OOC:hehe...really long post coming up. I just got in the writing "zone" and kept going. I just wanted to resolve the RNC/Survivor thing and get Quigley on his way back into the main plot. Get some coffee. Tape you eyes open. This one will take a while to read. Enjoy while you're still concious. ::falls out of chair::
Quigley straightened his ship and slammed the throttle to its stops. Then he jammed the button on the side of the throttle to activate the afterburner. Quigley was pushed back into his chair as the
Valkyrie Maiden jumped forward. He tossed the stick from side to side to avoid the green Rhienland bolts streaking on either side of him. He felt the ships shudder as hits hammered into the shields.
The Valk Adv was getting close, playing with him. The Rheinlander closed to 300 meters and let off another burst. Quigley's shields were quickly dwindling to nothing. Quigley looked at the range indicator. It decreased to 250 meters, and Quigley pulled out all his power and engaged reverse thrust. The Valk Adv pumped more kilojoules of energy into the
Maiden as it roared past.
The Valk Adv flew right into Quigley's sights, and Quigley smiled. He pulled the
Maiden's first trigger in its strange split-trigger design back to the position of the second trigger. The Avarice guns hummed as their gatling barrels spun up to speed and threw out a flurry of blue ion bolts. The aft end of the Valk Adv's glowed blue as its shield tried to dissipate the ion energy. The generator flashed and blew as it failed. Quigley pulled the twin triggers back all the way and the
Maiden's complement of Hornvipers roared as they joined the Avarice guns. The Valk Adv melted away under the onslaught and exploded.
Quigley smiled lopsidedly. One down, nineteen to deal with... "Mu Lead, break starboard!" Quigley's celebration was broken as he banked heavily to the right. He snapped his head around to look over his right shoulder and saw a Stormblade bolt slice across his wake. A Valk Adv followed the blast which was in turn pursued by a crimson Hawk with all guns blazing. Quigley kept in the bank to keep behind the Valk and Hawk. The red pirate fighter must have already dropped the Valk's shield because he could see the Hawk fire converge on the Valk's engines. The engines detonated and the Valk dropped from the sky. The Hawk, which Quigley id'ed as Survivor Lead, followed the ship down pouring fire into the doomed ship. "Survivor Lead, it's done. Leave it" Quigley insisted over the comm.
"No, damn you! Every one of these mother-loving Huns has to die in the same way as my people." Jezebel said venomously.
"Survivor Leader, they're gone. You've got to let that one go. He's going to be a greasy spot in a second anyways. You've got the Survivor's fighter wing to cover. They're getting the hell kicked out of them." Quigley answered. Jezebel didn't answer but slewed her ship around and dove back into the cloud of dogfighting ships. Quigley followed her, but watched for he was needed most.
He saw a Valk drop behind a rickety Bloodhound. The nose of the Valk glowed as the super weapon lodged there charged up. The fiery red bolt of the Fireblade jumped out from the Valk and cut the Bloodhound in half. Before the Valk could turn to find another target, a Defender dropped into its path. The Defender fired a torpedo at close range and broke off. The Valk hadn't the time to avoid the torpedo and was enveloped in a mighty explosion that only chunks of molten metal and debris exited. "Splash two for Three. Yeeehaaw!" Three yelled over the comm.
Damn, she's good, Quigley thought. "Three, stop playing by yourself. You're my wing."
"Gotcha, Lead. Like the old days, right?" Rachel said in a beaming tone.
"Roger old days, Three." Quigley said with a smile. Ever since his cosmos had collapsed with Ten's death, he'd been alone and had missed the safety Rachel had provided in some of the hairiest dogfights of his stint at West Point. The two swept though the cloud, blasting any hostile that crossed their path. They got one Valk, damaged another, and grazed two more before they burst out the other side of the cloud of ships.
Quigley looked down at the list of friendly ships. The Survivors and Mus were down to fifteen ships. That was half their original number. They had only managed to get five Valks. Fifteen Valk Advs and one traitorous Defender were out there shredding the Survivors mercilessly. Quigley looked up to see a wing pair of Valks bearing down on them. "Three..." Quigley didn't need to say more before Rachel dove out of the way. Quigley jinked right to get out of their way and fire and then jinked left to disappear behind them. The two split and banked around to get on Quigley's six.
The two never got around onto him because a pack of Survivor Wolfhunds converged on the hapless Valks and shredded them with a multitude of flickering lances. The pirates whooped over the comm at the piles of falling debris. The celebrations were cut short as another Valk wing pair impaled the pack with Fireblade blasts and scattered surviving pirates. Quigley shook his head at the sacrifice the pirates had performed for him. He quickly searched Atka's debris and explosion riddled skies for any sign of Rachel and the other two. Rachel had hooked up with a damaged pair of Bloodhounds. She covered them while they did mass fire runs on any Valk close enough. Jimmy and Wolfie were tangling in the middle of four Valks. They were talking up a storm. Quigley took a quick second to listen to the pair and quiet them if necessary. He had a minute or so until a Valk discovered him all alone.
"Five, are you ready yet?" Wolfie asked a little annoyed and frustrated.
"Nope.” Jimmy answered offhand as if in deep concentration.
“Kid, we’ve had three perfect shots already, and you passed them up.”
“This thing isn’t proven. I might only get one chance at this.”
“Yeah yeah. You haven’t had time to experiment and put it through its paces. Just shoot damn it! Their grouping up again for another slash.” As Wolfie had indicated the four Valks had grouped in a line abreast and were diving down at the pair of Defenders.
“Keep your suit zipped, Four. Targeting…firing. Blast visors down, Four!” Quigley looked at Jimmy’s fighter, confused. The Defender’s shields glowed, went opaque, and emitted a huge, blinding flash of light. His distance from Jimmy’s fighter was the only thing that saved him from being utterly blinded. Through the myriad of spots in his vision, he could see the Valks weren’t that lucky. They all collided with each other in reaction to being blinded. “Ha! It worked, Four. That surge I sent through my shield system worked perfectly as a flash-bang, but I don’t think I can do it again. I’ve still got shields, but I can smell melted wiring.”
“That’s fine ol’wingmate of mine. That was a toy to top all of your toys.” Three chuckled. Quigley had been around some unusual people. His friends back on the Vengennce were always pulling stuff from their magical top hats, but these two topped even them. Quigley shook his head, and got his mind back into the fight. The Survivors and Mus were dwindling down seven fighters. His Defenders were flying well but they were starting to take damage. Even he had gotten some holes in his hull, but nothing bad. No critical systems were damaged. The Huns had nine fighters including Penn.
“Speaking of Penn…” Quigley hissed as he spotted Penn below him, slagging a Hawk that had been limping out of the battle. While relieved that the Hawk hadn’t been Jezebel’s crimson ship, Quigley’s eyes still glowed in anger at Penn’s cowardly opportunism. Quigley dove down on Penn’s Defender. Grinning, Quigley lined up Penn in his crosshairs, but before he could pull the trigger, Penn veered off at a right angle. Quigley pulled up in tight Immelmann turn to put himself directly over Penn’s fighter. Quigley rolled the
Maiden over so it was inverted and switched over to an open channel. “Penn, if I’m a disgrace to the Navy, I’d hate to see the Navy that trained you.”
Penn answered by turning his spoiler turret up at Quigley and firing a string of bursts at him. Quigley scoffed and throttled back a little. He rotated his Avarice guns up to target the Penn’s turret below him. Quigley tapped the first trigger quickly and the Avarices spewed out a dozen or so bolts each. Penn’s shields collapsed after the first eight bolts and the rest slammed into the turret which sparked a shower of sparks and went dead. Penn slowed down abruptly. Quigley quickly followed suit to keep from shooting out in front of the traitor below him. As the two fighters, one inverted on top of the other, jockeyed for position, Penn applied shield batts to raise his shields. “Quigley, you damn Houston cowboy, stop jacking around.” Penn spat irritably.
“Well, yippy-kai-yaay mother…” Quigley was interrupted as Penn tried to slow down and speed up to throw him off. Quigley glanced down at his sensor panel which had started to beep incessantly as someone was trying to get a lock on him. Quigley traced the lock back to his attacker and grinned at the id of his attacker. The evil cogs in his head spun and Quigley grinned maniacally. Quigley looked up at Penn. Penn was looking up at him, making rude gestures. Quigley grinned more as he keyed his mic. “I bet I’m still a main target of that cruiser up there. But after those first shots, we’ve all been too close to your fighters for the cruiser to get another clear shot. I’ve been flying in the open for way over a minute now. Now for something completely different, do you know how you’re like a plate of Eggs Benedict?”
“What’s this childish crap, Quigley? Fine, I’ll play your game. It’s named like a traitor and I’m a traitor to your sick, twisted mind?” Penn said, torqued off and feeling superior. Quigley glanced at his scanners that reported a weapon locked on and fired at him. Perfect timing.
“No. Both of you get scrambled at one point in your short existence.” Quigley rolled the inverted the
Maiden right onto his left wing. Quigley instantly pulled the stick to his chest to execute a G-heavy left bank. Penn sailed on forward when a column of light dove out the clouds like Zeus’s lightning bolt. Penn yelped over the comm as the cruiser-fired Fireblade bolt the size of his fighter enveloped him. There was no explosion, any matter had been atomized. Quigley said nothing as he turned back to the battle. He saw the explosion of the final Survivor Wolfhund. The only friendlies left were his pilots and Jezebel. Rachel and Jezebel were working hard to keep the Valks off each other. Wolfie was protecting Jimmy’s fighter which was trailing black smoke and sparks. There was one Survivor hawk missing a wing that crawled along the ground, trying to escape notice. Around his pilots and the pirate leader boiled seven Valks in relatively good condition.
Quigley saw Fate closing in on him. Two cruisers orbited above the planet. One was trying for potshots. He had a handful of damaged ships with weary pilots against a larger, superior force with little or no damage. Quigley steeled himself for his coming death. This was going to be his last stand. He could only hope the Rheinlanders thought back on this fight with respect, and Liberty felt foolish talent such as his pilots’ and his.
Quigley’s noble rationalization was interrupted by Jimmy’s tired, but confused voice, “Lead, something going on up there. The cruiser is separating. Now, it’s expanding. Holy…IT”S EXPLODING!” Jimmy yelled in renewed hope. “New contact entering sensor range. Another Liberty cruiser. Id coming through…it’s the cruiser
West Point . What the hell?” Jimmy reported now confused. “Wait, the Hun cruiser is stopping. It’s…turning.”
The Valks’ final runs on their adversaries dissolved as they turned tail and sped away. Quigley might have ordered a pursuit, but his people weren’t in any position to do it. Even Jezebel, filled with survivor’s guilt and pure rage, was too exhausted to put up a chase. “Okay, people. They’re probably being recalled to cover the RNC cruiser. Form up and let’s get out of here. Anyone have cockpit damage? Answer if you’ve got it.” That meant that the cockpit was breached and the pilot would be unable to go into the vacuum of space. No one answered, and the tired Defenders and two Hawks fell slowly into position behind the battered
Maiden . The group began a lazy climb out of atmosphere.
“Mu flight, this the cruiser
West Point ,” reported a familiar and firm voice.
“Good afternoon to you too, Admiral Evans. Since when did Liberty naming conventions name cruisers after military academies?” Quigley said with a tired attempt to make a joke.
“Good afternoon, Captain. To answer your question, Liberty hasn’t changed naming conventions. We commandeered this ship to come save you. Now get on board. We have others to save.”
“Commandeered? What?”
“It’s a long story, Captain. I’ll tell brief you when you get on board. I want to be out of this system an hour ago. Get you rear in gear, kid.”
“Aye, sir!” Quigley answered with as much vigor as he could muster out of his exhausted body. The mismatched and battered flight left Atka’s atmosphere entirely and flew toward the glistening
West Point . Quigley watched as Jimmy and the one-winged Survivor Hawk landed first because of the severity of their damage and the possibility of injury. Then Wolfie followed his wingman. Jezebel cautiously inched toward the cruiser. This was a day of crushing defeats and uncomfortable happenings. Landing on a Liberty cruiser, even a renegade one, was disconcerting for her. Rachel followed the pirate queen into the hangar. Quigley watched all his pilots land before he set himself into the landing pattern. He was exhausted, confused, and furious, but he was safe again. Safe until the Huns tracked them down again.
Quigley’s hands started shaking as he set the
Valkyrie Maiden on the deck. It was his adrenaline starting to recede and lose effect. Quigley had to concentrate hard to keep focus to shut down his fighter. He completed the checklist and hit the button to raise the canopy. Quigley tried to unbuckle himself, but his strength failed him. Quigley slumped down into his chair. A tech would be along shortly, and a pair of them would lift him out and hand him over to the medics. Then he would be okay. He thought all of this right as he passed out of exhaustion.
jedierrant
Saving damsels in distress,
Defending the defenseless,
Fighting for the underdog,
Don Quixote in an X-wing.
Edited by - jedierrant on 14-09-2003 09:08:34
Edited by - jedierrant on 14-09-2003 16:32:20
Edited by - jedierrant on 14-09-2003 16:46:42
Sun Aug 31, 2003 7:05 pm 
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