City of IF

[sparta12]

Virtual
Chapter 3: Intentions

How the hell did they know where we were going? The admiral thought to himself
“Get the defences back online, get in contact with Chimera and tell them we need assistance!” he ordered
“But sir-” the crewman was cut off by the admiral
“Just do it ensign!” he said angrily
“But sir there isn’t anything there! Something hypered in but our scanners aren’t reading it!” the ensign informed him
“Check thermal!” he told the ensign and he stood there for a moment as the rest of the crew members onboard got the defence systems back online. The admiral stood there waiting for the results of the Thermal scanners would show while he tapped is foot on the floor rapidly.
“Nothing sir!” the ensign reported back
“Okay send a scout ship to get a closer look on the entry point. Tell them to get within five clicks of the entry point and then fire a few laser rounds. That should get them on thermal!” the admiral said turning towards the crewmember standing right behind him.



“Vincent where are you going?” Anne asked as she strolled back down the hall and towards the briefing room
“I got orders coming from Magnus to scout out something with newbie,” he answered, stopping in his track while he was going back to the prep room
“The battle’s over. What’s to scout?” Anne asked him shrugged her shoulders
“I’ll tell you later.” Vincent answered and walked into the prep room. Anne stood there for a moment thinking, then opened the door and waltzed into the briefing room to see a couple of empty seats. She was use to it by now but it always stops her in her tracks, when she sees a few people missing from the squadron and after a few moments she got into her seat
“Now that everyone’s here I’ll just begin the meeting,” Jack Art said up on the stage in the front of the room.
“We lost eight pilots in the battle. I’m still waiting for the list of the casualties. Anyway the Admiral wants us to standby just in case of any other incoming,” there was a long sound of discomfort coming from the squadron
“Yeah, yeah I hear you guys. But I doubt that we’ll be stuck in the cockpits for seventy-two hours this time around,” Jack informed the squadron and got some chuckles from his fellow pilots
“Our squadron is going to be patrolling the cruiser five at a time. The duty roster will be updated to your computers in all of your quarters. That about sums it up for now. Feel free to move about the ship but keep your suits on. Dismissed,” Jack finished up, made a salute and then left the room before his comrades. Some of the pilots went back to their quarters because for some it was time to make yet another battle report to submit to their superiors while some of them chose to do that later and fit in some recreation. Of course on this cruiser recreation met that it was time to hit the bar, play poker and enjoy happy time.


“Thrusters are online sir,” Matthew answered as he looked at the computer that was on the dashboard of the scout ship
“Alright let’s take her out,” Vincent ordered and grabbed the two hand Joystick. He lifted the throttle for engine one up to fifty percent using the lever and then did the same with thing with the second lever that connected to engine two. Matthew Switched on the bottom thrusters and as the large scout ship moved forward it started lifting itself up. Slowly the large scout fighter gained speed and then shot out of a hole within the cruiser.
“Newbie. Don’t touch the damn joystick unless I tell you!” Vincent said to Matthew
“But sir I didn’t even touch it!” Matthew debated with his superior. Vincent gave him a look of sarcasm “guys stop arguing and just fly the damn thing. We’re missing out on happy hour,” Petty officer Rodriguez intervened as he turned away from the computers behind the pilot seats
“Okay, okay… This is going to be impossible fighting Zoraxians in a freakin nebula,” Matthew pointed out as he stared through space. Slowly Vincent pulled back on the joystick, the fighter rose above the cruiser and continued to follow its flight path.
After about a minute of flying through the aqua, purple and blue clouds of the nebula when Matthew pressed two buttons on the dashboard that initiated the front thrusters so it could make the fighter come to a halt.
“This is Hawkeye two we’re in position and ready to fire Freedom,” Vincent reported back to the ship. Vincent wondered if the Freedom would understand what exactly he was saying, after all they were in a nebula and that would cause a pile of static over the radios.
“Roger that Hawkeye Two report back after you’ve fired each round.” A voice answered. Vincent didn’t comply and got ready to fire the laser rounds at the entry point. He squeezed the trigger; a large laser exited the barrel on the left side of the fighter and Vincent watched with intent as the laser soared through the nebula until it was no longer visible. But nothing happened.
“This is Hawkeye Two. Laser round one did not hit anything. Preparing to fire the second laser round,” Vincent reported after thirty seconds. Vincent pulled back on the levers so the engines were working at twenty percent but as they approached something struck engine two
“What the hell!” Matthew yelled as the cockpit shook for a moment.
“We must’ve been hit by something in a storm!” Rodriguez suggested
“Oh shit! That’s a negative sir! Engine two is on fire and losing power fast!” Vincent corrected as he got a visual on the second engine
“ Freedom this is Hawkeye Two! Mayday, mayday! Our second engine has been hit and is on fire!” Vincent reported to the cruiser
“Roger that Hawkeye Two! Try and get back here, we’re opening the portside emergency landing bay!” the voice answered them. Vincent didn’t answer them and immediately shutdown the second engine
“Rodriguez! Initiate the fire extinguishers! I’m gonna take this baby back to the cruiser!” Vincent ordered his crew in reaction. Rodriguez typed in the command to put out the engine fire and immediately the extinguishers within the right engine-starting going off. Thankfully the fire went out and Vincent was flying the big ship with one engine set to full throttle that kept trying to bank right and so Vincent was battling the controls and was about to put down the landing gear when something hit the first engine on the starboard side.
“Oh you’ve got to be kidding!” Vincent yelled as he looked at the left engine but it wasn’t on fire luckily enough. The ship starting to move away from the Freedom cruiser and in reverse slowly
“What the hell is this?” Matthews asked his fellow crewmembers
“I’ll tell you… They’re dragging us in!” Vincent answered
“Freedom this is Hawkeye Two Zoraxian cruiser is in the area!” Rodriguez reported over the radio
“Copy that Hawkeye Two. Do you have Visual confirmation and co-ordinates?” the operator asked
“Negative, negative we do not have visual confirmation but we’re being dragged in! We’ll activate the beacon!” Rodriguez reported.
“Uh… Repeat the last sentence Hawkeye Two. You’re breaking –” alas… They lost radio contact with the cruiser.
“What the hell is this?” Matthews asked again frightened, nervous and furious
“Look here’s what happens newbie. They shoot our engines but only damage them so we cant move. Within a minute they shut down the radio and they override our system to use our thrusters to bring us in.” Vincent said calmly while looking relaxed in his seat
“So what the hell do we do now?” Matthew asked scared. Vincent stared blankly at the newbie pilot for a good twenty minutes when he drew out his side arm.



“We just lost contact with Hawkeye Two sir!” the operator reported to his CO
“What? How?” the Commanding Officer asked the ensign
“I don’t know sir but here’s their last message before we lost contact,” and the ensign replayed the last few sentences that came from Hawkeye Two
“Alright. I’ll run this up to the admiral and keep trying to reach Hawkeye Two!” the CO answered him and took a square chip out of the computer and sprinted to the elevator down the hall.


“Looks like the bastards our somewhere in the nebula. Ready the batteries and get me the radio. They might’ve dragged them into their cruiser so we may be able to compromise with them,” the admiral answered to the CO and then saluted him so he could get back to his duties. The admiral picked up the hand radio, set it to scan so he could talk on all channels to whom it may concern within the nebula
“This is the Cruiser Freedom of the ESDF whoever is out there please respond,” the admiral began. He waited for forty seconds until something came back through the speakers
“This Galactu of the Zoraxian cruiser “Warmonger” we hear you Freedom,” the voice answered through static
“Roger that Warmonger. We understand that you are dragging in three of our pilots is that correct?” the admiral asked an obvious question that had an obvious answer
“We hold three prisoners of war. Nothing else,” Galactu answered him
“I have an offer for you Galactu. It involves numbers,” the Admiral said giving a grin
“No you do not Admiral. We have an offer for you. We fight as a convoy for you, we get payed five hundred credits a month or we execute your prisoners and then we execute the rest of your crew.” Galactu corrected the admiral. The admiral thought for a long time once more and knew that he had to say yes to the Zoraxian but he only had the money to last three months and after that. They’d be dead for sure.
“Fine. But we only have enough credits to last three months at your price.” The admiral answered.
“Then we shall compromise.”






Vincent pulled back the barrel of his side arm and looked all about the body of the fighter. Suddenly there was a loud thud that came from the roof and Vincent got out of his seat
“Rodriguez get over here and draw out your side arm!” Vincent ordered him and immediately the crewmember walked over to the front side of the fighter but stumbled to draw out his side arm.
“I can’t do that man!” he said shaking his hands as he dropped his side arm on the steel floor
“What the hell do you mean you cant do it?” Matthew barked at him
“I’m a pacifist. I can’t hurt anybody… Man I get nausea at the sight of blood!” he answered him
“Oh for fuck sake you man a scout fighter! You prepare our weapons!” he yelled out at him
“Yeah but I’m not directly hurting anybody!” he pointed out in response
“Just get behind me and crouch okay!” Vincent ordered the pacifist flight crewmember. Rodriguez walked over to him and Vincent moved forward so Rodriguez could take cover. They heard several thuds, as the Zoraxian soldiers got ready to open the hatch and come on in. They watched, as the bolts on the roof of the fighter were unscrewed and plummet onto the steel floor. When the hatch fell onto the deck of the fighter a Zoraxian soldier dropped in with a large thick rifle. Vincent squeezed off a round and a round from the side arm slammed into the Zoraxians forehead leaving the bald green creature in a pool of oozy yellow blood. Another Zoraxian jumped down, moved to side to let a comrade come in but was shot in the leg by Matthew. The Zoraxian let out a scream in pain and fired a three round burst from his rifle. One of the rounds smashed into his leg, electrifying him for a few seconds and then falling onto the ground. Vincent fired two rounds, one hitting the wounded Zoraxian in the chest and the other killing the Zoraxian by practically destroying its heart. The next Zoraxian jumped down but rolled forwards and shot Vincent in the leg while Vincent fired too late. He felt a powerful jab in his leg, suddenly electricity passed through his body burning his insides endlessly until he felt numb in his legs and fell to the ground… Then everything went black on Vincent.






“Sir I still cant get patched through to Chimera… It’s like they’ve just disappeared,” one of the radiomen informed the admiral
“Damn it… They’ve jammed our communications system so we can only talk to them and only them!” the admiral said to himself in the centre of the bridge.
“One hundred and twenty five thousand credits it is then!” the admiral accepted over the bridge radio to the Zoraxian Cruiser
“One hundred and sixty thousand credits. You’re captured prisoner has killed two of my men.” Galactu proposed to the admiral
“Deal. Now unblock our communications,” The admiral confirmed over the radio, Magnus then walked over to his radioman
“Make an announcement to alpha squad of “The Flying Phoenix” squadron. Tell them we need them on patrol ASAP.” He ordered and then turned away from the bridge to make his way to the airlock.


The Zoraxians entered a fairly large ship, very square, not very maneuverable due to the lack of thrusters and did not contain any defenses. This would show the humans that this boarding party did not mean any harm. As the Zoraxian ambassadors walked up the ramp and into the ship they were accompanied by two bodyguards but they were both unarmed so they could only shield their leaders from gunshots. They sat down in their seats both bodyguards sitting next to the ambassadors but one of them was nervous.
"something wrong?" an ambassador asked the bodyguard
"I am just worried of what the humans might do sir," he lied as he felt for the hidden pocket on his pants and fiddled with the hidden four inch knife. The humans would not be able to detect the knife with their monitors and for that he chuckled to himself...


To be continued.