Re: Mission 4: White Gate
The laser fire catches the swooping TIE in mid-bank, apparently catching the pilot by surprise. The ball cockpit comes to pieces and flies apart. Distantly, you can see its black-clad pilot flailing as he is thrown through space. TIE pilots wear full life-support suits in flight, so he should survive for a little while. If anyone is willing to brave the asteroids to pick him up, they might have him before he is killed by micrometeorites.
The ship contains a considerable amount of respirable gases; shutting off life support is not an instant death sentence. However, every breath you take now consumes a finite quantity of air. Soon you will begin feeling light-headed and anxious as your bodies struggle to restore themselves on oxygen that isn't there.
Life support also functions to control the temperature. Between the ship's machinery, the reactor, and your own body heat, the ship is always struggling to keep the temperature livable. With life support disabled, soon it will be too hot to function. As this happens, more and more machinery will run hot, entering a spiral of overheating that does not end until a critical meltdown.
Forim aims the ship towards an asteroid. He watches the Shimmer's approach towards the huge, fast-moving rock, his fingers poised over the 'launch' controls. Precise timing is necessary, not to survive the launch but to convince the Imperials that they were all killed in the crash. At the last moment, he presses the button.
The escape pod fires its jets, which Forim immediately deactivates. The less ion signature from this craft, the harder it will be to detect. The Sunset Shimmer crashes into the asteroid at sub-light speeds, erupting into a fiery geyser of fuel, flammable gases, and hope.
Far away, the Imperials have been watching the vessel on their sensor scopes. To them, it looks as though the Rebel ship just collided with an asteroid. Their screens are fogged with debris from the explosion, as well as the asteroids. A few pieces of metallic debris slip their notice.
Inside two escape pods, the Rebels nurture many thoughts. They narrowly escaped elimination, but their pods do not have hyperdrives. There is no escaping this system now. The pods are generously roomy, designed for half again as many people as currently dwell within. Nevertheless it begins to feel a bit cramped as they face one another from the crash couches. The only visual they have of the outside world is a round porthole that allows them to see what is in front of them.
The pods are designed to provide a fair amount of maneuverability, if not actual engine power. However, you dare not apply the engines. If the Imperials detect a trace blast of ion energy from what they had assumed was a stray piece of debris, all is lost. You are forced to use maneuvering jets only as you aim your pods towards your destination.
Hours pass, until nearly a Standard day has gone by inside the pods. You were distantly able to see the Raptor shuttle towing the Skipray blastboat to the satellite defence platform above the planet. Although it is a hundred kilometers away at its closest point, it still feels uncomfortably close.
Although your escape vehicle has been destroyed, your mission is closer than ever. Your escape pods now approach the first planet of the Karhexadine system. Soon, you will be able to commence the mission.