Obviously none of the people chasing after them were willing to listen to Morgan after he told them to run straight ahead into Asteroids. And frankly speaking neither the Nijat aliens or the pirates that had been chasing after them had stopped. Of course the pirates were players and perhaps they too were really eager to get that first person to the second floor bonus. And while before all of the crazy up and down during the first floor, Cole would have definitely wanted to get that first person bonus, now he absolutely did not give a shit. The only thing that was most important to him right now was to make sure he made it to the second floor.
Cole pushed the ship as hard as he could possibly managed within the asteroid field. He was lucky at least that the rocks weren't as clustered as one would have expected them to be, which made flying through them a bit easier than normal. But if they were easier for him to travel through, it meant it was easier for his pursuers too and they made sure to let him know it too, as shots after shots kept going after him. And frankly speaking after the first salvo of shots that took out a few of the Nijat aliens, he hasn't been able to get another opportunity to fight back.
[Master the ship's integrity is at about 80% we will need extensive repairs once we get to where we are if I may master can I project an optimal path to take and assume Control of the ship's weapons system. The rotary guns can actually swivel by 360 degrees and shoot backwards, it just really hard for a single pilot to handle such strain.]
Cole raised an eyebrow at that, and then narrowed his eyes to as he almost yelled out in annoyance at that, because frankly speaking that was information that he would have liked to have some twenty minutes ago. But either way, he gave the order as a sort of holographic pathway appeared on the windshield in front of him, along with a bunch of Mathematical equations inclusive of geometry and physics that much to the shock of Cole he was able to understand and follow.
The ship made a sharp turn, going between two Massive asteroids, it was akin to going down another street, but the turn was sharp enough that two of the skimmers that tried followed after him crashed had and exploded, causing the rest of his pursuers to slow down as they couldn't make the turn with fiery conflagration in front of them.
Cole made a nose dive, going down then rotating so that he was traveling backwards in the direction he was coming from and right back at the explosion he just cause. But he was lower than they would have noticed and the radar they were probably using to track him would not have accounted for elevation, and even worse was the fact that it seemed as if the Nijat Aliens and the pirates had joined forces just to bring Cole down, but regardless, retribution comes.
Morgan opened fire on them just as Cole focused on just piloting his ship. They fired back, but the explosion obscured vision due to how narrow the path between both asteroids had been. They were shooting back at empty air, and foolishly enough they were tightly packed together as the second Nijat gunship, and a second pirate gunships was blasted through and taken out of commission. And that had only been able to happen because three skimmers had also exploded in close proximity to them.
One of the pirates Gunships had been destroyed by the Nijat aliens when they had arrived, but they had not given up. Now both sides were left with one each, and the Nijat aliens only had two skimmers left to their name. The pirates without hesitation turned around and ran back the way they came.
The Nijat aliens on the other hand were relentless. Cole flew out from under them righted his ship and continued through the field, due to how expansive it was, going around it would have taken way too much time and honestly he would probably be already back at respawn by now. Going through afforded him a little bit more protection than the norm, and he has been able to survive because most of the attacks thrown his way had been intercepted by the asteroid he was currently trying to navigate.
"Morgan! How much farther until we get out of this blasted Asteroid field?" Cole asked as he moved the ship to the side, dodging another blasts of laser fire.
[Another 376 Meters master, however the asteroids there are a bit tricky to maneuver at the speed we are going, will you like me to take control of avionics? You would have to man the guns though the ship is not advanced enough to handle an Artificial intelligence handling two monumental tasks at the same time.]
"Fine! Take control, get us the fuck out of here Morgan!" Cole called out as the windscreen or was it shield? Turned into a camera feed that was showing the rear of the ship and the one gunship and two skimmers still chasing after it.
One part of the gunship was already on fire, and the skimmers looked a bit time and were drawing closer. Cole could feel that Morgan had slowed down a bit, but he wasn't worried….or maybe he was worried but he trusted his Morgan enough to know the AI had a handle on things. The trigger for the guns were underneath the grip of the wheels, Cole did not stand on ceremony as he moved them a bit, the wheels acting to give the guns direction rather steer the ship as Morgan was intercepting the signals from the wheel. The Cole opened fire.
*dudududududududududududududu!*
Cole was firing actually ammunition, which meant shells, which also meant that his ammunition was finite and eventually he would run out of them. And unlike Morgan who had been firing in short bursts, and when he was absolutely sure that his attacks would hit his target, Cole let loose. He was hyper focused to the point of being called a machine himself as he sent both skimmers to hell, wasting ammunition but still able to cause enough damage to bring both skimmers down and slow the gunship down too as it had to return all power to it Shields.
The gunship though was slower and that was it's problem. It had way more firepower than what small skimmers could manage, but it packed the speed and it was completely unable to catch up, which meant it's attacks, even if you refused to take Morgan's stellar piloting into account, was for naught. Cole felt the screen reorient as he was returned control of the ship an Morgan took back control of the guns.
[We're out of asteroid field master, the star…jump gate is just ahead.]
Morgan was absolutely right, the star hate was just ahead of him, and there were six other ships heading towards it and fighting each other for a chance to be the first to get through. Cole was shocked, but then again he was just one player out 5 million, it would be really be a stupid thought filled with hubris to think he would be the first to reach the gates.
Either way all of the ship's in sight were skimmers, and that more than anything proved the speed of this class of starships. At the it also spoke about the sort of quests those pirates would have had to complete in order to get the those three Gunships. Cole was still following the directions on the screen, and with them now all out in the open it meant that the bloody Gunship behind him had a clear sight to him.
He spun to the left, his guns opening fire on the ship ahead as the shots from the gunship once evaded smaller into those of the ship's that were pretty much unguarded and weren't paying attention. It was like two combined attacks from two new forces. Of course they wouldn't know that Cole was just running for his life from the Gunship.
The gate was close, so close that 8t would only take a few hundred meters to get through, which shocked Cole because at the very least the gravitational force from the star should have pulled the asteroids in, yet 8t was as if there was a perfect demarcation and the gate was on a whole other zone.
Cole didn't pay attention to anything else other than the ship flying past all the others, he followed Morgan's directions to the T, leaving the AI to handle using the guns to keep them alive. The chaos and single minded focus of Cole relying on Morgan helped him pass the other players in their ships. He could hear curses coming out of the intercom but he ignored it all as the gate loomed closer and closer until suddenly he was through It and everything went dark.
[World Announcement: Congratulations! 1st Player Cole is the first to reach the Second Floor]
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