Traveller Vignette 027

The stream of smartgun shells twisted in flight to catch the fighter, their tiny obsessive microchip brains aflame with hate and suicide. Two struck just behind the cockpit, detonating in balls of shrapnel that ripped through the pilot, critically injuring him. The aircraft's computer flicked into Valkyrie mode as he lost consciousness, blowing off the external weapons pods to minimise drag and dived for the deck to shake off pursuit among the ground clutter. Medical subsystems inflated the pilots' G-suit to force blood from his limbs to the critical body core and dumped a cocktail of pain reliever and anti-shock into his system. The aircraft levelled out at 10 metres AGL, terrain following ladar steering it round obstacles as it ran for the nearest friendly airstrip, squawking that it was priority inbound with an injured pilot aboard and required emergency landing clearance......


(Author's note - Expert systems like this might might higher tech vehicles a bit more interesting rather than your TL9 fighter being just like an F15. It might also give useful character backstory - it might be a good example of what a mishap or injury a character in an appropriate career might suffer, if the generation system you are using includes such things. Finally, the airfield the fighter diverted to might have been safe according to its data banks, but is actually almost being overrun by fast moving enemies - the PC team have to get there, recover or destroy the high-tech aircraft and possibly recover the pilot, which could be complicated if he is badly injured and needs or is recovering from surgery)

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