Captain Olson watched with a self-satisfied smirk as her attack unfurled precisely as planned. She'd watched furiously as one of the other destroyers turned and ran without putting up a real fight, and the other suicidally charged as though trying to compensate for something. The pit of her stomach fell out as she realized seconds too late to warn anyone that the Sybil was going to use the cruiser's own missiles against the battleship. Still, the absolute worst moment was when, after the Sybil had charged the last battleship and was left floating, broken and mangled in space, the cruiser had run away with its tail between its legs. But then she'd realized what an opportunity she had.

With everyone else broken or fled, her ship was the only one left to finish off the nearly helpless Sybil. It was drifting with no shields, no propulsion, and few functioning weapons. Not that her ship was in much better condition, her shields, which had been holding on by a thread, were now down, and most of her guns were also offline, but she had enough engine power to tuck in behind the Sybil, where they didn't have any intact weapons to threaten her, and just pound on the ship with what few cannons were still functioning until it couldn't fight back anymore. So far, that's precisely how the fight had gone. If they pulled this off, she and her crew would be set to retire and live comfortably for the rest of their lives!

So it was a rather unpleasant surprise when an alarm started blaring, indicating structural damage. The Sybil was in no condition to fight back, so then... "Who the hell is attacking us?"

One of the few officers still on the bridge and in fighting condition looked up from his screen. "It seems to be a small cargo vessel captain. They're hitting us with low-power lasers meant to clear space debris."

Captain Olson had to fight the urge to sit back and laugh. A cargo vessel? Against a destroyer? Were they insane? Even if their ship was pushing its limits, such a thing was insulting. "Turn and swat them out of the void. Then we'll finish up with the Sybil."

The officer nodded. "Aye, Captain!"

-

Alen knew this probably wouldn't work, but Erik at least supported him, which meant Vanessa did as well. Currently, Erik was at the back of the cabin, cheering Alen on. He'd been relegated to the back as he was too excited and was in danger of hitting a switch or something in all his excitement. "Get them, kid! Show them what a real captain can do!"

Alen shook his head, trying to focus on staying out of the destroyer's firing arc. "Well, there's not a lot I can do. Right now, I'm just trying not to die!"

Erik didn't seem dissuaded. "Well, show them how well you don't die!"

Alen couldn't help it; he laughed. Although more than a little of his nervousness probably came out in the laughter. This was so suicidally stupid. What was worse was there was no next part to his plan. He didn't have an end goal or an exit plan. He'd just gone off half-cocked with a plan that seemed to equate to throwing a handful of rocks at an angry bear and now was doing his best to stay out of any of the firing solutions of still-functioning guns that could kill him in one or two shots. At this point, he was just looking for an opening to run behind the Sybil in one piece.

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The problem was Alen had to fly awfully close to the destroyer to stay out of its firing arc, and there didn't seem to be a good opportunity to get away. At this point, it was just a question of when, not if, he screwed up and got them all killed.

At least, it seemed that way when Vanessa turned his way. "It seems you have an incoming message. Shall I put it through?"

Maybe it was Carter calling? Alen nodded. "Sure, put it through."

A moment later, a voice Alen didn't recognize came through. "Looks like you're in a tight spot there! We're not much of a fighting vessel, but after seeing the way you lot got stuck in and took out an entire fleet, we can hardly sit back and do nothing here at the end of such a magnificent fight! Our shields can take a few hits from what little they've got left, so we can come in and pick you up before running for the hills if you like!"

Alen was more than a little happy to have options, but one question needed to be answered before he started believing in miracles. "Not to sound unappreciative, but who am I speaking with?"

The man chuckled. "Captain Alexander, at your service! You lot saved us from being run down by pirates when you first got here, and I figure it's time to repay that debt!"

Alen grinned, Feeling relieved that he might live to see another day. "Well then, I'll take you up on that offer, but I think we can do one better than just getting out of here alive!"

-

Captain Olson swore. Now, there was a merchant vessel involved, too? Still, they had no weapons worth the name and were no significant threat to her, even without shields, but this was getting old, fast.

This one was big enough that it couldn't hide from her guns like the smaller cargo vessel, so it was probably planning to absorb the damage with its shields. That was fine. It wouldn't be able to stay there long.

Sure enough, it seemed to take a few hits to go in and pick up the cargo vessel, and it was probably planning on turning and running after that. That wasn't a problem. They weren't the prey they were after, anyway. As soon as the annoyances were gone, they could get back to the ship that mattered.

However, as the merchant ship turned to leave, the cargo vessel launched back out of its docking bay. What had been the purpose of that whole endeavor? Then she realized it wasn't trying to hang behind the destroyer like before. It was headed right for them! They were on a suicide course! "Hard to upper port, now!"

The officer looked startled but nodded, "Aye captain!"

The ship started to move but broken as they were, they couldn't move fast enough...

-

Captain Alexander watched as the kid's plan played out. Sure enough, the little cargo vessel powered forward on autopilot toward the destroyer's engines. A little ship like that wouldn't do much damage to a shielded vessel or one that could maneuver any faster than this one, but in its condition, there wasn't much the destroyer could do to get out of the way. Sadly, there wasn't some big explosion when the little cargo vessel hit the destroyer's engines, but the damage was done, and now they were as dead in the void as the Sybil.

However, the Sybil had managed to get a few thrusters online and was now spinning in place. It wasn't fast, but it was quicker than the destroyer could move. As the behemoth of a ship turned, the destroyer started launching escape pods left and right. Then the Sybil opened fire.