30,599 / 50,000
Chapter 17: Where's the Kaboom! There's supposed to be an earth shatering KABOOM!!!
The next two days were spent pulling the positively ancient Mark II Training pod off the ship's trainer and giving it a quick renovation, as it needed a fair amount of tender loving care. Once they finished, Shannon and Robert mounted the 'pod on Gertrude's Getaway. They hopped aboard and ran around the ship for a quick checkout flight, and then re-docked and prepared for the jump. The Hillary was joining the main battle group, officially to relieve the Fuji, who would be taking over the rear defense duties.
Hillary came out of jumpspace and was informed that they were about to engage a Shivan drone factory. The squads prepared and launched, and Robert and Shannon intentionally launched last, as they had to board the fighter in a rather pecuilar way. Once they were in free space, they headed upwards and over to a moderately flanking position of the factory. Shannon wove a cloak and a sheild around the ship while Robert split his attention between flying the ship and feeling for a suitable energy source to tap. He found one, and nudged Shannon, who was hugging him and meditating. "I've got a lock on the factory's primary power plant. Think that'll be enough?" Shannon looked at him and giggled. "Oh yeah. Tigra will laugh when you tell him that we used their own powerplant against them." Robert asked if the sheild and cloak would remain in place while she was occupied with her attack. "Yes, they should. They are actually using the tap you initated to power them, so we would both have to be knocked out in order for the spells to fade. You might want to initate that tap now, because you'll need to be at full power so I can nuke them." Robert nodded, and focused to create the tap. "I hope they don't notice anything other then an additional energy drain, and I sure as hell hope that they can't detect it. Here we go. Gerty, full defensive please." Gertrude acknolwedged the order, and robert finished the tap. Shannon had been rubbing on him almost the entire time, so he was more then ready when she hopped on him to complete her tap to his energy pool.
The power that came from the Sivan plant brought robert to full charge within a minute, and he started feeding that power to Shannon as she started to cast the spell that would cause a small singularity to form in the middle of the drone factory. Robert was focused on maintaining the taps, but he was also monitoring the general push channel on the comm, which came to sudden life as the drones started another major push using almost all the drones that the factory had on hand. "Stand on it Shannon, they've started." he grumbled. The grumble turned into a squeak as Shannon completed the spell and started the ritual to pull energy to feed it. She rocked on him in an increasing frequency as the energy flowed from the factory to Robert, then to her, and back to the singularity being created back on the facotry. They had just finished and Shannon announced that the sigularity was ready and waiting for the final word when Gertrude announced that several drones were heading in their direction. "Shit! do it!" Robert shouted. Shannon screamed out the final power word, came, and smiled. "It's done. Let's get the fuck out of here." Robert ordered gertrude to high tail it back to the Hillary as he got on the general push. "Bravo six to all craft in the immediate vicintiy of the factory. Get away from the factory soonest. Repeat, get away from the factory. It's going to go away shortly." As he finished the transmission, he could see that the factory had started to collaspe inward from the force of pull from the miniature black hole Shannon had formed in the ship. Gertrude said that the drones were closing, and had a count on them. "Sensors indicate five drones closing as their maximum velocity." Robert cursed. "Crap. Shannon, this might be unpleasent. I'm going to have to shoot at these." SHe nodded, and hopped off him. "Do what you must. I knew I would possibly be shot at when I agreed to this crazy idea." She tightened the crash webbing down on them both,and Robert took control back from Gertrude. He was just about ready to switch to combat mode when the drones just stopped following them and coasted on the vector they had been on. "Gerty, camera on the factory please." Gertrude announced that the factory was no longer there, but focused the camera on the area wheree it was. In it's place was a small cloud of remotes that was slowly being drawn into the gravity well that was almost filled back in from the mass of the factory that had just been consumed. There was a fair amount of cheering on the general push, and a private message cam in from the Pacifica, the fleet's command ship: LOOKS LIKE IT WORKED, BUT YOU NEED TO SHIELD AND CLOAK BETTER. YOUR SECONDARY GLOW WAS SEEN. -T Robert nodded, and told Gerty to resume course to dock with the Hillary. "Shannon, we need to practice your cloak. our secondary glow was what caused the drones to lock on us." She shrugged. "Hey, it was the first time I've ever had to cast that spell since learning it three years ago. I'm a little rusty, kay?" THey both giggled as the Hillary's docking computer guided them in.
They were the first to dock, and managed to get back into their cabin. Five minutes later Ted's fighter Gunstar docked. He went up to the door and knocked. WHen they didn't answer in the 90 seconds permitted, He opened it with his override. CLosing the door, he said,"Good job kids. I have no idea what 'n the hell ya did, but it worked. I would advise both of you that you definately need to cloak better. We can write off the secondary glow as sensor ghosts, but the drones knew better." They nodded, and finished closing their jumpers. Shannon replied, "Tigra said the same thing. It's on the list of stuff we need to practice." Ted looked at them both. "Tigra?" then the light turned on in his head. "You mean Fleet Admiral Goy'an? HE'S the one training you?!?!" Robert looked at him and said, "Ask him yourself. He's right here." And Tigra stepped out. Ted snapped to attention. "Sir! I had no idea you were here Sir!" Tigra started to laugh. "Calm down Ted 'Action' Jackson. I'm not here in an official capacity. In fact, I'm not here at all." He stepped through the bed to prove his point. "You are seeing an illusion. I use it to talk to people. I was going over how Shannon could improve her cloaking spell, so that they won't be seen next time. Unless the rest of the Club decides the time is right to show ourselves, that is. The offical record is that they were actually performing a sensor sweep of the attack and recorded a fatal malfunction of the shivan's power plant. They were also trialing an experimental cloaking device that did not work as expected as well. This will account for the secondary glow, and the fact that they were well out of the Sphere of combat. We'll have about 48 hours to regroup, and repair. These two are going to spend some time in the training room practicing their cloaking techniques. We'll see if we can get Spares to bolt something that _looks_ like a cloaking device onto the side of your fighter." SHannon stated, "That's easy enough. THis ship participated in a old trial of such a device, and we have a prototype that we could never get working that we can bolt on one of the fighter's hard points." Tigra nodded. "ok. We'll get that done pronto." They all chatted briefly, then Tigra cut them off. "I gotta run, The rest of the fleet needs my attention." As he said this, he faded out of view. Ted talked with them briefy, and then left himself. The rest of the night was spent practicing.
(1359/1667)
The next two days were spent pulling the positively ancient Mark II Training pod off the ship's trainer and giving it a quick renovation, as it needed a fair amount of tender loving care. Once they finished, Shannon and Robert mounted the 'pod on Gertrude's Getaway. They hopped aboard and ran around the ship for a quick checkout flight, and then re-docked and prepared for the jump. The Hillary was joining the main battle group, officially to relieve the Fuji, who would be taking over the rear defense duties.
Hillary came out of jumpspace and was informed that they were about to engage a Shivan drone factory. The squads prepared and launched, and Robert and Shannon intentionally launched last, as they had to board the fighter in a rather pecuilar way. Once they were in free space, they headed upwards and over to a moderately flanking position of the factory. Shannon wove a cloak and a sheild around the ship while Robert split his attention between flying the ship and feeling for a suitable energy source to tap. He found one, and nudged Shannon, who was hugging him and meditating. "I've got a lock on the factory's primary power plant. Think that'll be enough?" Shannon looked at him and giggled. "Oh yeah. Tigra will laugh when you tell him that we used their own powerplant against them." Robert asked if the sheild and cloak would remain in place while she was occupied with her attack. "Yes, they should. They are actually using the tap you initated to power them, so we would both have to be knocked out in order for the spells to fade. You might want to initate that tap now, because you'll need to be at full power so I can nuke them." Robert nodded, and focused to create the tap. "I hope they don't notice anything other then an additional energy drain, and I sure as hell hope that they can't detect it. Here we go. Gerty, full defensive please." Gertrude acknolwedged the order, and robert finished the tap. Shannon had been rubbing on him almost the entire time, so he was more then ready when she hopped on him to complete her tap to his energy pool.
The power that came from the Sivan plant brought robert to full charge within a minute, and he started feeding that power to Shannon as she started to cast the spell that would cause a small singularity to form in the middle of the drone factory. Robert was focused on maintaining the taps, but he was also monitoring the general push channel on the comm, which came to sudden life as the drones started another major push using almost all the drones that the factory had on hand. "Stand on it Shannon, they've started." he grumbled. The grumble turned into a squeak as Shannon completed the spell and started the ritual to pull energy to feed it. She rocked on him in an increasing frequency as the energy flowed from the factory to Robert, then to her, and back to the singularity being created back on the facotry. They had just finished and Shannon announced that the sigularity was ready and waiting for the final word when Gertrude announced that several drones were heading in their direction. "Shit! do it!" Robert shouted. Shannon screamed out the final power word, came, and smiled. "It's done. Let's get the fuck out of here." Robert ordered gertrude to high tail it back to the Hillary as he got on the general push. "Bravo six to all craft in the immediate vicintiy of the factory. Get away from the factory soonest. Repeat, get away from the factory. It's going to go away shortly." As he finished the transmission, he could see that the factory had started to collaspe inward from the force of pull from the miniature black hole Shannon had formed in the ship. Gertrude said that the drones were closing, and had a count on them. "Sensors indicate five drones closing as their maximum velocity." Robert cursed. "Crap. Shannon, this might be unpleasent. I'm going to have to shoot at these." SHe nodded, and hopped off him. "Do what you must. I knew I would possibly be shot at when I agreed to this crazy idea." She tightened the crash webbing down on them both,and Robert took control back from Gertrude. He was just about ready to switch to combat mode when the drones just stopped following them and coasted on the vector they had been on. "Gerty, camera on the factory please." Gertrude announced that the factory was no longer there, but focused the camera on the area wheree it was. In it's place was a small cloud of remotes that was slowly being drawn into the gravity well that was almost filled back in from the mass of the factory that had just been consumed. There was a fair amount of cheering on the general push, and a private message cam in from the Pacifica, the fleet's command ship: LOOKS LIKE IT WORKED, BUT YOU NEED TO SHIELD AND CLOAK BETTER. YOUR SECONDARY GLOW WAS SEEN. -T Robert nodded, and told Gerty to resume course to dock with the Hillary. "Shannon, we need to practice your cloak. our secondary glow was what caused the drones to lock on us." She shrugged. "Hey, it was the first time I've ever had to cast that spell since learning it three years ago. I'm a little rusty, kay?" THey both giggled as the Hillary's docking computer guided them in.
They were the first to dock, and managed to get back into their cabin. Five minutes later Ted's fighter Gunstar docked. He went up to the door and knocked. WHen they didn't answer in the 90 seconds permitted, He opened it with his override. CLosing the door, he said,"Good job kids. I have no idea what 'n the hell ya did, but it worked. I would advise both of you that you definately need to cloak better. We can write off the secondary glow as sensor ghosts, but the drones knew better." They nodded, and finished closing their jumpers. Shannon replied, "Tigra said the same thing. It's on the list of stuff we need to practice." Ted looked at them both. "Tigra?" then the light turned on in his head. "You mean Fleet Admiral Goy'an? HE'S the one training you?!?!" Robert looked at him and said, "Ask him yourself. He's right here." And Tigra stepped out. Ted snapped to attention. "Sir! I had no idea you were here Sir!" Tigra started to laugh. "Calm down Ted 'Action' Jackson. I'm not here in an official capacity. In fact, I'm not here at all." He stepped through the bed to prove his point. "You are seeing an illusion. I use it to talk to people. I was going over how Shannon could improve her cloaking spell, so that they won't be seen next time. Unless the rest of the Club decides the time is right to show ourselves, that is. The offical record is that they were actually performing a sensor sweep of the attack and recorded a fatal malfunction of the shivan's power plant. They were also trialing an experimental cloaking device that did not work as expected as well. This will account for the secondary glow, and the fact that they were well out of the Sphere of combat. We'll have about 48 hours to regroup, and repair. These two are going to spend some time in the training room practicing their cloaking techniques. We'll see if we can get Spares to bolt something that _looks_ like a cloaking device onto the side of your fighter." SHannon stated, "That's easy enough. THis ship participated in a old trial of such a device, and we have a prototype that we could never get working that we can bolt on one of the fighter's hard points." Tigra nodded. "ok. We'll get that done pronto." They all chatted briefly, then Tigra cut them off. "I gotta run, The rest of the fleet needs my attention." As he said this, he faded out of view. Ted talked with them briefy, and then left himself. The rest of the night was spent practicing.
(1359/1667)