Guard Duty For Rogues:
The Crawfish glides silently through space a little bit above a line of ships heading towards a distant colony. It watches silently over the convoy as it glides through the vacuum. Its crew stands ready to defend the convoy. Its captain calmly stands by the main window and watches the space around his ship and the convoy. James Daviott sighs as he listens to the quiet background noise of the bridge as its crew goes about its business calmly.
James smiles at the calmness which he knows is false since this crew is still fairly green. But he is proud of them and the fact that they are trying to impress him fills him with warmth. He hears a curse in the background.
"What is it Mr. Knight?" James asks the officer and the sensor station.
"Well, we have a few unidentified objects heading our way." states the sensor officer,
"Communications open a channel to those unidentified objects." orders James.
"Aye sir. Open"
"Attention unidentified forces. You are on an intercept course with some ships that are a no fly area. If you continue on this course you will be fire upon." states James calmly and then her turns to the operations officer. "Deploy the balls and the fighters and have them intercept those targets."
"Aye sir."
After about a minute or two the mobile weapons and fighter launch. He nods and watches them clear his ships firing lane. "Move us between the approaching targets and the convoy."
"Sir! We have a response to your hail." yells out the communication officer.
"Play it."
"Stay out of our way asshole. We have money to earn!" orders an angry voice over the speakers
"They do realize we are part of the convoy right?" wonders James as he frowns. "Alert them that we are here to protect the convoy and we will fire on them."
"Aye sir." replies the comm officer. "No acknowledgment."
"They are slowing down sir." states the sensor officer.
James turns to the weapons officer. "Aim the mpcs to the center of their formation while trying not to hit them and fire when they are at maximum optimal range."
"Aye sir."
James looks at a screen and waits the two minutes it takes for the unfriendly icons to reach the range. He nods and looks back out the window as the two mega particle guns fire. The beams easily pierce the center of the formation. One of the targets begins to fall behind the others.
"A hit?"
"I am guessing a near miss. Sorry sir."
"Its all right."
"Sir! Our forces are losing in on the targets and have identified them as one Galbaldy alpha and four Zaku II F types as well as four Gattle type fighters." yells the communications officer. "No Zeon markings."
"Very well. Order our forces to attack and tell to try to stay clear of our firing lane if they can. Weapons bring us into weapons range of all our weapons and begin firing at targets of opportunity. And please try to keep out forces covered as well."
"Aye sir!" yells the two officers as they carry out his orders.
The six balls fly into the enemy formation in a flying V formation with their cannons blazing. Right at the start a gattle and a Zaku take serious hits. While the rest avoid damage and scatter. The two Saberfish were waiting for this and they follow after the closest Zaku II. It tries to evade them instead of turning to fight and this costs the pirate his life as his suit takes a missile and several vulcan rounds to his suit’s back and it explodes.
Meanwhile the Galbaldy Alpha dives downards and comes under fire from a ball but it turns and blocks the Ball’s rounds with its shield and fires its beam rifle as rapidly as it can pulls its trigger. Most of its shots miss but one hits the ball. Nearby another Zaku II falls victim to a concentrated attack by three Balls. The last two Zaku II s are sticking together as the fight off an attack from the other two Balls. They are able to take out the two balls but at the expense of a couple hits that reduces their maneuverability.
This proves fatal as a swarm of missiles and energy blasts fill the space around them and they explode. The two Saberfish chase after the three remaining Gattles as they make a run for the Crawfish. The Saberfish are able to destroy of the Gattles but one still gets to the Crawfish and opens fire. All of its missiles race towards the ship as the Gattle is taken out with an energy blast. The two saberfish pilots curse as they pour on more speed as they try to intercept the missiles.
One of the Saberfish with its stressed engines overheating slams into a missile heading towards the bridge and explodes into a fireball that lights up the hull of the Crawfish. The remaining missiles but one are destroyed by either energy blast or by the last remaining Saberfish. The last three surving Balls are moving around the Galbaldy Alpha while firing ceaselessly at it. Most of their shots are missing but some are hitting. While most of those hits have been to the mobile suits shield it is still taking a beating and shows it. Then a shadow falls over the combatants but they don’t notice as they continue their duel. They notice the cause of the shadow as an energy bolt slams into the Galbaldy’s beam rifle and the explosion destroys the suits arm and pushes the mobile suit out of the center of the balls’ formation.
"Attention attacking mobile suit. Surrender now or you will be destroyed." crackles a voice over the radio in the pilot’s helmet. He curses but sees no choice as he looks up and sees the ship nearby with most of its weapons pointed in his direction. "I surrender"
"Good." states James as he surveys the situation. "Get the remaining Balls to tow that mobile suit into our hanger. And then helm bring us back to the convoy and go back to station keeping with it."
"Aye sir."
James nods with satisfaction and moves back to his command chair and sits in it. He then brings up his personnel log and brings up those people lost in attack and files their files under KIA.
Outcome: Convoy Defended, proceeding to Ark - 1 day
James Daviott: 100 exp, minor hull damage 2 days of repairs, 3 x Ball K Type destroyed, 1 x Ball K type upgraded to Grunt, 1 x Saberfish destroyed, 1 x saberfish upgraded to grunt, Captured 1 x Galbady Alpha and 1 x Zaku II F, 2 x Zaku Bazooka Salavaged
Scouting a Hornet’s Nest:
Zen Dias paces back and forth as he waits for his ship to arrive in the target zone that was project as the most likely area that the Federation convoys were heading to. He feels less than comfortable heading into an area of space no one in Zeon Intelligence knows anything about but he shrugs the discomfort away and looks down at his crew. They going about their work for the most part calmly but you can tell a lot of them are fitting a case of the nerves. Zen nods and goes back to pace in front of the window.
About five minutes later they arrive at their destination and what greets them surprises them all.
"An Earth Federation shipyard!" cries out the sensor officer.
"Quiet ad pay attention to your duties." snaps Zen to get everyone back to work. "Have they noticed us?"
"No sir."
"Very well then. We know what is here. Lets get the hell out of here."
"Aye sir." answers the helm officer as he begins to spin the wheel that steers the ship. Zen grabs a nearby hand hold and watches the stars out the viewport whip by.
"Once we have 180ed, I want to you take us out of here at best possible speed. And push the engines if you have to." orders Zen as holds on.
"Aye sir."
When the ship had turned 180 it begins to move away from the massive Earth Federation shipyard. "Sir, we have been detected and the Feds are deploying what looks like fighters."
"Very good. Operations alert mobile suit pilots to stand by to launch." orders Zen then he goes and stands by the sensor station and watches the screen that indicates the incoming fighters. He estimates that they will probably not catch him but he would rather be on the safe side than push his luck. "Get any good scans of the area before they started scattering M-Particles?"
"A little sir. There was a fleet protecting that shipyard. It looked like they had a large amount of static defenses as well." answers the sensor officer with a quiver in her voice.
Zen puts his hand on her shoulder feels her calm down. He nods and continues to watch the screens.
Outcome: Earth Federation shipyard discovered.
Zen Dias: no damage, 20 exp, 300,000 credits
