Testing Phase III (open)

[Jake Snake]

A few lightyears outside Federacy space, a lone unarmed modified Bulk Frieghter emerges from hyperspace. A quick scan of the space around it confirmed that it was empty. After a few moments a small hanger opened on the bottom of the ship and 6 small, armed combate drones flew out. They formed into two groups of 3 and raced off on a programmed plan. Once they were out of range another fighter, unlike any other in existance flew out of the hanger.

Captain Kilar Horner lay at the controls of the Vortex fighter. The fighter is a long oval with 4 engines in the rear, one on top, one on bottom, and one on each side. In the middle of the oval are two long arms, rotating on heavy servos. These arms are tiped and topped with weapons. The whole fighter is a deadly weapon with each millimeter taken up by weapons systems.

Laying down on the pilots "bed", Kilar looks out into space as 6 red cicles appear on his display screen in front of him. The Heads up display started to move as the fighters moved closer. "Demon to Mother, all systems go, I have boggies incoming. Requesting permission to engage."

"Demon, this is Mother, we show all systems green as well. Permission granted, good luck."

Kilar smiled and thought about the weapons coming on-line. Instantly they were on and moving to where he thought, following his eyes. Under the fighter a Heavy Pulselaser Cannon swiveled to track the first target. Suddenly what looked like a steady beam of light lanced out and on of the red circles disappeared. The beam started to move and another circle disappeared. As that happened, all the drones started to split up and Kilar smiled. He increased speed and closed in with the group of fighters. Instantly light started to rain down on him. It wasn't ordinary light though, these were low power gatling laser shots.

Kilar lived for this, he started juking right and left, flying in between the laser shots. The thrust vectoring and micro-thrusters made the fighter more nimble than the drones. As he closed in one of the arms swung out and a blue beam lanced out again, drilling one of the drones and making it explode. Kilar flew by the fighters and than suddenly the arms swung back and fired to the rear, exploding one of the drones and seriously damaging another one. Making a fast turn, the remaining drone couldn't keep up. As it went evasive, the two arms, carrying 3 cannons total, tracked it. Once against light lanced out. It hit the drone and light blossomed around it as the shields took the hit. In less than a second the shields overloaded and the drone exploded.

Kilar smiled and did a series of loops. "Mother, this is Demon, all fighters destroyed. All systems working great."

[Sanis Prent]

I woke up from my mid-transit nap to hear Marcus's synthetic voice.

"Sanis, I am detecting multiple weapon discharges. Fourteen billion kilometers. Coordinates 256.23"

Blinking out of my drowsy state, I assessed the situation, bringing Layla out of autopilot, and back into realspace. As my YV-666 decelerated, I could see two ships, 2 grids off the starboard bow, and drawing closer as I approached.

"That larger one's an Imperial freighter." I said, glancing down at another screen to read off a string of basic data from a passive scan.

Marcus accessed his collective interface, and scoured the area with a second scan.

"I am detecting a debris field. Wide dispersion. There is little mass to the field. Perhaps a shuttle, or a few small fighters."

"Hmm." I responded off-handedly, magnifying the viewer.

"Wait a second..."

Banking starboard, I moved in for a better look.

"...does that ship look familiar to you?"

The droid module responded almost instantly.

"Indeed. It is remarkably similar to your Incom prototype."

Fascinated, I leaned in closer to the screen.

"You're damn right it is."

[Jake Snake]

The Captain didn't have much time to look over the trial because right after Mother called, "Demon, sensors are picking up a ship approaching the area through hyperspace. Power up weapons and shields, we seem to have company."

"Mother, Demon, read you loud and clear. Shields up, weapons ready. Bring them on."

Within moments, space opened up and a freighter came out. At the bottom corner of the screen in front of Kilar, a box came up and showed a rotating image of the freighter. It showed all the calculated weak points of the ship and all essensial systems.

As it turned toward them, Kilar targeted the ship and opened fire. Their mission was to not be seen to deal with any lurkers in the proper manner. Instantly, 4 Pulselaser cannons, 2 Laser Gatling cannons, and 1 Heavy Pulselaser errupted at the unsuspecting Freighter. The weapons were more powerful than anything of their size seen in territories outside the Federacy. Shields and hulls would shread easily.

As soon as Kilar fired he started to manuever. As he did, all the weapons still tracked the frieghter, firing on it as it moved through space. The systems mostly targeted were the ship's Engines and shield systems.

[Sanis Prent]

"Sanis, he's..."

"I know! Charge heat sinks."

The weapons fire criss-crossed the Layla's outer hull, scorching and lacerating it. However, the energy beams intensity bled off into a wider surface area when reaching the heat sink webbing, spreading the intense laser fire's effect harmlessly over the hull.

Light dimmed slightly in the pilothouse before returning to normal intensity.

"Shields up."

"Already done." was the droid module's curt reply.

I hit a few keystrokes on my main console, bringing up a secondary throttle control from underneath. The starboard and port lower hull plating slid back to reveal a hidden thrust vectoring package. This extra maneuverability put Layla on parity with the Incom doppleganger's on strafing fire, as I gauged the situation. Irritated, I activated the commlink.

"You've got a nice ship, friend, but you obviously have no idea who you're firing at. Name's Sanis Prent. If you haven't heard of me, you need to head back to home port right now."

[Jake Snake]

Kilar continued to fire on the frieghter, the cannons fired like machine guns, faster than another cannon. This would surely overload any heat sinks the ship might have in a short time, as well as shields.

As the ship started to manuever, Kilar smiled, this might be a bit of a challange for him, he thought. His fighter could outfly anything in the galaxy and held onto the ship in front of him. His weapons tracked the ship anywhere it went. The arms and turrets moved to follow the ship. From the PulseLasers came a constant stream of energy.

Following the barrage came 2 Heavy, high yield warheads. One after the other came in, targeted on the same point, so that one would hit the shields, explode, than the other would hit that same point.

After the warheads took off, the all weapons were fired onto one spot on the ship, the engines.

[Sanis Prent]

"Warheads incoming. Launching ECMs."

"Guess he's not one for idle chit-chat."

Layla rolled on her axis, performing an unusually crisp Immelman turn for a ship of her size. She left a stream of countermeasures in her wake, and the incoming projectiles bit on them, detonating at a harmless distance.

With a dorsal angle of attack, I pressed to full acceleration, activating a redundant cluster of tractor beam nodes on my ventral hull. Though lacking the shearing force to completely halt the enemy fighter's momentum, it seriously hindered maneuverability, allowing two gimballed quad laser cannons to extend from the bow, strafing the craft intensely. The fighter's dorsal shielding began to collapse under the sustained volley.