Quoted By:
The sensation of drowning. Black edges around my field of vision. Hearing the rush of pressurized blood, thundering in my veins.
High-G combat never truly becomes easy, even with decades of experience garnered from fighting in the great black. The process itself is unnatural: a combination of artificial interventions tuned to keep the human mind functioning well beyond its natural breaking point. Liquid immersion combined with intravenous muscle relaxants to keep the body alive. Stimulant cocktails mixed with neuroprotective treatments to keep the central nervous system conscious.
All of these proved to be necessary measures. The Mizarian patrol sprung into action immediately once the RAIN showed up on their scopes. As the cruisers swung around and racked long-ranged missiles, their escorts shot forward on intercept burns that would have crushed any human crew. Their implicit strategy was simple but effective: an action designed to keep the RAIN tracked and occupied while their heavier capitals maneuvered into better engagement positions.
It was a strategy that we chose not to oblige. Instead of staying and fighting, I ramped the RAIN's drive unit to maximum output - sending our vessel hurtling towards the pair of mining stations that their impromptu ambush had left exposed. The destroyer pair approaching from the sunward side harried the RAIN as she accelerated - peppering the asteroid field with plasma-sheathed kinetic slugs that burned cyan-white on approach.
While they were fired from too far away to have any significant chance of striking the RAIN, stray hits on nearby asteroids testified to their killing power. Hundred-meter-wide chondrites cracked and fragmented, revealing impact markings surrounded by rings of heat-plasticized rock.
Half kiloton range. Our hull could take three or four before shattering. Less if we were particularly unlucky.
The bombardment continued as the RAIN stuttered her maneuvering thrusters, using stochastically modeled firing patterns to weave between regions likely to catch the next volley of kinetic slugs. I knew that this was a temporary measure. With kinetic weapons, accuracy was a function of distance: a few hundred thousand kilometers nearer, and the destroyers would be able to track the RAIN with appreciable accuracy. If they crossed that distance again, dodging their fire would be physically impossible with the RAIN's modest kinematic performance.
Fortunately, the RAIN was operating on a timetable too. As as she crested the outer edge of the belt, I felt the familiar rumble of opening launch apertures. A cold sting of an autosampler as it withdrew a blood sample to confirm final authorization.
Two missiles left the RAIN's launch tubes, visible for a brief moment before disappearing in a blur of fusion thrust. Meanwhile, the hull flipped back, completing a short, clinical arc that brought her laser emitters in line with her dogged pursuers...
