Hermann Schultze wrenched the control stick all the way back and hit the thruster to escape a hail of tachyon shots that were furiously racing towards his ship.
"Common, common, just a little bit more..."
He winced as a well placed tachyon shot hit the engines, and caused the ship to shudder for a second before continuing it's evasive maneuvers. As Valetta Shipyard came within eyesight, he immediately fired a transmission towards the station.
"Valetta Shipyard, this is the Zoner Transport Cannon Fodder Maximus, I'm here with the Deuterium you ordered. Now get these hungry mercs off my ass!"
"Roger that, Gold 2's wing has been contacted and are racing towards your position. Station gunners have their guns trained on the bogies and will fire when ready."
As if on que, the tachyon condensation stopped, and Hermann glanced at his rearview mirror to see a wing of seemingly dated Sabres showering the lone merc bomber and eagle with Debilitator and particle fire. Hermann maneuvered the ship towards a fuel intake point, and wasn't suspecting the bomber that had broken free from the dogfight and was now charging it's antimatter cannon.
"Oh crap," he muttered as the deadly shot sailed towards his ship.
The antimatter shot had somehow passed through the rigid superstructure and had struck the avionics package, creating a deafening roar in the small command module as the avionics system underwent meltdown and as some parts were vaporized instantly.
As the defenseless transport drifted towards the fuel intake module at an awkward angle, Hermann struggled to use manual steering to try and get the ship to hit the station at a slightly less dangerous angle. Meanwhile, the Sabres had taken care of the fighter, and the bomber was fleeing, now with half a wing gone and the torpedo launcher was drifting nearby with a torpedo loaded in the launch tube, awaiting the launch that would never happen.
The Whale hadn't budged from it's dangerous course towards the hull, and as the tail ablative armor made contact with the docking bays at 100 m/s unshielded, Hermann closed his eyes and waited for explosive decompression.
The same chair he had been sitting in as the Whale collided with the station.
His favorite comfy chair.
"What the hell?"
Hermann took one look at his cracked rearview mirror and saw that the tailfin of the Whale had been completely broken off and was now sticking out of the station at an angle. The auxiliary rear radar was relatively unscathed; the tailfin had taken most of the punishment, and the Whale was drifting slightly.
A small Dromedary with a large red circle with a white cross inside was outside the ship, flashing it's lights. Probably an ambulance. A small tow ship was also nearby.
Hermann ripped the small, ordinary key out of the ignition and then jammed it back in and wrenched it to try and start the engine. As the engine coughed, sputtered, and then roared to life, he wrenched the thrust stick.
Strangely, the engine compartment was relatively undamaged, upon closer inspection, still putting out the normal amount of thrust, but just one glance at the timing belt within signaled that the engine was going to die in less than an hour anyway. Another quick analysis of the ship's subsystems brought up nothing but critical readings or the mere absence of a subsystem.
Hermann made his way through the ship, picking up his beloved coffee machine and of course his wallet, and dumped it in the escape pod at the back. He then went back and lugged his TV (He had no idea why he didn't just splurge on a holo monitor) to the pod, and then unceremoniously dropped it in.
Then, he jumped into the pod, closed the hatch, and popped out of the ship. He aimed for the docking bays of Valetta, and left the first responders to their business.
Ship Type: ZBT-100Z-2 "Whale"
Maintenance Status: DESTROYED Next Maintenance Date: N/A, see above note
Hermann sat in the cold, hard chair in the back of the courier that was scheduled to take the 600 passengers to Shasta Orbital Skyhook. This particular incident reminded him of a similar incident many years ago.
5 years ago....
"Dammit! Travis, divert all power to the weapons!" Hermann shouted over the crunch and grind of metal.
"Trying to....dammit, looks like the command module is unresponsive!" Travis shouted back.
Hermann groaned and muttered some expletives not worth mentioning, as he kept the guns focused at full power onto the attacking Samura Akegata. Typical of his mind, he realized that the 12 Bretonian Transport Turrets could not counter the insane damage of the CT-403 Charon Transport Turrets used by his opponent.
"Dammit, dammit, this is bad...Schasker, get the engines going! We're gonna have to limp to Gateshead and then hopefully someone will come to assistance!" Hermann shouted at the technician in the engine room.
"We're running low on energy, Schultze, you'll need to stop draining the core so that I can fire up---"
His sentence was cut off as a Nova detonated on the crippled hull, rippling a massive shockwave through the Shire, and cutting off any communication both within the ship and outside. Hermann was flung in one direction, and his small flight was ended by a rather intrusive spike of metal.
Hermann held his bleeding head as he crawled towards the nearest pod at the opposite end of the ship. On the way, he saw Travis sprawled on the floor, unconscious, with a pool of blood expanding underneath. Hermann was leaving his own small trail of blood as he crawled to the pods.
Finally, he made it to the pods. He fired up the engines, ejected the pod, and directed it towards Cape Wrath in hopes to get rescued. As black spots swam before his eyes, he managed to make the final turn and set the pod on autopilot before he finally blacked out.
Meanwhile, the last scraps of his old life were destroyed, and the remains of the old Shire were strewn throughout the asteroid field.
Ship Type: N/A
Maintenance Status: N/A
Next Maintenance Date: N/A
Hermann woke up from a restless sleep as the pilot of the Dromedary announced their arrival on Shasta Orbital Skyhook.
"...please take all personal belongings with you, baggage in the cargo area can be claimed at the baggage claim just to the left of the terminal, and if you are in need of a place to stay and a ship to rent or pick up, the Ship Rental and Pick Up Station is just to the right..."
Hermann slowly got up from his seat and did what looked like a stagger off the Dromedary.
He had no baggage. He had nothing but what he could take.
He had no ship to pick up. He couldn't rent a ship; his wallet almost whistled of emptiness.
After looking to the left and right, he headed straight ahead to the spaceport.
He hoped he would find who he was seeking here.
After another long, agonizing walk through the Shasta Spaceport, he exited the Spaceport and headed for the Ship Repairs section. After successfully finding the section of the Skyhook, he was greeted by a bored looking guy who seemed to be the type that would actually fall asleep on the job.
"Hey," he said. "You looking for someone? Wantin' to get a ship patched up?"
Ship Type: N/A
Maintenance Status: N/A
Next Maintenance Date: N/A
"Fester!"
The man in question looked up from a completely destroyed wing section of an Eagle to see Hermann waving to him.
"Hermann! It's been too long!" Fester said as he grinned. "When did ya decide to come and visit me, cousin?"
Hermann let out a long sigh as he broke the news to his younger cousin. Fester's smile immediately faded as he heard the news. At least he doesn't have to get haunted by memories 5 years past, Hermann thought.
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. This is bad! How'd ya get here?" Fester exclaimed.
"Took a shuttle to this place. Now I need to get my life back on track."
Hermann then told him about the things he took. Fester couldn't help but let a laugh escape.
"So you're saying the most worthwhile thing you ever had other than your wallet and gin was a coffee machine? Man, no wonder why Ma and Pa called you a crazy guy..." Fester then let the rest of his laughing fit escape.
"Auuughh....listen, I need a new ship to get all my money back," Hermann said, trying to get back on track. "You got any I can lend or just take?"
Fester finally stopped laughing, and didn't seem to notice everyone in the hangar staring at him. Call me a crazy one, Hermann thought.
"Well, we have this one old transport we decide to write off due to old age. Not because somethin' horrible decided to tear it apart or because it started to need a cane or whatever, it was because it always seemed to bring bad luck with it," Fester said. "Here, I'll show 'er to ya."
Hermann decided to just follow his cousin as he led the troubled guy to a small, unordinary door. Then, he wrenched the handle and pulled the door open to reveal a dusty, old hangar.
It was pretty foggy inside, foggy with the dust that now fell in chunks from the other side of the door. On the other side of the fog, he saw the outline of a Whale. When Fester flicked the light switch, he saw that the craft had some cracks throughout the superstructure, and the usual engine residue that came from excessive use.
Apparently, no one thought to clean the ship even after it was written off.
"Last owner was a William Overbeck, died in the very crew module for unknown reasons," Fester said as he opened the door to the crew module. "The crew decided to become total chickens after thinkin' some bad luck or some spiritual curse killed the old man, and wasted no time in getting the hell away."
Schultze climbed the stairs of the old Whale, and took a look around the crew cabin.
Hermann had decided to keep the old thing after carefully inspecting it, although he had a feeling the superstitions were true after he accidentally banged his knee on the side of the railing.
Well, Fester had been nice enough to fill him up with a ton of Pineal Amulets to take to Planet Crete. "They're payin big for this stuff," he had said. "They must be religious freaks as well as cannibals. Is that why they eat other people?"
So, while Hermann cruised through the lush green system, skimming the edges of the burning orange sun in the middle of the system, he had expected a blood red system with a dead, dying sun as the core. Instead, he was met with this oddly beautiful system.
"Planet Crete, this is the Overbeck.Twenty, requesting a mooring spot. I got a load of Pineal Amulets."
"Roger that, proceed mooring point 10. Welcome to Planet Crete."
Hermann sighed as he wiped the sleep away from his eyes. He had been keeping his eyes open for a good 20 hours while he steered the ship towards Omicron Gamma, instead of into some planet or sun. He took his 143rd swig of coffee and shut off the small radio onboard the ship, which was starting to play some very irritating tunes.
As the small shuttles took away portions of his cargo for transfer to the surface, Hermann had decided he would add to his Life Checklist, a list for what he had to do to resume normal life.
---Get a new ship
---Stay awake
---.....
Well, it wasn't a very impressive list, to say the least. Hermann didn't know what else to put in.
Hermann cruised away from Planet Crete with a smile on his face. Fester wasn't joking when it came to the profit it got him; 15 million Sirius Credits from the entire buyout and distribution to all the jewelry stores across Crete was more than enough to sustain him for a good couple of months.
But as he was about to hit play on his favorite music station, rapid beeps penetrated his ears and then the engines reduced thrust due to excess energy.
Hermann looked on radar to find a small, rather nimble light fighter trailing the heavy transport.
" 'Eyy buddy," a gruff voice said into the comms.
"Uhm, hello...?" Hermann wasn't good with greeting people.
"So, why don't you hand over 10 million bucks, and I'll let you go," the voice said.
"Uhh...."
"10 seconds, buddy." The ship swung around and shredded a Corsair heavy fighter that was approaching the situation, then swung right back at him.
Hermann jammed the comms and fired an emergency call to the nearest Zoner installation. Which was Freeport 9.
"Freeport 9, I got a little situation here. A fighter's holding me down and he's askin for a big fee."
A sigh was heard on the other end, before the responder said "This is the 10th extortion attempt of our transports. Such ungrateful bastards...we're sendin a fighter wing to deal with it now."
Suddenly, Hermann heard unusual weapons fire coming from behind his ship. He looked in the rear camera to see an unusual sight.
A small drone-like object was speeding towards the pirate fighter and was showering with him with what resembled Kusari weapons. The pirate had been caught off guard, and swung around to trade shots with the robot-thingy.
Hermann jammed the thrusters and tried to speed away, but was met with a angry reply.
"You sent that drone."
"Wait man, what the hell---"
"You're gonna pay for this, you son of a ----"
The pirate fighter buckled under the damage being dealt to it, and the ship exploded with a loud boom, the debris hurtling towards him.
"Thanks, robot thingy...I appreciate the help----"
Suddenly, the robot began firing on his ship. Hermann was stunned for a second before gripping the flight stick and wrenching it left and right in hopes to throw off his attacker. But the drone happened to be a crack shot, and after only 10 hits, the shield was downed and the weapons fire melted into the hull.
Hull level: 50%
Hull level: 30%
Hull level: 5%
>>HULL BREACH EMMINENT<<
A loud explosion sounded throughout the ship, and the crew hatch doors activated emergency protocol and hissed shut just as the behind of the ship ripped apart.
"Whew, I'm safe..." Hermann said. "Now how am I supposed to get out of this thing?"
His thoughts were cut off by a piece of metal that careened through the emergency doors, leaving a big gaping hole in it's wake.
The last thing Hermann saw was the piece of scrap getting closer and closer alarmingly quickly, and then nothing.
Hermann came back to his senses and was greeted by explosive pain.
"Aww crap...."
Hermann looked down and saw a pool of blood expanding, and part of his thigh extremely bloodied.
Hermann was about to pass out, before he realized something.
If he passed out this time, there would be no coming back.
Then he forced himself to do something.
STAY AWAKE.
He heard sirens in the background, and saw through the remains of his window, 2 Switchblades and 1 Eagle circling the remains of the ship. A Kujira refitted into an ambulance circled the ship, and he heard voices.
"The guy's in the crew module, he's runnin low on Oxygen, the meters read 3%!"
"Crap, that big slab of metal has him pinned to the wall!"
He wasn't kidding when he said this thing was full of bad luck...
He heard the sounds of metal scraping against the hard, metal floor of the crew module, and then blacked out.
"He's passed out, dammit! Load him into the ambulance, now!"
