The kid was walking home from school again, when he saw Lanissum walk out into the docking bay. Watching the holo-screen, it was clear that the pirate was getting ready for a flight. Remembering how often he had seen Lanissum recording the affairs of his work on a PDA, a plan began to form in the kid's mind.Many people regarded the crypto-pads which guarded the captains' quarters to be impervious. Strictly speaking, the were right, but that was their weakness. Earlier, the boy had easily gleaned the pad's combination by watching Lanissum enter and exit. Now that the pirate was gone for the day, the boy easily entered the room and found the PDA. As soon as it booted up, he opened the earlier log entries.
"After losing my Thorax earlier, I decided to go out today with an Incursus of mine. Intel channels indicated low activity in the systems surrounding Aurohunen, thus my best chances of finding a fight would be in this system.
Thus, I began my normal routine of scanning out belts, but failed to find anything. Fearing a boring night, I warped to a station, where I sighted two frigates."
The PDA prompted the boy to place his thumb on a glowing button to access a "visual net recording." Doing so, he suddenly saw and felt everything that Lanissum had on that day.
"The ship shuddered, sensors indicated that the Kestral was already attacking. Checking the ships' transponders, it was apparent that they were in the same corporation and thus docking would be the wiser choice.
The shuddered again, under a particularly violent missile strike. Where was the enemy Rifter? There was a large amount of static from the explosion... the Rifter had docked!
Now was the time to strike! Yet again, the Incursus shuddered, but this time it was recoil from outgoing blaster fire. The Kestral lost a large portion of it's shields. At the same time, the lone Hobgoblin II drone of the Incursus slipped into the darkness of space and began to hunt it's target.
The Kestral launched another missile salvo, penetrating the shields and nicking a bit of the armored hull. A blaster salvo missed the Kestral, checking the sensors again... my transversal is too high. Opening navigation... Ordering a direct approach at full speed.. the Incursus shudders as the afterburner kicks in again.
Suddenly, the Kestral explodes, inundating the sensor's with static. At the same time, the Rifter undocks, in a belated attempt to aid it's fallen comrade. Unheeding, the Rifter streaks towards me. As the Rifter gains CONCORD aggression, the Hobgoblin and blasters return fire.
The two ships enter a lethal dance, each attempting to maintain their optimal range and transversal. The Rifter enters armor, as does the Incursus. Suddenly, the Rifter scores a critical hit, stripping all the armor off of the Incursus.
Again, Lanissum orders a direct approach at full speed. In a race of who can do the most damage blasters will win if they can get close enough. Holes begin to appear in the Rifter's armor. Checking sensors again, the Rifter is actually losing huge amounts of hull integrity... but so is the Incursus.
As the Incursus reaches 35% integrity left, the Rifter explodes in a fiery display..."
Glistening with sweat, the kid eagerly searched the logs for more, he opened a more recent one...
"Myself, Kaz, and Lachesis set out for a roam in a Brutix, Rifter, and Thorax respectively. I had purchased this triple rigged Brutix from a corpie in need, as I don't normally like to rig ships.
As our home systems were devoid of activity, we set out deep into the battlefield of Black Rise. Our target system was well known for it's carebearish inhabitants. Anytime an outlaw entered the system, the entire corporation which inhabited it would dock up.
As usual, they followed this time honored tradition when my gang entered the system. We almost got a Raven in a belt, but were unable to get it this time. After ascertaining that everyone except ourselves was docked up, we decided to hit back at these carebears. We started to rat, in 'their' system.
The three of us were trying to pilot our ships through fits of laughter at the irony of carebears docked up while us pirates ratted. Eventually, a few others entered local. We managed to get a point on a Drake in a belt. We figured that it wasn't bait, since it was in a separate corporation.
We figured that, until our long range scanners began to light up. I immediately gave the order for my gang to warp out. I began the procedure myself, until I realized that the Drake had me pointed too. Realizing that there was no way we could destroy the well tanked Drake in the time allotted to me by fate, I ensured the survival of my pod.
To it's credit, it took the enormous enemy fleet some time to destroy the triple rigged Brutix."
The Boy checked his watch, and was alarmed at how long he had stayed there. Turning off the PDA, he turned towards the door, only to run into Lanissum.
