Chapter 2
Bronlux checked every defense system to see what was functioning. All turrets were down, the hanger was destroyed, meaning he couldn't hope to escape or dogfight the enemies. The infantry quarters and communications were down, so obviously no chance of support, and he couldn't hope to defeat all the space pirate ground troops that were about to land AND all the ships.
In short, things looked bleak.
Bronlux flicked up his visor and threw in some chewing gum to calm his nerves. There must be some kind of weapon the space pirates don't know about here, he thought. He looked at the history files of the base, hoping for some information. Yes! Years ago, this used to be a research base. He searched the history files for the word "weapon" and only found one item. Many years ago the scientists of the base had been researching a weapon called the "shock cannon", a weapon designed to take energy off of enemy ships and power whatever it was mounted on. They had managed to mount it on a turret but the project had been abandoned because the turret had a tendency to overheat. Screw that, Bronlux thought, it's the only weapon I got here. He tapped a few buttons on the computer and managed to get the turret to pop out of a silo it was hidden in and managed to boot it up from the computer. Alrighty lets see what I can do here. One of the space pirate shuttles had noticed the turret, and had turned round to face it. If Bronlux could see the space pirate pilots face, it would have been one of puzzlement. This turret looked different than the others, and they had managed to destroy the rest. Bronluxs' fingers continued dancing about the keyboard. He'd have to do this quickly. He pressed enter and the shock cannon began to fire. A bright arc of electricity blasted out of the cannon and into the shuttle. Yes!
The shuttle rocked and swayed from side to side as its energy was slowly drained. The turret was gaining power. The shuttle exploded with an ear-shattering roar and remnants of the hulking wreck ploughed into the ground.
There was no time to lose. Bronlux quickly turned the turrets attention onto the second ship and started attacking. Again the arc of lightning blasted from the cannon into the enemy ship, which was charging up its beam cannons at the time. Too late. Again, the shuttle exploded and crashed into the last shuttle just as the turret overheated. Bronlux felt like cheering, but there was not enough time. Space pirate ground troops had obviously landed in the time that the shuttles were hovering above the courtyard, and they needed taking care of. He couldn't fight them all off with his federation issue pistol, and the armoury was at the other side of the base.
Guess I'll just have to sneak my way there, Bronlux thought cheerfully, still happy from his victory, as he strided out the door.