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Coppertop

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Coppertop is doing well so far

Apr 5, 2005, 04:11 PM
Coppertop is offline
OMGOMGOMG LOOK STOOORRRRiEee

The part that should have been posted, now edited and made better. Haha. Penguins.

"Claw."
Claw blinked sleepy red eyes at Copper. She smirked. "We're almost there."
"Ooh, hold me back," Claw muttered. He sat up carefully, stretching and wincing when his neck cracked loudly. Copper grinned unsympathetically.
"I can't wait until you get reclining seats in this thing," he growled, making her laugh. He straightened, and looked out the viewport.
"Isn't that Carrotus ...?"
"Yeah."
"I'm going back to bed. Wake me when it's over."
"Oh no you don't," Copper said. "We're here to meet Kaz. You're coming along if I have to drag you."
"Ooh, and you actually plan to succeed in this?"
"Try me."
"We could sell tickets. It would be amusing to witness the attempt. We could make a profit at your expense."
Copper's reply, which was doubtlessly scathing and witty, was lost in the startlingly loud blare of warning klaxons. Copper sat upright, and Claw groaned and fell back into his chair.
"Can't we ever have a decent vacation?"
"Shut up and help me find what's wrong," Copper said, scowling at him. Claw watched her searching the control board and radar for a moment before reaching lazily over and snapping on the visual area display. Copper looked sheepish for a moment.
There was nothing on the display. Claw frowned and glanced at Copper. At that moment the alarms shut off.
Claw's harsh voice broke the suddenly oppressive silence. "Nothing on the radar?"
"Not a thing."
"Wierd.
"Totally."
They drifted towards Carrotus for a moment in silence, the large blue-green-white planet dominating the front viewport.
"Malfunction d'you think?"
"I almost hope so, despite how much we paid to upgrade this thing."
A soft chiming sound was emitted from the speakers, followed by the rarely-heard AI of the Phantom Eclipse.
"Pilots alert. Incoming craft in sector 1-H, 4-1-V. Distance three kilometers and closing."
"What?"
"Weapons lock acquired." The alarms went off again.
"Identify incoming," Copper snapped at the AI, as she sent the Eclipse into a corkscrewing dive. The AI's coordinates were alarming. The craft was behind, above and slightly to the right of them. It was a perfect attack angle.
"Craft has been identified as the Warshadow, piloted by Amathi Gerrich," the AI said pleasantly. "Missile lock acquired. Evasive maneuvers suggested."
"Yes, I know," Copper said venomously, spinning the Eclipse down and to the left in an attempt to break the missile lock.
"Well I'm just trying to help," the AI said huffily. Despite himself, Claw smiled.
"A little touchy, Copper?"
"I don't need some jumped-up computer program telling me how to do my job," and she pulled a 180 and accelerated wildly.
"Ignore her," Claw advised the AI. "She's just stressing out."
"A little understandable, I think!" Copper finally broke the missile lock that had threatened them and spun the Eclipse around in a tight arc to face their attacker.
Claw targeted the craft squarely. He caught a glimpse of scorched silver hull, stenciled letters, and the blue glare of engines before the entire vessel vanished.
"What the -?"
The alarms cut off. Copper darted a quick glance at Claw. "Lucky shot?"
"I never fired! It just disappeared!"
"Nothing on the sensors, now."
"... Cloaking? Should I have fired anyway?"
"I doubt it, the craft was too small. Could just be a computer malfunction."
"Oh, right! Not when I saw the freaking thing! That was no malfunction!"
"Now who's stressing out," Copper chided. Claw snorted derisively.
"Uh huh, yeah. Next you'll be telling me it was all a hallucination."
"That can be verified. Reetek, did you manage to identify that ship?"
"Of course I did," the AI said curtly. Copper sighed.
"They had to go program feelings into the blasted thing," she muttered. Claw stared at her, stil disgruntled by the disappearance of his target. "What was its ID then?"
"Warshadow."
"What? ... Are you trying to be funny?"
"Of course not!"
"Copper? What is it?"
"I know for a fact that Warshadow no longer exists," Copper snapped. "I destroyed it. Years ago. This is not the time for any of your pranks, Reetek."
"What makes you think this is a prank?"
"You've been part of this ship long enough that I know your programming, that's what!"
"Copper." Claw's voice of reason went ignored.
"What has my programming got to do with anything? Geez, what is it with you?"
"This is just your taste in pranks, and you know it!"
"Copper."
"Oh, really? What pranks are you talking about exactly? The drills?"
"Is that what you call them? Drills? Your jokes are not a success, Reetek!"
"Copper!"
"What!"
"You are arguing with a machine."
"So?"
"It doesn't have to be Reetek's bad taste in jokes, you know."
"Exactly," Reetek chimed in, in a very un-AI-like manner.
"Reetek," Copper and Claw chorused. The AI shut up.
"It could be an imposter. Maybe somebody liked the name," Claw suggested.
"Who piloted it, Reetek," Copper demanded, with a defiant look at Claw.
"Amathi Gerrich," the AI said sulkily.
"Amathi is dead!" Copper's temper flared again. "I can't believe you would make this up, Reetek!"
"I'm not. You can check my records."
"Don't worry about it," Claw said, a bit irritated now. "Copper, if someone could take the name of his ship, there's no reason they couldn't take his name as well." He conveniently ignored the quandry of the mystery ship's disappearance.
"Yes," she agreed, a bit of relief in her voice. "Yes, that's it." She looked up at him then, green eyes belligerent. "Why must we always be haunted by their ghosts, their memories, Claw? Will they ever leave us alone? Will they ever die completely?"
"I'm sorry, Copper," Claw said, and he meant it. "They follow you for the rest of your life."