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Location: E01 - Donwarr. Tags: Military, Spaceship, Spying. Previously on Andromeda's Gates: The mark, Uplink, Pay dirt. Departure, The Gyrocube, Darksight, Jade Sun. Chapter 8: Fighter escort. Gently increasing power to the engines, Yseult manoeuvred Darksight into a high pursuit orbit from where she would be able to see anything that happened to the ore freighter during its orbit. Carefully, cautiously she thought to herself. I don’t even want MANTIS to know I’m here. She had not gotten far when another vessel emerged from the anomaly, it was a small, unassuming freighter of some kind. Yseult gave a suspicious from. The Jade Sun had emerged not two minutes previously. Unusual. She thought. For safety reasons, a ship’s GATE system would maintain a minimum distance between other ships, especially before special re-entry to prevent the risk of collisions once back in normal space. She diverted Darksight’s specialised scanners to the new ship. She’d been told to watch the Jade Sun but she knew to trust her knowledge, her instincts. The initial scan revealed no one ship, but two. The second was a small pod-like vessel. An escort? She thought. What is such a small freighter doing with an escort?. Most escorts kept their distance too, they want anyone nearby to know that this cargo is not for taking and not to be messed with, but this escort was flying so close to its mark, you wouldn’t know it was there… Yseult got the feeling something was up. She adjusted her course to follow the small freighter and set all scanners towards it. The ship and its small escort headed rapidly for the atmosphere, entering on an approach to the far Norh. Darksight had easily determined their com frequency so Yseult could hear all of their communications… which were none. The silence was damning. If it hadn’t contacted orbital control, and made a standard approach, something was wrong… something covert. The buffeting of the atmosphere bounced Yseult around as they descended into the thick air and sensors were temporarily disrupted in the heat. Once Yseult had slowed the Darksight sufficiently, she engaged the ramjets and increased the power to pursue her target. She glanced down as her scanners re-acquired the freighter… Was it the wrong one?, where was the escort? An alarm wailed, and Yseult looked up to see the pale speck of the escort flying straight towards her. Her instincts pulled on the controls rolling Darksight out of the way as the first few bolts of red plasma skimmed passed… A near miss. Yseult felt her heart beating… What do I do? She wasn't a fighter pilot and Darksight wasn't a fighter… Escape… Darksight was built to be fast. She applied full throttle to the engines, the ship immediately surging in acceleration. The force pushed Yseult back in her seat. Where are they?, Where are they?. She checked her sensors: only one marker disappearing rapidly behind her. Fighter or freighter? She wondered as Darksight was suddenly hit hard by something. The ship went into a fast right-hand banking roll, alarms blaring. Something above me hit my right wing… She tried to correct it but control was sluggish. Not just my wing, it caught my engine too. She was losing altitude but had slowly arrested the roll but the ship was trying to sink on the right side and turn sideways as it did. She countered the former by banking the ship to the left and the latter with rudder. She was now losing less altitude but was slowing down. Slow enough and she'd stall… One way or another, I'm going down. She immediately deployed the landing legs. The anti-gravity mechanism that gave Darksight its hover ability was built into the skids. It was strong enough to create lift and used as the ship slowed on approach and landing. The indicators on Yseult's display turned green as the front landing gear locked into place, then the rear left… Yseult waited… the indicator for the rear right was still orange; it wasn't deploying. The indicator went red as Darksight's systems confirmed what Yseult already knew. The hit must have damaged the gear too. She was struggling to keep the ship steady and the asymmetrical lift from the skids would only make it harder… I need lift. Just enough to put it down without a crash. Banking heavily to the left to counteract the anticipated effect, she activated the repulsors and engaged manual control. There was some maneuverability in the pads and Darksight normally automatically made adjustments to keep the ship stable. Disengaging the safety limits, she directed the force of the repulsors as far right as they would go, beyond what would normally be considered safe for stable flight. Darksight shook as the forces took effect. Feeling the motion through her seat and her body, Yseult countered gently and soon the ship was steady again. She checked her displays; she was still falling but had reduced the rate… it was enough. The ground loomed, she was in a vast, relatively flat plateau of tundra north of the tip of a forest-covered mountain range that was typical of Donwarr’s topography. She slowed Darksight as much as she dared without reducing her glide to a fall and at the last moment, levelled the ship. The two deployed skids did exactly what they were supposed to do; absorb the impact and allow the ship to slide across the ground. Where the skid hadn’t deployed, there was nothing. The right engine slammed into the ground, bodywork coming loose like shrapnel. The impact felt like it almost shook Yseult’s spine to pieces, and all she could do and the vessel slowly bounced and shook to a grinding halt was grimace in excruciating pain. When Darksight was finally at rest, the canopy automatically opened and Yseult climbed out; every movement sending waves of seething pain through her whole body. She collapsed onto the ground. What am I supposed to do? Will they find me? The sound of an approaching engine made her force her head skyward and through the pain, she recognised a ship landing nearby… The escort fighter; a heavily modified Quadstar in Octan colours. Fear gripped her. She was in no condition to fight. She reached out and held as best she could to Darksight’s hull, pulling herself up to her feet. Standing again, she looked back to the Quadstar only to see a man strike her in the chest. She fell on to her back, her air-pack taking the brunt of the impact and rolling her onto her front again. She could sense the man pacing around her. He grabbed her suit at the shoulder and pulled her up to her knees, the air-pack falling away, damaged. She was in too much pain to fight back. She heard a clunk of releasing clasps and a hiss of air as he lifted her helmet off and looked her in the face… He paused… then released her, throwing the helmet to the floor in disappointment. “I don’t know you.” He said in a grizzled voice. “I had hoped it would take MANTIS’s finest to find me… Agent G, Lady K, maybe even Hawk”. He shook his head in self despair. “I don’t even know who you are.” He pondered for a moment and Yseult sank, exhausted to the floor. She felt dizzy, the world sank into a haze. She heard the sound of metal slide from a sheath… He’s drawn a blade. She forced herself to look up at the man, now holding a long thin bladed weapon. “It would have been nice to kill someone famous.” He announced. “’Just another pilot’ will have to do.” He readied his sword. Yseult tried to find the strength to do something… anything. The man backed away. Something had caught his attention. His cocky stance had become defensive. He pointed his sword somewhere behind Yseult. “I know you” he announced with an angry determination. Yseult turned her head to see a figure standing nearby. She didn’t recognise… ‘it’, clad in armour with only a black void where a face would be. Was it just a visor? She couldn’t tell. It held a sword, huge and jagged like an over-sized scimitar that’d seen too many battles. The figure was serene, neither fear nor courage showing. She heard the man behind her call a battle-cry, she saw him run towards the armour-clad figure and leap into the air, sword poised to strike. She struggled to keep her head clear and her nerves steady, and as she lay upon the cold ground of Donwarr’s northern tundra… she struggled to believe what was unfolding before her very eyes as the armoured figure met the attack, and an epic sword-fight ensued. ... This chapter is dedicated to Gnewal Gwevus. 'To build is to live; to share your build is to live forever'. (Sorry about the length but I had to get from orbit all the way to an epic sword-fight) Notes for judges: Do not judge Darksight or Yseult. I've tried to create an image that demonstrates that spying is happening but I'm okay with however you take it. Overview of scene used at end.
