08-18-2010, 09:37 AM
The Sorcerer's Apprentice was a quirky little Heron-class Train. It carried only three cargo pods; replacing the fourth was a Camara docking point. It never flew in a straight line, it seemed incapable of such. And every once in a while, all the windows would suddenly have a barricade slammed over them. But it served its crew quite well.
Until one fateful day when it passed through Galileo on a standard alloy delivery run.
"There's our target, boys," a young woman announced from the cockpit of her stolen Camara. The Rogues inside the hold let out a grunt of relief; the ship was not comfortable for fifty people. "Remember the plan - shoot to scare, only kill if we have to. Might get some new recruits out of this."
At the Reppu Bend, the Camara struck, tearing out of the nearby cloud like a meteor. The Sorcerer's Apprentice immediately fired a volley from its Debilitator turrets, but they couldn't hit the tiny Camara, which returned fire from its own modified EMP turrets. Jury-rigged from a bomber, the turrets could fail at any moment, but Briar knew they wouldn't get this chance again. The second dorsal turret broke down right as a salvo of disruptor missiles from a nearby Hacker wing slammed into the Train, disabling all but the essential functions. Exactly what she was hoping for. She pulled her Camara into the docking port and the pirates boarded the ship...
To absolutely no resistance. A young man met the Rogues when they entered, unarmed and with his hands in the air. "Do... do what you want with me, but please let the rest of the crew go."
"Whatever we want, you say?" Briar replied, looking over the man. "Hm... Sorry, I have to get my new ship back to base. But since you made this so easy on us, we'll take you to Ames. You can do what you want from there."
She held to her word, much to the surprise and relief of the crew of the Train, and left them at Ames. When they unmoored, though, the Hacker that accompanied them called her to the bridge. "Hey, boss... this ain't a normal Heron." He pushed a series of buttons and a display screen came down, showing a variety of viewing angles around the train. Another three buttons, and metal plating slammed over the windows. One more... and the ship vanished from the cameras.
"Holy ****!"
"Yeah... that's what I was thinking... it won't block heat or density scans, but combat's usually done on visuals. This is huge."
"Oh this is going to be awesome!"
"Heh... glad you like it. Of course, I'm sticking around... or I'm letting word leak to the entire Liberty underworld."
"What?!"
"Yeah I didn't think you'd want that. Call me Yukabacera. I just want to see what else this ship can do. How did they get something like this anyway- oh no." Yukabacera ran off, searching all over the massive vessel for bugs and even sending some of his remote-controlled robots around the outside of the ship, but nothing turned up any tracking devices, LSF or otherwise...
It was almost as if the crew of the ship made the device.
Until one fateful day when it passed through Galileo on a standard alloy delivery run.
"There's our target, boys," a young woman announced from the cockpit of her stolen Camara. The Rogues inside the hold let out a grunt of relief; the ship was not comfortable for fifty people. "Remember the plan - shoot to scare, only kill if we have to. Might get some new recruits out of this."
At the Reppu Bend, the Camara struck, tearing out of the nearby cloud like a meteor. The Sorcerer's Apprentice immediately fired a volley from its Debilitator turrets, but they couldn't hit the tiny Camara, which returned fire from its own modified EMP turrets. Jury-rigged from a bomber, the turrets could fail at any moment, but Briar knew they wouldn't get this chance again. The second dorsal turret broke down right as a salvo of disruptor missiles from a nearby Hacker wing slammed into the Train, disabling all but the essential functions. Exactly what she was hoping for. She pulled her Camara into the docking port and the pirates boarded the ship...
To absolutely no resistance. A young man met the Rogues when they entered, unarmed and with his hands in the air. "Do... do what you want with me, but please let the rest of the crew go."
"Whatever we want, you say?" Briar replied, looking over the man. "Hm... Sorry, I have to get my new ship back to base. But since you made this so easy on us, we'll take you to Ames. You can do what you want from there."
She held to her word, much to the surprise and relief of the crew of the Train, and left them at Ames. When they unmoored, though, the Hacker that accompanied them called her to the bridge. "Hey, boss... this ain't a normal Heron." He pushed a series of buttons and a display screen came down, showing a variety of viewing angles around the train. Another three buttons, and metal plating slammed over the windows. One more... and the ship vanished from the cameras.
"Holy ****!"
"Yeah... that's what I was thinking... it won't block heat or density scans, but combat's usually done on visuals. This is huge."
"Oh this is going to be awesome!"
"Heh... glad you like it. Of course, I'm sticking around... or I'm letting word leak to the entire Liberty underworld."
"What?!"
"Yeah I didn't think you'd want that. Call me Yukabacera. I just want to see what else this ship can do. How did they get something like this anyway- oh no." Yukabacera ran off, searching all over the massive vessel for bugs and even sending some of his remote-controlled robots around the outside of the ship, but nothing turned up any tracking devices, LSF or otherwise...
It was almost as if the crew of the ship made the device.