NaNoWriMo Day Six

Ok so Day Six and we get our first space battle scene - what do you think?

Here are the beats:

Chapter 5: A Fiery Welcome

1. The Retribution shuddered violently, and Jon steadied himself against the wall.

"What the hell is going on?" he shouted to Olivia over the comm system, Jon could hear the sound of plasma fire impacting the shields, and the faint hum of the weapons systems as the Retribution prepared to returned fire.

2. Jon raced up the stairs and towards the bridge, careening around corners and threw open the door to the bridge, and saw Olivia at the navigation console, a look of controlled fear on her face.

"I have multiple unregistered ships closing in on us, Jon, and they've opened fire!" she states.

3. Jon quickly made his way to the gunnery controls, strapping in and flicking switches. He could see the attackers on the targeting computer, just barely ahead of his targeting system.

"Open a comm link to the ships, broad spectrum broadcast, if they have any communications gear operating at all they'll pick it up." Jon says.

Olivia punched in the codes to make it happen, "Channel open, Jon."

4. Jon activated his comm unit, "To the unregistered ships firing on us, this vessel is a registered transport under the Federated Human Dominion Space Faring Doctrine, firing upon us is a violation of the Non-aggression Act of 2720, be warned we will return fire with lethal intent."

Olivia deftly rolls and banks Retribution, dodging relentless volleys from the fighters. She analyzes their attack pattern and feeds data to Jon's console. "No response, darling."

5. "That's ok," Jon says, "I was just covering our asses against any liability. The broadcast has been logged and retrieved by any ship within the quadrant. Now, when I blow these assholes out the sky, we're not liable for loss of life or damages."

As soon as Jon had finished speaking, Olivia banked the Retribution sharply to the left, dodging a volley of plasma fire from one of their attackers. She quickly analyzed their attack pattern and fed the data to Jon's console.

6. "Alright, here's the plan," Jon said. "If we can lure one of them in close enough, I can get off a clean shot and take it down."

He took aim and tried to time his shots between volleys from the enemy fighters. On his third try, he managed to hit one of them with a concentrated blast from his laser cannons. The fighter erupted in a brilliant fireball and then dissipated into nothingness.

7. "One down, two to go, darling!" Olivia shouted triumphantly as she banked the Retribution hard right to dodge another volley of plasma fire.

The remaining attackers intensified their assault on the Retribution, making her shudder under the pounding. "Shields at 60%, Jon! We can't take much more of this!" Olivia shouted over the noise of weapons fire all around them.

8. Jon clenched his teeth and wiped sweat from his brow as he lined up another perfect shot and fired again. This time it was a direct hit, vaporizing the second fighter in an instant. He grinned victoriously before turning all his attention towards the last attacker, which was now frantically trying to break away from their pursuit.

9. "Too late for that" Jon hissed as he pursued relentlessly after the target until finally it exploded in a fiery blaze, leaving nothing but debris behind in its wake.

---

And here is the rough drafted chapter - feel free to offer comments, suggestions and snide remarks:

Dressed in clean clothes, shorts, and a tank top, Jon Savage made his way to the Retribution's small but well-designed sickbay. Olivia was there waiting for him and quietly and efficiently tended to his injuries. She had him sit beneath a focused light and used her fingers to press and hold the open wounds closed as she passed along a fibro-bonder that mended damaged tissue. The process stung, but only for a moment. She also brushed on three skin hydrators, including one with a wide range antimicrobial protection, as he watched the white lotion spread under her hands.

Olivia slid her hand down his thick forearm, examining the scarred skin and hard muscle. The spongy tissue was torn near the muscle on the inside of his wrist, as though he had been gripping something with a great deal of force. She injected nanites into his veins. The tiny machines replicated themselves into thousands of copies until there were enough to do the healing job. They worked quickly, repairing torn ligaments in under a minute, reattaching severed vessels to keep fresh blood flowing through them freely. Jon stared at her beautiful face as she worked on him. He thought about everything that had happened earlier, and guilt weighed heavy on his mind.

She studied his face and answered his unasked question, "Yes, you could order me to indulge all of your wildest desires, but that would only occur on your command."

She shifted to ensure her eyes were locked on his, "I was freely and willingly offering my support and comfort as a means to strengthen our emotional bonding. I would have enjoyed our intimate time together as much as you."

Jon nodded, "Thanks for explaining your intentions. Can we table this discussion for a later date, for a time when we can both be aligned on expectations?"

He gave her slender hand a squeeze, "Does that sound reasonable to you?"

"Of course darling," Olivia stated with a smile, "I'm here when you want or need me."

"Noted," Jon said. He flexed his forearm a few times, surprised at how quickly the nanites did their thing. "Good work, this feels good as new."

"The nano-tech will ensure the tendon doesn't tear again, I could enhance your other joints if you'd like?"

Jon shook his head, "Been there done that. Day one of Special Forces training forced bio-genetic augmentation. Without that, the cat creature would have ripped my arm clean off. Every enhancement has a cost, strength limits speed, and speed limits endurance. I'm good as is, but thanks."

"Understood, however, those were mass-produced generic processes, based on a century-old technology. Modern enhancements are much more reliable and individualized."

"Like I said, I'm good as is. Why don't you go check on Riddle? Maybe hose him down, I'm sure he stinks like I did. Then offer food and water, but nothing more. He is our prisoner, not a guest."

"Consider it done, darling."

"I'll be in my rack if you need me."

Olivia started to walk away, then turned back, "And what if I just want you?"

Jon smiled, "Like I said, I'll be in my rack if you need me." Savage stood and left to get some rest. But his thoughts lingered on Olivia. There were still many questions to unravel about his enigmatic new robotic partner. Was that even the correct term, robotic, they had combat units in the Galactic Marines, simple blocky robots that would carry supplies and act as moving shields. Jon never really gave much thought about how they might have felt about any of that. Did those androids have protocols like Olivia, did they have personalities that he just didn't bother to interact with?

Savage made his way back to his cabin, as he descended the stairs he could hear Jericho swearing up a storm as Olivia used a hose and cold water to spray him down. That brought a smile, she was good at following orders. Or was that just a suggestion, and had she decided to hose the man down on her own? After all, Jon had merely suggested washing the man down, that wasn't a direct order.

The big bounty hunter's head spun too many questions, too many vagueries. He like a straightforward problem and straightforward solution. He keyed the door and moved inside, the lights flipped on as his heat signature was picked up by the room's sensors. The walls and floor warmed to take the chill of deep space off, and he flopped on the bed.

"Lights," he said. "Deep rest mode, five and half hours. Soft piano jazz, from an era long since gone, began to play and in seconds Jon Savage was sound asleep.

Jon woke as the Retribution raged like a caged beast as multiple plasma blasts pelted its hull. Savage leaped out of bed only to stagger forward as the ship groaned again. He bounded out of his cabin, gripping the steel railing of the corridor in an effort to remain upright. The skeletal frame of the ship rocked against the onslaught, and his knuckles turned white from the tension he exerted to keep hold.

"What in the Seven Hells of Sis Tolon is happening?!" he shouted through the comm system to Olivia at the navigation console.

"I have multiple unregistered vessels closing in on us, Jon! They've opened fire!" Her words were sharp and snapped with urgency as they rolled off her artificial tongue.

The crackling sounds of plasma fire impacting the ship's shields and dispersing across the hull echoed through the vessel, followed by the hum of the ship's automated defense weapons system powering up and coming online.

Jon raced up the stairs to the man deck. He poked his head into the hold and looked to Jericho, "More friends of yours?"

Jericho shook his head, "No man, if they were my people they wouldn't be trying to kill us all."

Jon shrugged, "Maybe you're better off dead to them."

The arms dealer slumped, "That sounds about right."

"Stay put," Jon said as he bolted toward midships and the bridge.

"Like I have a choice," the criminal said, lifting his restraints.

Jon didn't respond, he was too busy accelerating into a full-on sprint through the narrow halls, his heart hammering against his chest like a fist pounding on a door. He flew around corners, feet skittering across the metal plating on the floor, desperation driving him on. Finally, he burst into the bridge, he found Olivia intently focused on her screens.

"Jon, what can I do?" Olivia asked, her visage calm while she maneuvered them out of harm's way again. Plasma bolts sizzled close enough to the hull to make it ping. "I have scanned the ships, they are not drones and I have protocols to go by here, I can not willingly harm a living being."

"Just fly the ship," Jon said, wasting no time as he charged to take a seat at the gunnery controls, strapping himself in and flipping switches with experienced ease. His eyes combed through the targeting computer’s readout before settling on their assailant’s sleek ships just beyond the range of his reticle. "Focus on evasive maneuvers, just keep them off us."

"I can do that," Olivia said with conviction.

"Good. Open a broad spectrum broadcast to those vessels," he said without hesitation, "if they have any functioning communications equipment they'll pick it up."

Olivia's nimble fingers tapped frantically across her console until finally confirming, "Channel open, Jon."

Jon activated his comm unit, his voice firm, and commanding. "To the unregistered ships firing on us, this vessel is legally registered as a transport under the Federated Human Dominion Space Faring Doctrine. Firing upon us is a violation of the Non-aggression Act of 2720. Be warned, we are considering your actions as unprovoked hostility, and we will return fire with lethal intent."

Olivia expertly rolled and banked the Retribution, dodging relentless volleys from the nimble enemy fighters. She analyzed their attack pattern and fed real-time data to Jon's console. "No response, darling," she reported, her voice tinged with frustration.

"That's okay," Jon replied, his eyes locked onto the pursuing enemy. "I was just covering our asses against any liability. The broadcast has been logged and retrieved by any ship within the quadrant. They have been marked as pirate vessels. Now, when I blow these assholes out of the sky, we're not liable for loss of life or damages."

As Jon spoke, Olivia executed a precise maneuver, banking the Retribution sharply to the left, narrowly evading a deadly volley of plasma fire from one of their attackers. She quickly analyzed their attack pattern again and fed the data to Jon's console, enabling him to anticipate their movements.

"Alright, here's the plan," Jon said, determination in his voice. "You keep doing what you are doing, send me the nav tie-ins and I'll do the shooting. Will that violate your protocols""

"Only if you tell me your intentions," Olivia shot back.

"Got it, plausible deniability," he said with a hint of sarcasm. "Bring us on mark 2.14, I'll fire a few warning shots."

"Adjusting course," she knew Jon's plan was risky, but her programming allowed for trusting his declaration, as long as she didn't run her voice pattern software to check for falsehoods.

The ship spun on its axis, rotating and diving to follow the closest attacker. Jon waited as the smaller fighter centered in his view screen, then fired three rounds of burning white plasma. The first went over the other ship's cockpit, a warning shot, as promised. The other two tore into its hull, blasting through its shields and ripping it to pieces in a ball of flame and debris.

Savage shrugged, "Oops, how unfortunate, I seem to have miscalculated."

"Jon," the android said, "less narration please, I'm doing everything I can to suppress my bullshit meters."

"Noted. Course change, Mark 1.88." The ship groaned as it spun about hard, the hull creaking with dangerously high tension. Space was zero grav, but momentum was still a force to be reckoned with.

The second and third gunships came into view, they ducked and dodged but were trying a bold move of playing chicken. They mistakenly thought the Retribution had only long-range weapons. Jon smiled switched to laser turrets and ripped them both to shreds as they flew head-first into his barrage of laser fire. The powerful beams punched holes through the smaller ships' weaker shields and perforated them from stem to stern.

"Course correction, Mark 3.95, full acceleration."

Olivia obliged, and the Retribution banked hard yet again and the acceleration nailed them both into their chairs, only the stabilizing dampeners kept Jon from blacking out under the force.

The final fighter had turned tail and was bugging out, but Jon had named his ship the Retribution, not the Forgiveness. He switched back to long-range weapons and fired, striking the fleeing ship in the engine ports, the spun and tumbled dead in space.

"Docking maneuvers," Jon called out. "Let's have a word with our aggressors."

Olivia slowed the Retribution and swept out wide to about, just as she did the small fight craft erupted in a ball of light and shrapnel.

"That was a self-detonation," she said. "He blew his engine core once he realized we were coming about to dock with him."

Jon nodded, "That kind of blind loyalty only comes from one of two things; fanaticism, or fear."

"Which do think it was darling," Olivia asked.

"In the end, it really doesn't matter much. What does matter is that we now know that whoever is in charge, the people following them would rather die than piss them off. And that makes things way more complicated."

"Understood," she replied.

"What's our ETA to the jump point?"

"Thirty-three minutes at current speed."

"Push it, the sooner we get that guy out of our hold and into General Millmore's hands the better I'll like it."

"Twenty-one minutes," Olivia announced.

"Good, I'm headed back to my rack, wake me if there are any other problems."