Treasure, adventure and combat. Ah, the life of the pirate. Captain Ga’len and the crew of The Bleeding Rose are on their long journey home. Along the way, they see what every pirate knows to be another source of income, danger or both.
“Sir, we are seeing a large amount of debris in one of the belts in this system. Initial scans show a number of useful and expensive modules in the various wrecks that are littering the belt.”
Captain Ga’len thinks out loud, “Free stuff and it’s on our way…Mr. Jemelsen, alter course for the debris field.”
As the EVA crews are working, salvaging what they can, the proximity alarms begins to sound.
“Captain, three ships are inbound to the belt, one tristan class frigate and two coercer class destroyers!!!”
Captain Ga’eln smiles, stands up and yells, “YARR!!! Red alert!!! Ready all weapons and drones, prepare to return fire when they fire upon us!!! Oh, and recall the EVA crews, they don’t want to be in the middle of a firefight.”
Just as the first volley hits the shields, the airlock door closes and the EVA crews are safe inside.
“Captain, we have targeted the closest ship and it’s going to explode soon….” a bright flash and weapons officer Ceres is cut off.
“Sir,” she continues, “Ahem, there are two ships remaining. Shall I attack the frigate or the destroyer.”
Suddenly, the coms kick in, “Hahahaha, you may have destroyed one of my ships, but I will win this fight!!!! I am Captain Panzars and you shall know my wrath!!!!”
Captain Ga’len turns towards his weapons officer, “Ceres, show him the meaning of wrath, would you? Lock weapons on that frigate and fire.”
“With pleasure sir.” Ceres does as her captains orders and a few short seconds later, another bright flash fills the view screen.
“Hail the last remaining destroyer, tell them to surrender” orders Captain Ga’len. It’s too late though, the last ship fled the scene.
“Nutz, oh well. Stand down from red alert and keep an eye on the scanners for that last destroyer. EVA crews, resume recover of salvage”
Several hours later, as The Bleeding Rose nears it’s home, they come upon another ship in a belt.
“Sir, the ship seems to be on auto pilot. It must be running one of those salvager programs. Wait…incoming hostiles. Sansha’s Nation pirates. They are firing on the ship sir. Will those rats never learn, a Harbinger class battle cruiser can easily defeat them. Captain, what do you want to do?”
Captain Ga’len thinks for a moment and then makes his orders known. “Move closer to one of the rats, when the ship is destroyed, deploy an EVA team and recover what we can from the wreck. Yes, I know that it’s an act of aggression to steal this person’s loot, but if they are in fact using a automatic combat program, we need to learn as much as possible so that our fellow ships in our corporation can know what we are dealing with. That level of automation is unheard of for a ship of war that size.”
The EVA crew works quickly and recovers a small about of booty from the wreck. Not that they needed to rush, the robotic Harbinger just continues on it’s slow route around the belt.
Ceres speaks up, “Sir, I have noticed something interesting. That ship will not lock it’s targeting scanners on a hostile until it’s been fired upon. We have been here over 10 minutes and the Concord rules of engagement give that ship 15 minutes to fire on us under law. Perhaps, if you wish to test our mettle again, we should lock our targeting scanners on the ship and loot another wreck.”
“Hmm…very intriguing Ceres. Relay your observations to the corporate office in case we do not survive testing your hypothesis.” Ga’len says, “approach the next wreck and loot it, then lock weapons on that battle cruiser. Standby all weapons and ready the drones, this is going to be another rough ride.”
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“Uhm, sir? I may have been mistaken,” Ceres says 12 minutes after looting the wreck.
“No Ceres, I don’t think you are mistaken,” says Marklin, “You said that the ship would fire back when it was fired upon. We have only locked our targeting scanners actively on that ship.”
Captain Ga’len sits in his chair, mashing his teeth. “Why doesn’t he fire. He has us out gunned. Perhaps that program is…” BOOM!!!!
“Sir, we are taking fire, a destroyer just warped into the belt and has opened fire on us from off the port stern!! Wait, Concord just warped in and is firing on the destroyer!! WOW, he’s gone, that was…”BOOM!!!!
“So, there is someone awake on that battle cruiser after all,” remarks Captain Ga’len, “Return fire on that battle cruiser, all weapons and drones. Close to optimal weapons range and orbit that Harbinger of DOOM!!”
Several minutes pass with the exchange of several volleys from each ship. To Captain Ga’len’s delight, his damage control systems and armor repair module are holding his ship together nicely. As the last shreds of hull evaporate under the heavy fire of The Bleeding Rose’s blasters, a huge fireball erupts where the battle cruiser was in space. Then silence.
“Sir, EVA crews have deployed to both the battle cruiser wreck and the destroyer. They have secured the useful items that were recovered in the cargo hold. What do we do now?”
“Mr. Jemelson, head for home. I don’t know about the lot of you, but I think we have all earned a respite from our travels and I am anxious to update our corporation members with this news. While we were victorious, “Says Captain Ga’len, “this is disturbing that the computing power needed to fight small engagements has evolved to the point that battle cruisers can now do so.”
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