The Ace of Spades Campaign - Raid on Sterling part 05

The Polecat Pounces
"That's a Flamespear Photonic Torpedo they've launched," Storm announced. "It does not have a lock on us. I repeat, it does not have a lock on us. If we maintain this course it will miss."
"That's a relief," Kimberley gratefully said as she sat alongside Storm in the co-pilot's seat. Kimberley was the captain of  The Ace of Spades Class IV scout ship but Storm was a much better pilot than her. Storm was an ex-UFP ace pilot with considerable flight and combat experience.

"Kimberley to all crew," Kimberley said as she opened a ship-wide communications, "Battle stations, battle stations! We are under attack by a hostile ship. Prepare for combat."
"Are we going to engage them?" Jeanette asked from her gunnery console.
"Hell, yeah!" Kimberley replied grimly. "We'll teach those bastards not to mess with us."
"Good," Jeanette acknowledged with a wry smile. She was looking forward to a bit of action.

The enemy vessel was called The Polecat, a Class III patrol ship crewed by a small group of pirates led by Mors Katajak. He was under instructions to stop Mearc Sterling from returning to Breuse. Although much smaller than The Ace of Spades, he was confident The Polecat could do enough damage to cripple her and allow his team to board and capture Mearc and his two colleagues. Mors was in command of a crew of six and he had a section of ten pirate troopers ready for boarding actions.
He closed the distance to The Ace of Spades and ordered his gunner to launch a second Photonic Torpedo at it. Unfortunately for him, it also failed to achieve a lock on and it narrowly shot past its target.
"Damn and blast!" he cursed. "Next time you won't be so lucky!"

Storm maintained the speed of The Ace of Spades at 5,000km, whilst turning the ship to face The Polecat, jinking all the way to make her a harder target to hit.
Kimberley left the manoeuvring to her more skilled colleague and acted as a spotter for Jeanette and Celeste who were manning the ship's Redsword Phaser Beam and Stingbird Cluster Missile Launcher respectively.
"I have target acquisition data for you, Jeanette and Celeste," she said. "I'm sending it to your controls now."
"Don't fire just yet," Sharuna warned. "Let me try and weaken their shields first."
Her computer hacking skills were the main reason that Kimberley had hired her. Her nimble fingers danced across her keyboard as she made an electronic attack against The Polecat. Seconds later she let out a triumphant cry. "YES! That's going to hurt him a lot. I've reduced his forward shield output by half. Now fry that son-of-a-bitch!"

"Way to go, girl," Jeanette complimented the young hacker. "Now let's show those scum just what we can do."
By now the two ships were at short range for The Ace of Spades' twin weapon systems. Jeanette made sure that her target was in the centre of her cross-hairs before pressing the firing button. The Redsword Phaser Beam shot out with devastating accuracy and power. It punched right through The Polecat's forward bulkhead, melting metal and crippling the bridge as it pierced the pirate vessel, causing further catastrophic damage. Two crew members and three troopers were killed instantly. Mors Katajak had no choice but to issue the order that every captain dreaded, "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"
"Do you want me to finish them off, Kimberley?" Celeste asked. Her finger hovered expectantly over the firing button of the missile control system.

"No, there's no need, Celeste," Kimberley replied. "They're well and truly screwed. Look, they're launching escape pods."

Moments later The Polecat was engulfed in a massive explosion as its power plant reached critical mass. Only six escape pods were launched. Two crew members, neither of whom was Mors Katajak, and four troopers were the sole survivors.
"What do you want to do about those escape pods?" Storm asked.
"We leave 'em," Kimberley answered, "We don't have the capacity to rescue them all. Besides which, this is one of the major entry points into the Saga star sector. Someone will be along soon enough. They can deal with them."
"Fair enough," Storm said, not bothered either way.
"Aren't you at all curious to know who they were?" Mearc asked, "Or why they attacked us?"
"Given what happened to The Walleran, I strongly suspect they were from the same group who attacked her," Kimberley replied. "More than likely they were mercenaries or pirates looking to stop you from returning home."
"Oh!" was all Mearc could say. He had the look of a very worried man as he headed back to his quarters.

(Note. As I mentioned before this was the first ever starship combat I have played in my life! I read and re-read the rules until I was sure I was familiar with them before playing this brief encounter. The outcome was never in any doubt - The Ace of Spades was much better than The Polecat in almost every respect. But, the game went well and it certainly was a lot of fun to play. Now that I have tried starship combat once it won't be the last time. There was much I liked about the rules. They are very much geared towards role-playing, with all of the crew being allowed to get in on the action, if they wanted to. I did wonder about including any rules references in my narrative but in the end decided to leave them all out. The story is more important than the dice rolls or games mechanics. If anyone is interested in how starship combat works in N.E.W. I could certainly do a tutorial. I made extensive notes of this encounter including every dice roll I made. Let me know if it's something you'd want to read. My feeling is that it would have little appeal unless you're a newcomer to the rules system.)