Welcome To My Parlour, Said The Spider To The Fly.

Posted on Tue Oct 10th, 2023 @ 10:12pm by Lieutenant Commander Ferrand Beaulieu

530 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Ethics, Morals & The Prime Directive.
Location: Inner System Search Pattern.
Timeline: Post Deployment of Defiants & Fighters.

A wing of 4 fighters was patrolling one small section of an asteroid belt that ringed the inner system. The belt was dense, a result of two celestial bodies destroying themselves in a cataclysmic collision and trailing the aftermatch over multiple centuries to form an almost perfect ring in the system. The minerals in the rocks formed pockets of regions that interfered with sensors which required visual inspection. The fighters themselves, top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art Gryphon class starfighters were sleek, agile, and very capable craft that could carry a mix of weapon loadouts depending on the mission they were tasked with.

For the moment they were tasked with reconnaissance, standard weapons loadout, prepared in the event of an attack, not equipped enough to start a war.

"6-3 to 6-1. Area is clear, nil report." One of the pilots reported.

"6-2. Nil report."

"6-4. Nil re..."

The transmission was cut off, a blight flash of light then it faded. What was one peaceful was thrown into chaos. "This is 6-3, defensive." Weapons fire could be seen flying all around striking drifting rocks with tufts of smaller rocks and dust. The flight lead could see 6-3 ducking and evading, diving between asteroids and rocks in an effort to shake those in pursuit. It was then that the flight lead was able to see who was attacking. 3 craft, raider in appearance and design with weapons firing.

"6-1 engaging." A sharp bank to the right and a dive down onto the two raiders attacking his wingman but another flash. 6-2 fell to a flanking attack. The interference on the sensors was severe but from what glimpse of stability it yielded showed another 4 raiders were closing in.

Breaking comms silence he flipped the button. "6-1 to command, we have been engaged. Multiple hostiles origins unknown, sending my location. 6-2 & 6-4 are down. Outcome doubtful."

Diving down he tried to engage the targets in front of him doing his best to save his only remaining wingman. The interference made weapons locks difficult but the enemy didn't appear to have that problem. He'd noticed that the weapons fire was surprisingly more accurate for the raider foes.

He ordered his craft to eject the 'black box' which would contain the information collected so far, hoping that it would help whoever found it later on.

His training told him that escape was impossible, the odds were stacked, and it was hard to be anything but realistic.

Even through all the evading, erratic moves, and sharp turns the pilots of the raider craft were good, really good, nothing like what he was expecting but time was running out, knowing that the others that had been killed it was only a matter of time, standard rules of engagement were to pick off targets of opportunity and swarm what was left....himself and 6-3.

His own weapons fire proved ineffective due to the interference, wide of the mark, unable to get a target lock.

He never got to see what happened to 6-3. Led into a trap by the other group that downed 6-2. As sparks filled the cockpit, the small reactor exploded tearing the craft into pieces to become part of the asteroid belt.

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