Quoted By:
"I hear the turbine-whine of frictionless bearings – the pressure of reality being sundered to its final breaking point. MERRYGATE whispers a pained apology before…
..//
..//
..//
The hypometric weapon discharges twice, and I feel something being shorn away from me. Neural feedback stains my shunt-bound hands as my brain struggles to claw back information it never truly possessed. My memory of the engagement clots like old blood before disintegrating into grey-lined static. I dry-heave into warm acceleration gel.
When I recover, I nod with knowing confusion when MERRYGATE reports successful engagement of two ships – a destroyer and a corvette – that I can no longer recall.
One cruiser. There is one cruiser blocking our trajectory. That is what is left, and that is all that matters. It has been tracking us long enough to obtain a targeting fix.
Four missiles flash into the void. The cruiser overloads its engines in a desperate attempt to close into railgun range."
- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, DECEMBER 13th, PERSONAL JOURNAL//VOICE DICTATION
[NOTE: You will be able to launch against the planet next turn.]
[The RAIN WILL:]
>ENGAGE – MSL [3 Left]. Engage the cruiser with a conventional fusion missile. This will leave the RAIN’s other armaments available for missile interception, which will most likely succeed.
>ENGAGE – MSLx2. Engage the cruiser with one missile, and the incoming missile barrage with the other. This will guarantee success and minimize risk to the RAIN.
>ENGAGE. Engage the cruiser with the laser array. This is riskier than using a missile, but it will not expend any munitions.
[MERRYGATE WILL:]
>INTRUSION. The RAIN is close enough to transmit directly to the approaching cruiser. MERRYGATE will attempt to disable the ship and nullify the incoming attack.
>HYPOMETRIC. MERRYGATE will target the approaching ship and/or the approaching missiles with the hypometric weapon.
