Twenty minutes...

Twenty minutes until the bogey will be close enough to touch.  Already the targeting system for the laser and missiles on Tylen's turret are indicating that the other ship is in range, but any gunner worthy of the name knows that the chances of actually hitting anything at that distance are so slim that it'd just be a wasted shot.

Saskia makes her way back to her engines, just in case.

A call comes over the intercom from the passenger section, Corlan DeSant requesting Shui's presence.

"Hey, Ditzy, er, Conrad," Yas calls over the intercom, "can you calculate the course of that thing, to see if it is headed for the gasball?  If it isn't, there's another piece in the puzzle."

She believes it to be a no peaceful trader, but every bit of info will help in making the correct decision.  Waiting too long would be dangerous and foolish, opening fire too soon and later find out it was a civilian would be worse still.

OOC
Sorry Shui, no access to RPoL and then a technical problem prevented me from posting yesterday.

“Deception?” Jago’s brow furrows as he struggles to recall the deception that Shui is referring to, then smoothes as a smile dawns, “oh, the indigestion thing, that hardly counts as getting scammed,” he chuckles, “ besides, your opinion is highly valued in any case, let me know if you see anything suspicious though.”

The captain gives his doctor a friendly nod when Corlan calls, he turns his attention back to his instruments, and swaps potential course information with the ‘Ore Hound’ to ensure that they will set off on divergent courses.

“Burn in three minuets from now,” Jago announces to Jockram, and his own crew, “but if the guy gets a target lock, don’t wait for me to tell you.”

“Conrad, use a tight beam to send data on the other ship back to Arkadia please.”

His own transmission, Jago sends on the general net, “this is the free trader ‘Profit Margine’ calling the unknown vestal approaching at sped, Identify yourself please, and state your purpose.” (OOC Jago will include the respective positions of the two ships in that call).
This message was last edited by the player at 22:18, Thu 21 Dec 2006.

Tylen listens to the last notes of the song before slipping a call through to Jago.

"Boss man, we have range on the bogey, although chances of success are pretty slim right now range is decreasing. Tell me as soon as you want me to go active and I'll get 'em locked."

His fingers hover over the controls....

"I am glad to hear, Captain Lanza," Shui replies, with a short bow.  "Should I...detect any sign of duplicity, I will be certain to inform you."  She quickly programs her dataglove to have a channel available to the intercom at all times.  A mere touch of a single holo-key, no menus needed, will call it.

She knows if something goes wrong inside, she might not even have that much time.  But it's a start.

"I shall keep out of your way, for the moment," she murmurs, moving back out of the cabin to the lounge.

The comm crackles into life, "Profit Margin, this is the freighter Harper's Dream, inbound for refueling."

Jockram's voice comes in on the other channel, cool and calm, "Got that.  We've been waiting to move since we saw them out there, we'll be ready when you are."

"Negative on that, Yas." Conrad drawls, as he scans the figures, "'less'n he changes course 'bout three minutes ago, there's no way he's goin' for gas."

"Well, he could be, I guess, if'n he's got the worst nav in the whole Imperium.  But he'd have to be real bad, an' drunk to boot, to be that much out."

"Thanks, always nice with confimation," Yas replies with a smirk that can be heard but not seen since she is in her little turret box, ready to fry the would-be pirates if it comes to that.

She makes one last check to make sure everything is working at optimal capacity and that the targeting system is good enough to shoot the party hat of a house fly at a click's distance.  It would not do to aim for the weapons and end up frying the cockpit instead.

It would be embarrassing.

Back in engineering, Saskia monitors the chatter with half an ear, while moving about and checking the power and drive systems.

Which is perhaps a little odd, since all the readouts are relayed to her main panel anyway.

Also a little odd is the way her fingers, oh-so-accidentally, brush against the housings of various pieces of the ship's vital equipment as she passes them.  Whether she's trying to reassure herself, or reassure the machinery, isn't absolutely clear.

She hears Conrad and Yas discussing the course of the other ship, and sighs.

"That's it then, best behaviour now, kids." she says quietly as she moves to strap herself into her seat at the main panel.  Behind her, the drives and fusion plant hum their promises to behave perfectly.

One minute: Shui makes her way across to Corlan's cabin and finds the man sprawled across his bunk, watching the feeds from the bridge displayed across the holographic window.  He seems happy enough as she enters, if a little nervous, "Miss Tiesi... is it possible you could prescribe our other guest something to calm her nerves.  Several times now, I've heard her howling and yelling, very loudly."

Two minutes: Conrad confirms that he has squirted all the data he can get on the other ship back to Arkadia.  She's still coming in at maximum thrust.

Three minutes: "Let's dance." Jockram says cheerfully.  Ore Hound immediately swings her nose ninety degrees to port, and her drives cut in at a full two gees of thrust, accelerating her away from Profit Margin.  Coincidentally, this gives Tylen a nice clear shot at her main thrusters, if he needs to take it.

Harper's Dream if that's her real name, doesn't look to be changing course...

With a grim smile wrapped around his unlit cigar, Jago launches the Profit Margin on its predetermined trajectory, taking it away from the ore hound and widening the angle from the Harper’s Dream’s course. The ship vibrates under full power, and Jago gleans almost as much information from the well worn pilots chair as he does from the instruments and flashing lights on his panel.

Instructions to the crew are superfluous now, they all knew just what they were doing and Jago keeps stum and lets them get on with it.

"Mr. DeSant."  Shui bows.  She's uncomfortable, but hides it well.  Lack of comprehension is a problem.  But this is still Corlan, and she can certainly get by.  A small smile appears at his words, and she shrugs.  "Our other passenger has some deep emotional attachments to this situation, I fear.  I strongly doubt she would accept any medical assistance at this moment."

She glances over her shoulder.  "We have other quarters free," Shui notes.  "If you like, I can set you up in one, far enough distant that you will not be disturbed."  Should have thought of that, Shui.  Foolish.

Corlan smiles, "No, I'm fine here, thank you, and her condition is perfectly understandable.  I was less concerned about the noise, and more concerned that, in her overexcited state, she might injure herself.  Or possibly make herself ill."

Keeping an eye on things at her end, Yasmine Crow was more going on her instincts than though at this time.  Start to think and you start to sink, it was all a matter of acting and reacting rather taking conscious decisions once it came down to actual combat, which of course was why you had to hammer it in through repitition until you lived and breathed it.

Still for the time being, she kept her mind alert and in control.  With some luck there would be next to no combat, but rather a quick and easy disabling of the enemy vessel.

Yeah, right.

Tylen activates the targetting computer and locks on to the approacing ship. Missiles and laser are both locked upon the area containing the drives as far as he can determine from the ship's original specification and the data he has gathered on it during the approach. He triggers the com to Jago,

"Bossman I have a lock on our visitor. Ready to fire."

With the target still at extreme range, an alert signal sounds on the Bridge and in each of the two fire-control stations.

"Of course, Mr. DeSant.  I believe that-"  But the alarm cuts her off.

Shui peers at the screen, frowns.  She dials up the magnification (not needing a big picture, like the bridge crew), and studies the fast-moving speck on the screen.  Is that...an inbound missile?

The doctor swallows heavily, and clutches her emergency medical bag.  "Please excuse me, Mr. DeSant.  I believe your excitement has arrived."  She hurries from her quarters, headed for the lounge where she can strap in within easy reach of both quarters and crew.

“We have incoming missiles, eta, four minuets, twenty seven,” Jago announces mater of factly, “there may be some discomfort as I adopt evasive manoeuvres, please take precautions when moving around the ship.”

“Do you have that Jockram?”

“Stand by with the sand caster Tylen,” probably an unnecessary remark, but better safe than sorry.

The Captain lets the missiles close a while, then the ride suddenly becomes very bumpy as the gravity compensators struggle to keep up with sudden, and unpredictable moves that Jago is adopting to try and confuse the missiles tracking systems.

OOC
Evasive manoeuvrings 17

Tylen fired the locked on missile, then calmly switched the fire control to the sandcasters. He held back on the Sandcasters until he was sure of a target.
He flipped the Com, opening the channel to Yas's turret.

"How good is that shotgun of yours on clay pigeons Jarhead?"

He left the channel open, and as the turret tracked the hostile ship, he prepared to line up another shot.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:53, Wed 03 Jan 2007.

"I had no idea clay pigeons had jars for heads," Yas replies with a surprised tone of voice, and leaves it at that.  In a few moments it will all be clear whether her aim is still good or not.

Locking onto the uncoming missle all she can do now is wait for the little pin to get within reach of her tweezers.  There was time yet to get her mind all around it, even though she would go on auto rather than manual, so to speak.

Time seems to slow to a crawl, minutes dragging past as the two missiles hurtle through the void.  Harper's Dream flares brightly across the displays as her pilot starts making short, random bursts with her lateral thrusters...

The missiles pass each other, less than forty kilometres apart, and Jockram's voice comes back over the comm, "Yep, we're tracking that, Profit Margin, and here's our little surprise for them."

The mining ship's laser pulses briefly, then, "Dammit Hegerich!  You missed!"

With the passing seconds, it becomes increasingly apparant that the incoming missile is locked on Ore Hound.  Jockram starts throwing the smaller ship through its own dance of Life and Death...

"I got it," Yas mentions casually and fires as the missle appears over the horizon of the ship as it rolls, both barrels.  No point in sparing the guns, after all, and like a shotgun, it is more effective when using both at the same time - or more, if you got one of those.

Even as she fires she feels in her gut that it will hit, and the next intant her gut is awarded with the silent explosion of a meeting between a missle and two bolts of plasma.  The former loses.

"That's one stiff one you owe me, so far, Jocky," Yas sends to the other ship with a chuckle as she turns to prepare herself and the guns for another action.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:13, Wed 03 Jan 2007.

Seeing that Yas is taking care of business, Tylen lines up the laser on the hostile vessel. The weapon was probably the least potent in the Profit Margin's arsenal, but it's long range was it's advantage. Allowing the computer to calculate the deflection he thumbed the firing button.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:34, Thu 04 Jan 2007.

"Tylen, I'm trying to get you a little extra power for the laser.  It should give you a bit more punch, for as long as I can hold it together."

Saskia turns away from the comm panel, and starts reconfiguring the ships EPS grid, stealing energy from anything that isn't vital right now.

She mutters, as she works. "Just a bit more from there, and here, and then reroute that through there."

OOC: Saskia Blake rolled 11 using 2d6+4. Reconfigure EPS.

The Profit Margin powers on through the inky blackness, taking a wide ark that will bring her eventually close to the quarry and on a converging course, Jago didn’t want to pass the other ship and end up flying in the opposite direction. Actually closing the gap was not a serious consideration, as the Harpers Dream had that aspect well covered, Jago was concentrating his efforts, and those of the drives that respond so readily to his fingertip commands, on maintaining an advantageous position for the long hall.

“Nice Yas,” he mutters as the missile evaporates in a ball of plasma.