Chapter Four
The Exchange vessel found itself targeted by Dusk Eclipse's more lethal armaments: a compact, dual-barreled, point-defense laser cannon mounted beneath its bow. The cannon released two red bolts that streaked toward the target vessel and impacted against its cockpit. The energy flashed and dispersed as the bolts were absorbed by the freighter's shields.
Within the cockpit of the target ship, the Captain had taken his seat in the pilot's chair, Durn laying upon his back at he tinkered with the ship's electronics systems. The blast rocked the ship, but it remained fully intact.
Point-defense cannons. Good for striking nimble targets. Not so much for taking down anything with heft. But when you're stuck in place, even the smallest bite can eventually chew through. What's hard is making sure a target stays stuck. Ion cannons do the trick. But they take power and time to line up a shot. Luckily, Arok had neither to risk wasting.
"Artificial gravity reinstated," Durn relayed. "Shield's up and at 45%... make that 42%."
"They won't last long. Divert them. Double front," the Captain commanded. "Lero, can we get this thing moving, yet?"
"Hyperdrive's completely offline. Even if I could get it working, we'd never escape Tatooine's gravity well before being scrapped," Lero explained.
"Sublight engines! Do they work?" the Captain shouted.
"Barely!" Lero shouted back.
"Then we'll make do. Durn, prepare to divert all shields to our rear on my mark. We're landing this thing," the Captain declared, placing his hands on the ship's controls. The vessel's engines lurched to life as its pilot spun the freighter around, back toward the desert planet. "Mark."
The Dusk Eclipse released a continuous volley of cannon fire as it pursued its fleeing target. Each connecting shot dispersed against the ship's shields, but the blasts shook and rattled the weakened vessel. Slowly but surely, the ship's defenses were waning. An exasperated grunt emanated from the man tinkering beneath the cockpit's central console.
"Damn it," Durn growled as he began gripping at the seal around his neck. Tugging his helmet, the crewman managed to pull it over his head and toss it to the floor, revealing his youthful Human visage. "If I'm going to die, I not going to do it half-blind."
Removing a hand from the ship's controls, the Captain gripped the seals at his neck and did the same, tossing the discarded helmet down the central corridor.
The best thing about the 'Slicer' maneuver: it left you with an air supply to enjoy.
Flying toward the surface of Tatooine, the ship had no chance of outmaneuvering the fast-tracking point-defense turret of the Dusk Eclipse. The cannon designed for downing starfighters was slowly chipping away at the defenses of the fleeing Exchange freighter. Shields were about to go offline, and the person occupying the pilot's seat could still see the entirety of Tatooine's curvature from their vessel. The Captain knew their chances were growing slimmer.
The entire vessel shook at the last series of bolts that impacted against the rear of the vessel.
"We've lost shields, Captain," Durn informed, his voice without all sense of urgency. In its place a morose realization.
Another series of hits wracked the ship's aft.
"Sir, they scored a direct hit on our engines!" Lero shouted.
"Are they all offline?"
"No sir, we've still got a few," Lero clarified.
"Then we still have a chance," the Captain declared. "There's nothing you two can do. Find a seat and strap in."
"Negative, sir," Durn stated. "You keep flying this thing, we'll keep it going as long as we can."
"You too, Lero?"
"Aye, aye."
"Should have known better than to expect you two to respect the chain of command," the Captain said as he forced a smile.
"All things considered, it's been an honor serving under you, sir," Durn commented from the floor. The vessel shook again, more violently than ever before.
"Damn it! That's it, final engine offline," Lero declared.
"We've momentum and gravity, we can do this," the Captain proclaimed. "Just got to stay in control."
"Sir, I'm sorry, there's no coming back from this," Lero commented. "Goodbye, Captain. It's been a pleasure."
The ship was drifting closer and closer to Tatooine, the formless orange ball being given definition as mountain and ridges came into view.
"That's enough, Lero. We're going to survive this. We're going-"
The entire ship rocked forward, driving the Captain's head into the vessel's dashboard. Things began to grow dark and cold. Durn slid forward and impacted against the solid foundation of the cockpit's console. Lero flew down the vessel's main hallway toward the ship's bow.
As the Exchange vessel continued its descent, fire and smoke emanating from its hull before being snuffed out by the vacuum of space, the Dusk Eclipse took pause. As the distance between the two ships grew, the intact vessel pulled away from the battered husk, content to let the desert consume it.
Passing through the planet's atmosphere, the smoking vessel fell toward the Dune Sea with no one at its helm. Nothing but the flowing hills of sand stretched below them in all directions. The Exchange vessel howled as it headed for impact. Finally touching the planet's surface, the speeding freighter skimmed its bottom against a highly piled dune before dipping and driving itself into the next. Kicking up an explosion of sand, when the particles settled, the vessel was buried face first in the middle of the Dune Sea.
The ship lay stilled, defeated, as the wind passed over it, carrying away the smallest amount of sand. Black smoke rose from the battered rear end of the ship, forming a charred pillar that stretched ever higher as time went on.
A few hours later…
The pillar of smoke emanating from the downed vessel had managed to catch some of the locals' attention. From beyond the horizon, a vehicle had traveled to investigate. A mobile structure. A crawler. The angled block of a vehicle stood taller than a standard cargo freighter and traveled upon belted treads.
The sand crawler parked itself a short distance away from the ship's wreckage. Settling itself, a large bay began to open, and a ramp descended upon the shifting sands. Small humanoids wrapped head to toe in brown, hooded cloths exited and began surveying the scene. Scavengers.
As the majority of the small beings investigated the wreckage, a small detachment stumbled upon a man half-buried in the sand. Turning him over, the man was garbed in a gray longcoat over a reinforced flightsuit. Upon closer inspection, he was unconscious, but alive.
As more and more of the scavengers poured over the broken freighter, a small group began to drag the unconscious pilot back to their crawler.
