Rise of the Machines

Who:- Katrina Salter
Where:- flight Deck
Katrina slid out from beneath the fuselage of Space Eagle 3. It had
been heavily damaged in the recent battles with the Halkons and so as
a senior flight technician, without a minute to recouperate from the
mission, she now found herself alone in the flight deck, with the
task of repairing the fleet.
Of course there were other technicians, but Jay always specifically
asked for her. Partly because he knew she was about the most
competent, he had even let her fix a small scratch on the Phoenix!!!
But mostly because he could look out of his office window and look at
her arse while she worked.
At the moment however, he was pissing it up in Parrotts, she thought
about him for a second, right now he was probably lying on his back
across a table having a large bottle of tequila poured down his neck
by Dean Thomas and Phil FeBuggure, each of him.
Damn, she loved him.
She felt relieved to have finally hit the end of her shift, so she
packed away her tools and wiped off the grease from her hands.
"Thank smeg for that" she thought out loud "Now, a shower an dthen
join Jay....before I miss the best part of his drunkeness and all I'm
left with is him leaning on my shoulder telling me how much he loves
Phil..."
She was so taken with her own thoughts that she didn't even notice
the huge shadow looming over her from behind.
The turned around wearily, and found herself face to face with the
cockpit of the Phoenix, up on it's landing legs.
It's gatling guns extended from within its hull and aimed directly at
Katrina.
"Jay..." she started "What are you..."
She gazed through the cockpit glass, it was empty, noone was
controlling the Phoenix
"Who? What?"
Katrina didn't wait for an answer as the gatling guns slowly began to
rotate, their tell-tale whine warning of impending gunfire, she dived
beneath the Space Eagle she'd been repairing narrowly avoiding a hail
of bullets.
What the smeg was going on, the Phoenix was acting as though it had
emotion, it's computer wasn't sentient like Holly, Tria or Saddam
were, it didn't possess an AI per-se, merely a simulation of
intelligence designed to make it easier to interface with humans.
It was smegging spaceship, and about as self aware as a Vauxhall
Nova, but it currently had her pinned down under fire, under it's own
steam.
Katrina heard something ignite above her head, the Phoenix must have
punctured the fighter's fuel tank with its bullets.
She knew she had to get out, fast gazing around from floor level she
looked for the nearest cover to run to before fleeing.
She wasn't left with any choice about when to make her move, the
Phoenix using it's grappler tossed the burning Space Eagle aside like
a toy exposing Katrina.
She tried to get away, but the Phoenix slammed it's grappler down,
pinning her to the floor by the leg.
She screamed in pain as the grapper tore through her skin, and
crushing her leg.
The Phoenix then lifted her from the ground and threw her across the
flight deck, crashing into a pile of cargo crates near the Raven's
landing pad.
The Phoenix thundered over, tossing cargo crates, loading cranes and
equipment aside, until it reached the spot where she had landed, it
readied for the kill, aiming it's guns only to find...she had gone.
"HEY TINCAN!!!" came her voice over a loudspeaker.
The Phoenix turned to face the direction the sound had come from,
it's sensors detecting weapons charging.
Katrina had gotten inside the Raven's cockpit and had several
missle's targeted on the Phoenix, her thumb pressed down on the
launch button and four horizontal columns of smoke filled her field
of vision instantly, moving away from her at high speed.
The smoke cleared. The Phoenix lay on the flight deck floor, smoke
bollowing from it's destroyed engine housing, it's hull battered and
buckled. The landing legs and been sheared clean from the fuselage
and the windows had gone completley.
It was for want of a better term...dead..
"Holy shit..." Katrina sighed, the adrenaline dying down and causing
her to wince as the pain returned to her heavily injured leg. "Jay's
sooooo gonna kill me....."
<Tag - MK.10's rampage is worse than we thought!>