>>5262264"There's a clear line between bravery and stupidity, David. It's too much."
"And? I'm sure you've been outgunned before. That doesn't mean it's impossible, not if we play our cards right. Besides, what if your man is still alive?"
Gron sighs.
"I very much doubt it. It's possible they could be holding him, to use him as leverage to make me surrender peacefully. Not that i would, but they don't know that. However, he most likely killed himself after being captured."
"...What? What the hell, why would he do that? Especially if he knows using him as a hostage won't work?"
"Because it's the federation." He grumbles. "They have access to the deep-layer protocols in any grey-made technology that they've bought the rights to, including the translator chips implanted in the brains of every spacefaring species."
"Which means?"
"Meaning, they can scan his brain to access all of his memories, against his will. Everything he knows, including our base locations and methods of operations... if they haven't been sent back over QED yet, they soon will be. Which means it's all the more important that we take Xebric quickly."
"Well, shit. If they know where you live... that means they'll start attacking civvies. So i guess we really can't lose this one, huh?"
"Are you deaf, human? I said we can't-"
"SHODAN, unlock the marauder missile racks."
<span class="mu-i">"With pleasure, Captain.</span>
You see Gron turn away from his screen to watch out the cockpit window as your ship jolts slightly, the wingside covers over your ship's new missile racks unlocking and sliding open to reveal bay after bay of high explosive flak missiles.
At the same time, you pull down the auxiliary control harness for the ship's 20mm spinal autocannon, causing another panel to slide back and reveal it's almost excessively long barrel, covered in a large water cooling jacket rated for continuous fire.
Gron's eyes widen as you flip open a plastic cover panel on your dashboard and start flipping switches one after another, into the "on" position.
One by one, the ship's five smaller pulse laser cannons rise up out of the upper hull and swing into position, followed by the much larger continuous laser cannon mounted to the bottom of the ship.
The cockpit lights die out and are immediately replaced with deep red emergency lighting.
<span class="mu-i">"We are armed and ready, Captain. I am awaiting your order."</span>
Gron is staring out of his window, slack-jawed. It takes a moment for him to recover and say something.
"That's... That's ridiculous. It's more gun than ship! How did you even fit all of... no, no. Nevermind. Even with all of... whatever that is, we still won't make it out alive."
You lean back into your pilot seat and grip the controls tightly. Something about this just feels right. More like... it's what you should have been doing from the start. Now this, this is your groove.
"What if i told you, Gron... that i could take out ten of them in an instant, before we even start the fight?"
