Ain't No Party Like A Raiding Party
Posted on Fri Nov 22nd, 2019 @ 5:39pm by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra
2,098 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
S1.5:1:A Time To Heal
Location: Carpathia Near Space, Gryphon/Manticore Test Range
Timeline: MD13 13.15
The glossy black ice hull of the Reka fighters blended in awfully well with the starry night background. But juxtaposed against the candy cane bands of the gas giant Tangerine Dream, the sickly caramel sands of Carpathia, they stood out as stark as shadows at noon. Serrated swept-back wings, jagged shard-like drive spines pointed aft, with a hawk-like beak of a nose, they lived up to the nickname of Shard's given to them by the defenders of Canopus Station.
Why the sensors of Canopus Station or even the Runrabout Zheng-he hadn't picked them up until they were nearly on top of them was a mystery. But they were here now, racing in towards them on a mad dash of acceleration. Moments would be counted until they were in weapons range.
The stream of invectives that poured from Brynhild Keil's mouth the moment they picked up those Reka fighters on their sensors was a truly impressive litany. There probably wasn't a lineage that she didn't disparage nor a relation that remained unmaligned. For color and variation, she even did it fluently in two Earth languages and seasoned it all with a few random non-human words she had been taught by other pilots at the academy.
Naturally, the lieutenant commander was a professional, so only her wing-mate in Wyvern 02 was privy to this particular monologue of fury.
When she was done, she punched open the squad-wide channel. "We've got company, so you'd all better put on your dancing shoes. Nine, ten, and eleven, I want you glued to the runabout. Keep them covered. Manticores, I want you at the front of the line. Point and shoot." She spoke as she banked her fighter around in a graceful turn that her two encumbered birds would not be able to perform themselves. "The rest, off by elements and lined behind the Manticores. Let them pour on heavy fire first and engage any who escape. Sound off."
One by one, all of her pilots acknowledged as they shot ahead to meet the enemy.
While the starfighter squadron took up their positions, Shadi took in the runabout's sensors like a fiend. "We're humped!" she gasped. "It's those starving space harpies! And they're trying to flank us..." She ground her needle-point teeth together. "To starvation with them!"
Jolani took the point. "Humped? Not since my husband passed," she replied, her flight bravado overcoming her normally bland and uncaring demeanor. "And starvation is too slow. Follow my lead if you can, you Saurian Slut!" Without waiting for an acknowledgment, Jolani's roundabout made a pinpoint dive and then started a tight spiral heading on a 70 degree angle at the attackers, phasers firing the moment anyone got near the outskirts of her phaser range.
"Ssstahp it, I'm blushing!" Shadi's cheeks flushed lukewarm in the rush of cold-blood. "You know how to sweet-talk a lady." She double-fisted the tactical console, hoping to fire all the torpedoes at once as per her standard tactical maneuver. Since the Danube was equipped with only a single torpedo launcher, the effect was far from the volley that Shadi envisioned. "Famish me! The starved thing is only firing one at a time!"
The Runabout dive saved it from a hailstorm of pulsed laser fire that stiched space where it had been moments before. The Reka fighters barreled through the Starfleet lines, firing in a pall mall that was either effective cover fire or adrenaline-soaked madness. The two Manticore heavy fighter's swept into the lead, lumbering a little as the emerald fire washed over their much thicker shields. Manticore 2, the one that hadn't spent its load on a test fire, released one hatch and let fly with a dozen of the swarm missiles.
The Reka evaded, spreading out like oil on water as the bright contrails of the fired ordinance chased after them. A few times missiles didn't catch up with a Reka before they flew into the sights of one of Keil's fliers are were melted to slag in phaser fire. One, two, four Reka fighters blossomed into fast-moving debris clouds of as the swarm rockets burrowed into them like kamikaze mosquitos.
And then they were everywhere. The Reka fighters were devilishly fast, flicking from wing tip to wing tip as they lay on a near-constant stream of mostly ineffective laser fire. But even weak fire, over time, would burn out a shield generator. And four of the jagged fighter craft kept trying to crowd in on the Runabout, nudging it this way and that with harassing fire.
Keil kept the outside voice going with orders to her pilots, while she had her inside voice keeping up the set-the-world-on-fire cursing. In the much more maneuverable Gryphon, she kept on the move. She knew her wing-mate would keep up with her, because he was skilled and that's what a wing-mate did.
"Where the hell were they all hiding?" the lead pilot exclaimed in frustration, wondering at the sudden number of Reka craft coming at them, fast and obnoxious. Her eyes flickered over the readouts on her HUD. "Wyverns nine, ten, and eleven, do your jobs better and get rid of those ones gluing to the runabout!" she snapped, noticing the fast four over there. "They look up to something."
"DIE!" Shadi screamed at the tactical readout. "DIE, YOU REGURGITATED CROP MILK SUCKING ASS BAGS, DIIIIEEEE!!!"
Jolani noticed that four of the Reka were specifically heading after her. They were not following what appeared to be the concentrated attack pattern. Why? She took a sharp starboard turn, hoping to shake them, to no avail. I wonder. Could this have something to do with our former nurse? Revenge? She seemed to want something of me. But what? No time to think. Need to evade and destroy. Perhaps an old fashioned maneuver would handle this. With a sudden jerk, she thrusted her roundabout upwards and then reversed all thrusters, hoping that the Reka would overshoot her for her to get several shots at their rear.
The sudden upward trajectory and reverse led the Reka to overshoot, but it also led the fighters that Keil had set to protect them to somewhat overshoot as well. They were quicker on the mark and came around quickly, landing several shots on the small group of pursuers. "Stay with them," Keil ordered tensely. It was like she had eyes in fifteen directions, watching her own fight as well as keeping an eye on what all of her fighters were doing. "This is a fight, of course they're going to be erratic! Stick with them anyway!" The last words trailed off as she was forced into a hard bank right, laser fire flying past where she'd been...
Jolani smiled. There was nothing better than out flying one's opponents and showing everyone who the best pilot in all of Starfleet was. She fired at some of the Reka that had been following her. It was personal, now. Them or her and she was going to be damned if she failed as a pilot. Once her shots were fired, she sent her runabout on a sine wave, darting in and out of potential firing positions.
The four Reka that had been dogging the Runabout did indeed shoot past as the Zheng-he applied punishing reverse thrust. One of them flew through Shadi's phaser turret fire, sparking as two strikes hit home whilst the third dove in and detonated something energetic. Two more were taken out as the pair of Wyvern fighters assigned to their aid came roaring in. A pair of micro torpedoes turned one into a steadily fading blossom of light, whilst the other's bristle-like engine assembly was slagged by phaser fire, turning it into a pitch-black comet rolling through the darkness.
Somehow the remaining raiders had figured out which was the leader of the squadron of Gryphon starfighters. They all piled in, sometimes ramming each other out of the way trying to line up a kill shot. Fortunately, the laser fire was weak overall compared to a Starfleet starship grade phaser canon. But what it lacked in punch, it made up for in sheer volume.
"Erratic. Dangerous. Stick with you, always" The comm light didn't blink on Keil's console to indicate an open mic. But it echoed in her helmet, her own voice whispering back to her a distorted copy and paste of her own words.
The voice caught Brynhild by surprise, at first. It almost distracted her from the job at hand, but then she recalled her briefing on the Reka and growled. "I don't sound like that," she murmured.
"What was that, sir?" came a call from Rimshot, her wing-mate.
"Nothing," she snapped, focusing again and gritting her teeth as she swerved out of the way of a too-large grouping of laser fire. "You wanna do your job and peel some of these things off me already?!"
Jolani called out, "Need some help, Keil?" I can be there in a moment.
Brynna snorted a laugh. "I thought that was my j-- Geez!" One of the Reka fighters seemed to think that some blunt force trauma was the way to go, which prompted a quick maneuver. "If you'd like to help out my lazy wingman, feel free."
It took Jolani no encouragement. Free of her Reka, she darted into the fray after Bryanna's, firing as she drove her runabout at a suicidal speed.
Suicidal perhaps, but the Arrow class runabout was built with teeth beneath her beguiling beauty. Her wing-mounted phaser canons were more powerful per-joule than the Gryphon fighters, but then again she was slower in a straight and a corner so it levelled out. But to the Reka, it was like a hammer to a glass figurine. Almost all at once the Reka broke like clouds on a summer's day, flying in disarray back towards the blackness of the mid system and the concealing clouds of tumbling asteroidal rock.
A rain of metal danced off the hull of both runabout and fighter, a tingling serenade of life and death out in the dark.
Cheering, Jolani cried out, "Take that, Reka scum!" She laughed again over the audio. The joyous laughter was an emotion few, if any had ever heard from the Huanni, save the Captain.
Brynna was far more reserved but no less relieved to get that annoyance over with. "Appreciate the assist, Zheng-he," she called.
"Death to the shitbirds!" Shadi cheered.
"Most excellent work indeed!" Von Kenner said, stepping into the cockpit accompanied by Captain Remas. "The Manticores performed admirably, and whilst the Gryphon is a tried and tested design, it is clearly adapted to the harsher environs of Messier 4 most completely."
"Those raider's will be a problem for the future, and for Canopus Station. That one carrier broke free and ran into the inner asteroid belt during the battle of Canopus station. Bent penny for our trouble, it's a nest for'em now," Remas muttered darkly. He tapped Shadi on the shoulder. "Diplomates voice my dear. Today's enemies will be tomorrows allies if we allow them the opportunity,"
"You will pardon me for saying Captain Remas, but I do not think they were trying to hail us during that attack," Von Kenner chidded.
"No. No, they did not," Remas sighed "But I think we can all agree they communicated a message all the same. The same message we're broadcasting with every breath we take in Messier 4: We're here to stay."
Jolani shook her head. "So, you're declaring war, then, Captain?"
"Not war," Shadi said. "But victory." She raised her clawed, leathery fist in the air. "All hail the Blood Goddess! Long live the Federation!"
The Chief Flight Officer shook her head at the insane Saurian. "You cannot declare victory until the other side is either destroyed or concedes. You have an odd sense of order. But hailing and saying 'long live the Federation,' definitely makes us seem despotic."
"You're alssso a milk drinker," Shadi quipped, "but nobody'sss perfect."
In her normal, flat voice, Jolani told Shadi, "I get the feeling that you intend that as an insult. I must admit that I do not understand it anymore than I understand you. That being said, I really could not care less. I exist solely to fly, now." She gave a nonchalant shrug at the Saurian.
"Ladies," Remas said with a strained smile. "We just defeated a Reka raiding party, let's not give them a victory by attacking one another. Jolani, back to the Station. Shadi, contemplate the meaning of friendship overcoming an advisarial bent."
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