Profil komandéra Commander-Wingnut > Deník
(Alliance Crusader)
The door hissed to a close behind English and Searle - on it emblazoned:
Chacobog Movement for Equality
Advisor Adolfo Salinas
After a moment, Wingnut spoke. "Granted, spacers don't seem to smile very much. But every single time I come by, your boss gets this really awkward, uncomfortable grin going. Have you ever told him that?"
Tatiana Searle sighed as she removed her plastic-framed glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her reply was strained with forced patience.
"About the word "interdicted" - which you use quite often, I notice - you do realize the T sounds aren't silent, right?"
We find CMDR English nursing his way to the bottom of a very hot travel mug of black coffee when a familiar face fixed on him and came stomping through the crowd in his direction. With little fanfare, CMDR Tatiana Searle - formerly of the CMFE Ticonderoga - plonked down on the bench opposite him. Seething, she exhaled through her teeth.
"Do you, Mr. English, understand how much the insurance deductible is for a FU -" catching herself, the woman took a moment to gather her composure. "The deductible on an Anaconda happens to be?"
"Wild-ass guess here - somewhere around seven times the value of my original bounty ticket?"
"TWELVE! Times." Searle hissed. "I am now without a ship, practically bankrupt, and just about ready for a new line of work. And the way I see it, you're the one who put me in this hole in the first place!"
Wingnut shrugged, taking another long pull of the condensed black death from his cup. "Sounds reasonable to me. Tell you what I'm gonna do."
"Hire me onto your crew, work me to death until my debts are paid off, then cut me off without so much as a cake?"
"Bingo. Let's get you started on the tour right away."
-
[ CMDR TATIANA SEARLE has joined the crew of the UNSS "Copperhead Road" ]
CMDR Wingnut English's protracted siege against the Scortia Enterprise emplacement was not without any consequences.
When Ol' Squeezy Stan, the overseer of the compound, discovered that English's Scarab had connected to the datapoint and stolen a terabyte of his private pornography stash, he had had enough. Enter CMDR Tatiana Searle - a privateer from the Chacobog Movement for Equality.
"English. Is he by any chance related to Henley English of the Krumine Blue Mafia?"
"I doubt it," growled Stan - it had been almost a week since he had gotten any sleep. "He seems to be working for Canonn."
"A Diamondback Explorer. This guy drives a school bus. This should be a walk in the park."
--:-:--
The FSD interdictor lost its connection and the tether violently snapped. CMDR Searle's Anaconda spun out of supercruise into normal space again.
For the fourth time, she gaped in horror as the Copperhead Road's engine flare winked off into the stars. Her fist pounded the dashboard again.
"This guy drives a school bus!" Tatiana screamed at her scanner. "This should a walk in the park!"
--:-:--
It was around the eighth or ninth time that he slipped CMDR Searle's leash that Wingnut actually contemplated standing his ground and fighting. But that Anaconda was a lot bigger than the Copperhead Road, and bristling with thermal weapons that would make short work of his bulkheads once the shields went down.
What an annoyance. He did have to give respect where it was due, though. For a 24k bounty, Tatiana was putting in a lot of work. He could only imagine the fits that the commander of the pursuing ship had to be going through each time the Diamondback slipped through her fingers.
Oh look, he had come in high on the rings above Finney Holdings again. Between him and the safety of Trinh Enterprise's Coriolis station, was a mind-boggling massive field of micro-asteroids big enough to make a whole new planetoid.
The ship shuddered about him.
FSD Interdiction Detected.
Oh, right on schedule. This time, however, rather than trying to outrun the gravitational tether now attached to his ship from the corvette behind, Wingnut hauled on the stick and the Copperhead Road peeled upwards towards the enormous brown discs.
Safety interlocks engaged as soon as the Mass Lock light flared blue, and the shift-drive's engine hit the emergency disconnect. First, the Copperhead Road tumbled out into normal space, winking into existence where the asteroids first started to appear.
The Anaconda, however, was catapulted forward by its tether. She appeared a moment later - and a hundred kilometers deeper afield. Even as the CMFE Ticonderoga tried to turn to face Wingnut's Diamondback, CMDR Searle's ship disappeared into the rock-choked abyss, tumbling end over end.
A few glancing blows from the local course hazards, only served to send the Ticonderoga spinning even faster. Before long, she was only a signature on the scanner that abruptly crackled into nothing.
" - AND YOUR FUCKING SCHOOL BUUU - " Tatiana's crazed voice shrieked on Direct Comms.
There was a brief white flash - and the rings of Chacobog 4 A were, as they had been always, dead silent.
WELCOME TO GALNET, CMDR ENGLISH - THESE ARE YOUR TOP STORIES FOR THIS WEEK
--:-:--
With Thargoid attacks becoming a regular occurrence in the Pleiades Nebula, Aegis has leveraged its considerable reserves to fund a military operation in the Pleiades Sector IR-W D1-55. The initiative, dubbed ‘Operation Andronicus’, has been expressly conceived to counter Thargoid aggression in the region.
--:-:--
Admiral Aden Tanner, Aegis’s chief military liaison, elaborated on the nature of the initiative:
“Personal-scale craft are particularly effective against Thargoid vessels, not least because of the comparative vulnerability of capital-class ships. I therefore believe the most effective way to address the Thargoid threat – in the short term at least – is a militia of seasoned combat pilots.
Aegis has agreed to finance this initiative, which will aim to deliver a strategic blow to the Thargoids in the Pleiades Sector IR-W D1-55.”
--:-:--
Senator Denton Patreus, who has spent little time in the public eye since his defeat of the insurgent organisation Emperor’s Dawn, made the following statement on the ‘Galaxy Now’ programme:
“I have reviewed much of the available intelligence on the Thargoids, and it is clear that we are facing a formidable threat. Granted, we do not know the reasons for their hostility, but in my experience such details are rarely important – what’s important is knowing where and when to strike.”
--:-:--
Li Yong-Rui, CEO of the Sirius Corporation, also offered an appraisal of the situation:
“If there’s one thing these INRA logs make plain, it’s that humanity is capable of defeating the Thargoids, especially when we work together. And remember, most of the galaxy is functioning exactly as it always has, despite the presence of these alien aggressors. So let’s maintain some perspective, shall we?”
--:-:--
“Although the shutdown field neutraliser developed by Aegis is capable of protecting small ships, we have encountered difficulties adapting the technology to larger spacecraft.
Furthermore, the fact that Thargoids tend to target larger vessels with multiple shutdown beams simultaneously makes the task of protecting them more difficult.”
--:-:--
Cooper Research Associates have launched a rescue operation to recover personal effects, data and people from Thargoid attack sites in the Pleiades Nebula. The organisation has promised to reward pilots who deliver Occupied Escape Pods, Damaged Escape Pods, Black Boxes and Personal Effects to the search-and-rescue contact at The Oracle in the Pleiades Sector IR-W d1-55 system.
“Eyewitnesses have reported that Thargoid vessels are taking occupied escape pods from ships they have attacked. It is therefore essential that we recover any and all individuals from these attack sites before they can be similarly abducted.”
--:-:--
“The fact that capital-class ships are more vulnerable to Thargoid attack means they are an ineffective way of protecting outposts, planets and shipping lanes. Consequently, for the present, the deployment of capital ships can not be considered an effective defense strategy.”
--
