Young Writers Society

DarkLight (Charlie)

Charlie’s feet thundered along the corridor that led to the head pilot’s quarters. Usually one of Dono’s AIs would have taken the message, but they were far to busy with controlling the ship. Charlie understood that he couldn’t speak quite as rapidly with the ship’s systems as they could, but he made a mental note to learn how to.

“Charlie?” The captain’s voice bellowed into his earpiece. Charlie winced and turned down the volume before replying.

“Yes, sir?”

“Lose the ‘sir’ already!”

“Sorry, Dono!”

“You got hold of Crysi yet?”

Charlie looked at the mini screen attached to his belt. By view, he guessed they were still in hyperspace. The rumble of the engines confirmed this.

“I’m on route. Give me a minute.”

“We need her in a fighter. Any luck waking the other pilots?”

The voice was desperate and Charlie realised this could be the information that decided whether they engaged this enemy or not. He pulled a face and told the truth.

“After that party last night I’m amazed even you and her are awake! They’re all on stomach pumps. We ran out of the hangover pills a week ago.”

“Wait! You’ve still got your rations though!”

Charlie nodded but flushed red. His pack of pills were untouched, but he felt embarrassed, as is he’d let his team down.

“They aren’t that fast acting. It’s just us three at the moment, man.”

There was a silence and Charlie could almost hear the captain’s brains working on a plan. He rounded the last corner and knocked on the door.

“Just get her launched and I’ll think of something. Dropping out of hyperspace in 30 seconds.”

Dono’s dialogue cut out and the door opened simultaneously. Crysi was combing her hair with one hand and adjusting the badge on her suit with the other. She looked disappointed to see him.

“Where’s Dono?”

“On the bridge, he wants you to prepare for launching in roughly 20 seconds.”

“Great.” The sarcasm in her voice was evident. “Are his little mini-mes so tired of dealing with me that he send you instead?”

Charlie dropped his gaze and considered his feet for a moment.

“We have a bit of a situation. I’ll explain on the way.”

They were almost at the hangar when the Banhammer slid out of hyperspace. A different humming replaced the noise of the engines and a quick check at his screen told Charlie that the cloaking and shields were up. He noticed that Crysi was no longer at his side and he looked back to find she was clutching onto the handrail with a confused look on her face.

“You ok?”

“Yeah. It’s just not usually such a smooth entrance. What’s up with the engines?”

Charlie grinned.

“They’re all properly aligned, de-slagged and focused! Efficiency is at a record high of—”

“Ok, too much information!”

Crysi smiled as they proceeded towards her fighter. As she neared, her badge glowed and the cockpit opened automatically. Charlie moved to get a ladder but she clambered up the side and vaulted in through the open cockpit. Charlie disconnected the fuel rod charger and shouted up to Crysi.

“Be careful out there! This isn’t training. We’re encountering an unknown force here!”

“Leave this to me, engine boy,” she grinned as the dome slid shut around her, “but nice job on them! I’m counting on you to keep the capitals off my back now.”

He waved her on and watched the hangar bay doors open, another beautiful piece of his engineering. The semi-penetrable shield allowed the fighter to leave, but prevented the hangar depressurising. He watched her engines flare to life before turning and heading back out of the hangar.

Maintaining the turrets was not his favourite job, but the feeling of pride from a true compliment was enough to make it bearable.

Saint Razorblade took the Hangman's helm in both hands, looking oddly confused with her 17th-century pirate garb and futuristic headseat clashing. Turning the helm so that the Hangman turned perpendicular to the destroyer, she barked out orders over the noise of battle.

"Right then! All hands on deck, take up arms! We be headin' intae combat, ready yer weapons sharpish now. Roll out the cannons, ready the shield! Fire on my command!"

She narrowed her eyes at the destroyer as the Hangman's guns were rolled out on the gun deck below. She felt a fierce streak of loyalty surge up within her for her fellow YWSers as she tensed, ready to give the order to attack as the foolish destroyer wandered within range.

"Steady now... steady," she said under her breath. "Just a bit more... come on, ye bleedin' bilgerat, come on..."

Instinct took over as the destroyer wandered closer still, readying its own guns.

"Fire!"

Name: Jiggity aka jigster, sinister jigster, jiggy, and jiggly puff (for certain ppl only)
Rank: Destroyer
Organisation: Where, might I ask, are the Duelists? For it is among their Exalted ranks that I dwell.

Ship: D.O.G (Delusions of Grandeur) It should be noted that the name of his ship is subject to violent change.

Important Info: On a need to know basis only i.e I can't be bothered just now.

Currently: Traversing the deeps of space. Cpt Sinister. J is well known for his madness, his ruthless crew of intellectuals red marking pen at the fore; absurdity is their theme. The D.O.G can and will appear at the most random of times, seemingly for no reason, in deserted areas, with no one for company but the odd animal known to wonder the halls...

Cpt S.J likes hot chocolate, sour lollies, and long walks on the beach. He can be found at any time, raiding, looting, researching, spying..er, that is to say, well, anywhere at anytime doing Nate-only knows what. He is invariably, quite mad.

Crew: Undisclosed.

60 fighters came screaming at the YWS ships. The Gryphon II's defensive turrets detected them and within seconds of detection, the Gryphon fired off several missiles. A moment later, the Gryphon scored it's first kills, scoring three hits out of five missiles. The Highwind and the Hangman joined in, scoring an additional 7 kills. Then the fighters were all over them.

"Adelaide, take control of the missile turrets on all three of the ships, I want them to hit a unique target each time," Grif ordered.

"Done." Grif looked down at the displays. The Gryphon was at 70% shields with no hull damage, but if the fighters took out the shield generator, then he would have some real trouble.

"New contact!" Adelaide said.

"What is it?"

"Not sure, it's a capital ship. It's broadcasting a YWS IFF."

"Who would be crazy enough to come here now?" Suzanne asked.

"Confirmed, it's a Destroyer. It says it is the Delusions of Grandeur, but it matches the YWS Jigsaw in profile."

"Jiggity."

The destroyer came in and added it's missile turrets to the fray. The four ships were now in a box formation, creating a lethal kill zone around them.

"There fighters are withdrawing, they're capitals are coming to us," Adelaide said.

"Sit-rep."

"The DOG has come in line with our ships. Adam's shields are weak and are recharging. The Hangman engaged the destroyer and seemed to do some damage, but she's sure to have taken some fire. The Banhammer hasn't launched any fighters that we can tell and is somewhere in system. We've managed to take out seventeen fighters, but the enemy still has all of her ships."

"What sort of weapons is the Hangman mounting?" Grif asked.

"Cannons, not sure what kind, but it is probably kinetic weapons of some sort," Adelaide responded.

"The Highwind has mostly energy weapons, those ships must have strong energy shields. So we'll hit them with kinetic instead. Suzanne, load up the Hypervelocity Cannon."

"Light or heavy shell?"

"Heavy," Grif said.

Steam was billowing out of one of the ruptured pipes on the Highwind's bridge. A few of the panels had overloaded making them spark and sizzle. Blue pulses showered forth from the ship's cannons, colliding with the enemy.

"Main cannons charged," Matt informed.

"Lock onto the cruiser, Fire!" Sparkles fluxed around the Highwind's two main cannons. With a silent scream from the void of space the white hot energy plowed forth. A number of small fighters were caught in the beams' wake. They exploded at once.

The enemy shields grew brighter and brighter until they shattered, but the beams were not strong enough to cause damage to their hull.

"Crud!" Rick yelled, "Their shields are starting to recharge already!?"

"Colin, unload everything we have, we cant let it regain its shield strength."

"Roger!" echoed inside the bridge.

Crysi maneuvered the new customized fighter out of the hangar, delighted at its sensitivity. It was always strange flying something new, but the controls were smooth and had just the right amount of response.

"Engine's green, nav instruments online, radios..." She punched in the main fighter frequency. "Dono's Toys, this is Crysi in the..." Shoot. She hadn't named it yet. "Well, in the newest Toy. Just left the Toybox, lookin' for our targets. Anyone else on air yet?"

She waited for a few seconds, pulling up some relevant charts and info on the built-in touchscreen. Oh I love technology, she thought.

Still hearing nothing on the radios, she tuned in Dono's private frequency. "Hey, Dono, it's Sam. You copy?'

"Loud and clear, Sami. What's up?"

"Just doing a radio check. No one's out here yet."

He grunted. "We're working on it. By the way, I wanted to talk to you earlier."

"Yeah, I got the message. Sorry, had to wash my hair." She could hear the groan on the other end of the line.

"Whatever, I'll talk to you when you get back. Be careful out there, yeah?"

Crysi grinned. "No worries, Cap'n. I'll keep 'em guessing." She switched the frequency over to the second radio, just to monitor it in case something came up, then tuned in the fighters once again.

"Is there other life out there?" she asked. Her instructor would have reprimanded her for being so casual, but that was long ago. Still, no one answered. She growled. If Charlie hadn't insisted on dragging her to the hangar, she would've given the other pilots a wake-up call they couldn't ignore.

Suddenly, an enemy fighter sped right in front of her. Her eyes gleaming with the thrill of the hunt, she pushed the fighter to full power and tracked the offender closely. "Target in sight," she reported, locking on.

As she pressed the button to fire, she smirked. She had thought of the perfect name for her fighter.

Whiplash.

"Adam!" Kitty hurried towards the captain. "Do you want me to take a fighter out?"

"Yeah, take Alice and Bella too. Try to target the front of the ship and we'll keep the shields down. Watch out for the fighters though, some of them might have more advanced technology."

"Good point," Kitty replied, already leaving the room. Upon returning to the Navigation room, Kitty found that Bella and Alice were already exiting it. In silence the three proceeded towards the Hangar and filed into their individual fighters.

"Can you hear me, Matt?" Kitty spoke into the comms system.

"Loud and clear. Ready for dispatch?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. In three...two...one..." The small fighter was released from the Hangar and Kitty steered it out, already firing at the enemy ships.

If any normal person was asked two hundred million questions at once, it could result in a nervous breakdown. For Adelaide, the task was made easier by setting up a program and delegating certain tasks to it. Once you had the programs running, it just became a simple matter of linking them up.

Adelaide has spent the first few moments setting up these systems. Now that these systems were up, she now began to direct them. She sent a flash order to the Gryphon, requesting that it open fire on Adam's target. Included with this was a data stream of the target, which would automatically be displayed on the HUD.

At some point though, there was nothing that Adelaide could do. So she went one step further. She began analyzing the attack for patterns, tactics. They had sent in the fighters first, while they let their capital ships snipe at them from afar.

Their next move should have been to close the distance quickly with the fighters and the Capital ships. Or maybe...

"Grif, this is Adelaide. I've reason to suspect that they've called for reinforcements. We need to get control of that outpost now."

"Right. Tell the Hangman to dock with the Outpost and raid it. I'll engage one of the cruisers, the DOG and the Highwind will have to handle the other. Find out if Hunter is in position."

Adelaide got on it.

"You'll see in a second, Griffy Poo," I muttered, turning on the master switch of the Hammertime.

"Roger that, Gryphon, we're in position," Charlie said over the private channel. I nodded my approval. When Crysi and I were out dog-fighting, Charlie was in charge.

"Charlie, I'm taking Quiz with me--put Phoenix and Mag on the guns, and scramble fighters as soon as the crew is awake," I said, opening a private comm to the bridge.

"Will do, Dono."

I closed the comm and opened one to Crysi. "Sam, status."

"Busy," she grunted. "Two Bogeys down--bout a thousand more on the way. They're meeting our boys head on, though--you're clear to Tango."

"Wish me luck, Charlie--time to pwn some fools," I said to Charlie after Crysi closed the channel.

"Good luck man," the Engineer said, and I laughed.

"Never needed it before," I said, gunning the engines and setting the throttle. With a roar, the Hammertime streaked out of the hangar and into dead space, mere meters from the enemy carrier. The distraction had worked. While the YWS forces engaged the enemy fighters, the Banahmmer would demolish the command ship. Game over.

Bella steered her purple fighter, menuvering so she had perfect aim at the enemy fighter. She pushed a button on the steering wheel, firing the newest weapon she had installed. The fighter ship exploded, and she laughed loudly.

"How did you do that?" Alice asked.

"I re-vamped my fighter when Adam wasn't looking. I got sick of the same old weapons."

"That was awesome!"

"I know. I'm just that good," Bella replied, firing again. She missed, but hit the sheild of the main ship, blowing a hole through it. "Hey Adam, I think I just figured out how to stop the sheild...or slow it down a bit."

"How?" he sounded desperate.

"Watch." Bella fired at the shield again, putting another hole through it.

"Of Course!" Adam cried, "They're using Phase shields. That's why they're recharging so fast." The Highwind took a full force hit from one of the enemies main guns. It was time to get desperate. "Colin, Tell Adelaide to start altering the frequencies of the pusle cannons. Make sure you do the same so we can figure it out faster. We have to find the right one to break the shields. Analyze Bella's weapon, it seems to have a powerful effect."

The DOG Glided in front of the Highwind, taking a few hits for them. A very fast shower of pulse lasers blazed from the Highwind, DOG and Gryphon. Adelaide had worked fast, extremely fast.

"Frequency located, altering Energy output to maximum allowed, transmitting data to other ships." Colin said through the comms. Adam typed in a few last second commands. He was going to take care of this now.

"Jig, We need cover fire!"

"Right-o." The DOG increased its firing speed, making the cruiser falter in its attack. The enemy was apparently stunned by the discovery of their weakness. The Highwind's engines fluxed, Forum jump lasted less than a second and brought hem right to the side of the cruiser.

"Fire!" Light flashed, the enemy shields fell almost at once. Flaming explosions rippled across their hull. Barely able to take a few shots at the Highwind, but still enough to take out its remaining shield strength.

"They've been disabled," Colin said, "Their core is overloading. I think they activated a self destruct."

"Crud. Divert all power to the shields! Open all back up powercells and alternative transfers. Get as much power into the shields as possible. "

"Shields at twenty-five percent," Colin said. Hope was all that reamined, the enemy cruiser vanished in a daze of brilliant reds and yellows. Adam felt the shockwave break agaisnt the weakened shields.

"We just won, right?" Bella asked, turning her fighter around.

"Considering the fact that there is no longer an enemy cruiser, I'd have to say yes," Alice replied sarcastically. Bella smiled, heading back for the Highwind. Once she had safely landed her fighter, she began checking its engine routinely.

"What are you doing?" Chris (her boyfriend that is rarely acnolaged(sp)) asked.

"Making sure everything works. Some of the modifications I've made might be...unstable...so I check to make sure everything is in order...just in case."

"Unstable?"

"Yes, meaning there is a chance that I could explode mid-fight."

"No way?"

"Yes way."

(Bella: acknowledged*)

Razorblade pressed a hand to her ear and listened to the tinny whine over the noise of battle, one hand loosely holding the helm of the Hangman.

She smiled. A battle and a raid. Could this day get any better?

"All hands, to arms! Prepare yerselves t' board! Take no prisoners, take all shiny things that ye can lay yer filthy hands upon! Remember, we be servants to the great Nate and YWS, but we also be pirates!"

"Besides," Razorblade said to herself as her crew rushed about. "I could use a wee bit o' treasure meself."

She dashed off to her quarters to arm herself for battle.

Kitty brought her fighter back in and then walked across to Bella's spot where she and Chris (see, sometimes he gets acknowledged) were checking over the modified fighter.

"New parts unstable?" Kitty queried.

"Could be," Chris replied.

"Just a little," Bella declared as she tweaked a few bits and pieces.

"Fixable?" Kitty asked.

"Yup. Can you hand me some tools?" Kitty nodded and pulled a box across, rummaging through for various items.

"What are youy guys doing!" Adam called through the intercom, "We still hjave a destroyer and a cruiser to deal with. Get to bridge on the double!"

"I'll look it over," Chris said, "you need to help Adam."

"Fine," Bella said. With a quick peck on the cheek she left Chirs to tend her fighter. "It better not be broken when I get back!"

Adam switched off the com, "Colin, damage report."

"The shield generator is pretty messed up, I dont suggest any close range combat. We lost engines one, two and five from the EMP of the shockwave. Weapons are at reduced power along with most other systems. It doesn't look good, Adam."

"Indeed, start some minor repairs for me. Try and get the engines back up. Tell the DOG to assist Griff as much as possible while we try and recover a little. Matt and Rick, take Turret duty, we need to cover some of these fighter swarms." With the last orders everyone scarmbled, even Adam took a turret and started blasting the ships as much as he could.