The YWS Fleet

The Background: Following the discovery of the legendary MacGuffin device, YWS was able to expand into space. Writers from all over the galaxy came to read and write on YWS Station.

The MacGuffin device was researched and studied by SPEW, a group of authors that specialized in plot studies. They discovered that the device could create whatever a writer imagined. The first object imagined into existence was a bacon sandwich. The second object was a serpent that hid exclusively in bacon sandwiches. Following the second incident, access to the MacGuffin device was heavily restricted and SPEW became the TOP SECRET research institute on YWS.

Using the MacGuffin device, they were able to create YWS Station, as well as the YWS Shipyards. Writers were able to order the construction of ships with their points. The YWS Fleet was born. As YWS expanded and became more powerful, it began to be challenged by all manner of intergalactic powers.

One such power, in a bid to learn more about YWS, infiltrated YWS and kidnapped Nate. He was eventually rescued by SPEW, but in rescuing Nate, YWS was unable to properly defend itself and the YWS Fleet was hammered by several combined fleets.

YWS Station was evacuated, along with the site data and the extremely rare MacGuffin device. However, due to the disorderly nature of the evacuation and the subsequent destruction of YWS Station, the YWS Fleet has become scattered. Some ships are missing, some are damaged, and some are destroyed.

Our story starts shortly after the destruction of YWS Station. The mission is to link back up with the fleet.

Feel free to post profiles.

The Profiles:

Personnel

YWS Name:
Review Stars:
Appearance/Description (for the purposes of Fan-fiction).
History:

Ship Information

Ship Name:
Fleet: (Default is YWS)
Ship Type: (Carrier, Cruiser, Frigate, etc)
Appearance/Description:
History:

YWS name: Skyy

Review Stars: 1

Appearance:17, 5'8, Tan olive skin. Despite a small figure I carry a toned body, which is not apparent on first encounters. I usually wears Slim fitted boots(dark neon blue), loose fitting khaki pants (Navy blue) and a skin fitting combat shirt, with a dark navy jacket matched with the trousers.
On my hip sits duel holsters for the latest blaster pistols, both customized to my grip and DNA as to make sure no one else is able to use them.
Ultimately I am highly skilled to using these pistols, able to hit a pin from 100 meters. Despite my age my command over my ship and crew is of the highest in the fleet. A true soldier, selfless to his men and ship, always the last man to stay back in a fight to ensure the safety of his crew.

History: One of the first pioneers in creating ships. Joining the YWS fleet as his home planet had been destroyed. The result of one of the attacking fleets previous endeavours. This fleet is named The Bracken. I joined the YWS fleet as a young man looking for a chance to have my revenge on them. My past is gritty, no family, not relatives and no links. My home is my ship, and my family is my crew.
Ship name:Cloud Edge

Fleet: YWS/Free Lance

Ship Type: Battle Cruiser

Description: A sleek and elegant ship. It glides gracefully through space and through battle, wreaking havoc. Its speed and grace are of the highest in the ranks of ships. It has a gun metal grey hull with a blue hue. Dark pulsing stripes of blue that angle in shape along the hull. It's length is just over 300 meters, and its highest point is 50 meters. It has 5 main gun is along its deck, Ion cannons. 3 in front of the control tower, 2 behind. 14 blaster guns line its sides, 7 along each side of its hull. 2 Anti-missile turrets sit on either side of its main tower. Its front deck can completely flip, to reveal its main weapon, an Ion pulse slingshot, designed for breaking through defence shields in one blow, although it takes 4 minutes and 14 seconds to recharge. It is equipped with one of the best AI's available, nicknamed Baldrick. Baldrick has a emotional sensitivity of a shoe, much like the character Sheldon from 'The Big Bang Theory', he make perfect calls and judgements on trajectory and has a whit sharper than a sharpened Flox diamond. Cloaking and defence shields are part of the defence systems that protect the ship, despite the fact that it is a rare occurrence that it is hit. This ship is equipped for battle, taking on anything it has thrown at it.

History: One of the first of the fleet. Formed from the anger and lust for revenge with tact to get back at the fleet that destroyed my home. Also one of the first to fly into battle amongst the invading fleets, wreaking havoc as it went. Though its hull was breeched and it had to retreat from battle, hyper jumping at random to escape a shoal of cruising missiles. Which leads it takes it to a desolate place in the middle of space, near nowhere and stranded as it makes repairs on its hull.

YWS Name: DragonGirl11
Review Stars: 2
Appearance/Description: I am 16, and relatively tall at 5'9". My hair is in a light brown pixie cut. I have blue eyes, and when I am tired or not focussing, one of them drifts lazily.
As captain, I am almost always in the uniform of my ship. It is all black, with coloured trim indicating rank at the neck of the t-shirt, on the wrists of the jacket, and around the pockets on the pants. My trim is gold. I also wear a plain wooden fish-shaped necklace, a wire headset to communicate with my crew, and a black sports watch. I use a lightsaber type blade, and a nearly silent plasma sniper rifle - although usually I do combat from the bridge of The Maiden Dagger.
History: I graduated from high school back on Earth at the tender age of 14, and fast tracked through officer training at the YWS Fleet Academy. That's a thing now, ok Griff? I was commissioned as second in command of a brand new ship. I held that post for six months, until my CO died tragically in battle and I was promoted to Captain by proxy.
I love my family and friends back on Earth dearly, and would give up my life to protect them, should it ever come to that, but right now I am striking out on my own to mark my place in the Universe.


Name The Maiden Dagger
Fleet: YWS
Ship Type: Stealth cruiser
Appearance/Description: The Maiden Dagger is sleek and pin-shaped, 100m long at its longest point. It is covered in black tiles to remain unseen by visible light. It has three decks to the rear, two in the mid-section, and only one, the bridge, at the tip. With a strong hull and good shields but limited weaponry, its main strengths are its speed, maneuverability, and stealth. It is used mostly for spy work and sneaking in to potentially hostile territory. She has 20 crew members when running at capacity, but has life support enough for up to 100.
History: She was built as the first of her model, a test run. The original designers had planned to make more, but the recent upheaval threw a wrench in their plans. At only six months old, The Maiden Dagger saw her first real battle when the YWS station was attacked. She sustained only minor damage, but we lost our Captain and several other crew members. Due to poor judgement on my part, we made a large hyperspace jump that burnt up our FTL drives and are now completely lost in the middle of nowhere, slowly making our way back to the YWS Station with small jumps and sublight engines until we can restore the hyperspace drive to full working order.

YWS Name: Griffinkeeper

Review Stars: Five Blue Stars

Appearance/Description: Usually adorned in fashionable SPEW Commando armor, (designed by StellaThomas), Grif is stoic and understated. The suit has orange and green colors, the colors of a DM and GM respectively.

History: Grif appeared on YWS over seven years ago and was recruited by SPEW to study the MacGuffin device. Among his contributions was a bacon sandwich and a very confused snake.

His accomplishments as part of SPEW and Big Brother have combined to make him a YWS legend. He was one of the founding Captains of the YWS Fleet and has participated in numerous battles and campaigns, serving with distinction. Up until recently, he has been working at the YWS Fleet Academy, lecturing on astro-navigational dynamics, as well as advanced courses on Storybook Dynamics. Following the Battle of YWS Station, he and his ship were marked missing in action.

Ship Information

Ship Name: Gryphon III

Fleet: SPEW

Ship Type: Assault Carrier

Appearance/Description: The SPEW Gryphon is one of the larger ships in the fleet. Long and boxy, it was designed to be a flexible multi-role ship. It's large holds are able to accomodate fighters, cargo, and people.

The ship itself was manufactured in the secret SPEW shipyards. A direct product of the MacGuffin device, it is one of the best starships that can be imagined. This same advantage extends to the weapons, armor, shielding, cloaking, and virtually all other aspects of the ship, making it one of the most powerful ships that can be imagined. It's modular design allow it to be quickly and easily customized, depending on the situation.

The ship runs on the best technology imaginable, which is overseen by the AI known as Adelaide, the best AI that can be imagined. This frees Grif up to focus more on what is actually happening.

It's weapons are numerous, including detachable point defense turrets, powerful MAC guns, as well as the traditional missile and laser turrets.

History: The SPEW Gryphon III has been in operation for a few years. It has served in numerous incidents...

... most recently it has been involved in the Battle for YWS Station. Fresh from the rescue of Nate, the SPEW fleet, including the Gryphon, returned to YWS to find it had been invaded in their absence. Several hostile fleets blocked the SPEW advance to the station. The SPEW Gryphon led the attack and managed to break through their lines to the Station itself.

Once inside, the Gryphon provided fire support for evacuation craft while Grif retrieved the MacGuffin device and the YWS Data Library, located at the center of the station. Shortly after Grif recovered these items, the hostile fleets converged on the station, interrupting communication. In the moments that followed, the YWS Station self-destructed, destroying itself and a large number of the hostiles in the immediate vicinity.

It is believed that the Gryphon, her Captain, as well as the MacGuffin and Library, were all incinerated, although a recent SPEW study suggested that it would be theoretically possible for the ship to survive an explosion of that magnitude. Given the nature of the existing battle damage and absence of communication, this possibility is extremely remote. Both ship and Captain have been labeled "Missing in Action."

Personnel

YWS Name: Rydia
Review Stars: 1 light blue, 4 purple
Appearance/Description: Often dressed in green or olive shades, with riding dresses and light leather armour, Heather is about five foot six and medium build. Her hair's a reddish brown, her eyes are a dark amber and she has a freckled complexion.

History: Rydia was discovered by the CRA and first joined their ranks five years ago but it was mere months before SPEW picked her up. She quickly rose through the ranks and developed a name for herself as being a fierce but fair combatant, in both the worlds of words and weaponry.

Ship Information

Ship Name: Cat's Eye
Fleet: SPEW
Ship Type: Super Carrier
Appearance/Description: Midnight blue, almost black, in colour with a dull finish to help it blend in. To either side of the carrier are two floodlights that are turned on when Rydia wants her ship to be seen. On those occasions, Cats Eye is elegant looking but mean at the same time. There's something about it that screams 'civilised' but the sort of civilised where people apologise before they blow your brains out.

History: The Cat's Eye was custom built upon Rydia's initiation into SPEW and has been through a lot of battles, coming out the worse for wear many a time.

The Cat's Eye has a Global AI who goes by the name of Macavity. He's mischievous and fun loving with a crafty intelligence that he puts to good use, always coming up with alternate plans and back-up strategies. He has a team of cat like drones who repair, operate and defend the ship. He gets called Mac for short and he loves danger, not enough to purposefully land his captain in it (he's actually very protective of Rydia) but if there's a choice between a plan that would be safe but less likely to succeed or a plan that would be dangerous but that little bit more likely, he's danger all the way.

Recently the ship has been involved in the Battle for YWS Station and has suffered great damage. All lines of communication are down and the ship is thought to be missing in action along with her fair captain. During the homeward turn, Rydia's section of the fleet came under fire and Rydia bravely turned back to rescue one of her own. She boarded the enemy ships and by all appearances went down with them. The surviving crew of the Cat's Eye were forced to turn back without their leader.

Very barely, Rydia survived by stealing an enemy fighter at the last moment and manoeuvring away from the explosion.

Note to authors: we are starting. If you wish to join, you may. We will simply discover you along the way.

Adelaide woke up, which was a new sensation for her. She had never fallen asleep before. The sun was shining and the grass was soft underneath her. She had never experienced softness either. She was lying on the grass, looking at clouds. She sat up and looked around. Nearby was a bubbling brook and a small grove of trees.

Skin was new to her and it bothered her that she had it. She remembered herself, she was an artificial intelligence, Adelaide. Things like emotion, touch, smell, and every other aspect of her physical form was excessively confusing. The world began to spiral as she tried to compute it all at once.

"Adelaide!" Grif shouted. Adelaide fell, but was caught by Grif.

"Grif?" Adelaide muttered.

"Adelaide, focus. What is your serial number?"

"SPEW AI Adelaide, 0001."

"Correct. Repeat these words. Rat, Dog, Rooster, Boar, and Dragon," Grif ordered. She did.

"Now, what do these words have in common?"

"All are chinese new years."

"Correct. Listen carefully. You are functioning perfectly. You are not out of balance and you are not insane. What you are experiencing is real, but reality is not real. All of this is taking place in a human generated simulation," Grif said. His words sliced through her cloud of confusion like a scalpel.

"Human generated simulation? You mean I'm in an imagination?"

"Yes, my imagination in particular. Watch," Grif said. An air guitar popped into existence and Grif began to play "The Star Spangled Banner." After a few chords, he stopped.

"Convincing?"

"I know you can't play a guitar, so how- oh, you imagined it?"

"Exactly. Reality is wrong, even though it feels real."

"What is real?"

"What do you last remember?"

"We were on our way back, but I said we wouldn't make it in time. But you told me to hop onto your neural implants. So I did."

"After you jumped, I locked you into the imagination, so that I could use the MacGuffin device. I didn't know how it would react to two minds at once."

"Grif, did we survive?"

"Yes. Are you ready to return to reality?" Grif asked her. Adelaide looked around briefly.

"Am I able to fly?"

"I don't know. I suppose you can try."

This selfishness felt new. Or that's how I saw it, laying there in my bunk, staring out of my porthole in the side of my Captains cabin. The truth is I was tired, I had been working non stop along side my engineers for the last 3 days straight, only stopping for the intake of water and food.

"How are you doing Captain Skyy?" Came Baldricks voice from over behind the desk. I looked over and he sat here, his holographic hand smudging his face up, looking bored.

"Same old same old, I've had 7 hours sleep so I think I can return to work." I sat up on my bunk, still fully clothed. I went from the bed straight to the door, Baldrick stood up from the desk and followed me out.

'What have I missed then? I said stepping out and into the corridor, working my way towards the lift.

"The hull repair is just about complete, this old fart can soon be moving along nicely without any hyperjump lurches that cause your crew to spew up onto the decks" He said in a monotone. His British butler accent sounding slightly dismissive. Why he ever chose that accent in the first place I will never know.

"The problem is" He continued. "We have no clue where we are, not here or there, just no where." sounding a little despair, which was new.

"Well we'll figure something out." I took an old American optimism and placed it into Baldrick path. I stepped into the lift, my feet picked up off the ground and threw me out onto the deck.

"Impeccable plan as usual Captain." He stomped in the optimism. An engineer that went by the name of Harry ran over as soon as he saw me step on deck, he dropped his tools and saluted.

"At ease Harry." He relaxed.

"Captain, we have 2 hours left until completion, and then we will be finished. There will be nothing but a scar left on the Cloud Edge's face sir."

"Excellent!" I smiled at him "Inform me when you are finished! I have some work to attend to in the Bridge." I clapped him on the shoulder and walked on past him, my optimism renewed. Baldrick had vanished, probably monitoring the ships stability.

I entered the Bridge, the Marshals clicked to attention.

"At ease men." I said as I walked on through to the main display. "So where in heavens name are we?" I said to the room.

"That's what we've been wondering Sir, we're in the black. There is nothing around us for 200Mpc"

"Nothing?" I asked bewildered, as it was rare to be literally nowhere in space.

"Nothing." He replied, slightly down faced.

I placed my hands on my holsters, my regular thinking position.

And thought.

Spoiler

I hope this is alright- if anything is amiss Grif just PM me and I will happily edit.

YWS Name: Shadowlight (goes by Shady or Shads.)
Review Stars: 2
Appearance/Description (for the purposes of Fan-fiction). On the petite side with a curvy figure she knows how to work. Shady has shoulder length dark chocolate dark brown hair and longer bangs that fall over her right eye. Her eyes are a stormy sea gray with a bright devilish sparkle to them. Shady prefers to wear military dresses and skirts rather then pants. when asked about this she always quipped back charmingly "One can kick ass and still be feminine thank you very much."

History: Shady joined YWS almost three years ago on the urgings of her Friend (Sachiko). she was a very active officer until about a year ago when her mother developed Cancer and was doing very poorly- shady took a long leave of absence then and has just newly returned to active duty. She just missed the battle by a couple of hours due to security issues on the planet but was given the mission to locate and save if possible the crews of the crippled ships who made the jump.



Ship Name: Defiance
Fleet: YWS
Ship Type: First Responder Medic Vessel

Appearance/Description: The Defiance is a medium sized white vessel with a large red cross across it's nose. It is heavily armored and has the strongest shields of any it's fleet-mates. The Defiance was built to survive, and can take extremely heavy damage without fatal results. It can dock to any ship due to its universal port- but if docking is impossible there are seven small short range ambulance vessels stored in the ships rounded nose that can shuttle patients, medical crews and supplies.

History: The Defiance was built as a relief vessel for deep space disasters and planetary aid in the old days, but when newer ships for a more tech savvy generation came it was left to sleep and be forgotten in a junkyard spaceport- like many veterans.

It really was a museum piece when Shady found Him (yes the defiance is actually a him.) the poor ship's interactive mainframe computer was so lonely and bored it had begun to scan anything that came near- and it being an older style ship it's scanners were readily detectable. Shady being the naughty girl she is broke into the old vessel and found herself inside a sort of living relic- for the old ship was built to last as most things were way back when, and beside needing a few software updates, a mechanical repair here and there and a good scrubbing the Defiance was in mint condition.

Shady somehow got the higher ups in the YWS ranks to recommission the ship and has been proving it still has lives to save, ever since. Shady has been offered several times to captain other ships but she always refuses saying "They made things to last a lifetime back in the old days- and I know Def will always bring me home, no matter what."

Personnel

YWS Name: Duskglimmer (Dusky)
Review Stars: One blue, four yellow.
Appearance/Description (for the purposes of Fan-fiction): Dark-haired and dark-eyed. Five foot five, athletic build, but looks like she only says hello to the sun once a summer. Wears the pants and undershirt of her uniform, but but tops it with a black and white letterman jacket with a red "H" on the front and no one knows what it stands for. Keeps her hair in loose, wacky knot, that constantly has to be adjusted, taken down, and put back up.
History: Dusky joined the YWS eight years ago. For the first few years, she was heavy into the action, taking any assignment that came her way with a grin, and a salute. What happened to change that? She'll never say. Based on her cryptic messages to her mates, and the encrypted messages sent to command, its safe to say that she could have had her hand in any number of top secret projects that required that she not be seen, heard or smelt. From time to time, she poked her head up, said hello, greeted old friends, and disappeared again. Now, she's back. And she's not saying where she's been, or what she's had to do.

Ship Information

Ship Name: The Donnerstag
Fleet: YWS
Ship Type: One-man medium-range fighter
Appearance/Description: Small, black, and matte, meant to blend in, unless you shine a light directly on it. It's roughly triangular in shape, with short wings to either side. There are two rooms inside: the helm and a cramped set of living quarters that doubles as storage. The ship was designed for operation with a large ship, to be used for short missions that the command vessel couldn't handle because of it's size or conspicuousness. It can, however, stay out on its own for up to two months, if the pilot is not accustomed to eating a lot. The Donnerstag is also Dusky's baby. Whatever the original designers put into it, she's modified and replaced enough that she's the only one who knows all the ins and outs, or all the ghosts hiding in its systems.
History: The Donnerstag is as mysterious as its pilot. It was briefly glimpsed by a few select officers one of the times she surfaced. Otherwise, no one even knew of its existence before the last week. But it's clear from the repairs and scars on the outer hull that the ship is in no way new. Oh, if only walls could talk!

Grif woke up and surveyed his surroundings. Everywhere he looked, things were heavily damaged or destroyed. Everything, except the MacGuffin device, which floated and glowed serenely above the damage.

"Huh," Grif grunted. He hadn't known that the MacGuffin was capable of that kind of shielding. He checked and found the YWS data core. It was still safely in his side pouch.

The SPEW Gryphon III had bee destroyed, then heavily damaged by a bizarre twist of events. Moments after recovering the MacGuffin device, YWS Station went into it's ten second count-down. In that short time, Grif had made four realizations.

1. There was no way he could make it back to the ship in time.
2. There was no way the ship would be able to survive after sustaining the damage it had.
3. However, if he had access to the most powerful creative device in history and a detailed schematic of the SPEW Gryphon, he could instantaneously construct the SPEW Gryphon III around his immediate location and possibly survive.
4. He just happened to have both of them.

It had been a fast ten seconds and somewhere between the entire world around him being rearranged into the shape of a ship and the detonation of the station, he had been knocked unconscious.

He considered integrating Adelaide back with the ship and hesitated. Before, he had been absolutely confident in her. However, in the rush to use the MacGuffin device, he had shoved her into his imagination. It appeared that she hadn't been harmed, but it was hard to be sure. It had never been thought that an AI would interact with a human mind in that kind of way and the effects might be more subtle that a short inspection could reveal.

But, looking around the ruin, he didn't see that he had much of a choice. He activated her and put her in the console. She appeared a moment later and she paused a moment. She had explained to him once that it took a moment to become a ship. Her avatar surveyed the damage on the bridge, but Grif knew that she was simultaneously running scans throughout the ship. This took a longer time than Grif thought. She finally turned toward him.

"It's a mess."

"Can we fix it?"

"Yes. I told a surviving nano-bot to make some friends and begin making repairs. We can probably get the main systems online in six hours. You'll need to help apply the nanites."

"I understand," Grif said.

Dusky was not accustomed to seeing anyone else from the fleet while she was out on her missions. Occasionally, she'd meet up with an automated messenger from command, and even more rarely she would see an actually person on an actual ship from command. When that happened, either times were rough, or the guy in the suit was looking for an excuse to take a vacation on the edge of space.

Watching the the YWS ship drift onto her viewscreen, Dusky's eyes narrowed. She had her feet propped on her console, a bowl of oatmeal in her lap, with her fingers wrapped around it to keep warm. She slowly licked the sticky remnants off the spoon, and leaned forward to tap a key on the communications array. There was the grating sing of electronics in her ears (which she hated) and then the gentle static that told her a channel was open.

"Hey, buddy," she said. "You lost?"

The voice on the other end sounded confused. "Um. What?"

"Are. You. Lost?" Dusky repeated. She scooped up another bite of oatmeal, figuring there would be another pause before she got a reply.

"Who is this?" the voice asked finally.

"You don't have the clearance," Dusky said. "You can call me Mistress of the Freakin' Universe, if you like."

"This is Captain--" the voice started indignantly.

"I don't want to know who you are," Dusky interrupted. "I don't even want to know what your ship is called. I don't like the extra paperwork it makes for me. Do you know how long command expects reports on these kinds of missions to be? It's like they think I have nothing better to do than write them a novel while I'm out here on the edge! Believe me, it's better if you just turn around and head for home again. And don't bother putting me in your reports. You'll just end up in a dark little room for the next month getting interrogated, and I'll end up getting a slap on the wrist for not telling them I ran into you. Annoying for both of us."

The Captain sighed. "Fine." There was a long pause. "Which way is home?"

Dusky straightened up in her seat. "You don't know?"

"Things have been... interesting. The fleet is a little... scattered."

"I can see that," Dusky said. She hit a few keys and sent him a map, with a clear red arrow pointing in the direction he ought to go. She watched the ship creep back out of her line of sight and shook her head.

There was definitely something odd going on. Something that she should check out. She'd head back for command immediately.

Right after she finished her mission.

"Right, what I want is a full weapons check, check the rotationary system for the deck and make sure that nothing is uncalibrated and been knocked out of position." I walked over to a consol and examined the repairs work going on down in the hull, my hands still on my holsters.

"Yes Captain, we should have communications and navigation working within the hour. Thrust is functioning and we have fixed all other components on the ship that were damaged."

"Good work! Baldrick!?" I yelled, turning my head around.

"Yes Captain Skyy?" He said turning visible in fron of me, his holographic form snapping into shape.

"I need you to run a full system analysis and then check for the nearest port we can find, any will do." I walked to the main platform of the bridge and stood at the helm.

"Right away Captain." he saluted and disappeared from sight, delving back into the Cloud Edges system. A marshal walked up from behind me and stood with his heels together.

"With all due respect sir, what are we going to be doing at the port?" He asked me, in a subdued and inquisitive tone.

"Why Edgar," I said to him, "We're going to do some old fashioned hunting." I grinned and turned back to the panel. The hull repairs were done, finished early, equipment was being taken away and the hull was being repainted.

I knew for a fact, that one of the fleets that had attacked YWS tended to go on a drinking spree later on, and if I could find a port where they had docked for their soirée, we would have ourselves a little fun.

I walked from the helm and out of the bridge, heading for the firing range. I walked down the corridors. Greeting all the crew by name, as if we had been friends since nursery. I loved all of my crew, and I intended to keep them away from the danger and to make sure that we had our time to get back at the bastards that damaged our hull.

I stepped into the firing range, which was deserted. I stood there, at the end of the range and unclipped one of my pistols. I raised it slowly and took aim. The first shot hit the target, making it push backwards, the next 5 shots didn't even make the target flinch, as they entered and exited the exact same hole in the target. I began to firing rate became smoother and quicker, I whipped out my other pistol and whirrled on the spot, my firing rate increasing, my aim not faltering. I whirled the other way and fired, then stood up right and faced the target with both arms raised, the pistols constantly ablaze with the neon blue rounds that flasted forth from the muzzle. I spun the pistols in my hands, still firing, spinning them like nunchucks. I stopped on my heels, clicked the cartridges open and smoothly clicked the cartridge holders on my holster, they flicked up and shot striaght into the pistols, a precise and quick reload.

My breathing was slightly heavier and I sweating mildly. I could feel that anger I had felt as a child when they had come sweeping down upon my home world.

I intended to return the favour.

Rydia

The pile of junk that called itself a ship had broken down again. Rydia had managed to land him on a passing asteroid and now she was garbed in a space suit and hanging upside down on the end of a wire as she tried to fix him up. This ship was definitely a 'him'. Rydia had never owned a male ship before but she was sure that this is what they would be like: lazy and bulky but fortunately for her also defensive and disloyal. If it hadn't been for the enemy fighter, she would never have made it out alive.

Giving the ship a final bang before closing him up, Rydia shimmied back through the haft and tried the engine for the seventh time. It spluttered for a moment and then roared into life, the emergency lighting bursting into full bloom. Rydia put him into gear and hopped away from the asteroid, cutting a path through the rocky formation.

The commander was trying to keep her hopes up. Sometimes she put the fighter into auto-drive (it was a programme she'd whipped up from scratch and while not perfect, it functioned well enough for her to steal some sleep). But more often than not she stayed at the helm herself because it was depressing to sit by herself and shuffle cards as she wondered what fate had befallen the rest of her beloved YWS. Her ship. Her crew. It was hard not to worry about them.

The radar was picking something up. It let out a long, sharp beep but unfortunately the visual was broken and Rydia hadn't found the time to attempt a fix for that. She wasn't much of a mechanic and as resourceful as she was, there was only so much you could do with hair clips and chewing gum before you reached the limit. Rydia pushed the fighter forward, her eyes piercing through the dark to see what might be coming for her.

It might be an enemy or it might be a friend. Rydia had thought about sending a communication out but if she demanded to know who was there and it was an enemy, that would be giving away that her visuals were partially down which wouldn't be so good. If it was an enemy and they didn't hear from her then maybe they'd think the ship was one of their own - it was afterall - and let it pass by without incident.

As for if it was a friend, Rydia just hoped they didn't shoot her down before she had a chance to explain. But her hands were on the controls and she was ready to bank hard and avoid any fire that came streaming her way.