Ships inbound Pt2

In the hangar the crewmen who'd answered the call were getting ready
and entering their craft. Three of them were too far away for him to
identify, but Jack saw a woman looking up at her Eagle numbered 4,
Jessie ran a hand though her hair and waved as she clambered into her
fighter. He returned the wave and entered his one with a white 5
emblazoned on its fins. Looking around, he could identify the
functions of most of the controls; his dream had been pretty accurate
on that part for some reason. He sat down and sighed.
"Eagle wing. Initiate launch sequence." Mk.9's voice boomed
across the hangar. Staccato clicks of starter motors echoed up the
line of ships followed by the five thumps of drive flames igniting and
they filled the massive space with sound and light. As the kilometre
wide bay doors parted the engine whines became fever pitched before
the air rushed out and into the vacuum beyond and an eerie silence
enveloped them. The green fighter craft slowly rose and filed out of
the door and into the obsidian darkness of space.
The stars were tiny pin pricks of light that glittered innocently, and
between these points of beauty came the dark angular shapes of the
seven robotic attack vessels, still a little way out, but heading
straight for the dwarf. Looming large behind them, a great hulking
shape that was the Nazi pirate mothership floated, broadcasting the
commands to the drones.
"Eagle wing, attack formation." Mk.9 came over the radio. He was
in command of the fighters since he was linked to the radar and was
aware of their positions and the Captain was too drunk. "Keep speed
and heading for their mothership but try and take some of the drones
out on the way, I'll get the rest."
Jack sat at the controls. At the moment he'd only punched
commands into the autopilot, but now he sat back and was trawling
through the rather large manual for the ship with his booted feet
resting on the console. Suddenly, he kicked his legs down and sat up.
His eyes darted between the book and the controls a few times before
he pressed a few buttons and waited expectantly.
With a hum and a click, a small flat shining disc was ejected
from a slot nearby. Phantom leant over, pulled it out and read it:
"Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits Vol. 37."
"Hmm, thought as much." He muttered, then flung it sternwards
and then replaced it with a similar disc that bore the legend:
"Dream Theater."
He sank back in the chair as the sound of progressive rock
filled the cabin, picked up the book and thumbed through it idly.
"Now that I've learnt the important part," He said to no-one in
particular, "I can get on with learning which ones are the ass kicking
buttons."
"Who are we fighting?" Jessie said on the open channel. The
other pilots each replied with versions of "Not sure."
"Nazi space pirates guys," Mk.9 burst in, "watch out, you're
almost on top of their fighters."
"Pirates." Jessie growled.
All five Space Eagles powered towards the enemy with only
sporadic updates from Mk.9 and some random shouting from Jed. Soon
they were upon the incoming drones and under fire. Each Eagle
responded with a pre-programmed set of random evasive patterns, giving
the effect of a spastic ballet. They counterattacked and laserfire
swept the space between the opposing sides. Jessie on the other flank
got lucky and the leading robot erupted into a green ball of fire.
While he was looking at that a stray shot speared past his cockpit
window. The plexiglass glowed orange and a line of the melted screen
was distorted from the tremendous heat that had skimmed it. A wave of
anger and relief washed through him as his hands danced across the
console unleashing death in all directions. Each shot missed by miles.
"Hey rookie," Buzzed another pilot through the static, identity
unknown to Jack from voice alone, "you got your targeting computer
switched off or what? How could you miss so badly!?"
Jack looked through the mighty tome again and realised that yes,
in fact he hadn't even had it on to begin with.
As quick as the engagement had begun, it had ended. And the six
drones continued on their journey. The Eagle wing regrouped into an
arrowhead shape and closed in on the mothership. Already a small
defensive line of five more pirate drones had formed next to it.
------------
The six remaining robotic vessels of the attack fleet streaked towards
the Dwarf's massive form intent on damaging as much of it as they
could. Mk.9 saw them approach and hooked himself into the weapons
array. Grids and ghostly shapes drew themselves across his field of
vision and tracking displays circled all six.
All over the left side of Blue Dwarf, banks of turrets swivelled and
tracked the distant attackers. By now the Eagles were at a safe
distance, and just as the first of the incoming drones loosed a
missile the Dwarf returned fire.
The barrels recoiled on each turret and bursts a hydrogen
powered maser fire lanced out leaving hundreds of blue trails of
ionised gases making the Dwarf look like some kind of deadly neon
porcupine. Unfortunately at that distance the attack only grazed a few
of them and caused no major damage.
The small ships flew closer.
Missiles pummelled the mining ship's hull and lasers swept back
and forth gouging chunks out of it. Sections of blue hull plating
drifted away leaving the piping and wires that were the ship's guts
exposed to space.
Once more, the blue streaks shot out from the Dwarf's defence
net and instantly vapourised two of the attackers whilst seriously
maiming a third.
"Yeeeesh!" Shouted Captain Calvert, "That's gunna leave a mark."
He went back to scratching his cheek with the barrel of a pistol
before looking up at the new defence officer, "Thought ah told yah ta
kill all them varmints? DO IT!"
Mk.9 felt rather less than happy about failing the Captain when
he had a gun in his hand and redoubled his efforts. Outside the ship
the small battle intensified as he brought more guns online and one by
one the last three ships stopped attacking and became debris.
"Yesssssssssssssssssss!" He exclaimed and danced a little jig
round the drive room before the firewire cable that was still plugged
in tugged him off balance and sent him sprawling.
---------------------
The Eagles came up to the mothership fast and slammed past the
fighters, strafing them with fire. Nearly all of them exploded from
that single engagement and the pilots in the Eagle wing could almost
taste the imminent victory, that was until a swarm of ships exited the
larger vessel and pursued them.
Phantom stared open mouthed as the Nazi attack ships poured out
like hornets from a recently poked hive. His knuckles whitened on the
joystick and weapons fire flicked past.
"Number 5, you need to take down the ship, we can keep attention
away from you. Learner like you'll get torn to pieces in the main
fight." The squadron leader said. Jack still couldn't place the voice.
"Scanners say there's hole in the middle that leads into the middle of
it and a well-placed missile will take it out. You need to fly down
that trench along the spine of the vessel." The lead Eagle, number 1,
headed the other 3 back towards the enemy ships as Jack, with a
resigned fit of swearing dropped carefully towards the deep valley
that ran across the top of the Nazi ship. Its hull was blocky and
seeded with square laser turrets that did their best to shoot him but
as soon as he dipped into the trench he was safe from them. He wasn't,
however from the jutting spars and archways that resided within
waiting to smash an unwary flyboy into smithereens.
Soon, a dark hole in the distance became visible, that was where
he needed to aim for. Just one missile and everything was over, he
could go home and sleep. A quick glance at the manual informed him how
to lock onto his target and he jabbed some buttons. Red graphics lined
up on the glass in front and then sputtered off again.
"Hey, have you turned off your targeting computer?" The leader
shouted over the internal roar of engines and weapons.
"Smeg!" Shouted Jack, "It's broken, I havn't switched it off."
"Then you'll have to use-" The connection crackled.
"Use what? Did you say, The Force?" He asked, wondering if he'd heard
correctly or if it was just the fizzling of the radio playing with his
head.
"No, no you idiot, I said you'll have to use blind luck and some
educated guesswork! If you don't mind, I'm rather busy here." The
noise clicked off and Jack was left alone with the hole fast
approaching and time running out.
The four Space Eagles wheeled about in a cloud of dispersing ex-drone
parts, lasers probing the debris for a live target. Gradually, it
seemed they were winning. And luckily no one had taken a hit yet.
<Tag anyone who fancies it.>
OOC-Try and slip in as one of the unnamed pilots perhaps?