Elite: Dangerous

Under Fire

They had just jumped into Zhuaha when the troubles began. Anwen had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right, while ASTRA plotted the next jump.

Two contacts appeared from behind Zhuaha A 1, as if they had been waiting here. Possibly pirates. Anwen was confident she could out-manoeuvre them in a dog-fight, but she would prefer to avoid a fight altogether. The pirates here usually used Viper’s or an occasional Cobra, and more often than not, they left you alone, when you were flying empty. But with bi-weave shields, and a pretty large beam-laser the Merope was no easy match.

The ships were now on an interception course. The scan results gave her a shudder: Both ships were armed to the teeth Imperial Cutters. Not the kind of ship pirates flew around with in this part of the galaxy.

“ASTRA, can we outrun them?” She asked.

“Negative.” The computer replied. “Interception in 15 seconds.”

“Shit!” She hit the intercom button. “Your Highness, I am sorry to spoil your trip, but it’s going to get a bit rough! Hold on to something!”

BLAM! The ship’s hull reverberated like a gong, when the interdictor locked on.

“Interdiction detected.” ASTRA’s voice said.

“No kiddin” Anwen said through gritted teeth, while she tried to align the ship with the escape vector. The engines roared like an angry cat, but she couldn’t break free.

Suddenly, the faces of Princess Duval and her guard dog Hitchens appeared in the door.

“What is going on?” The princess demanded to know.

“Little busy here!” Anwen didn’t even look at them.

“Pirates!” Hitchens gnarled.

“I don’t think so.” The princess responded, pointing over Anwen’s shoulder at the screen, where the scan results were still visible.

“Those are Cutters, best equipped for war. They belong to the empire.”

“Can’t you call them back?” Anwen asked between two wild flying manoeuvres.

“I am afraid they will not listen to me.”

Anwen nodded. “ASTRA, prepare to submit.”

“No!” The princess now looked rather scared. “I don’t think they are here to negotiate.”

“I know, but I prefer dropping out of cruise with a working FSD.” Anwen made one last attempt to escape. “ASTRA, engines full stop!”

With a howl the ship fell out of super cruise. “I want an escape jump route plotted!”

“Destination?” ASTRA’s voice ask calmly, as if she was talking about the weather.

“Do I look as if I care, just make it far. Further than they can jump!”

“I can only estimate our adversary’s jump capabilities.” ASTRA replied.

“Then fuckin’ do it!”

Anwen opened a comms-frequency and hailed the other ships.

“To intercepting ship. This is the deep space explorer Merope on route to Sokram. We’re not a threat. Please respond.”

Instead of answering the call, both ships opened fire without further warning.

“Deploy hard-points” Anwen instructed her ship. She launched the boosters, and deactivated the flight assist, turning the ship, so she could return fire.

It was, of course, a useless fight.

Hitchens now got involved. “The cutters are fast, but not very agile, can you get behind them?”

“I can try to boost past them, so they need to turn to follow, but we’re too heavy. We need to discard the shuttle! But even then, I need enough distance to them to make a jump!”

“OK,” Hitchens turned to leave. “How long do you need?”

“About twenty-five seconds”

“If I buy you those twenty-five seconds, do you swear to get the princess home in one piece?”

“Yes, yes of course. Just go and undock the bloody shuttle!”

Hitchens nodded, then he was gone.

Anwen turned the ship back to give it another boost.

“Shields at forty-seven percent” ASTRA said.

“God Hitchens, hurry up” Anwen whispered.

Then she heard his voice on the intercom. “Ready to go!”

“Undock the shuttle on my mark!” Anwen replied.

“Roger”

“Shields down to fifteen percent.” ASTRA said.

She gave the ship another boost, forcing her pursuers to accelerate. Then she turned the ship 180 degrees.

“Three, two, one, mark!” She fired the boosters. Ejecting the shuttle gave the ship an extra kick.

“Twenty-five seconds, pilot!” She heard Hitchens on the intercom. “Make it count!”

The princess stared at the scanner, where it was clearly visible that the shuttle had changed course and flew directly at one of the clippers.

“Oh God, he’s in the shuttle!” Aisling Duval gasped.

“Shields offline” ASTRA informed, emotionless.

“Major Hitches, you were supposed to dispatch the shuttle, not fly off with it! They gonna shoot you to bits!” Anwen cried into the intercom.

“Get your arses out of here, and let me handle that!” Was the answer.

At that moment the Merope passed the two cutters. They immediately started to turn, which was exactly what Hitchens had expected. He positioned the shuttle in the path of one of the Cutters, whose pilot instinctively tried to avoid a collision, blocking the path of the other Cutter in the process.

In response, both ships concentrated their fire on the shuttle.

Anwen flew a large curve to align with her target system.

“Retract hard-points!” She commanded. To her left, she could see how Hitchens buzzed around the two attackers like an angry bee, until one of the beam-lasers hit the shuttle. It’s small shields collapsed immediately. The ship exploded in a blaze.

“ASTRA, execute the jump!”

“Affirmative. Jumping in four…three…two…one…jump!”

The stars became distorted, and the scenery fell away.

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