ESPilot's CW docks in the bay for repairs after being attacked by a pack of Zachit ships after takeoff and ESPilot heads to the bar as Silver is telling his story. When it's finished ESPilot says "Interesting. So, you used to be a person called Paladin? I believe I knew somebody named Paladin from my early days in the UE, but I'm not quite sure." ESpilot continues "And when the armies in UE space were crumbling apart, that's when I left under the cover of my cloak to the south tip, where I later got hit by a stray rocket in the Riomor system which led me to the fate of my old ship, and Silver's old ship." ESPilot says "Hey red, how's about some Saalian Brandy?" He gives the bartender the tip and sips his Brandy. "I got a story of my own to tell, but just about everybody does don't they?"
"I was Acting Commander of the UE Fleet in my upgraded UE Destroyer the U.E.S. Relentless, armed with plenty of rockets and 3 Neutron turrets."
"In the bar at Sol, Admiral McPherson was giving me the briefing of my next mission: 'Captain ESPilot,' he said, 'The Voinians are amassing their fleet in the Vorik system, ships from all over Voinian space, including this new Dreadnought, and will most likely be planning to attack Earth itself!' McPherson continued 'We want you to lead a group of our best Destroyers into Vorik and destroy this Dreadnought before it strikes, otherwise Earth will be in grave danger.' I replied 'Yes sir Admiral, I'll do my best.' And then left to the Relentless. Soon I was in Vorik, and I saw nothing on my scanners, and then my backup, 5 Destroyers, jumped in, followed by the Dreadnought itself."
"The five Destroyers doggedly went after the Dreadnought, firing all their missiles from a distance, whilst I dealt with the Interceptors who were almost immediately destroyed by my Neutrons, so it didn't take too long, and when I got close enough for a visual of the planet, I saw one last destroyer attacking the dreadnought, firing what I knew was the last of its rockets while it was nearly destroyed." "I watched it go down under intense Neutron fire, but then the leviathan Dreadnought seemed to pay no attention to me, so I gave it a little wake up call with my rocket. It turned hostile, but just flew towards me, not doing anything. I maneuvered around it, firing my Neutrons, and it seemed to think I was going too fast for its Enhanced Neutrons to catch up."
It was at shields down, but how much armor it had left I had no idea of. I stopped circling and hid behind an asteroid as t fired a salvo of its rockets, and when the asteroid moved away I fired off my rockets like crazy, hardly any of them missing the giant moldy cheese wedge in front of me. When I ran out of rockets, he was still alive, and I'm thinking I'll never finish this and the human race would be enlaved by Voinians, when a UE Carrier jumps in, and I realize, it's the U.E.S. London, flagship of the UE Fleet!"
"So the London launches its fighters while I'm circling the Dreadnought, taking a few rockets and some Neutron hits while it's being swarmed by a group of 5 very hyped UE Fighters and the U.E.S. London's missiles. I'm suddenly in my armor, and the Dreadnought is disabled, with 2 disabled UE Fighters floating aimlessly, the other 3 obviously destroyed.
"The London hailed me saying 'You ESPilot, captain of the U.E.S. Relentless?' and I answered 'Yeah, why?'. "He said 'I was just wondering. So that was the new Voinian ship everybody's scared of?' I replied 'Yeah, Admiral McPherson sent me and a group of Destroyers to blow it up, but as you can see the Dreadnought made scrap metal out of 'em.'. We demanded that they let us land on Outpost Ylnn, and after seeing us cream the Dreadnought they did it without much hesitation."
"I restocked on rockets, and met the London's captain in the bar." "I asked him 'So were you sent as backup for me by McPherson?' and he replied 'No, I was just stopping by to wipe out the usual Voinian ship, when I saw you battling the Voinians' new Dreadnought.'. After awhile of discussion, we left to our ships and returned to earth, where we were greeted by a very happy Admiral McPherson."
" He said 'Commander ESPilot, I thank you on behalf of all the human race for your efforts, and I hope the 2.5 million credits will be enough as your pay.' After that, I split the reward fifty-fifty with the captain of the U.E.S. London, who I thought deserved it more than me."
ESPilot finishes up his Brandy and says "It's pretty much all true." Then ESPilot realizes that he was blown up and rematerialized during his story, shrugs, and turns to the Igadzra who just walked into the room. He says "You know, I kinda like Igadzras, when they're dead and chopped to pieces." He grins slyly. "But I won't do that to you since you're a hot lady." He draws his Ion knife, and charges it as his hand flicks out like lightning cutting Jess across her shoulder, as the charge of Ions from the knife leave her senseless. ESPilot says "Quite frankly, I don't really like any of the Strands, Azdgari most of all, since they resemble the majority of humans, myself not included. In that they're all idiots." With that he orders his top medical officer into the bar and tells him to get a new head on the bartender's shoulders, and the doctor scurries off holding the headless REDchich.
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ESPilot; Ship: S.S. Honor Blade, Alliance: Anyone who pays him huge sums of cash for killing people (currently the NTR's),
Combat Rating: Boosted to Ultimate after wrecking the Z.S.S. Dramatic and a gang of CW's.
(This message has been edited by ESPilot (edited 04-09-2001).)