A day in the life. . .

[Mon Mothma]

And the Klaxon wailed. "Incoming Khaak Cluster, all pilots to their ships!"

Athenae rolls out of the rented bed, and grogily looks about. "This is what I get for staying in the militia barracks instead of a real hotel!" she mutters to herself, not for the first time. She steps into the force-frame keeping her skinsuit prepared for her, once again glad she spent the extra money on the device. Seconds count.

It takes her less than five seconds to get the suit fastened and prepared as she heads to the emergency access chute which had opened in the floor. The chutes have no gravity, but the air circulators keep the air flowing at a brisk 40kmh, bringing the recalcitrant pilots along with it. Athenae nears the end of the tube, and slows down by pressing her friction gloves against the walls. She pops out of the grav-chute within ten meteres of her fighter. Less than a minute has gone by.

She smiles softly to herself, as she climbs into one of her several personal fighter ships. This trip she is in her custom kitted Perseus, dubbed "Dramatic Dissonance" or DD for short. She launches off the argon SPP, and checks her gravidar. Seeing the return on the screen she is glad of her choice of fighter. The cluster arrowing in on the populated portions of the sector was the largest she had ever seen, and even now, fifty kilometers away, she could make it out against the backdrop of supernovas.

She had been in Akeela's beacon scouting the territory for possible commercial expansion. She had made most of her money off the lucrative energy trade, but recently she had begun branching out. "Aphrodite's Tofu", her new Soya company, was an imediate hit in Trinity sanctum, earning her particular favor with the recalcitrant Paranid.

She throws the throttle full open, and tells the ship to reconfigure to its pulse weaponry. While she prefers the concetrated firepower the trio of AHEPTs offers, they're likely to get her killed in a situation such as this. The weapons come on line, and she checks her chrono. Five minutes ago she had been happily in bed, dreaming about the infinite possibilities.

She has a couple minutes. She checks her gravidar, and notes that her only back up is a pair of Novas plodding along at a leisurely 91kms. No help there. However, possibly some good bounty money in it for her. . . She keys up the laser-com relay, once again amazed at the ingenuity of the system. She notes that her crystal fab in Trinity sanctum isn't getting enough energy, and reroutes one of the Soya suppliers to energy. 10km.

She closes the trade interface and checks the gravidar once more. She's over 15km from the two supporting novas. Just to be safe she has her Nemisis prepare to jump from president's End, where it had been reinforcing the task force, to support her in Beacon. She doesn't have him jump in just yet. . .

At 3.5 km she gently squeezes the trigger. She watches space ripple and expand in a trio of concentric blue rings as her BPSGs expand towards the unbroken cluster. She knows the range is only listed at 1700 meters, however she has had luck inflicting damage at twice that.

The shockwaves burst forth, and the khaak cluster simply seems to dissolve. Her energy banks were nearly depleted before the first shockwave hit. Nothing can save the M5s now. The KM3, on the other hand, is entirely a different matter.

She watches her gravidar as she keys back over to her AHEPTs. Of the nearly 20 KM5s launched from the cluster, five of them flickered green on her gravidar before they were all wiped out. "No Mercy, murderers!" she mutters under her breath, banking hard to the left as her sheilds refract the enemy ships beams away from the vulnerable hull of her ship. She then pushes the stick over to get on the khaak pyramid ship's tail, firing a controlled burst at extreme range. Four of the globs of energy hit the heavy fighter before it jinks out of the way of the rest of the burst. Athenae curses and rolls, taking light fire from the enemy ship, but this time she comes up much closer on its tail, and matches her speed to its.

She fires a long burst at close range, and the khaak ship's sheilds buckle. Again the fighter pulls away from the majority of the incoming fire, but athenae tenaciously follows. She knows from long expirience that it is useless to fire while the khaak ship is changing vector so rapidly, so she bides her time until. . . YES!

She fires a long burst of fire, battering through the shields of the enemy craft, boring into the hull, and boiling the murderous pilot alive in the cockpit. She slows to match speed with the wreckage, doing a detailed scan. To her disbeleif, she notes that not only are all three lasers salvageable, but the hull only sustained very minor damage. All the shots hit the cockpit, missing the internals. Her gauges jump as the sheilds even flicker back online. She smiles. Indeed, she'll be earning a profit off this mission.

She activates the slave system on the Khaak fighter, thankful once again that the fourth revision of her ship's com-software includes the ability to slave. . . disinhabited. . . khaak ships. She orders the ship to the Light of Heart shipyard.

She pushes her throttle back over, accellerating away from what is sure to be someone's decontamination nightmare, when the shockwave of dual explosions envelop her ship. She yanks the throttle back and spins towards her new acquisition. . . only to see the two patrolling novas flying through its rapidly expanding plasma cloud.

Calmly, Athenae keys her radio. "What the bloody hell do you think you were doing? I had already neutralized that ship, and claimed it for salvage!"

"This is argon Nova Patrol 364, our sensors showed that ship as active. By order 36 of the Argon code, it was a legitimate target."

Athenae sputtered in shock at that statement, blinking at her com screen. She quickly querried the Light of Heart equipment dock, verifying prices. "Ahem. My tally says you just destroyed a hair over four million dollars in equipment. The log on my ship's computer will show as much, and you know as well as I that it IS admissable in court. Now judging by my scans of your ships, each of your fighters will net me just over a million. If you bail out now I'll be nice and I won't frag your home base."

"Lady, you're insane," smarmed the pilot of the lead Nova. "If you think you could take two fully armed Novas, as well as the 6 Busters, and three discos at SPP gamma, you are welcomed to try. Interesting method of suicide you've chosen." And with that the Novas smugly accellerated, and each fired off a silkworm missile followed quickly by a hornet.

Athenae rolls her eyes and keys her upper gun to PSG, firing a single burst, destroying all four missiles. She keeps her two lower guns configured to AHEPTs however, and rapidly fires off a burst at the lead nova. The nova, not expecting such a quick response to its attack, was bracketed by fire, crashing its sheilds, and blowing through the engine. Athenae wastes no time, flying through the fireball guns blazing at the second nova. Shocked by the quick retaliation, he bails out the moment a pair of AHEPT shots scorch his hull.

"Oh no you don't." Athenae cackles into her com. She drops her sheilds and scoops the unfortunate pilot into her slave hold. She checks the map overlay on the gravidar, and notes that Indeed SPP gamma had gone hostile, and was launching busters. She spends a couple seconds slaving the Nova to Light of Heart, and arrows in on the busters.

She is much more gentle with the fragile m4 craft. In the end she manages to capture four of the six, as well as one of the discos. She doesn't bother enslaving those pilots, however, allowing them to use their suit thrusters to retreat to the other bases out of the combat zone. She calls the Solar Power Plant and gives them fifteen minutes to evacuate, then blows the station. "Balances are now even." she states. She sends her new acquisitions on towards Light of Heart.

She lands in the Trading dock, and releases her "slave" into the interior area. . . on the far side of the spinning support beams. She docks, and checks to see how the news of her escapade went over, and notes that it was a wash. Most people praising her for rescuing the sector from the cluster, with a small but vocal group decrying her "obvious entrapment and flagrant piracy."

"Oh well. Another day in the life. . ."

[Mon Mothma]

While sleeping in fighters is always a chore, Khaak fighters raise that to a whole new level. Not only are the cockpits more cramped, but there is a general unclean scent to the ships even after paying for a deep nanotech cleaning. Five times. Oh well, it could be worse. It could be a Boron ship. . .

The travel from the Goner Temple to the Teladi sector Eighteen Billion took longer than it might, had Athenae chosen a different ship. Her pet Iguana, Godzuki, still sits in the Goner temple, waiting for Athenae's whim.

Athenae awakens to a chime once she has reached 18 billion, and sets the autopilot to take her craft to dock at the nearby crystal fab. She looks over her gravidar at the fleet assembled there, marveling once again at the success of her various enterprises.

Her fleet, primarily assembled in 18 Billion, consists of one Destroyer from each race, with double representation from the boron. Her Oddyseus, Echo Triumphant, is currently on defensive patrol in Rhonkar's Clouds, but the rest of her fleet is here.

She lands at the crystal fab, and hops into the facilities for a shower before she checks the bulletin board. Hrrm. This is interesting. Both the Teladi and Split authorities desire her help in eliminating security embarassments. Almost five million each as well.

She accepts both missions and hurries towards her beloved, if uncomfortable, KM3 fighter, Honor. She quickly brings up the command interfaces on the five patrolling m2 ships, and sets each one on an osprey corvette. The five split dragons she can handle by herself.

She shoots out of the launch tube, hitting her boost extension immediately. She watches the graphical display on her map and notes that there is no chance at all of intercepting the flight of dragons before they make it to the gate.

Without her newly installed jump drive, that is.

She triggers the archiac device, and appears directly in front of the dragons at 9km distance. The targets the lead craft, and checks a telescopic view to confirm that it has an m5 docked. Excellent, the mark is the lead. She again hits her boost and charges head first at the dragons. At 3.2km she squeezes the trigger on her triple kyon lasers, and flies directly into the maw of the of the oncomming corvettes. At 2km she dives slightly, causing the first burst of GHEPT fire to miss her craft. She keeps holding down the trigger, the beams from her lasers rapidly draining the Dragon's sheilds.

She slides right, slightly, dodging the second burst, then she is past the dragon, and turns swiftly to get on its tail. She knows from expirience that the dragon cannot hope to get its front gun on her, but the biggest threat of a dragon isn't the single GHEPT front mount, but the two double turrets. She knows that if she holds a constant turn, with the dragon turning at the same rate, the turrets won't be able to hit her.

The first dragon explodes, and a second later she has her payment confirmation email. The locks up the second dragon, and follows the same tactic. While dragons have impressive speed and firepower, the pilots are fairly dumb, and their sheilds are the weakest in class. Further, with the dragon at full speed and Honor at full speed, her turning radius can keep her inside the bigger ship's turn indefinately. Dead dragon.

Five minutes and four dragons later, she checks her map to see how her destroyers are fareing. It seems the Pheonix has destroyed its target, but the other m2s aren't faring quite as well. She sics the Pheonix, named "Reliant" on the Osprey paired off with her split m2, and heads in to doc with the reliant herself.

While Echo Triumphant is her favorite ship to take to enemy sectors, due to its shockwave weapons, the Reliant is her favorite in populated sectors, due to its manuverability and good turret placement.

A couple minutes pass with no change in the manuvering in the fights. The m2s just don't have the speed required of their turrets to hit the ospreys, and the ospreys don't have the firepower to wear down the m2s sheilds.

She activates her docking computer, and the reliant beams her ship aboard. She takes command of the bridge, and locks up the nearest enemy ship. She angles in, allowing two turrets to get good shots at the osprey. Less than a minute later its sheilds are down and it explodes. Now why couldn't the captain do that himself? She dismisses the thought, after all, if her captains were as talented as she is, they might vie for her job as well.

She locks up the next ship and it too quickly succumbs to the Reliant's fire. The email in her com interface tells her that the last ship was the mark, and another 4.8 million is deposited in her bank account. The two remaining ospreys don't last long against the combined firepower of her small fleet.

She launches again, back in Honor, and docks at the SPP plant to fill up her reserves. She notes that the station is full, and energy is a mere 9 creds per unit, so she contacts the nearby Mammoth to send over a pair of dolphins. The station won't be full for long. . .

She checks her account and indeed, a little over 9 million has been deposited. She's getting closer to that zeus she has been covetting. . .

[Mon Mothma]

After catching a snack after her recent scuffle with some Teladi and Split, Athenae notices an interesting news article on the BBS regarding recent Xenon attacks in Omicron Lyrae. This is promising. . . perhaps she can bring her fleet in and save the day, whilst padding her checkbook.

She fires up Honor's jumpdrive, and pops into Omicron Lyrae's north gate. She notices the usual steady trickle of xenon fighters through the system, and once again wonders why the Argon government doesn't bother reinforcing these systems enough to atleast prevent the weak fighters from going through.

She shrugs and brings her fighter in to land at the nearby equipment dock. Nothing interesting on the BBS here, and no good deals in stock, so she launches and heads to the SPP to refuel and check the local news there.

She spies a big blip on her gravidar, and confirms, a Xenon K is in sector. She chuckles. "With all their resources, you'd think they could post a couple destroyers in BlackHole Sun and keep that from happening!" she mutters. It won't be getting too close to her, so she doesn't worry about it.

Landing at the SPP, she checks through the BBS, and there is nary a word about recent xenon attacks, or requests for mercenary help. How disappointing. She checks the local map and notes that the Xenon K isn't just passing through, it is playing Bull in a China shop with the freighters. It was even pursuing a squeeling Boron dolphin. (Good riddence)

Oh well, perhaps she SHOULD intervene. She has the power to do so, and it will only cost her E-cells to jump three of her destroyers in. She picks three, Reliant, Tantive IV (Her argon Titan), and Tranquil Waters (one of her Boron Rays), and jumps them into the path of the marrauding Xenon. She launches as well. While the three beta Kyon lasers of her beloved (if uncomfortable) Honor can't penetrate the sheilds of a Xenon K, they can certainly add fire to a multiship barrage that certainly WILL blow the short circuiting robot out of her sky.

She arranges a bit of a trap, forcing her m2s to move past the k in a box formation, while she snuggles up behind the nascelle, and unloads her Kyons at her foe. It works perfectly, the K goes up in smoke.

Her targeting reticule jumps from the now dead K to an incomming Xenon N. No biggie, but it does net her 500 credits bounty money. She pulls a very controlled burst, and to her surprise the AI bails, and she now possesses a new, slightly banged up Xenon N.

If it wasn't for the diving Disco that is. The disco had already started its attack run, and unleashed a rain of AIRE fire on the poor little AI ship. It vapourized to the sound of the recently jetisoned AI laughing. Unfortunately for the Disco pilot, there were three destroyers in range of him when his IFF switched from friend to Enemy. Two GPPC hits later and he's a memory.

Athenae looks in disgust as a nearby Nova responds to this by starting an attack run on Reliant. "This is not going to end well!" she says with a sigh. The nova goes up in a fireball, and two more Discos flip their IFFs over to foe. The last no longer than the first, diving headlong into a trio of destroyers. By now, their base, the recently vacated Wharf, has gone hostile as well. "Oh well, might as well remove that eyesore. . ."

The battle over, no losses on her side, and she docks to read the damage. "Suspected foe of Argon" Great. Another day, another pointless war. . .

[therjw]

good read
Is there going to be any more?

[Urashima Keitaro]

There better be more, I'm hooked. Truly and utterly hooked. Now come and give me some feedback. Please...

[Mon Mothma]

Athenae awakens in her palatial suite in her newly purchased fleet carrier "Olympian Resonance", a Paranid Zeus. She once again marvles at the rich appointings of the carrier, wondering if her recent promotion to personal friend of the local Priest King in Trinity Sanctum has anything to do with the splendor of the ship.

She calls up a display of her burgeoning Nostrop oil empire. She is showing a slow profit all across the board. Who would have figured that Nostrop oil would become the Coke for the Paranid and Split races? She does a close review of each of her stations, and notes that one of them has moved out of the local price bracket for energy. She bumps up its buying price.

She launches from the Olympian in her Perseus, Dramatic Dissonance, and wings in towards the local solar power plant. She fills up the cargo bay with energy, then stops off at the bullatin board. Now this is interesting. . . projected Xenon Invasion in scale plate green, calling all Ace of Aces rated pilots or better. She scowls a bit at that, her own personal rating merely being Combat Ace 1st, despite having a fleet of 6 M2s, and 2 m1s, as well as numerous and plentiful fighters, corvettes, and freighters. Well, there is one solution to that sort of problem. . .

Xenon hunting!

Her Odysseus, Echo Triumphant, was damaged in a recent skirmish against a pair of Khaak m2s, and was still undergoing repairs, so Athenae descides to take her Perseus into the neighboring sector, 347, and see what damage she could inflict with her beloved fighter.

She aims herself at the gate, and switches her weapons to PSGs, and wishes that the perseus had just a little more cargo space so she could equip some missiles and still have enough energy cells for a respectable jump. Alas. . .

She makes the jump, and imediately notes a Xenon K destroyer directly in front of her. She hits the boost, and starts firing immediately. She K, taken unaware, is down to half sheilds in a mere blink of an eye, and the quick witted Athenae was sliding into the turret blindspot behind the Nascelles, and matching speed. Slotted into the spot, she continues her barrage with her shockwave weapons, watching as the shockwaves continiously drain the sheilds of the heavy destroyer.

Once the sheilds fail, she switches two of her guns to HEPTs, keeping one on shockwave. Her energy is dreadfully low at this point, but she keeps hammering, and after a full minute of the pounding, the destroyer tears itself to pieces, explosion after explosion ripping through her.

Athenae quickly checks the gravidar, and spies nothing larger than a Xenon N nearby, so she risks a quick glance at her map. The map pinpoints another K closing in, along with two Xenon J class Carriers. She knows from expirience that the Js are easy pickings, once the destroyers are cleared from the sector.

She hits her boost, and accellerates to interception speed. The K is barreling down on her at 250KMS, and she is at her craft's top speed of 225KMS. They close the 8km between them very rapidly. At just over 4km the xenon opens fire. Athenae scoffs and simply flies directly into the incomming fire. . . until it is 500 meters from her ship when she banks subtly to the right, causing the long burst to flash harmlessly past her cockpit. At 3.2 KM she opens fire with her own weapons, her 3 Beta Shockwave Generators being pitted against the 18 Particle Projection Cannon on the xenon destroyer.

The trick is to never allow the xenon to get more than one bank of turrets firing at her at any given time. She roars right over the top of the xenon, firing all the way, and knocking its shields down to nearly half. She throws the stick over, and spins right around again going for the turret blind spot, and once again she finds it. Piece of cake. However, by now the two Xenon Js are in range of their own PPCs, as well as launching fighters. She focuses on killing the K, doing her best to avoid the carrier's fire with the little manuvering room she's allowed in the blindspot.

Then the Xenon N hits her.

The N didn't fire weapons, no missiles. . . it merely accellerated to maximum speed and rammed directly into her craft. Her sheilds absorb the blow, though the energies from the brief overload take out her docking computer. No worries, it isn't a vital system. She pulls away from the looming hull of the destroyer, as the reaction from the xenon scout's kamikaze dive nearly smashed her against the great ship's hull.

She notes that the shields are fully down on the destroyer now, and she switches out two of her guns once more.

*WHAM* another Xenon fighter kamikaze dives into her ship. "Jump Drive, Destroyed; 25MW sheild, Destroyed; Alpha High Energy Plasma Thrower, Damaged; Sheilds Critical" *WHAM*

The force of the impacts blacked her out for a moment. Her skinsuit tightens down over her legs and arms, forcing blood up into her brain, and she revives quickly. She is drifting in a wreckage cloud. . . None of it her own. It seems the Xenon M that kamikazed against her merely glanced off her sheilds and rammed into the destroyer. It also pushed her into a strong colision with the destroyer's hull, which buckled as explosions started to wrack through the large ship; the damage overtaking it. She survived, and now has 2 Xenon Ks accounted for. She hits the boost drive, switching to undamaged weapons, and assessing her damage. Only 5% damage to the hull, but one of her three sheilding systems will be needing a total replacement.

She checks the sector map quickly to see how close she is to the jumpgate. And notices that it doesn't really matter, both carriers are between her and the gate. Just what she needed. She sighs and dives on into the fray.

Oddly the Xenon don't seem to be kamikazeing her anymore. Perhaps now that the carriers have had time to launch some of their L class heavy fighters, they don't feel the need. "Incomming missile" She fires a burst from her PSGs, catching the missile in the edge of one of the wavefronts. She dives in against the fighters, wishing that more than one of her HEPTs had survived. With just the one she can't seem to damage the heavy xenon fighters fast enough to drop their sheilds fully.

She fights a desperate battle towards the nearest carrier. Her PSGs knock its sheilds down easily enough, but she can't do much damage to its hull with all the fighters on her back. She limits herself to a single long strafing run before switching her attention back to the fighters. The jump gate home looms ever nearer.

A couple of the lighter fighters surrender to her, and she franticly radios them home. She then notes that one of the surrendered M class ships still has sheilds and weapons functional. She keys its AI to protect her. She runs through a couple quick manuvers, an immelmen puts her on the tail of one Xenon L, a split S takes her out of the way of an incomming missile. An inverted strafing run over the surface of the nearer carrier, with a dive right past the deck plates on the front clears her back of all enemy ships, and also results in one of the Ls chasing her coliding with its own carrier.

Athenae smirks, and fires off several bursts with her PSGs at the crippled carrier, and is rewarded by its crumpling and exploding. . .

And she is rewarded with the view of the four Xenon Ks barreling down on her, guns already blazing. She hits her boost, only to realise that it was knocked out moments before by a lucky Hornet Missile strike.

Fortunately for Athenae the Xenon Ks were using PPC weapons. Her death would have been much more painful if they had been using HEPTs.

[S. Heron]

OhMyGod!
You killed her!
You beast!!


Oh well...

"All her bases are belongs to us!" (it's a quote, but I forgot from who)

[red assassin]

It's a story. She's bound to live somehow... like if my fleet mysteriously turns up and blasts the Js to oblivion and picks up the spacesuit.

Brilliant stories and all.

[Urashima Keitaro]

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, you killed her!!!

Well, all her bases are belong to the Xenon now. Hehe... And I thought the Boron were the worst for kamikaze attacks...

Well, there's prob some way you'll save her, someday...

All the talent at small, sharp stuff I wish I had, but I have supreme attention to detail, a little TOO good...

(Note to self: Less is more, except when less is, er, less.)

[KiwiNZ]

Cool read reminds of Merc's diary. It is a very nice approach to just give brief stories.

[Urashima Keitaro]

Aye, a certain personal flair. Nice one, you've got my eyes glued to the screen...

Now, if only I had your eyes glued to MY story... <sigh>. Wait a minute, WTF???

Retracting previous statement.

Story IS cool though. I'll be standing by for more...

[Mon Mothma]

Pious Gregory Garner flips on the camoflage device as he finishes the transit to the Xenon sector. His ship, a disguised Goner tug, plods along at a leisurely 83 KMH, though he isn't in a rush. He radios a couple freighters that are attempting the dangerous crossing through the sector. "Have you heard the good word?"

"Sod off you smegma guzzling wanker!" he hears, for eleventh time in as many hours. He is tempted to reply with "Repent Heathan, or taste the purifing fire of the LORD!" but the masses aren't ready to learn of the Goners true power just yet. He merely signs off and checks his instruments.

Salvage beacon. Bingo.

He queries his records, and does a double take. The salvage is the personal craft of one Athenae ap Valinor, entrepreneur with a net worth of well over a billion credits. He queries the beacon to see how long she's been out here. Two days now? Interesting. In two days her empire has made six million dollars. . . which she'll never know about.

A nearby Xenon ship interrogates his computer. The computer responds with the correct command codes to tell the Xenon that it is merely a resource recycler, and that it is going to take the wreckage to be reused. Pious Gregory smirks just a bit, thankful once more at the supperior Goner technology.

He links up to the burned out hulk that is Athenae's Dramatic Dissonence. Sensors on his ship scan for viable DNA, and finds it. Good, she wasn't killed with HEPT fire. . . there might be a chance to produce a clone with full memories. He finishes the link up, broadcasts the DNA data to the nearest Goner Cloning facility, and starts to tow the ship back towards 18 billion.

The Goner Establishment swings into action. The current assets of Athenae's empire are compared to the last time she cashed out a Salvage Insurance Bond. Indeed, the Goner temple will profit by nearly 6 million dollars, even after repairing the Perseus. Most people never delve deeply into the workings of the Goners, put off (Intentionally) by the religious aspects of the order.

While the Goners are a legitimate religeon, they have also cornered the galactic insurance and cloning market, making them one of the most powerful entities by far. Activate your salvange insurange. If you don't get scragged within a month, the goners just made free money. If you DO get scragged, the goners recoup your loss, clone your a new body, and transfer your consciousness. If you happen to be a buisness owner, as most Insurance Holders are, they take all the profit from your company between when you activate, and when you are decanted. Usually it is a simple matter of breaking even. Sometimes a real profit is made. Athenae is a preferred customer of the Goners due to her thriving buisnesses.

The goner ship crawls towards the jump gate, with the perseus in tow. The Xenons of the sector see a salvage craft towing in wreckage. The 5 races see another goner ship, acting inscrutable. They don't see the ship's true form.

There are actually three types of Goner ships, though the public only knows of one class. The Missionary class is the only class of Goner ship the public ever sees. It is a half transport, half fast cargo hauler. The Rightious Fire class would be considered an M3 by most races. . . though it mounts just one single weapon. A Gamma PPC. Otherwise it is the same as the Missionary class, just with much less cargo space, and usually with better tuned engines. Pious Gregory's ship falls under the Salvation class. Same body and engines as the other two classes, just mounting a large tractor beam in place of the cargo hold. Its engines are also tweaked for towing ships potentially MUCH heavier than it.

"Goner captain, surrender your ship and bail out. We have so much loot we need your cargo bays!" Pious Gregory snaps back to reality, to see six mandalays and a Pirate ship englobing his camoflaged ship. "Never! I would rather die!" he sends, as usual. Pilots of the two camoflaged ships are forbidden upon pain of excommunication from surrendering.

The Mandalays open fire, and the Pirate ship launches a hornet. This could cost him some money, if they hit the Perseus hidden within his camo-field. He quickly hits a code into his console, sending out a stream of data to the xenon in sector. "Xenon ship in distress. Send help."

A flight of Ns sweep in, battering at the mandalays. A pair of Ls trundle in behind, targetting the pirate ship. Rather than stick and fight, the pirates flee, knowing they are outmatched.

The rest of the towing trip is uneventful. Pious Gregory transits to 18 billion without incident, and brings the ship he's towing into the SPP there. Shortly before docking a second Goner ship brings replacement parts for the damaged Perseus, along with a canned clone of its former and future pilot.

By the time he lands, the fighter is done, and the only thing needed is the decanting the clone. He transfers over to the station, and yanks a string attached to the preservation and lifesupport sack. The sack dissolves into CO2 and water, with the fluid inside vapourizing.

The clone takes its first breath, and its eyes flicker open. "Welcome back to the world of the Living my child. Had enough adventure today?" Pious Gregory looks over the young lady he has just breathed life into. She is not a traditional beauty. . . her eyes are dark and stormy. She has strong cheekbones, and a sharp chin, giving her almost a raptorlike appearance. But she has a grace about her that is. . .

"Definately. Erm. Xenon. Not fun. Next time I bring The Echo. . . I'll show those beastly machines! Do the Xenon have a place in the Goner religeon?"

Pious Gregory nods. "Every being has a place and purpose. You never know when a xenon might, say, attack the people attacking you at the time. The Xenon fight the Khaak too, My child."

Athenae thanks him again, and heads off to her ship, oblivious to the small fortune her ressurection cost her. Pious Gregory smiles, and blissfully allows himself a Brownie for a treat. Perhaps this salvage is impressive enough to get him promoted to the Rightious Fire class of ships?

If only the Goners were ready to show their true power. . .

[KiwiNZ]

hehe, cool read! I particularly like your explanation of the Salvage Insurance

Keep it coming!

[Merroc]

"All her bases are belongs to us!" (it's a quote, but I forgot from who)

if you mean what i think you mean, it from a old game which was originally japanese and was translated to english and that quote
("how are you gentlemen
all your base are belong to us
for great justice
take off every zig")
was the product of some really bad translation... the translator was japanese too..
i think i have the movie of it somewhere, wait here it is. it should open with internet explorer (it does at my pc...) pretty cool

[giskard]

I liked the first story but you should try and avoid using too many "SHEs" in it. After a while it becomes a little like a person that says RIGHT all the time.

Good story though.

Giskard

[S. Heron]

Nice twist in the story.
The Goners are starting to develop some character. Very nice.

if you mean what i think you mean, it from a old game which was originally japanese and was translated to english and that quote ... was the product of some really bad translation

Not really. I was just (badly) quoting from 'X2 The Spoof'.
Still a very good showoff, useless-knowledge-wise!

[Urashima Keitaro]

Use names a bit more often, that was one of the criticisms I got from SteveMills. He had a point, actually...

[Mon Mothma]

". . . Requesting assistance ma'am. I repeat, this is Antigone LeRoux, of the Demeter Transport "Open Borders." I have made port in Loomanckstrat's Legacy. I have discovered a navigable route through the minefeild to the pirate port, but the pirates are threatening to board my ship upon leaving. I am Requesting assistance, Ma'am."

Athenae checks her status screens and notes that the only ships appearant in Legacy are pirate fighters. There is no need to bring anything heavier than her KM3. 'Thena calls up her Lidar display. The xenon she has been chasing can wait. . . or her three destroyers in the next sector over will take it. The jumpdrive warms up, and squirts Athena's personal fighter, Honor, to the Legacy system.

Mines. Mines as far as the eye can see. Spot one, and there are two more. She checks the data sent from the "Open Border" and indeed there is a description of the route she took. Athena carefully flies the narrow channel that lies outside the detection radius of the massive minefeild. She soon starts to appreciate the size of the massive, so called "Anarchy Port."

'Thena lands at the port, and heads to the rough bar nearest the docking ring. As she approaches she hears a very distinctive voice singing. . . "Hay fisch!" Nearby a scarred man, groans, covering his one good eye. "Oh god. Why does she have to sing Lucy 'Lectric? Oh for the love of god, why!"

Athenae represses a giggle. She hates how she sounds when she giggles, like a 12 year old school girl talking about boys. She summons up her most authoratative voice and calls out "Antigone Laroux! Why are you torturing these poor privateers? Don't you have a trade route you are supposed to be running?" Athenae enters the bar, her voice preceeding her. Antigone's eyes flash, and she gratefully puts down the microphone, and quickly heads over to Athenae, and offers her an almost desperate hug.

"Thank god you're here boss! They wouldn't let me leave! The only way they left me alone was if I sang for them. . . But I got even! I sang Lucy Lectric! One of them even suicided from it!" Antigone is shaking a bit as the two of them hurry towards the docking ring.

"Its over now. I brought a spare Sonic for you. Use it at your discretion." Antigone quickly snaps up the weapon, just as a pair of rough looking pirates move to block their path.

"And where are you two pretties headed? Don'tcha know there is a landing fee to dock here? Oh my! What an amazing coincidence. It seems it is exactly the value of your ships!"

Athenae, not too keen to be starting a fight on someone else's turf, flips the two thugs a bright, distinctive coin. A Paranid TriMegaCred. "I'm sure that will be enough to cover it?"

The pirate catches the coin and looks at it in wonder. Very few of the Three Million Credit coins were ever made, as most people prefer simply using electronic transfers. "Now wait here sister. I meant your ships, everything on them. . . and everything on YOU as well. Drop the weapons and MAYBE we won't sell you into sla. . . argh!"

The blast of a sonic disrupter leaves no imediate traces on the surface of the victem, but the intense sound waves tend to rupture organs and cause people to bleed to death internally. The weapons would be illegal if it weren't for the fact that they're one of the few lethal devices that poses absolutely no chance of ruptureing a station hull.

Athenae's disrupters are of Split manufacture. They're smaller than normal, but both more painful and more deadly, though they quickly use up their energy packs. Athenae and Antigone fire as one, and Athenae calmly walks over to the dead pirate who she had tossed the coin to, and retreives it, casually. "Should have taken the money, idiot." *CRACK*

At that moment, the whirrrr-*CRACK* of a tuned laser device sounds out, and athenae's right arm drops to the decking. "MIST!" curses athenae, as the pain hits her in a wave. Her vision starts to black out, as she forces herself to run towards the ships. Several more Whirr-*CRACK*s are heard as she runs blindly, though no more shots land. Antigone collects Athenae's discarded disrupter and fires randomly back. A loud curse tells the pair that she hit someone.

Athenae's vision clears just before she reaches her KM3. She jumps into the cockpit, and moves to reach up and close the hatch. . . but her arm simply isn't there. She curses, and is about to start to stretch her left arm when Antigone slams the cockpit canopy down, and sprints to her own ship.

The ships launch without a problem, though Athenae struggles with the automated controls, one handed. Once outside the Anarchy Port, she notes two things. One, the port is NOT hostile to her, and its laser towers were NOT training on her. However it was spitting out hostile fighters.

Antigone, in a gutsy move, hovers her freighter in front of the launch port. Typically Athenae tells her pilots to run from any trouble, and doesn't equip their ships with front mounted weapons. However The Demeter makes a supperior mining ship, and most of them mount a Mining Laser for that purpose. The mining laser is extremely short range. . . but extremely powerful. And if you know where a ship will be making an appearance. . . The first three ships out of the Anarchy Port were orinocos. All three were quickly dispatched by the Demeter's mining laser. The next two were mandalays, and Antigone took that lull to turn and key in to the nearest friendly port.

Athenae hooks her stump of an arm to an expensive portable autodoc, which injects her with painkillers. As her vision clouds again, she barely has time to instruct her autopilot to defend the Demeter as blackness engulfs her. . .

[Mon Mothma]

Athenae awakens. The thump of her ship comming into dock at the dockyard in Great Trench jars her out of the painkiller induced torpor. However, she is not sufficiently recovered to exit the cockpit without help; once again she reaches up with her stump not remembering the loss of her arm. She sighs and slumps back in her seat once she remebers it. The autodock starts retracting its probes and IVs, and 'Thena finishes disentangling.

Antigone LaRoux, captain of the trading ship "Open Borders" opens her boss's cockpit for her. "How are you doing Athenae? You ok? You took a beating defending me from those pirates. I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused; I never should have docked there."

Athenae attempts to wave away her subordinate's admonishments. It would have worked too, if she'd had an arm. . . She sighs. "Don't worry about it Tiggy. Part of your contract is that I bail you out when you get in trouble. Checking your tallysheet, you've made over a million in profit for me. I should be offering to promote you right about now. In fact. . . Think you could fly a Nemesis?"

Antigone is left speechless for several moments. She merely helps Athenae out of the battered Khaak fighter, and they head to the local Goner regeneration hospital. "Certainly, Ma'am. . ." she starts. "I would love to captain one of your Corvettes! But I thought you'd be moving me to. . ."

". . . A dolphin? While it is sad that you won't be earning profit for me flying amongst the systems, You'll be a new ambassitor for me as well as backup when I need it. The Ship is waiting in 18 billion. . . the orders are already drawn up. You need only take possession. Now Hurry up and get over there. I'm going to need some help against that base. . ." Athenae pats her friend on the back, mindful now of her missing arm. Tiggy smiles, blushes, and courtsies to her boss, and quickly disappears back into the docking ring, taking her Demeter on one last trading run.

The Goner hospital is quiet, as usual. The various goner regeneration hospitals, one in every civilized sector, cater to one single need. People needing bits regrown. And since it is more likely these days to be killed outright, they are never particularly busy, except in times of war. The only other patient at this time was a Boron by the name of Mi Ton who was getting major limb regeneration; The scientist was found in a back corridor in a nearby trading station, all limbs severed, and squirting ink in terror.

Athenae is told that her regeneration will take one full day, and that she should probably opt to sleep it out. She agrees, but only after checking on the status of her various buisnesses. Noting that everything is in order, Athenae descends once more into the velvety grip of blackness.

*YAWN* *STRETCH* Hrm. Her eyes are a bit cloudy, but she awakens quite refreshed. She feels a damp warm cloth pass over her eyelids and everything is cleared up. "Good Morning, Athenae? I trust your time in the regenerator was recuperative?" asks the now familier voice of Pious Gregory.

"Yes Indeed, Pious Gregory. As usual the Goners do excellent work. I shall have to give the surgeons a bonus!" Thena stretches out once more, flexing her regrown wrist and hand. "Feels just like the real arm."

"Virtually indistinguishable. The only difference is that this one is signed by the surgeon who designed the regrow. Signed on a microscopic level, you don't need to worry about any vulgar tattoos, my child." He nods benevolantly to Athenae. "I'm affraid us Goner are not allowed to take any sort of gratuity or bribe. However if you were to make a donation to the cause, it would be viewed quite favorably by all."

Athenae nods, and stands, preparing to head back to the ship. She tosses the paranid TriMegaCred coin to Pious Gregory. "Put that in the collection box for me, please?" she requests.

"As always, your servent, My Child." Pious Gregory says with a deep bow. He smiles inwardly, knowing that the latest Rightious Fire class fighter produced is being slated as his personal ship. Occam's Sword of Light would arrive in a mere 8 hours. . .

Athenae heads to her ship, checks to make certain the repairs are completed, and reviews her stock of energy cells. More than enough for several short jumps. She straps herself in, and launches from the dockyards. First stop. . . Loomanckstrat's Legacy. She keys in the hyperdrive. . . and she's there.

Athenae follows the safe path through the minefield, and comes to a stop relative to the station and keys up her com. She looks through the recipient list until she finds. . . Aha! "Athenae to Anarchy port. Do you know how stupid a name that is? Anarchy in this situation means one thing. Athenae shoots you, and takes all your stuff." She opens fire on the lasertower floating a mere 2km from her bow. Her Kyons chew through its sheilds and reduce the fortifacation to an expanding cloud of plasma. She rotates and targets the next one. Then the next. She has destroyed three lasertowers before the first enemy ship has launched from the base. She hits her boost extension and rockets past the port. She rolls around, and targets the next two lasertowers which were turning rapidly to target her. They vapourize, leaving only the port's pirate vessels as defence.

"Anarchy port to Athenae; Didn't get hurt enough last time you were here little girl? Now we WILL get your ship this time. Good you may be, but you cannot stand against thirty top of the line heavy fighters. I will personally defacate upon your corpse once it has been scraped out of the cockpit of MY new khaak fighter!" So she had guessed correctly, Rawlf Paterson was the man who took her arm.

Thena doesn't bother responding. Instead she swoops in, mere meteres above the surface of the station, and catches an Orinoco just as it is launching. Her kyons rip it to shreds before it could even boost away. She switches targets to the next fighter, and again a blossom of plasma bright enough to be seen 50 kilometers away.

The next Orinoco takes a bit of manuvering to kill, allowing the anarchy port to launch several more fighters. Things are starting to heat up when Athenae notices a friendly ping on her Lidar. She smirks and redoubles her efforts in the dogfight. She rolls, banks, turns, and slides so often that the pirate ships just can't land enough fire on her with their HEPTs. The Bayamons do a better job, though their weaker weapons have much less of an effect on the heavy sheilds of her craft. In an odd turn of events, the most dangerous ships she encountered in the fight was a pair of Mandalays armed with Alpha Pulse Shockwave Generators. Try as she might, the agile craft never seemed to line up often enough for her to get a good shot.

Once she had finished off most of the ships launched against her, and was heavily engaged in the pair of Mandalays, the Port attempted to slip an evacuation party past her. She quickly triggered two wasp missiles per Mandalay, and pounced on the Pirate freighters. In seconds it was over. Of the six pirate ships attempting the evacuation, she had captured five. The sixth doggedly refused to eject, and was sent to hell with many of its friends. To her delight, Rawlf was the pilot of the first ship she captured. . . and bereft of defenders now, she pondered what to do with the man. She keys in the slave code to send her new prizes to the local docks for evaluation.

Athenae chuckles as Rawlf Paterson reenters the anarchy port in his EVA suit. "Antigone to Athenae, have I missed the party, Boss?"

"Not quite Tiggy. . . My weapons won't even dent the sheilds on that thing. . . but I bet yours will. Want to bag yourself the one and only Anarchy port? The pirates in this area will be finished."

"Your wish is my command, Boss. Sorry I didn't get here sooner."

"Nonsense Tiggy. I was having fun. But next time use your JumpDrive. Echos of Valor is fully equipped."

Athenae could see Antigone's embarassed blush as her subordinate replied. She grins a bit and keys off the com, waiting for Rawlf to make his next appearance.

And as Antigone begins to bombart the station with her shockwave generators, the viscious pirate does. But not in the fighter she had anticipated, the cowardly pirate took a mandalay in attempt to outrun her.

"Doesn't matter how fast your ship is, butcher, my lasers are faster!" she chortles as she sends Rawlf Patterson, mass murderer and scion of the nearby sectors, to the Hot Place.

The pirates in the Legacy system are broken, Athenae and Antigone have their revenge. . .

[KiwiNZ]

what a macabre finish to the installment. poor girl does attract incoming fire