Fleet Lord Skald stood from his command chair and slammed his palm down on the alarm panel before grabbing his rifle from it's storage stand. The alarm wailed three times, paused, and three more times indicating hostiles on board.

The already dim lights went off and were replaced by the deep red usually reserved for night time aboard the vessel.

"What is the status of the enemy fleet?" He barked at his sensor tech. It came out more as a statement than a question.

"The enemy fleet is taking heavy losses Fleet Lord." The young Sharlah said.

"And the rest?" Skald growled.

"And we are also taking heavy losses, forgive me Fleet Lord. These humans have Callidus ships, hyperspace missiles, and other technology that I do not recognize. I don't know where they came from." The tech blurted out.

"Are you not the sensor technician for the flagship of our fleet?" Skald bared his teeth and gripped his rifle tighter.

"Yes. Forgive me. Please. They were not on the sensors until they attacked."

He wanted to go out and slaughter the humans that had so boldly breached his flagship and torture the information out of one of them. He needed to stay on the bridge however and conduct the battle from a larger perspective.

"Launch the fighters. Focus on that ship." Skald said and pointed his armored glove at the Wraith.

----------------------------------------

"Captain we just lost half of our port side missile battery!" the Wraith's weapons officer called out.

"Roll to Starboard, hold fire on the Harvester, target their escorts!" Volkov said, fighting the urge to stand. She instead dug her nails into her thigh.

"Yes ma'am."

Volkov brought up her comm panel and hailed Ash again. "Solent, where is my EMP god damnit!"

"The missile won't launch, our engineer is down. Stand by." Ash said with an edge to his voice.

"We can't stand by!" Volkov shouted as the lights flickered again and again.

"Ma'am the Harvester is launching fighters!" The radar operator shouted.

Volkov could see them belching out of the ships that she could now identify as carriers. Dozens of new radar contacts appeared in red on her display and spread out from the center of their formation.

"Solent we have incoming light fighters!" Volkov shouted into her com.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

----------------------------------------

"ASH STRAP IN!" Kate screamed into her console and she could instantly hear his armored boots thudding back up to the cockpit from engineering.

"Jay is hurt but he'll make it. What happened. Oh SHIT!" Ash said, spotting the radar contacts as he finished asking. He locked eyes with Kate and said "You got this."

Kate nodded and engaged the stealth cloak as she shut down everything but life support. Once again the Solent took on the eerie feeling of a submarine in the ocean.

Ash wanted to ask her what she was doing but stayed silent instead. He thought to himself that Charlie was also being quite silent and wondered what she was doing behind the scenes. His shaky trust in her had been shattered when he found Jayden on the deck and now their lives were hanging in the balance.

"Charlie."

"Yes Ash?"

There was an awkward silence. He didn't actually have anything to ask her, he just wanted to make sure she was there. "How close are those fighters to us?"

"They are well within weapons range but they are not slowing down. I believe they are on an intercept course with the Wraith." Charlie said and altered the sensor display with lines to show their course. They did indeed intercept the Wraith. "Depending on how Volkov's fleet reacts, this could be either a suicide mission for them or it could shift the momentum in their favor."

"They're putting Volkov in check." Kate said quietly as the deck under their feet started to feel cold from the minimal life support.

"What?" Ash whispered.

"Chess. We're in check. If the fleet shifts to engage the fighters, they'll be pounded into space dust by the rest of the Sharlah. If they don't help her, the fighters will take her."

The red icons passed by the Solent.

"What are we -"

Kate slammed the thrusters forward to 100 percent and disengaged the stealth cloak. The range readout for the rearmost Sharlah fighter ticked down rapidly and a larger red square icon encompassed it. Kate fired the pulse cannon that was mounted on the nose of the Solent and stitched a line across the rear thrusters of the enemy ship before cutting the thrust and engaging the stealth cloak once again.

"Katherine, the Solent is too hot now, the stealth cloak will not work." Charlie said.

"I know, but they'll have to look for us before they find us, it's buying Volkov some time. I'm drifting toward the debris from that fighter."

Ash could barely breathe. He felt like he could actually feel the enemy scans raking across the Solent as they tried to find the assassin that had just killed one of their own.

"NOW KATHERINE!" Charlie yelled out and Ash jumped out of his skin.

Kate slammed the thrusters again and launched two missiles that had already been targeted by Charlie at the two warmest seekers.

"One down!" Charlie reported and the Solent rang like a bell with an impact of it's own.

"We're hit! The shield stopped it!" Kate said and pulled hard on the flight stick to go into a 90 degree vertical climb as human brains would understand it in space.

She twisted the Solent into a roll and came back down on the Sharlah formation with the pulse cannon roaring.

"Do not to hit the Wraith. Every munition continues forward until it hits something in space combat." Charlie said and Kate gritted her teeth. She did not need to be mothered while she fought for survival.

Kate darted behind the massive hull of the Wraith, allowing it's shields to catch the fire that was intended for her as she looped back around and killed another Sharlah as it rounded the hull in pursuit.

Ash allowed himself to crack a smile but it was wiped away when Charlie spoke.

"They're breaking off to attack the Wraith. Oh no! She just took a hyper salvo! Shields are offline."

A scream erupted from Jayden as the Solent took another hit that bypassed the shields. A bolt of energy seared through the hull and into the cargo bay. Red and yellow emergency signals flashed across the console along with a depressurization warning buzzer.

Ash unbuckled and stood and his world went black.