Phoenix Free

1: Phoenix

1.1 - ORA

"Spot to starboard, charge up the broadside and line up the gunboats," Captain Ora Rayder shouted over the noise of the maindeck. "Then flag up the mainsails and take us into the scrum."

"Aye captain," her first mate, Goteck M'Dxz, replied from her left before parroting the commands to the rest of the deck in his throaty roar.

The maindeck was always alive with activity during a fight.

Although it was relatively small compared with the rest of the ship it buzzed with activity as the Phoenix's crew did their best to keep her in the air.

Ora's job was relatively simple - all she had to do was man the main navigation station, directing the ship in one direction or another, and barking orders to the crew depending on the situation that faced them.

At that moment, it was a private couriership and three gunboats, which according to the ship's DEL scanner had formed a protective wall around the couriership soon after they had noticed the Phoenix's trajectory - towards them at full speed.

"If you don't mind my saying, captain, into the scrum?" Goteck rumbled.

Ora grinned as she felt the rear thrusters kick into life shaking the hull around her.

"You heard me - the ram can take it," she replied. "Prepare to fire the forward cannon and launch air support. They'll scatter."

Goteck raised what served as his eyebrows at her, one set of eyes on the consoles around him and one set on her.

"You sure?"

"Always."

Ora grasped the wheel in front of her and turned it rapidly, lining up the reticule on the terminal in front of her so it locked onto the courier ship.

"Fire forward cannons!" Goteck roared. "Get Drey in the air now."

Ora smiled as the ship rattled again as the main cannons burst into life. One of the gunboats on her terminal lit up red for a moment and then went dark as the ship's signature went hot as fire and then as cold as the abyss in a split second.

"Air support launching," a navigator to her left, one of the waifs she had picked up when they were last in port whose name she thought was Dwight, said. "Commander Drey is in the air."

Ora watched the console to her left as the launcher tubes emptied one by one.

1.2 - DREY

Commander Eten Drey was pushed back into the cushioned but worn seat of his gunship as it was launched away from Phoenix and towards the mess of shipfire ahead.

At his rear was the rest of his support in three other gunships.

"Form up," Drey said over all channels. "Abarro, Su, take my six. Kalibra, up front with me."

The radio squawked in his ear as a female voice laughed.

"Two-two?" Kalibra said. "You've got nae imagination boss."

Drey barrel rolled to avoid a bit of stray shrapnel from the one gunboats the Phoenix had already blown to pieces using the main cannon.

The railgun had tore through the gunboat's shielding and hull like a knife through butter, but now the Phoenix was without teeth for at least a minute whilst the gun recharged, with only its secondary gatlings for support.

That was where air support came in.

"You don't need imagination here, Kal, just focus and skill," Drey scorned palyfully. "In and out quick, don't get cocky."