068-1120
 |
| Classic William H. Keith Corsair Drawing from Traveller Wiki |
“Challenge
sent sir, once they were a blip on the sensors. We should have had a response when
you came in.” BM3 Zabiayh’s explanation began.
“Send it again,
and man battle stations.” Lieutenant Brickley ordered, as he started prepping
his gear for strapping in. “The captain has the deck and the conn.”
“Aye-aye,”
the Boatswain then gave the announcement, getting the entire crew to their
stations.
“Helm, get
us to an interception. Sensors, what can you tell about the bogie?” was the
next set of orders.
“Laying in
course, sir.” Zabiayh responded.
“Working on
resolution, sir,” responded Sublieutenant Hassan as he strapped into his chair.
“I’ve got some basic information from passives, but nothing yet. It’s going to
be a long time to close enough for details.”
“Understood.
Keep signaling, though.” Brickley responded.
The two
ships spent much of an hour slowly closing. Every signal from the Kangaroo was
ignored, but the rules of engagement forbade shots. Finally, Hassan announced, “Got
him! Looks like about 400 tons.”
“Keep on
him. Let’s get a good lock,” was the Captain’s reply.
“Get a
lock, aye,” was Hassan’s fully voiced reply, followed by a thought. Lighting
this SOB up with a missile ping just tells him he ain’t trusted! “Can’t
quite get it!” as time passed.
“He’s
trying to break our lock. Still got a good hold on his position.”
“Keep
going. We’ll get one soon enough.” The range continued to close
“Lock is
good. We’ve got him where he’s wanted, Cap’n.” was Hassan’s tired announcement.
Looking at the readouts for the crew, he could see that many were snoozing at
their posts, with Chishan’s section III completely asleep.
“Good. At
this point, he’s responded to my hails with an ancient song about professional pirates.
Prepare to open fire. He’s a confirmed hostile now.” Brickley reviewed reports
from the Orbital Complex showed the ‘ready flight’ was nowhere near ready, the
customs cutters out of position for this fight, and the Adzel in an
extended refit. Also, the Naval Station was said they were recording it, with
them giving him subtle approval and back up. Evade selected for the system.
When the
ships closed slightly more, he gave the order to open fire with the triple
laser turrets. The dorsal turret hits, and the ventral narrowly missing. The corsair’s
return fire was more accurate than expected given the range, with two of them
hitting the Boxing Kangaroo. “Brand! Get on that!” Brickley ordered. He
directed the computer to load the Fire Control software; his ship’s best
advantage.
Closing, he
had Chishan join in with his missiles. Conventional warheads only, as there was
too much in the area to use the nukes. The first flights and the lasers impacted
on the corsair, destroying hull, and damaging the drives, the return fire ineffective.
He noted Brand’s continued efforts on the repairs, ensuring this ship would not
fall. The fighters were now forming up, but not ready to go. The next round of
fire, the indications were the corsair had repaired its drive, and was getting
ready to run. Where in the system though? The Oort cloud for a frozen slushball
the crew could refine and then jump out with? It would be hard to outrun the
couriers eventually. The Kangaroo’s fire at short range gutted it
quickly, with the corsair breaking up in orbit from a final missile volley.
“Boat away!
Inspect the wreckage, and check for survivors!” Brickley ordered. The routine
task of launching the ship’s boat was easily accomplished. Afari skillfully
matched the orbit the debris field had taken. A light blinked a few minutes
later, indicating an incoming message from the Joey.
“Joey, this
is Kangaroo actual. Go ahead.”
“Kangaroo,
Joey, we have found ten crew here, with one survivor. We’ll send him over to be
questioned, and the rest for the morgue. And we got an ID. Sollies out of Smade’s
Planet.”
“Rodger,
Joey. Come on back, and we can get refilled on ammo.” After surrendering the
prisoner to the authorities, the rest of the week was quiet when they jumped out on 072-1120, bound
for Loki.
