The shields screeched under the laser fire of the Cobra. 70% left. A Cobra, for gods sake. Impossible to outrun. But he had a mission.
"Full manual." he told at his ship. The computer disabled the flight assist and modified the control setup slightly to give the pilot better control over his thrusters. Again a strike of the burst lasers. The shields got weaker again and the display showed a 47% charge left. He pulled the controls and his Eagle ever so slowly started to turn around, still keeping its original trajectory. Slowly it drifted to leave the mass lock of the outpost he just launched from, and started to point towards his hunter.
"Drop your cargo, Commander, and you have a chance to survive." The Cobra reacted to his maneuvre, and to avoid getting in his line of fire it started to drift aside. That bought him at least a few seconds in which the enemy could not target him, too. "No way", he whispered to himself. A flick of small switch on his control stick let the white Eagle open its weapon bays and energize his lasers.
He murmured "I will get that freight to Earth. And you won't hinder me." and to his ship: "Open a channel." The ship's computer initiated a communication link to the Cobra. While he waited for that, the pilot gave his Eagle a small spin. The attacker should not yet see the insignia on his right wing, that would give away his pilots federation combat rank. His faked transponder surely won't. A slight chirp confirmed that the voice link was established.
"Please, I have a family at home and need to care for my children. I really need to deliver this transport. I have a spare container of Fish I could offer you, but please let me keep the rest. I will defend." He almost laughed about his naive feint. Of course no prirate ever would fail for that, but chances were that the attacker would have a hard time to predict his next move.
The Cobra managed to drift along his side, and accelerated in the direction of his escape vector. This would have the other ship accompany him for much longer than he would have wanted to. One or two more seconds, and the Cobra would get his rear in its line of fire again. He cut the comm-link and put all power into his thrusters, and pulled hard. Now in his optimal velocity range, the Eagle much more quickly finished his turn - and fired.
The energy of all three beam lasers hit the shields of the Cobra on a single spot, creating a film of plasma that burned blueish around the attacking ship. The Cobra unleashed it burst lasers again, but as the shields of the Eagle dropped to about 20% the shield cells engaged and recharged them again. Still on the trigger. The protective shield around the Cobra collapsed under the intense heat of the beam lasers and immediately they started to scorch through the thick hull of the vessel. The spin of both ships now brought them ecactly vis-à-vis with the sun throwing its light on the upper hulls.
ELITE. The emblem on the Eagles hull reflected the sunlight directly into the cockpit of the attacker. He chose the wrong target. The lasers deflagrated the
snakes armor and pinched through the thruster control unit. Even before the Cobra started to spin away uncontrollable, the Eagle turned back onto his original trajectory and charged his frameshift drive while the overheated beam lasers rectracted. In space, there is no medium for sound waves to travel through, and it was almost as if the Cobras computer taunted its pilot, as it played a silent 'whoof-popp' when the Eagle jumped out of the system.
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The thrusters worked hard as the ship slowed down its descent to the surface of Earth. The valley of the small river Kinzig was the destination in the middle of the Black Forest area. The area helt its name for throusands of years, and just changed little. The ship touched down on the small local starport, right beside another Eagle, painted in a vibrant purple.
Commander Jameson left his ship, and walked towards the purple ship. "Commander Nopileos?" he asked the other pilot. "Yes, that's the name. How can I help you?"
"Here is an invitation with two tickets for the Elite Meet in the city of Cologne next month. The pilots federation would be glad to see you there, Commander Nopileos." He handed over the envelope, and left Commander Nopileos stand there, bewilderd.
The white Eagle powered up his thrusters and started on auto pilot. Jameson reached to an inside pocket of his pilots suit. The next envelope to deliver, and the recipient was not far away at all...
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I hope you had fun and enjoyed the ticket delivery.
Yeah, I'd love to meet you in Cologne, and I hope this short thing above qualifies for me
