The Tornado Sojourns – Chapter 05 – Under Attack

The Tempest Class Freighter Tornado closed the distance between themselves and the Phoenix in about ten minutes and they discovered they were correct in their assessment of three attackers.

The Phoenix had sustained a lot of damage but was still maintaining forward momentum but was still taking fire from two of its assailants while the third was trying to latch on to the hull in preparation to breach so Merri prepared to engage.

The Tornado was armed with the twin Pulsar Lasers at the front and a rear facing Plasma cannon so she opened comms to the engine room

“Pulsat, stand by on the Plasma cannon”

“Yes captain” he replied

The Plasma cannon was a useful weapon and was powered by the spent Plasma which was the waste product from the Plasma Turbine Pyroclast Engines.

It was useful because it was a very unpleasant material which normal had to be vented into space within the gravitational field of a star to dispose of it safely but the Plasma cannon disposed of it in small bites while punching a whole through any would be attackers.

The twin Pulsar Lasers were nowhere near as powerful but they were rapid firing and deadly accurate.

They took the first raider completely by surprise and the sustained targeted strike tore a gash along the ships port side and a few seconds later it exploded into a flaming patch of debris.

 

The second raider would not be as easy as they had lost the element of surprise and as they very soon had a raider on their tail.

Merri opened the comms again

“We have a bandit on our six Pulsat, splash him with Plasma”

“Yes Captain” he replied and opened fire immediately and on the third pulse the raider was splashed.

By the time they returned to the Phoenix the third raider craft had anchored to the hull.

“Damn it looks like they’ve breached already” Merri said “We’re too late”

“They’ve stopped broadcasting the mayday” Malena said sadly

“That’s that then” Merri added gravely

“Let’s blow them to hell” Malena said

“My thoughts exactly” Merri said turning onto an attack vector

“Pulsat the freighter has been taken, we’re going to splash their prize” Malena said “Stand by with the canon”

“Ok”

“Going in now, targeting the fuel pods” Merri said “Here we go”

“Stop!” Malena shouted “an escape pod has just launched”

“Where? I can’t see it”

“Starboard side” Malena confirmed and added “That’s not helpful it means they’re heading for Zandros”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t by choice” Merri said gravely

“Choice or not, it’s too close to Zandros, get after it before it burns up entering the atmosphere”

“Ok, go and depressurize the main cargo hold and prepare to deploy the magnetic grapple”

 

Malena rushed down the companionway, ordinarily she was a very calm and collected being, but she found that the jeopardy of the situation was palpable because although she had written off any kind of relationship between herself and Zerrad as being untenable she now found that the likelihood of his impending death had left her empty inside and for the first time she was struck by the realization that Zerrad Skeet was more than a friend.

Her head was awash with emotions that she didn’t know she possessed as she began the decompression and with every passing second she wished she could speed up the process and then after what seemed an eternity the flashing light changed colour.

“Decompression complete” she announced “lowering ramp and Deploying grapple array”    

The array was stowed in a compartment in the roof of the cargo hold and deploying it involved lowering it down from its storage space and anchoring it to the floor.

In essence it was a huge winch with an Electromagnetic pad at the end of an ultra-light and supremely strong alloy cable and it was launched much like a harpoon at a poor unsuspecting whale.

By the time the array was in situ the door was fully open and Malena was at the control panel and could see her target on the screen in front of her and using a joy stick she was able to aim the grapple.

Merri had closed the distance as much as she could but there was still a distance between them and a large margin of error to go with it.

“Any time you’re ready Mal” she said “Don’t miss, we might not get a second chance, we’re running out of space, fast”

“No pressure then” Malena said

Fortunately she had an uncanny ability to calculate quite complex mathematical formulae in her head so in the time it took her to inhale a breath she had worked out the trajectory angel speed and probability so on the exhale she squeezed the trigger and there was a muffled boom and the harpoon was spat out of Tornado’s nose towards the tumbling life pod.

As soon as Merri saw the grapple leave the ship she had to ensure she didn’t deviate from her course to ensure she didn’t influence the grapples trajectory.

For Malena it was agony as she could no longer influence the outcome and just hoped that she had got it right.

As soon as the pad made contact, if it made contact, the electro magnet would activate immediately and as soon as it had a solid connection, Malena could engage the winch and Merri could decelerate and halt the life pods progress towards death and destruction.

But the wait for that to happen was agony, all she could do was to watch the image on the monitor coming from the grapple camera, and pray.

Closer and closer it got and the pod got larger and larger

“Come to mama” she said and then the grapple struck, but because the escape pod was tumbling out of control the grapple plate struck the pod a glancing blow and bounced off

“NO!” Malena shouted but then the tumbling that had caused the grapple to miss bought it back in the path of the floundering grapple and it locked on.

“Contact” she shouted and engaged the winch and Merri began to slow their forward momentum, but she had to decelerate slowly so as not to put additional strain on the grapple cable and undo Malena’s good works.

 

It was a slow process and Malena wished she could make haste but she had to resist the temptation and bide her time, but thankfully the moment came when the life pod finally passed the threshold and into the cargo hold  

“It’s in” Malena shouted “deploying clamps”

“Ok quick as you can” Merri said and engaged the engines

“As soon as the door is closed I’ll set a course for Alwi”

“Captain, captain” Pulsat interrupted excitedly “Freighter moves”

“The engines are engaged?” she asked

“Yes captain” he replied “I can splash?”

“No not yet” she retorted “How is it going Malena?”

“Closing the door now, and ….. Pressurizing” she said

 

When the light went green she opened the airlock door and rushed inside as Merri steered the Tornado towards Alwi while keeping the Phoenix in sight.

When Malena reached the pod she quickly found the emergency release lever and opened the hatch and took a deep breath before looking in.

“I’m going in” she remarked and she feared the worse as she put her head in through the hatch but her fears weren’t realized as the Skeet’s were inside, unconscious but alive.

“They’re alive” she shouted “They’re alive”

“Excellent news” Merri said and adjusted the Tornados position to put the Phoenix square astern of her.

“Pulsat!”

“I can splash now?” he responded

“You can splash now” she instructed “and when you’ve blown them to atoms go and assist Malena”

 

So Pulsat manned the Plasma Cannon, he and Vanzyl had been on the receiving end of a Scav Raider attack and he had never had the opportunity before to exact revenge, until that day when he raked the Phoenix from stem to stern, before he and Vanzyl made their way to the cargo hold and helped to extricate the stricken Skeet brothers from the life pod and move them into the sickbay.

The older brother Lyris had a minor head injury while Zerrad had a Pulsar wound to the abdomen so leaving only a debris field in their wake Merri made all speed back to Alwi.