Arcturian - Pt. 4

Read part one here: http://swanindustries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/arcturian-chapter-1.html

Read part two here: http://swanindustries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/arcturian-pt-2.html

Read part three here: http://swanindustries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/arcturian-pt-3.html

By Calum Morton

Blasts of pure energy spewed forth from gun pits and cannons and spread out lazily across the gulf of space. The ships that tumbled and twisted around the space station at Tau Beta. Markus Sillassus swung about the controls and bore down upon a pirate scout ship he waited a few seconds; sure enough, there were the blue-purple blasts of the Arcturian's Pulse Laser Cannons. Some shots were dispersed by the pirate vessels’ energy shields but more went through and tore holes in her hull. Fire blossomed out of the ruptures as internal blasts ripped the small ship apart. Danm good shot, Seb thought Markus, as he heaved on the controls and fell into formation behind the Taurus.

“Captain Odan, what’s our next target?” Markus asked over the secure comm channel.

“The rebel pirate fleet is being commanded from a Polaris class heavy cruiser sitting just outside of the orbit of the station and well out of the way of the battle. I want to punch a hole through the rebel squadrons and lead a force against that cruiser. All available ships form up on me and follow my lead!” The reply came over open channels to all confederacy ships in the battle. A beam of purple light flicked across from a pirate vessel and struck a Confederacy Vespa class destroyer. The beam raked across the hull of the ship and flame billowed out of the rent in the ship’s flank. The destroyer returned a fire with a volley of missiles and three large ion blasts. The pirate ship disappeared in a cloud of fire and debris as she was instantaneously torn apart. Markus flicked a switch on the control panel in front of him and locked on to a rebel star fighter just ahead and port of him. He pressed a button and watched a missile streak towards the small craft. One flash of light later and the fighter was no more. Somehow this just doesn’t feel right thought Markus as he adjusted his flight path to follow the Taurus. A drifting hulk briefly obscured his view of the rest of the battle as he arced over its’ port bow. The floating wreck was so damaged he couldn’t even tell what side of the battle it belonged to.

A few minutes later they saw it, the rebel’s capital ship. The great Polaris class sat fat and wide just outside of the main battle and occasionally fired on a ship that dared to fly too close. That thing was built like a floating fortress and armed to the teeth with a nasty array of weaponry, from miniature tactical nuclear missiles, to plasma burst cannons, and even x-ray lasers: invisible yet devastating new weapons which could pass straight through shields and hull alike to cook a ships’ crew where they stood. Markus gunned the engines and followed the rest of the motley squadron who were headed straight for it.

Down in weapons Seb held his fire until he saw an opportunity to exploit a weakness in his enemy’s defence. As a bot he had a knack for calculating the best possible moment to strike so he sat, finger on the trigger, waiting…

Arcturian - Pt. 3

Read part one here: http://swanindustries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/arcturian-chapter-1.html

Read part two here: http://swanindustries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/arcturian-pt-2.html

By Calum Morton

On board the bridge of the Taurus Captain Nezzarr Odan listened to a report from his sensors and weapons officer Ensign Kross. Odan couldn’t stand Kross, son of a wealthy Confederacy diplomat, because he was about as useless as a damp box of matches.

“I see, ensign, I see,” said Odan nodding at Kross as he acknowledged that the ship they hunted was headed for Tau Beta Station. Tau Beta was a large space station on the fringes of Confederacy territory, that sat as a garrison to guard the borders against rebel and pirate held space near a large nebula. It seemed that Captain Silassus might well be meeting contacts in the rebellion. Not that it mattered to Nezzarr Odan; his job was simple: arrest Silassus and impound his ship and cargo pending further investigation on numerous felonies and crimes across the known (and probably unknown) parts of the galaxy. “Continue to stay in their blind spot and follow them, we’ll arrest them at Tau Beta Station,” ordered Captain Odan before retiring to the captain’s chair. They would be dropping out of Jump Space soon and he would need to be ready to react to any tricks Silassus might play.

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Markus Silassus awoke to the sound of an alarm chirping. The control panel told him that the navi-comp would be dropping the ship out of Jump Space momentarily. He sat up and hit the ship coms button to broadcast to the crew.

“Okay, we’re coming out of Jump Space so buckle up! Seb, I want you to get down to weapons and be ready, warm up the pulse lasers and raise the shields to full. I don’t want to drop out right into the middle of a pirate raid and get caught with my trousers around my ankles! Devin, heat up the Ion Drive and make sure we’re ready if we need to make some evasive manoeuvres.” There, that should do it, not that there’s likely to be any pirates, we’d have received a distress signal, thought Markus.

The ship jumped and bucked as the Jump Drive hurled the Arcturian back into real space. Markus’ face was illuminated by the bright flashes of laser beams, plasma blasts and the flaring jets of flame created by explosive decompression and missile hits. Well shit, I certainly wasn’t expecting there to actually BE a pirate raid going on! Markus quickly hit the comm panel and spoke his orders. “Seb, I’m going to hail the station, try and find out what the heck is going on out there” Keep those shields at full but do not engage! Devin, hold on tight this is going to get interesting!”

“Define interesting,” Devin replied through his wrist comm with evident concern in his voice.

“Uh, oh god, oh god we’re all going to die?” replied Markus.

“Probability of survival remains at a steady 78.65 per cent, Captain.” Of course Seb would have to chip in, he always did!

A new light blinked on the instrument panel: someone was hailing the Arcturian. Surely it couldn’t be the station, not this quickly. It wasn’t. Markus answered the hail.

“Captain Markus Silassus of the Blazing Arcturian?” A terse, authoritative voice came over the speaker. Only confederacy officers speak like that. Shit.

“Speaking, who are you and what do you want?” replied Markus, an edge now set to his voice.

“I am Captain Nezzarr Odan of the Confederacy Light Interceptor Taurus. I was under orders to arrest you but it appears that a situation has developed which is rather more…pressing.” The voice showed almost no emotion and had an almost imperceptible French accent. That’s a new one.

“Yeah? I hadn’t noticed. What do you want me to do about it? I ain’t a hero, Captain.” I don’t have time for this, Markus thought as he played for time.

“Well, today is your chance to prove you are loyal to the Confederacy and not the kind of rebel scum who you were supplying on Procturus.” The voice sounded as if its owner was smiling, the kind of smile that a predator gives to prey that it has trapped in a net. Dammit.

“What did you have in mind, Captain Odan?” Markus hoped that the fear wouldn’t show in his voice; he’d been through worse, after all, and so had the Arcturian.

“I intend to get into that fight and rescue as many civilians a possible, as is my duty and as should yours be too.” The voice had just a hint of anger in it now. Well, I guess I don’t really have a choice, die fighting, or get arrested; Markus flipped the mute mic button.

“Okay, we’re going in there and I know you both heard all of that. Just play cool and we’ll come out of this just fine.” Markus hoped that they couldn’t hear the concern in his voice as he flipped the button once again. “Okay then Captain, we’ll follow you in. We wouldn’t dream of running away from such a good, just fight.” Markus’ cocky voice swept over the ears of the crew of the Taurus.

“Full ahead Lieutenant Darmstor, we have a battle to join!” boomed captain Odan from his chair as the lights of battle grew ever closer like a fireworks display on a summer’s night. Danger awaited but it was his duty to protect the citizens of the confederacy. He read the signature of the Arcturian behind him and knew that Silassus would stay true to his word.

Arcturian - Pt. 2

Read part one here: http://swanindustries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/arcturian-chapter-1.html

By Calum Morton

Calm fell over the Blazing Arcturian as she settled into the ethereal paths of Jump Space and all aboard her relaxed.

“Seb? Seb!?” yelled Markus, “Where is that blasted bucket of bolts?” He spoke to the still air of the ships’ flight deck.

“Over here, sir.” a grating voice, like a lead pipe on a washboard reached Markus’ ears. “In the cargo hold making everything secure, sir,” the voice continued. The voice belonged to S.E.B, Markus’ Security and Engineering Bot purchased on Pleoras nearly seven years ago. Seb’s casing was a bronze colour. He had a humanoid head and torso with two arms, at the base of his torso were a pair of miniature caterpillar tracks which proved an excellent means of locomotion.

“Get down to the engine room; Devin might need some help.” Markus said to the bot as he casually stepped into the cargo hold, his voice echoing across its cavernous volume. He liked Seb - good bot, been useful to him many times over the years. “We’re safely into Jump Space and aren’t due out at Tau Beta for another few hours so I’m gonna take a nap up on the flight deck.” Markus concluded patting the bot on the back of his torso casing before swaggering back out of the hold.

“Aye captain, I shall render Master Devin what assistance I can,” he chirped, before trundling off to the engine room. Those tracks really did come in handy sometimes; Seb wasn’t too bad for a bit of heavy lifting either. I really ought to give him a run down just to make sure that second hand circuit board is still running, maybe when we get to Tau Beta.

Seb trundled into the engine room and allowed his photo-receptors to focus on the immobile form of Devin. Seb’s logic circuits fired up as he calculated the likely causes of Devin’s condition. Jump Space shock seemed likely. Seb rolled up to Devin and shook him with one of his manipulator arms. Devin stirred and sat up, reaching for his flask of Saurin Brandy. That ought to settle his nerves, thought Seb.

“Ah! Oh, Seb, it’s just you…you gave me quite a start!” The small Agravian rose to his feet as he conversed with the mechanoid.

“The captain sent me to assist you; did we sustain any damage during that last run?” The grating voice of the robot asked, though as Seb had no mouth the sound seemed to project from his chest.

“Yeah Seb, I had to do a re-route, we’ll probably need to clean out the radiation filters again and might even need to do a shake down just to make sure we don’t get a blow-through next time we hit atmosphere,” replied Devin as he turned to his tool kit and picked up his favourite spanner. Better get to work, he though, it was going to be a long journey.

Back on the bridge, Markus Silassus settled into the pilot’s chair and began to doze, somehow, through years of flying; he managed to fall asleep with one eye on the instruments panel. Nothing got past Markus Silassus.

But this ship wasn’t going past him. It followed just far enough back in the Arcturian’s exhaust wake that it was shrouded from all sensor probing. The Confederacy Light Interceptor Taurus kept a steady speed and followed the Arcturian on into the black and blue of the almost ethereal Jump Space.

Arcturian - Pt. 1

By Calum Morton

One more job, they said. It’ll be easy, they said. Markus Silassus was beginning to regret taking on this run. Far too much hassle for far too little pay; he really should have known better but times were hard, especially with the confederacy on his back in almost every quadrant. Ferrying supplies and several highly illegal shipments of pulse blasters to rebels on the near moon of Procturus One was not his best idea yet. Damn, that one was too close the smuggler thought as a plasma blast evaporated just off his starboard bow.

“Devin, get down to the engine room and give us more thrust. Re-route the…”

“The drive line directly into the tachyon chamber, yeah yeah,” parroted Devin, Markus’ trusty Agravian mechanic. Devin was a perfect specimen of his species, slight, sharp eyed and clever with his hands. His green scaled skin reflected the red glow of the emergency lights which now illuminated the corridors inside the Blazing Arcturian, his ship, home, life and source of most of his woes. May the elders smile upon me now, Devin thought as he ducked into the confined engine room. The deck bucked and heaved as another blast landed just shy of the ships energy reflector shield. More thrust, huh, I’ll give you more thrust you crazy fool. Devin slid the drive plate loose and began his work. He tapped his wrist communicator and spoke.

“Re-routing now, things might get a little bumpy but we should get clear of atmosphere.” His voice was raspy in the cockpit but Markus heard him well enough.

“Punch it Devin – we’ve only got one shot at this,” replied Markus, still wrestling with the controls as he weaved through incoming fire. Couldn’t be a moment too soon, I’m getting sick of dodging these plasma blasts Markus mused as he felt the ship judder then surge as Devin made the connection and the ship achieved its highest, if slightly unsafe, atmospheric velocity. Markus heaved on the controls and sent the ship into a tight spinning arc as he made a break for space and the great black beyond. Just a couple more seconds and they’d be clear of atmosphere and able to use the Arcturian’s Jump Drive. Suddenly the rumble of air rushing past the cockpit was gone as the ship hit vacuum.

“Devin, hold onto your tail, I’m activating the Jump Drive now!” Markus barked into the ship communicator. Down in the engine room Devin clutched tightly to a plasteel stanchion as the world blurred and lurched around him. His head span and he closed his eyes, hoping to alleviate the feeling of nausea caused by the leap into Jump Space. The inside of the Blazing Arcturian creaked and bellowed as it suffered under the stress exerted by the powerful Jump Engines. But she held, she always did…

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GUEST WORK! So if you have any comments, please send 'em along to Calum so he can incorporate it into his next exciting chapter!