"Zoners, Captain Helfari here, I've come to help."
The sleek, though already scuffed hull of the Karasu fighter gleamed in the sun of Omicron Theta. Ahead was the hellish firefight, a soldier's nightmare as he raced towards impossible odds of a swarm of treacherous Corsair bombers and fighters. Not to mention the sight of an Osiris' guns being turned onto the Zoners by Corsair gunners. Though the fighter burns into the fight, engaging a bomber as he'd make a series of hard turns. The G-Force meter raging as anyone but a veteran pilot would vomit, or worse: blackout.
He turned wild, spun off-target by a t-bone collision of another fighter slamming his hull. Seams ripped, the hiss of air leaving the ship ominously sounded inside the cockpit. Spinning wild he came around and centered onto the Osiris. The torpedo monitor lit up, and showed a torpedo was away, making a sweep by, a second one was launched. Little to no effect, coming from a fighter-grade torpedo. All the same, he came around and made a second pass. Midway into the strike, he saw the collision coming, a Corsair bomber like a hammer from above. His smaller vessel sent reeling as stabilizers begun to fail and engines flickered and sputtered. The hiss became a roar as he scrambled to put his pressure helmet on. With a locking snap, he grabbed the stick and pulled the ship around.
A lucid moment seems to pass from the cockpit's camera, the sun in sight beyond the front of the Corsair-controlled Osiris, a beautiful sight as any. The swirling asteroid fields in the distance, the eerie-green nebulae seeming to encroach as one might stare at them. A second passes, and then the full fury of the Osiris guns turn on the severely damaged fighter. The camera fizzles and breaks free as the ship's hull splits and tears. Munitions explode as the engines break wild and roar forward into the distance before exploding. The cockpit camera flounders around wildly as it continues to transmit the last moments of the tiny fighter's demise.
Silence, a gut-wrenching silence as any is what space offers to the audio recorder. The camera bumps through the wreckage of the former fighter, spun wildly as the blur of a fighter or bomer blows by, guns roaring. As it slows, one can see the carnage of the battle, an utter massacre as Zoners vessels hopelessly make a defiant stand to protect their home, their Free-Port. A safe haven turned into a hellish war zone. Debris from capital vessels and fighters slowly swirled like their asteroid cousins across the system, a grim mockery of the price of any fool's war.
The camera flickers, a low-power light comes on before it shuts down and reads a singular message before the transmission is cut.
Zoners Guard Pilot: Izii Helfari, K.I.A.
>>>End recording, transmission sent to Sparta Guard Station, commanding personnel.
My honest reaction upon reading the forums, whenever I rarely do. Joe Kucan, he's the man.
A message blipped up on the corner of Saronsens screen. An old name.. Helfari? He remembered him. Captain Helfari was one of the few Zoners who actually enjoyed the presence of Saronsen, and even felt he was more than just a "quick to anger" Zoner.
'Killed in Action.' Saronsen rubbed his temples. "Man.. Of all the people to get killed, one of the smart ones had to go." He began bringing up various schematics, spreadsheets.. And images of the Jinkusu he rendered useless. A large gash along the entire side of it made it extremely expensive to repair and rebuild. Its engines remained in tact, and were still operational. That was a plus. However, it was just an extremely damaged hull with no working systems, life support, and missing a huge chunk of itself.
It would be expensive to rebuild.
But since when did he care about the cost? Saronsen smirked to himself, finding out the primary destination of the message. Sparta Guard Station? He sent a message of his own, with this one attached under it. It was short, and to the point.
// I will be moving this to the Stories and Biographies section as part of the Mending the Broken Hammer thread I made sometime back. It will be more appropriate for the story to be told there.
My honest reaction upon reading the forums, whenever I rarely do. Joe Kucan, he's the man.