Death of a Shire Part 1

Crewman Mike Anderson looked down at his Flight Control display and confirmed that the Suicide Jockey had cleared the jump hole. The Jockey as most people had taken to calling her was a 12 gun 4,200 ton Shire Class Transport vessel that currently flew with the BAF Merchant Navy. Her Captain Bob McGee was mostly regarded as competent but with a habit of being a little too quick on the trigger. More than once McGee found himself in the commander of [Convoy] office answering questions such as why he felt the need to fire on the Kusari Transport in Rhineland Space “Captain, we have cleared the Magellan Jump hole.”

“Very good Mr. Anderson set course for Leeds, ahead cruise speed.” Responded Captain McGee he turned to his Operations Officer “Mr. Mendez please raise Leeds Approach Control and inform them of our….” he was suddenly cut off by his ops officer.

“Captain several unknown contacts are on an intercept course, engine signatures are Kusari.” Luisa Mendez hit several keys in rapid secession, “Confirmed Captain, 6 bandits closing all are identified as Kusari Chimaera Class heavy fighters. Sir, two of them appear to have Torpedo Tubes.”

Captain McGee’s next orders flew out with the speed that comes from much experience. “Action Stations, all hands to Battle Stations, Damage Control Protocols all Decks, Ops power up the main guns and transfer Tactical Control to the Gunner, Flight Control Defensive maneuvering Sequence McGee Alpha. Ops raise the Derby inform them of our situation and request some back up.”

The bridge lighting dimmed a bit as power was diverted to the main guns, in response the computer changed the lighting over from the normal bright white lights to a dimmer red glowing light. McGee punched a few keystrokes his control panel bringing up a few display screens in the back ground he heard his Operations Officer “ Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, HMS Derby this is Merchant Navy, Royal 55, Call Sign Suicide Jockey, We are under attack from multiple Kusari Fighters and require immediate assistance, Please respond.”

The sound of the cruise engines being disrupted brought McGee’s attention back to the impending battle, “Gunner….. Weapons Free blow these rice munching bastards out of the sky.”
“Aye Captain” was all the response that Crewman Apprentice Adams gave as he focused on his targeting displays. At 18 years old he was finishing up his first run as a brand new gunner’s mate on the Jockey. As the cross hairs of the site passed over the lead Kusari ship he depressed the button. A series of loud reports were heard throughout the ship as the Jockey’s 12 Type 4 Transport Turrets opened up. Hits were registered on the Kusari doing moderate shield damage.

The Suicide Jockey shook violently as she was hit several times by the attacking ship’s Disinfectors found their mark. “REPORT!” was all McGee yelled over the sound of his own guns still firing. “Walking hits all down the port side, Shields down to 70% but holding. We had to dump shield batteries to compensate for the hits. Damn those things hit hard. The Derby is dispatching a wing to assist their ETA is 2 minutes. Also [Convoy] Escort Musket 4 is enroute from the Newcastle Jump gate and will be here in 3 minutes.” McGee looked up at his ops officer, “Tell them to move their asses.”

The Jockey shook again, this time it was much more violent, McGee was thrown out of his chair and across the deck as he picked himself up his Ops called out. “Torpedo Impact” and as if to emphasize the point the computer called out “Shield Deactivated.” And then just as quickly “Shield Activated” as Mendez hit the button to dump the shield batteries to reinforce the shields. “Captain” she called out, shields down to 20%, all Shield Batteries are drained. No Hull damage. I hate not having a CM dro…. Torpedo inbound Starboard Aft.”

“Flight hard to Starboard” the Captain called out as he hit the intercom button on his arm rest “Engine Room we need more speed out of the engines.” The big Shire was slow to respond but did manage to out turn the incoming Torpedo but unfortunately she exposed her underside to the 4 Kusari Fighters in formation coming in for their second pass. 700 meters the Jockey’s Gunner started shooting scoring hits on one of the fighters, at 500 meters the fighters opened up. The results of both actions were almost simultaneous one Kusari Fighter exploded as the other three scored several well placed hits. The effect of those hits was immediate, “Shield deactivated, Hull breech emanate” the computer called out, Ops hit the nanobot deploy in time to prevent a hull breech but not in time to prevent the engine explosion.

The explosion of the portside or number 2 engine was nothing less than spectacular. And the effects were felt throughout the ship especially on the bridge and in the engineering room. In the Engine Room, the energy feedback going from the engine the wrong way back to number 2 engine reactor caused the reactor to start to overload which cause the safeties to activate which cause the computer to automatically eject the reactor from the engine room to prevent a reactor explosion from destroying the ship. When the engine exploded several engineers were thrown about the engine room like rag dolls caught in a windstorm. When the reactor was ejected 3 engineers were sucked out with it. On the bridge the ejection of the reactor cause a power conduit to explode sending a 4 inch piece of steel across the bridge and imbedding itself in the back of the head of the Flight Control Officer. The exploding panel killed the Executive Officer outright. McGee hit the intercom button while still picking himself off the deck for the second time. “Engine Room Report!”