Blockade Blues
AN: This is a prompt fill from Reddit. Original prompt with setup is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/humansarespaceorcs/comments/1tvzr2x/attention_human_vessel_this_is_the_destroyer_g27/
"Attention human vessel. This is the destroyer G27 of the Imperial T’Chak Navy. The system you are traversing - Kanahuai - is currently under blockade by the T’Chak Imperium. Please turn around to your system of departure, or we will be forced to destroy your vessel.”
The autohail blared over Jen's communicator, just as she'd been told it would. But on her scopes, the destroyer was 3 AU away, at least on the other side of Kanahuai from her hyperspace entry. A smirk stretched her lips. Guess again, jackass.
___
Aboard the blockade destroyer, the t'Chak captain lounged in his chair. The blip of a human ship transiting in raised only enough interest to trigger the autohail, before the captain went back to his boredom.
Had he known what was to come, perhaps he might have been more attentive.
The first sign of anything odd was a mayday call from that same human vessel as it hurtled, barely controlled, toward the planet's surface. The captain punched in an intercept course and sat back; even at best speed, it would still be several hours until the G27 reached visual intercept range.
Honestly, today was a slow day. He'd already fended off one would-be blockade runner, and forced three ships to abort their takeoff from the surface of the planet below. Two more weeks and his ship would rotate away, back to port for resupply then (hopefully) to the front for some actual action.
The captain was just thinking about how he'd spend his resupply R&R when, as the G27 came around Kanahuai, it was suddenly struck. Almost before the captain could react, his port engine bank had shuddered and died. As he snapped off an order for Damage Control to swarm in and get the engines back online, two more strikes slammed home, this time breaching the main crew compartments. The drive core slammed into emergency shutdown, plunging the ship into the darkness of emergency lighting.
___
When she'd explained her plan to Command, Jen's superiors had been leery, to say the least. Just as well, then , that it had gone off pretty much without a hitch.
Funny thing about Guangzhou-type freighters; the early models had horrific engine failure issues. Jen's had been modified pretty thoroughly, but on scopes, New Orleans still squawked as a rev. 1b bulk freighter, the worst of a lot. And with her railgun emplacements, it was child's play to fake an engine malfunction; fire off a pair to slingshot around the planet to set up a chaotic tumble, then set the computer to fire the other pair along the most likely intercept trajectory on the other. Then, still spiraling chaotically, push the engines into what should be a Guangzhou's redline and make best speed for the surface. As the destroyer came around to intercept, the railgun rounds would too, slamming into the destroyer and allowing the New Orleans to make a clean landing.
As G27's signature guttered into emergency broadcast only, the New Orleans dropped one final payload before screaming down to make her delivery. A 1KT bomb wasn't good for much, especially this far away. But for blinding sensor networks temporarily? It did just fine.