Dogfighter Gospel
created by Damien Phoenix and Phoebe
this chapter by Robin Strickland

Log Three: Pre-Holliday Jitters

* * * * *

Kassidy loved her ship.

Her Whitehawk was equipped with what passed for it as the long-range package.
Mostly this consisted of two conformal add-on pods with extra fuel for its
overpowered engines, although in this case, she also had an electronics package
that increased the range of her radar and gave her a few interesting sighting
options if she didn't want to do her aiming by eye. The pods didn't do that much,
giving the ship just enough extra fuel to burn-and-drift towards a base when its
main tank ran out, but the other part was nice.

The General Electric Active Aquisition, Analyis, and Advisement Probe, nicknamed 
the 'A4' by someone with a bad mind for names, allowed her to detect ships behind 
asteroids. It would let her see what brand of cigarette someone on the surface 
of a planet was smoking. It could locate ships and ordinance on a carrier ship
such as the Gospel, and in some cases allow the pilot to listen in on
conversations being held on the ship. It was also capable of suggesting courses
of action to the pilot, although this was usually resented unless the idea was
profoundly helpful. It was truly a wonder of modern technology.

"No such target exists within scanning range," the wonder of modern technology 
drawled in it synthesized monotone.

The one thing it couldn't do was give Kassidy a single damned clue as to where
the Gospel was. After Hard Rock, her trail had gone cold, and they hadn't picked 
up enough info there to get an idea as to where they might be heading.

"Crap," Kassidy announced eloquently.

* * * * *

"Crap," Jacob pronounced decisivly.

"What is it now?" asked Ayako with a sigh. If he keep using that word she'd get
used to it and stop hearing it, just like the dronings of the machines around
them.

"This one isn't serviceable, either," replied Jacob. The two had been looking
around the fighter bay for anything they could salvage. Ships that could fly
would be nice, something with a powerful communications system would be better.
So far they hadn't found much; whatever fighters hadn't scrambled in the fight
had apparently been stolen, with only a handful of exceptions. The Gospel,
however, was not large enough to warrant a recon craft, and anything that might
have had an electronics rig powerful enough to reach out very far was gone or
wrecked. 

Nadia's ship had been equipped with a tightband communications system, but the
transmitter had been destroyed by the same salvo of blasts that had killed her
gunner. The deployable reciever still worked, however, and Jacob had jury-rigged
it to the Gospel's own ailing communications system, although all this did was
allow them to hear about how they were being hunted, and maybe pick up a televid
broadcast or two.

"Well, this is nice," called Ayako. "The saboteurs were kind enough to leave us a
Rat."

"Swell," replied Jacob. 'Rat' was the pilot-donated nickname for the Ferret class
scout ship. It consisted of a single weak gun for defense, fast engines, and the
merest sliver of armor around the whole thing, as if the designers had wanted 
just enough to keep air in. 

"I'll trade you that for your Mantis, 'Yako," offered Jacob. Ayako replied with a
raspberry.

Javob mock-sighed. "Thought so," he admitted. He glanced around at the huge bay 
again, and groaned as he realised just how long this search and scavenge mission 
was likely to take.

"How long 'til we get to Holliday, 'Yako?" he asked.

"Two days," Ayako replied, stripping a panel from the hull of a holed-through 
Mantis.

"Swell," Jacob mumbled. "Who knows, we might even be finished by then."

* * * * *

Kassidy was low on reserves. She was running out of patience and options, and she
was plain out of ideas. She was not happy.

"They could be anywhere," she muttered. "Absolutely anywhere. I have no idea
where to even begin looking. Jiang? Please tell me you have an idea."

"I have an idea," Jiang replied calmly. 

"Thank you," thanked Kassidy, sighing in gratitude.

"You're welcome," replied Jiang. 

"So," said Kassidy, straightening up and removing her face from its perch on her
hands, "What's your idea? You can tell me, you know; I used 'please' and 'thank
you'." 

"I think they would be heading towards Holliday," Jiang stated thoughtfully.
"What little surveilance we have of the battle in which the Agamemnon was
destroyed suggests that the Gospel took at least some damage. The most likely
place for a rebel starship to go for repairs would be Holliday, since Fleet is so
openly disliked there.

Kassiday blinked. "You serious, Jiang? That's too obvious. Holliday's the first 
place *anyone* would look for Fleet traitors."

"Then why don't we look there first?" Jiang asked plainly.

Kassidy thought for a brief moment and shrugged. "Better than nothing, I guess.
Let's go!"

Jiang punched the co-ordinates into her fighter's console.  "ETA of 69 hours," 
she reported.

"'Bout three days," Kassidy translated. She grinned. "You ready, Thelma?"

Jiang rolled her eyes. "You know I refuse to reply to that," she replied blandly.

"Aw," Kassidy pouted. "You're no fun. Oh, well. Holliday, here we come!"

* * * * * 

"Uhg," Stated Jacob. "I do not, EVER, want to go through that again."

Ayako nodded. "Two days gone straight down the hole."

"Right," acknowledged Jacob. "But at least we have *something* to show for it.
And who knows, maybe Kenji or Nadia can do something with what we found."

"I still say they could've helped out more," muttered Ayako.

"Nah," Jacob replied, "They were busy with their own things. Nadia wanted to run
more simulations, and Kenji insisted on aiding her in that." Jacob shook his
head sadly. "The poor guys needs to give up on that woman. She's cold as space."

The two were silent on the rest of their way up to the bridge to tell Kenji and 
Nadia about what they had found. They weren't too excited about the results of 
their efforts.

Most of the ships they had found were not in fighting condition. One had even 
been in worse condition than the fighter Jacob had abandoned in the battle that 
lead to all this mess. Probably the only reason it hadn't exploded outright was 
that it didn't have anything explosive left in it. 

Jacob had high hopes, however. There had been enough pieces left to mostly repair
Ayako's fighter and Nadia's gunship. Both were in fighting condition, an
engineering feat accomplished primarily with duct tape and leftovers. One of
Nadia's engines had been only mostly repairable, so the others had had their 
output cut back to compensate. Ayako's Mantis was in excellent working order now,
although its armor was thin and patchy in spots. Both fighter and gunship
had all weapons in working order, although the lack of ordinance onboard had left
them deprived of missiles. 

"So, Sir," Jacob concluded, "We can defend ourselves if we have to. Some. The only
working fighter we managed to find was a Rat, which is useless in a fight, but 
'Yako's Mantis is working fine, and so is Nadia's Gunship. I can go along with her 
as gunner, if we get into a tight spot. Which I hope we don't."

"Aditionally," suplied Nadia, "We have the Gospel's guns, most of which are
automated. This will give us a defnite edge as long as Fleet doesn't send
anything bigger than a corvette-class ship after us, which is highly unlikely."

Kenji sighed. "Fine," he said. "At least we have something, then. We have
fighters that work, at least, and maybe we an sell some of the leftovers for
supplies or parts we do need. Now, we'll be at Holliday in five hours;  suggest
at least some of you get some rest."

* * * * *

Kassidy St. Claire had a peculiar way of thinking. Despite being a Fleet officer
on a mission to apprehend a group of supposed criminals, the order of reason did
not go 'see criminals', 'arrest criminals'. Instead, it was...

"There's the Gospel! Let's blow it up!"

Jiang, fortunately had a more serious outlook on things, and did not take her
duty so lightly. "Kassy, we can't attack them unless they resist arrest. You know
that."

Kassidy sighed. "Right, right. Fine. Jiang, be a sugar and open a comm frequency
to the Gospel?"


* * * * *

The radio near Kenji crackled to life, sputtering static. 

"*--tntion crew of the Gosp*bzz*ver."

Kenji and Nadia both raced towards the communications console, Nadia arriving
first and fending Kenji off with a powerful glare when he attempted to take the
microphone from her. She gathered herself and spoke into the mic.

"This is First Lieutenant Nadia Kournikova. To whom am I speaking? Over."

"This is Second Lieutenant Kassidy St. Claire. I and *buzz*tenant Jiang Tong
have been ordered to apprehend the crew of your ship. If you resist, we are to
blow you up real good. Over."

(Back in her whitehawk, Jiang proceeded to bang her head on the side of her 
confortable seat, which didn't seem to be too hurt by it. "Kassy..." she 
muttered, too low for the comm to pick up.)

Nadia digested this statement for a bit. "...One moment, please. Over."

Nadia turned down the volume on her mic and gave Kenji a look telling her 
distaste of the situation. 

Perhaps... Nadia straightened and looked at kenji. "Tong and St. Claire," 
she said blankly.

Kenji nodded. "They sent the Dirty Duo after us. Great. We're doomed."

"Sir," said Nadia. "I feel we should surrender ourselves. They will no doubt
protect us if we do so."

Kenji raised an eyebrow. "You *have* heard of these two, haven't you?"

Nadia was quiet for a moment, and then shook her head. "I believe you may be 
correct in your assessment of this situation, after all, sir. I'll go tell 
Jacob and Ayako. We'll scramble as soon as we can."

Kenji nodded. "I'll stall them if they get impatient."

Kenji waited a few tense moments, hoping that contact wouldn't resume. It did
anyway.

"*shhh*spel! I'll repeat this for you if you didn't catch it the first time.
You're *bzz*er arrest! Now, you gonna come along peacefully or not?!?"

Kenji thought for a moment, trying to remember what he could about arrest
procedures. Anything that would buy them time... like that. 

He grinned as he turned the volume to the microphone back up and spoke into it.

"Sure, Lieutenant, we surrender. Now, care to read us our rights? Over."

"...you've got to be kidding," came the incredulous response over the radio.
Kenji knew how long the list of rights was, and so, apparently, did Ms. St.
Claire.

"Nope. I'm serious. We won't surrender until you've read us our full rights."

After a breif moment (during which Kenji assumed the two pilots were discussing
this turn of events), Kassidy came back on the line. "You have the right to
remain silent," she muttered, sounding pained at this. As she said this, Kenji
saw lights on another panel come on, indicating that two fighters were prepared
for launch. Good. He snuck over to teh launch console and activated the
catapults. Just a bit longer...

"You have the right to an equitable trial in a court of GODDAMMIT!!!"

Contact was broken, and Kenji knew the battle was on. He moved over to the
console that controlled the ship's defensive systems and started bringing the
flak guns on-line. The engines were powered up as well, so he could possibly
make a break for the the docking bays of Holliday while he was at it.

* * * * *

Ayako entered the battle with high hopes. These were quickly dashed.

The two sides were evenly matched in the number of fighters, but her side had a 
Bulldog-class gunship and the backing of a carrier, which would usually give them
a rather large advantage. Then she saw that her opponents were in fully-loaded
Whitehawks, and she began to worry.

Then she remembered who Nadia had said they were up against, and she *really*
began to worry.

As she approached one of the Whitehawks, it wheeled around, baffles vectoring
force to spin the fighter about without it needing to move forward. The other
followed suit, and soon both were accelerating towards her and Nadia's fighters,
spewing energy and ordinance from their numerous weapons.

Ayako bobbed down to avoid the initial barrage aimed at her, and then cut to the
left and began curving back around in an arc that would, she hoped, put her on
the tail of her assailant. The other pilot would have none of that, however, and
had flapjacked her ship somehow, so that Ayako was confronted head-on again. The
assailant began firing at her with short, precise bursts from her ship's eight
primary laser guns, which Ayako managed to just barely dodge on her way past her 
foe. 

Nadia found herself in a much more difficult position. Her ship, though much mroe
durable than Ayako's Mantis, was less maneuverable, and her opponent was much
less frugal with her weapons. Laser pulses began to pepper the sides of her ship
as she turned from her opponent, and she was grazed by a few hyperkinetic rounds 
from the Whitehawk's rail guns. Fortunately, she had the advantage of Jacob
maning the gunner's position, which meant that she had a pair of rapid-fire
laser turrets to watch her rear. Jacob was an excellent shot, but he wasn't used 
to shooting from a ship that wasn't under his control, and so all he managed
to do was keep the enemy fighter from returning fire for a good while. 

The radio sputtered to life in Ayako and Nadia's cockpits. "I'm g*shhh* make a
run for Holliday, see if I *bzzzzzwarblewarblewarble* get docked there! Cover 
me!"

Then the Gospel's engines flared to life, and the ship began slowly accelerating
toawrds the docks of Holliday, which seemed to get the attentions of their
attackers very quickly.

* * * * *

Jiang noticed first. "The Gospel is moving!"

Kassidy took a moment out from toying with her prey to look for herself. "Hey, it
is. So?"

"So, we can't let them dock! Fleet is far from welcome in Holliday, so if they 
make it we might have to call in reinforcements, and that'll take too long!"

"Oh! Alright! I'm on it!"

Kassidy spun her fighter around and burned towards the Gospel, ignoring the flak
it began to send her way as she approached. Taping a few buttons on her weapons
display, she brought her central ordinance bay on-line and readied an mk.190
freefall high-explosive bomb. Without the need for propulsion or guidance, and
with that whole gravity thing out of the way, a freefall bomb on a fast fighter
could be a cheap and effective means of delivering a powerful blow to any slow-
moving target. Like the Gospel.

So, after a few moments of hard acceleration, Kassidy opened the bays to her
central ordinance bay, released one bomb, and pulled up. The bomb careened
towards the Gospel, a steadily progressing packet of unpleasantness--

--and missed the carrier by a good five inches, sailing instead into one of
Holliday's control towers.

"Oops," Kassidy oops'ed.

It was then, when everybody but Nadia was paying attention to the destruction of
a good ten percent of Holliday, that the gunship managed to get a few shots off
on Kassidy's Whitehawk, shearing one of the wings off. 

"I think we should retreat," suggested Jiang. "It wouldn't be good for us to
linger after an... incident like that."

"Sounds terrific," Kassidy agreed hastily. "We'll get my fighter repaired, and 
we'll come back. They can't stay here forever!" 

The two Whitehawks turned and burned away faster than Ayako or Nadia could have
followed, even if they wanted to. When they were safely off radar, they landed
their fighters on the Gospel, which now sat docilely in the docks of Holliday. 

* * * * *

Kenji sighed. That had been close. Too close.

Everyone was seated on the bridge. The Gospel was safely docked, now, as were her
fighters. Everyone was rattled, however. Well, except Nadia.

"Are you certain they're not angry at us, sir?" she asked.

"I'm certain," said Kenji. "And it's Kenji, please." Nadia made no comment, and
so Kenji continued. "Anyway, the tower that got demolished was derelict and 
sealed off from the rest of the station anyway. As far as they're concerned, we 
just helped with its renovation. What's more, they think we're heros for chasing
off a pair of 'Fleet goons', and express a wish to welcome us with open arms."

Jacob blinked. "You're kidding."

"Nope," replied Kenji. "It seems we've found a safe haven, for whatever it's
worth. I just hope nothing bad comes of it."

The others nodded.


* * * * * 

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Well, I didn't get everything I had wanted to in here. I was hoping to have the
crew run into the real traitors on a supply run into Holliday, but didn't have
the time/presence of mind. Perhaps the next author will take that and run with
it, who knows.
Thanks to Phoebe for prereading, prereading, scene suggestion, and prereading. 
Help is good. ^_^;
Hope you enjoyed. ^_^_v

-Robin