Chapter 37 - Grouping Up and Drawing Fire

The alarms and alerts rage in your ears as you grit your teeth and push the throttles, pushing you away from the wreck of the starfighter as it finally explodes in a spray of fuel and high explosives. You got the pilot out just in time, it seems. Not bad. You see on the screen, a person in flight suit crawling out of the pod and running across the floor, toward a doorway leading into the rest of the ship. 

"Zoraida, are they heading for a turret?" You ask, as you bank Golden Dancer toward the wing of Vedari fighters forming up to clash with the attackers, whose icons indicated half circle turn 'upwards'. Space combat being what it was, it was difficult to picture it all at once.

"Yes! I've got floor lights guiding the pilot to one of the dorsal turrets, I'll have the rest sync up to optimize-"

"Got it, thank you!" You interrupt as you jerk the yolk and avoid some space debris that would have smack across your hull if you hadn't dodged. "Crap it's already getting messy around here." You comment as you set your course.

Still. Your course put you in the wake of the fighters, their profiles both intimidating and efficient in design. You don't know if you're going to be able to make it back to Bruzador with your ship like this. So it's the only option really. "Can you hail the fighters?"

"Aye, patching you in."

"-eep them back, but don't get too close. I don't want anyone else getting clipped." An authoritative voice, with confidence and a casual air plays across the speakers in your helmet. "Can't have our guest saving anyone else."

"Roger, Flight Com!" five other voices reply, in near unison.

"I'm not against lending a hand," You chime in. "But I'm scratched to hell and my engines have issues I can't fix." You comment as you sweep behind the fighters, who themselves break into groups and bank to match formation with you.

"Welcome to the conversation, Captain Eclipse," The Flight Com, Flight Commander, calls back, "We've got orders from the Captain: Bring the fight back into Bruzador's Combat zone.

"That sounds smart, but I'm not sure-"

"If your Dancer's got a broken heel, she's just have to run barefoot, But those bastards nearly killed one of my pilots. I'm not playing fair any more. Get to Bruzador!" 

"Fine." you grumble back and push the throttles as you accelerate to less than you full speed, and alerts start popping up, you dial back the throttle. Damnit, eighty percent is the best you can manage. "Where's that pilot?" You ask Zoraida. 

"Getting into the top gun, they'll have that one and the rear gun to fire with at this angle." She adds and you an isometric image of Golden Dancer, not only was it significantly more red now, but it showed two of the turrets turning to face rear, and one of them was noted as 'occupied'. 

Well that was a start, because the bastards were coming in for another pass.

The Vedari fighters rolled out to either side, offering targets to the three attackers to break apart, but all three chose you.

"Put on the speed, Eclipse!" the Flight Com ordered, "They're all interested in you!"

"Clearly!" You reply, "But this is my top speed without burning my engines!"

"Then Burn them! Or your not going to have ship!" He roared with some air of urgency. You watch as you see the two trios of fighters sweep back to pincer the attackers. Damn it, this might work but not without the bad guys getting another shot at you, unless you put the throttles foward.

You see the turrets blink reports of firing and the hostiles' formation breaks slightly, and you grit your teeth. High speed is what you need. You push the engines past 'eighty' and the alerts start popping up again. "Shit," But the attackers surge and start to close the distance. "SHIT," You grit your teeth and push past eighty-five and more alerts and you feel your ship rattle and shake and jerk to one side. "Fuck!" You roar as you pass into the area defined by Bruzador's close support fire.

Ahead of you, you see a broad side of turrets and anti-fighter guns turning to get a bead on your pursuers, but you're in the way of a clear spread. Ah, well. You pull up on the controls and Golden Dancer pitches upwards, giving the pilot in the turret clear shots even as you clear the line of fire for the Bruzador's own gunners. 

The screen lets you know your turrets all your turrets are firing now, and its taxing your ammo something fierce, even as one of the attackers splinters and explodes, the others turn up to follow you, before their propulsion is shredded by gunfire coming from the fighters, and then they're blasted out of the void by Bruzador's own heavy fire.

On your sensors, you see the other wing of Vedari fighters is intact, and joined with the second wave to finish the remaining attackers.

You dial back your thrust, and angle Golden Dancer so she's level on the local 'plane' the relative alignment for the system's planets' orbits. "Are we clear?" You ask Zoraida, as you see all the alerts that aren't going away, even now that you've dropped the thrust to eighty, you drop it again, and the alerts don't fade into the background until you drop to seventy. Shit.

"I think we're clear," Zoraida's voice is hopeful, but you can hear the stress in it, "but what the Hell were those things?"

"I didn't have time to guess," You joke, "But those beams, what were they?"

"I'm not sure. Most 'energy' attacks are projectiles, like blaster bolts; people don't use melee combat with fighters.... that's what combat frames are for." Zoraida dismisses. "Getting a hail from Nuvair." She reports.

"Main screen," You point forward as you check that the cockpit still has air and pressure. It does, and you take your helmet off.

"Turning on," Zoraida replies and you see a similar image that you had before; Of Nuvair on the bridge, but now she's standing at a command console of some kind, rather than sitting down.

"Captain Eclipse," Nuvair nods her head at you, or your image on her screen. "That was an interesting interruption to our conversation, wasn't it?"

"I figured the first people on my tail after coming back into the 'verse would be tax collectors," You try and make a joke, "Or angry meter maids, not... whatever those were." You shake your head. "Your Pilot is safe aboard my vessel," You get that out of the way, and see the visible look of relief on Nuvair's face, and hear some cheers in the background. Nuvair barely raises her hand off the console, though, and the voices, quiet down. "I handed them the turrets, seeing as I needed both hands on the helm," Nuvair's penciled eyebrow perks up at that comment, "I'll bring Golden Dancer around, I don't suppose I could land on Bruzador, or attach to the side?" You see the alerts that, while not presently screaming at you, still report the list of damage done to your engines. "I think its better we don't put too much strain on her until I get a proper team to repair her."

Nuvair flashes a look to one side before looking back at you, "Captain Eclipse, you have my unconditional gratitude for rescuing one of my Crew. I promise I will speak on your behalf once we get into port, regarding repairs to your vessel, and exercise my authority to the letter the law to make sure you're compensated for your efforts."

You frown a little at that, she was bending over backwards, but given how those attackers were flying, weren't they more focused on you?

There's a tone behind you and you look over your shoulder. Zoraida is sitting in her 'throne' and shes looks over her shoulder and you see the doors to the cockpit open. A humanoid in a normal suit, not unlike the one you wore during your post-thawing escape, is standing in the doorway, helmet in hand. The figure enters and salutes, whether to you or Nuvair's image, you don't know, but you nod anyway and they approach before stopping just behind Zoraida.

They're tall, and have a more athletic and stocky build than Captain Nuvair, and unlike her, they have long black hair that falls naturally from their head. It's bound up in a braid, that you figure was held in place in her helmet by some manner of snoopy cap. Still her fierce eyes meet your own gaze and her full lips pull back into a smile. 

"Captain Eclipse, I presume?"

"Aye, and you are?"

"Flight Lieutenant Felira Dale." She salutes again and this time you're sure it's at you.

"At ease," You reply. "Thanks for the gun support, sorry about your fighter." You thank her and empathize in one sentence. She nods as she relaxes her posture only slightly. 

"It was a good bird, hopefully I don't lose the next one," She sighs.

"Well as long as there's someone to catch you when you punch out," You sit back in your chair and gesture for her to stand beside you, so you're not twisting in your chair. This room was NOT meant for entertaining or conference calls, that's for sure.

"How are you feeling, Felira?" Captain Nuvair asks, some familiarity in her voice but the professional tone still there.

"Pissed; because I had to eject," She sighs and crosses her arms, "Relieved; that I"m not dead," she smiles at you. "But a little chuffed that I got to shoot down the bastard that winged me in the first place." She punches the air and there's a few more cheers from Bruzador's bridge crew.

Nuvair let's these cheers linger as a male Vedari leans into view to whisper something in her ear. She nods and straights up to look you in the eye.

"Captain, we've confirmed that your Gunship can land on our flight decks without issue. Please, set a course to land on our port flight pod from the rear. Our flight controller is sending data for landing approach to you now." She nods, and you look over your shoulder to see Zoraida flash a thumbs up. You smile and turn back.

"We'll be on our way, eta..." You look down at your console as your chart the path. "ten minutes....." You grumble. Engine damage sucked.

"We'll dial back our speed so it shouldn't be to hard to land," Nuvair nods. Our other fighters will be landing on the starboard pod, so you'll have the whole flight deck to yourself." She smiles.

"Wish I was landing under better circumstances," You admit as you sit back and take control of the helm.

"You're bringing one of my pilots back, alive, I'd say those are good circumstances," Nuvair one ups you, "See you in nine, Nuvair out." She closes the channel and you shake your head. Last word, again.

"Wow," Zoraida drawls from behind you, "You two were really laying it on thick there, weren't you?" She crosses a leg and chuckles. Beside you, Felira Dale smiles wider as she looks at Zoraida.

"So it wasn't just me, they seemed like they were flirting pretty hard."

"Well they DID get interrupted by those hostiles before, so maybe they're still 'blue' from it," She winks at you and you laugh. Ouch. You sit back and focus on the piloting. It is going to take you that long to get there, and as you fly you start to wonder how badly your ship is now that it's been through the ringer once, without all it's armor and a crew to fight the ship properly. 

You see Felira standing there on the bridge, not going anywhere, and you hear Zoraida's fingers flicking over command screens. The silence stretches on and it feels sort of awkward. Still, you're focused on your piloting as the minutes stretch out.

"You might want to sit down for landing, not sure how rough it's going to be," You say to Felira, and she finds a seat in one of the support chairs, meant for the other bridge crew. You nod as you start to approach.

Swinging around the back of Bruzador you start to get a sense of how the ship was designed. Compact and stacking as much hardware into the space as they could. The batteries for the missiles were tightly arranged and it looked like they were right next to other defenses or some kind of maintenance module, you're not familiar with the design.  

However it's still a capital ship, no doubt there, and as you line up your approach, both the running lights of Bruzador and the signal given by their officer guide you in. It's slow, and you feel the controls start to ache in your grip as you FEEL the damage done to Golden Dancer with every shudder and shake and every lagging response to what were once instant reactions.

Your ship had started the fight nearly anticipating your moves, and now it was struggling to land in a straight line. FUCK.

You put the anger aside as you guide the ship in, and feel that, as you cross over into the vessels landing tunnel, artificial gravity start to pull down, it wasn't strong, so they must have dialed it back, still it was offsetting, and you deploy your landing gear so you don't scrape off the bottom of your hull against the deck. 

Your landing jets flare and you come to a relative halt as your speed matches perfectly with Bruzador's and you're essentially 'stopped' above the deck, before you finally land. Your ship rattles and your heart aches. Whatever those things were, they hit you where it hurt. Your ship. Your home.

Damn it what WERE those things?

"Docking collar extending." Zoraida reports, and you look to your right. You see an extending tunnel, like at a spaceport terminal, with an airlock at the end. It's growing closer and looking to match up with your ship's starboard airlock. You hit a few commands and your ship accepts the docking request and the collar extends further and you hear a soft tone that the connection was made.

"Okay..." You sigh and push yourself up. From its little slot, Anagyros unlinks and climbs up your shoulders like the adorable little silver thing he is. "I think this is your stop, Lieutenant?" You smile and she nods back at you. You gesture toward the door and she starts for it. You follow her, but stop at Zoraida and offer a hand to her.

She smiles and takes it, and you feel her weight shift to you as she stand and you slip your arm around her shoulders as the two of your walk out of the bridge toward the cockpit. 

Felira looks over her shoulder and sees you two cozing up and her shoulders slacken a little, as she recounts her own steps getting her, apparently, and finds the docking collar, the one opposite the one you'd passed on your own tour.

It's open now, and just past what's 'your ship' is Captain Nuvair, flanked by a pair of armed and armored Vedari that you can only presume to be the Vedari's answer to the Marine element essential on any Ship sailing into harm's way. You slip your arm off Zoraida as you step beside Lieutenant Dale. Dale salutes and holds the posture.

"Captain Nuvair." You give a professional salute, beside which Nuvair returns and releases, and you release yours. Nuvair nods at Dale and she relaxes into an at rest posture. "Permission to come aboard?" You ask.

"Granted, Captain Eclipse; and Welcome back, Lieutenant, and Well Done out there." She says to Dale more directly. Dale nods and smiles a little. "We've much to discuss, Captain." She says to you, as she steps aside to allow you to walk beside her. The Marines step back to give you breathing room as you fall into step beside her and the two of you lead the group down the connection between your ship to hers.

"My SAR crew are recovering as much as they can of the attackers. I'm sure your as curious about their origins as I am." She starts. "Beyond that, we might be heading straight for Aulus Prime. Given that the attackers were, by all accounts, focused on you."

"It seemed they prized me higher than the fighters, for the most part." You add, looking over your shoulder at Lieutenant Dale. "You must have pissed those two off something fierce." She smiles at your insinuation.

"I did score the kill on the lead member of their trio. Fire up the tail pipe, never fails." She smirks.

"Well you can paint the tally on your next fighter then, Bravo." You congratulate her. She beams at your words and you turn back to Captain Nuvair who's smiling herself. "Did they transmit any kind of demands or declarations?"

"Nothing. And we didn't detect any life signs, so those were drones, or some kind of AI. Salvage Ops should be able to tell us something, but I worry about getting to much of the tech on board. AI have a habit of seeding every circuit board and chip with viruses and bringing any amount on board presents a risk to a ship."

Anagyros makes a small sound that's like a grumble and Nuvair's gaze softens. "Present company excluded," she looks past you at Zoraida, "Of course."

The conversation hangs on that, as you walk down the hallway and step over a threshold into what is clearly a more solid part of the ship. The deck is strong under your feet and feel the thrum of a living ship. The whisper of ventilation, the barely audible whine of lighting, and the echoes, near and distant, of footsteps and conversations.

You take a breath and feel at ease. "This is a good ship." You say, completely confident in your words, even as the fly from your lips. You blink, a little surprised at yourself and you turn to apologize, to see a soft blush on Nuvair's cheeks. 

"Flattery, Captain Eclipse?" Nuvair chuckles, "Let's try and wait until you've had a tour before you give me praise. Still," She turns to you, "I'll need to report this, in full, to Joint System Command. It's our HQ where all Four of the Fleets can coordinate without stepping on one another, or leaving gaps in our defenses. I need to let them know where I am and what's developed."

"Don't let me hold you up," You see that the room your in is something like a port terminal.  "We can wait here, if you need time." There's chairs, couches, and even a basic vending machine for what must be basic drinks. You briefly consider what that would be for Vedari, and that idea make you pale. 

"I'm not so cruel as to make you wait just past the doorstep. Lieutenant Dale?"

"Yes, Captain." Felira straightens up again.

"Show them to Officer Country. Sergeant Tavor should be by the elevators with key cards for their suite." Singular, you smirk a little at that. "After that, report to your Squadron and get debriefed and cleaned up."

"And here I was enjoying the smell of victory." Felira sighs and shrugs.

"It smells like ejector gas and fire retardants." Nuvair comments, but doesn't seem to dispute.

"Aye, Captain." She nods again.

"Well then," She nods to you, and Zoraida behind you, before turning one last time to Lieutenant Dale, "Felira, I am relieved you made it back."

"I'll try not to worry you so much next time, Captain." She promises and Nuvair nods again before turning away and walking down a hall. The marines do not follow but instead remain near, but not too close. 

"Corporal Hurz, Corporal Davim." She looks to each Marine as she calls them by name, and puts her fists against her hips. "Let's get our guests to their berth before I stink up the place, shall we?" She smiles and both Marines nod the second, Davim chuckles a little. You don't see name stripes on their uniforms, though, now that you look at them.

They lead you through the halls, past gawking Vedari who stare at you as much Zoraida, whose back at your side, and on your arm. You do strike a distinct image with your armor, and Golden Maiden at your side, and Anagyros on your shoulder. You're lead up a flight of reinforced stairs to halls for berthing officers and visiting guests. In your case: B4

Along the way Dale had pointed out where security stations were if you got lost, as well as the hall leading to the forward mess hall.

If this was how Vedari officers lived, they had it alright. The accomodations were a three room suite. A living area that had a desk and small office terminal. 

"I'm in D14 if you need me." She winks. "It's on the starboard side, past one of the blast gates, I'll probably be at the debrief for the rest of the hour, at least." she adds.

"Thanks, Felira, and thanks for riding turret, if only for a little while. That was good shooting."

"Hey, you made it easy." She shrugs back. "I'll see you later?"

"Probably." You guess.

"Right, these two," She gestures at the marines now posting up on either side of your berth's door, "Will be with you for the duration. Don't worry," she winks. "These doors are vacuum tight. No worries about them hearing nothing." She chuckles and strides off.

"Sorry if this seems a bit rude." The taller of the two Corporals, Hurz, comments after Dale's left. "But security and protocol and all."

"Strange alien shows up and stranger hostiles show up right on his ass?" You posit the situation, "I think I'm getting off light with just two Marines. Still, thanks." You nod at him, then Davim before you close the door.

Zoraida is sitting on the bed, and Anagyros is curled up on the desk, clearly at rest.

What now? 

