Roleplay - The Enemy Within:
Written by John A. Howard of the Nexus.
Download It Here - If you need this file in another format please email [email protected] and we will get it to you as soon as possible.

 

Prelude

 

Something blinked on the overlay-viewer in front of him. It showed a diagram of the internal systems of his small high-speed fighter.

The automated computer voice came to life and filled the speakers: "Malfunction in the secondary power distribution couplings of Section 5-Alpha." "Reroute power through 6-Delta on Level 4." was the answer the electronic female received. A second later, the blinking disappeared as if it had never existed.

"Course projector", his voice dominated the command section of the small fighter. The 'viewer which was showing space as it hurled by at enormous speed, created again an overlay, this time it was a three-dimensional schematic of the course he was flying, with all the hazards and specifics added to it.

"Reaching checkpoint 16 in 45 seconds at current velocity. Recommend engaging auto-piloting sequence upon entering the asteroid field."

"Baby, baby, this is a Race, not a sightseeing tour. Let's show those overconfident cargo flyers how to maneuver for real! Manual piloting stays in place." was his response, followed by a little chuckle as he knew what was to come next: the female computer voice responded with a slight hint of an aggravated sigh in her tone: "Yes Commander". Once again he mentally expressed his complete satisfaction with the decision that Fighter Command had made ten years ago: installing artificial intelligence on all its fighters. The presence of an A.I. made missions so much more fun, literally any mission, not to mention the reduced amounts of crew that were needed to effectively man a fighter.

He brought his weapons online in case some asteroids had the utterly brilliant insight to drift into his flight path and would prolong his stay in the field.

With the push of a button the M.M.C., the Manual Maneuvering Controls, which his fellow fighter pilots had lovingly christened "the Shaking Sally Setting", were activated.

As he lifted his finger off the button, two joysticks emerged out of his control panel, and the two foot pedals that were normally stashed away in the floor, lifted themselves and made contact with the soles of his standard issue officer shoes.

"Jenny, send some extra juice to the maneuvering thrusters." "Thrusters now operating at one hundred-twenty per cent efficiency Joe" came the artificial response which he had long ago affectionately named "Jenny", much to the aggravation of his numerous romantic encounters over the years. In his opinion though, no woman of flesh and blood, not even that gorgeous redhead he met at Outpost B-15 Alpha-5 on Holios in the Böotes system upon a practice run could ever make him love her as Jenny had always been able to.

Many people found it strange how Joe could talk about Jenny, a 'G-66' Eliminator, his pride and joy and his only true love in life, as if she was a real woman, but the moment they saw him fly the ship, they understood.

Commander Joe Delgato strapped himself in as the asteroid field was coming closer.

"Joe, we have…." A shockwave threw the light ship a little off course and all the sudden Joe was looking at the stern of a Tashak-Ma, a Union built fighter that was quite similar to his own G-66. "Khor'mat" he mumbled to nobody in particular. "It's always that crazy scale bag. One of these days the Union will be scraping his reckless scales off a planet instead of decorating him with another pointless medal!" He said while shaking his head as one would do if witnessing something beyond stupidity.

With that, and noticing that the others weren't far behind, he pushed his engines to their limit, trying to gain territory on his immediate opponent.

As he closed on the asteroid belt at full speed, his short range sensor grid filled up with obstacles, asteroids and debris.

He used the joysticks and pedals to maneuver, adjust his speed and heading. A skilled pilot like him could perform some serious acrobatics with these, and that was exactly what was expected of him and his opponents.

A sharp tug to starboard. "Jenny, operate the guns!" Then the joysticks were slammed to the port-side of the ship, and it made the ship turn as if it was spinning on a coin, banking so violently that the wings of the fighter stood upright in the midst of the turn. He barely managed to avoid a collision with an asteroid, but had to adjust his heading again. Joe took a steep dive at full speed and made the fighter roll on its horizontal axis so that the small debris he suddenly encountered was hit and thrown out of its original course away from the fighter. Meanwhile the ship A.I. was blasting away at the larger objects closing in on the fighter. The Distortion Cannons unleashed their hellish loads upon the closing targets, reducing them to dust and smaller debris that they already were.

Joe worked his controls with near to perfect coordination and was fully focused on getting his fighter out of the asteroid belt in one piece. Bit by bit the course projectory which was still active showed that his opponents were closing in, fast. The Federation Valiant-class vessel "Pride of Padeen" was closing in fast, as was the Brood-built Venom.

After Jenny cleared the way, the Commander "put the pedal to the metal", as the old Terran saying goes.

The G-66 was brutally abused, being forced into descent angles up to eighty-nine degrees from a fully horizontal position within seconds, only to roll itself starboard at the same time, soaring past the larger asteroids, barely avoiding collision. From time to time small asteroids collided with the hull of the ship, leaving nasty marks on the painting or actually damaging the ship, while shattering at impact.

The entire time through the asteroid belt, Brian found himself admiring the handiwork of Khor'mat right in front of him, but he knew that on the last part of the racecourse, which spanned open space and tested the speed of the pilots and their ships, he could beat the Slah'ke.

As the end of the asteroid field came closer, the Brood contestant - a young, overconfident and proud pilot whose mouth more then made up for his lack of experience - tried to pass Jenny, squeezing his agile craft through the narrow space between a he asteroid and his Terran opponent while having rolled the horizontal axis of his Venom ninety degrees to port, so that he could look - if he took the time to look up - right into the face of his opponent. So he did, he looked up and smiled, or something that Joe assumed had to resemble a smile, at his Terran opponent.

Then, as the Brood was about to overtake Joe, flames poured out of the side of the Venom and the craft crashed violently into the surface of the asteroid. Joe, assuming it was a piloting error, didn't stop to worry, and perused his Union adversary again.

Khor'mat had gained sufficient ground to have cleared Jenny's short range sensors. "Jenny, shut down weapons and all secondary systems. Reroute all available power to the engines." A bleeping sound signaled Commander Delgato that the order had been received and had been processed: the engines were ready.

In the engine bay, the engines started to roar in ecstasy as Joe forced them to surrender to his will and desire to go faster then the ship was designed to go. Everyone following the Race on their sensors and the specially rigged tactical arrays through the system suddenly saw Jenny accelerate as if the hounds of the Devil himself were on her tail.

Joe was instantly thrown backwards in his seat by the enormous G-forces created by the sudden acceleration. Space was swooshing past at incredible speed, and he was closing in on the Tashak-Ma fast. But at the same time, the length of the course that was still to travel for both was reducing at an equal rate, and the opposition was not eliminated yet either, the Pride of Padeen was preying upon the two battling speedsters as a hawk upon his next meal.

Forth and fifth places were being occupied at this stage by the Orfine warrior Gakh Botil in his Savage class fighter and the contestant for the Hive Collective of Betelgeux: Quix'Tooygh, who was trying his best to keep the cloaking device of his small Warrior-fighter from drawing much needed power away from his Kylon Drive.

The Kolari were represented by a pilot mostly known as Lahi Cisu Roh, and his Photon class ship. Due to severe damage inflicted by an asteroid which had believed that his right of crossing the path of the Kolari outweighed the right to free passage of the Kolari, thereby causing into a near-collision, which had damaged the engines of the small cloak-capable fighter. However, because of excellent mastery of the art of high speed piloting, the Kolari was for the time being at sixth place.

The Matrix contestant, the Preserver #4-Alpha5K, and its Prism were perusing at a speed both Joe and Khor'mat could only dream of achieving in their own fighters. Luckily for them, the Preserver had sustained damage early in the Race and had lost a lot of valuable time because of much needed repairs, but was gaining on the number six fast.

The finish was closing fast, and Joe was slowly overtaking the Slah'ke. The last miles before the finish were brutal: both fighters went head to head, closely followed by the fiercely stubborn, but nonetheless amazing Plexxan contestant. Everyone watching this spectacle held their breath as the three fighters hurled towards the final checkpoint: the finish line. The excited tension among the spectators could be felt all around at the moment the finish line was crossed by the first craft. Yet, it was not clear which one of the two crafts that seemed merge into one on the regular camera recordings had actually won this Race, this endeavor.

In the end a multi-spectral analysis of all the recorded data: video logs, flight logs, impartial timing and a thorough all-angle-investigation of the finishing gave the final outcome of the mystery of who had won the 40th Annual Va'Tal Honorary Invitational Fighter Challenge of Naos.

By as it seemed mere molecules there was a humanoid winner: Commander Joe Delgato of the Terran Empire and his formidable 'G-66' Eliminator fighter: Jenny.

<--Index

Next Chapter-->

 

Back