throw some obstacles in the way of their pursuers.
Ensign Cassel, meanwhile, fretted endlessly. “C’mon, c’mon… This happens sometimes, y’know… It usually takes a few minutes for the voiceprints to refresh… It really shouldn’t be much—”
The keypad lit green before she could finish, the hatch opening to allow their entry. “Voiceprint accepted. Welcome aboard, Commander.”
“—longer. Oh, thank god.”
Xenecia and Roon shared broad, toothy grins as together they strode aboard the Commander’s yacht. Ensign Cassel hurried ahead of them to take the controls; moments later, the deck of the yacht lurched subtly beneath them as they took flight.
Despite its name, the Commander’s yacht put far greater emphasis on its defensive capabilities than a sporty, showy interior. There was room enough for all four of them to spare, but it was of a more utilitarian nature than one might have expected. Some space was given over to a small galley, a few racks, and, further back, a bank of biostasis units for especially lengthy flights. Otherwise, the majority of the yacht’s space was claimed by the ultralight proprietary ceramic engine technology that made Morgenthau-Hale vessels the fastest and most maneuverable among the fleets of the various sovereign corporate powers. Because it was the Commander’s yacht and not a standard transport vessel like the one Roon and Ensign Cassel had arrived on, its engines were even more powerful, configured to allow for maximum evasive capabilities—something Xenecia had worked out they would shortly be very much in need of.
“I can’t believe it,” Roon said as they accelerated forward and shot out of the executive landing bay. “We did it. We actually did it. Well, you did it.”
Xenecia scoffed. “That was the easy part. The rest is up to your pilot.”
“ Our pilot,” Roon corrected under her breath. Xenecia heard it regardless but said nothing. She was right, after all; if Ensign Cassel couldn’t outrun their pursuers, it was all their asses in the fire.
Given that her ass numbered high among her best features, Xenecia very much wanted to avoid that fate if at all possible.
“Deploying chaff packets,” Ensign Cassel said from the pilot’s seat. It was a purely rhetorical statement, more for herself than anyone else. The chaff packets were densely packed canisters of ionized metal particulate that would deploy in a staggered formation over the span of several seconds. Once the entire string of chaff packets had been released, the onboard flight computer would automatically signal them to detonate, creating a massive particulate cloud. The cloud, in turn, would shield them against attempts to lock onto them with an inducer beam or disable the yacht’s engines.
The yacht shook suddenly with a fierce, short jostling, though they had yet to actually be fired upon.
“Shit!” Cassel exclaimed. “They’re trying to get an inducer beam on us!”
“That would not be a desired outcome,” Xenecia said sourly.
“Think I don’t know that?! C’mon, c’mon… ” She gave the controls a sharp jerk, then another in the opposite direction and still another back. She was trying to break up the vessel’s profile. It was a fairly low-tech approach to what the chaffs would accomplish, but only if she could avoid a lock until they blew. The yacht seemed to respond, though somewhat more sluggishly than the urgency with which she was pushing it. “Just another second or two. Damnit, move , you bucket!”
An indicator light on the control panel lit bright red. Several kilometers behind them, the chaff packets finally detonated, throwing out a massive three-dimensional screen of fine expanding debris. So confused was the inducer beam coming from OS Tau that Ensign Cassel was able to briefly shunt all residual power into the engines for a microburst of acceleration, just enough to push them out of its path without frying one or even both of the engines. She let out
Ensign Cassel, meanwhile, fretted endlessly. “C’mon, c’mon… This happens sometimes, y’know… It usually takes a few minutes for the voiceprints to refresh… It really shouldn’t be much—”
The keypad lit green before she could finish, the hatch opening to allow their entry. “Voiceprint accepted. Welcome aboard, Commander.”
“—longer. Oh, thank god.”
Xenecia and Roon shared broad, toothy grins as together they strode aboard the Commander’s yacht. Ensign Cassel hurried ahead of them to take the controls; moments later, the deck of the yacht lurched subtly beneath them as they took flight.
Despite its name, the Commander’s yacht put far greater emphasis on its defensive capabilities than a sporty, showy interior. There was room enough for all four of them to spare, but it was of a more utilitarian nature than one might have expected. Some space was given over to a small galley, a few racks, and, further back, a bank of biostasis units for especially lengthy flights. Otherwise, the majority of the yacht’s space was claimed by the ultralight proprietary ceramic engine technology that made Morgenthau-Hale vessels the fastest and most maneuverable among the fleets of the various sovereign corporate powers. Because it was the Commander’s yacht and not a standard transport vessel like the one Roon and Ensign Cassel had arrived on, its engines were even more powerful, configured to allow for maximum evasive capabilities—something Xenecia had worked out they would shortly be very much in need of.
“I can’t believe it,” Roon said as they accelerated forward and shot out of the executive landing bay. “We did it. We actually did it. Well, you did it.”
Xenecia scoffed. “That was the easy part. The rest is up to your pilot.”
“ Our pilot,” Roon corrected under her breath. Xenecia heard it regardless but said nothing. She was right, after all; if Ensign Cassel couldn’t outrun their pursuers, it was all their asses in the fire.
Given that her ass numbered high among her best features, Xenecia very much wanted to avoid that fate if at all possible.
“Deploying chaff packets,” Ensign Cassel said from the pilot’s seat. It was a purely rhetorical statement, more for herself than anyone else. The chaff packets were densely packed canisters of ionized metal particulate that would deploy in a staggered formation over the span of several seconds. Once the entire string of chaff packets had been released, the onboard flight computer would automatically signal them to detonate, creating a massive particulate cloud. The cloud, in turn, would shield them against attempts to lock onto them with an inducer beam or disable the yacht’s engines.
The yacht shook suddenly with a fierce, short jostling, though they had yet to actually be fired upon.
“Shit!” Cassel exclaimed. “They’re trying to get an inducer beam on us!”
“That would not be a desired outcome,” Xenecia said sourly.
“Think I don’t know that?! C’mon, c’mon… ” She gave the controls a sharp jerk, then another in the opposite direction and still another back. She was trying to break up the vessel’s profile. It was a fairly low-tech approach to what the chaffs would accomplish, but only if she could avoid a lock until they blew. The yacht seemed to respond, though somewhat more sluggishly than the urgency with which she was pushing it. “Just another second or two. Damnit, move , you bucket!”
An indicator light on the control panel lit bright red. Several kilometers behind them, the chaff packets finally detonated, throwing out a massive three-dimensional screen of fine expanding debris. So confused was the inducer beam coming from OS Tau that Ensign Cassel was able to briefly shunt all residual power into the engines for a microburst of acceleration, just enough to push them out of its path without frying one or even both of the engines. She let out
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