Crossfire's First Kill

[Crossfire]

I had just hit “accept� on the contract board for what would be my first combat encounter. Recently installed on my ship was a 3x shield booster, a class 5 cannon and a beam weapon with the highest yield I could find in the Olympus sector. IMG had asked me to scout out a waypoint about 65k out from the Harris Mining Station.

Was I nervous? You bet your ass I was. I was a rookie pilot, that’s for sure. My starship, The Adamant, still smelled like new upholstery and engine lubricant. I don’t know if I was more scared of dying, or of my paint job getting some carbon burns on it from cannon fire.

I exited the station and settled into the Adamant’s cockpit. The tractor beams disengaged and I felt the ship wobble slightly as gravity ticked off. I spin my nose out toward open space and, much to the frustration of the station’s controllers, initiated my Fulcrum drive right inside the dock. I came close to trimming the wing off of an incoming merchant trader as I roared out of there, and within seconds my thrusters kicked in to slow me down to my maximum forward velocity.

Immediately, my screens lit up and an alarm buzzed as two enemy fighters came into range. I dialed my IDS up, targeted the nearest fighter, and banked toward him. Within seconds, cannon fire lit up my forward shields and I couldn’t see, but I killed my drive and let inertia carry me forward while I tracked my target past me, cannon and beam fire chewing away at his shields.

Having my IDS dialed up got me close to him again relatively quickly, but the bugger killed his own drive and flipped over, tagging my shields again. I balanced them, sent more energy into my weapons, and fired again, keeping close to him and letting my missile lock tick down. I didn’t know where his partner was, but I was guessing that my faster speed was keeping him off my back.

I soon got the double beep of my missile lock, and fired a warhead at the fleeing fighter. At almost the same moment, an alarm warned me that I, too, had a missile incoming. Killing my drive again, I flipped over and targeted the missile that had homed in on my engines. Triggering my weapons, it was only a second before the missile detonated still well over 700m from me.

I flipped back over to see my quarry still running, this time trailing flame and smoke. Engaging my drive once more, I closed the distance and sent a full spread of cannon and beam fire into his engines. There was a bright flash and I roared through his burning debris before targeting his partner and banking around to meet him.

My shields had taken quite the beating, and my hull indicator was down to half. Re-balancing my shields, I altered my energy usage and dumped everything to shields-front a microsecond before energy splashed off of them. Another missile warning, but this one was too close and the Adamant rocked violently when it struck.

“Alright, douche-waffle,� I swore. “Let’s go.�

My own missile lock clicked into place and I fired, but the bastard shot it out of space before it struck. I managed to swing in behind him, and he started dodging and weaving back and forth – like that would help keep me from tagging him. I don’t know what was going on in that pilot’s head, but I just stuck right on him, pouring weapons fire into his aft sheilds. Soon, something popped and burning fuel began leaking from my enemy. I kept on him, and it was only a matter of time before the fighter exploded shrapnel all over space.

I quickly collected the wreckage – the metal wouldn’t fetch a huge price, but even a little bit helps. Leveling out, I keyed my nav computer for Harris, and engaged my Fulcrum drive.

If only that mining station had a bar.

[Edited on 11-10-2011 by Crossfire]

[SeeJay]

LOL, great story.

I remember my first fears of combat reading this. My hands was all sweaty and
I had a hard time keeping my grip on the stick! Heart beat so loud I could hardly
hear the missile warnings.

Keep it up!

[Maarschalk]

Very Cool and Nice Story Crossfire!, Thanks for sharing......:P

[49rTbird]

Congrats on your fist kill and enjoy the many more to happen.

[Dingo]

Nice work Crossfire. Great to see stories making a comeback to add some spice to our favorite hobby.

[Flash]

Damn you can tell a entertaining story.

[Sinbad]

Great story there Crossfire! That's just the first of many more adventures to come in Evochron!

[Galaxian]

Nice work Crossfire, excellent retelling of the event.

[Mecingo]

I remember my first AI kill ever! It was in a Crash Bandicoot game.... ah I'm sad now that the franchise died