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Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

The Privateer Stories

by overmortal

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a piece of a longer writing project. You can view the entire project here: The Privateer Stories

The following is a piece of writing submitted by overmortal on August 4, 2008
"This piece was the first 'official' Privateer story written. I'd done maybe six or so before, but this is the first one that I considered to be canon. It is not, however, the first story chronologically. It currently falls somewhere in the middle of the timeline.

My co-author, David, and I tried very hard to be consistent with our technological uses and terminologies. We also made an attempt to keep the damages and upgrades of the Black Sun 490 consistent between the stories, so that there were few contradictions (see also: "Hey, I thought you guys were using X laser instead of Y laser! You changed!" Yes, but we explained the change somewhere in the story, didn't we?)

Be gentle. This is a story written by a 14 year old with no writing experience, and a head full of video games and B movies. The dialogue, for one, is particularly bad, but I've decided to show this unaltered version as to give an account of how things progressed.

A few other things of note:
Carla is not based on anyone I know or knew. She was a composite person based on what I thought a femme fatale mercenary would look like.
The "throw the wrench into the turret" bit, along with the Boss's hatred for Banana flavored energy bars are running gags that appear in several stories. Another running gag that does not appear in this story is the fact that, before his Privateering career, Snake starred as an extra in the B film "Jupiter's Warriors", which the Boss finds no small amount of pleasure in giving him a hard time about."

"Damsel in . . . Not Really"

The PRIVATEER Stories
"Damsel In . . . Not Really"
by Nicholas Mahaffey

I sat in my chair in the bar. For the moment, I was enjoying the sensation of a full stomach. It was a rare occurrence. I'm a privateer. My partner and I fly missions for hire. We usually just sit here in the bar. We wait for people to come in with some need for a mission and a pocket full of money. Mostly the latter. Problem is, people just don't seem to have enough problems to need a privateer to fly for them. This is bad for business.

My partner, Snake, came back to the booth where I was sitting. "Nope.", he said. "I checked the board. No good missions. Nothin' but military patrols and insys cargo runs." I gave a disgusted snort. "It figures.", I said. "No one wants to move off-world anymore. They're all scared of those blasted pirates." "Yeah.", Snake replied. "If I had a credit for every time I heard about that terrorist ambush on the Tellison-Markins rout, I'd be rich. They'll never get over that." "People are just too paranoid these days.", I said. "They'd rather play it safe on this garbage hole than let people like us transport them to somewhere else. Remember that skitzy guy who wanted transportation to Phelion?" Snake shook his head. "Yeah. Poor guy. Scared that the Monks of Gethill were going to come after him." I gave an annoyed snort. "The Monks of Gethill didn't even know he was in this system. They were still searching the Albridge system. He should've gone while he could . . ."

Snake and I continued like this for a few moments while we watched people entering and leaving the bar. Mostly the ones who were entering. As we talked, a short woman walked into the bar. She looked like a flyer herself. She was five-foot-two with purple hair that came to just above her shoulders. She was wearing a black leather coat that was rather tattered, a white shirt with an unrecognizable insignia on it, and a pair of cheap khaki pants. All in all, not that bad. She walked up to the bulletin board and looked it over before giving a sarcastic smile at the choices. Annoyance evident in her walk, she made her way over to a booth and sat, running her fingers through her hair once. She was definitely a flyer. Nice figure, too. Snake gave her a glance and went back to watching for business. I watched her for a moment, more out of attraction than any hope of business. She pulled a pad and pen from the end of the table and quickly scribbled something on it. I became curious. She stood, stretched for a moment, and walked ver to the board to pin the paper up.

Snake noticed what I was doing. "Helllooo. Excuse me, we're watching for business here, not babes." I threw him an annoyed glance and looked at where she had put up the paper. "She put something on the board.", I said. "Do what?", he said, turning to look at the board. I got up and walked over to the wall where the board was and read the paper. It said:

Attention all pilots!
Wingman needed for the Tellison-Markins run.
Pirates expected. Pays C-5000
Meet me in the bar to accept.

I looked at Snake. His face showed agitation. "No way, man. That's asking for trouble." I, ignoring Snake, pulled the paper from the board. Just then, I noticed the girl was watching me. I walked over to the table where she was and sat down. "I understand you need a wingman.", I said, keeping an eye out for anyone watching us. Snake stood at the board with his arms folded and shaking his head. The girl glanced at Snake, then at me, her brow raised. "He's my gunner.", I said. She nodded and returned to my question. "Yeah.", she said. A contralto. I thought to myself. "What's it to you?", she asked. Feisty. I thought. "I might be able to facilitate your need, Miss . . .", I said. "You can call me Carla.", she said. "Is that your real name?", I asked. "Real enough for you.", she said. Hmm. Smart, too. "Fine.", I said. "And I could also use the five thousand credits." She gave a slight grin and nodded. "A real mercenary.", she said. "Not too many around these days." Just then, a man in the corner of the bar began to shout. He was drunk. Carla looked in his direction for a moment. I used this time to study her.

She appeared to be in her early twenties. The patch on her coat said class of '31, so she had to be just out of school. I'd say give or take a year, I was close to guessing her age. I was in the class of '28, which made me twenty-four. She looked like she had been flying for years. The signs of living in bars and sleeping in space ships were evident: dirty clothes, unkempt hair, unhealthy thinness, and a few burn scars here and there from sparks flying in the cockpit. She also looked like she hadn't slept in two or three days.

She finished checking on the commotion and looked back at me. "How well can you fly?", she asked. I leaned back in my seat and glanced away for a moment. "I got a butt that's never been kicked.", I said, almost bragging. She didn't look impressed. "Good. What do you fly?" I thought for a second to remember the particular name of my ship. "A Black Sun 490.", I said, hoping that I wasn't mistaken. Carla didn't look too thrilled. "Old design. Does it actually fly?", she asked convincingly. "Of course it does!", I said, insulted. "Most Black Sun models have been blown up by now.", she said. "Do you want my help or not?", I asked, getting tired of the conversation. "Sure.", she said. "We launch immediately. I'll be heading out of bay six. I'll meet you at the top end of the base." "Okay then.", I said. "Let's go." I could hear Snake give a grunt of disbelief from the bulletin board. "See you at the top.", Carla said. "And be ready for pirates."
In Space

Snake settled into his turret underneath my cockpit and strapped in. "This is crazy.", he said. "I know.", I retorted. "But it's also lucrative." I switched on my radio. The channel was filled with chatter from passing ships. I listened for a moment for Carla's voice. She wasn't speaking at the moment. I glanced at my scanner to see how many ships were in the immediate vicinity. Not too many. I pushed down on the stick for a moment to warm up the controls, then rolled and banked starboard towards the top of the base. After a moment, and a near collision with a Rampart class fighter/merchant, I reached the top section of the base. I listened to my radio again for Carla, but she still wasn't talking. I knew she had to be out there, though.

After a moment of waiting, Carla's voice crackled over my radio. "Okay.", she said. "Let's get going. We'll be going through the jump point to Barici." I had no objections, save the fact that the Barici system was hardly ever patrolled by anything other than the local militia. "Let's go.", I said. It was about that time that I noticed what Carla was flying. Five hundred meters to port was a P-593 Razor. Usually a ship flown by the military, and the occasional pirate. It was designed as a shuttle or cargo ship, but was armed with six cannon mounts up front. Not to mention the Jenson 6000 Missile Launching System! I figured that the launcher was a personal touch. It sure beat the Stony 5403 hardpoint system that I was using. I flipped a switch on the console and my navigation map appeared. After entering the course for the Barici jump point, I signaled Carla and leveled on the nav indicator to begin the trip. A moment later, Carla took the lead in formation and set out as well.
At the jump point

The jump point appeared as a distant ball of swirling blue gas suspended in the endless void. The apparition had no matter to it, though, because it was composed of some type of energy that was incomprehensible to modern science. I checked my scanner to see what type of craft were at the jump point. The radar simply blinked and sputtered for a moment before showing a hazy readout that looked like a mixture of military and civilian craft. It didn't look like there were any pirates there at the moment. If any showed up, the military fighters would take care of them.

Snake swiveled his turret every now and then to get a better look at passing ships, occasionally identifying a clan or cult of some type by the markings on different craft. "Kahlian Mutants.", he called out after examining a passing convoy. I ignored him for the moment, keeping my attention on Carla's Razor. The rounded edges gave it a more ferocious appearance than a regular cargo shuttle. The bulky body and sloping nose made it look strong rather than fat. I checked my scanner again for any hostile ships. Still none. The jump point was about 5,000 klicks away, so I started warming up the jump engines. Carla picked up her speed and moved out in front. After a moment, her ship vanished in a white flash as she jumped out-system. I waited until my ship was within the blue sphere before I pressed the button on my console. "Jumping.", I said out of instinct. The emptiness outside gave way to a white and pink cloudy haze as the force of several G's pressed me into the back of my acceleration couch.

The haze cleared to reveal the clear, empty, black void again. I shook my head to clear the fog and tried to relax my stomach. I wished, for the moment, that my stomach hadn't been filled so shortly ago. After a moment, I looked at my radar to check the situation. The Barici system, for the time being, wasn't going to be my death place. Carla's ship was 200 meters ahead and just a little low in relation to my position. Her ship appeared in my targeting VDU. Her Razor, I noticed, had a few dents here and there, probably from a previous fight. I turned to my navigation map to see what our next destination was. The next stop was the jump into Tellison. I pressed a few buttons to enter it into the computer and waited for a response. "Course entered.", the computer said in a monotone feminine voice. I, after some time, had grown to like it. Go figure.

After about ten minutes, we were roughly a quarter of the way to the jump point. A few passing merchants were the only craft in the immediate area. I noticed Carla's ship swaying back and forth just a little. She was probably playing with the controls out of boredom. I switched on my comm system and tried to think of something to say. "So . . .", I began, "do you come to this system often?" I knew immediately that I had said something stupid. I heard Snake burst out laughing in his turret. Carla's image appeared in my communications VDU. She looked like she thought I was trying something. "I mean, do your missions bring you through here a lot?", I said, trying to make myself not look like a complete idiot. Carla looked at me like she wasn't quite sure about me. She finally answered. "I come through here every now and then, but not too often. Why do you ask?" I tried to sound normal and nonchalant. "Just curious." She gave a slight grin and closed down her comm system. Probably, I guessed, to help keep me from making myself look any more stupid. Snake began to laugh harder. I picked up a small tool and fought the temptation to drop it on his head. He popped up through the hatchway. "You just have a hard time with women, don't you?", he asked. I jerked left on the stick and caused him to fall back into his turret. He didn't bother me much after that.

I took a close look at the merchant cargo vessels. They were in an odd formation for a merchant convoy. All of the markings were correct, however, so I didn't pay them much attention. Snake didn't sound like he liked them all that much. I ignored him, as usual. Just then, red dots started appearing on my scanner. Snake saw them too. "Whoa! Red pipers!", he exclaimed. My scanner showed the hostiles congregating around the merchants. Carla's face appeared in my VDU. "Pirates! Six marks, three o'clock high. Tally-ho." Her Razor broke to starboard as she increased her speed. I pushed the throttle forward as I turned my own ship to face the bandits. "Turret station reports ready.", came Snake's report. "I just wish I knew where those fighters came from." I muttered a quick agreement and engaged the afterburner. The ship rattled violently for a moment, then accelerated. Carla appeared on my screen again. "Those fighters must have been docked on those ships. I knew that formation was odd." I could hear her computer giving system reports while she spoke. Her port shield generators had moderate damage. I was jealous, for a moment, because she even had shields. I had to rely on reflective armor and Snake's aim. It was usually Snake's aim that saved us. Snake fired a test shot and pivoted to face the immediate threat.

The six fighters gathered in a cluster, but not really a formation. My targeting computer picked up on the first one and began to work on a missile lock. I was glad for my hardpoints, even if they were old. Carla's guns burst into action as the enemy came into range. One fighter broke away and angled towards me, the rest engaging on Carla. I got the impression that they'd all been introduced before. Snake rattled off a dozen quick shots with the brand new Starburst laser that we bought with the money from our last mission. The money that wasn't spent on repairs, that is. The one fighter that had engaged on us dodged down to avoid the shot. I suddenly remembered that we had taken the laser that we had before and had it mounted on the front of the ship. I searched for a moment before finding the switch that turned it on. I let it warm up for a moment while I maneuvered the ship so that Snake could get better firing angles on the hostile fighter. I glanced out the top window to see how Carla was doing. Her Razor was arching up and firing on one of the five fighters that were dancing about her.

The ship jarred to the side. I looked at my readout to see that the armor on the port side of our ship was down to eighty-seven percent. I could hear Snake mutter under his breath at the attacking ship as he fired another volley of bright orange beams. The shots caught the hostile fighter in the starboard flank. Chunks of twisted metal armor fell away as Snake continued to pound away at the vulnerable broad side of the fighter until it exploded into a ball of flaming gasses, fuels, and metal fragments. Snake let out a howl as he rotated his turret to aim at the other hostile ships. Two of the remaining fighters turned towards us. I let out a stream of shots with my front mounted laser. It wasn't as easy to aim as Snake made it look. My shots were off to the right. Snake let out a burst of fire that caught one of the fighters in the nose. It slew around and finally spun out of control as the flight control systems took damage. I tried to aim at the spinning fighter to perhaps make my first personal kill. My shots raked across the bottom of the fighter, but it still didn't blow. Carla's face appeared in my VDU as she let out a cry of victory. "BURN!", she screamed. I looked out the window to see her Razor do a roll as it flashed through a red cloud of smoke and fire. The two other fighters around her brought their guns to bear on her. She snap- rolled and jerked up just as they began to fire.

Snake let out a scream. "Break left! He's gonna shoot!" I yanked the stick to port just in time to avoid the red beams. It didn't feel to great to see them streak past the cockpit. Snake growled as shot after shot poured from the laser on his turret. The fighter dove and caught a hit or two just above the engine mounts. I rolled to give Snake a better shot, deciding to leave the shooting to him. He lined up on his target again and fired. His shots pounded the top of the fighter. The hostile flared his afterburners to escape. I turned to tail him and tried to engage my own afterburners. The ship rattled violently, again, and began to speed up. The pirate cold-dumped his missiles and cut his speed to zero, signaling his surrender.

I turned my attention to Carla. She was twisting in a complicated corkscrew maneuver as the remaining two pirate vessels tried to follow her. I lined up on the first of them and waited for my targeting computer to attain a missile lock. The red box on the heads-up display turned as it tightened around the fighter. Finally, the box stopped turning and the computer announced "missile locked" to notify me of the lock. I stabbed the button on the side of my stick with my thumb. My ship rocked to one side as the missile blasted away from the hardpoint and streaked towards its target. I watched the trail of white smoke as the tip of it closed on the fighter until it blossomed into a bright flash. When the smoke cleared, the fighter wasn't there. Snake gave an enthusiastic whoop and rattled off a volley of shots at the remaining debris for emphasis. Carla banked right and rolled, performing a snap-up afterwards to bring her target into her cone of fire. Her guns blazed as she passed dangerously close to the pirate ship. Shots lanced out from Snake's laser as the pirate came within range. I lined up on the fighter and tried my aim again. My shots actually hit. The fighter, more afraid of Snake's shots than mine, shook left and pulled up-and-over to get another shot at Carla. She lit her 'burners and outran his aim.

I lined up again and fired. My shots hit inside the nozzle of his engine, causing it to sputter. Snake squeezed off a round of shots that immolated the armor around the engines. The engines of the pirate ship began to spark. About that time, Carla's Razor flashed by as a missile popped out of her launcher. She was going so fast that it seemed to fly in formation with her ship for a second before it punched into the nose of the fighter. Carla's ship bucked to the side from the proximity blast. "Good,", she said. "But there's more." I watched as Carla closed on the surrendered ship and blast it out of the sky. Then she turned and fired on the damaged pirate. The fighter exploded in a red blaze.

"What are you doing!?!", I screamed over the radio. Carla's annoyed face appeared on my VDU. "If any of them survive, they'll be back to kill us. We have to make sure none of them survive." I didn't like the idea of killing surrendered fighters, even if they were pirates. Carla turned towards the convoy of merchant vessels. "Now, let's blast these cap ships and get out of here before more arrive.", she commanded. I formed on her wing and targeted the closest of the pirate cargo vessels. The turrets on the cargo vessels began to hail defensive fire on us. Carla turned up her 'burners a bit and closed on the cap ship. As I waited for a missile lock announcement, a huge missile streaked away from under Carla's wing. "She's got torpedoes!", Snake announced in amazement. The large munition struck the capital ship in the flanks and punctured the shields and armor. The other side of the ship burst outward into fragments and fire.

Carla's Razor slowed to regular speed and turned towards another ship. I watched the dying cap ship, firing my laser to finish it off quickly. As long as the ship was firing at me, I was firing back. Another torpedo streaked away from Carla's wing. I watched as it plowed into the front of the other ship. The pirate cap ship bloomed into a ball of flame. Carla let out a scream of aggressive tension. I decided to take on one of the other ships. Snake turned and fired on another ship. The defensive turrets began to eat away at our armor. We continued to trade fire with the ship until Snake finally put a hole deep into the guts of the ship. The ship leaned starboard for a moment, then broke in half in a terrific explosion.

There was one ship left, and it was the biggest. Carla unleashed her devastating torpedo attack while I unloaded a missile I had managed to lock onto the cap ship. The radio came alive as the communications officer of the pirate vessel sent out an SOS "Mayday! Mayday! Under attack! We won't last long! Mayday!" I heard people in the background of the cap ship's bridge. One officer was reporting the incoming torpedo that Carla had launched. The torpedo struck the ship in the side just before my missile impacted just a little closer to the front. "Mayday! Mayday! We're hit! We can't . . .", the transmition started getting scratchy. "We. .. sys. . . ure! We . . . down!" Explosions rippled up the spine of the ship until it came apart. A giant, visible shock wave flashed out just before the flaming hulk of the ship erupted into a brilliant light, making a false dawn.

Carla appeared on my VDU again. "Good. Let's keep on to the jump point. Two more jumps to the Markins system. Next jump takes us into Tellison. We shouldn't run into any more pirates.", she said. I looked at her for a moment and wondered what kind of life she lived. "Such big toys for a cute girl like yourself.", I said. She grinned slightly for a moment. "They come in handy when I need them.", she said. "But they usually just make sure people don't mess with me too much." I gave her a lopsided grin and closed off the comm signal. Snake climbed up out of the turret again and began to open the rations box. He pulled out two quick energy bars and began to munch on one. "Banana flavor.", he said. I reached for the other bar, but he jerked it away. "No.", he said with his mouth full. "Thith one'th mine. Ge'cher own." I ignored him and turned back to set the plot for the jump into the next system.

At the jump to Markins

I waited for Carla's Razor to jump into the Markins system before I entered the jump point. Her ship vanished in a flash. I moved into the blue sphere and pressed the button on my console. "Jumping.", I muttered, exhausted. We hadn't run into any more pirates, but the local police decided to pull a random cargo search for illegal material. We didn't have any cargo, and Carla was only carrying some wood to the base at the end of the route. I still didn't appreciate having to be stopped.

The space ahead faded into the pink and white clouds of a jump tunnel. I gritted my teeth while the feeling of being flung across the universe in a matter of seconds surged through my whole body. When the jump ended, I breathed deeply and tried to relax my muscles as much as I could. Every part of my body was protesting from the torture of jumping. Carla began talking. "Okay, run's just about over. All we have to do is make it to the Gaia Bio-sphere colony and we're all done." I hated bio-spheres. They were full of a bunch of new age weirdos or health freaks. I set my nav computer for the colony and pressed the autonav button.

At Gaia Bio-sphere

I settled into the booth in the bar. Thank God for space-ports. Snake sat on the other side of the booth and handed me a soda and a wrapped burger. I unwrapped it. It had the unmistakable smell of synthetic meat. I hated synthetic meat. I bit into the burger and waited for the taste of artificial cow. I got it.

Just then, Carla walked into the bar. She looked around for a minute, then spotted us in the booth. She walked over to us and sat down next to me in the booth. I threw Snake a quick glance. His brow was raised. "Good job.", Carla said. "And, as I promised, here's your five thousand." "Thank you.", I said politely. "Now tell me; why did you attack the defenseless pirate ships?" She gave an amused snort. "Those were the pirates who pulled that ambush a few months back. I was commissioned by the sector government to eliminate all pirate craft. I was getting paid twenty thousand for the mission. I figured that I would need a wingman, so I hired you. But I wouldn't get paid if any pirates were left alive."

I nodded my tolerance. "So,", I began, feeling a little lucky, "how 'bout I buy you a soda.." Carla cut me off. "Forget it, flyboy. I only needed you for the mission." She stood up and began to walk away, but turned back around and put her face nose to nose with mine. "Besides,", she said, "your friend is the cute one." With that, she turned and began to walk off again. I looked at Snake and scowled. He looked at me, then at Carla, then at me again. Then he got up and followed Carla. "Hey, baby, wait up!" I allowed my mouth to smirk and took another bite of my burger.

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