Target Locked

[Jayce]

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Hornady monitored the forklifts shifting cargo pallets from the catwalks above Chesapeake's loading bays, slowly teansporting the newly-requisitioned IRG power cell towards the airlocks leading to the Willow Grove. The commander of the shipyard had ordered the testing rig for the Hedgehog system disassembled and the cargo bay cleared of the MK-CULSIM supercomputer arrangement earlier that morning, throwing her plans into disarray. A number of near-accidents had occurred during the hasty repositioning, including the entire system nearly toppling from the forks of 2 lifts opposite eachother. The quick intervention of a third wily palletjack operator saved the multi-billion Credit arrangement from shattering into hundreds of useless pieces against the steel deck. Behind the trundling forklift, Sergeant Siler tugged a palletjack heavily laden with the power interface module, hastily constructed by Doctor Carter to allow the power cell to divert it's massive stores of energy directly to the MK-CULSIM system without excessive power rerouting. Luckily for all involved, the Willow Grove had always been an experimental vessel, with much of the systems automated, permitting the interior space to be rearranged in manners appropriate to the mission at hand.

This mission was different from combat, however, and the skeleton crew of the Battlecruiser was a little on edge. Hornady followed Siler through the airlock and the bowels of the Interdictor, maintenance crewmen and technical staff making way for the half-ton piece of equipment being maneuvered by a 160-pound man. "Mngh, a hand wouldn't go amiss..." He grunted out through the strain, and a duo of technicians took their places behind the matte-black box, pushing it as Siler pulled.

"Sergeant!" Hornady shouted, as one side of the PIM scraped the wall at a bend in the corridor, scratching the paint applied to the steel octagonal prism. "Sorry, Agent!" Siler replied hastily, throwing his full bodyweight against the handle of the palletjack before his boots lost grip on the deckplates, sending the lanky man tumbling to the floor. Hornady only shook her head and walked past, patting the Sergeant on the shoulder as he stood up and dusted off, headed towards the bridge.

Hours later, the engines of the Willow Grove flared to life for the first time in months, the deck shuddering under Hornady's feet. "Helm, ahead one quarter. Pull away from the shipyard." The Inderdictor slid slowly out of her berth, leaving behind the two other project vessels in a wake of exhaust gases. "Hornady to Steyr, come in."

"Steyr here, ma'am." Swooping in an arc out of the tradelane rings sped the Menwith Hill, the little Defiant towing another target drone in her wake. "We're ready at your command. Gold-5 program has been loaded, and the drone is online." The tether snapped off where it met the drone, severed by the junior agent on the gunboat's bridge. It floated listlessly before coming online, the single gold-colored strobe lamp atop it beginning the unenviable task of marking the target. Rather than the previous test, the drone for the live-fire examination of the Hedgehog was a converted Avenger, remotely piloted by an AI aboard the Menwith Hill.

"Understood, Steyr. Retreat to control distance." Hornady cut the comms link, turning to Doctor Carter. The researcher looked slightly less excited than during the previous test, having been berated by the station commander just as harshly as the Agent standing opposite her. "Here's hoping this goes a little better than the last time. Winchester, bring the power cell online and slave the launchers to the grid. We go live in 1 minute."

The previously-placid bridge erupted into a flurry of control inputs and communications chatter, the lights dimming as the ship entered red alert status. A quiet hum echoed through the bridge as the power cell began to funnel energy into the MK-CULSIM grid, growing louder as the power requirements of the array increased exponentially. "Steyr, begin evasive pattern Gold-5. Weapons, prepare to fire on my command." Once again, the target began the loops and weaves specified by it's programming, the racks mounted to the hull of the Willow Grove swiveling to track it throughout. "Three... Two... One... Mark!"

The hum through the ship grew louder still, accentuated by the sound of the Battlecruiser's coolant pumps kicking on, diverting hundreds of gallons of capital-grade engine cooling gel through the supercomputers. A dull "fwoosh" echoed through the bridge as the launchers discharged their payloads, missiles twisting and turning through space to track the lone fighter. The seconds counted down before impact, sensor data from the Grove's grid relayed through hundreds of meters of cabling to the tracking and control center, fed into the simulations within simulations, and transmitted back to the warheads within a fraction of a second. The AI controlling the Avenger quickly detected the incoming missiles and attempted a similar weave as the previous test, limited only by the integrity of it's spaceframe, maneuvering thrusters firing at maximum to attempt to throw off the pursuer. For nearly any other projectile in Sirius, the maneuver would have been more than enough to thwart their tracking systems. The Hedgehog, however, fed data from the massive sensor arrays of the Willow Grove, maintained a steady lock and tone, right up until the moment of impact. The multiple warheads of each payload scattered around the hapless fighter, exploding microseconds later into a cloud of electromagnetic radiation and deadly shrapnel, shredding the shields and hull of the old fighter.

"Target neutralized, Agent. Op success." Piped up the weapons officer, and the bridge erupted into cheers. Hornady jumped as the young doctor wrapped their arms around her waist, practically sobbing with glee at a job well done. "I told you it would work, Agent!"

"Yes, yes you did." Hornady couldn't help but grin, patting doctor Carter on the back.

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