[Ysolde demonstrates combat (finale)]
The ship had begun to undock before Nyneve even noticed. The docking ramps were free and the Adamant coasted out a few kilometres, slowing to a halt.
“They’ll see us the moment we arrive – deadspace dumps the warp tunnel out at the beacon and I can’t get a better approach I’m afraid. Still, I’m good for close range dogfights. Just remember to hang on, OK?” Ysolde explained to Nyneve as the ship abruptly spun around to face the station.
“Where are we-” Nyneve’s query was cut off by the ship suddenly powering forwards at full acceleration heading right towards the side of the docking array. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
At the last moment before the ship slammed head-on with a bulkhead, the space around them distorted and the warp tunnel opened. Nyneve was silenced by the sight as they warped right through the station, then through the planet of Huggar. Matar zoomed into view and they passed right through it again before the distortion began to wind down and they dropped out of warp.
Ysolde relayed her HUD overlay down to one of the holopanels Nyneve could see. “Get used to the interface.” The overview was full of red icons all bearing the name ‘Angel’ as the ship slowed to a stop. Suddenly, they all flashed with a yellow square, a warning sound accompanying through the speaker panels, then the yellow became red. “They see us. We’re locked. Into the breach!”
Gistii-technology fuelled afterburners online, the ship spurted forwards, curving into a tangential approach to the leading Angel Predator vessel, one of the predicted Cynabal class cruisers. A barrage of missiles both standard and heavy rocked the ship as they exploded all around, denting the shields down to 70%. The shield boosting arrays activated as the Adamant turned its guns onto the nearest hostile, a Nomad that began to target paint Ysolde’s ship. The Angel vaporised in a single volley but another Nomad had begun target painting and Nyneve cringed as she watched the readouts show the ship signature radius balloon in size to that of a sitting duck. “Don’t worry. They still cannot track me. We’re moving too fast for cruiser turrets. If anything, the horde of frigates is a greater threat.” Ysolde reassured.
Another Nomad exploded. Guns trained upon the fast-approaching pair of Raiders as the Adamant cut a wide sweep around the leading Predator, under the optimal range for its artillery cannons. The shield booster systems periodically came to life when integrity dipped below 75% but for all the missile explosions around the ship, surprisingly little damage was being done. Ysolde explained how clever Thukker engineering could be to Nyneve.
The ship wove and danced in between the other cruisers, focusing fire on frigate after frigate and blowing them apart with ease. Nyneve was rooted to the tactical overlay display, watching the view from different camera drones and the range, trajectory, velocity and other details calculated by the ship. She watched Ysolde skate on the fine line between her turret optimal range and it’s 50% accuracy falloff distance. She saw calculated comparative velocity used to decide if a missile would have enough fuel to hit the target, and the complexities of minimising the transversal and radial velocities to catch them square in the face was giving her a headache. This battle was half adrenaline-fuelled dogfight and half tactical command intel use. The Adamant’s AI was generating sound to match sensor data and Nyneve could hear missiles being fired and from what direction. Each heavy missile explosion rocked the ship but the engines seemed powerful enough to realign in an instant and orbit was barely broken until one by one the frigate fleet dwindled to nothing leaving the frustrated cruisers.
“OK you wanted to see some cruisers, I’ll show you how damaging these things are...” and the ship suddenly slowed to a halt. Then it was shaken violently as explosions of heavy Havoc missiles and ammunition shells pounded from all sides, the large guns finally able to track the ship. Shields were being stripped at a frightening speed and at full power the shield booster arrays were not able to cope.
“OK OK OK I get it!” Nyneve started to panic. Then she was pressed back into her chair as the ship shot forwards, powering up to a top speed of one kilometre a second as shields hit less than 20%. Suddenly the rate of shield loss dropped, as the guns could no longer find their mark and the missile explosions were half outrun. It wasn’t long before the shield systems had regained total integrity and one cruiser on fire exploded as the last bulkheads of its hull disintegrated under the hail of EMP shells.
Nyneve stopped looking at the telemetry and just watched from the window as the created sounds of battle filled the little bridge. The Cynabal cruisers were several times the size of the Adamant. Impressive ships but flawed inherently. How could a small ship, albeit one with supremely good technology powering it, be so immune? To even be able to toy with a pack of them! Nyneve was sure that the fools in command of the Angel ships didn’t know how to use them properly. There must be ways of hitting smaller ships – slowing them down, a swarm of drones, assault launchers. It only furthered her resolve to become the best damn cruiser pilot RMS had ever produced.
The fight raged on. The Adamant’s guns had to ceasefire to reload often and the valuable seconds bought allowed the damage repair systems of the enemy ships to work. But under the concentrated fire in precisely the right weak spots using ammunition tailored to exploit resistance holes, the Predator could not withstand the assault any better than its Depredator cohorts.
“Woo! I own. Told you.” Ysolde was cheery at the victory as the ship slowed down to investigate whether there was anything worth looting left.
Nyneve was silent a moment before finally speaking up. “Ya know, the fight was really cool but it broke my head with all of that data. And… well I think the Cynabal commanders were crap.”
“Be that as it may, we still kicked their arses and I’ve yet to meet one that isn’t crap. I’m sure in the hands of a capsule fitted captain it’d be more dangerous, but as I like to tell cocky cruiser pilots I’ve never met one I couldn’t blow up.” Ysolde countered. “Anyway, little of worth left here. Still, it’s all recyclable and I like to help keep the universe tidy.”
Nyneve took the opportunity to watch the planet of Matar as the Jaguar scooped up what could be salvaged. They were close enough for it to fill a quarter of the sky but not close enough to make out much surface detail. It looked a lot less lush and fertile than the stories said it used to be. Amarr devastation will do that to a planet, she thought.
“Should we go back to the station for a drink to wind down? I’ll drop you off back in Ammold afterwards.” Ysolde made the offer to Nyneve.
“Yeah that’d be great. I need a drink or three after all of this. It’s going to take me ages to get used to it all. Especially the Jumping.”
Ysolde reflected on how different she was when she started out. To begin with, she’d never been put off by warping or jumping. On second thought, perhaps it was because of her science and engineering background that helped her understand what was going on and how they were protected. Nyneve had had no such thing. “I’ll get the first round, Ny.”
The ship’s AI announced ‘Warp Drive Active’ and the Jaguar headed to dock.
“They’ll see us the moment we arrive – deadspace dumps the warp tunnel out at the beacon and I can’t get a better approach I’m afraid. Still, I’m good for close range dogfights. Just remember to hang on, OK?” Ysolde explained to Nyneve as the ship abruptly spun around to face the station.
“Where are we-” Nyneve’s query was cut off by the ship suddenly powering forwards at full acceleration heading right towards the side of the docking array. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
At the last moment before the ship slammed head-on with a bulkhead, the space around them distorted and the warp tunnel opened. Nyneve was silenced by the sight as they warped right through the station, then through the planet of Huggar. Matar zoomed into view and they passed right through it again before the distortion began to wind down and they dropped out of warp.
Ysolde relayed her HUD overlay down to one of the holopanels Nyneve could see. “Get used to the interface.” The overview was full of red icons all bearing the name ‘Angel’ as the ship slowed to a stop. Suddenly, they all flashed with a yellow square, a warning sound accompanying through the speaker panels, then the yellow became red. “They see us. We’re locked. Into the breach!”
Gistii-technology fuelled afterburners online, the ship spurted forwards, curving into a tangential approach to the leading Angel Predator vessel, one of the predicted Cynabal class cruisers. A barrage of missiles both standard and heavy rocked the ship as they exploded all around, denting the shields down to 70%. The shield boosting arrays activated as the Adamant turned its guns onto the nearest hostile, a Nomad that began to target paint Ysolde’s ship. The Angel vaporised in a single volley but another Nomad had begun target painting and Nyneve cringed as she watched the readouts show the ship signature radius balloon in size to that of a sitting duck. “Don’t worry. They still cannot track me. We’re moving too fast for cruiser turrets. If anything, the horde of frigates is a greater threat.” Ysolde reassured.
Another Nomad exploded. Guns trained upon the fast-approaching pair of Raiders as the Adamant cut a wide sweep around the leading Predator, under the optimal range for its artillery cannons. The shield booster systems periodically came to life when integrity dipped below 75% but for all the missile explosions around the ship, surprisingly little damage was being done. Ysolde explained how clever Thukker engineering could be to Nyneve.
The ship wove and danced in between the other cruisers, focusing fire on frigate after frigate and blowing them apart with ease. Nyneve was rooted to the tactical overlay display, watching the view from different camera drones and the range, trajectory, velocity and other details calculated by the ship. She watched Ysolde skate on the fine line between her turret optimal range and it’s 50% accuracy falloff distance. She saw calculated comparative velocity used to decide if a missile would have enough fuel to hit the target, and the complexities of minimising the transversal and radial velocities to catch them square in the face was giving her a headache. This battle was half adrenaline-fuelled dogfight and half tactical command intel use. The Adamant’s AI was generating sound to match sensor data and Nyneve could hear missiles being fired and from what direction. Each heavy missile explosion rocked the ship but the engines seemed powerful enough to realign in an instant and orbit was barely broken until one by one the frigate fleet dwindled to nothing leaving the frustrated cruisers.
“OK you wanted to see some cruisers, I’ll show you how damaging these things are...” and the ship suddenly slowed to a halt. Then it was shaken violently as explosions of heavy Havoc missiles and ammunition shells pounded from all sides, the large guns finally able to track the ship. Shields were being stripped at a frightening speed and at full power the shield booster arrays were not able to cope.
“OK OK OK I get it!” Nyneve started to panic. Then she was pressed back into her chair as the ship shot forwards, powering up to a top speed of one kilometre a second as shields hit less than 20%. Suddenly the rate of shield loss dropped, as the guns could no longer find their mark and the missile explosions were half outrun. It wasn’t long before the shield systems had regained total integrity and one cruiser on fire exploded as the last bulkheads of its hull disintegrated under the hail of EMP shells.
Nyneve stopped looking at the telemetry and just watched from the window as the created sounds of battle filled the little bridge. The Cynabal cruisers were several times the size of the Adamant. Impressive ships but flawed inherently. How could a small ship, albeit one with supremely good technology powering it, be so immune? To even be able to toy with a pack of them! Nyneve was sure that the fools in command of the Angel ships didn’t know how to use them properly. There must be ways of hitting smaller ships – slowing them down, a swarm of drones, assault launchers. It only furthered her resolve to become the best damn cruiser pilot RMS had ever produced.
The fight raged on. The Adamant’s guns had to ceasefire to reload often and the valuable seconds bought allowed the damage repair systems of the enemy ships to work. But under the concentrated fire in precisely the right weak spots using ammunition tailored to exploit resistance holes, the Predator could not withstand the assault any better than its Depredator cohorts.
“Woo! I own. Told you.” Ysolde was cheery at the victory as the ship slowed down to investigate whether there was anything worth looting left.
Nyneve was silent a moment before finally speaking up. “Ya know, the fight was really cool but it broke my head with all of that data. And… well I think the Cynabal commanders were crap.”
“Be that as it may, we still kicked their arses and I’ve yet to meet one that isn’t crap. I’m sure in the hands of a capsule fitted captain it’d be more dangerous, but as I like to tell cocky cruiser pilots I’ve never met one I couldn’t blow up.” Ysolde countered. “Anyway, little of worth left here. Still, it’s all recyclable and I like to help keep the universe tidy.”
Nyneve took the opportunity to watch the planet of Matar as the Jaguar scooped up what could be salvaged. They were close enough for it to fill a quarter of the sky but not close enough to make out much surface detail. It looked a lot less lush and fertile than the stories said it used to be. Amarr devastation will do that to a planet, she thought.
“Should we go back to the station for a drink to wind down? I’ll drop you off back in Ammold afterwards.” Ysolde made the offer to Nyneve.
“Yeah that’d be great. I need a drink or three after all of this. It’s going to take me ages to get used to it all. Especially the Jumping.”
Ysolde reflected on how different she was when she started out. To begin with, she’d never been put off by warping or jumping. On second thought, perhaps it was because of her science and engineering background that helped her understand what was going on and how they were protected. Nyneve had had no such thing. “I’ll get the first round, Ny.”
The ship’s AI announced ‘Warp Drive Active’ and the Jaguar headed to dock.
posted by Ysolde Xen at 18:30
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home