Here is part one of Chapter one, its just a bit smaller than the prolouge but that will change once the next parts are complete.
Enjoy.
Part two under the +++++++
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Chapter 1
The Hope was lumbering along with its escorts patrolling beneath the great ship, to passers by this was an unusual sight as normally a ships escorts patrolled at a distance and not up close and never so far below the ship.
In Hope’s briefing room the ships XO, a Colonel Matt Lines, was briefing the senior staff.
“Here we have the new High Velocity Projectile Cannon designed to be used on capital class vessels that can, in fifty percent of cases, pierce through shields and damage the hull directly.” He paused to let the ramifications of this sink in, “Unfortunately all this is theoretical, but we have been chosen to test this on a number of target drones being set up above our current route.”
Lex walks in late, again, ready to be berated by the Colonel.
“Nice of you to join us Lex, I hope your lie in was rewarding” scorned the colonel.
“I wish, I just finished your painfully long physical and mental acceptance tests, oh and I’m a Captain now” She said proudly.
“Congratulations, Captain, just make this the last time you're late for a briefing”
“Yes sir, can we please get on with this now?” she begrudgingly finished.
The colonel managed to hold back his irritation and continued while Lex tried to get one of the briefing packets everyone else in the room had.
“As I was saying, the targets being set up are numbered one to one hundred with the shielding and their overall hull strength increasing every tenth target. The tests are designed to see if the theories about the shield penetration rate are correct or based on the level of shielding up to the maximum of two 10GJ shields.” At this he realised that he couldn’t remember what came next and had to refer to the briefing packet “Ah yes, the cannons only use one of the two provided barrels in the standardized turrets, this also allows the turret to mount two of these weapons, if the turret is modified correctly.”
“If you will direct your eyes to the multifunctional display we will witness the test firing of all six top mounted turrets-“he was cut off by the condition one alarms or battle stations as the crew liked to call them.
The entire room of people exploded into a rush of movement except Lex who was unsure of where to go.
“Err – I’ll see what’s happening in the CIC.”
*
The Vault sector lit up in a massive number of Khaak ships jumping into the middle of the ecliptic plane, destroying anything that was nearby before splitting up and each of the nine destroyers heading for a station.
*
In the cockpit of the smugglers vessel Lokiniya the XO, pilot and chief engineer Tim Jones was frantically trying to avoid the incoming destroyer, fortunately for him he had just had the engineers in the local equipment dock illegally upgrade his vultures manoeuvring thrusters to the point where he could turn the ship as if it was a fighter rather than a freighter.
“Please work” Tim said as he activated the newly installed thrusters.
The Lokiniya did a ninety degree turn in half a second flat causing Tim to almost vomit.
“Ugh…I need to install seatbelts” was all he could manage after the break neck turn.
The vulture safely glided away from the incoming aggressor with the rear turret firing wildly at the Khaak ship, causing it to follow it so as to get rid of the irritating freighter.
“Oh I don’t believe it! One day I am going to rip out that turret and shoot it into space!” Noticing the gleam off a distant fighter he used his video enhancement goggles to zoom in on what was happening.
Through the goggles he could see 30, 29, 28 mambas being massacred by the hundreds of Khaak fighters and scouts. But beyond them he could see a split ship “I really hope that’s a python! Or it doesn’t stand a chance, speaking of people without a chance…”
Tim opened a channel to a nearby TP “Passenger transport four eight niner, please respond…four eight niner, your headed straight towards that destroyer behind me, change course immediately!”
“This is four eight niner, our navigation system is out, we’re flying blind can you transmit a suitable flightpath?” the captain of the toucan requested.
“Good to hear you, I’m transmitting an appropriate flightpath, its parallel to my own, can you release your ships nav controls so my ship can guide you along the correct vector and speed?” Tim chose a parallel fightpath so that they could use their rear turrets to protect each other and increase their overall firepower.
“Acknowledged, releasing now”
“Computer, bring the nearby toucan into the course supplied and keep them within one kilometre”
+++++++
Meanwhile in the CIC the gravidar screens emerge from the centre of the rooms ceiling so the entire bridge crew can see how the battle is faring at a glance.
“Report” Commanded Kelly as he came into the room.
“Sir, we have detected a massive Khaak fleet consisting of nine destroyers and 900 fighters and they immediately started towards each of the nine stations in equal number.” A sergeant Hugh responded.
“Are the Teladi fleet responding?”
“Negative, all comm. traffic out of the sector has been jammed…SIR!”
“What is it?” Kelly asked noting the alarm in the sergeant’s voice.
“Our communications, they’ve not been jammed, it’s the gate, its gone”
Lex had just walked in at that moment and immediately said “Requesting permission to take a Discoverer Raptor out to search for the gate.”
“Granted, and get your Eagles from the armoury, incase you get boarded”
“Yes Sir.” She said with a smile, as she’d wanted her personalised Eagles since she’d learned about the originals five months ago, as she was originally trying to join up with the Blade Corporation’s mercenary forces that had saved her a month before that.
She had wanted to repay Kelly for his help, and the fact that he’d found that she was an ace pilot helped her fast track the application process.
*
Once at the armoury she immediately requested her weapons and a man only vaguely aware something is going on appeared sluggishly with the requested items.
Lex, thinking that this guy couldn’t possibly go any slower said “Could you hurry up, I need to get out there!”
“Whatever, look no-one here has told me squat, could you fill me in?”
“If it’ll speed you up fine, the Khaak have invaded The Vault, i.e. the sector we’re in, with nine destroyers and an assortment of nine hundred fighters.”
He was shocked “Err, sorry, here but may I recommend using a more modern firearm as this one, even in its time was, well, a bit iffy.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve made a few modifications, I gotta get out there, thanks for the help”
*
One of the four modified Discos codenamed ‘Raptor 1’ shot out of one of the five starboard Launch-bay’s and launched forward at a blistering 360m/s.
Only Lex and a Sgt George D. were on-board
“Setting a course for the last known location of the gate” she stated.
“Acknowledged, activating ECM’s and fire assistance modules.”
“So, what does the D stand for?”
“You don’t want to know” he replied.
“Oh go on, tell me”
“Fine, it stands for Die…”
“Die? As in Die?”
“That’s why I get nervous every time we go into battle, I’m afraid I’ll be one of those people who die like in TV shows, to show how dire the situation is.” admitted George.
“Well, at least you have the best pilot on the ship to offset your fears.” Lex joked.
He just stared at her.
“Tough crowd” she muttered
*
The CIC was buzzing with activity as the ship finished gearing up for condition one.
“Let’s give these new weapons a workout, set a course for the nearest station and at ten kilometres bring the top turrets to bear” Commanded Kelly.
“All right people, remember your training, and the first to get ten kills gets the finest vintage of spacefuel ever made!” Lines paused trying to think of what to say next “Now let’s kick some Khaak ass!” The entire crew cheered as they’d get another chance of revenge against the most hated enemy in Argon history.
*
The Hope’s engines roared to life with a thunder, the orange flames as hot as a sun. Slowly it rumbled toward the PPC production complex, guns loaded and shields fully charged, ready to cause havoc.
*
Raptor one finally reached the last location of the only known gate out of the system when Lex noticed something.
“I’ve got what looks like a sensor shadow, sixty kilometres out”
“Training active sensors on sensor ghost” reported George.
“It’s the gate…I wonder-“ suddenly the proximity alarm sounded, indicating that a ship was within two kilometres “Your not getting me that easy”
She attempted to swerve out of the way of the kyon beam but was too late and it pierced through the small disco’s shields and tore a gash through the ship cutting through the cockpit exposing it to space immediately killing Sgt Dies.
Lex immediately reacting to the threat turns the ship starboard throwing the ship around and behind the murderous scout, firing with all four BIRE’s and shattering the now dilapidated attacker to thousands of pieces.
Completely forgetting about the gate she sets a course for the Hope “That was close, eh george?” noticing all she could hear was the static over the radio she turned and saw an empty seat where Goerge should have been “George?!”
And assuming from the last words that this time there will be losses and not just damage. At least they will be able to trial the new gun on live targets 
