"Awe come on Corsairs, come play in the fog!" The haughty, arrogant voice was obviously female.
"Shes most likely in the Maltov Nebula, split up and search."
Roger that.
Les recognized the voice. She had been here before Anna. Just as the last time she was staying in the nebula avoiding open contact.
Last timelast time she flew circles around me in that little black ship, a Ravens Claw, and it was one of the gunboats that finally ended her flight. This time would be different.
Yeah, I mused, this time there isnt any gunboat support. Grrrrits time for this Golden girl to learn some respect for the Corsairs.
I was approaching the jump hole to Unknown
"Found her." Juans voice rang through the closed, radio channel. "D3, she sees me as well, moving to engage."
"Roger that, amigo. Venganza en route. 45K till intercept."
Bah! Theyre on the other side of the nebula. I veered my Titan toward Juans indicated location and listened expectantly to the comm.
I was still 26K out when Venganza reached Juan and Anna. Some garbled communication came across the open channel I think from Juan and then his ship disappeared off my radar.
Venganza was retrieving Juans life pod as I reached the destination and engaged Anna.
I remembered from last time that she would fly straight at me with guns blazing and then use her ships greater agility to turn and blast me in the side. True to form she charged. I strafed to avoid a full blast of her guns and fired back then quickly put an asteroid between our ships. Chunks of rock burst from the asteroid as she tried to line up on me. I punched the thruster and began weaving through the asteroid field making several changes in direction. This seemed to keep her guessing and I was able to get a lock and knock down her shields. However, the agility of her fighter helped her avoid a continuous pelting from my Salamancas and Golden Blade.
She began to adapt to my technique and we entered into a give and take exchange of attacks. The battle progressed into open space at the edge of the nebula where she attempted to simply out-turn my Titan with her Ravens Claw. I was turning as hard as the Titan is able just to keep her thrusters in sight and then inspiration. A short reverse thrust and therefire!
Unable to keep up the constant merry-go-round Anna switched tactics. She flew out away from me and forced me into a jousting match, which at this point away from the asteroids was fine by me. The Ravens Claw was loaded with more guns and I was unable to go head-to-head without loosing fast. I strafed and dove firing my Sidewinders with acceptable effect, but she was not finished.
Both of us were changing our tactics and adapting to the other. We were trading blows and the last charge could be hers or mine
I managed to punch the eject button at the last moment before my ship erupted into a silent blast of fire and charred metal.
Fortunately a passing Corsair patrol picked me up as Anna limped back to her base. I was cleared by medical and returned home for some rest.
//End transmission
ooc: It was an excellent fightcouldnt believe how long it lasted (someone said 45 minutes). My eyes felt like they were bulging from the sockets and someone had wiped them with cotton.
