Rise of the Kirin 34 & 35
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:13 pm
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Chapter 34 (the coming storm)
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The Kirin, having a still operational Torus, made it without further incident to Tibecia-beta 44. They were met by a pitiful sight. The Hammer of Sorrow lay mummy like on the surface. Men and equipment scurried around the shattered hulk, the lights of more than twenty repair lasers twinkled like stars around her.
Roh'i looked at the ship on the view screen and then at his own weather beaten crew, "yeah took a kickin' but kept on tickin' pop the gear I'm putting her down." his clawed index finger stabbed at the widecomm "Hail and salutations. We're glad to see you in more or less one piece! Good Giles...! What's your damage?"
The comm crackled for a second "Not too good. Shot to hell and back. We're slowly getting things back together, but by no means are we in fighting shape. Yourself?"
Roh'i ran his eyes over the damage readout, "I'm afraid we're not in much better shape up here. The Bugs got in a few good shots at us while we were getting out. Holed the hull up pretty good on the dorsal, knocked out a few turrets, the ECM, and the shield enhancer. We're almost out of munitions and we're out of fuel, but we can still bite."
The Therenback hovered like a mauled great grey eagle just above the surface of the asteroid, her hexagonal heat shields glistening in the sunset. Slowly matching rotation with that of the asteroid, she descended gently but firmly impacting with the soft ground of Tibecia-beta 44. Landing pneumatics took the load and she came to rest within no more than fifty yards of Udian and the shattered remains of the cloak jammer. The machine waited patiently as the cargo bay opened and first Roh'i in a custom EVA suit and rebreather helmet, then a long way behind Mima sitting on Esei's back, Ossil and Na'lik Hanuris and a small number of marines all in survival suits descended onto the dusty wasteland.
"Heh, nice gravity" Roh'i commented as his miner's boots hit the soft dust.
"yes" cracked his intercom, "it would appear that this particular rock has a hyper dense core, I can see why Cheem chose it for his jammer."
Roh'i eyed the robotic figure that stood in front of him. "What's this? Still to scared to face me in person Udian?" he rumbled with a wry smile. "Any chance of talking to the man instead of another robot flunky?"
The machine approached, "unfortunately your looking at him, or at least what's left of him." The front armor of the C.C.R. Mec twisted open revealing the shattered remains of something vaguely human. Its broken and severed limb stumps bobbed gently in bile coloured liquid. The plasteel resus tube containing both fluid and man sat cradled in the core of machine. Its leather like skin crawled with glistening nano creatures. Several internal organs bobbed free of the body cavity, as the machines slowly cleaned and repaired them. "Trust me, I looked a hell of a lot more whole hearty and biological this morning."
Roh'i erfed, "Giles Almighty you're a mess... Hell of a medical bill there."
The machine retracted its charge back inside itself again. "I know and by the looks of things I'm not the only one that's paying." The Kirin had been through the wringer. she looked weathered now, space hardened. The paint was chipped and laser burns crisscrossed her hull. "I'll send a repair team over, get those burned out turrets fixed."
Roh'i looked quizzically at him, "you sure you can spare them?"
The C.C.R. turned slightly in acknowledgment. "With the cloak back I can spend a small spell here getting the Hammer functional again, beta 44 may be spartan but it is at least peaceful."
"PAPPA C!" Mima had finally caught up with Roh'i and thew herself at the Mec.
"Careful child, I'm not as soft as I used to be you know." The machine replied.
Mima looked at the hunk of metal, "what happened?"
"it's a long story, but I would appreciate it, if in future you could refrained from telling half the world that you are a Shulth. As you can see a lot of people don't like us. Its, how do you young people put it? A bit of a drag having to lie. but unfortunately sometimes we have to."
Mima looked slightly annoyed. "Well, I'm happy to see you too! I wasn't the one who started all this in the first place remember?"
Udian straightened his mechanical back. "Mima, we're not doing this right now, your father will be here for you shortly. I'm sure he'll want to have a long chat with you about your conduct. Now make yourself useful and get that reserve querium tank off the Hammer and hooked up to the Kirin." Grumbling like any typical teenager Mima shuffled and mumbled her way in the direction of the Hammer.
Once she was out of ear shot Udian apologetically turned back to Roh'i, "Kids, you sacrifice the world for them and it's never enough. Still, they are the future."
Roh'i wasn't listening, Ramania's worried voice had come over his secure comm, "Boss, we've got a hostile contact, coming in fast. Its a fugitive, oh err boss? It's the Tiamat. ETA at current speed, one minute thirty seconds and counting." Roh'i's mind raced, he would have to set the stage quickly in order for any of them to survive this. He turned to his crew "We've got incoming! Get back to the ship, now!" After the fight on the station they didn't need to be told twice. "Rupert? We've got a problem, how are the shields looking?" "Ramania got the system jury rigged, taking it up to capacity I can give you 20%." Roh'i rolled his eyes towards the heavens, "What about the enhancer?" "Sorry Boss, the EMP burst baked it. It's toast." "OK, twenty will have to do. Open the safeties on the damaged turrets, I want to see venting plasma halos. That ship HAS to look a lot more badly damaged than she actually is."
"what is it?" Udian asked genuinely concerned.
"I'll give you one good guess, and here's a clue: Big mouth, big ego, and a big fat arse. But not very big in the brains."
Udian sank back slightly on his third leg. "Oh I see, Zorr? Get everyone inside, base cycle the engine and engage the cloak." in a beat the reply came back; "but what about..." Udian cut him off mid sentence "No time, do it! That's an order! Look Roh'i I'm sorry for getting you involved in all this, I honestly thought that if I delivered a good ship to the men in gray they would leave me and mine alone. It was never meant to get this badly screwed up. Old vendettas, system wide battles, these are games for young men to play. I really am getting way too old for all of this you know."
"What's wrong old man, feeling your age?"
"You don't know the half of it."
"You've got nothing to apologize for, I haven't had this much fun in ages."
Udian looked at the Dracon incredulously, "This is fun?"
Roh'i nodded "Hell yeah. Especially this next bit, your going to love this next bit. Fatboy however is going to hate it." The sun rose over the the tumbling end of the asteroid, framing the menacing form of the approaching Dragon. To their left the kirin began belching gas plasma from her damaged turrets which shimmered for a second in the sunlight as her shields engaged. To their right the hammer slowly melted from existence leaving nothing but an impression in the soft dust.
The Lady Tiamat was almost on them now. Roh'i turned to the C.C.R. Mec standing beside him, "Cheer up, bud. Looking on the bright side, he's picked a lovely sunny day for an end game."
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Chapter 35 (End game)
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Rising over the edge of the asteroid Gouglass thought all his birthdays had come at once. The jammer was a smoking memory and there, venting plasma lay the wreak of the kirin. Standing helpless on the surface stood that reptilian thorn in his side, the scale coated spanner in the works practically waiting to be vaporized. The reptile somehow managed to escape doom on the station, but there was no clever tricks left. This was going to be a very very sweet moment, so sweet it would be a pity to waste it on a mere seconds action. This instant should be teased out and devoured as slowly as possible. As Gouglass slowed, the ship hiccuped beneath him. Stupid animal couldn't even keep his own ship, ship shape. He's probably driven the kirin into the ground too just like he's done with the rust bucket Cheem was having increasing difficulty flying.
Roh'i opened a channel, "Hello lardarse, surprised to see me again? Sorry about nuking my way out of the station, but that's better than letting the Bugs have it. Just set my ship down over there. Grab the spare laser pistol I keep under the pilot seat. Take it into the hold, lock yourself into one of the empty cargo pods and cook your brain with it."
"Oh, very witty, gecko," Gouglass sneered over the channel.
"Oh no, I'm deadly serious. You seem like a fried noodle kind of guy to me."
Gouglass sat back in the sizable seat and shivered, the heating must be on the fritz. "Oh I see what your doing, your hoping that if you make me angry enough, I'll kill you nice and quick and forget all about your crew. Sorry lizard it doesn't work like that, I'm going to make you watch me execute every last one of them."
Another voice crackled onto the comm channel. "I understand your anger Gouglass, your fathers death was a tragic waste of life. but don't you see in coming after me you did a deal with his real killers and enabled them to take even more lives? Can't you see how idiotic and pointless this all is?" A grin rippled across Cheems face "Udian, is that you in there? Your alive." He'd completely disregarded the cargo robot standing next to the draconic Reptilian. "this just keeps on getting better and better, all my loose ends all in one place. Your ship must be round here some where and as you haven't used it against me, I'm betting it's looking as worse for wear as the kirin is. Which just leaves me to tie up all these untidy loose ends. Actually I think I'll just cut the lizards legs off and spend some quality time with his filthy Felinid bitch."
Udian winced from inside his bottle, that had indeed, torn it.
Derik stepped forward, "Shut yer gab and bring it. Cos I don't think you've got the stones for it; the best you got is to beat up women and kids. You're a frakin' coward with a mouth. A sad, pathetic punk. Like daddy, like son."
Cheem didn't even reply, he jerked the trigger for the forward laser. It exploded. fine shrapnel pinged harmlessly off the C.C.R and Derik's spacesuit. Without missing a beat Roh'i continued, "I've been threatened more times than I can remember, and I let it roll off up to a point. But when you threaten my crew, my friends, I tend to take it a bit personally. You see this isn't about revenge any more. It's bigger than that now, much bigger. You sent people to their deaths trying to kill me. The Marines I have aboard, and the surviving Red Storm fighters lost many shipmates thanks to you. You jeopardized the folks that call this system home, not to mention what Miss Mima suffered. And for what? How many more will suffer and die because of this mythical crusade? No, revenge has nothing to do with it. It's about closure. It's about letting those poor ghosts rest. It's about justice."
In the smoke filled cockpit Gouglass spat into the comm "And you're the one to judge me, lizard? I'll do as I please, and damn you and your freak friends!" he armed and fired a missile, but the clamps stayed closed. Part of the front wing of the lady Tiamat disintegrated with the resulting explosion.
Derik shook his head. "You've got a habit of underestimating me. You seem to believe you've got me outsmarted. Big mistake. That ship, -my- ship is dying around you Cheem. I know everything about her, including the AI that's her heart and soul; even now, she's not going to let you use her to commit piracy. She has a boobytrap program. She started killing herself as soon as she realized you were an unauthorized pilot. Being a marine, you'd be familiar with the saying, 'Never let your weapon fall into enemy hands.' Did you really think I'd let you kill me with my own ship? Think again. You're done, ace. It's over."
Udian stepped up. "Gouglass, I want you to listen to me very carefully, you have but one chance to live. Eject and I'll see you go unharmed. Derik?" The draconoid considered for a second. "he'll go unharmed, but in custody in my brig, until he's turned over to the proper authorities."
Cheem kicked the thrusters and aimed the smoking craft directly at the two figures in front of him. "Go to hell, both of you!"
Face like stone Derik replied, "So be it. I wish I could say it was nice knowing you, but it hasn't been. You deserve this..." Derik signaled the wounded Dragon and it's occupant with the universal sign of contempt, the raised middle digit, "Arsehole. /Lady Tiomat/, Command Omega, spalia stesst'narwl."
"Command Omega accepted. Executing." came a cold, metallic female voice over the channel, then the /Tiomat/ twisted off course, climbing steeply upward trailing debris, the witch drive coils burst and burned as they were flooded with querium from the ruptured tanks. A pulsing, warping hole into witch space tore itself into reality and swallowed the stricken craft, the comm screamed with the unmistakable wet ripping sound of a catastrophic misjumsp. This dark blue abomination hung there for a few seconds, shimmering angrily against the blackness of space. Then, slowly at first, it sputtered, collapsed and died.
Chapter 34 (the coming storm)
======================================
The Kirin, having a still operational Torus, made it without further incident to Tibecia-beta 44. They were met by a pitiful sight. The Hammer of Sorrow lay mummy like on the surface. Men and equipment scurried around the shattered hulk, the lights of more than twenty repair lasers twinkled like stars around her.
Roh'i looked at the ship on the view screen and then at his own weather beaten crew, "yeah took a kickin' but kept on tickin' pop the gear I'm putting her down." his clawed index finger stabbed at the widecomm "Hail and salutations. We're glad to see you in more or less one piece! Good Giles...! What's your damage?"
The comm crackled for a second "Not too good. Shot to hell and back. We're slowly getting things back together, but by no means are we in fighting shape. Yourself?"
Roh'i ran his eyes over the damage readout, "I'm afraid we're not in much better shape up here. The Bugs got in a few good shots at us while we were getting out. Holed the hull up pretty good on the dorsal, knocked out a few turrets, the ECM, and the shield enhancer. We're almost out of munitions and we're out of fuel, but we can still bite."
The Therenback hovered like a mauled great grey eagle just above the surface of the asteroid, her hexagonal heat shields glistening in the sunset. Slowly matching rotation with that of the asteroid, she descended gently but firmly impacting with the soft ground of Tibecia-beta 44. Landing pneumatics took the load and she came to rest within no more than fifty yards of Udian and the shattered remains of the cloak jammer. The machine waited patiently as the cargo bay opened and first Roh'i in a custom EVA suit and rebreather helmet, then a long way behind Mima sitting on Esei's back, Ossil and Na'lik Hanuris and a small number of marines all in survival suits descended onto the dusty wasteland.
"Heh, nice gravity" Roh'i commented as his miner's boots hit the soft dust.
"yes" cracked his intercom, "it would appear that this particular rock has a hyper dense core, I can see why Cheem chose it for his jammer."
Roh'i eyed the robotic figure that stood in front of him. "What's this? Still to scared to face me in person Udian?" he rumbled with a wry smile. "Any chance of talking to the man instead of another robot flunky?"
The machine approached, "unfortunately your looking at him, or at least what's left of him." The front armor of the C.C.R. Mec twisted open revealing the shattered remains of something vaguely human. Its broken and severed limb stumps bobbed gently in bile coloured liquid. The plasteel resus tube containing both fluid and man sat cradled in the core of machine. Its leather like skin crawled with glistening nano creatures. Several internal organs bobbed free of the body cavity, as the machines slowly cleaned and repaired them. "Trust me, I looked a hell of a lot more whole hearty and biological this morning."
Roh'i erfed, "Giles Almighty you're a mess... Hell of a medical bill there."
The machine retracted its charge back inside itself again. "I know and by the looks of things I'm not the only one that's paying." The Kirin had been through the wringer. she looked weathered now, space hardened. The paint was chipped and laser burns crisscrossed her hull. "I'll send a repair team over, get those burned out turrets fixed."
Roh'i looked quizzically at him, "you sure you can spare them?"
The C.C.R. turned slightly in acknowledgment. "With the cloak back I can spend a small spell here getting the Hammer functional again, beta 44 may be spartan but it is at least peaceful."
"PAPPA C!" Mima had finally caught up with Roh'i and thew herself at the Mec.
"Careful child, I'm not as soft as I used to be you know." The machine replied.
Mima looked at the hunk of metal, "what happened?"
"it's a long story, but I would appreciate it, if in future you could refrained from telling half the world that you are a Shulth. As you can see a lot of people don't like us. Its, how do you young people put it? A bit of a drag having to lie. but unfortunately sometimes we have to."
Mima looked slightly annoyed. "Well, I'm happy to see you too! I wasn't the one who started all this in the first place remember?"
Udian straightened his mechanical back. "Mima, we're not doing this right now, your father will be here for you shortly. I'm sure he'll want to have a long chat with you about your conduct. Now make yourself useful and get that reserve querium tank off the Hammer and hooked up to the Kirin." Grumbling like any typical teenager Mima shuffled and mumbled her way in the direction of the Hammer.
Once she was out of ear shot Udian apologetically turned back to Roh'i, "Kids, you sacrifice the world for them and it's never enough. Still, they are the future."
Roh'i wasn't listening, Ramania's worried voice had come over his secure comm, "Boss, we've got a hostile contact, coming in fast. Its a fugitive, oh err boss? It's the Tiamat. ETA at current speed, one minute thirty seconds and counting." Roh'i's mind raced, he would have to set the stage quickly in order for any of them to survive this. He turned to his crew "We've got incoming! Get back to the ship, now!" After the fight on the station they didn't need to be told twice. "Rupert? We've got a problem, how are the shields looking?" "Ramania got the system jury rigged, taking it up to capacity I can give you 20%." Roh'i rolled his eyes towards the heavens, "What about the enhancer?" "Sorry Boss, the EMP burst baked it. It's toast." "OK, twenty will have to do. Open the safeties on the damaged turrets, I want to see venting plasma halos. That ship HAS to look a lot more badly damaged than she actually is."
"what is it?" Udian asked genuinely concerned.
"I'll give you one good guess, and here's a clue: Big mouth, big ego, and a big fat arse. But not very big in the brains."
Udian sank back slightly on his third leg. "Oh I see, Zorr? Get everyone inside, base cycle the engine and engage the cloak." in a beat the reply came back; "but what about..." Udian cut him off mid sentence "No time, do it! That's an order! Look Roh'i I'm sorry for getting you involved in all this, I honestly thought that if I delivered a good ship to the men in gray they would leave me and mine alone. It was never meant to get this badly screwed up. Old vendettas, system wide battles, these are games for young men to play. I really am getting way too old for all of this you know."
"What's wrong old man, feeling your age?"
"You don't know the half of it."
"You've got nothing to apologize for, I haven't had this much fun in ages."
Udian looked at the Dracon incredulously, "This is fun?"
Roh'i nodded "Hell yeah. Especially this next bit, your going to love this next bit. Fatboy however is going to hate it." The sun rose over the the tumbling end of the asteroid, framing the menacing form of the approaching Dragon. To their left the kirin began belching gas plasma from her damaged turrets which shimmered for a second in the sunlight as her shields engaged. To their right the hammer slowly melted from existence leaving nothing but an impression in the soft dust.
The Lady Tiamat was almost on them now. Roh'i turned to the C.C.R. Mec standing beside him, "Cheer up, bud. Looking on the bright side, he's picked a lovely sunny day for an end game."
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Chapter 35 (End game)
======================================
Rising over the edge of the asteroid Gouglass thought all his birthdays had come at once. The jammer was a smoking memory and there, venting plasma lay the wreak of the kirin. Standing helpless on the surface stood that reptilian thorn in his side, the scale coated spanner in the works practically waiting to be vaporized. The reptile somehow managed to escape doom on the station, but there was no clever tricks left. This was going to be a very very sweet moment, so sweet it would be a pity to waste it on a mere seconds action. This instant should be teased out and devoured as slowly as possible. As Gouglass slowed, the ship hiccuped beneath him. Stupid animal couldn't even keep his own ship, ship shape. He's probably driven the kirin into the ground too just like he's done with the rust bucket Cheem was having increasing difficulty flying.
Roh'i opened a channel, "Hello lardarse, surprised to see me again? Sorry about nuking my way out of the station, but that's better than letting the Bugs have it. Just set my ship down over there. Grab the spare laser pistol I keep under the pilot seat. Take it into the hold, lock yourself into one of the empty cargo pods and cook your brain with it."
"Oh, very witty, gecko," Gouglass sneered over the channel.
"Oh no, I'm deadly serious. You seem like a fried noodle kind of guy to me."
Gouglass sat back in the sizable seat and shivered, the heating must be on the fritz. "Oh I see what your doing, your hoping that if you make me angry enough, I'll kill you nice and quick and forget all about your crew. Sorry lizard it doesn't work like that, I'm going to make you watch me execute every last one of them."
Another voice crackled onto the comm channel. "I understand your anger Gouglass, your fathers death was a tragic waste of life. but don't you see in coming after me you did a deal with his real killers and enabled them to take even more lives? Can't you see how idiotic and pointless this all is?" A grin rippled across Cheems face "Udian, is that you in there? Your alive." He'd completely disregarded the cargo robot standing next to the draconic Reptilian. "this just keeps on getting better and better, all my loose ends all in one place. Your ship must be round here some where and as you haven't used it against me, I'm betting it's looking as worse for wear as the kirin is. Which just leaves me to tie up all these untidy loose ends. Actually I think I'll just cut the lizards legs off and spend some quality time with his filthy Felinid bitch."
Udian winced from inside his bottle, that had indeed, torn it.
Derik stepped forward, "Shut yer gab and bring it. Cos I don't think you've got the stones for it; the best you got is to beat up women and kids. You're a frakin' coward with a mouth. A sad, pathetic punk. Like daddy, like son."
Cheem didn't even reply, he jerked the trigger for the forward laser. It exploded. fine shrapnel pinged harmlessly off the C.C.R and Derik's spacesuit. Without missing a beat Roh'i continued, "I've been threatened more times than I can remember, and I let it roll off up to a point. But when you threaten my crew, my friends, I tend to take it a bit personally. You see this isn't about revenge any more. It's bigger than that now, much bigger. You sent people to their deaths trying to kill me. The Marines I have aboard, and the surviving Red Storm fighters lost many shipmates thanks to you. You jeopardized the folks that call this system home, not to mention what Miss Mima suffered. And for what? How many more will suffer and die because of this mythical crusade? No, revenge has nothing to do with it. It's about closure. It's about letting those poor ghosts rest. It's about justice."
In the smoke filled cockpit Gouglass spat into the comm "And you're the one to judge me, lizard? I'll do as I please, and damn you and your freak friends!" he armed and fired a missile, but the clamps stayed closed. Part of the front wing of the lady Tiamat disintegrated with the resulting explosion.
Derik shook his head. "You've got a habit of underestimating me. You seem to believe you've got me outsmarted. Big mistake. That ship, -my- ship is dying around you Cheem. I know everything about her, including the AI that's her heart and soul; even now, she's not going to let you use her to commit piracy. She has a boobytrap program. She started killing herself as soon as she realized you were an unauthorized pilot. Being a marine, you'd be familiar with the saying, 'Never let your weapon fall into enemy hands.' Did you really think I'd let you kill me with my own ship? Think again. You're done, ace. It's over."
Udian stepped up. "Gouglass, I want you to listen to me very carefully, you have but one chance to live. Eject and I'll see you go unharmed. Derik?" The draconoid considered for a second. "he'll go unharmed, but in custody in my brig, until he's turned over to the proper authorities."
Cheem kicked the thrusters and aimed the smoking craft directly at the two figures in front of him. "Go to hell, both of you!"
Face like stone Derik replied, "So be it. I wish I could say it was nice knowing you, but it hasn't been. You deserve this..." Derik signaled the wounded Dragon and it's occupant with the universal sign of contempt, the raised middle digit, "Arsehole. /Lady Tiomat/, Command Omega, spalia stesst'narwl."
"Command Omega accepted. Executing." came a cold, metallic female voice over the channel, then the /Tiomat/ twisted off course, climbing steeply upward trailing debris, the witch drive coils burst and burned as they were flooded with querium from the ruptured tanks. A pulsing, warping hole into witch space tore itself into reality and swallowed the stricken craft, the comm screamed with the unmistakable wet ripping sound of a catastrophic misjumsp. This dark blue abomination hung there for a few seconds, shimmering angrily against the blackness of space. Then, slowly at first, it sputtered, collapsed and died.
