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+--- Thread: Captain Tomas and his band of Misfits (/showthread.php?tid=30280)
Captain Tomas and his band of Misfits - aceraptor - 11-28-2009
Omicron Kappa
Mecenary Transport Pandora En Route to Omicron Delta Jump Hole
The modified transport was in cruise, accompanied by a pair of escorting fighters, a Eagle VHF and a Tiger Shark. The transport sported only one cargo pod instead of the usual four of the commercial stock variant of the Albatross, the front most cargo pod was replaced with a detachable gunpod, able to be dropped in a hurry if need be. The next two pod hardpoints were modified with cradles for one fighter each.
The last pod bay was fitted with a armored cargopod. Due to the modifications the ship was more sluggish then the usual Albatross and had its cargo capacity cut to a fifth of its usual capacity, 400 standard cargo area, and its modifications had unintended consequences for other systems as well... say for example, the engines.
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The flight was smooth, and going great so far, no Nomads sighted, no hostiles sighted at all. But that just made Captain Tomas Aldrin, the leader of the group of misfits he had gathered around him, and a native of Liberty, more paranoid, waiting for the hammer to fall, which just happened to be around the corner.
All of a sudden a alarm sounded and he felt the ship coming out of cruise, Tomas grimaced, he always hated it when he was right about something like this. Sighing he looked at his ship's mechanic.
"Alright, Jon, talk to me, what happened,"
"Damn, I should of known this was going to happen, Skipper. we've got a problem with our cruise engine and the auto fail-safe shut it down automatically," Jon Henderson replied. Henderson was from the Rheinland, joining his band after he got a bit too vocal in his criticism of the government, he fled a prison sentence by a few minutes, and never looked back.
Tomas cursed, "We just had it fixed a short while ago back at Freeport 9!"
"I know Tomas, but we've jury rigged this ship to hell and back over the last three years since we got it and hadn't seen refit,"
"We didn't have much of a choice, the jobs dried up and got us scraping the barrel for money to pay for the patchworks we had to..."
Jon interrupted Aldrin by holding up his hand in a placating gesture.
"I know that capt. But without a full yard to refit this in we dont know when the systems will fall apart."
Tomas sighed closing his eyes,
"Can you get the cruise engine back up?"
"I think so, it'll take a bit of time but..." Jon was interrupted when the comm. came to life and one of the escort pilots, pilot Ellis Murphy spoke out the dreaded term.
"Hey skip! We've got incoming!"
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In the darkness of space, no one can hear you scream, or can they?
A Rheinland gunboat was closing in on the group of ships, it did not hail them, its targeting systems were active, and it was headed straight for the Pandora.
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"This is the private transport Pandora and escort to the approaching Rheinland gunboat, please respond. I repeat Rheinland gunboat identify yourself and declare your intentions, if you do not respond we will be forced to open fire."
The comm. operator looked back at Tomas and shook his head, signaling that the approaching ship was not responding.
Inside, Captain Tomas was cursing the universe for its unfairness, but he had his duty to his men and women.
"Well, this will become exciting, close all bulkheads, arm all weapons, and brace for evasive maneuvers."
Tomas tapped his comm. console.
"Murphy and Roberts, try to keep that ship busy, but don't do anything stupid, stay alive."
"Roger that, same to you Pandora."
Tomas cursed himself for accepting the job at Freeport 9 to carry a cargo to Omicron Delta.
Captain Tomas and his band of Misfits - aceraptor - 11-28-2009
The Past
Back at Freeport 9, during the repair to the Pandora
Tomas was at the bar reading through the bulletin, looking for tidbits and leads for new jobs, it was a fairly boring activity, though quite depressing due to the trend of the news, war, war and more war. It seemed to him that the houses never learn their lesson. First the Kusari and Bretonia goes to war then Liberty and Rheinland does the same. Its just like the conflict years ago. Of course this time there's no one to stop it from exploding, and explode it did.
Tomas shook off those thoughts, and focused on the news and job list, he was still reading when someone came up to him and tapped on his shoulders.
"Excuse me, are you the captain of that transport that just docked and is under repair?" The person, a woman in nondescript clothes, spoke when Tomas turned around.
"If you are referring to the Pandora, yes I am."
"Well then, may I see your ID?"
Well, alright. Tomas replied and fished out his ID and let her see it.
The woman nodded, and said "Thank you, Captain Tomas I have a job for you and your crew."
Tomas focused on the woman now, business was being talked about. "I'm listening,"
"I have a secure cargo that needs to be delivered with haste to Omicron Delta at the Freeport in the system. I would do so myself but my ship is under repairs and will not be done for a while yet. You will be paid 5 million credits and bonus for any, serious, hazards you encounter."
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Well, it was done, Tomas had negotiated with the reward for the job a bit, but it was a simple job, bring a cargo to Freeport 11 and it'll be transferred to the clients associate
She outlined the flight plan and gave Tomas the name and number of the contact he was to meet at Freeport 11. All in all it seemed like a milk run, or as close to a milk run one can have out in the Omicron systems. The cargo was being loaded into the Pandora's armored cargo pod, cruise engine was repaired and provisions were bought and put into the ship, ammo was restocked, the Pandora and its two fighters were ready as they will ever be.
After gathering the crew from various places from the station, the Pandora left, headed for Omicron Delta.
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The Present
The Pandora, Omicron Kappa system
Tomas shook himself back into the present as the gunboat steadily came into weapons range.
"The gunboats firing!" His weapons officer broke the silence of the bridge, and helms officer responded immediately, throwing the Pandora into sudden maneuvers designed to throw off the aim of the opponent, but the Pandora was a transport, not a fighter, hits were inevitable.
"Return fire!" Tomas ordered as he sat on his seat.
The Pandora's shields glowed brightly as the gunboats weapons fire continued to pound it, despite the amount of hits reduced the shields were failing.
Though the batteries would keep the shield up for a bit of time, it was only delaying the inevitable.
The space outside was bright with energy as the two ships fired on each other, the two fighters were trying to distract the gunboat. But to no avail the gunboat continued to doggedly attack the Pandora.
Then for a moment the Pandora's shields went down and the gunboats guns found its mark; the engines.
The ship shook, and groaned as it started spinning end over end, the engines were dead. Red light flooded the bridge as the power was interrupted and emergency power cut into place.
"Damage report!" Tomas demanded as his ship continued to tumble.
"The engines are gone! I'm trying to get power back but I cant do anything about the engines. Wait, the afterburners are still online! Hull breaches in several areas, casualty report not yet compiled."
"Damn, okay, Murphy! Roberts! What's happening out there?"
"Hell skip, the gunboats stopped firing on the Pandora, it seems to want to board the ship, Roberts is gone, I didn't see a escape pod."
'Christ, Roberts was just a kid too! Wait a minute, board us? Oh hell, they want the cargo!' Tomas realized with a start.
"Alright, this is what I want to do, get power back ASAP. Helm, the gunboat will have to lower shields to board us. As soon as they do lower shields to dock, hit their bridge with everything we have, and ram that ship if we have to."
"Um Capt. Isn't that cutting it fairly close and with all due respect quite insane?"
"We don't have a choice, or do you want to fight a boarding action?"
Tomas turned back to the communications panel.
"Murphy, get ready to hit em. We've got only one chance at this.
Tomas opened the internal communications, "This is captain Aldrin to crew, prepare to repel boarders. Mark get your people ready."
The lights came back on, the red emergency light replaced by the normal lights. The guns were ready, but it was a do or die tactic, and everyone knew it.
The gunboat moved closer and closer. Each meter seems to be taking forever. But finally the ship lowered the shields in order to dock. The moment was here.
"Now! Shields up! Guns fire on the bridge! Murphy begin your run, use the mini razor you got at our last stop."
A chorus of rogers greeted his orders and the transports guns fired at the gunboat, and shields sprang up, blocking the enemy ship from boarding. A transports guns were not meant to hit a small area so close to the ship, but a lucky energy bolt found its mark, and smashed into the armored window of the gunboat, and slagged the metal surrounding the window, preventing any emergency shutters of the bridges windows. The bridge crew was sucked out into the airless vacuum of space, Then Murphy struck the gunboat, destroying one of the guns and firing the mini-razor which bit deeply into the unshielded, but armored, hull of the gunboat. Somehow it as luck would have it it damaged the life support, and the entire ship was opened to vacuum.
The gunboat stopped everything, the shields did not go back up. None of the guns fired. It was… dead.
Cheers broke out in the bridge and Tomas joined them. They were alive, alive! But Jon Henderson put a damper on the mood, and popped the balloon so to speak, he pointed out a problem.
"Yeah we are alive, but we arent gonna stay alive if we cant get the engines up, the afterburners fried, and we cant send distress calls without attracting the attention we dont want, what can we do about this?"
"Well it seems youve got a suggestion, spit it out." Tomas said, his elation draining to make way for his usual realist views.
"Theres a ship next to us with intact engines and a life support we can repair, and a crew that cant object if we take the ship. We clear the ship out, cannibalize the Pandora for parts, repair the ship and transfer the cargo to the other ship." Jon finished, the bridge buzzed with some murmuring as the other bridge crew speculated about what Jon said.
"I havent thought of that, huh your right, theres a perfectly good ship there. Though abit shot up and its crew still occupying it. But we can handle that," Tomas decided.
"We've still got a job to do, and we need to get the cargo to Freeport 11."
Aldrin tapped the internal comms again, "Mark, new orders, get your men ready for boarding, We are gonna get ourselves a new ship."
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Freeport 11
Omicron Delta system
The newly renamed and patchwork repaired Second Chance docked with Freeport 11, it caused a small commotion as a Rheinland gunboat was a rare sight.
The contact was here, the 5 million was paid and the man was gracious enough to pay another 2 million for the fight with the Rheinland gunboat, which he identified as one of the ships that fell to the Wilde, the cargo was offloaded, the crew, reduced due to casualties to half of the usual numbers (several deaths yes, but most were injuries), were mostly at the bar, sedately drinking and thinking about the brush with death they had.
Tomas was contemplating the new turn his group had encountered, with the gunboat they could do more lucrative jobs, and keep themselves flying without some pirate thinking they can have a piece of a mere transport.
He sat in his cabin and held a toast to those who died, and to the future.