Arrr Matey: First Forray
untitled
"Congratulations, and dismissed!" The dean commended, and the auditorium erupted with
laughter and joy. I didn't stick around long. I had a ship to captain...
"Dispatch." A straight faced ensign was on the holoscreen.
"Empire freelance ship..." I sighed at the crew’s decision. The name I would have to give at every allied port "Arrr Matey, that's with three 'r's." I could have sworn he stifled a giggle.
"Understood." You have a mission qued."
"Please."
"Transmitting."
First day on shift, and they wanted me out. Beautiful. I keyed the engine room. The engineer was an Android, but I didn't hold that against him.
"Captain Gregchi?" He answered. Save for the utility projector, a red glass almond in his forehead, he was indistinguishable from any other dark haired, 7 foot humanoid, with gray skin.
"Anton, boot her up. We've places to blow up."
"Aye aye. We can be dodging missiles within the hour." And he turned away from the com. I opened the mission file.
"Ker'Nas controlled system: Hassyss" The screen opened to show the galaxy, a blue dot denoting where I was now emitted a blue line towards the center of the screen as it zoomed to the destination. The top left corner flashed "Sensitive Information" as the audio went on. "H-3 is a major Ker'Nas industrial center, and disruption of the operations could have wide spread benefits.
Report to the secret base at H-4 and await instruction. Coordinates follow." A series of mathematical equations scrolled out. I forwarded them to Anton.
I looked about the bridge for a few minutes and reflected. 6 years of training for a shiny piece of paper, a medium class assault ship, and my crew... who had named my ship the "ARRR Matey" for
Chris sakes. I almost hoped they mutinied after that. I wanted it called the "odyssey" but Anton, Anne (my gunner), Decius (My other gunner) and Charlemagne all liked it. Charlemagne, our xenobiologist was especially strange. Him and his pet Cthulu. I don't know where the hell he got that thing, but it looked like a two foot tall elder god all right. Come to think of it, where did Charlemagne come from? Charlemagne was supposed to be some sort of animated plant. His skin was a pale greenish hue, and his forearms were thorned. In front of me sat Anne and Decius. Anne was, bright, chipper, cute, and a bit of a dead eye. She had a thing for black lace and wore bunny ears around the ship. I decided then and there to never bother asking her about that. Decius on the other hand was a crack shot. An easy and cool kid. I kinda liked him. He was a little short, dressed conservatively and was jovial when the situation called. To my right say my readout ensign Saton. Saton was a human woman trained in kicking things and taking down names. She was even more laid back than Decius. I imagined it came from all the books she poured over.
Aside from Anton, the only one that wasn't here was Quigon Aran, our heavy weapons expert. Supposedly she was a twi lek but you wouldn't know that unless you saw her without her Exosuit. Her crewmate portfolio didn’t mention too much, but that her family heirloom she wore all the time grew with her. Whatever that meant.
A chime from Anton interrupted my wonderings. "Engines are toasty."
"Okay, those coordinates are where we're going."
Anton looked away for a bit. "Oh. Okay. They'll just have to stay toasty for a little while then.
"Yeah."
"Okay. Get to the warp gate and take it from there. You're the pilot." And the screen cut out.
I laid my fingers on the controls and took a deep breath. "Everyone, let's get rich quick."
The crew looked up. "Aye aye Gregchi." Decius said, and strapped himself down. I held my fingers down on the keys and detached from the space dock.
"Transmitting codes to dock and gate." Saton almost droned. "Hey Gregchi, we're being hailed."
That was quick. "Okay, answer it." On a square on the left of the front screen appeared a human with greasy hair and a bright smile.
"Nice ship you got there."
"You like it? It's new. Hello Doug. I see you've a ship of your own."
"Gregchi, you've been annoying me since we started. Let's settle this."
"Oh?" I arched my eyebrow. Doug was brash, and brought most of his misfortune on himself, but every once in a while, I was around to watch him fall.
"This one last time Gregchi, my engineer against yours. We race through the asteroid belt to the old warp gate."
"And the prize?"
"A small hard point."
Decius chimed in "I could use an extra targeting computer... sir."
My crew was with me. Doug was going down. "You're on. Nose up, now!" And I threw my hand to Saton, she closed the link.
"He's even with us... he's blasting off!" Saton exclaimed. The silver ovoid rocketed forward. My fingers blurred over the keys as inertial dampeners struggled, throwing the crew into their seats as I tailed Doug around the station over docking tiers, under battle cruisers. An emergency signal from engineering arose. I ignored it. It came through anyway.
"Gregchi! The hell!"
"Anton, power, please!
"You're already using all I've got." I could hear sirens in the back round. Red filled my peripheral
vision. " You're moving at 2.8 AU and banking around! I can't hold still to whoa!" I pulled her into a barrel roll as I cleared the patrol squadron of the station. Doug was only a little bit ahead. Saton finger combed her red hair back, and tried to reset her blue bangs. "Patrol wants a word
with you." The channel with Anton had apparently cut out.
"I'll take it. We'll be on a straight away for now." A young canine face, a basset hound in specific,
appeared on screen. A gruff voice came across. "Gregchi, that was some stunt you pulled!"
"Lt. Pepper! It's Doug in front of me!"
Pepper paused for a bit and conceded "Show that hairless monkey who's boss." And the channel closed out.
Almost immediately, Anton came out on the audio only channel. "I fell on the camera."
"...sorry."
Saton interrupted "We're coming up on the asteroid field."
Anne muttered about having just fixed her ears. "Ooo, target practice." Decius said, as his console glowed into life. "Warming forward lasers.
We only have forward lasers, I thought to myself, but oh well.
Saton read off stats "ETA objective, 3 minutes at current speed, 7 minutes maximum safe speed. Odyssey's distance: 4 kilometers."
"What!" I demanded.
"Sir, they took your name."
"Raaagh!"
She went on "Asteroids within range in one minute." I jammed my throttle to it's end. "The Odyssey is firing!"
Two blue pillars erupted from the sides of the odyssey’s nose, concluding at a rock in the distance. It's right half was annihilated. The left floated directly in front of us. I shifted and spun under it.
"Anne! Decius!"
"Aw you can handle it cap'n." Anne said. A single blue laser almost canceled out the lighting on the bridge, for a brief moment it bathed us in shadow, rocking an asteroid into a slow spin harmlessly into space. I maneuvered around it.
"We've only the one?" My reply was three concussion missiles that spiraled around the odyssey, blasting debris directly into their flight path. It pulled straight up. A flurry of small red bolts cleared the way as we shot past the Odyssey.
"Coming up on objective! Odyssey trailing at 13 kilometers, gun it sir!" Saton squealed.
I saw it, a silver ring floating just outside the belt. "She's gaining! 12 kilometers, target in 15 seconds, 8 kilometers, we're not gonna make it!"
"Radar on screen!" They were to my left and up a little. I jinked the ship directly in front of them.
"They're too close, we're blasting exhaust in their cone! She's pulling around!"
"We're through!" Anne jumped out of her seat. The Arrr Matey blinked through the ring, the Odyssey missed it.
"Open a channel." A high pitched two toned beep went off. "We'll take our hard point at the station. Close channel." The bridge cheered as I slumped back in my chair.
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