This first one is entitled Sacrifice, and tells the story of a Caldari fighter pilot who has himself and his squad thrown away to destroy an enemy carrier. Enjoy, leave comments, suggestions, questions, smile
Story
Lain pushed the throttle down and his fighter jumped forward in acceleration. Projectiles whizzed by the wings of his ship and bounced off his shields, sparking and creating miniature novas of light. A glance at his statistics showed minor shield damage, but nothing that couldn’t be recharged in a few seconds. Either way, his main goal was still ahead. The enemy carrier chugged slowly through space, cycling its warp core in an attempt to escape what had become a losing battle for it. With its own fighter supply depleted, it had no way of striking at the hoard of angry pilots headed straight for it.
The carrier had called on the rest of its wing to help defend it, and now various cruisers and battleships turned their bows to release a hailstorm of fire into the attacking fighters. Rounds thumped into the hulls of the ships, popping them into puffs of light. The debris flew through the rest of the wing as they increased velocity and opened fire on the carrier.
Thousands of bullets slammed into the side of the carrier, erupting balls of fire everywhere they touched. The carrier reeled to one side as the force of the blows caved in the opposing side. Lain and his comrades wheeled their ships underneath and flipped over, firing down at the bottom of the carrier. Turning to run straight along the bottom, the carriers’ hangar gaped at them. Inside the hangar was the refueling station; a direct hit to it could completely destroy the carrier, instead of just crippling it as the fighters were doing.
Over the ruckus of fire and explosions, Lain heard his wing commander issuing orders, “…wings 2 and 4 are to proceed directly into the main hangar of the enemy vessel. Further orders will be given at that point.”
An internal offensive? Why send us in when there are countless cannons further out that could do the same job once the battle is over?
No time to think about it now though; Lain and his squad had to land inside the hangar before the blast doors shut. He angled his ship towards the hole and punched his afterburner switch. Alongside him, ten other pilots did the same. Ion streaked out behind them as they shot towards the bay. One pilot missed and ran full speed into the edge of the closing door.
Sacrifice.
That left nine others. They screamed into the hangar bay, wrecking repair bots and cranes. Emergency thrusters fired to slow them down, and after a minute of shaking and chaos, the ten ships sat floating in an empty bay. Lain sat up and looked around. There were no automated defenses, so it would be fine for him and the others to exit and storm the carrier by foot. He began unbuckling himself when a light flashed red and the wing commanders’ voice came on again.
“Remain in your vessels, I repeat, do not exit, Wing 2”
Puzzled, but willing to accept this, Lain sat back and tried to imagine what had caused this delay. Most likely some information was known to the higher-ups that he had not heard about yet.
Still, it would probably be better if we just- what’s that…?
Lain looked on his control panel to see a green timer flash at one minute, and begin counting down. The ships’ onboard computer voiced its’ warning, “Danger, one minute to ship self-destruction.”
Oh dear.
Glancing over at his friends, he saw that they too had received the same message. Some were pounding on the glass of their cockpits, others just sat. The commanders voice came on the general broadcast, signifying he was speaking to the entire fleet.
“Fall back! Wings 1, 3, 4, and 5 return and dock. We can’t win here, but we sure hurt them. We’ll be back.”
But not wing 2. Not us. Not me. For some reason the commander saw it fit to use us as a weapon.
“Warning, 30 seconds to self destruction”
“I know.”
Why me?
“Warning, 25 seconds to self destruction”
“I know!”, he was getting extremely aggravated now.
The explosions we create will be more than enough to set off the fuel in here.
“Warning, 20 seconds to self destruction”
“I know, god damn it!”
Lain punched in the computer AI, silencing its countdown towards his death. He screamed and ripped out the wires above him. Sparks flew out and sputtered over him.
Sacrifices… For the greater good.
He stared at the timer in front of him.
10 seconds.
I wonder if anyone will care about me. Will I be honored?
5
What is death like?
He had never really thought about it before.
3…
2…
1…
Thank you for serving the Caldari Navy, Private Lain.
