Location: The Gunner’s Seat (Surrounded by screens, eating dried meat)
Status: Analyzing the Victory (and the lag)
We didn’t drop from the sky like meteors. (Which is a shame, because I have practiced my atmospheric entry vector and it is terrifying). No, we were already there. Tucked into the docking bays like ticks in the fur, waiting for the signal. The Trojan Horse maneuvre. But with more lasers.
I wasn’t watching through a window; I was plugged into the tight-beam, encrypted feeds from our droids. Hundreds of little windows, seeing through their eyes.
Let me tell you something: We need better Battle Management Software.
Trying to coordinate a hundred combat droids and a pack of irradiated Vespexers using their video feeds is like trying to conduct an orchestra using a wet noodle. It is undignified for one of my stature and station. If we ever get to pirate again – which I begin to doubt – I am going to stop saving up for Project Ermine and I’ll buy the Tactical-Commander Pro Suite. I deserve it.
But even through the grainy, glitching video feeds, it was beautiful.
One second, the PRQ guards were checking manifests and drinking bad coffee. The next second – static, flash, crunch – the cargo ramps dropped and our metal boys walked out.
I watched the action. The feed was black and white and lagging by half a second, but I lapped it up like a fresh bowl of wine. The Vespexers poured out of the ships like angry water, but Cauldron was the shark: boom went the armoury. The pixels couldn’t keep up with the action. The Vespexers moved through the hangar, and wherever they went, the enemy icons just… deleted.
The droids lack flamboyance – they just march and shoot – but when they saw their Alphas move, they surged. It wasn’t a battle; it was a system purge. Acrid fell in two hours, and I didn’t even have to strafe anything. (I am slightly disappointed I didn’t get to strafe, but the efficiency was… tasty).
Filed by Krrsh, Warlord (future)
P.S. Droid 84 got shot in the face and the static feedback made me spill my drink. I am deducting the cleaning bill from its maintenance budget.
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