Got this post from my old blog. It’s a short Sci-Fi story I wrote a few years ago. It is based on an on-line game I played for a few years. And the story is inspired by my character in that virtual world. I did some re-editing and added a few lines though.
Uzazi
Another day,
Some lights flashed on the dashboard, as the caracal cruiser kicked into warp. Destination: Pionen, Cargo: Corpii Militants. Uzazi Spellgazer slowly looked at the dials which notified her that the Warpdrive did indeed activate.
With a sigh of relief and slight boredom, she sat back in her chair. Gazing at the stars hurling past the windscreen at the bridge of her cruiser. Still somewhat inexperienced she had entered Dead space. She was new to this teritory. Up until know she had flown in the relative safety of corporate space. Corporate space being protected by custom build warships which patrolled system to system. They were able to pick up any distress call within a light years radius. And their engines where able to cover the distance in less than two minutes. Sure there was the occasional hit and run by pirates coming from the other side of the Stargate. But Usually the gates where well protected and any pirate coming from dead space would think twice before engaging a company patrol.
Dead space however was no mans land. A safe haven for all that were sought after by the interstellar companies or their home worlds.Centuries ago the companies had come from the other side of the wormhole and entered this galaxy. EVE they had called it. And then disaster struck and the wormhole had collapsed. Cutting of the route back to the original home worlds. So the four great companies sat down on different systems in the Eve galaxy and began their expansion from there. Plenty of space for everyone. And across the borders of these territories the Murderers,rapists and pirates fled. building little factions of their own.
Then people traveling between the great companies got lost and soon the place became know as Dead space. Here she was Dead space, real money could be made venturing here. Either in mining precious minerals or apprehending certain criminals bountied by the companies. There where plenty of things people would pay big amounts of creds for, in Dead space. And the money was well worth the effort Sure you could lose your ship if it was shot down by a group of renegade pirates, but ships could be rebuilt.
Uzazi had successfully evaded a group of pirates camping at this side of the Stargate. When you entered dead space you had about 30 seconds before the pirates could lock on and a few more seconds before a tractor beam, ion cannon or missile could hit you.
As soon as she had entered Dead space she had turned her Cruiser towards a distant asteroid field and then she had kicked in the warp drive, blasting here millions of Kilometers away from the targeting range of the pirate ships. This was the only way. Fending of a camping pirate group on your own, was considered suicide. As she dropped out of warp half way she entered the great emptiness of space. Millions of kilometers, where between each planet in a system and dropping out of warp halfway, would almost certainly put you somewhere, where no one could find you. After a quick peek on the proximity scanner, one could never be to careful in Dead space. She punched in the coordinates obtained by her company contractor and she was gone again. This time she wouldn’t run. She was here to collect her prize. Militants who were sought after by the company for acts of terrorism and stirring up crowds on several planets. As the Navigational computer started flashing, indicating that they would drop out of warp soon. She prepared herself. ” Focus, Uzz”, she thought to herself. Her lips narrowed as she saw the speed indicator drop. 1M, 500K, 200k, 100K , 50K, 40K, 30K, 25K. She was ready. Stripes became dots again and in the distance she could notice a small space station. She checked the coordinates. This is it.
Then on long range sensors she saw them, three raiders, six thugs and a freighter. ” Bingo!”, she whispered. She set her engines to maximum in pursuit of the group of ships in the distance. A few more seconds and she would be able to lock on to the last ones. A red indicator showed that the proximity scanner could now pick up the group. Then she switched on her targeting computer. Immediately they locked on to all threats in range. Then they spotted her, The group spread and turned to face the incoming threat. Soon they would be in her range and she would fire her missle batteries at them. And there she was ,aiming her heavy missiles at the Corpii raiders and thugs hurling towards the cruiser in a desperate attempt to save their freighter, holding its precious cargo.
Then all of a sudden a second wave of Corpii ships had entered the area. She was completely out numbered. In a split second she had kicked in her afterburner and had set her headings away from the approaching ships. Lights started flashing and alarms started sounding as the Corpii ships locked on to the cruiser.
She targeted the closest ones and set her missile batteries on-line. Al of a sudden the entire ship trembled as the first corpii missile hit her shields. Too close she thought. The targeting indicator showed 39Km and closing. She fired. Four missiles took of in direction of their targets. 8 vessels where on a direct intercept course. Then she lost 4 of her locks as the missiles had eliminated the closest threats. Quickly she selected new targets to lock. 20Km and closing. Pearls of sweat started to break out as stress increased. Then she opened her drone bay and launched her combat drones. After quickly entering the command engage targets, they went of in the direction of the incoming danger. Another tremble, only this time it was harder. She had to grip the arms of her chair to stay in it. The shield indicator showed a significant loss in shield power. Another tremble, and another and another. Quickly Uzazi switched on her large Shield booster, boosting up the power of the shield to compensate for the damage done by the incoming missiles. The cruisers launchers came online again and another salvo of missiles hurled away. Four light flashes were a sign that they hit goal and the locks disappeared from the view screen. She turned her ship around and zero-ed in on the freighter escorts.
She acquired a lock. As the missile batteries came on-line. The escorts left their freighter and turned away from Uzazi’s cruiser. Then they lit up amongst the stars as the missiles hit their targets. In a desperate attempt to survive the freighter overloaded its engines to escape the power of the cruisers wrath. But it was of no use, the afterburners of the cruiser came on-line and the cruiser approached the freighter with tremendous speed. Then there was a lock. A silence. The sound of missiles leaving their battery. A few seconds nothing happened. Then as the missiles hit goal the freighter lit up amongst the stars. The hull moaned under the stress of the heavy damage that the missiles had done. Another four light dots left the cruiser. Silence. And as the missiles hit goal one by one the Freighter exploded leaving its cargo untouched. Uzazi locked on to the wrecks and approached the cargo container holding its precious prize. As she loaded the militants on-board along with all the other precious cargo the freighter held. afterward she scrutinized the wrecks and made sure all salvageable equipment was taken in.
There in her seat, warping towards the Pionen Stargate she rested. But only for a small while. A buzz came from the warp navigator indicating it was arriving at its destinations. The stars slowed down as the ship came out of warp planets and stations raged by as the cruiser gradually decreased speed. From a far the Stargate speed-ed towards her. And then just as it seemed they would hit the Stargate, the ship stopped. A few seconds later the surroundings changed as the ship jumped through the gate at tremendous speed. As Uzazi got her Bearings back she inspected the proximity sensors. No enemies spotted. Quickly she browsed the local broadcast traffic to see if there were no hostile ships in the vicinity. Then she selected her destination NOH production facility. A few seconds later the NAV computer kicked in and turned the ship in the right direction. There was a flash and the cruiser was gone. As Uzazi warped to the station, she double checked her info on the proximity analyzer. No enemies. She sighed.
Then the ship dropped out of warp and she approached the impressive station orbiting the fifth moon of Pionen.
She sent a docking request and within minutes a tractor beam pulled her in … she made it back. Safe .. Relatively safe, in the belly of the metal station.
