First Blood
#3 of Into the Void
First Blood
Tex was face down on the floor, disoriented by the impact. Jet cried out "What the hell happened?" Sirens suddenly began blaring and a warning bellowed over the comm sysytem: "General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands to General Quarters. This is not a drill, Repeat. This is NOT a Drill! man your Battlestations."
Tex, Haze, Belle and Jet all scrambled to their feet as the warning repeated. As they ran towards the bridge, they found Vasili leaving the armory in full armour. "Belle, follow me to the bridge. You three, get into your armour and then get to the port gun battery. The first strike took out some gun directors and the AI is having trouble aiming some of the guns." "Ok Vasili, in here you two" replied Haze before entering the Armory. Tex and Jet followed Haze as Belle ran after Vasili towards the Bridge.
As he entered the Armory, Jet noticed a pad on the floor that was similar to the one Davis had examined him on. Haze removed his jacket and boots, before stepping noto the platform. Several hatches opened in the ceiling and robotic arms descended carrying pieces of armour plate. Haze stepped into two armoured boots and the arms fitted his armour from his feet up. When it came to the Pelvic portion, Haze had to lift his tail so it fit into a groove in the plate. There was also an armoured sleeve in the rear of the chest carapace which his tail was guided into. the armour sections sealed seamlessly and as his helmet was fitted, Haze told Jet that it only sealed once and would have to be removed one whole section at a time later.
As Haze stepped off the platform, Tex stepped up an repeated the procedure. The only difference being the shape of Tex's helmet and the markings on his shoulders were green rather than orange. "Your turn Jet" said Tex as he stepped off. Jet stepped on after removing his boots and jacket. The arms descended and fitted his armour as they had fitted the others. Jet looked over his new armour as the HUD built into his helmet's Visor booted up, noting his Shadow Grey markings.
He moved to joinTex and Haze who were collecting weapons from the ships Small Arms locker, normally not needed in ship to ship combat but Vasili had mentioned that sometimes they wolud board an attacking vessel if they got the upper hand or raid their planetside base if they found it.
Haze choose a standard-issue rifle, a shotgun and a back up blaster pistol. Tex took his Bullpup rifle, a carbine and a pistol as well. Jet chose a carbine, two heavy blaster pistols and a heavy blaster rifle, although it looked more like an LMG.
After collecting their weapons, they set off towards the port weapons battery. When they arrived they found that only three turrets were knocked out: a twin Laser cannon mounting, a turbolaser barbette and a quad AA gun. Tex took the twin lasers and Haze went to the AA gun leaving Jet the Turbolaser.
When Jet entered the gunners seat and activated the manual overide, he found his turret had the best view of the combat zone. His targetting computer booted up and he started scanning for targets. "Jet, you deal with any capital ships and escorts, me and Tex will hold off the smaller targets" called Haze as his targetting comp came online
"Right, just keep those fighters off my back" replied Jet as he scanned for targets. "I've got 2 frigates with a third out of range and a dozen snubfighters. Scratch that 8 fighters 4 bombers" Called out Jet as the enemy fighters closed. they had lost any chance of an easy victory, presumably after mistaking the ship for a civilian vessel, and Jet was betting they would strafe the guns to give the frigates an opening.
Haze recognised the markings on the side of the frigates and on the snubfighters."These guys are from Venom, the're not amateurs we lost some good people last time we fought them."
As Haze and Tex engaged the fighters, Jet set his sights on the nearest Frigate. The targeting computer told him it was a Violator class raider, Jet remembered Vasili telling him this class was designed as a rival to the Harlock-class frigate the Venomian Army used in the Lylat wars. Fast and manoueverable with heavier and more varied armaments, but had an All Or Nothing armour design: vital sections were heavily protected but non-vital sections had only a bare hull. The frigate had a split front section made of two long sweeping curves flanking the command tower, with a central spine and a clam shell shaped rear section over the engine cluster. Jet fired a few shots to gauge the range; the frigates shields flared, dropping 5% which prompted an intense, but poorly aimed return volley. "Looks like they didn't count on use having heavy guns, guys" commented Jet.
"Maybe, but they did count on us having some guns" Replied Tex who was struggling to keep up with the snubfighters. "Can you see what that other Frigate is engaging, and keep an eye out for 2 fighters, they broke off before they came into range." Jet glanced at the third frigate briefly, it was engaging another ship orbiting the nearby planet. "It's engaging another ship in orbit. What planet is that anyway?" he replied. "Titania, nothing but sand, rocks and a few ruined army bases" answered Haze as he hit another bomber.
Jet fired again at the nearest frigate, this time a concentrated barrage. The frigates shields flared again before collapsing, Jet aimed for an unarmoured section of the hull between the clamshell and the command tower. The turbolaser fire struck the unarmoured section and large sections of the ships keel were blasted into space.
The frigate tried to manouever away, but the crippled vessel exploded into four pieces as the keel broke and fuel lines ruptured. It looked like fireworks on bonfire night. As Jet swung his turret around to fire on the other frigate, he spotted the two missing fighters. They were attacking what looked like a small shuttle and, judging by the smoke pouring from one of the engine nacelles, had already done some serious damage. Jet swung his turret round and fired at the fighters, being in an anti-ship turret he had to lead the fighters considerably but managed to destroy one and forced the other into Haze's field of fire, who swiftly finished him off.
The shuttle tried to correct it's course, but got caught in the planet's gravitational pull. Meanwhile, Jet had turned his attention to the next Violator. It had redirected power form it's engines to it's shields and Jet wasn't sure he could keep up in a slugging match if they got close. He found he could slave the other turbolasers to fire with his turret through his targetting computer, as he did this a female voice spoke to him: "You shouldn't do that, it overloads the logic engine in the Targeting computer." Jet immediately did a double take"Who are you?"
"I am Luanne, the ships AI and the one who was controlling the Turbolasers until a moment ago" answered the voice. Jet thought for a moment as the Violator moved to bring it's heavy guns to bear. "Can you redirect power from the engines like they did?" asked Jet. "Yes but it would make us an easier target. for them" came the AI's answer.
"Redirect power from the engines to the Turbolasers, Im' going to hit them with everything we have" Jet ordered. "But that will overload the cooling units and leave us vulnerable if you fail to destroy them" panicked Luanne. "Do it!" roared Jet as the Violator opened fire.
Bridge of the Charm's Way
"Sir, were losing power to the engines. it's being redirected to the main guns" reported Sonar from the Helm. Chase looked up as the Violators shields flared then collapsed under the magnitude of fire coming from his ships main battery. Belle and Vasili watched, awestruck, as the enemy ship was smashed to pieces by Turbolaser fire; huge pieces of armour plate being ripped from the outer hull, flames and violant explosions blossoming from gaps in the armour as the ships innards were pulverised by vapourising blows. Finally the ship exploded in a bright white flash flinging massive chunks of red hot metal everywhere, forcing the remaining starfighters to scatter and causing heavy damage as some sections struck the third and final Violator. Unfortunately this was a doubled edged sword, as a section too large for Jet to destroy in time hurtled towards his turret.
"We've got to get out of here" bellowed Jet as the debris hurtled closer. Tex and Haze abandoned their turrets as well and all three bolted for the bulkhead door. The debris hit before they could reach it, striking only a glancing blow, but causing the bulkhead door to seal due to lose of containment. "Quick into the escape pod" cried Haze. the three piled in and the pod launched when the hatch shut.
"Well done Jet, first mission and we have to abandon ship" quipped Haze sarcastically. "It was either that or let that frigate blow us to bits, I didn't have the firepower to keep up in a slugging match otherwise" retorted the collie as he watched the ship shrink from view out the viewing port. "At least we're alive, and the others will pick us up when we hit ground and we managed to keep our guns..."said Tex trailing off as he watched something move across the viewing port. "What is it?" asked Jet, as he and Haze moved to see what Tex was looking at. The remaining starfighters and shuttles from the destroyed frigates were descending into the atmosphere ahead of them, but away to the east.
"I don't think all those bases are ruined Haze" commented Jet as they watched their foes descend before them. "Maybe not, but we'd better buckle up for the landing it's going to get rough" answered Haze as he moved to his seat and buckled up, Jet and Tex did the same after securing their weapons in the racks provided. "Here's where the fun begins" joked Tex as the view port glowed red aound the edges.
"The enemy frigate is withdrawing, Sir" reported Sonar.
Chase watched as the pod entered the atmosphere. Jet's plan had been a good one, but he didn't count on the core exploding mused the older wolf. "Sir, the other vessel is hailing us , it's The Great Fox" called Belle from the comm station, she was worried about Haze and hadn't noticed it til their third attempt.
Chase sighed; he'd spent ten years running from his past, running from his mistakes, now he had to face the son of the man he failed, the fox who had once thought of him as the big brother he never had.
"Open a channel."