Thread: We Make Our Own Fate (Alvis&Rania)

The running lights on the ship, the Fateless , flickered through the motions, as the ship drifted forward on it's momentum. The engines were a faint blue burn, ready to go if needed, but not running hot enough to really burn fuel, or to provide any real thrust. The ship was a frigate, once a backbone of a picket patrol. But that had been a lot of years ago. The style and design had been slated to be decommissioned entirely almost a decade ago. Old as the ship might be, it showed a number of newer parts on it. Weapon emplacements, a few communication arrays, and a solid array of shield emitters. Otherwise, the hull of the ship was pitted and scarred, evidence of years of violence and hardship. Much like it's captain. The com was pining in his quarters, adn the captain blew out a sigh as he swung a hand at the call button. Go ahead. he said blearily. Sorry to wake you sir, but we've got a hit on the long range scanners. There's a ship, large tramp freighter, skirting the event horizon of the Schwartz Singularity. Given it's profile, could be a ripe target. The voice on the com said calmly. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good target. Spin it up, wake the mob, and get everything ready. Fire up gunships Beta and Gamma, with the rest on standby if something goes pear shaped. And...get my boys out of storage, and get the ready. We got work to do. Yes sir. The captain leaned back on his bunk a moment and sighed. Then heaved himself into motion. He stood and stretched, trying to loosen the muscles in his shoulders. It was a partial success, but the scar tissue on hsi back still pulled. He sighed, adn dug around for his shirt, and pulled it over his torso. He was not a small man, more than six feet in height, and showing the build of a long time fighter. He pulled a jacket on over his shirt, adn then grabbed his side arm off the table, strapping it to his leg. He got a lot of flak from the boys about his choice of weapon, and old style slug thrower. With the technology available, most favoured the laser, or plasma, but no, he was a hard slug man. He'd seen too many fights stagnate when personal shields started dissipating heat and energy. But a good old fashioned slug of metal ended most fights quickly. He head out his door, to the bridge. The door opened and the captain strode in. No one rose, announced him, or anything fo the sort. He approved of it. Better to focus on the task at hand, adn not worry about standing on ceremony for the arrival of one man. Do we have an ID on our target? He asked. A lean, squirrely man answered him. Yes sir. The Bountiful Venture . She's a crown ship, supposed to be hauling goods to backwater planets. Pretty far off her course. The man answered. Good. Launch the gunships, rake the ship from stem to stern, and off terms of surrender. But in the meantime, fire up the engines for intercept, and run out the guns. I don't want them to think we're not playing for keeps here. The ship lurched a moment before the inertial dampners caught up very quickly, ad the deck started to hum as the reactors fed power intot he bow gind. One way or another, this was going to end soon. The gunships sped across the intervening space, adn opened fire. Underslung weapons made them hit far out of their normal weight class, which the freighter was made aware of rapidly. As these guns opened fire, tehy sitiched a line along the centerline of the ship, taking down the main communications, and venting a few sections of the ship. The freighter did not surrenfer. Call teams Alpha through Epsilon. Tell them to suit up. The captain ordered. The Fateless cruised in closer until it was along side the freighter. Boarding grapnels fired out to latch onto the freighter and rel it in, letting htem dock with the enemy ship. The captain walked away from his command chair, intending to jopin the rush of men. He was an infantry commander at heart, and he needed to show what he cold really do. He knew life was like to lose hope. The feighter had been rocked by the gunships, and then the boarding grapnels. The captain head for his ready room to suit up, hoping that the freighter didn't do something like vent the atmosphere while the boarding was goin on. It was all down to hope now.