Chapter 4
Hot Pursuit
Scanners clear…Scanners clear…
Scanners clear…
Scanners detect threat
Proximity: 200 meters
Weapons status: unknown
Velocity: Matched
Trajectory: Matched
Profile
Space Pirate SI-70 Mateus-class Interceptor
Known Armaments: 8 high-caliber quantum assault cannons
4 missile launch tubes
Possibility of Hidden Armaments detected
Shielding: High-power energy shield, stealth shielding
Summary: Issued only to high-ranking Space Pirate officials
Threat Warning: High
"Samus, I'm picking up something on the sensors… Space Pirate ship, Mateus-class. Somebody is following us. Someone important."
"What?" Samus pressed her hand to the communications panel. "Hunter to Messenger. Tsyr'llash, are you picking up anything on your sensors?"
"No… Ssssshhould I be?" Tsyr'llash's radio-distorted voice sounded concerned.
"Yeah, we're being tailed. He's got a stealth field, maybe your sensors can't see past it. OK, I'm switching control to weapons now…"
"Samus! Wait, you hothead!" Adam shut off the weapons panel as Samus reached for it. "Remember. Ask questions, then shoot."
"Shut up. He's a Space Pirate, no questions needed. Manual Override."
Adam winced inwardly as he lost control over the ship's weapons. "Samus, don't fire yet. This approach is different from the normal Pirate attack methods."
"Shut UP!" Samus armed the weapons and took the firing yoke in her hands, ready to give the Pirate ship a taste of the proton turret.
"Samus…"
Samus sighed, and threw her hands in the air. "Fine."
Just then, an alarm screeched through the cabin, and Samus hurriedly glanced at the sensor screen.
Missile Incoming..
"Shit!" Samus grabbed the control yoke and swerved the ship to the side, watching the missle scream by mere feet away from the ship. The missile curved around again in a second attempt to hit Samus, but overcompensated and spiraled off in the direction of Vweilu's atmosphere. It would burn up on reentry.
"Can I shoot him now, Adam?"
"Yes, please feel free."
Samus grabbed the weapons yoke again and sent a volley of high-energy proton fire in the direction of the Pirate vessel. "You're dead now, Pirate scum…"
Forcystus watched the missile fly past Samus's ship as she swerved out of the way. "Her reflexes are not exaggerated in the rumors. Engage, Lieutenant."
"Yes, sir…" Sephiter suddenly hissed out a curse and spun the ship out of the path of Samus's returning fire. "She means business."
"Return fire. Arm all missile launchers. Don't damage the ship, just hit her with a tracer."
"Yessir." Sephiter hit the throttle, kicking the black ship into a higher velocity and blasting toward Samus's vessel. Gripping the control yoke, he hit the missile launch button and sent a flurry of missiles at Samus's ship. Reacting to the new threat, Samus accelerated to match Sephiter's speed, then sent her gunship into a barell roll and a sideslip, confusing the missiles' targeting systems. As the missiles spiraled and swerved, attempting to catch up with the ship, two of them collided and exploded, triggering the other missiles in a chain reaction that created a fiery blast of clustered explosions and smoke that sprawled a black cloud over Sephiter's viewscreen. Not discouraged, Sephiter simply increased speed, shooting through the cloud of debris into clear space.
Samus's ship was nowhere to be seen.
Sephiter slammed his hand against the control board in his frustration. "Dammit! We lost her."
Wraythe's eyes suddenly widened as she gazed at her computer display. "No, we didn't."
The ship suddenly shuddered as a volley of laser bolts scoured across the hull. Several alarms went off as Wraythe fell off her chair and Forcystus clutched his chair to keep from doing the same. Sephiter clutched the control yoke and accelerated again, looking frantically at his sensors to locate Samus's gunship. She had managed to plant herself squarely on his tail, her proton cannons blazing away at their shields. She's good, Sephiter mused. If I don't do something, we're going to be space dust pretty soon.
"Sephiter? There's an asteroid field directly ahead." Wraythe indicated the cluster of space debris as she pulled herself from the ground and sat back in her chair.
"Avoid it. We don't want to take unnecessary risks…" Forcystus's tone was cautious. He knew exactly what Sephiter was thinking about doing.
"General, I can fly that. Trust me."
"Lieutenant…"
"If we don't do something, we're going to be fried."
Forcystus sighed. "I trust you, Sephiter. Go ahead."
Sephiter nodded and applied thrust on the throttle once more, boosting the ship ahead into the dangerous space debris. Large chunks of rock flew past, dangerously close to the ship as Sephiter decreased the speed. If even one of the huge asteroids so much as grazed the ship, they were dead. Of course, that went for Samus, too.
"Do you think she will follow us?" Forcystus asked.
"I wouldn't know… She's good…" Sephiter frowned.
"Does that answer your question, Seph?" Wraythe motioned to the rear viewscreen, indicating to Sephiter that a missile was streaking towards their ship.
"I'll lose it. Hold on tight." Sephiter accelerated again, shooting past several asteroids and curving toward a big one. "There." He drew the missile after him, shooting toward the rock. At the last second, he pulled back on the yoke, looping the ship around sharply and grimacing as the G-forces from the sudden turn plastered him into his chair, sending the blood rushing from his head. His ship shot out of the path of the missile, which slammed into the asteroid, detonating against the large rock. The force and heat of the blast turned the surface of the asteroid molten on impact, the shockwaves from the blast traveling through the rock, tearing it into chunks.
Sephiter's hand clenched the control yoke as he avoided the large fragments of space rock and the molten jets of liquid asteroid that spiraled and curled around the ship, dangerously close to tearing the hull apart. He glanced back at the immense cloud of rubble and dust that was left behind by the explosion, and a plan formulated in his mind.
It was time to turn the Hunter's tactic against her.
Samus watched the asteroid explode into thousands of pieces ahead of her, and saw the Pirate ship disappear into the cloud of dust. It would seem, judging by such a sight, that she'd got them.
"Adam? Are they dead?"
"No, Samus, sorry to break it to you. There are still life signals out there. We lost their ship's signal, though… Good luck finding them."
Samus swore under her breath and accelerated into the cloud of dust, her sensors straining to see past the huge mass of space particles. As she shot out of the other end, she realized too late what she had done.
Sephiter was fixed directly behind her, with her stern firmly in his sights.
"I ssssee, hhhim, Hhhhunter…."
Suddenly, the V'lla fighter popped out from behind an asteroid, opening up in a blaze of laserfire. Bolts of energy played over the Pirate interceptor's shields. The shields turned red as they collapsed, leaving the ship open to Tsyr'llrash's attack. Laser bolts pierced one of Sephiter's engines and tore off his starboard stabilizer wing. The doomed Space Pirate vessel slowed to a crawl as it struggled to maintain its trajectory.
His weapon systems, however, were still perfectly intact.
As he fired a missile, it was clear to Samus that she could not avoid it. She simply watched as the missile came closer, heart pounding in her chest. She was sure that the projectile would quite shortly blow her ship to bits.
A few feet from her ship, the missile exploded. Samus braced herself, preparing for the vacuum of space. If she was quick, she could use her Grapple Beam to catch onto the enemy's ship.
Nothing happened.
The missile spread into a cloud of tiny particles, which proceeded to settle over the hull like a fine dust. No damage was being registered to her sensors.
"Adam? What was that?"
"I don't know. Wait… I'm picking up a system invasion."
"What?"
"They're tracer programs of some kind. Nanotechnology. They're monitoring us."
"Kill 'em."
Adam didn't answer.
"Adam?"
"Sorry, Samus, I can't do that."
"Hit confirmed, General. We're leaking air fast, though." Indicators flashed red and yellow all over the cockpit, alarms blaring in Sephiter's ears. "I can't keep the ship stable for much longer."
"That may not be our only problem, Seph." Wraythe pointed to the viewport. The ships were turning back around to finish the Pirate interceptor off. In its present state, there was no way they would survive another strafing run.
"Take us to D-Space, Lieutenant." Forcystus's voice was low and soft; calm, but concerned.
"What? General, I don't know the status of our D-drive. We took a big hit there… we don't want to be lost in D-Space, sir…"
"We're going to die if we don't jump, Lieutenant. Take us to D-Space."
Sephiter swallowed audibly and pressed his hand to the D-Space panel. The universe faded around them in a blaze of energy as they vanished to the transdimensional plane, the emptiness of D-Space appearing around them.
Shock and fear spread throughout Sephiter's mind as the D-drive sputtered and died.