Pax

During the lull in the firefight Star Wolf was shouting orders, Nathan was wounded, Trin who had dropped a good number of the bad guys was trying to help Pappy.

“Get your ass back here and help me!”

I rushed over to her, smiling "Put him down you stupid woman! Your injured, and I don't want you dying on me."

I briefly checked her wounds. Her neck was caked with blood, and for a horrible second I thought she had been shot their, and sustained a fatal injury. Luckily it was merely an earlobe that had caused the blood. The shot that had nearly hit her ribs was far worse. No way she would be able to support Pappy's weight with that injury.

"Trin, your gunna collapse with that wound, and that weight," I pointed at Pappy, "Hand the man to me, you limp your way after Star Wolf. It isn't weakness, your tough but your not stupid. You know your gunna bleed out if you don't get to Star Wolfs ship."

 

The fact that David rushed over to help her made her feel slightly less crazed, but he went to check her wounds, she slapped his hands away. "Get the **** off me." What is he doing? Can't he for once just get to the matter at hand and help me with what I'm doing instead of ****ing around with something else? She was fuming and glaring at David.

"Trin, your gunna collapse with that wound, and that weight," I pointed at Pappy, "Hand the man to me, you limp your way after Star Wolf. It isn't weakness, your tough but your not stupid. You know your gunna bleed out if you don't get to Star Wolfs ship."

"I'm not ****in' limping," she protested, but it was the truth. She was hurt, not injured, and she was on a mission. Only a compromise would settle this, but at least she came up with it herself. Her glare died off. "I'll grab his legs, you get the top. Then we'll move a Hell of a lot faster." If he didn't except this, she would walk back to her pistol and shoot him in the legs. That was a fact.

 

"I'll grab his legs, you get the top. Then we'll move a Hell of a lot faster."

"Dealio," I agreed grabbing Pappy's arms.

We hurried clumsily to where Star Wolf was leading the group. Nathan was still injured.

"Will someone help Nathan?!" I shouted at the group.

We arrived behind Star Wolf, and followed him to his ship.

 

"Hey, can you hear me in there kid? Stand away from the bulkhead, I'm placing plasma patches on the hull, close your eyes and get ready to spring out when you get a clear opening."

Nathan got up and began moving, but in a panic, he tripped over himself. The plasma blast exploded, burning half his left leg. He screamed out in pain, this wasn't looking good. Had it not been for Trin, Nathan would have died. She shot one hostile in the hand before slapping him. That brought him back to the situation. She pulled him up and yelled “Move, move, move!” before rushing ahead to help Pappy. Nathan turned and scrambled to pick up the gun he had gotten off Pappy. He let off a shot and managed to him someone in the kneecap. He turned to the others, only to find Carter and Trin pulling Pappy aboard Star Wolf's ship.
"Will someone help Nathan?!" yelled Carter. With a burnt leg and a bullet through his shoulder, Nathan struggled to get across what was no a battlefield. He was hit again in his left hand, now his whole left arm was useless. He ducked behind cover and fired several times with his right hand. He was losing energy and wasn't halfway across to the ship...

 

"What the hell?" Wolf screamed as a random gunman clipped the clean cut looking guy. He did a combat roll accross the deck, leapt up to shield him, and shot the gunman in the head. Actually, he aimed a bit high but the homing round quickly corrected and hit its painted mark.

"Now let that be the last of them, let's get outta here already."

Wolf lead them through the aerospace port to hangar bay seven, at least half of them were wounded by now, Stitch would have her hands full. It would have been hard to find the bay even if it hadn't been filled with smoke and red emergency lighting, but Wolf knew his way around the aerospace port.

"I guess you're gonna have to wait some other time to see Europa, ain't quite like a vacation eh? We got trouble in paradise now, something's got the PLF more pissed off than usual. And there she is," Wolf said, regarding a queer looking medium sized transport.

"She's called the Baroness, ugliest thing in this port ain't she? But I swear she's the finest ship a dreg like me could ever have. She's a custom job, I upgraded most of her myself."

It was built with purely space travel in mind, it had no aerodynamic features like stabilizers or rudders; it could never land on a planet with an atmosphere. While it appeared to be a commercial cargo transport of some kind it had obviously been modified, it clearly had an array of weapons on it.

"Get aboard, quickly. Stitch: come on out and greet our guests, they don't know the way to the medical bay, give them a hand." Wolf yelled into one of the ship's open hatches. An extremely tall woman poked her head out, her head barely clearing the hatch's overhead. She was dressed like a biker gang member from the twentieth century and had a very countercultural appearnce to her. Clearly she was raised in space, where no gravity impeded her growth. Her neck seemed to swoon like an ostrich's as she eyed them over.

"Who's hurt?"

"Can't you tell? On second thought, you better see them all to be on the safe side, they're a sickly bunch," Wolf said and hurried them all aboard the ship. He undid the tethers and moors and sealed the airlock hatch.

"Now you guys find a seat and strap your butts into it, I don't have time to wait for Control to open up the bay doors, I'm using an override," you can hear Wolf shouting from the Command room.

You can hear a hissing sound as the bay depressurizes and feel a gentle nudge as the thrusters lift the ship up through the opening overhead. If you look out of a porthole you begin to see black again, the ship has made it outside.

"Alright guys, we can relax again, we're leaving this crazy place. Next stop, Ceres---oh damn, maybe I spoke to soon," Wolf says as he sees something on an advisory panel...

 

After being saved again, Nathan followed the others, trying to put all his weight onto his right side of his body. They reached the ship and a tall woman greeted them. He was taken to a seat and he strapped himself in. The pain began to go away, replaced by comfort of the seat. Unfortunately, the comfort didn't last for long...
"Alright guys, we can relax again, we're leaving this crazy place. Next stop, Ceres---oh damn, maybe I spoke to soon,"

 

"Alright guys, we can relax again, we're leaving this crazy place. Next stop, Ceres---oh damn, maybe I spoke to soon,"

I muscled my way past the others into the cockpit, "Hey Wolf, Im Carter. Midshipmen and all round dirtbag. Whats the prob?"

I cringed when I saw flashing alarm buttons on the control panel, "Missile Lock? Hullbreach? Oxygen Depressurising? Out of fuel?"

 

I had dove for cover when the explosios went off, saving myself from a falling piece of ceiling. Unfortunately, that piece hit Pappy instead. I knelt silent throughout the beginnings of the fight, the terrorist's speech, the new guy that I assumed was Wolf, even the failed attempt to quell the shooters with threats. I took the weapon offered wordlessly, on giving a nod of thanks, and proceeded to a secondary hall on our flank. There was always an opening in a fight, the other midshipmen could probably deal with the head-on threat reasonably well, especially with the new blond guy, but no one thought to cover our flanks in the spaceport.

I sat silent in a dark corner behind a desk, facing where I supposed the terrorists may be coming from. Listened to the exchanges of gunfire, the occasional explosion and the constant moaning and screaming of pain and terror. Bastards.

Some of the screams were high-pitched squeals of children and babes echoing through the metal chambers and hallways. Bastards.

Once in that interval of simply waiting, I heard one particular scream, an oscillating cry of confusion, mute in concert with the bang of a gun. Bastards...

I saw Trin boldly walk out of the ship gateway, steadily shooting as she walked. Two trails of blood were drawn from her like thin red lines, on from her head, the other from her side. Both quickly drenched her shirt. Bastards!

But I kept still, fighting the urge to turn the corner and unleash hell on a better equipped opponent. Ad fighting my other urge to abandon my position, help the wounded, and leave us open.

But then my fellows headed back down an opposite hallway. Headed for another ship, I heard floating through the air. Not yet.

The others were almost out of sight when I heard boots stomping down the hallway. I grinned and checked my weapon; the action was stiff but it would suffice. Two of the terrorists walked right past me on the other side of the desk. Not yet.

Another pair and finally the last pair, footsteps heavier indicating they were the ammunition bearers. All three pairs passed my location without a glance behind the desk: A desk was a desk, nothing made another seem much different. Except for the armed man who sprung up behind the squad of terrorists.

Words were not passed, only weapons. I found myself several pounds heavier with 'requisitioned' gear, all of their weapons and a significant amount of ammunition, running after the rest of the group. I checked behind us often from cover. It was slow going for me, but I still got the chance to catch up in time to help get Pappy onboard the ship. Me and Nathan dragged him in while Trin did what she could pushing. Understandably though, her shirt was soaked with blood. I was somewhat surprised that she was trying to help us rather than treat her own wounds but the urgency of Pappys' condition was severe, possibly life threatening. If she thought her wounds were minor enough to ignore for a time, I would have no choice but to trust her.

I helped carry Sarge into the ships infirmary where a doctor, or at least I hoped she was a doctor. I assisted in whatever she asked, several of the other Midshipmen were injured, Trin probably the worst.

 

Jerrome made it into the ship before the others, and although he knew trin was injured he haddent really seen the extent of her wound until she was helped into the ship.
seeing Trin's life poor out of her side made Jerrome's throat clench and his vision start to go a little dark... although he couldnt see it, felt the blood drain from his face. Jerrome couldnt handle blood, it was part of the reason he chose to study rather than fight his way through the 4 years of army training.

"Im a- im-yeah going to, uhm, head to the engineering quater" Jerrome stuttered before wandering - half stumbling - down the cargo bay with his vision getting progressivly darker.

 

A tall fella wearing a brown leather flight jacket and ridiculous looking trousers ran up Wolf in the Navigation room.

"Hey Wolf, I'm Carter. Midshipmen and all round dirt bag. What's the prob? Missile Lock? Hull breach? Oxygen Depressurizing? Out of fuel?"

"No, worse, system police. Half of the time these guys just like to harass spacers, how much you wanna bet they're looking for some kind of a handout? That's the way it is with these guys, they'll say they need to board to inspect for contraband and weapons, especially after a terrorist attack; damn PLF. Alot of them out here are crooked as hell too, working on the side for the crime syndicates. Unless I grease their grimy little paws with some creds they'll just keep bugging me, I got a schedule to keep and these jerks are gonna slow us down."

"Hey um, Midshipman Carter was it? You look like a pilot, give me a hand, mind the controls for me while I...take care of some stuff..." Wolf said and smiled mischievously.

Towards the rear of the ship, in the medical bay, Stitch got done seeing Pappy and Trin.

"Your friends will be fine, both of them. The older guy took a nasty blow to the head, but aside from a bump and maybe a headache latter on, he should be fine. I used a scanner to check his brain for damage, everything is intact. Gave him some painkillers and treated the area with a little bit of medi-gel. My advice is to not be around him when he wakes up, he may be in a mood."

"The girl I patched up with some trauma-foam, an injection of MEMs, and a few slaps of medi-gel. She doesn't feel a thing, between the painkillers and anesthesia I gave her she'll be high as a kite and mellow as a cat for the trip. If she stays in the hyperbaric chamber she might even be able to fight again by the time we reach Ceres, I can't promise she won't have any scars though."

 

"Hey um, Midshipman Carter was it? You look like a pilot, give me a hand, mind the controls for me while I...take care of some stuff..."

My heart leapt with joy. No matter how slow, or ugly a ship, nothing compared to the joy of flying. I sat in the stiff seat, and frowned with distaste at the control pannels. The ship's controls were slow and unresponsive, I quickly made some adjustments, and soon everything was working better than ever. The joy stick was now oiled and smooth, but the ship was still far to sluggish. With a sigh I checked the energy gauges, and found that a large amount of excess energy was being diverted to power sections of the ship where no one was. I rerouted that power to the engines, which gave them some extra juice. A few more calibrations later and the ship was faster, the controls more responsive (and less messy with packets of crisps), and the ship more stable (one of the engines wasn't using as much energy as the others, and had made the whole ship slightly tilted and more wonky). Star Wolf may have been many things, but he lacked finesse with his vessel. I keyed the intercom, a smug smile playing across my face.

"Carter to Star Wolf, I managed to upgrade a few systems, make us faster, more stable, and fix the clumsy controls up here. If you got any chocolate in the cargo hold, I'll take that as payment."

 

Jerrome sat on the engineering room room floor feeling the calm wash over him. it was like coming home after a holiday only now he was waiting for his nausia to pass. Even with hypno-correction he still could not bare to be around blood.

The engineering room was like most he had been too; 4 sections power, also known as 'flight', weapons, shields and navigation, each with a console, chair and a wall of flashing lights. in the middle there were three holographic projector rings which acted like a white board when a team were working on solutions. for the moment they simply showed where the ship was in relation to the closest planet. Eurpoa

Jerrome stood and watched one particular wall as the lights began to dace, then another. someone was removing all standby power associated with weapons and shields and forwarding it to engines and stabiliser systems.
Jerrome was hoping the wolf knew what he was doing, if an attack did occure the ship would be destroyed before a single cannon came online.
and even though he now felt a little cautious, he was glad they were moving faster.

 

Nathan couldn't take it anymore, the pain was killing him. Now that Trin and Pappy were better, he He got up slowly and headed to the medic, Stitch. "I haven't said anything yet, I didn't want you take your attention away from Trin and Pappy, but, in the battle, a plasma blast burnt my leg and I received two minor bullet wounds in my left arm. Could you check it? I just don't want to go into another battle and breakdown if a fly lands on my leg..."

 

The system police patrol ship following the Baroness was small compared to the Athena, but it was nothing for a commercial transport to scoff at, even one so well armed. The patrol ship had a few more guns, stronger engines, and several squads of police trained in boarding and seizure tactics.

"Carter to Star Wolf, I managed to upgrade a few systems, make us faster, more stable, and fix the clumsy controls up here. If you got any chocolate in the cargo hold, I'll take that as payment." The kid in the navigation room said, Wolf chuckled. Damn kid was on the ship maybe five minute and already moving things around. He got on the intercom.

"Alright you cocky pup, I've got three rules on this ship, this includes you all: one, don't make any changes to my ship without telling me first. Two, on this ship my word is law. Three, see rules one and two; that is all. Now, since we've got that out of the way, I need you to get ready to give me a max burn when I tell you. Finding the thrust throttle controls should be a piece of cake for you."

Wolf had a small but decent store of special items in his cargo bays, several of which, like the one in the rear, had been modified into makeshift weapon delivery systems. The aft cargo bay made a very decent torpedo launcher, all he would have to do was depressurize it and anything behind his ship would get hit, including obnoxious patrol ships. He had a special little payload for the Patroclus, a powerful little electronics warfare drone. After a little bit of jamming, a few EMP attacks, and signal scattering, the Patroclus would be in no condition to do anything but troubleshoot the gremlins in their avionics suites. Meanwhile the Baroness would be over the hill and far away like a thief in the night.

"Attention vessel, this is Commander Dentel of the system patrol ship Patrocles. Disengage your engines and prepare to be boarded." An unfriendly voice was saying, his voice booming over the radio.

"I'm gonna ditch these bastards. Hello? Whoever you are down there in engineering, I don't know your name but the ship's internal sensors are showing you, you're giving off signatures like a Christmas tree. While you're down there I want you to mind the reactors, in order to outrun these guys I'm gonna need one hundred and sixteen percent from the engines. It's okay, we should be fine, the powerplant was the first thing I upgraded on this beast." Wolf said and patted a bulkhead.

"Alright childrens, get ready, they're getting close now."

"I haven't said anything yet, I didn't want you take your attention away from Trin and Pappy, but, in the battle, a plasma blast burnt my leg and I received two minor bullet wounds in my left arm. Could you check it? I just don't want to go into another battle and breakdown if a fly lands on my leg..." One of the wounded midshipmen piped up as the treated ones rested peacefully on hasty bunks.

Stitch sighed.

"Aren't any of you guys healthy? Alright alright, sit up on this counter and I'll take a look at your leg." Stitch said and got her medical kit ready again, the medical robot scanned the other new crew members while she cleaned and treated the plasma burns on Nathan's leg.

 

"I'm gonna ditch these bastards. Hello? Whoever you are down there in engineering, I don't know your name but the ship's internal sensors are showing you, you're giving off signatures like a Christmas tree. While you're down there I want you to mind the reactors, in order to outrun these guys I'm gonna need one hundred and sixteen percent from the engines. It's okay, we should be fine, the powerplant was the first thing I upgraded on this beast."


"Finally" jerrome thought, "something that i know how to do". he moved away from observing the holo projectors and pressed the intercom button on the wall. "Jerrome's my name sir, im going to have to steal power from the back up system, but i will need to kill the engines before attempting to patch the system. i will need about 5 mins prep, and 5 while the engines are off."

Jerrome was already sorting out the problem in his head as he spoke. The engines were already at 100% from the pilot routing from other systems. It wasnt simply a case of stoke the fire up with more fuel, this was a fusion reactor and 16% was not impossible, but not reccomended in the manual. He wasnt willing to remove shield or life support leaving only backup systems and navigation - which no one in their right mind touched.

"can you give me the time i need?" he finished up saying through the intercom.

 

Stitch finished the job and Nathan instantly felt better. A cool sensation ran down his left arm to his left leg. "Wow, that was... quick. I guess the wound wasn't as bad as it could've been. Thanks, I feel much better." Nathan left Stitch and headed back to his seat. The truth was, while he felt a bit better, the pain and weakness was still there. But there was a commotion going on through the intercoms and he wanted to make sure he was helping. It sounded like all the action was going down by Jerrome. He made his way down to the engineering room and found Jerrome. "Hey, I have no clue how all this works, but you look busy, any levers I can pull, switches I can switch? Anything?"

 

I smiled and switched on the intercom, "With the extra power I rerouted from non essential systems, I can give you 120% Max burn. Merry Christmas. Jerrome do what you gotta do keep me updated, when I give you guys the all clear, grab onto something. Its gunna be a bumpy ride."

I gripped the joystick, and waited for Star Wolfs order.

 

Jerrome had begun to get things ready to pull more juice from the fusion reactors. he was in the process of removing the entire front cover from the power console on the left hand wall and was soon to start trying to patch in a crystal-line rope the thickness of his arm into the backup system. 16% of a fusion reactor was probably equal to an entire nuclear powerstation, all of which will be running along the floor in crystal-line patch wireing.


"Hey, I have no clue how all this works, but you look busy, any levers I can pull, switches I can switch? Anything?"

"hey, Nathan isnt it? do you want to pass me a 4.3k red laser. should be in a - " the pilots voice came over the intercom cutting off Jerromes sentence...
"With the extra power I rerouted from non essential systems, I can give you 120% Max burn. Merry Christmas. Jerrome do what you gotta do keep me updated, when I give you guys the all clear, grab onto something. Its gunna be a bumpy ride."

"I hate pilots" jerrome muttered to himself and started coiling up the crystal-line. then to Arc he said "whats that saying? the man with the joystick will try and swing a bigger dick?"

in a flurry of thoughts and leaving Nathan looking a little lost, he pressed the intercom button. "Jerrome here, just letting you know that you will have about 45 seconds of 120% burn before the containing shield around the fusion reactor begins to fail. i can try and increase it... but you have taken every drop of excess power for those engines. "

And the to Nathan asked "how are you at math?"

 

"Jerrome here, just letting you know that you will have about 45 seconds of 120% burn before the containing shield around the fusion reactor begins to fail. i can try and increase it... but you have taken every drop of excess power for those engines. "

I sighed, "Alright Jerrome. Give me a minute thirty seconds max burn, and you get an extra big Christmas present."

Scans indicated that the patrol ship was gaining quickly. Again I tapped the intercom, "Carter to Star Wolf, whatever your doing, do it fast. Their nearly alongside us."

 

"how are you at math?"

Nathan shrugged. "Pretty good I guess. I mean, I did well in school, what do you need?" he asked.

 

Finally able to rest, I put most of the weapons I had picked up into a trash bag and left the open parcel in the corner, while leaving a sub-machine gun for myself. I stroked over the stitches that had been put in the Chief's skull, checking for inconsistencies. There were none. This woman was a very proficient doctor, she even fixed up Nathan in a matter of seconds, no small feat for a plasma burn.

A commotion ensued over the telecom about evading an incoming patrol. I didn't much like the idea of fleeing law enforcement but we were under cover, we needed to stay that way.

I smiled at the Doctor as Nathan wandered out, "Thank you ma'am, I thought we were in a fix there for awhile."

Walking across the infirmary to where Trin lay, I saw that she was awake, but very... lucid, like the Doc had mentioned. I sat down next to her on the bed, pointedly ignoring the amount of skin that had been revealed.

"How're ya doing there babe? We're flying first class this time it looks like," I joked.

 

Wolf waited patiently for the two hotshot aces to figure out how they were gonna get more juice, he should have mentioned that it was a simple enough matter because of the upgrades that Wolf made to the ship. It would take him hours afterwards to figure out all the changes they made to his ship and reverse them, whatever. He admired their resilience, for a first mission they were doing much better than normal.

The patrol ship ship got into an excellent firing position, the warhead wouldn't make a direct hit, but it didn't have to. It had a proximity fuse with a burst range of two hundred meters, the ship wasn't even that long.

"Alright guys, when I give the signal give me max burn." Wolf yelled as he secured the cargo bay and put his hand on the ejection handle. Yellow caution light flashed as he depressurized the bay.

"Annnnnd---now, now, max burn, full thrust!" Wolf yelled and pulled the handle, red lights flashed at him as the hatch to the bay flung open and hurled the warhead at the ship. They had to make damn sure that they weren't anywhere near the blast when it went off, the last thing the Baronness needed was an electronic warfare attack, she was practically held together with spit and glue as she was.

Looking out of a porthole you can she the Patrocles class patrol ship's lights and engines dying as she lost power, and drifting as a derelict as she lost control.

"Good job guys, set a course for Ceres, I'm headed back up for the navigation room in a bit. First I have to see to some changes made to the reactors, oh boy."

 

"Annnnnd---now, now, max burn, full thrust!"

"Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" I whooped as I gunned the accelerator.

I was pressed back against the seat by the force of the acceleration, but managed to crane my neck, and peak at the radar. The police patrol vessel had gone dark, we were in the clear!

"Good job guys, set a course for Ceres, I'm headed back up for the navigation room in a bit. First I have to see to some changes made to the reactors, oh boy."

Grinning, I slowed the ship and stabalised the thrusters, "Roger Star Wolf. Could I get Trin up here though? She's our navigation officer, I wouldn't trust meself with navigating us to Ceres, we'd probably end up in the middle of nowhere. With slobbering rampaging sexually frustrated aliens breathing down our necks."

 

"Pretty good I guess. I mean, I did well in school, what do you need?"

"just need some basic power calculations done for the core power -"

"Alright guys, when I give the signal give me max burn."

"well dont worry about that, grab a seat and strap in" jerrome said as he moved to one of the seats in front of a console. while Nathan did the same.

the acceleration was much more than jerrome had anticipated as the engines roared to life and the ship begun to shake violently. pressed flat against his chair all he coult think about was the poor engines and the stress on the stabilising rockets.

 

Nathan strapped himself in and felt the pressure push against him as the ship shook. He found he had dug his fingers into the seat armrest. Luckily, this didn't last for too long, and within moments, they were back to normal, away from the patrol ship.