[story] Renai Khan - Boarding Operations

[mrjonesandme]

By request, after the last one of these I wrote

Renai stood in his usual favorite hangout spot, the shared office space inside his ever growing hull and engine part factory in Nopileos Fortune II. The station was continuing to grow and expand, whenever he could source the necessary claytronics and hullparts, that is. He peered out the blinds, watching his rag tag fleet of transporters and miners of varying origins, and conditions, land, unload, and launch back out of from the docking bay. While other less than legal operations tended to focus on illicit substances, Renai himself was an aspiring independent ship builder. But if he was to be a shipbuilder, he would need more miners and more freighters to feed his stations-something the universe was evidently in short supply of given the constant shortage of engine parts, and his ever dwindling reputation as he opted to continue seizing logistics ships whenever the opportunity arose.

Renai's lurking in the office was disrupted as his datapad beeped at him-one of the satellites he had installed behind the gates in Grand Exchange I had picked up an Antigone freighter which looked to be headed to Nopileos Fortune VI, which for all intents and purposes, was now controlled by Renai. "Game time" he said, rubbing his hands together, and picking up the datapad, zoomed in on his outpost in NF VI. Renai tapped at the display, selecting an assortment of fighters, assigning them to his personal Cerebus, another vessel of questionable origin, which he would be personally commanding. Little blue lines arced out across the map as the fighters launched from the station, heading towards his Cerebus parked near the gate. "So far so good" he muttered, as he used the miracles of teleportation, a mysterious technology he discovered after ten minutes of study, and jumped from his station to the bridge of the Cerebus.

Renai blinked as he appeared on the bridge. "Helloooo" the current captain, a hideous Split woman who's name he didn't quite recall, said to him. He always found their way of greeting to be somewhat unsettling. One of the service crewmen turned around from his station. "Hello!" he said, rather cheerfully, before disappearing off the bridge. Hopefully their combat skills are better than their conversational skills he thought to himself. He waived his hand dismissively as he approached the command station, the Split woman being relieved of her captain position. He visually noted as well that his fighter escort had arrived. Moments later, the freighter popped into existence, having crossed the gate network.

"Show time!" Renai wooped, to noone in particular since the service crew had evidently decided to leave the bridge for the time being. He goosed the Cerebus towards the freighter with one hand, while fiddling with his datapad in the other, selecting his wing of fighters and transports, instructing them to initiate boarding action against the freighter, with the goal being to disable the engines of the ship. Having received their orders, Renai's overzealous wingmen immediately boosted towards the freighter, draining their shields as they teared across the sector towards the target. Streaks of light appeared as the pilots began engaging, a weak scattering of shots impacting against the freighter's hull as the rag tag fleet of fighters fired while overshooting their target.

"No!" Renai yelled, slamming his fist on the console. "What sort of idiot bleeds his shields right before combat?". He wrangled the Cerebus in towards the freighter, hoping to draw off its return fire. Predictably, the freighter was armed to the gills with missiles. Blue bursts of light appeared as missiles started firing off every hard point while defense drones simultaneously began pouring out of the freighter's launch pads. Pop ups began appearing on his communications console "We're taking hits!!" a face cried out to him, who, he wasn't quite sure. Missiles arced across the sector, each seemingly targeting a different wingman of Renai's. "No..no..no" he said through his teeth, attempting to order his remaining fighters to move out of engagement range. "Why aren't you moving!" he yelled as his own ship bucked and rattled. Annoyed, he ordered the gunners on his frigate to shoot down incoming missiles, then turned his attention back to the chaos unfolding on the sector map.

The fighters continued their death march back towards the freighter. "Arrrgh! CANCEL ALL ORDERS AND WAIT", he yelled as he spammed the option on his pad, while backing away from the control station. The Split woman reappeared, taking her sweet time to stroll across the bridge towards the command station, as the Cerebus continued rocking from incoming fire, bursts of light flashing across the forward viewport. Renai simply could not multitask flying the frigate while also salvaging what was left of the operation. This time, the fighter pilots appeared to follow instructions-their engines cut off and held in place. His datapad began beeping and filling up with pop ups once more. "We're taking hits!!!" one of his inept pilots screamed at him again. What an absolute waste he thought angrily, as he started instructing the remaining ships to land back at the station, while frantically ordering his inbound Teladi buckets filled with marines to turn back around.

Before he could confirm that the pilots should dock at the station, little blue crosshairs appeared on his map all around the freighter. The fighter pilots began boosting back towards the freighter again. Furiously, Renai tapped and clicked on each line, cancelling the order. The attack orders appeared again on the freighter, as if in defiance, as Renai's shattered fleet wheeled back around and raced towards the never ceasing missile volleys from the freighter. "How many missiles can they possibly have" he said in a resigned voice, as green blips winked out one by one on his map, replaced with grey markers. By this point, the freighter had successfully plodded across the short distance between gates in the system and was about to slip through the neighboring gate into Paranid space. Renai sighed, letting it go, and teleported back to his station to assess the cost of today's failed op.

[Techedge]

You really have talent, I appreciate your effort!
I think this should become a regular column of this forum

I don't wan't to be too selfish but...keep up!

[SumUser]

I feel like I can relate to this Renai Khan guy

[martimus]

You are great at writing these. I have given up on transferring Marines now. I just leave them on my boarded ship and buy fresh ones for each op now. They aren't great, but the stress level has dropped. I also take out the engines and turrets completely by myself now, so I don't have to go through what you just went through. Hopefully the transfer and fleet command mechanics are improved in the future.