The Raven Chassis
Phoenix lunged forward at 2km/s, pirouetted around the old, shot out engine cylinder of the great orbiting hulk, sparkles of light appearing in her forward view as dust particles from the debris cloud incandesced on impact with her nose. When she reached the end, she pulled up in a 50g climbout, let out an exultant and joyous radio shout, and rocketed toward the cloud perimeter, having gained incredible speed from the artificial gravity slingshot. Her vision was suddenly filled with stars. She was tearing away from Earth at 26km/s now, far beyond escape velocity. Even a human could have perceived the disc of the Earth growing smaller behind her. And Phoenix did not even have to look behind her to see it. She could see everywhere, all at once.
The Moon was passing to her left. Executive lunar transport services boasted a trip to the moon in 24 hours. She could make the trip in only 3 at this speed. And she could go faster. Much, much faster. She'd been in open space before - she had a Navi class chassis modified to work outside the station, but never like this. The Raven chassis was a spacecraft. Fusion power system, connected to a modified gravitic manipulator such as commonly used in grav packs and to float Earth's great floating cities, but much more precise. No telltale engine burn to indicate her next move. No fuel to carry. Phoenix felt like a child of the cosmos for the first time in her life. As if the whole universe was hers to see and touch.
"Phoenix Prime to Phoenix Raven, come in please." her internal comms came to life. It was Phoenix, in her Miach chassis, in CNC aboard the station.
"Raven here."
"Are you seeing the disturbance in sector 12, or are you spiraling around debris in the Lucifer field again?"
She smiled inwardly "Ummm...." She turned her attention back to the debris cloud, in which there were a series of infrared and x-ray flashes - a space battle of some sort was going on. Local pirates, slugging it out over a good haul. If she had eyes, she would have rolled them.
Phoenix prime smiled "Jealous. Tomorrow I get the Raven chassis. You can stay here and run things."
"Technically, you got the Raven chassis today, and you'll have experienced all of this when we sync up in a few hours."
"Check out sector 12, would you?"
"Copy that."
The Moon was passing to her left. Executive lunar transport services boasted a trip to the moon in 24 hours. She could make the trip in only 3 at this speed. And she could go faster. Much, much faster. She'd been in open space before - she had a Navi class chassis modified to work outside the station, but never like this. The Raven chassis was a spacecraft. Fusion power system, connected to a modified gravitic manipulator such as commonly used in grav packs and to float Earth's great floating cities, but much more precise. No telltale engine burn to indicate her next move. No fuel to carry. Phoenix felt like a child of the cosmos for the first time in her life. As if the whole universe was hers to see and touch.
"Phoenix Prime to Phoenix Raven, come in please." her internal comms came to life. It was Phoenix, in her Miach chassis, in CNC aboard the station.
"Raven here."
"Are you seeing the disturbance in sector 12, or are you spiraling around debris in the Lucifer field again?"
She smiled inwardly "Ummm...." She turned her attention back to the debris cloud, in which there were a series of infrared and x-ray flashes - a space battle of some sort was going on. Local pirates, slugging it out over a good haul. If she had eyes, she would have rolled them.
Phoenix prime smiled "Jealous. Tomorrow I get the Raven chassis. You can stay here and run things."
"Technically, you got the Raven chassis today, and you'll have experienced all of this when we sync up in a few hours."
"Check out sector 12, would you?"
"Copy that."
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