Chapter 90 - Dog Fight.

Carole said, "Ace, what do you want to do?" 

Shi Lang said, "Not get captured." 

Carole chuckled and said, "You have my vote on that. Well here is the basic analysis of the pirate vessel. It is a battle-class spaceship. Initially made to carry cargo, these salvagers have modified it and installed a lot of phaser cannons over the ship. Another thing, they have a better range of attack than us." 

Shi lang nodded and said, "We go close to them, you unleash the cannons on their canons, leave the dodging to me." 

Carole was surprised and asked, "Do you know the speed of a phasor beam? How do you plan to dodge it at a close range?" 

Shi Lang replied, "Pilot neural link, like the mecha. The ship also has that right? I will use my ability in correspondence to the controls and it will work. I can sense things faster than others. You just focus on the attacks." 

Carole hesitated and then said, "Okay, boy I am putting my hands in your hands. Godspeed." 

Shi Lang chuckled and the two engaged in a dog fight. The ship they were riding had six thrusters and it looked like a streamlined bomber jet. Speed was able to push the whole metallic beast to Mach seven. They were faster than the space pirates but the destruction capacity of the enemy was higher than them. 

As the distance increases, they will lose the range of impact because they had smaller canons and the enemy will find it easier to calculate their path and the attacks will be easier. Since they have been discovered they could not afford to get away from them as the Space Pirates would definitely initiate a space jump. 

One of the conditions of space jump was that the vessel must be undisturbed. If they were given a shock then the space jump will disrupt and the whole ship will explode and the people will die from the vacuum inside. Thus, the space pirates also directly engaged in combat. 

...

Shi Lang moved the joystick and avoided a phasor beam aimed at the tail of their ship. The boy said, "Initiate Neural Link." 

A module popped open from behind the headrest of his chair and a helmet covered Shi Lang's head. This was the advanced neural link equipped in only the secret division or higher military divisions vehicles. The helmet covered Shi Lang's eyeline but the images of the scene around him were all being displayed directly inside his brain. 

The boy said, "Carole, we are going in." 

Carole said, "Roger that Ace, I will relay this to the boss." 

Then she went on and pressed a small button on the console in front of her and said, "Boss, we are engaged in space combat. Back-up is requested." 

Gamma replied, "You just hold on for four minutes, I will reach on-site with the others." 

Suddenly, Hunk and Sharpnel's voices sounded in the communicator, "Boss, we found three bogeys. They seem to be salvagers. We are engaged in a game of tag." 

Gamma said, "SHIT." 

Shi Lang did not stay quiet and said, "Boss, you and Lullaby should move to give them a hand first, we have this big guy under control." 

Carole saw what he did as he spoke and she nearly screamed. The ship just made a drift like it was a car on the ground. Shi Lang used the thrusters in opposite direction to move the whole ship in this manner. The risk was that if the control of the thrusters lagged even by a second then there is a chance that the ship might break in two. After all the laws of physics were still applicable in space. 

Imagine the stress put on the whole ship when it suddenly changes the trajectory by one eighty degrees at a speed seven times higher than sound. Shi Lang just did that. Then he said, "Let's roll." 

The ship shot forward at full speed.

...

A man with a chiseled face stood in the cockpit of the space pirate vessel gazing at the situation in front of him. A technician said, "Boss, this guy is mad, he is charging at us at full speed. Is it planning to suicide bomb us?"

The man scoffed and said, "This is why you are still a technician after so much time, Salvador. That person must have something up his sleeve that he is rushing here. Be on guard, set the canons on full auto. I want to see what he has."

...

Shi Lang and Carole reached the enemy vessel at a fast speed. The latter said, "Ace, they are locking on us with all the cannons." 

Shi Lang replied, "Calm your titties lady. We are going to make it through. Trust me." 

Carole was surprised by his remark, and she was brought back to her senses when the enemy launched at least twenty phasor beams at them. However, she sensed their ship rolling over as it moved forward. She said, "Good move, Ace. Time to give them some bitter love. Initiating all canons." 

Seeing that the pilot kept his promise and slipped through the phasers aimed at them, her heart fell back in its place. 

Their ship had four canons but all of them held a superior standard in close combat. Carole took the manual command and instead of damaging the hull of the enemy vessel, she aimed at the enemy canons. The enemy ship may have a make-shift battle system, but the onboard computer made sure that the timing of the phasor beams was timed and left almost no major gap in the cycle. 

Carole took aim and unleashed the canons with a simple click on her joystick. The weapon system on their ship allowed the phasor beams to rain down continuously. It was like a battling gun firing in the old times just a lot more destructive. Two thousand phasor beams in one minute. It only needed two seconds to shower a canon module to make it immovable. 

Carole was smart enough to aim at the canon located furthest in the back. She said, "Ace, you can see where I am aiming, right?" 

Shi Lang replied, "Will keep it as steady as possible. Can you take down one canon in one cycle?" 

Carole nodded and said, "I can." 

Shi Lang said, "Okay, the first twenty to make them lose movement, and the rest will be done without the neural link. Okay?" 

Carole replied, "Roger that." 

... 

The two people raised hell outside and the people inside the ship became anxious and nervous. They did not know how it was humanly possible for this pilot to dodge the phasor beams at such a close distance. The technicians were sweating profusely, as they did not have complete command on the manual control of the canons and they did not have resources to train too, they reigned in this region thanks to the computer onboard. 

However, their illusion was broken today when Shi Lang came on their radar. This person decisively engaged in a dog fight with them. Nobody spoke a single syllable. They were all hoping for the canons to land an attack successfully and then they will space jump away from here. 

...

Shi Lang had completed twenty rounds and the modules of the canons were fixed in different directions. He moved in irregular patterns to make sure that the computer onboard could not predict their movements. He said, "Neural Link disengage." 

The helmet was lifted from his head and the boy took a deep breath. He said, "We will move slowly now, Carole. Can you kill the canons completely?" 

Carole replied, "Roger that." 

... 

Ten more rounds at a speed of match five, Carole showed super skills in aiming down on the canons and destroyed them completely. Just as the canons were destroyed, Gamma and the rest came over. Carole tried to talk to Shi Lang but the boy replied very weakly. He said, "Carole, my brain is overtaxed by this fight. Do not make me talk." 

Carole chuckled and said, "Boss, Ace was the hero of this dog fight. He used the neural link to take down the canons."

Gamma said, "I get it. Time to wrap it up and go home. Ace will get a promotion for this." 

... 

The rest of the process was for them to contact the military business cargo ship that had brought them here and then a frontier force ship to take custody of the pirates on board the pirate ship. Gamma and the others again hitched a ride with the military business cargoship. 

They came back to the federation and rode their bikes back to the base. Shi Lang had yet to get back to the villa when Commander Archie Arkham called him over. He sighed and said, "No rest for a soldier." 

Gamma said with a chuckle, "Boy you have earned yourself a reward on this one. You did not kill any space pirate. We scored a full score, the pirates will be used to provide us a lot of intel about the space and then they will be sent to the rehab before they are supported to integrate into the society. Well, those who are responsible for serious crimes like murders and pillaging will be sentenced to death. Do not worry. They will all be judged fairly.. Go get the reward."