FIRST STORY- Feel free to contribute. ANYONE MAY PLAY

Started by Ushgarak13 pages

'Master', says Ushgarak, 'the shields on this thing are almost non-existent. I'm not sure how long I can hold her...'

"Keep it together guys, these guys ain't so tough"

Switching shields on 75% front, 25% aft. Nudging the stick to port, RC brings his ship into a wide arc, straightening his flightpath at just the right moment to drop his aiming reticle over the enhance image of one of the enemy fighters on his heads up display.

"1.... 2.... 3.... Tone!"

A volley of laser bolts errupt from the nose mounted cannons and streak through space towards the fighter. All 4 hit home and the small craft explodes in an incandecent ball of fire.

"That's one! How many more do we need to open up a hole for you guys?"

Well, time to trust the Force, I think...

Ush puts the ship into a flat spin towards the planet. He is no longer sure exactly how the ship will manoeuvre, but then neither do his pursuers...

"Stay with it, Ush," Gundark tells him as she crawls half under the instrument panel and begins switching wires, trying to bypass the short circuit. Sparks fly, followed by a smattering of swear words from under the panel. Finally she calls out to Ushgarak, "diverting all auxiliary power to guidance control."

'I'm losijg the port-side stablisers!'yelled Ushgarak. 'We may lose gravity, whoch could be rough...'

Hold on to it ush, there is like 5 ships heading right at us. Damn it Queeq where are you?

'I CERTIANLY can't hit them' said Ush, 'so I'll be AMAZED if they can hit me...'

RC barrells the Ruby over and dives for Ush's ship. His fingers fly over the panel, pushing as much power to the rear deflectors as he can.

"OK Ush, I've lost my lasers, I have aft shields but not much else. I have you tail, you got lead, where you wanna go now?"

'Get us on a course to the spaceport at Marakith' said Ush, desperately. 'That's our only hope!'

"Ush do you need my assitance else where or do you want me to stay at the tarrot gun?"

'Damn it... Phinney, the guidance systems are shorting out... this craft wasn't rerally desinged to carry weapons...'

"Hmmm, you keep flying like that, you're gonna need a much bigger hole!"

From the port side 3 enemey fighters angle in on the Ruby and shower forth a barrage or laser bolts." They hit the ship hard, barreling her to starboard.

"Moons of Yavin! Ok Ush, you better start flyin fancy, I'm all outta port shields and that aft is looking very shakey too."

RC rolls the Ruby though a 360°, the enemy fighters pull back but match the manouvour well. Pulling back on the stick, RC heads into a half loop and as he levela off hits a half roll to bring himself back onto a level heading, straight at the enemy fighters.

Opening up the laser cannons, he manages to take out one as they fly passed. The Ruby pours on the speed as she is rockets through the exploding cloud of debris. Warning lights flash up as microfragments pass though the energy sheilds and impact against the hull, cause minute hull breachs as they do.

Gundark crawled out from under the instrument panel and thumbed the com. "Get back down here, phinney. No point in having you blown off the side of the ship." She flipped to RC's channel. "We're not planning on a fancy landing. Ush and I have two ships docked at the Marakith spaceport, so I'm not worried about using this baby again." Another blast rocked their ship and she grabbed Ushgarak's shoulder to steady herself. "See if you get us on the ground in one piece, though," she told him with a grim smile.

'I'm going to have trouble making sure this thing doesn't break in two on rentry, folks..." said Ush.

Gundark strapped herself back into the co-pilot seat and shouted back the passageway. "Hang tight Phinney." She turned back to the com. "queeq...you still with us ?"

'I'm dumping the weapons power!' said Ushgarak. 'Everything is going to whatever shields we have...'

The ship shuddered violently as it plunged through the atmosphere. "We're gonna get cooked going in at this angle", Gundark pointed out. She studied the scope in front of her. "Can you nose her over about .12 ? There's a large area of low scrub we may be able to land in." She looked at Ushgarak, feeling him use the Force to maintain control of the ship.

'If I turn her' said Ushgarak 'she may break up a lot sooner...'

The scope in front of Gundark went dark. "You better get us down, Ush. NOW."

"Ok..." said Ush, "I'll try!"

Ushgarak closed his eyes, and reached out...