Episode IV : Dogfight

"Shit, he has a lock..." Antimatter blaster charges riddled the shield systems of the Imperial scout ship as it corkscrewed across the belt, a trail of electro-magnetically discharged shield particles lighting the route it had taken for several hundred meters behind it, before disspating into the dust field trapped in the rogue gravity of the rocks. Dual light pulse fire returned the call, slamming into a cluster of omber deposits, causing them to fracture and spill into the path of the persuing ship, which skittled them in a thousand directions on impact, the golden pebbles bouncing off the highly polished nose-cone of the Taranis class Interceptor. Repeated Pulse fire sliced through the shields of the agressor's ship, lighting up the surrounding dust and ore an eerie deep green as the Crusader made a swift nose dive through several tightly packed asteroids, it's rear boosters and elevation control fins glowing white hot as the arcjets worked overtime to keep range. The deep chromed gallentean armor of the pursuing Interceptor took several direct hits from the next round of frequency fire from below, armor plating spilling into the blackness of space in a shimmering cloud of confetti as it cought the light from the distant white dwarf that lit the system. Blasters spun in their mounts at insane speed and crazed angles as servo and stepper motors whined into tracking positions and a fresh target lock was acquired. The first volley struck the golden-skinned target below, ripping through shields at optimal range and blackening the reflective surface of the once proudly maintained Amarrian hook ship. Rate of fire prevailed as the second volley sliced into the armor plating of the Crusader's port side, buckling seamwork and hurling cargo and coolant into the ship's trail to be ignited and burned up by the booster vapor. The Taranis changed direction almost instictively through a gap in several slowly rotating rocks, a shower of sparks from the starboard side potruding wing testament to the outlaw pilot's near-miss judgement as it traded paint with a resident of the belt. The Crusader's light pulses flipped backover, their muzzles and barrels glowing a deep crimson with mechanical rage as multifrequency fire slammed into the nose and upper hull of the following stolen Federal Navy frigate. A fast slalom from the Gallente pilot ensued that the second volley did not impact, instead blasting deep craters into a scordite victim, deep grey powdered dust puffing into space. Spent antimater cartriges rattled across the hull of the Taranis as the topslides recoiled on the Intaki built Turrets in synchronised mechanical harmony, cartwheeling cases into the single booster trail of their mothership which vaporised them instantly. Fresh volley. A dense thick black smoke erupted from the Amarr ship's port side booster, it's deep scarlet panneling flying loose and catapulting into space as blaster fire vanished into the chaotic mix of rushing flames and smoke. A deep crimson rain of flames and melting crystaline carbonite plating ensued, splashing like liquid against the scarred nose of the Taranis. "Your time's up, Empire scum." Topslide recoil... cartridge ejection... fresh load... topslide lock in... Fire. Antimatter hurtled towards the flaming rear of the doomed Amarr vessel as it skipped between a congregation of stone spectators, impact. A deep rumble occured followed by a bright blue flash that resembled a minature supernova as the portside rear section of the crusader broke away, the booster trail extinguishing, leaving a white hot ring at it's exit. Supplies and reactor coolant spilled into the cold hard vacuum of space, pelting the gallentean pursuer, his ship listing slightly as it pulled up to escape the white hot trail of debris. The port booster section of the amarr vessel hurtled into a group of asteroids, obliterating them and detonating into a small flash of reactor coolant and metallic debris as the remainder of the crippled Imperial vessel, starboard side booster still lit spiralled across the belt uncontrolled before slamming into an enormous asteroid and disintegrating in a blueish white flash and a storm of rock and dust debris. A split second before the impact, as if the vessel was psychically aware of the impending danger to it's human master, the capsule's release bolts were fired and it was shot vertically to a safe distance, atop the blastwave in a thin wispy spiral of amibiotic vapor, the two umbilicals that linked the pilot's neural interface to the ship systems flailing behind it, testament to it's hasty release. Before the Amarrian had a chance to engage his warp core in an effort to reach the sanctuary of a protected area, a beautiful stream of blue pulsing light emitted from the Gallente craft, the ultra high frequency warp disruption signature bouncing gracefully across the surface of his capsule, creating a perfect contrast of hues against it's twin red blinking beacons. The capsule shuddered violently, yet in perfect harmony with a massive metallic bang from somewhere outside, as the blaster fire tore through it's shields. The Amarri pilot braced himself for a walk outside. Another round struck as the GUI supplied by the camera drone flashed bright red and the capsule's life support systems began to fail. A split second later the images from the camera drone vanished into static, darkness consumed all light and the noise that haunts every pod pilots nightmares began to play. Rivets began to split, as seams buckled, and the hull of the capsule was breached and began to tear apart. In a matter of nanoseconds, the pilot realised something was seriously wrong. Why wasn't he dead? No nano-toxin injection had occured. No mind scan had initiated. It was now happening so fast a timeframe could not accurately be compared against the events unfolding. Where darkness had been, there was now a burning light, but no heat. The amibiotic fluid dissipated from around his naked body almost instintaneously as it hit the cold deep black of space and was instantly frozen. A feeling of venerability, and deep cold insued. Before the cornea over his eyes were vacuum frozen completely, a hand appeared, his left arm. As the skin began to peel, and crack, the blood froze and coagulated below the surface turning the stricken limb a deep redish brown color. The thumb from the limb, as well as the index and ring finger broke away. He tried to scream, the pain was immense. A frozen red liquid and solid chunks of something from inside him came into view as a result of the attempt at vocally expressing his pain. The frozen chunks were easily recogniseable as several of his own teeth, still white, their roots severed at the base, and frozen solid. Ten, maybe fifteen of them ricohed against the now completely frozen limb, and spiralled off into space, to a distant detination, in a cloud of frozen red life-giving fluid. The Amarrian's final memory was that of a violent impact as his head slammed against the injured, but still defiantly glistening armored hull of the Taranis with a deep matallic thud as what remained of his capsule initiated the belated nano-toxin injection, and a searing white flash, and intense pain from the mind scan filled his head for his last split second of existance. - V