Thread: Piracy and Power Plays - KeeXeyn/AlluringEnigma

It didn't take long until the fighters reached the target vessel. Judging by how the other cruiser had changed direction, making for a nearby planet, Ajax and his crew had been detected. Not that it mattered - the merchant cruiser was too cumbersome by far to evade the sleek and agile fighters. The nearest planet was still several light minutes away, and Ajax needed mere seconds to intercept. All wings, start interdiction, then form up for assigned tasks, Ajax commanded. His own black wing zoomed in front of the enemy cruiser, and bombarded it with nil-mass particles. Almost instantly, the ship came to a grinding halt, as the hyperdrive collapsed and overheated, shutting down. Fifteen seconds , Ajax thought to himself. They had to identify the ship, slow down to sublight speeds, and get within two kilometres of the cruiser in less than fifteen seconds, while the cruiser still kept a speed of fifty kilometres per second. Easy. All the fighters were in range before ten seconds had passed. Immediately, the lighter fighters began bombarding the ship with more nil-mass particles, freezing the enemy's hyperdrive. Ajax wasted no time. He hand his black wing zoomed in close, circling the cruiser at a range of a measly three hundred metres, evading hardpoint fire and drawing the enemy's weapons away from the rest of the fighters. The cruiser's automated systems kept trying to hit the closest targets, meaning that the bigger mass-driver fighters could pummel the shields with machine-and-railgun fire. It took nearly half a minute before the crew took manual control of the ship's hardpoints to target the heavier, more dangerous ships, but by then, it was too late. The guns needed five seconds to swivel to new targets and lock on. And in those five seconds, the shield began to shimmer. Then it fell. The heavy fighters immediately launched small clusters of IR bombs and EMP, making them nearly impossible to target. Ajax's black wing spun, and started pummeling the ship's heavier hardpoints, blowing a massive railgun right into space, as well as the three engineers that crewed it. Ajax began to laugh. Well shot! He called out, as the rest of the wings closed in for the kill. The two heavy torpedo ships slammed their payload into the ship's engines, crippling the ship. The lighter laser ships pummeled the bridge, causing their leadership to be shaken. And the heavy mass-driver fighters circled around everything, taking shots of opportunity. Ajax and his wingmen soared around the cruiser, cutting through enemy weapons with their high-energy laser guns. While the crew put up a valiant fight, the cruiser was doomed. With each hardpoint lost, the fighters swarming them had greater freedom of movement. And finally, Ajax jinked his way through two batteries of concentrated laser fire, and launched a precise salvo of small missiles at the two hardpoints, blasting them into space. The entire port side of the cruiser was now free of hardpoints, just as Aurora's Vengeance arrived at the scene, its hyperdrive groaning with the effort. Ajax hailed the Vengeance. Portside hardpoints eliminated. Enemy shields will be up in twenty seconds. Wait for it to come live, then launch boarding craft. The Vengeance's broadside hardpoints and my fighters will have it down again in time for boarding, he stated, all gleeful professionalism. Despite his rivalry with Vanessa, he knew better than to give bad advice on boarding - that could easily cost him his head, after all. And so, the enemy shields came back online. It lasted for all of ten seconds, before the Vengeance's massive railguns brought it back down. The fighters returned to the Vengeance's side, except the red and black wings, that got busy forming a breach. Twenty seconds, Ajax thought to himself , and the boarding crews will arrive.