"Bring it around NOW! Push it! Come on, she can take it!" The captain shouted at her pilot. "We're close now, we'll get him this time but you have to move!"
Warning lights began to flash and an alarm rang out in the cabin.
"FUCK! Pay attention people! Now we are all dead." She yelled, spinning to glare at the rest of the crew present.
"We regret to inform you that your children are dead from sheer fucking stupidity." A voice spoke over the intercom.
"Funny Reg. Get up here." Jordan replied to the air and leaned back against the pilot's seat with her arms crossed.
"Jake, what happened?" The captain, Jordan Daniels, stared hard at her navigator and the man who was supposed to be paying attention to everything else while the ship chased down it's prey.
"Jordan . . . I"
"If this had been real we would all be dead. You're lucky it's a simulation but that doesn't matter. Technically we are all dead." Jordan continued, cutting the crewman off.
"Actually, Jo. The alarm wasn't because we were hit. We just got trapped and are currently being boarded by the very men we were trying to catch." Reggie said as he came onto the bridge. He got a glare in response which he shrugged off, as usual.
"Captain, Reggie, call me Captain. A little respect while I'm reaming out the crew, please." She replied with a bit of an amused smirk. Reggie had been her chief engineer for almost two years. They were good friends off the clock as well. He was the only member of her crew that knew how to handle her and keep her from having the rest reassigned, as she often threatened.
"Sorry, Captain. As you were." He said jovially.
"Off my bridge. NOW!" She snapped at him and enforced her words with a furious stare.
Reggie left without another word, knowing he had pushed too far again but that she'd forgive him later. She always did.
The lecture continued on for a good hour but in the end, Jordan knew her crew was one of the finest in the fleet. She had trained them herself and this, in all honesty was one of the only mistakes during the current round of training. She wasn't satisfied but she knew that in the real deal they could be fully counted on to not lose their cool and repeat the errors.
The next morning, after a brief meeting over a light breakfast, the crew of the security ship Ingram setup for there latest tour of the main shipping routes. It would take less than an hour to be in the main lanes, patrolling for illegal IDs and making random stops to check for contraband. For the most part it would be a boring three weeks but this was what they had all chosen. Four days later, and out on one of the more obscure lanes, the report came in that a well known and so far impossible to catch pirate was seen shuttling out of a remote system and heading more or less towards the lane the Ingram was patrolling. Jordan felt certain the raider would be joining up with his ship and motoring right along past them, according to the informant. The report had been five hours old by the time the Ingram had received it.
Kendall Brack was known for his kamikaze tactics to avoid capture as well as the ruthless way he dealt with those trying to capture him. It was not Jordan's first run in with Brack but she intended it to be her last.
The crew was kept on alert, the ship was shut down to everything but life support and long range scanners. He would not get past them this time. The only other patrol ship close to the Ingram was on it's way as back up but would take close to twelve hours to reach their location. Jordan knew very well that it may be too late. They'd either lose him or be dead by the time the second patrol arrived. It was well worth the risk.
Two hours passed with nothing on the radar. The tension was high. It was a toss up as to whether they were wasting their time or going to have some success. And just what sort of success would they have? They could all be waiting to die.
"Captain, I have a ship on screen. Just came into range. I.D. is unregistered, it's gotta be Brack. At the speed he's travelling it's gonna be a tough netting." Jake said suddenly in the silence.
"Alright, we sit and wait. See if we can catch him by surprise. Get the lock down set up and the net ready to fire. Brody, be ready to move when I say." Jordan spoke quickly, dropping herself into her seat and strapping in. Then pressing the com, "Reggie, be ready, he's headed right for us."
"We're set boss." Reggie replied immediately.
"How soon till we can see him, Jake?" She asked.
"Within ten minutes, maybe sooner. He's picking up speed. This ain't no shuttle, it's his ship alright and he's in a hurry to get gone." Came the reply. Jake hadn't even looked up from his screen, his eyes were locked to the blip.
Brody, the pilot, was tense. His hands were in place to fire the engines and steer hard if their prey made it through the lock down and the net that should, for all intents and purposes, knock Brack's ship down to life support only.
It was far less than ten minutes before they knew something had been badly miscalculated.
The alarm sounded a second before the strike came. Even though it was a shock, Jordan knew instantly it had been a trap. Bedlam ensued for a moment. It couldn't have lasted longer, the Ingram was in a net of it's own and was now more powerless than they would have made Brack's ship.
Jordan shouted out orders but she knew as well as everyone else did, they were goners. Kendall Brack rarely ever left survivors if he actually caught another ship.
The ship Jake had seen on the radar was coming up fast, they could all see it bearing down to where the Ingram now floated lifeless and slightly askew. Behind the security ship was another smaller but obviously powerful ship. It had flown up behind them totally off radar and used a rigged up disabling net (in this case an E.M.P. discharge) that had knocked out everything on the Ingram, including life support. Jordan and her small crew were dead in the water, so to speak, and they all knew it.
Brack would board them, more than likely, he tended to favour his killings face to face if possible. Jordan tried to think quickly, discussing defensive options with the men when there was a loud clang on the hull.
