The Short Life of a Venusian Sky Pirate
A more original sci-fi story of mine.
The alert went out, a freighter was sighted. The airborne pirate switched on a recording device as she changed into the pressure suit specifically designed for her chiropteran body. She would have preferred to fly in just the skin she was born with, but outside the pockets of breatheable air around the aerostats that would be suicide. And the colonial authorities patrolled those pockets a bit too heavily for the rogues of Venusian society.
She flung herself across the vast open space that predominated the interior of their carrier airship, gliding to her fighter and diving in the cockpit. As she waited to be loaded into the ventral launch tube she donned her helmet, jacking a short cable on the interior into a port implanted in the back of her head, this cable was linked to a longer one connecting her helmet to the plane's systems. While physical controls remained the most effective means of piloting the sensory input offered by a direct neural interface were unrivaled. When she was jacked in the craft felt like an extension of her body. She saw through cameras distributed all around the fuselage, she "heard" the plane's radar as if it were her own natural sonar, when the plane took a hit she felt, not pain exactly but she did receive a less incapacitating sensation that alerted her of damage.
After half a minute the robotic armature reached her plane and dropped it into the airlock at the end of the electromagnetic catapault. The hatch closed and the breatheable air inside the compartment was exchanged for the toxic soup of Venus' atmosphere. Then the outer portal opened and the giant railgun threw her out at 5 gravities. Turning on the electric props she swung the fightercraft towards their prey, a fat corporate cargo carrier transporting ore from one of the few surface bases to one of the wandering settlements far above the volcanic ground in the upper atmosphere. She briefly switched her attention back to the mothership she had just left, sleek and streamlined where their target was wide and bulky. She noted that the freighter was hanging almost a mile above their own airship, many of its compartments were probably filled with helium rather than nitro-oxy then, unmanned or minimal crew then, should be easy pickings.
The pirate squadron beelined for the cargo ship, as they approached the target's point defense cannons came online, she swerved, AI gunners still couldn't aim worth a damn unless it was travelling a straight line like a missile. She flicked on her guns, spitting a stream of lead at the enemy gun while staying out of its own line of fire. After a few seconds of fire it stopped shooting, good, she could unleash her missiles on the engines now. Except something fell out of the airship's lower cargo hatch, several small objects flared to life as rocket motors activated. Missiles? No, they were turning and pivoting to train their own guns on the pirate fighters, and now she could make out thin wings. Drones, remote piloted killer drones!
She was nearly out of bullets from the turret, and she wanted to save her missiles for the engines. As she tried to figure out what to do one of her wingmates exploded in a burst of shrapnel. She made a decision then and there and turned back towards the carrier, its guns could take out at least a few of the drones. As she flew back two of the drones followed, shooting at her as she fled. She felt a bullet pierce the skin of her left wing, now she didn't care about the cargo, if she didn't get out now she'd be dead. She punched a large red button on the control panel and the rocket in the back of her plane flared! See them try to catch her now.
But the drone pilots were prepared for that, each of the drones launched a small missile that locked onto the heat signature of her rocket. As the rocket burned through its fuel block she looked back and saw the missiles were gaining on her, in seconds they would overtake her. Frantically she grabbed the ejection lever and pulled hard, the canopy burst open and she was rocketed out as the missiles destroyed her fighter. The loss of her electronic senses disoriented her for a few seconds, but she was able to wrench the now useless jack out and fly away from her chair just in time. Trying to flap in a pressure suit was like trying to swim in a dress but she didn't have a choice. She headed to where she had seen the mothership last and was just in time to see a horrifying sight.
The two drones that had been following her began spinning in the air and dove straight into the pirate carrier's skin, firing their guns as they did so. The two drones tore gaping holes in the craft, and worse, she saw one exit through the far end. That would have torn through most of the compartments in the airship, most of her friends and crewmates would be dead now from the sulfuric acid or would die soon as the craft sank to the crushing depths below.
As she contemplated what to do next, if she was lucky she could make it to the cargo ship and try to surrender, a flap of the airship's torn skin hit her and she struggled to tear it off. When she finally managed to remove herself she found that she had already sunk several hundred feet, and even worse, in her efforts to free herself she had torn open the suit protecting one of her wings. As the acid burned the membranes she screamed in agony and continued to sink deeper and deeper. She fell silent just short of hitting the lava, cremating her remains in seconds.
**Stream interrupted**
Two technicians from the corporate ship watched the end of the stream they'd picked up from the pirate's suit camera. One of them shrugged and closed the window. "And that's it. I guess now the only question is whether we sell the video or upload it to the net."
"Well," said the other one, "on the one hand a video like this could get billions of views all over the solar system but not make us a micro. On the other flight schools would pay a lot to get this as a cautionary tale kind of thing."
"I suppose it would be more appropriate for her death to serve as a warning rather than entertainment." The first tech conceded. "We didn't get her name anywhere did we?"
"I didn't hear it." Replied the second. "Just as well, if she had some clan they might try to sue the company. As it is we'll have to edit out the destruction of the airship. And just what makes you think people won't watch it for fun?"
"Of course they will." The first technician stated. And commanded his implant to discretely make a full copy of the video, unedited.