Marcus Whitman's Unfortunate End

[guitarguy]

Being a Corsair was supposed to be exciting and dangerous, but today Marcus wasn't feeling it. He was sitting 20K from the Ross planetoid in Cambridge, trying to find a way to disable the weapons platforms. "If only I had been a Lane Hacker." he chuckled "I'm sure there's software for these platforms somewhere, but it'll cost us a pile of credits." He turned his ship towards the Omega-5 hole, only to be greeted by a Bretonian Templar.

Ensign Blake Owen thought being in the military might be too boring, but today he had changed his mind. He was now engaged in a dogfight with what he thought was another Corsair rookie, but this guy was amazing. He mounted weapons his computer couldn't ID, and his Titan was maneuverable while carrying thick armor. The ensign, however, had overlooked his one advantage.

"Mini Razor" the Titan's computer display showed under the Templar weapon list. Marcus had only a train disruptor for pirating. "Obviously it won't do much." he thought "The razor will." With both sides unsure of their advantages, the battle was mostly maneuvering, with both pilots taking each other's shields down multiple times. Finally, Blake was able to take off the Titan's wing with his razor. Marcus, thinking that it was time to retreat, started thrusting toward the Omega-5 jump hole until it failed. Just as Marcus thought his number was up, a wing of Centurions appeared. "Your ship's falling apart, eject and we'll pick you up!" Marcus didn't need to think twice.

At the same time, Blake set his sights over the Titan, which had mysteriously stopped maneuvering. No matter, he fired the mini razor - right into Marcus Whitman's escape pod. At first, Blake was perplexed as to why the razor had no visible effect on the ship's hull, but he soon realized what had happened when he saw the Titan's lack of life signs. "No time to dwell on the past." he thought, using his shield batteries to prepare for the incoming Corsairs. His weapons ate through the Centurion's hull. The rookie Corsair had no idea of the potential his own deadly craft. The other two Corsairs quickly retreated into the jump hole.

Blake was now left with a remarkably well-preserved Titan wreck. "I bet the engineers at Cambridge would love to have a look at this." He routed power to the ship's tractor beam and began moving the wreck to the station at impulse speed. After an hour of contemplating what it was like for the original colonists who explored Sirius at similar speeds, he reached Cambridge. "Well Ensign, you've brought in quite the catch!" the technician at Cambridge Research station's special weapons department said excitedly. "Two weapons are definitely Nomad Cannons, and the others are powerful experimental weapons, probably Rhineland-based." We've already seen these weapons before, but they're rare. Your Corsair friend sure got around." Blake was about to ask what other weapons the research department had when the technician spoke again. "I've taken the liberty of mounting them on your fighter, now go blast a noodle muncher for me!" he said as he hurried him out the door. It had just occurred to him that low ranking military weren't supposed to have access to this part of the station, and he didn't want more paperwork.

Blake got to the bar in time for tea, then launched to space. He had to get back to his patrol, but he was still feeling bad about actually killing someone. He always tractored pods and brought them to the BPA for processing, he never liked having to actually kill a person, particularly young ones, full of potential. "Ah well, live and let die, I suppose." With that, he set a route to New London.

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