Amidst the Warriors, A Mistake

I cruised into a contested area of Etherium Reach. Several jumps back, as I entered the thick of things, I had had to dock my Bestower and Vengeance in favor of the warp-while-cloaked stealth bomber. I did my broadcast as a pair of minor engagements were erupting near the two main gates. Flipping between safespots, I received my first response:

TelarUS > I can help you with that, gimme one sec.

Me > /Nod

A full minute passes and instead of a convo I receive a fleet invite. I accept. He immediately drops out of fleet and I receive the convo I was expecting.

TalrUS > Oops wrong invite. Ya I do know him, we’ve flown a few times. Are you sincere about the 10m?

At this point something happened. With a metal flash he erupted from a warp tunnel and came to a stop less than 2k off my bow.

It disrupted my imaging sensors and in an instant and my ship wavered out of cloak. I’d made a mistake. I was about exactly between two temperate planets in empty space, pre-aligned to my next safespot. I heard the chime of a lock in progress as the blue steel Drake brought it’s enormous missile launchers to bear on my little frigate. Looking down the barrels I could see the missiles loading and prepping to fire. During all this I mentally commanded my bomber to blast forward to safety.

It was one of those thrilling, down-to-the-millisecond moments. My reactionary autolock aborted as the warp drive engaged, as the Drake managed a lock, as the missiles let fly, as a scrambler began its cycle. Was it the end? I set my view to external, and all but squeeled in triumph as I saw my hull jerk ahead of the incoming projectiles by no more than a few meters. The stars and blackness distorted into the familiar warp tunnel. The leading missile seemed to glance off my receding shields, and in the next second it detonated, causing the others to explode it a fiery corona that engulfed the space my ship held a moment earlier. I was free. Lesson learned.