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Fire blasted through the steel corridor as the ships hull breached, "Get a grip Darian." Darian chided himself as he pushed a few buttons on the console, a small squadron of repair bots rushed to the hole and sealed it airtight. Pressure returning to the cockpit Darian removed his breathing apparatus. "Now let's see what we can do about this guy." Darian was under attack by a cutter, Cutters are space pirates, they tear trade ships apart stealing any cargo or scrap they can get their hands on. The cutter came in from underneath Darian's ship - The Nexus - Blasting at his hull, most trade ships would have been destroyed by now and the pilot of the cutter was starting to get a little agitated, he was firing more wildly now anger messing up his aim. "Ah at last," said Darian "Now I can get a few shots in myself." Most trade ships are unarmed but the Nexus was no ordinary trade ship, Darian had used his father's connections with the military to get a top of the line combat ship, it had taken months to make it look like a beat up old trade ship, but it had been worth it, the amount of Cutters on this trade route had gone down considerably due to Darian's expertise as a pilot. Darian pulled back on the stick, slowly arcing the ship backwards as the cutter went overhead, his targeting computer beeped to let him no that a missile lock had been confirmed, "Goodbye space trash." Darian said over the comms, he flipped up the missile launch cover and pressed the button. A missile roared toward the cutter's ship, the Cutter started to dive and climb trying to shake the missile, but it was no use. The missile fired forward straight into the rear engine of the cutter. The cutter bucked forward as the explosion tore through the rear of the ship, within seconds all that was left was junk. Darian sat back and pressed a sequence of buttons on the console, two probes were launched from the belly of the Nexus to go forward and collect any cargo still in tact. Darian punched a few buttons on the Comm link. "Darian Segal to base, come in base." "This is base Darian go ahead." The voice came across the tinny speaker system. "Scratch one more cutter on the Aquilid route. Took a few shots to the belly of the ship need to come back for repairs, over." "Roger that Darian, proceed to landing bay 15 upon arrival at the station." "Copy that see you soon." Darian punched in the co-ordinates into the navigation computer and set the ship to auto pilot. He'd not slept for 18 hours and it was starting to show, he was getting very jumpy as his body tried to produce enough adrenaline to keep him going. Darian awoke to the sounds of shots being fired at his ship, he crawled back to the pilot seat and looked out the viewing window, somehow he had run into a squad of Gildarun, bur they shouldn't be anywhere near the Aquilid route, he thought as he saw five Gildarun cruisers flying in formation slowly trying to tear his ship apart. Darian slammed his fist down on the Comm link and shouted into the mic "This is Captain Darian Segal of the trade ship The Nexus, cease fire the authorities have been notified of your actions. The Captain of the lead Cruiser replied, his green slug-like face filling the comm window. "Your precious militia will not reach you in time, we will have destroyed you and left before they even acknowledge your cry for help, Goodbye Human." He spat the word "Human" Gildarun and humans did not get along ever since the war, The Gildarun were nearly wiped out by Earth Forces, leaving a small cluster of Gildarun alive, those Gildarun now hunted outside of Earth space and apart from those wanting to commit suicide they NEVER ventured away from their scavenging grounds. Darian looked at his navigation computer "Wait a minute, they're not in Earth space! I'm not even in Earth space." He checks the data and finds that he is at least an hour from his selected destination, checking the damage report screen shows nothing wrong, so how did he end up here? Darian gets back on manual controls, he pulls back on the stick flipping the ship a full 180 degrees, and his the boosters trying to outrun the Gildarun cruisers, it doesn't look to be working, the Gildarun catch up quite easily and continue to fire at the rear of the Nexus. "Ok boys, if you really want to follow me try and get past these" Darian reaches under his seat and pushes a concealed button, the lower body of his ship opens up and dumps it's cargo, a large amount of Space mines. The first two Gildarun ships ran straight into them, the mines exploding on contact shattering the glass screens on their ships, what's left of the Gildarun pilots gets flushed into space. Two ships down that just left the other three to go. If Darian could get them into Earth space, they'd be sitting ducks for every bounty hunter in the area. That is assuming he can keep them tailing him for the next hour. Shots were still being fired at the Nexus it was taking some heavy damage, Darian started on evasive manoeuvres, trying his best to avoid the shots but still remains on course. He grabbed the lift control next to him and prepared to blast the ship over the Gildarun in an attempt to get behind them. He put his ship to full thrust trying to force them to speed up, it worked, now all he had to do was blast over the top of them and slow down enough to let them go ahead, He was just about to put the jack-in-the-box move into play, when his encounter screen beeped at him, another ten ships showed up on his screen, all identified as Gildarun ships. "Shit! Only one thing left to do." Darian waited until all the new ships had grouped with the remaining three of the first squadron and he then proceeded to angle his ship so that all the shots they fired hit the belly of the ship. "WARNING! HULL BREACH IN PROGRESS." Came the computers voice. Darian reached down and pressed the button marked "Ship Detonation" it gave him twenty seconds, he punched the eject cockpit button and the whole cockpit of the ship blasted away from the remains of the Nexus. "5..........4 ..........3 ..........2 ..........1 ..........BOOM! The Nexus was destroyed, Darian checked his encounter window to see if his ruse had worked. The Gildarun had all stopped around the wreckage of the ship checking for any salvage. Darian had two hours of oxygen left if he was lucky, the original blast of the eject system should have given him enough speed to get into Earth space well before that. Then he would have to tell the Commander ..........Tell him that the Gildarun seemed to be creating an army And that the war may be far from over. After an hour of space travel Darian's Escape pod floated back inside Earth space, as soon as the computer beeped to let him know he was safely inside ES he hit the SOS button and recorded his message. "This is Captain Darian Segal, I've had a run in with some nasty ships and I had to eject. I'm floating just inside ES and I only have an hour of oxygen left, anyone in the vicinity please come to my aid. I need to reach the Aquilid Space Station ASAP." After recording his message he pressed send, the message would be continually broadcast until someone replied. Darian sat back and reached for the private comms mic. He opened a secure channel to the police headquarters on the Aquilid Station. "The is Captain Segal requesting a secure line with Commander Aerun Segal." The woman on the reception replied in a few seconds. "Roger that Captain, secure line set up and waiting." Aerun Segal spoke over the Comm-link. "Yes Darian what is it?" "We could have a problem here Dad." "What do you mean? What is wrong?" "The Nexus was destroyed." "WHAT! That ship was stronger than any Cutter, what happened? Did you fall asleep at the helm like damn rookie last year?" "No Dad, nothing like that, it's worse than that.... The Gildarun are back. "The Gildarun? Impossible there was only a handful of them left in space let alone enough to band together to form a fighting force." "Well Dad I slagged two of them and left thirteen behind me when The Nexus was destroyed." "Where are you?" "I'm an hour from the station at least, I'm just drifting in my escape pod, I've sent out the SOS and I think I have about an hour's air left." "I'll have someone dispatched immediately to collect you then you must tell me everything that has happened since you left the Aquilid System." "Roger that. Over and Out." Darian sat back and awaited the rescue ship. He took the time as a good excuse to find out how he had managed to travel so far off course. |
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