SPYD HER a good shot

Who: Amber, Justin
Where: Space
When: Before Jay dies.
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---- Snip ----
In Justin's mind he could suddenly see what the Starbeetle could see. He was
flying through space, he could control everything just by the power of thought.
He saw the Vespidae in the distance attacking the Hymenoptera platform.

Justin turned the Starbeetle towards it and started firing.
---- End Snip ----

There were several things that Justin didn't know about Amber when he engaged Vespidae in combat. One was that she had been trained by the best pilot to come out of the JMC academy, the second was that she was really, really fed up. Hell hath no fury, and all that. The IFOF software had a field day with the Starbeetle, it was neither JMC or Hymenopterra, so was classified as a threat, but it had a registered crew member inside scans revealed.

"Justin." Amber growled, as the first of Starbeetle's rockets powered towards the little fighter. She pulled the Vespidae into a tight roll and the rockets sailed past. "Cease fire Justin, or I'll blow you outta the god damned sky. You are supposed to be on on our side!" she said, bringing Vesp around for a strafing run. She fired a few pot shots of his port bow and waited for a response.

"This is Justin. I am one with the Hive. We will execute the traitor ship and the pretender Queen!" He said, his mind lost amongst the thousands of millions of angry swarming insects out for blood.

"Damnit Justin, is this what you wanted? Is it? To be with them, to lose your identity? There is no such thing as an individual in the Hive, only what she lets you be" Amber yelled, trying to convince the deranged engineer to see sense. That part of him was still in there.

Part of Justin was in there still, and he was loving it. He had his own ship. Potential had come good with his promise. Whilst Starbeetle was alive, he was Captain of his own vessel. The irony was not lost on Amber as she pulled out of the way of another attack.

Whilst he had the speed of thought on his side, he had no piloting experience and was flying a ship based on the sluggish Starbug. She could easily run rings about the ship in Vespidae, with it's smaller fighter style design and Amber's superior skills and experience. It seems though the Hymenopterra had thought of this and sent in some smaller craft to run distractions on Vespidae so that Justin could line up some good shots.

She rolled the Vespidae, pulling some G-forces that made her get tunnel vision as the laser fire zipped past the outter hull of her ship, one managing to graze the paint work. She lined up one of the smaller fighters and pulled the trigger. It exploded in a shower of debris. The second fell just as quickly.

The engineer didn't have a hope.

Amber swung it around as a lucky rocket managed to smash into one of Vespidae's landing legs, and another went wide. The ship, still having a vestige of intelligence, more like an AI than a true Hymenopterra, almost seemed to howl in a screech of metallic pain. The wide shot caught the wing of the Space Corps craft that Davie was flying, catching the missile banks and causing it to go up in flames. Amber growled, re-aligning the sights on the vibrating wings keeping Starbeetle in the air.

She let fire with the plasma cannon.

The shot hit home, square in the engine housing. It disabled the craft, a living being couldn't live after a hit like that. The Starbug wanna be was venting atmosphere. Amber only hoped that, as much as he was a twit, Justin would have enough time to make it to whatever that thing called an escape pod.