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Pirates: UNSC Nemesis; Chapter One
Posted By: Steele<hoffmansteele@hotmail.com>
Date: 14 September 2003, 7:03 PM
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Chapter One
Dramatis Personae:
Captain Jack "Ice" Xhaxin—Commander of the Blazer and the Blazers, a notorious pirate group
Captain Rick Vander—Commander of the Space Vixen, a corvette in service with the Blazers
Captain Eric Williams—Commander of Lover's Bane, a corvette in service with the Blazers
Colonel Samuel Martinez—Commander of the Blazers' boarders, former UNSC ODST
Colonel Allan "Klick" McCoy—Commander of the Blazers' fighter squadrons, former Marine
Lieutenant Lara Hunt—UNSC spy serving as a bridge crew member in the Blazers
Patrick Shannon—A vicious hired assassin serving the Blazers
0700 Hours, September 6, 2494 (Military Calendar)/
Epsilon Eridanus System, Pirate Cruiser, Blazer
Standing there, on the bridge of his Mythical-class cruiser, the pirate captain Jack "Ice" Xhaxin clasped his hands behind him. He stared out the bridge of his cruiser, wondering if his small pirate fleet was going to survive the next few minutes.
His cruiser, named Blazer, was old. Even with her recent refits on engines, weapons, and armor, she was still showing signs of age. In spots of the ship paint flecked off and the walls showed signs of rust. Being a pirate, he never really had time to clean his ship. But she had some advantages.
Most vessels of her class were slow and ineffectual, a joke. But Blazer wasn't. She had been stolen from UNSC ship-docks three months ago, right after some heavy refitting. She had a new fusion reactor and engines, which when combined with his own modifications turned her into an extremely fast cruiser.
She also sported a 500mm cannon and Avenger missile pods, courtesy of the UNSC. Recent armor additions and repairs combined with her own honeycombed inner structure made her a force to be reckoned with.
Arrayed around Blazer was the rest of his fleet. Behind him on either side were two Mako-class corvettes. The corvette on his left was the Space Vixen, commanded by his close friend, Rick Vander. The Lover's Bane was on his right, commanded by a man he knew, but didn't trust, Eric Williams.
Behind the two Mako corvettes were his blast boats. They were large rectangular ships designed to get in close to an enemy ship and either blast it or land troops for boarding. Unfortunately, he didn't know how many of the two thousand pirates at her command were about to survive the next inevitable engagement.
Over eighty million kilometers away was a very lethal looking group of ships. At the forefront were two UNSC Destroyers, each packing one of the newest weapon systems in the UNSC—a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. Jack had seen those weapons in action and knew they weren't to be messed with.
In an engagement three months ago, he'd tried to capture a very large, but harmless cargo vessel. He had almost been within firing range when a UNSC frigate that had been hiding in the cargo vessel's shadow came into view and fired at his lead corvette—a ship he no longer had in his fleet.
"Cap'n, the destroyer is a hundred thousand kilometers distant. I estimate she'll be able to fire in ten seconds."
Jack nodded. Rick had had a bad feeling about this job from the get-go. He usually trusted Rick and his instincts, but this time he hadn't. The payoff would've been too sweet. He had been laying in ambush for the rendezvous of a skeleton-crewed, just off the docks, UNSC Destroyer. It would have been so easy to get in close and board the Destroyer, but apparently it had been a set-up, a trap.
The operation had been planned and kept tight from the very beginning, over three weeks ago, yet somehow the UNSC had managed to trap him. Where were they getting their information? The more Jack thought about it, the more he realized the inevitable conclusion—there was a traitor or spy within his organization. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the matter at hand.
"Prepare the starboard emergency thrusters and instruct all our fighters to launch. We're going to have to fight our way through this one."
"Yes, sir," his Ops officer replied.
"Helm bring us around to one-eight-three-point-four-zero. Remove all weapon locks and get the cannon ready."
"Aye."
Looking out the viewport, Jack saw the two Destroyers break formation, allowing the following frigate to move up. "Instruct the blast boats to move forward. We do have one advantage—only the frigate has any fighters to launch on us and our fighters significantly outnumber theirs. Send two thirds of our fighters to handle the frigate and annoy the Destroyers. Let the other third stay back and play point defense from any launched missiles.
"Aye."
Three-dozen stolen and refitted C684 Scimitars poured out of the Blazer's launch bay. While the Scimitars didn't pack the punch nor advanced sensors of the new UNSC Broadswords, they were more maneuverable and more deadly in a close-in dogfight. And his pilots needed all the advantages they could get.
His pilot's weren't as well-trained or as equipped as the UNSCs, so they had to rely on up-close dogfights, superior numbers, and pure ferocity. Colonel Allan "Klick" McCoy was a former UNSC pilot and very good, but he didn't have the equipment or the facilities to train the Blazer pilots, so they had to learn through combat, and that meant a lot of deaths. All of which he had to replace—out of his pocket.
He was a pirate, not a warrior. He preferred to take his enemies unawares, not face to face, guns blazing. But even when he did go face to face, he had turned out to be a brilliant tactician.
"Captain, the lead Destroyer is at maximum firing range. Sensors show a full-charge on both Destroyers. Orders?"
"Ahead full. Get me firing solutions for the 500mm cannon and Avenger missiles."
"Sir, Destroyers have launched a salvo of Avenger III missiles. Impact in twenty seconds."
Jack nodded. "They'll wait to coordinate their MAC rounds when the missiles hit. Instruct Gold Squadron to destroy as many missiles as they can, then activate computer point-defense."
"Aye, relaying orders, now."
Gold Squadron contained the best pilots of the Blazers. They were the elite and had been through many a mission. Most were aces—and all had went up against superior UNSC forces before.
Outside the viewport, a dozen Scimitar fighters accelerated forward and engaged the missiles with their cannons. Jack saw two dozen bright missile explosions.
"Impact in five...four...three...two—
Jack hit the starboard emergency thrusters and the Blazer was literally blasted unto a new course. The remaining two hundred missiles swerved to follow his ship, pulling maximum-Gs to hit their target.
He was thrown to the floor from multiple impacts, and he heard the screeching of metal somewhere inside his ship. Looking up, he noticed that one of the Destroyers had already missed with its MAC, but he instinctively knew the other was a split second away from firing.
Reaching up and grunting with effort, he slammed down the port emergency thrusters, blasting the Blazer back unto her original course, a nanosecond before silver lightning streaked through the area of space his cruiser had just occupied.
"Damage?"
"Our starboard side is shredded sir. There's no armor left, but no systems damage. Both MAC rounds missed, so we're good to go, but a hit to our starboard'll hull us."
Jack nodded. He knew he had a minute or two before the Destroyers could fire their MACs again, and he was going to put that time to good use. "Order 'Vixen and 'Bane to come out of our shadow and accelerate ahead. If they can get in close to the Destroyers, they'll have trouble fighting back.
"Aye," his Ops officer responded, already relaying the orders.
Suddenly the two sleek Mako-class corvettes shot in front of the Blazer and darted across the gap, with a speed no large ship could manage.
"Sir, the lead Destroyer is within maximum engagement range."
"Good, launch Avenger missile pods 1 through 10 and try to take out their MAC with our 500mm. Let me know when they've built back up to a full charge."
"Aye, missiles launching now."
Slight thumps reverberated through the hull. Dozens of missile contrails arced up and away from the Blazer and began the two thousand kilometer trip to the lead Destroyer. Following up was the 500mm cannon that fired HE 500mm rounds at the rate of 120rpm and could be devastating at close range.
The Blazer seemed to slow at the sheer volume of the rounds and a long line of tracers arced lazily over to the lead Destroyer, tearing deep gouges in her armor.
"Missiles, impacting now."
Multiple explosions chained the length of the lead Destroyer's hull, as she was caught unawares by the missiles. The UNSC ship seemed to stagger in space before, starting a slow spin to starboard, as explosive decompression racked the Destroyer.
"Damage?"
"Sir, sensors show the Destroyer's engines to be inoperable and she launching lifeboats."
Jack nodded. They'd been lucky. He wasn't sure why the Destroyer's captain hadn't tried to dodge the missiles or cannon fire, or why he hadn't activated the Point Defense System. But it suited him just fine—less enemies to deal with.
Looking back at the Tac-display, he saw that the Lover's Bane had come within firing range of the trailing Destroyer. Its quartet of 200mm cannons opened up, spraying the Destroyer with fire. The Destroyer's armor exploded from multiple impacts, but the Destroyer didn't seem in the least bit affected. She turned and faced Lover's Bane, her engines a bright glow.
"Sir, I'm detecting energy build-up in the Destroyer—she's about to fire."
"Crap! Tell Williams to move his ship, NOW!"
His COMs officer was already relaying the orders, but it was too late. The Destroyer fired, and silver lightning lanced across the void of space and hit Lover's Bane directly amid ships. The tungsten round parted the corvette's light armor like a hot knife through butter and hulled the ship from nose to tail, ruining support structures, engines, and the ship's integrity. The corvette seemed to break in half, spilling supplies, men, and equipment out into space.
Jack started to order shuttles to immediately check for survivors, but he had a battle to win. The Destroyer's maneuver had left her rear unguarded and the Space Vixen moved in—with a vengeance.
Her cannons vomited fire at the Destroyer's engines. Hundred of HE rounds slammed into the UNSC ship's rear, tearing through the weak armor their and turning the engines into a dismal mess. The Destroyer stopped her forward momentum and tried to turn to face this new threat, but her engines were dead.
Unfortunately, the frigate was moving around behind the Space Vixen, but Jack didn't need to worry. The Space Vixen fired her thrusters and maneuvered around the dead-in space Destroyer, placing its bulk between her and the oncoming frigate.
Jack smiled and muttered to himself, "Nice move, Rick."
"Sir we can engage the frigate, do so?"
"Yes, but just to disable her."
Immediately, 500mm rounds darted across the gap and tried to hit the frigate, but she fired her port emergency thrusters, causing the rounds to fall short. Before his cruiser could move to track the frigate she accelerated and jumped to Slipspace.
Jack sighed. He had won, but at what cost? He couldn't keep this up—he didn't have the time, money, or energy to fight the UNSC. There was a spy within his group and he was going to find whoever it was—and make them pay.
"COMs, get me a secure channel to Patrick Shannon."
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