Above the Planet

Orange lances shot out from the top and bottom of the L19 as it twisted, banked, and jinked wildly to avoid the dizzying array of firepower intent on ripping the Cheveyo apart. The Ixiyens swooped in like hawkbats, their talons trying so hard to shear their way through the shields and armor as Pago continued to deny them their kill, proving staunch prey.

Prey that could fight back, that is.

The first Ixiyen in bought it quickly, being torn apart as the dorsal quad laser cannon made it supernova into a small sun, complete with orbiting debris. It seemed that Priya and Val, however, were the perfect chatterboxes, constantly talking as they spit death in every direction.

Pago, meanwhile, couldn't run his ship in a straight line, lest one of the fighters got in a good run and opened up with a missile on the freighter. However, the frigate wasn't about to be outdone either, prowling after the Cheveyo with murderous intent.

" If the fighters miss us, the Interceptor gets us. If the Interceptor misses us, the fighters get us. Great odds ..."

His musings were right, however. They wouldn't be able to bag the entire squadron and escape unscathed. Something had to be done. Namely, the Trap needed to be handled.

Without any explosives or heavy projectile weaponry, that was.

" But ... they have missiles ..."

:: Val, Priya, easy on those fighters, don't tag too many more. Just keep them occupied on the sides: let them slide in on our six. Trust me. ::

The fast-movers continued to dart in and out of range of the laser cannons on the L19, Pago swinging the ship around to bear down on the Interceptor-class Frigate. Like perfect pegs plummeting into place, the Ixiyens followed close behind, starting to tail the Cheveyo from directly aft. The warning sirens blared louder and louder, the klaxon almost giving Pago a headache as he bolted directly for the larger warship.

" Come on, you schuttas ... You know you want to ..."

And there it was: lock-ons. Multiples. Missile warnings. Dozens.

The concussion missiles fired from the flight of Ixiyens made a bee-line for the Cheveyo, which in turn was playing chicken with The Closing Trap.

" Must go faster ... Must go faster ..!"

The throttle on the Cheveyo was opened wide, the flare of the exhaust hiding the wake of explosives in its midst. The L19 hurtled towards the bridge of the frigate, even as Pago barked over the intercom.

:: Guns forward, ladies! Give 'em everything you've got! ::

Even the twin cannons under the nose of the freighter fired off rapidly, chewing into the shields around the command deck of the Trap as the quad cannons did their best to tear down the deflector screen as much as possible.

At the very last possible moment, just as the ships were barely one hundred yards apart, as the salvo of missiles were seconds away from letting their deathly touch brush against the Cheveyo, Pago drove his foot hard into the right pedal as the flight stick followed in the same direction and back. The tiny freighter rolled over the spine of the Trap ...

And the concussion missiles failed to keep up with the maneuver, the distance being too small. They slammed headlong into the weakened shields of the frigate, piercing through the force fields and splintering the bridge with a cascade of orange, red, and yellow blossoms as Pago nearly jumped out of his seat in excitement.

" Huuaaaa! That got 'im!"

The Ixiyens that had been too close behind the Cheveyo were torn apart by the resulting fireball and, while the frigate was not out, it was certainly down for the moment. It would take awhile before auxiliary control could be established and, even then, the missiles had probably wrecked the interior of the warship. It wouldn't be giving them any more trouble as Pago looped around and blasted off towards the edge of the planet's projection of gravity.

Five fighters, however, just weren't giving up.

:: I think I'm done playing with this crowd, :: Pago laughed over the com.

:: What say you girls give them a nice farewell before we leave, hm? ::

" Ahhh, parting is such sweet sorrow," he lamented sarcastically, a grin upon his face as he put the Cheveyo on her "side", giving Val and Priya perfect firing arcs to slay the last of the interlopers.

:: About time, Chief. There are easier ways to scare the kriff out of me. ::

*Priya yelped as one of the fighters zipped in close, her targeting alarm ringing like mad, before the fighter exploded in a shower of light. The close proximity of the blast rocked the entire ship, and Priya barked down the tube towards the Squib.*

"Watch it Val, leave me a few to pick off!"

*She muttered to herself.*

"Blasted devil-dos, this was supposed to be an easy job."

*Her target locked on one of the Ixiyens, then lost it as it zipped past. She adjusted the gun, targeted again, then lost the lock a second time. Her fist collided with the hull next to her as a slurry of ugly words in a variety of languages came spewing forth, and she disabled the targeting system all together and jerked the visor off of her head.

Using her own instincts, and some other sense she had never been able to identify, Priya jerked the turret around and opened fire. Her energy blasts crossed with Val's from below, and two of the fighters that had each been trying to zip out of the line of fire collided with one another, destroying them both.

The final two fighters did an about-turn, clearly enacting evasive maneuvers to retreat from the gunners now that they no longer had numbers on their side. The fighters were not expecting their opponent to gain a targeting lock on them before they distanced themselves, but they weren't aware the Mirialan was no longer using it. Her first shot was a direct hit, and before her vision had cleared from the blinding explosion, she had spun the turret around to fire upon the other. Her final shot sent the second fighter into an out-of-control spin, where Val picked it off neat as you please.

With the threat destroyed, Priya pushed away from the gun with an uncharacteristic flare of temper, then swung herself down the tube rather than actually use the ladder rungs. She stormed back into the cockpit.*

"Let's make something clear here, Hot Shot. I'm not getting paid enough to risk my neck."

*It didn't particularly occur to Priya that this was beyond Pago's control. This was the second battle she had found herself in in as many hours, and to her thinking, Pago was the correlating factor.*

Pago was clearly content with himself as the last enemy mark disappeared from his scanners, affording himself a moment to relax and lean back in his chair as the starship glided its way towards the proper hyperspace vector. All in all, he was pretty pleased.

It was this state of Zen content that Priya barged in on, hackles raised and words afire. Pago nearly stumbled out of his chair, clearly not expecting the intrusion and certainly not prepared for anger.

" Woah, woah, woah, cool your jets, Sweetheart!" he defended himself, popping out of his chair to face her down.

" I barely get money for this as is, and I thought you said most of the work was my responsibility anyway? Don't you worry your pretty little eyes about your pay or your neck; we just had a hiccup, is all."

He held up his hands as if in mock-surrender, trying to usher her into relaxing a bit. They were alive, the baddies were gone ... what was there to be so flustered about?

" It's not like I asked them to send a pirate fleet after us. You just have a seat while I get us out of here," he offered with a disarming smile, taking his own advice and sliding back into the pilot's seat to finish up the calculations for the jump to hyperspace.

" If it makes you feel better, I'll handle the dangerous bits from now on, Miss Priya, that I will."

*The Wayfarer-class medium transport slowly made it's way into orbit with Siberian Elementis at the main controls while Shadow Guards attended to the other consoles in the cockpit. They had finished their job here, despite the fact their target had yielded very little information regarding the Cinndao, aside from the same story all the others had told them*

*Those words were still fresh in his mind as the transport moved far enough away from the planet to make a hyperspace jump. These Cinndao did not make it easy to find them, never leaving enough of a clue with the last fool to die to keep the chase interesting. But when you had all the time in the universe, it didn't matter so much how hard the Cinndao made themselves to find, eventually he and Skorch would find them when they popped their heads up.
Siberian then in put a set of co-ordinates, before the Wayfarer disappeared in a flash of light into hyperspace*