Whitehawk sat listening to the tales and mubles a few inaudible things. Taking a sip from his drink, he pulled a pad from one the crates and put it down on his table. Finishing off his drink, he picked it up again and said, Very good stories, people. Youve many experiences up your sleeves. Let me share with you a story of my own. This one comes from EVGE. It is one of my lesser ones but entertaining nonetheless. I call it Encouter at Misha
Im one of daring risks, true. Ive taken on some of the Confederations more challenging ships with many a Baseship fleet no more then debris and wreakage. Ive done a good many things in my time, proving a major thorn in the Confeds side. Ive had many a daydream about pounding torpedos into their ships hulls. But it soon grew to boring. I hunted pirates for a short while, raking in major cash. Yet that to soon grew to bothersome.
Then I came upon my next quest: bounty hunting. Not just hunting pirates or other rouges, but aliens. Sure I helped the alien race to retake their technology, I mearly did so to show off the Confederation. After my clash with the alien gateway years ago when I worked for the Polaris Alliance, I knew that there were many alien ships within human space that proved a major threat. About two years after helping the Aliens and reciveing as a reward uncharted jump holes, I decided to hunt these down these deadly beings and make a profit at all the while. I still remember my first encounter in the first months of my career.
I have flown in my Puma Destroyer Falcon for years, having modified it from its original confines. It was a deadly foe in combat, and it held onboard a few familes amongst the crew. Its shield grids were fully upgraded, it held two armor layers, armaplast and durasteel and it held torpedos, missiles, and four deadly plasma turrets. Aside from being equipped with standard outfits, like an afterburner and such, it also held a fuel replicator, which proved far superior to a ramscoop. It also held many other gadgets as well.
It was agreed upon by myself and my senior officers that the Aliens should be hunted down. We needed to track down as many as possible and destroy them. Our first challenge was at Misha in which we had to fight to the very point of our lives.
I had recived a hot tip from a Leathean merchant a few systems before that an Alien ship had been plaguing the routes leading into the Proxmian Tip, which held Carigh Prime and Alpha Proxmia and was destroying everything in sight. I took upon this chance and decided to hunt it down. We had just though it would be an old battlecrusier. This thought had nearly cost me my ship and crew.
We jumped into the system on May 4th, 2258, ready to battle this threat. I had to make sure my ship was top notched and in working order. Little did we know what we were to encounter. At first, sensors picked up nothing beyond normal nosie, but as time passed, we sensed a massive hyperspace disortion. We thought it nothing more then perhaps a fleet; but we were dead wrong. It was the Alien ship, but it was no battlecrusier.
Now Ive fought many cruisers and even an Annihilator before, but Ive never encountered something as big as this ship. It was a Alien Command Crusier, the most powerful ship the Aliens had. Ive encountered them before yes, but at a safe distance and I always jumped when they appeared. They carried a quad of battlecrusiers and a few fighters as well, and were heavily armed. It was to late to jump into hyperspace, for it was upon us. The ACC launched its crusiers and fighters and we were running on full afterburners. Ive many battles under my belt, claiming a record of downing twelve fighters in a single pass, but alien fighters were to much a macth for me.
If hadnt been for the mines aboard my ship, I dont know what wouldve happened. I unloaded all the mines and sent them hurtling back towards the fighters and battlecrusiers. It took what seemed like hours to blow up the last one, when it was only twelve minutes. I then headed for the closest remaing battlecrusier, which had its weapons grid fully armed. Alein missles hit my ship, dropping my shields with each passing minute and its beam weapon seared my ships hull. Plasma fire pelted at the strong shields of the crusier as torpedos fired from their launchers. The Falcon is a strong ship, built by some of the best ship designers in the galaxy, but she cannot hold up against such puinishment for long. I ordered reverse thrust and fired weapons.
Then in a stroke of brillant luck, something amazing happened. I had gotten to close to the ACC in the battle with its crusier and it fired its most powerful weapon, its beam weapon. As sensors picked it powering up, I ordered my ship into a nose dive, barely avoiding the weapon. Unfourtanely for the crusier, it caught the brunt force of it and its core or whatever it used for hypertravel, exploding in a brillant blaze of fire. The force of the explosion threw the Falcon into a spin. When we finally managed to stop, the ACC was on top of us. Seeker drones pounded my ships hull and we were forced to lesser Alien energy weapons fire. Bursts of plasma and torpedo after torpedo followed as we strafted the ship, trying in vain to disable it; this went on for hours. We had one mine left, but we were to close to use it.
We had been battling for seven hours and my crew was weary and tired. I considered withdrawing when I saw my chance. At another barrage of plasma fire, the shields of the ACC dropped and I ordered the mine to be launched. We were still close enough to take damage and the Falcons hull was damaged while the shields were at 25%. It was our only chance though and we took it. The force shook the ship as the mine connected with the enemy, sending us flying back with great force. When we finally managed to stop, we saw the ACC disabled and badly damaged.
We had come this far, so we decided to finish it. I ordered us to dock, intending on taking any alien technology possible. We boarded and drilled a hole into the drone launchers, taking nearly two thousand seeker drones with us. We disengaged, not daring to board the rest of the ship, for it was rumored to hold thousands of aliens, who were deadlier then humans.
We intended to tractor it back with us, but we knew it would be too risky. We set small energy mines along the organic hull and fired a burst of plasma fire followed by a torpedo. The ship exploded, damaging the Falcon even further, but as it was our first success, it was a joyus sight. We had proven ourselves capable alien bounty hunters, and it would prove the most significant of them all.
Three days later we limped into Proxmia Defenders docking bay, barely running on auxiliary power. We had to be tractored in the rest of the way to avoid a jam in system traffic. The Falcon was badly damaged and beyond repair. The hull was scorched and blasted and was buckling in some parts. The shield matrix was fried and couldnt be salvaged. It was time to sell the ship, which I had called home for years now. I now had a difficult choice to make; let my crew go to live their lives or buy a new ship. But even if I could make it back to Alliance space, it would take at least a month by even shuttle. I had nearly three hundred people to think about. At what would be the last briefing onboard the Falcon, all senior officers discussed this.
There were no ship that could macth a Puma Destroyer in combat when it came to its category. I had to make the most difficult decsion in my life, one many captains rather not face; letting many of my crew go. In my earlier years, I had helped Proxmia track down a criminal who had stolen some of their technology and as a reward, I was given rights to buy their military ships. I raked in nearly thirty million from selling what was left of the Falcon. Within my reach was a Bird of Prey, one of the most technologically advanced ships of human design.
Sadly I bought it, but it could only fit a crew of one hundred fifty crew members. I let most of my crew go, with full pay for the month and watched as they left, going on with their lives. My senior officers stayed behind, whether out of guilt or loyalty I do not know. But in the years to come, we saw many battles and glory fighting our new enemy, even to be as bold as to raid Maia itself.
Whitehawk sat back and ordered another drink, adding to the growing empty glasses. Now if any of you people got some tales, Im all ears.
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They say the Devil's name is the most unholiest.
They are wrong
There is one who's name is even worse. His name is Bill Gates
they hated me anyway.