Chapter 169 – Gunship Diplomacy
John brought the Pelican out of Slipspace near the star, the intense radiation dimming his viewport screens as the safety systems engaged to protect the cockpit's occupants. Finally, activating the ship's active sensors, it didn't take him long to find the nearby pirate Jumpship, which was in the middle of retracting its massive Jumpsail. He had vague memories of seeing this process before, but he had to admit it was quite the impressive sight to see in person.
However, there was a more urgent concern than watching the shimmering fabric being drawn into the ship. There were four Aerospace fighters he was detecting on his sensors, fighting several hundred miles away. It appeared there were two Clan fighters and two Pirate ones duking it out. He was amazed at the fact that, unlike mechs, they were firing volleys of missiles, lasers, and PPCs at each other from significant distances, dozens or even hundreds of miles from each other, then maneuvering to avoid the other ships' return fire.
Right now, they appeared to be in a deadlock, though that could change in a heartbeat with a lucky shot from either side. John opened a channel to the Jumpship. "Ryan's Rebel Jumpship, this is... my name is John, the Captain of the dropship that just showed up beside you. Do you need assistance?"
"Captain John, is it? Just call me Paul. I take it yer lookin' fer a ride out of the system? Well, normally that would be a hard pass, but fuck it... Help our two dogs put down those annoying Wolves, and we can talk. Now, excuse me, I need to pay attention to retracting the Jumpsail. If we fuck it up, we are all screwed." A man's voice said over his comms.
He hesitated for a second about bringing his passengers into combat, but if the Wolves won, they would be on top of them in a moment's time anyway. He opened the Pelicans DEN menu again, looking for something that would help them. There were options, but they were all... quite expensive.
Fuck it! Tokens are meant to be spent.
Dropping ten thousand tokens on something called the AAM ST/Medusa missile pod, he swung the Pelican towards the battle. "Everyone, it might get a little bumpy for the next few minutes. Hold on as best you can." He said on the internal comms, then spoke over his shoulder. "Lucy, can you take control of the weapons again? I need to focus on piloting."
"Of course, my Danna." She said, already wearing the co-pilot helmet. She handed Rei off to Mia and then began cycling through her new armaments. It wasn't an overly complicated system, similar to a mech, just that the targets were moving much faster. She picked one, and after she was sure it was locked on properly, she let fly with a pair of the anti-air Medusa missiles.
The four fighters were fully focused on each other, so the Clan pilot was completely blindsided when a new target lock warning came up on their HUD and a pair of unknown missiles started to chase after his fighter. Unlike a standard flight of LRMs that had minimal guidance capabilities, these two missiles were larger and followed him doggedly.
John chased the Wolf Aerospace fighter, which was still accelerating rapidly. He knew he had to be careful with maneuvering at these speeds, as this wasn't the Phoenix Hawk that he was flying with an inertia stabilizer. He had no idea how these other aerospace jockeys could handle the stress of the G forces their tight turns and sudden accelerations caused. It didn't really matter; he was flying a brick in comparison, so he would just do what he could.
The Autocannon barked as the other Wolf fighter passed nearby, the two pirate fighters hot on its tail, landing bolts of laser fire over its body. They were taking full advantage of the Pelican's arrival, the two missiles having thrown the Wolves out of formation. Lucy managed to clip one of its wings a bit with her salvo of 70mm rounds, but it was moving too fast for the autocannon to keep a bead on it.
John maintained his pursuit of the other Wolf fighter, its pilot pushing the ship to its limits as they finally outlasted the fuel in the two medusa missiles. The Wolf turned back towards them, then flared its engines to nearly stop dead in space and started charging directly at the Pelican.
John attempted to maneuver, but it fired an array of energy weapons at the Pelican, most of which he was unable to avoid. Lasers hit the top of the ship, melting some of their armour but thankfully not breaching the hull. Lucy returned fire with a full salvo of Medusas, Anvil-IIs, and autocannon fire. John could feel his gatcha token wallet lighten with the judicious application of force she just applied to the now rapidly approaching fighter.
They continued to exchange fire as they closed the distance, the Pelican shuddering as it took a PPC hit to one of its wings. John had no idea how tough the Pelican actually was, but with every bit of damage it took, his concerns increased. The Aerospace fighter took hit after hit of autocannon fire, the kinetic weapon outpacing the slower missiles.
The fighter then banked hard, trying to get out of the way of the wave of missiles that were nearly upon it, but the Pelican's missile tech was more advanced than the pilot was used to, and the missiles had already compensated for the maneuver. Explosions riddled the ventral side of the aerospace fighter, puncturing its engine housing and causing it to explode.
John let out a breath he had been holding during the whole brief but intense combat. He couldn't dodge weapon fire that was moving at the speed of light; all he could do was try to make the ship more difficult to hit. Doing that with a flying brick full of passengers was rather difficult.
"Great shot." He said.
"Thank you. It's a bit different than chasing those two Spiders down, but these controls are fairly intuitive. And these missiles, they're not like anything I have seen before. The way they were moving, it's almost like the enemy had a NARC* beacon attached to them."
He just grunted and looked over the display in front of him before moving back towards the battle. There was a simple model of the Pelican on one of them, most of it green, but one wing and the top of the ship were displayed in yellow. He guessed that was this vehicle's damage display. He could see out the window the scorch marks on the wing from the PPC strike, melting part of the top but missing the engine and the pods underneath.
He looked over at the other part of the battle and could see that the pirates nearly had the other fighter down. The speeds these aerospace fighters could reach seemed to negate much of the superior clan technology; a pilot's skill and luck played a much larger role than they did on the ground. He knew damn well that if they hadn't prepped the battlefield down there, the Wolves would have easily picked them apart. If it wasn't for their weird way of doing combat, they would have easily stomped the Guards without losing a single mech.
He swung around to help finish off the final Wolf fighter, but the pirate had been defeated before the Pelican got in range.
"Unknown ship. Thank you for the assist. These guys were tenacious." A female voice came across the comms.
"No problem. You guys are our ride out of this system; it would be kind of dumb not to help."
"Ha! Yeah, the world has gone fucking crazy. You know anything about these guys?"
"Yeah, a bit. They just invaded Blackstone, and the rest of their fleet is punching through the Periphery into the Inner Sphere. We were just the lucky ones to be their first stop."
"Fucking amazing. Well, I am sure we can give ya a lift, it doesn't look like Susie is coming back from that planet."
"No... no, she is not. Both the Pirates and the Guards have been defeated."
"Pah, well, whatever. Talk with the Captain, maybe you guys can work something out."
"Roger, Pelican out," John said, closing the channel. He turned the Pelican back towards the Jumpship.
It was time for the negotiations to begin.
"So, what you are telling me is these Clans are poised to invade the Inner Sphere, and are planning to use the area of the Periphery as a staging area?"
"Yeah. So, we need a lift to Oberon to send an HPG transmission to warn the Inner Sphere of the danger, or, barring that, a lift to the Inner Sphere to warn them of the danger. Preferably near Rasalhague or FedCom space."
John and the Captain of the Jumpship, Paul Graves, were discussing the Wolves and John's transportation needs over the radio. They had allowed the Pelican to dock on the side of the Jumpship, though John had to get creative with his magnetic cables to latch himself on; the Pelican was not designed to latch to the Jumpship like a dropship normally would, and was too big to fit into their fighter bay.
"Hah, that sounds like a good way to get hunted again. No, Sir, we won't be going to Oberon, but we can get you to the FedComs easy enough. Four Jumps will take us about three weeks. Do you have enough food and water on board to survive that long?"
"I have about two weeks of supplies. We fit what we could on board, but there is standing room only here."
"Well, we can sell ya some of our extras, which leads me to the price. Now, I am grateful for the assistance out here, and with what you told me, running back to the Greater Valkrate would be suicide. But running a Jumpship ain't cheap. So, for the express run to the Inner Sphere, rations and an umbilical to the Jumpship to let your people have access to our showers and our gravity module, I am thinking six million C-Bills."
"That works for us," John replied. He saw no reason to haggle; it was a fair amount more than the going rate for travel, but those ships brought all their supplies with them. His sensors started to beep then, picking up a pair of contacts coming in from long range. "Looks like we got company coming. They will be here in ten minutes."
"Crap. Okay, spoiling up the K-F drive. Jump in T minus three minutes. We will see you on the other side, Captain." Paul said, ending the transmission.
John sat back in his chair, then blew out a deep breath. His quest timer changed to the Jumpships countdown, signaling that his return to DEN was imminent.
They did it. Somehow, things lined up perfectly to escape this system. He opened the intercom and announced they were about to jump, and that they would be free to move around afterward.
"My Danna, what happens now?" Lucy asked after he was done.
"We hitch a ride somewhere it's safe." He replied, slightly confused at what she meant.
"No. Not that, the other thing you told me before."
"Ahh… I'm not sure. I'm guessing it won't take long for you, though it might be some time for me." He said, understanding what she meant now. He still hadn't told Rei and Mia everything, and almost nothing to Bryn. He wasn't sure who he would be allowed to bring with him to another world, just Alec's reassurance that he would see Lucy and Rei again.
Lucy unlatched herself and floated beside him, taking his helmet off. She gave him a deep kiss, which he returned eagerly. He was going to miss her and this little family they were building.
"Me too, Daddy!" Rei squawked behind him. Mia released her from her grasp and pushed her up beside John. He pulled her into his lap and kissed the top of her head and ruffled her hair, causing her to giggle again.
He turned his head to look back at Mia, who looked a little confused. "Come here. I want to share something with you before we jump."
"What is it?"
"Well, you know all this magic of mine? Well..." He explained it as quickly as he could, though not in great detail. "So, when Lucy told you I would bring us to another world, that is what she meant. I'm pretty sure that as soon as we jump, I will leave this world, and it will be some time before I see you again. You shouldn't notice any passage of time, but it might be weeks or even months for me."
"I see. John Wayne... may I also give you a kiss?"
"I would love that."
So John kissed his two women tenderly, taking their scent in one last time before he left this world.
3...2...1
DEN Return!
The world went black and white, turned to static, then twisted into blackness.
* - A beacon for LRMs that can be shot at an enemy. It lets the LRMs track in on a signal and become a whole lot more accurate.