“Only as a last resort Tylen, but keep your eye on that other launcher and use your own discretion, the main thing is not to endanger the Ore Hound. That goes for you too Yasmin.”

"That I can shoot them?" Yas quips over the comms and chuckles.  Something tells her that whatever the guys brought did not pose that much of a threat, for some reason.  Perhaps the fact that so far only one of them had fired and it did take its time to reach them, if it even would.

"What did those guys have?  Slingshots?" she wonders where she sits watches her screens.  "I should have taken my new toy out and cleaned the planet.  Maybe I'd been a hero and been lavished with precious goods and nubile young men..."  She laughs out loud where she sits at the thought.

Tylen, checks the targeting and tracking systems to make sure it has recognised all of the potential weapons in the area, then leaves the sand on automatic deployment so that anything launched will be countered immediately.

"Are they one shots?" he asks unaware of the precise model of the launchers used, "If nothing else we should go and ask them to refund the cost of the sand canisters ..."

The projectile streaks towards Profit Margin, but as the ship starts to move through a sequence of rapid vector changes the weapon does not adjust it's course to compensate... then the cannister launched by Tylen pops and dispenses its cargo of polished ceramite microbeads.  There is a flare as the "sand" reflects the sunlight, and then an explosion as the projectile flies into the spray of tiny, fast moving particles... followed by the ship's computer tracking a lot of smaller objects spreading out from the detonation and falling towards the ice on ballistic trajectories.

"I'd say they'd be lucky to hit us if we were still parked down below," Yas says over the crew comm with a drawl, then she chortles.

"Lucky for them, I suppose," she says to herself and shakes her head.  These guy must not deal with ships very often, if at all.  Dumb rockets against a ship, at best they would just annoy the crew for having to repaint the ship.  Well, almost, any way.

Unaware of the current situation beyond what she monitors, Shui continues preparing Medbay, on the off chance that the violent maneuvers through which the ship has passed will prove insufficient.  She doubts it, given Yasmine's running commentary, but better safe than sorry.

Besides which, it keeps her mind off what might come next.  At least they've removed the ship from the planet's surface; that means it's unlikely the Profit Margin will have to return fire.

Assuming the criminal cartel doesn't have a handy communcation link with spacefaring raiders.  She has seen such before - on-planet organized crime sharing the take from pirate activities, the planet-bound people providing proper information on targets for the pirates.

Ash remains silent on the bridge listening to the chatter, but no partaking.  He keeps busy, trying to keep an eye on the external feeds and the enemy as well as double-checking (and triple-checking) the ship status and trajectory as the co-pilot and navigator.  Enemy fire.  Traffic control.  Engine performance.  Trajectories and route plots.  Some many things to keep track of - so, little time.

Quiet vigilance is the name of the game for him at this point.  He taps at his console, silencing the audible proximity alert, though the red flash of visual warning remains - as does the danger.

He glances at Jago to make sure that the Captain is doing all right.  And then back to his console.  And then up at the various tactical displays.

Tylen hums along to some indeterminate tune as he checks the turret's auto defence settings.

"I think they are lucky that I know about the launchers when I was outside with the lascarb." Tylen responds to Yas's banter on the crew channel.  "Although, if we ask nicely, Jago might take us down again and then their luck would change ..."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:54, Sat 13 July 2013.

The attacker who had fired the rocket lowers his weapon and makes no effort to shoot again.  Perhaps the weapon only holds a single projectile.

The thug with the second weapon holds fire, but the feeds from Ash show that he is trying to track the ship as it moves, obviously learning from his companion's inaccurate aim...

The external comm channel activates, and Jockram's voice fills the bridge, "Hey, Profit Margin, why didn't you tell us you were having a party tonight?  We'd have been happy to join in."

An alarm sounds, and a target reticle appears over Ore Hound, along with a datastream which indicates that the mining ship is starting to lift.  Jokram chuckles, "Watch this."  On the monitors, Ore Hound stands up on her tail with her nose pointing to the sky.  Probably just coincidence that this brings her turret, with its mining laser, to bear on the group of attackers, several of whom are still getting back to their feet, as she continues to climb slowly.  A 30cm spot of laser light dances across the ice, not intense enough to do any damage, but touching each man in turn...

Now the man with the second rocket launcher has two targets to choose from.  One is slower and closer, while the other is faster, moving erratically and further away.

+ Collision alert! +

Looks like the guy with the remaining rocket launcher has picked a target...

"So much for a nice easy frelling run straight up to orbit." Saskia grumbles as she monitors drive operations from her station in Engineering.  From the way Jago's throwing the ship about, judging by the wildy variable thruster output readings, she can only assume that somebody's shooting at them.

Which is not a good thing.

She starts transferring power from non-essential systems, like hot water and galley services, to more vital areas, like inertial dampers, weapons and ECM arrays.  Then she thinks twice about the galley.  It honestly wouldn't surprise her if Shui were, even now, busy ensuring that everybody has snacks and hot beverages.

Instead she drops the lighting by fifty percent in the areas of the ship least likely to be occupied.

"Jago.  I managed to squeeze a little more power out for you."

The warning draws Tylen's attention and he reacts as quickly as he can.

“Nice moves Jockram,” Jago grins as the other ship performs it’s spectacular lift, “I guess I’m not getting out of that dinner invitation quite so easily.”

Jago continues to jink and in an effort to throw off the second missile, though the first didn’t seem to have guidance.

“Thanks Saskia, you’re a diamond.”

OOC
Only 9 for the pilot roll this time, that’s just 1 off of snake eyes  :O(

This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Sun 14 July 2013.

Despite Saskia's optimistic thoughts, Shui has yet to reach the point of preparation of snacks.  Instead, she completes her work on Medbay, a machine-like series of tasks concluded step-by-step.  Inside, her mind races, desperately attempting to analyze every movement of the ship, every shift, every shudder.

It's impossible; she doesn't know ships the way Jago and Saskia do.  But that doesn't stop her from trying.

Finished, she snatches up her portable equipment (ie, 'black bag') and heads to the door.  The galley offers decently quick response to most areas of the ship, so it's best she stays there during this wild ride.  After all, it's not like the artificial gravity has cut out or anything of the sort, so she doesn't have a problem moving around while the ship is under Gees.

Ash grimaces when the alert sounds and braces himself in his chair, instinctively checking the snug fit of his five point harness.  As best he can, he tries to push the tracking feed and trajectory path of the rocket - especially relative to both the Ore Hound and the Profit Margin, concerned that either will be hit.  He does push the audible alert to the background lowering the volume now that the initial warning has been given.

The Margin's navigator works in grim silence as this is deadly serious business.  He barely notices any dimming lights, as Ash work feverishly on his end to give the rest of the crew as much information as possible:  Jago needs it for piloting, Saskia needs information for what to divert when, Yasmine and Tylen in the turrets needs the information for proper countermeasures, and Shui will need to know where to be if and when someone is hurt.  So, all he does is keep his head down and his course corrections calculated and plotted.  And his mouth shut - pressed into a thin, white line actually.

"Yeah, if they haven't got any brains they might even meet us when we land!  I mean, less that they have proven to have so far," Yas replies with a chuckle to Tylen.

With little else to do she keeps a close eye on all the screens, including that of the ship's status, just to be on the safe side.  Seems Saskia is tossing around power, but nothing crucial.  Hot cocoa is still available.

The second rocket leaves the launcher, and a split second later another cannister of sand, prepared by Tylen is jettisoned from its own launcher aboard Profit Margin.  The new rocket, like the first, seems to lack any real guidance system.  But launcher seems to be in the hands of a more capable operator.  It streaks towards Profit Margin, which is, after all, the target he was brought here to deal with... but only briefly, as Jago's rapid course shifts inevitably result in the rocket's fixed course proving wholly inadequate.

The cannister bursts open to release its cloud of fast moving particles, and just before they collide with the projectile its drive cuts out.  Seems as if this particular ordnance lacks range as well as guidance.  Even so, it still explodes as it makes contact with the hail of ceramite beads...

On the ground, the men targeted by Ore Hound's laser seem to be scattering, clearly not realising that unless they can put a horizon between themselves and the ship, they can not get out of range of the weapon while remaining on the planet.  Ore Hound itself continues to climb, as Jockram reports, "Banster says our friends are in radio contact with their bosses.  I've got a fix on them.  Might pay them a visit later and burn their house down.  Patching the coords through to you now, in case you want to go scare them a bit."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:15, Tue 16 July 2013.

"Roger that, Ore Hound" Ash chirps into the commlink to the other ship.  "Thanks for the gift." he adds after a moment spent verifying the data dump, "I'll talk to the captain and the others about continuing to share and spread the wealth."  He mutes the Profit Margin's end of the link to cut down on the cross chatter.

He pushes the coordinates to Jago's piloting console, the main tactical display with the local planetary display, and to the gunner's stations for potential targetting purposes.  ++Uploading coordinates now...++ Ash narrates into the common crew channel.  The Margin's navigator notes from his sensor and topology analysis, "It appears to be a smaller dome.  Either a commune or possibly an industrial or manufacturing facility."

"Should I plot a course for intercept, Captain?" he prompts Jago.  To be honest, Ash is already running some of the preliminary numbers in his head.  He knows, what sort of course correction calculations would be involved given the timeframe and their current trajectory...

"What do you say, boss?  Shall we drop them a little something-something?  At the very least, empty our waste storage tank on top of them?" Yas calls out towards the bridge from where she is sitting, appearing eager to leave at least something to remember them by.

"or maybe we could see if a laser would weld the door of that smaller dome shut?" Tylen comments.  He still keeps an eye out for enemy ordnance, although he knows that the ship's systems will warn him before he spots anything -  but his fingers work on the data screens as he tries to find information on the smaller dome.

"You and your lasers!" Yas laughs and leans out a bit towards the bridge to shout, "Mr. Laser-britches!"

"What they need is a good size plasma ball rolling over their lawn, if they have one.  Or in their pool or whatever bad boy have on this godforsaken ball!" she insists and laughs some more.

"Although, perhaps, a missile.  That would be poetic justice and no one could complain if we returned their intended present." he quips back.

Jago can’t help but grin at the suggestions for bloody, or at least messy, retaliation, they are all very appealing under the circumstances.

“Sorry people, we’re heading straight to orbit, for now at least,”, he says, easing the Profit Margin back towards the course originally provided by Ash, “I shouldn’t think those bad guys are sole occupants of that dome and I won’t risk attacking innocent people, even if it is only with the ships waste.”

Still, Yasmin has peeked his curiosity and he opens a private link to the ships Engineer.

“Saskia, Yasmin suggested that we dump the ships waste tanks on the thugs on the ground, I don’t intend to do so but wondered, is that even possible?”

Saskia laughs aloud at Jago's question, "Well usually when we land at a port we have the tank pumped out as part of the service."  She runs some diagnostics as she explains the system to Jago, "They hook up fuel, data links, water and sewage lines.  Only not everywhere has services.  Like here, for instance -- no services at all.  And we spent a week in Jump, then had a little holiday in orbit while we waited for the storm to wear itself out." 

The numbers are routed to Jago's panel as the Engineer keeps talking, "So, as you can see, the effluent tank is unusually full just now.  Not dangerously full, just about half way.  It needs to be emptied about once a month, but most ships, including this one, do it every time they put into a port.

"But, and this is the interesting part, not every ship lands somewhere on a regular schedule.  Like Ore Hound.  I bet she's out for frelling weeks on end when she hits a vein of something valuable.  So all ships, including the Margin have an ejection system for dumping sewage in space.  But it will work just as well on the ground.  Or hovering over somebody's house.  But to do it in an atmosphere I'd have to accidentally disable three different safety systems and two alarms, which would take me all of fifteen seconds."

She suddenly starts laughing again.  "I suppose if we dump all that dren on them, we'll see if they're the half-empty or half-full types."

The two ships continue to ascend, and are soon beyond the reach of any weapons apparently possessed by the local "respectable business interests".  A successful escape, with no casualties on either side.  Except for Hegerich who, according to Jockram, had laughed so hard at the attack that he'd made his stomach hurt...

Their courses converge slightly, so that by the time they reach low orbit, about 1200km above the surface of Rangent, Profit Margin and Ore Hound are only twenty metres apart.  The orbit is tight, and the two ships will complete a circuit of Rangent every seventeen minutes.  While not entirely stable, it should be more than sufficient for the time the two captains intend to spend here.

"Well. that was about the most fun I've had since getting here." Jockram says over the comms, with a chuckle.  "What were they launching?  Some sort of bird scarers?"

"I've a good mind to use the laser to carve rude names in the ice around their base every time we pass over it, just to show them that they shouldn't mess with visiting ships."

Tylen grins as he hears Jockram talk about burning graffiti around the building, then chips in with "Perhaps we should draw concentric circles around it - a bit like a target?" he suggests, and everyone can hear the grin in his voice, "Start a couple of hundred yards out and work in closer." he says leaving the impression of  working in towards the real target.

he pauses for a moment, then adds "We could take it in turns - halving the distance each time.  Looser is the first one to singe the building?  Looser pays for the beer?" He asks casually, half expecting Jago to step in  and veto the game.

However, his fingers flick across his console as he works on settings for the targeting systems.