Fiction Friday - Series 2: Chapter 17

Previously:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15
Chapter 16

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The Harpy didn't fire. Instead Jace angled away from the station and sped up to initiate warp. As his ship zoomed out of site to deeper into the solar system I felt a wave of relief.

I continued my battlecruiser's approach to the station to buy time while I thought about what to do. My captain and bridge crew were still frantically trying to take control of the ship but I could detect that their panic levels had dropped a little as well since they saw the allied ships leave and the crisis averted.

I tried to decide what to do. I briefly considered making a run for it with the ship, forcing the crew off at some isolated station, but I knew that the Navy could petition CONCORD to block a pilot license and all the privileges that brings a capsuleer. I would have no cloning facilities, no docking rights, nothing; I might be able to make a go of it in some pirate space outside of the empires but I was not interested in terrorizing the people I currently tried to protect. No, I decided, I would have to turn myself in and explain my actions and hope that they could see I acted in the best interests of the State.

I was about 20 kilometers to the station and I scanned to see if there was any life pods that needed retrieval before they sped out of range. The station was in rough shape, gases ejecting from multiple fissures and power knocked out in several decks, yet it seemed to be holding together and soon after I left they would be able to send a message as my frequency jamming ended.

I should have been watching the deep space scanner. I was too shaken up but my training should have taken over anyways. Sloppy, I know. So when the Harpy arrived on local sensors I was taken by surprise. Jace was back.

"Should have broken the fleet link, Kodachi," he said without emotion into our shared comm channel.

His ship came out of warp within 2000 meters of mine and immediately moved to orbit me. I swore and brought my ship to a new heading away from the waystation and moved as fast as I could. We both knew that at this close range my guns were useless. I launched my five light Hornet drones and sent them after the assault ship.

His blasters had changed to long range Null ammunition and with those loaded he was able to easily hit the platform station while orbiting my Ferox. The charges leaped from his weapons to the target and the remaining intact portions exploded from his salvos. My drones nibbled furiously at his shields and he laughed without mirth.

The reactor core was breached and a runaway reaction detonated the fuel pile in a blinding flash. Both of our ship shields flared from the radiation flare.

"See you at the court martial, fucker."

The Harpy sped off into warp once again this time towards the stargate, leaving me with the silent bodies of the dead.