Fiction Friday: Old Times 2.12

Previously:
0.1
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.10

2.11
* * * * *

Immediately as my ship flared to life the enemy ships began to lock on me. The interference of their own massive bulks slowed the targeting computers of the larger ships, but the sensor reinforced interceptors made their resolutions so much better. One Condor was heading my direction already and locked me as I was closing and immediately I felt my ship tremble as the micro warp drive's field flickered and collapsed. But the Dramiel had already accelerated to over 4 kilometers per second and even as it started to slow down it flew past the Condor at a perpendicular angle to his direction. In 2 seconds I was out of range of his warp scrambler and I cold-started the micro warp drive engine and pushed my accleration to the limit as I sped away from the Guristas ship.

My shields began to peel off as missile explosions rocked the ship. A part of my mind registered Jax cursing in my hold but I gave him no attention as I adjusted my direction to give me the best escape route. I was out of the warp bubble already but dare not turn to find a warp direction because the enemy was giving chase. 

As I hit a top speed just over 6 km per second I had outrun the fuel range of the small fast missiles and I was faster than the larger heavy missiles. Turret weapon sizzled around me and a few lucky strikes took the rest of my shields but I was soon even beyond their effective range. The Merlins, Cormorants, and Condors were all falling far behind, and the Raptor and one of the Crows were also unable to keep pace hitting top speeds only around 4-5 km/sec. 

But one Crow was fast, slightly faster than me. Fortunately for me he was the farthest of the interceptor's away when I started my escape run but I felt my chest tighten as my overview showed negative numbers for the distance delta. He was catching up... 40 km... 38 km... 36 km... If I tried to align and warp out, he would be on me with his point before I could enter the tunnel, and I was willing to bet he was better than the Condor pilot and not overshoot me.

I keyed the internal comms. "Jax, stay buckled up. We are outrunning almost all of them, but this last Crow is going to require a different approach."

"Oh shit," was the muttered reply.

I activated my targeting computer and primed my autocannons. Their range was horrible but since the other ship was chasing directly behind me I could get some hits like throwing rocks from the back of a rover at one behind like I used to do to me friends back home in my foolish youth. I started shooting and despite 99% of the shells his shields began to dip. I checked ranges to the other interceptors; we had traveled so far so fast we were about 100 km now from the Raptor and other Crow and over 250 km to the rest. I couldn't wait any longer. 

"Hold on."