(Combat Information Center, BSN Shinokage, Point Gamma, Nuevo Edo System)

Point Gamma (L2 Lagrange Point):

9 0 Aeh-class Hunter-Scouts

18 10 Photh­-class Frigates

9 7 Mothak-class Light Cruisers

1 Purryg-class Dreadnought

The battle… was not going well. It was like a pack of wolves taking on a group of bears. We were lighter, quicker, but they could swat us from the sky if they hit us. Except these bears were used to being the wolves, not bears. They weren’t used to fighting anyone as fast as we were that wasn’t on a X’thari ship using X’thari tactics. We hadn’t lost any of our ships yet, but we were still massively outnumbered. Ghost Squadron had killed or crippled the nine Aeh­-class Hunter-Scouts, leaving them drifting in space. That was good, but they’d spent all their missiles doing it, since Raptors weren’t designed for anti-ship work, at least not for anything bigger than supporting ant-piracy stuff. But the Aeh-class was light enough that the fighters, working together, could punch them out. We’d already lost five of the twelve fighters, though, and the rest were returning to the Return to rearm and refuel.

Acting in cohorts, the little Gunboats were the stars of this show. I didn’t have time to direct the battle all across the system. But I didn’t need to micromanage things. That’s why I had competent commanders, and kept tactical groups together. They knew each other, knew how they’d respond, knew how to help. I had to trust in them to do their jobs. First Group had bigger problems.

The initial kinetic strikes had taken out four of the Photh­-class and one of the Mothak-class ships. Now that the agile little gunboats were in range, they were dogfighting with the Photh­ ships. They had the edge in speed and shields, but other than main weapons, the X’thari ships were better armed and armored than my gunboats. So far, the plucky little gunboats had managed four more kills, striking from the rear. But they’d taken a pounding from point defense, and several of them had to break off to recharge shields.

Meanwhile, the Assassins were in a deathmatch with the cruisers, while Captain Inatumal and Shinokage did their best to keep the damn dreadnought from killing us all. So far we’d been lucky, our ships being smaller, lighter, and faster than the X’thari, but this was one of those situations where it only took a single hit to completely ruin our day. “Time until main weapon recharged?”

Raven looked over to me. “Thirty seconds, Commodore.”

“Analysis of the enemy ships? Can they take a hit from the mains?”

“I’ve been looking at the shield harmonics, and I believe there is a weakness. The X’thari drives are incredibly efficient, and do not cause as much energy leakage as Terran or Confederate drives. This is good for ships who engage in stealth tactics, as they are able to accelerate faster while still being in stealth. However, something about their sublight drives causes attenuation in the shields directly aft of the engines. This is also where the ship’s armor is the lightest.”

“Why on Earth would they leave such a weakness in their designs?”

“While impossible to say for certain, it may either be something they are technologically incapable of fixing with their current technological base, or it may be a racial bias, due to the fact that they are normally seen in the role of hunters, with multiple ships covering for each other. This makes exploiting the weaknesses far more difficult. The idea of them becoming ‘prey’ may be a cultural blind spot for the X’thari.”

“Send out an emergency flash to the fleet. All ships, all fighters, all bombers. Let everyone know that they’re weak when you take them from behind.” I paused, and then looked at the tactical readouts. “As soon as Ghost Squadron is ready, have them launch, and help the Gunboats with the frigates. Assassins are to line up their assault runs as they bear, with emphasis on destroying the engines of the cruisers. We can pick them off from range once all ships are disabled, if need be.”

I broke off that train of thought as massive energy blasts bracketed the Shinokage, missing us by mere meters! Reaching over to my tablet, I hastily typed up an order for Captain Inatumal, and hit send. That dreadnought was becoming a hazard to our health.

(Main Bridge, BSN Shinokage, Point Gamma, Nuevo Edo System)

Captain Inatumal looked down as a chime sounded next to her, signaling new orders from the Master. This was a little surprising, as he thankfully had the sense not to interfere with the running of her ship during combat operations, allowing her tactical control and the ability to fight her ship, while he looked at the larger picture. Bringing up the message, she smiled, before looking at the timer. The mains had just recharged a few seconds ago, and they were working on finding an attack path that could do the most damage. She saw that the information about the enemy shields had already gone out to the fleet, as two more frigates were reduced to space dust, though the little Isis got caught in crossfire just afterwards, and looked to be dead in the water. They would be lucky indeed if they got out of this without more casualties to join those that they’d already lost.

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Checking the orientation of their ships, Captain Inatumal called out. “All hands, prepare for high speed maneuvers! All personnel not engaged in critical tasks must be strapped in! Commodore’s sent us a game plan. Helm, information is being sent to your plot now. Weapons, I want you ready on the mains, we’re only going to get one shot at this! Shields, when I tell you, I want you to throw everything into forward shields, but be ready to balance fast.”

The lieutenant at the helm looked up, “Are you sure about this, Captain?”

Captain Inatumal nodded. “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. Just fly like I know you can. You think I haven’t noticed the simulator hours you’ve logged, pretending to fly this beast like it was one of those Raptors out there? Now is the time to prove what happens when you put someone with the crazy of a fighter pilot at the stick of a Cruiser. Just be ready to maneuver.”

The Lieutenant straightened up, and nodded sharply. “Yes Ma’am! I won’t let you down, Captain.”

“I know you won’t. Prepare to activate Painal Maneuver! Now steady… GO! EXECUTE!” Despite herself, the Captain gripped the arms of her chair as the light cruiser suddenly went to full acceleration, shooting towards the enemy dreadnought like an arrow fired from slightly in front and below the ship’s line, limiting their exposure to the ship’s big guns. Inatumal could hear the stresses on parts of the ship as they made high-speed maneuvers, attempting to keep from getting hit by the enemy guns as they launched what very well might be a suicide run.

The suicide tactic must have frightened someone over on the dreadnought, because even as the ship began turning to try and avoid the incoming missile that was the Shinokage, the point defense became VERY concerned with her. If the Captain hadn’t ordered the shields to full front, it would have been really bad. Inatumal held her breath as the lieutenant rolled the ship in flight, almost dancing out of the way of the dreadnought’s main guns as they missed by less than a quarter kilometer. And then they were in the dreadnought’s face, as it were.

“SHIELDS!” The shields balanced out just as they needed to as the Shinokage skimmed the very edge of the dreadnought’s shields at top speed. The ship rocked as two of the secondary guns scored hits, and the alarms going off on the bridge told her they had a hull breach somewhere. Just a few more seconds, though… And they were past!

“NOW, LIEUTENANT!” She didn’t need to give the order, the Lieutenant was already in motion. Groaning with the stresses on it, Shinokage cut forward thrust, flipped over on its axis, and then reengaged forward thrust, cutting their speed at an insane rate that the inertial dampeners couldn’t quite keep up with, subjecting everyone to a relatively ‘unpleasant’ four Gs of pressure. Since that beat ‘splat on the bulkhead’, Inatumal just grit her teeth, and hoped that didn’t injure too many of her people.

The Lieutenant called out, in a pained voice, “LINED UP!”

“FIRE!”

Both barrels of the Shinokage’s primary weapons fired at once, launching their projectiles at almost 8% the speed of light. They were only about two hundred thousand kilometers from the dreadnought’s stern. The projectiles took eight seconds to travel the distance. Some secondary weapons and point defense found the ship and had started to target them, but the helm of the big ship was not able to maneuver like smaller craft could. It had only started its turn when the Shinokage’s main weapons hit.

(Main Bridge, BSN Shadowdancer, Point Gamma, Nuevo Edo System)

Captain Nyna Thelynn growled as her poor Shadowdancer shuddered under the weight of the enemy guns. This was not the kind of battle the Assassins had been designed for. If they weren’t lighter and faster than the Mothak-class cruisers they were hunting right now, then they would have been very, very dead. As it was, each cohort of Assassins was having to deal with a Triad of Mothaks, with the one extra, since they’d already managed to kill a second of the bastards.

“Captain, message from Black Star Actual. Raven analysis says that our best bet is to take them from behind, where their shields are weakest.”

“Main weapon status?”

One of the crew over at the engineering station called out, “Back online! Commander Black managed to reroute the cables that burnt out. He warns you only have one, maybe two shots before we risk taking the rest of the damaged cables out!”

“Right, inform Wisteria that we are commencing our attack run on Cruiser Three. If they have a shot on another of that triad, tell them to light the bastards up.”

“Wisteria reporting main weapons are offline, but they will support as best they can.”

“Damn. All right, tell them to follow us in.”

“Captain! Look at Shinokage!” Nyna spared a glance for the Black Star flagship, but didn’t have time to deal with that now, not while she was trying to keep her ship and her crew in one piece.

“Holy shit, are they insane?”

“Belay that talk!” Nyna snapped at the crew. “That would be one of the Master’s plans, no doubt. And we’ve got some work of our own. Come about, full speed ahead! Weapons at the ready!”

“Captain, with their maneuverability, we’ll have to fire from point-blank range.”

“I know, Commander. Which is why we’re going to do just that!” She paused, and then said, “ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

As they tore after Cruiser Three, Cruiser One attempted to cut off their attack run, passing close in front of them, but they didn’t slow down. The pass was close enough that Shadowdancer’s shields ‘kissed’ those of Cruiser One as they passed, trading fire from secondary weapons as they went. But Cruiser One was too interested in Shadowdancer to realize that Wisteria was a threat, until the Assassin pounded the cruiser’s vulnerable rear along with Shadowdancer’s gunners, scoring several hits on their engines and forcing the cruiser to cut acceleration dramatically.

The sensor tech called out, “In range of target!”

“FIRE!”

Cheers rang out across the bridge as Cruiser Three was reduced to its component atoms as the projectile of Shadowdancer’s main weapon tore the stern of the craft apart, causing whatever they used as a power plant to blow.

Captain Thelynn, however, did not join in the celebration. “Recharge the guns! Come about in search of new targets! Status of the Wisteria and Cruiser One?”

“Wisteria is shaken, but with us, Captain. They’re working on main weapons, but their engineer says not to get our hopes up without several hours work. Cruiser One is damaged, looks to be out of the fight temporarily. Cruisers Two and Seven are covering it. Cruiser Four is destroyed, looks like the Hayha got her. Artemis is damaged, forced to withdraw. We’ve lost three gunboats, but the Frigates are dead or disabled. Shinokage has gone dark. They look like they took a couple heavy hits just as they killed that Dreadnought. They’re still under power, but they’re out of the fight.”

“Wisteria is to support the Hayha as her new cohort. Artemis to rendezvous with Shinokage to ascertain status and see if shortrange comms can be established. I see the Return has launched fighters again. Fighters and remaining gunboats to form up on Shadowdancer. Take us after Cruiser Two!”