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 Synesthetic Ratings go in journal.     Registered: 12/11/08 Posts: 2,715 Loc: Tooele, UT Last seen: 15 years, 4 months |
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Tried posting this in the art forum but I didn't get any responses.
Read at your leisure. This is a short story I'm entering in to a contest. I just need some feedback before I do my final edits and send it off. CAPTAIN NOX AND THE AMERIGO by JAKE MARTINEZ "Captain, sensors are picking up an unidentified craft leaving planet XNT-005. Attempts to hail it via radio have been unsuccessful." Captain Gerard Sellenger calmly approached the Lieutenant's station. "Are there any known settlements on that planet?" The Lieutenant quickly pulled up the information on her holoscreen. "According to United Earth Systems' database, the planet 'Telome', as the locals call it, is used as a safe world for criminal enterprises. The largest settlement, New Baltimore, has many spaceports used by smugglers and pirates for refueling and restocking as well as selling their illicit prizes." "Thank you. Lieutenant Carpenter?" "Yes sir?" came a voice from behind the massive ship's control systems. "Take us close to this ship and follow from a distance. Our directive is to enforce UES law throughout this cluster of systems, and it's safe to say that ship is either a pirate or a smuggler. Either way, we must step in." "Okay, Captain. I'll follow the ship with about 250 miles between us." There was a pause while the ship moved to follow. "Captain, radar is picking up a large amount of metal debris following the unidentified craft." "Ignore it, Lieutenant. This is a B-class battlecruiser. Our hull won't be breached by junk floating in space." "Yes Sir." "Lieutenant Garret, open a channel to the unidentified ship." "Yes sir." The lieutenant from before pressed a few buttons. "Channel open, Captain." "Attention unidentified spacecraft. I am Captain Gerard Sellenger of the United Earth Systems' Navy. Respond and identify yourself immediately..." "Greetings, Captain Sellenger." Finally, a face appeared on the monitors. The other ship's captain was a shorter man who dressed well, which made up for the large, ugly scar on his cheek. "I am Captain Nox of the Amerigo. How can I help you?" "Hello, Captain. Please present your ship manifest and travel orders. I apologize for the inconvenience but this system has recently become a hotbed for pirates and smugglers." "I'm sorry, Gerard, but I can't do that. You see, we are a pirate ship, and so we don't have any of that silly paperwork." "Very well, then I am placing you all under arrest. Lieutenant Carpenter, target the Amerigo with all weapon systems and prepare the boarding craft." "Yes sir." The lieutenant pressed several buttons, but nothing happened. He tried again, to no avail. "Captain, the weapons systems are offline.." His monitor started beeping. "Engines...control systems...The whole damn ship's going offline!" "Lieutenant Garret, radio the engine room and try to find out what's going on! Captain Nox, what have you done to my ship!?" "Sorry, Captain, but I let you catch up to us so I could disable your ship with my EMP mines. By now, you're nothing more than a floating hunk of metal. Prepare yourself to be boarded." The monitor blinked off. Everyone was quiet for a moment, before the Captain broke the spell by throwing a nearby chair at the main screen before approaching Lieutenant Carpenter's station and grabbing him by the throat. "Why didn't you tell me we were in a bloody minefield!? How incompetent a navigator are you!?" "Captain, the mines just looked like metal junk on the radar...and I've never even heard of a ship's mines being held in a cloud around the ship instead of inside its hull!" "Ahh!" The Captain threw the lieutenant on the ground and turned to address the rest of the bridge. "Gentlemen, unless the on-board garrison can hold off those pirates, we're all going to die. I urge you to act with professional decorum, but won't hold it against you if you feel like taking your own lives to avoid being the prisoner or victim of these lowlifes." No one moved from their posts. All of them would rather stay with the Captain than take the coward's way out. Lieutenant Carpenter, however, stood up and calmly drew his pistol. The Captain turned away, muttering "Pathetic fool..." before he fired the plasma-powered .50 pistol at his jaw. "Someone clean up that mess. I won't have this bridge looking like a mess when our visitors arrive." The Captain sat down and turned his chair toward the reinforced blast doors. "Lieutenant Garret, set your console up so it can perform Lieutenant Carpenter's tasks. You are now our navigator as well as our communications expert." "Yes sir." "Open the blast doors. We won't run from our fate." The Lieutenant quickly familiarized herself with the new controls and opened the blast doors. They were greeted by Captain Nox standing on the other side, standing with two guards inside W350-CBN walker units. The W350-CBN was originally designed to help explore possibly hostile planets, but was later outfitted with twin Gatling guns and a back-mounted HELLION rocket pack, both guided by its CERES targeting system, which was standard-issue on all UES constructions that required fast, reliable target acquisition and lock-on. These walkers, however, had their weapons replaced by an unknown weapon unit that appeared to be powered by a small reactor core on the back. "Hello, Gerard. Fancy seeing you again so soon." "Shut up and get it over with." "As you wish. Gentlemen, fire at will." The men in the walkers took a moment to lock on their targets and opened fire. Captain Sellenger was taken aback when he saw the weapons in action. They were plasma-based rifles, built from the same technology that powered the weapons on his ship. However, attempts to downgrade the size had only yet resulted in pistols and rifles that used plasma to hurl standard rounds at a target. He had never heard of a full-plasma weapon being small enough to fit on a W350. The Captain shook himself from his daydream and looked around. All of his crew, except for Lieutenant Garret, were dead. The plasma weapons had cauterized the fatal wounds on the heads and necks of his men immediately, so there wasn't even one drop of spilled blood. “Captain Sellenger and Lieutenant Garret are coming with us. Fit them with slave collars and lock them in separate guest quarters. Make sure they're well taken care of.” “Yes sir.” The vocal unit of the W350 made voices sound like robotic speech. “Gerard Sellenger and Mary Garret are hereby stripped of their rank. Stun them and drag them to the Amerigo.” That was the last thing Gerard remembered before waking up in his dingy quarters. At last they were committed to treating him well. There was a fresh steak dinner waiting on the small desk in the corner. “Gerard.” Nox's voice came from the darkness, before the old-model holoscreen could move in to place and turn on. “After you're finished eating, feel free to shower and put on your new uniform. Meet me on the bridge and don't forget, you're wearing a slave collar.” Even though slavery had been abolished by the UES, slave collars were still widely in circulation. Their array of torture devices, neural manipulators, and high-potency tranquilizers were very useful for extracting information as well as bending someone to your will. Knowing what the collar was capable of, Gerard did as he was ordered. He took a fairly long, hot shower and was drying himself off when it made a warning beep. Nox intended to activate the collar if Gerard took too long. Gerard walked to the small table which had a new uniform folded neatly on top of it. The tag read “First Lieutenant Gerard Sellenger”. Demoralized, he dressed and made his way toward the bridge. “Ah, the former captain! Welcome to the Amerigo!” Nox appeared behind Gerard as soon as he rounded the first corner. “I figured we could walk and talk on our way to the bridge.” “As you wish, Captain--” “Call me Carmine or Nox. I prefer my officers to address me by name” “Okay...Nox.” “I bet you're wondering what a pirate like me would want with your battlecruiser, since all of the expensive components are too massive to sell and nothing of value is kept on-board.” “Not really. I stopped predicting pirates' actions when one tried to steal a shipping frigate full of neosteel with only a C-class fighter.” Nox smirked and continued. “Simply put, I enjoy designing ships in my spare time. The Amerigo was my masterpiece, but it's now outdated. It's time for an overhaul.” “So you intend to scrap my ship to build a new one for yourself? Why couldn't you just steal or buy the components? “Easy, Gerard. We're broke. The UES is using B and even A-class battlecruisers to patrol nowadays, which makes it hard for lowly pirates like me to earn a living. We did manage to steal most of the components, but there were two things we needed before starting construction on the Amerigo II.” “What would those be?” “Well, one is your ship's TITANIC-S88 reactor core. Specs don't exist on any known market, and trying to steal them from a UES space station or outpost is suicide.” “And the other?” “Why, that would be you, Gerard! You know more about your ship than any lowly tech from the engine room, as well as knowing more about the UES forces and how to potentially exploit their weaknesses.” “I see. Then why did you abduct my communications officer, Mary Garret?” “Why don't you ask her yourself?” Gerard turned around to see Garett standing behind him. She had let her dark hair down, and was wearing a slightly revealing uniform complete with high-heels. The ID badge read “Second In Command Mary Garett”. “You...were a spy!?” “Yes, Gerard. I killed your real comms officer when you were docked at UES Space Station 532. I just had to destroy the evidence and put on the stolen uniform with my name on it, and you never knew the difference. You really should pay more attention to your crew.” Gerard spoke slowly. “You evil...conniving...cu--” “Enough! Mary was unable to hack into your ship's mainframe, even as comms officer, to get the data on your ship so that we can dismantle it. That made it even more imperative that we abduct you. Our future revolves around your cooperation.” “I won't help you. I'd rather die than allow myself to succumb to the wiles of a filthy pirate!” “That's too bad, Gerard. I'd hoped you would just go along with it instead of forcing me to use the collar around your neck.” Nox pulled a control unit out of his pocket and pushed a few buttons. He looked at Gerard with a concerned look in his eyes before pressing the “ACTIVATE” button. Immediately, Gerard felt dizzy. He had been injected with one of the collar's tranquilizers. It was a specially engineered chemical meant to slow movement to a crawl while leaving cognitive processes intact. In short, the victim would be rendered defenseless while allowing him to speak normally and feel the full force of the pain inflicted by the collar's other wonders. Gerard fell on the deck. “I'm not a lowly slave. I'm a Captain, for God's sake. I won't give up my ship's secrets. You'll have to use the neural manipulators if you want to get my code for the mainframe.” “And activate your cerebral implant in the process, which would kill you instantly? I don't think so. Mary, carry Gerard back to his room and get those codes out of him by whatever means necessary. Gerard, just so you know, as soon as you cooperate, I'll put you to work as my first-lieutenant. I need a good man like you to help me run the Amerigo.” Nox turned while Mary lifted Gerard on her shoulder, and walked away towards the bridge. When he arrived, he fell into his chair and put his feet up on his console. Nox was a man of comforts, after all. “Is the battlecruiser in tow?” “Yes sir. Those new tow cables made it easy. However,I don't see how we're going to land on Telome with a ship eight times our size in behind us.” “That's easy. We'll cut the cables during re-entry and let it crash on the planet's surface. The only parts we need unharmed are the mainframe and the reactor core, which are well-protected deep within the ship's hull.” “Yes sir. Should I radio New Baltimore's control tower to alert them of this plan?” “No. I have people waiting for the crash, Just make sure it lands about 80 miles east of New Baltimore.” Contented with the way things were going, Nox closed his eyes and let his mind wander. He thought of his new ship's schematics, and how wonderful they were. Gerard was panting. In the last 10 minutes, he'd been subjected to the most painful tortures ever devised by man by his captor. “Just give up. This torture won't stop, and we won't let you commit suicide even if we have to strap you down and start you on an IV diet. Besides, being a pirate isn't so bad as long as you're good at it. We're the best, so you should consider it an honor that he wants to make you his first lieutenant.” It was silent. Mary sighed before activating the collar again. The silence was broken by Gerard's frantic screams that echoed off the steel interior of the room. “Gerard, you're a good man. You don't deserve this. Just give me the codes so I can stop.” “If you're reconsidering, you should just let me kill myself. I have no ship and even if I were to escape, I'd be executed for consorting with pirates. I have no future.” “Sorry, but orders are orders. There's nothing I can do.” She activated the collar again. This time, she let it run for a full two minutes before turning it off. At the end, Gerard fell to the ground, sobbing. Mary knelt down beside him. “Gerard, please. Stop this.” She gently stroked his cheek, wiping the tears from it. Gerard was enchanted by the beautiful woman who was only two years his junior despite their difference in rank aboard the battlecruiser. But, then again, Gerard Sellenger was the youngest graduate of the Academy since its inception. At the age of 24, he was already captain of a UES Purification Engine. At 26, he was again promoted to captain of the battlecruiser, which he'd been on for 6 years before the incident with Nox. “Fine...the code is GERARD-dash-3130-dash-SELLENGER. Gerard woke the next morning to the sound of an alarming ring coming from a communication device on his nightstand. He put it over his ear. “Gerard, report to the bridge immediately. I want you to meet my crew.” The line clicked off. Nox sounded nervous. Changing quickly into new clothes, Gerard took a moment to look at the horrific wounds the slave collar had inflicted upon his neck. They were all scabbed over, but he was sure there would be a lot of serious scarring once they healed. He left his room and followed signs that were placed strategically throughout the ship to the bridge. There, he was greeted by Nox, who put his arm around Gerard and guided him to a line of officers all wearing the dark-brown and red uniforms adorned with Nox's insignia: An eye turned vertical and set inside a hexagram. “First up is Mary, whom you've already met. She's my second in command and is in charge of doing all my dirty work. She also leads my stealth squad all by herself. She's a hell of a woman.” Mary gave a small nod. “Next is Lieutenant Marshall Raynes. He's in charge of the enforcement and detention squad. I wouldn't make him mad. Big boy here knows methods of torture that make your slave collar look like a silk tie.” Lieutenant Raynes also nodded. “Then there's Lieutenant Schrodinger, in charge of our weapons systems as well as our engines...Lieutenant Derringer, our comms specialist, Lieutenant Smith, our supply officer, and finally Lieutenant James Warren.” “It's Jim, not James.” “Of course. Jim here is in charge of scientific research and engineering. He's also an invaluable warrior who leads our men onto ships during boarding. Though your unit is just you, I'd like you to stick with Jim. I want you to learn from him until you're ready. Eventually, you'll be in charge of all our boarding procedures.” “Yes sir, Nox.” “Ooookay. Everyone, go back where you need to be. We make landfall tonight.” “Follow me, Gerard.” They funneled out of the bridge with the rest of the officers. “Don't think I'm going to take your orders just because you're technically a higher rank than me. Rank is nothing without men to back you up. Besides, you're new.” “I'm no longer a captain. I'd like to avoid giving orders to anyone for awhile.” “Good.” Jim stepped over a sleeping, drunk pirate who was sprawled out in the corridor. “Well, here we are. Welcome to the Amerigo's research facility.” Blast doors big enough to fit most construction vehicles opened up to reveal the research facility, a sterile cluster of rooms that were all so clean that you could see yourself in every surface. They were filled with beeping machines and workstations manned by people wearing white lab coats. One of them had been waiting for Jim and approached the two immediately after they crossed the threshold. “Lieutenant, we've successfully copied and decrypted the battlecruiser's memory. Included were design schematics for the entire ship, including the reactor, as well as coordinates of important places. We found the coordinates Captain Nox was looking for--” “Enough, Corporal. Write up a full report and put it on my desk to look at while we're docked. Anyway, Gerard, while you're in here, I want you to use that legendary brain of yours to help bring Nox's designs to life.” There was a loud beep to signify an announcement coming over the ship's intercom system. “All personnel prepare for atmospheric re-entry. We expect to be docked within five minutes.” “Let's go to my office and brace ourselves. We're not up-to-date with the latest in atmospheric flight stabilizers. Nox put all of his efforts into his weapon designs. Those mines we used to disable your ship were just the tip of the iceberg.” Jim opened a drawer in his desk and took out several blueprints. “Here, look these over. Tell me what you think.” Gerard opened the first roll of blueprints and looked them over. He lost his breath for a moment. “With a weapon like this, he'd be able to disable any ship he came across!” “Ah, the E-1003 EMP cannon. That weapon is brilliant. We already have the technology, the only problem is power. Even after we cannibalize your ship, that reactor will only be able to handle powering one of these babies.” After putting on his reading glasses, Gerard took another look at the schematics. “The power supply isn't efficient enough. Look” he angled the blueprints toward Jim “If you increased the size of these cables and replaced the power supply unit with one from my ship's A-303 laser cannons, you'll be able to cut down on energy usage by 50, even 60 percent.” “That's why you were assigned here, Gerard. I'll make sure to tell the research team. They might be able to make the power supply even more efficient.” There was another loud beep. “We are now entering the Telome atmosphere. Brace yourselves, this will be especially rough with the battlecruiser in tow.” Gerard and Jim both sat in the impact chairs set against the wall behind Jim's desk. As promised, the ship began to vibrate once it entered the atmosphere. It was pretty bad, but not as bad as Gerard expected. He stood up. “Gerard, sit down! You don't want to be standing when--” At that moment, the battlecruiser in tow entered the atmosphere. It acted like a parachute, instantly slowing the Amerigo down. The change of speed threw Gerard to the opposing wall. Jim laughed. “It happens to the best of us. Crawl back into the chair.” Gerard covered his bleeding nose with one hand while he crawled back to his seat. He made it just in time because as soon as he sat down, they cut the battlecruiser loose. The Amerigo quickly achieved terminal velocity again. After they docked, Gerard turned on his comlink. “Nox, what do you want me to do while we're in dock?” It took a minute for Nox to respond. “Bring the schematics for the Amerigo II and come with me. Guard them with your life. It took me years to make those designs.” Gerard gathered up all of the blueprints and headed for the bridge. Nox met him halfway and escorted him out of the ship. “Where are we going?” “Not all of my crew is aboard the Amerigo. I can't fit them all here, so some of them are staying in this hangar. They're going to handle the dismantling of both our ships and the construction of the Amerigo II. Let's drop these designs off with the crew and head to the nearest bar.” “Captain?” the two men turned around. Mary had apparently been following them without making a sound.” “Yes, Mary?” “What do you want me to do while we're here?” “Well, why don't you come with us? The three of us don't need to be here.” “Okay.” The three made their way out of the hangar and into the main plaza of the New Baltimore spaceport. Nox knew his way around better than the other two, and quickly found a dingy bar. “I have an open tab here. With the hauls we've been getting lately, this is the only place I can afford.” Gerard and Mary sat down at a table while Nox approached the bar. He returned with a large bottle of vodka and three shot glasses. Without a word, he poured three shots and raised his glass into the air. They all took a shot and made the grunting noises of people who hadn't tasted hard liquor in a long time. Nox poured another round and said “Here's to another mission accomplished.” They all drank again. Gerard cleared his throat to get rid of the sting of the vodka. “Nox, why did you choose to make me your first lieutenant? You could have just gotten my passcode out of me and killed me right there.” “Well, I have two good reasons. One, even though I'm a pirate, I don't like killing unless absolutely necessary. Two, I need your help planning our next raid.” “Why would you need my help?” “Because you're the only one of us who knows the layout of a UES space station well enough to plan an effective raid on their science facility.” Gerard had been taking his third shot and coughed half of it up when he'd heard that. “Are you crazy!? UES space stations are protected by at least half a dozen battlecruisers as well as multiple laser cannon batteries! Not to mention the thousands of soldiers on duty 24/7 inside the station itself!” “Exactly, and that's why we need your help. Mary spent some time on a space station while she was infiltrating your ship, but she couldn't uncover even a third of the floor plans, and she failed to find one weakness in the defense network. We were planning on doing this raid before securing a battlecruiser, but--” Nox took another shot and poured them all another round. “We don't have the technology yet to get in there without help from the inside.” “I don't know what you expect from me. As far as I know, those defenses are impregnable.” “Ah, but how about a ship with the technology that's going to be on the Amerigo II? The cloaking system and the EMP cannons should make it possible.” “Yes, but you'll only have enough charge for 15 minutes of cloaking and about 5 shots from the EMP cannons before the energy is depleted and your ship is left defenseless until the reactor can recharge the main power cells.” “So we get in and out within 15 minutes and only use enough EMP blasts to disable anyone who tries to stop us.” “Even so, this raid is extremely dangerous. Our chances of success are woefully small. Why do you want to raid this science facility so bad?” “While she was aboard the UES station, Mary here overheard some scientists talking about cold fusion power. Apparently, the UES has already begun building cold fusion reactors, they just haven't come up with a ship design big enough to warrant such a power source. The weapon designs o the Amerigo II, however, utilize plasma-based technology that I invented. Even though it's only a third the size of the biggest battlecruisers, with all of those weapons it'll use five times the power. One of those cold fusion reactors is perfect for my needs.” “So you're willing to risk capture and the death penalty to bring your creation into being?” “Yes. Are you in or not?” “Do I have a choice?” “No.” “Then I'm in. What's your plan?” “Okay. The Amerigo II is designed to look like a cargo freighter. All of the weapons are hidden inside the hull and slide into place when it goes into combat mode.” “Of course.” “So, we pretend to be a freighter docking into the station for refueling. As soon as we're docked, we deploy the spider sentries.” “Spider sentries?” Mary chimed in. “They're another one of Nox's inventions. They're small robots designed to scour a boarded ship in search of the valuable cargo. They're also armed with electronic stun guns to take care of any guards they meet along the way. We'll have about 500 of them ready for this mission.” “Anyway, the spider sentries will find the research bay and clear a path for us to go in and steal one of those reactors. You'll lead our boarding crew in to load the reactor and take it to the ship. Since the Amerigo II is so big, they'll have us dock in a supply bay with doors big enough to wheel the core through. We go in, steal the reactor, and take off by the time the alarms start blaring. As soon as we take off, I'll activate the cloaking system to cover our escape.” “But the battlecruisers will know we're taking off and likely start firing volleys from their laser cannons even without knowing exactly where we are.” “On our way out, we'll hit the nearest battlecruisers with the EMP cannons. If all goes well, we should be in and out before they can scramble the rest of the fleet to chase us. As soon as we get out of range, we'll open a slip-space portal and come out somewhere on the outer ridges of the galaxy until our ship's recharged. We'll change our travel orders and the Amerigo's registration before coming back to Telome to install the new reactor.” “Sounds like a solid plan...even if we only have about a 15% chance of actually pulling it off.” “If we pull this off, the Amerigo II will be the best armed, fastest, and most stylish ship in the galaxy. We'll be able to take any ship and make off with all their goods, even if they're escorted by a full contingent of UES fighters.” Nox poured out the last of the vodka and raised his glass. “To the Amerigo!” They banged their glasses together and drank. Nox went back to the bar to get another bottle. Even though they were all quite drunk, pirates were legendary for their drinking prowess. Gerard, however, didn't have anywhere near the tolerance the other two had. While Nox was getting another bottle, he fell face-first into the table and started snoring. Nox laughed when he came back. “Poor guy. He's had his ship stolen and been turned into a pirate all within two days.” Mary gently touched Gerard's cheek and said “Well, it looks like he's getting used to us, at least.” “Do you like him, Mary?” “What? I—I don't know what you're talking about.” Mary blushed. “He's just another subordinate.” “Aww Mary has a crush on our new recruit. Isn't that sweet.” “Shut up.” Mary took another shot and folded her arms, still blushing. “Well, it'll take about a month for the Amerigo II to be ready. That'll give you two plenty of time to get to know each other.” They both took another shot and headed back to the ship. Mary carried the sleeping, snoring, drooling Gerard over her shoulder. She was a lot stronger than she looked. ONE MONTH LATER The day was finally upon them. After a month of endless work, the Amerigo II was finished. It was a beautiful ship, even though it was designed to look like a harmless freighter. The neosteel they had melted down from the battlecruiser had been polished until every surface was like a mirror. There were eight main engines, four on the undercarriage that could rotate for take-off, landing, and speedy getaways, as well as the four on the back of the ship that made up the main drive system. The holding bay was massive, big enough to fit most small and medium-sized ships in dry dock. The midsection was smooth with many windows that looked into the crew's quarters, although most of them had set the windows to opaque so no one could see what they were up to. And, finally, the bridge, engine room, reactor core, basically all the functional parts of the ship were located at the front. The only windows there looked into the bridge, although it was hard to see through them with all of the holoscreens that were there. Gerard and Mary were coming back from their fourth date. They were greeted by roughly 300 drunken pirates celebrating the completion of Nox's masterpiece. They had been holding hands, but Mary quickly withdrew hers once they were in sight of the crew. One of the engine room techs saw them coming and went to greet the two lovers. “Heyyy guyss...guess wha? We...We're done!” the tech burped. “Isn't...ssshe beaut...beauti...isn't she pretty?” He hiccuped and passed out. They stepped over him and continued on their path to the ship. They were greeted by Captain Nox on the main ramp. “Well, if it isn't my favorite lovebirds! How was your date?” “It was fine, Nox.” Gerard looked at Mary and turned back to the captain. “So, the ship's ready...what happens next?” “Well, in two days, providing this little party dies down, we'll test the ship against a UES supply freighter. If all the systems work, we'll raid the space station. If not, we'll come back here and try again.” “Sounds good. Do we have a target for our raid?” Mary was pulling out her electronic notepad. She tried to keep everything organized even though Nox had a devil-may-care attitude towards running his ship. “Yes. There's a supply freighter passing through this system in 36 hours. It should pass about 5 space measurement units from Telome. My sources tell me it'll be accompanied by 2 squadrons of UES F-207 fighters, since this is a known pirate settlement. We'll hit it on its way out of this system. We'll also steal its registration for use on the space station raid.” “Great. Sounds like a good opportunity to test all of our weapons systems.” “Exactly. Well, I'll let you two lovebirds go. I'm sure your date's far from over.” Mary looked away, blushing again. “I'll see you tomorrow in the briefing room. Good night.” “Good night.” Gerard and Mary headed to Mary's quarters, which were like a luxury suite at the finest hotel in the galaxy. It was complete with a full kitchen, hot tub, and a queen-sized bed. Gerard took off the overcoat of his new uniform, which was white with silver trim to reflect the new color scheme of the Amerigo II. He and Mary had a couple glasses of champagne before stripping down and getting in the hot tub. They spent a few hours drinking and talking in there, before the Telome moon rose and bathed the room in pale light. They were silent for a few minutes before Mary made the first move. She leaned in and kissed Gerard, who put his arm around her and reciprocated. One thing lead to another until they woke up the next morning in her bed. They were just barely stirring when Mary's comlink went off. Gerard rubbed the sleep out of his eyes while Mary put on her comlink. “Okay, Captain. We...I'll be right there.” She hung up and turned to Gerard. “Get dressed. Nox wants us on the bridge ASAP...he doesn't know you spent the night so he's looking for you.” They both got dressed and cleaned up quickly before heading to the bridge. Nox wouldn't be in such a hurry if it wasn't an emergency. When they got there, Nox was talking with the comms officer. He heard them enter the bridge and turned around. “Finally! I hope you two had a good night because today's going to be pretty rough!” “What's going on?” Gerard stepped forward to see what Nox was looking at. The comms officer had a map of the Telome system up, showing a large craft with about a dozen smaller ones escorting it. “Is that the...” “Yep. Our information was wrong, the freighter is coming through today. I've already put the crew on alert. We need to go in now.” “But everyone's hungover from last night! You can't expect us to do a raid right now!” “Gerard, I admire your practicality but we need that ship's registration so we can forge our own. Hungover or half-dead, we're raiding that ship.” Gerard sighed and sat down at an empty workstation. He pulled up the ship's weapon controls to make sure everything was running properly. Mary sat at her workstation and started making sure everyone was ready. “Okay, everyone, let's get ready for this. Schrodinger, how are the weapons systems?” “All weapons and defense systems are online and working at 100% power.” “Good. Activate the cloaking field.” “Yes sir.” The Amerigo II appeared to slip into nothingness as the cloaking field activated. The only clue that it was there was a slight light distortion. Otherwise, the ship was invisible. “All right, Schrodinger, get us right up behind that freighter and jam its communications.” “Done, sir.” The ship got next to the freighter and matched its speed. “Okay, now prepare the ship for boarding and be careful. They're likely to stop once they realize their communications are jammed. Gerard, go get ready to board the ship. Send out about 100 sentry spiders first, then take your squad in to round up the crew.” Gerard ran to the boarding squad's hall and told everyone to suit up. They put on their armor and took the safety off of their guns. They gathered in the bay that connected to the boarding ramp and activated the sentry spiders. All they had to do now was wait, and they didn't have to wait long. Within minutes, the Amerigo's bay opened and attached itself to the freighter. Small drones activated and started cutting through the ship's hull. Within minutes, they had cut all the way through and got out of the way, just in time for the small swarm of robotic spiders to scurry past them and start scouring the ship. Gerard waited until the last spiders were out of sight and lead his squad of 20 men into the ship. They made their way to the bridge, but were greeted by several automated defense guns along the way. Their armor protected them well, however, and they made it to the bridge without any casualties. Most of the ship's guards had been incapacitated by the spiders, who had already mapped out the ship and uploaded the map to Gerard's helmet. Gerard turned on his comlink. “All clear, Captain.” “Good, that was fast. The ship's escorts haven't even noticed anything's wrong yet. I'm sending up Lieutenant Raynes to procure the ship's registration. The rest of the boarding crew will start loading the cargo. I want you to stay there until Raynes arrives.” “Yes sir.” Gerard motioned for the ship's crew to line up against the wall. Suddenly, however, they were all rocked by an explosion. One of the boarding crew went to a workstation to see what had happened. “Lieutenant, the escorts have realized that this ship is under our control...they're going to destroy the freighter!” Another explosion rocked the ship, almost throwing everyone against the nearest wall. “Everyone, we need to get out of here now! You two--” he pointed to the two men who were guarding the prisoners “Grab the captain and follow us out of here!” They did as they were told, and everyone ran toward the breached section of the ship. Thankfully, the sentry spiders were still actively mapping the ship. The explosions had opened up the hull of the freighter and the blast doors were slamming shut to keep it from depressurizing. When they arrived in the Amerigo's boarding bay, the rest of the crew were there with about a third of the ship's cargo. Gerard ordered the crew to close the bay and get ready to detach from the freighter. After, he ran towards the bridge. When he got there, Nox was ordering them to to deactivate the cloaking field. “We need the power for the EMP cannons! Hurry up! We need to get the fuck out of here!” The Amerigo detached from the freighter and backed off. The UES fighters turned to see the ship appear out of thin air, and brought their weapons to bear. “Set the cannons to fire an EMP net!” “Sir, at our current power levels, we can only fire one net and keep enough energy to get out of here.” “I don't care! Fire it and get us out of here while they're still wondering what we just did!” Gerard looked at the main screens while the ship's targeting system acquired a cluster of fighters that were getting ready to fire their burst lasers. Schrodinger waited for the cannons to charge their shots and fired the EMP cannons. When three or more of the cannons fired at the same time, their shots could be connected to form a sort of net. Anything that gets caught in this net will short-circuit and be completely defenseless for about 20 minutes, before the reactor could recharge the fuel batteries. The Amerigo fired, and disabled about half of the fighters before Schrodinger turned the ship around and started running. The remaining fighters tried to pursue, but Schrodinger used the remaining charge to activate the cloaking device long enough for them to hide behind a gas giant's largest moon. “Well, that could have gone better. Does anyone know what just happened?” “Captain, it looks like our cloaking device has a small flaw...our sentry spiders picked up our power signature while they were mapping out the freighter. That's probably how the fighters found out we were there.” “Damnit!” Nox slammed his fist down on the nearest surface. “We spent years researching cloaking technology and it still can't hide our power signature!? How the fuck are we supposed to raid a space station without a fully operational cloaking system!?” Nox stormed out of the bridge. Gerard followed close behind him. Neither of them said a word on the way to the mess hall, where Nox grabbed a bottle of whiskey and started drinking it straight from the bottle. “We can still pull off the raid without the cloaking device working at 100%.” Nox choked on the whiskey. “Are you joking? You said it yourself, even with the cloaking device we only had a 15% chance of success. Without it, we're looking at what, 5%? 2%?” “We could use the stealth squad. They could get in and disable the alarms before we send in the spiders and the boarding crew. With any luck, we'll be out of there before they realize they've been raided.” Nox sighed. “The station has security cameras in every hallway. They'll see the stealth forces and raise the alarm.” “Not if we overtake the bay's control room before they can set it off.” “How do you propose we do that?” “How many people are in the stealth squad?” “Nine, including Mary.” “Okay, so the stealth squad moves in as soon as we make contact with the maintenance crew. They'll assassinate the men in the bay and assault the control room before they can tell what's going on inside our ship. With just nine people, they'll be able to move fast enough to take everyone down before they even think about it.” “Gerard, you know I don't like killing innocent people. I'm a pirate, not a murderer.” “If you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.” Nox rested his head on the table. “I guess...if that's what it takes to bring my creation into this world...that's what we'll do.” He unbuttoned the collar of his uniform. “I guess, as planned, we raid the space station in 3 days. Better get all your ducks in a row.” Gerard rose from his chair. “I'll make sure my crew's ready. Has Raynes forged our registration yet?” “I don't know. Go ask him yourself.” Nox laid down on the floor and kept drinking. “I'll be here if anyone needs me.” Leaving Nox to his drinking, Gerard headed to the detention and enforcement unit quarters. There, Raynes was talking to a couple of his men. “...make sure he's sedated before you throw him in the brig.” “Lieutenant Raynes, how did the interrogation go?” “Great, Lieutenant Sellenger. We've already forged a new registration. I'm just awaiting the captain's orders on what to do with our prisoners. Did we find out how that raid went pear-shaped?” “The cloaking device...it can't hide our power signature.” “That's a problem. Is the space station raid canceled, then?” “No, we just had a change of plans. We're going in on Tuesday, which should give our batteries enough time to recharge.” “Wonderful. Is there anything else you needed?” “No, unless there's something else you found out.” “Nope. All is well as far as I can see.” Raynes looked around and got closer to Gerard. “So, really, what are our chances of pulling off this raid? My men are pretty nervous.” “As long as the plan holds out, we'll be out of there before anyone suspects any wrongdoing.” Raynes looked relieved. “Thank God. Well, I have work to do, so if you don't mind...” “Not at all.” Sellenger left and headed straight to his quarters. He needed to get all the rest he could get for the upcoming raid. When he got there, though, Mary was waiting on his bed, and rest was the last thing on her mind... TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2617 Mary and Gerard met Captain Nox on the bridge. They had just come out of slip-space about 2 SMU's away from the UES station. Even from that distance, they could see the station, which looked almost like a small moon. The UES forces didn't waste any time in trying to contact them. “This is Admiral Massey of UES station Alexander. State your business or we will be forced to arrest you all for suspicion of piracy.” “Hello, Admiral. This is Captain Nox of the freighter Nomad IV. We're requesting permission to dock for resupply.” “Your travel orders check out. Dock in bay 113-7. A team will be waiting there to perform a maintenance check on your craft.” “Thank you, Admiral.” The line went dead. Nox turned around. “All right, everyone. This is the moment we've been waiting for. Perform your duties efficiently and we'll be golden. Report to your stations.” The crew leaders left the bridge and went to their respective stations. Gerard and Mary both went to the loading bay. Gerard was going to act as an emissary while Mary got in position to start the attack. They were both waiting on the bay's overlook when the ship docked into the station's maintenance bay. Mary joined the stealth force, who were hiding on the lower deck. The bay opened and three men entered the Amerigo. Gerard went out to meet them. “Hello. I'm first-lieutenant Sellenger of the Nomad IV. Here's a document with the supplies we need.” The leader of the men looked over the manifest and looked up. “These supplies look like they're for a freighter a lot smaller than yours. Tell me, Lieutenant, what make is this ship? I don't recall any freighters this size being employed by the UES.” Gerard was about to answer when Mary appeared behind the men. She had cut their throats by the time they turned around to face their attacker. The rest of the stealth force was storming the control room. None of them stood a chance. The lieutenant whistled, and 30 members of the boarding crew rose from hidden panels in the floor meant to hide contraband. They waited for a signal from the control room to activate the sentry spiders. The flood of spiders rushed the station. The alarm system had already been deactivated, so all Gerard had to do was take his men to the research facility. When they got there, the door was locked. He turned on his comlink and called Mary. “The door to the research facility is locked. I thought you deactivated all the alarms.” “I did. That door is probably kept locked at all times. Just break through it.” “Okay.” Gerard motioned to two of his men, who holstered their weapons and began wiring an explosive charge to the door. When they were finished, the crew went around a corner to detonate the charge. The explosion was small, but powerful enough to blow the door off its hinges. Gerard took two steps in before he was greeted by an alarm. “ATTENTION, ALL PERSONELL: INTRUDERS HAVE BEEN DETECTED IN RESEARCH FACILITY 2. ALL PERSONELL REPORT TO RESEARCH FACILITY 2 TO APPREHEND THE INTRUDERS!” “Shit! They must have had a separate alarm system! Everyone in! We have to find that core quick!” Gerard sat down at a workstation and opened the facility's inventory. He found the reactor core, which was conveniently enough attached to a large hovercart. He opened the large blast doors and had 6 of his men start moving the cart towards the maintenance bay. The other 14 split into two groups, one in front of and one behind the cart. Nox's voice came through Gerard's comlink “Gerard! The search spiders have almost all been destroyed! Get ready to fend off a lot of guards! I'll scramble some men to the maintenance bay to help fend off the guards while you load up the reactor!” “Move, move, move! We need to hurry!” They were running down the corridors, now, just barely avoiding tipping over the hovercart. About halfway there, they ran into a group of guards, who were stunned for a moment by the sight of the men wheeling the massive reactor through the service corridor. Before they could shut their jaws, the lead unit opened fire and killed them all. Gerard stayed behind to see if anyone else was coming down. He heard what sounded like a small army coming down the east corridor. He took a moment to set a landmine before running to rejoin his unit. “Hurry up and get that inside the bay! We don't have much time!” Just as he said that, the landmine went off, creating a chaotic, wartime atmosphere. As soon as they got the reactor on-board, Mary's unit joined them just in time to get in before the boarding bay started to shut. Nox didn't waste any time in taking off. The bay doors were still half-open when they detached from the space station. Luckily, it was equipped with an energy field that kept the air in when the bay was opened. Gerard ran to the bridge. He got there just in time to see two battlecruisers on the main screens moving to head off the Amerigo. “Activate the cloaking field, NOW! Try and keep us in a line between the battlecruisers and the station so they won't fire their weapons!” “Actually, Cap--” Gerard was cut off by the sound of a laser cannon hitting the rear of the ship. Everyone braced themselves while the ship righted itself. “Nox, the battlecruisers will keep firing even if they risk hitting the station! They're not going to let us have UES technology that easily!” “Thanks for telling me this now, Gerard! Accelerate to full speed and start preparations for a slip-space jump!” “Yes sir!” The ship was agile, accelerating to full speed in just a few seconds. Three battlecruisers, though, stayed on their tail. Slip-space jumps cause massive rifts in space-time, and if those ships got caught in the hole, they'd be transported with the Amerigo II to their destination. They had to run, fast. “Deactivate the cloaking field, it's just wasting power now! Lieutenant Schrodinger, how many EMP shots can we fire and keep enough energy for a jump?” “According to this, we can fire three shots, Captain!” “Okay, slow down so we can get a clear shot at the battlecruisers!” “Yes sir!” The Amerigo slowed down until the battlecruisers were right on its tail. They were all firing the laser cannons at random, hoping to overwhelm the Amerigo with sheer force. “Schrodinger, target the nearest battlecruiser and hit it with an EMP!” The main screen switched to the rear view, which showed the head of the battlecruiser just a few miles behind them. A couple of lasers hit one of the engines, causing the Amerigo to veer off course for a minute. “Hurry up and compensate for the lost engine! Schrodinger, what's taking you so long!?” “I'm waiting for a full lock-on, Captain!” The targeting reticle finally appeared on-screen, signifying a lock-on. “FIRE!” The rear cannon fired and scored a direct hit. The battlecruiser's systems were disrupted, forcing it to veer off course. Another one quickly took its place, however. “Start evasive maneuvers while the cannon cools off!” The Amerigo lurched downward, but B-class battlecruisers are extremely agile for their size. They followed with ease, and their cannons got more and more accurate while their systems got a better lock on the Amerigo. Another direct hit rocked the Amerigo, this time breaching the rear hull. The Amerigo's containment field activated immediately, before the rear half of the ship depressurized. “Captain, with the containment field active, we can only handle one more EMP shot!” “Fuck! Could we handle one EMP burst and a volley of laser cannon shots?” “Yes sir.” “Okay, start targeting the third ship for a laser cannon volley! As soon as we take out the second cruiser, we'll hit them and hope they're stunned enough to give us a chance to escape!” The reticle appeared on-screen again. “FIRE!” The rear cannon fired again, disabling the second ship. However, the third ship had unveiled the B-class battlecruiser's secret weapon: The Buster Cannon. “Captain, we have to disrupt that ship before that cannon fires! It'll disintegrate the entire ship!” “I know, I know! Schrodinger, move us into attack position!” “Yes sir!” The Amerigo turned sideways, which let all of its 56 cannons aim at the battlecruiser, which had stopped to keep a good distance for the Buster Cannon. The C-001 Buster Cannon had been developed for “Planetary Cleansing”. It was powerful enough to devastate even the largest planetary settlements, and was often used as a last-resort. Its only drawback was the charge time. It took roughly 3 minutes for all of the circuits to redirect power to the cannon, and another 2 to enhance and stabilize the energy to fire the cannon. The result, however, was a blast equivalent to 30 hydrogen bombs. Nox couldn't risk missing with this laser cannon volley. He had to wait until they had a perfect lock-on or else risk missing the battlecruiser and being hit by the Buster Cannon. They'd already wasted 3 minutes getting the ship into position, and the targeting system wasn't quite locked on yet. “Come on...come on...” The Captain was sweating profusely. He was just waiting for the targeting reticle to turn green, now, signifying a hit rate of 98.6%. The bridge watched silently while the canon opened up is barrel, which was glowing with the red energy that powered the battlecruiser. 30 seconds. Everyone's too scared to make a sound. All you could hear was the Captain's heavy breathing. 20 seconds. The Captain swallowed hard. The display showed the probably hit rate of the volley: 55%. 15 seconds. 62%. 10 seconds. 71%. “Come on, come on!” 7... 6... 5...84% “FIRE DAMNIT FIRE!” Lieutenant Schrodinger fired the cannons. 56 destroyer-class energy rounds sped towards the battlecruiser. 4 seconds left. 31 of the rounds hit the battlecruiser. The ensuing explosions knocked the battlecruiser off-course, but the cannon stayed locked on to the Amerigo. 3 seconds, the cannon's exhaust ports open, already radiating with the energy of a very small star. 2 seconds left. Explosions within the battlecruiser start erupting out of the breached hull. Some of the laser cannons had hit some volatile chemicals stored inside the ship. 1 second. The cannon glows white as the energy containment field is deactivated, letting the cannon's stored energy feed off itself until... 0 seconds. The cannon fires. Everyone on the bridge of the Amerigo braces themselves, even though it's futile. However, they watch as one of the exhaust ports fails, forcing the energy back into the ship. The battlecruiser explodes with the full force of the cannon being directed through its power circuits. Even in the vacuum of space, the explosion is big enough to send the Amerigo reeling. The monitors blink out for a moment, temporarily disabled by the energy of the explosion. When they came back on, there wasn't even a tiny bit of debris left of the battlecruiser. The entire thing had been vaporized. The Amerigo II stabilizes, and everyone took a minute to look each other before bursting with joy. “We're home-free, boys! Let's get out of here!” Schrodinger input the destination coordinates and activated the slip-space drive. He kept working while the rest of the crew were still cheering from their victory. One of the lieutenants opened a case of vintage champagne they'd stolen from the Nomad IV. Everyone took a bottle and started singing their victory. Even Mary, who's always down-to-business, let her hair down to join the celebration. They came out of slip-space in the Telome system, and headed to their home planet. Once they install the new cold-fusion core, the Amerigo II will be the most capable ship in the entire galaxy. Captain Nox and the Amerigo will soon enough be known as the most feared pirates in the galaxy. -------------------- 
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Synesthetic Ratings go in journal. Registered: 12/11/08 Posts: 2,715 Loc: Tooele, UT Last seen: 15 years, 4 months |
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Bump FOR GREAT JUSTICE!
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 ReefaCheefa Gimme Reefer  Registered: 08/24/08 Posts: 1,639 Loc: Florida |
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Why would you bump this when it was only posted 2 hours ago?
I doubt many will want to read this shit.
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Penguarky Tunguin f n o r d Registered: 08/08/04 Posts: 17,195 |
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wrong forum, duder
-------------------- Every mistake, intentional or otherwise, in the above post, is the fault of the reader.
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