a fight to the death as the fallback.
Another scan of the area revealed no additional ships anyplace within range, but was not good enough to give us any real information about the pirate. (We are assuming it is a pirate because when we asked who they are we got no answer).
Leon opened up the forward cargo doors, and Kipenzi shut down our thrust and we rotated to point as best we could at the ship, keeping our vector toward the gas giant. Radio calls follow.
Sam: "You stand down and prepare to be boarded."
Leon: "Wolfpack, this is Lame Duck. We got one, come on in."
Medicus: "Lame Duck, Wolfpack lead, we are on the way."
Fig: "Duck, Wolf 2. We're 3 out, save us a piece."
At that point, Fig fires the ship weapon and Kipenzi blasts off the beam weapon from the RF-128C that we had set up to fire, just for this happenstance.
While both weapons miss - no surprise, we are many thousand kilometers out of good range - it does look like we mean business.
The pirate ship, which had held position just outside the minimum jump radius, takes full advantage of that to jump out of system. Where to we neither know nor care, sufficient that they are gone, for a minimum of two weeks. Plenty of time for us to refuel and get out of here.
Leon closes the hatch and Kipenzi points us at the gas giant, and after 11 uncomfortable hours of a 2g burn we are in position to refuel.
1100-133 1200
In the gas giant, with Sam at the controls, trying to scoop up some fuel. Once again, our pilot skills do not quite rise to the occasion, and in the bouncing around prior to stabilizing and actually getting fuel the turret takes some damage. Our only interior indication is a bothersome red light that says the laser will not fire. So, after the refueling is complete and we are out of the atmosphere, Fig and Leon make an EVA to examine the damage, and at about 1500 ship time are able to make enough repairs to get the light to go out, and with fingers crossed we test fire. All is good with the laser weapon, and we all hope to get back to Vilis without needing it again.
During the three days it takes to process the fuel into usable form and resting, we turn the other fighter around, and Leon is able to get it into firing shape as well, so if needed we have two big guns to shoot, as well as the turret.
1100-136 0700
Outside the jump radius, we transit to Anselhome, arriving successfully.
1100-143 1200
A more sedate 1G flight into the gas giant here takes us 5 hours, with no problems until we actually get into the atmosphere, and once again the ship is bounced around in moderate to more than moderate turbulence, and this time the bounce is accompanied by a grinding sound followed by a THUMP. There is NO circumstance in which an unexpected thump is good.... The sound appeared to us to have come from the cargo hold, and with 5 people spiking adrenaline, all who were not suited up do so, and a camera check with a human follow-up does not reveal anything.
It is a testament to Leon's skill that the patch he put on the hull, after our problems getting up out of the gas giant at Querion, is still holding well. Well done Leon.
As refueling continues the bridge crew notes a red warning light on the left fuel scoop, but are able to continue fueling up, and by 2200 ship time we are up above the atmosphere and set to check it out. Kipenzi and Fig make the EVA this time, and find a large chunk of ice in the scoop. Getting the ice out turns out surprisingly easy, but in our exterior inspection we note that the aft cargo lock door is gone.
1100-147 0300
After processing the fuel and getting to the needed range from the gas giant, we jump to Margesi, arriving 1100-154 and make an uneventful arrival (for us anyway, no doubt the condition of our ship gets tongues wagging at the station).
1100-158 2400
Final jump, back to our starting point in Vilis, and we must be on an astrogation roll because for the third straight jump we are in good position coming out of hyperspace.
1100-166 0200
Into Vilis , close enough to get a good look at the yacht of the Duke of the Rhylanor, and for their crew to (no doubt) shake their heads at the fools who go out in something like our ship.
As planned so many weeks ago, we contact Victor Romeo and arrange a meeting for delivery, at a small industrial satellite.
1100-167 1200
We make the transfer of the two fighters and receive our pay exactly as
scheduled and agreed, and the buyers take the spare parts we brought
back as well. At least we can be confident of repair costs being
covered now. The remaining material (guns, lifters, medical supplies,
VACC suits, etc) that we recovered are also marketable, and the tag team
of Sam and Medicus do us right.The sand caster canisters wind up being stacked in a spare passenger cabin as Sam can't part with his precious cargo space. - Terry
We catch up, as agreed with the bank, on our payments, and get ourselves solvent and back with feet on something that isn't always vibrating metal.
As well as some much needed unwinding time, every one of us realize that our skill sets are not what they should be, and we all take advantage of training classes available, each of us as we see best in the overall crew needs.
One more thing that we did that needs to be mentioned. We put the original beacon back on the Haunting Thunder, and in our month or so downtime here we make as close as we can to a 100% untraceable package to be sent to the Navy, someone important enough to take action but not so high that a package gets shunted out as a nuisance. A carefully edited copy of our suit video, names of all the crew we found and their last status, and information of basically where the Thunder is and how to zero in on the beacon. This was pretty much a gotta-do, rather than just leave some potentially saveable people on ice forever. We are keeping the Captain's sword and uniform and a few other keepsakes just in case we ever have to make nice with the navy or need a chance at a get out of jail free card with them. NO ONE breathes a word of this to Victor, and hopefully no back-channel information will find its way to him, but if it does we will deal at that time.
1100-200 or so.
Ship time be damned, we are in a real city!!
So, for now we are in Vilis and looking for new ventures. No small amount of good planning went into our trip out and back, but we had some good luck too. Guess that pretty much sums it up for the spacers who go out and manage to make it back.
Continued in: The Second Adventure
See Also: Dramatis Personæ
Comments
Post a Comment