Powerful, Unbreakable, Dominant.
That’s how he felt every time he docked his mind with his ship.
It felt like he had the power to simply rip apart ships with his will alone.
Oh sure that’s not actually true, it’s the ship and the select few crew he hand on board that really made things explode, but to him at that moment, that feeling made him feel like the God many took him to be.
A crackle in the back of his mind brought him out of his reverie, it was his agent.
Some idiot had stolen some corporate secrets and was now on the run, and now he needs to be "taken care of" before the data could be forwarded to people and places that would be detrimental for the corporation.
Math'ra really didn't care to much about some minor corporations competitive woes, but this agent was offering good money for go and solve the problem.
Cutting the diminutive man off with a simple affirmation and confirmation of his acceptance, the engines of his battleship on lined and cycled a systems check, in his mind’s eye he scanned the report, noting happily that the new systems brought the efficiency up by five precent, meaning they drained slightly less power and accelerated a bit faster and in a ship this big, that was a lot.
The light of the nearby sun caressed the golden/red hull of the Paladin Class Marauder as it glided gracefully out of the docking bay, completely dwarfing the traffic around him, a smile lit Math'ra's face as he deftly twisted and pushed his way through the melee into open space, stretching his shoulders with his mind and felt the ship shudder as the systems responded with a pre-jump check of all systems.
Nodding to himself inside the Capsule, he powered up the warp engine and felt his calves tense like in preparation for a sprint, the feeling was uncomfortable but after years of practice he barely noticed it now, upon reaching the right speed he pushed the ship into warp, sinking into the depths of the jump hole, his mind going blank as the ships jump computer took over.
Using the time of the jump to run a check on all the armour systems, doing a couple of dry runs and feeling the tingle across his skin as the nanites swarmed down the ship, searching for any minor imperfections in the gilded hull, smiling shivering slightly at the sensation he cycled the hardeners as well and was rewarded by the momentary chill as the capacitor shunted power to the armour plating to boost their matrix strength, satisfied with the status of the armour systems he shut them down and the sensations covering him ceased.
His attention changed as the sight of the star gate appeared in front of him, activating the jump sequence and not long after being sucked through into the next system.
To Math'ra, every time you came out of a star gate jump, it always felt like waking up again, you had to recalibrate all the controls and send out a new set of camera drones so you could see what was around you, not unlike waking up.
Shaking off the momentary feeling of tiredness, he changed the mixture of supplements in the pod-goo to help keep him awake, sleep had been at a premium the last week and he was feeling the effects of it now, it didn't pay to be sleepy when you were piloting a billion ISK Marauder.
Ignoring his usual preference for perfection and smoothness he threw the ship brutally into warp, just for the shock and rush of power that came from it, the feeling in his chest and legs as the capacitor was emptied of a chunk of power and the warp engines sent into overdrive from the rush of power, Math'ra gasped for a moment and the ship lurched into warp.
His nerves now tingling with energy he powered up the armour systems in preparation for whatever lay at the end of the warp tunnel, flexing his hands as the group of pulse lasers ran their pre-activation sequence, waiting only for a confirmed targeting lock.
He was ready.
The asteroid field roared into view, a large group of twisted and gnarled asteroids twisted in huge complex arcs and spirals around his ship, a plasma cloud smothering his visuals so he could only make out vague impressions accurately, bringing up the list of nearby objects a group of rogue drone targets appeared out of the interstellar mist, warning sirens sounded in his head as the battle group locked onto the Paladin.
Smirking to himself, the feeling of power unrivalled surged back into him as he confirmed lock on the incoming ships, opening his mouth to scream at them as he opened fire with his guns, the raw searing power of their discharge running up his hands and into his chest, cycling twice before the first ship exploded, a guttural roar coming from deep inside him.
This is what he was, a machine of death personified, an instinctual killer.
Everything his ship did, he felt and felt powerfully.
That’s what made him feel so powerful, the sheer amounts of power coursing over him as the armour systems cycled again and again, shrugging off the pounding from the drone swarm, his throat getting sore from his guttural cries as ship after ship exploded in glorious fireballs.
Conscious thought slipped from his mind and it became animalistic instinct, kill or be killed as his powerful fists smashed through ships hulls, his armoured hide resisted each and every attack the pathetic drones could muster.
It didn't take long before there was a multitude of twisted metal wrecks littering the space where only minutes ago there was a drone battle group.
Taking deep gulps of air Math'ra reigned his mind in, the blind rage with which he had succumbed was not something he particularly enjoyed.
It reminded him too much of what he had fled from not so long ago.
Grumbling to himself, he turned his attention to nearby space, the person he was looking for obviously wasn't here, there wasn't a wreck to match the description in his NeoCom and only drone hulls were present, scanning nearby stellars he saw a previously un-noticed acceleration gate.
Slowly making his way towards it. just taking it gently after the furious pounding he had given his ship, and by extension, Himself.
Sliding into accelerated warp towards the next situation he steeled himself mentally, focusing in on himself and on the ships systems, trying to be simply cold and analytical, detached.
The HUD flashed upon his entrance to the new dead space pocket, a veritable hoard of Mercs sat around him, probably twenty or thirty different ships, and more than five Battleship hulls.
Priming the guns as the lock sequence began, subconsciously his attention focused in on a smaller tactical group, composed of Several Caracal-Class Cruisers, a single Machariel-Class Battleship and a wing of Dramiel-Class Frigates.
Waiting until the locks on all ships where active, he dumped the flight of light-attack drones into space and loaded Imperial Multifrequencies, the most devastating ammunition you could source with ease.
The first barrage of incoming fire landed on his shields which flickered for a few seconds before evaporating, the full onslaught of the attackers being taken on by the armour systems, and easily if the readouts where accurate.
The momentary distraction now dealt with he returned his focus to the Machariel, white light pierced the darkness as the first volleys exploded from the starboard side of the Paladin, the wailing ship simply unable to manage the sheer volume of refracted light that poured from the specialised laser cannons of the Paladin.
In an almost clinical display of accuracy Math'ra sliced the Machariel clean in half with a concentrated burst of fire, the ship ripping itself apart as the engines exploded, taking most of the hull with it.
Pivoting the might Paladin on the spot he lined up the first Caracals, staggering the firing pattern of the guns to help overcome the natural shielding ability of the small cruisers it took seconds for them to explode under the concentrated fire of the devastating cannons.
A notice that no targets where locked as the guns shut down caused Math'ra to seek new targets, the remaining ships now swarmed around the Paladin, the Light-attack drones flying from frigate to frigate, mercilessly shredding the small ships automatically, freeing Math'ra up to melt the remaining larger ships, the three Machariels that now circled at close range felt the clinical wrath of Imperial lasers next, one exploding in a brilliant explosion, a large chunk of the port wing colliding with a Frigate and taking that with it. The remaining few ships fell shortly after, Math'ra didn't even twitch this time, everything was clinical and deadly, no uncontrollable rage or fury this time, just lethal applications of direct force.
With the final ships being shredded by the concentrated energy burst Math'ra ran a quick survey of the immediate area and tractored in the few escape pods and emergency shuttles that where present, these men and women would now be given the option of joining ARMA. or being sent to whatever hell hole they wanted.
Surprisingly enough a large portion of them tended to stay, which bolstered the growing human forces of the newly formed division.
The field now clear, Math'ra again noticed the lack of presence of the target, none of the ships he had downed matched the description he was seeking.
And again an acceleration gate was present, sighing to himself he fired the engines and pushed his way through the shower of melted and broken metal towards the gate, taking no time to run the activation sequence and propel himself through to the next area.
If this wasn't it, he thought, he was probably going to get more than a little annoyed with this man-hunt.
The stars re-aligned themselves as he slowed from the slingshot across space, bringing up the HUD again he was greeted with a smattering of sentry turrets, a hab unit which was a good sign, and finally.
A small Angel designed Cruiser, with the correct designation and ID.
Reloading the guns for Scorch he locked up all targets, most of which were now in range of the lethal touch of the Scorch crystals.
Taking a few moments to slice up the sentries and effectively clear the field he returned to the Multifrequencies, the close range hitting power of these was much more effective at dealing with annoying cruisers.
He barely noticed the plea for help from the hapless ship, something about truth and justice and evil men.
He didn't care about any of that, it didn't affect him and the prattle in his head was getting annoying.
The darkness evaporated as the white light seared through the shielding systems of the small ship, the prattle became a cry for mercy, shortly silenced by a few more thundering blasts of refracted light.
He didn't even bother to check for a survival capsule, nothing here would survive long enough for someone to rescue whatever had survived.
He turned his mighty frame towards the star gate, and ran home.
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Topic: The fury of death - Short Story (Read 2736 times)