Subject: Captain Wong

Species: Human

Description: Mammalian humanoid, no tail. 6'2" (1.87 m) avg height. 185 lbs (84 kg) avg weight. 170 year life expectancy.

Ship: USSS Valor

Location: Sol

It had only been a few hours since we cleaned up the debris field and I was already looking at a VI fleet. It was turning out to be one hell of a day. First contact with an alien species, having to save those aliens while under fire from their adversaries, the discovery that there's another governing entity on the other side of the galaxy with over 250 million ships, this VI mystery, and to top it off the galley forgot to resupply the coffee.

I wanted to take out my frustrations on the OU ships, but there was a slight issue with that. There were twenty of them. Two battleships, four cruisers, and thirteen destroyers. Then there was a ship that didn't look like the others. It was small, barely met the classification of a corvette. But the other ships were being sure to stay between us and that ship.

The battleships obviously had MACs. A quick deep scan revealed that they wouldn't be a problem for the USSS Thanatos, but they could tear us mouth to crotch if we weren't careful. Captain Reynolds had already given the order for four more frigates to deploy to back us up. The Pride, Shield, Sword, and Rosenthal. Good ships, but we would have to jump to meet up with them. The only question was whether we should fire before we jump.

I rose from my chair to give the orders, "Arm main cannons, prepare a firing solution on the nearest vessel, and power up the FTLD. We're going to hit and run."

A chorus of "Aye sir" rang through the bridge before Tim chimed in, "Can't FTL, small ship at the back of that formation causing issue, data sent, informing rest of command."

"Belay charging the FTLD, divert that power to something that needs it," I didn't like Tim but I knew better than to doubt it. I checked over the data but couldn't make any sense of it.

"Tim, what does this mean?"

"Busy."

"Then summarize it!" I yelled, losing my patience.

"If you jump the ship will break into pieces," Tim said almost so quickly that I didn't catch it.

Shit. No FTL is a problem for our tactics. Did they already have this or did they make it especially for us? I remembered that the reptile captain had said their mission was investigating warp fluctuations. Well, subspace would definitely be fluctuating with this thing around. Did they bring it here because of our mini-jump in the first fight? Doesn't matter.

"Once you have the firing solution take the shot. Get me a holomap of the area, including the Thanatos," I sat back in my chair. Time to strategize.

The map flickered up on my tablet and I almost immediately noticed something. The warp disruptor was in range of the Thanatos' MAC. But we were in the solution. Makes sense why they hadn't already fired. It would take five minutes for us to impulse our way out of the firing solution.

"Sir, the enemy is hailing us!" Lieutenant Babanin shouted.

"We're not fucking falling for that again. Mute them and fire the deck thrusters, full speed. Move us down Y as fast as we can go."

"Firing!"

I watched the holomap track our minimac rounds right into two of the Destroyers reactors.

"Kill confirmed. Enemy DIS," Babanin said with a grim satisfaction.

Dead in space indeed. Eleven Destroyers left. The holomap showed a volley of enemy fire headed for us, and the Destroyers began closing.

"PDLs online sir, we're shooting the inbound as fast as we can but we'll still take some hits," the gunnery officer said.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I laughed, "Our shields should hold. Don't bother with evasive, just keep moving us down Y. Tim, get me Reynolds."

"Connecting... connected," Tim said.

"What can I do for you Captain Wong?" Reynolds answered.

"Once you have a solution on that warp disruptor take the shot. Don't worry about grazing us, we can take it," I said as fast as I could. It was unlikely the incoming missiles could disrupt comms, but better safe than sorry.

"Got it, backup inbound on thrust. ETA twelve mikes. Reynolds out."

Fuck that. This battle would be over in 9 one way or another.

"Weapons charged, seeking solution."

"Fire when ready."

The missiles impacted our shields. More than I had hoped, but not enough to penetrate. I checked our integrity, 85%. Pathetic. Even the peace-loving Knuknus could do better than that. Still, they would have us in 6 volleys at this rate.

"Missiles locked and loaded, Sir!" Babanin shouted.

"Send it," I looked up from the map. "Tim, you still busy?"

"Nope, just finished up with informing everyone about the fatal FTL. How can I help?" It asked in its annoying jolly tone.

"I'm not sure if we're going to win this..." I said softly.

"What do you mean? You're a human, Captain. You don't care about winning. You care about taking as many of them down with you as bloodily as you possibly can!" came the cheery response.

He wasn't wrong. I glanced at his intercom, "Right. Man the Point Defense Lasers."

"Aye, sir! Hehe 'Man'."

"Firing," shouted an officer.

I rolled my eyes and looked back at the map. Battleships had their MACs charging. 33 and 34 percent. Second volley inbound. Fewer hit this time, Tim doing his job. 75% on shields. Our missiles closing... Damn, they have PDLs, missiles were useless. A2 won't do anything then. It's mechanical, not explosive. Has to reach its destination to follow its programming. A1 requires Admiralty clearance. Nothing for it, gotta do it the old fashioned way. Our minimacs connected with two more Destroyers. Nine left. 40 and 41 percent on the battleships. They're charging too fast, we have to go faster. Can we get them in range of our cannons?

"Cut the stern deck engines and fire the stern keel engines. Once we're nose down Y at 90 fire the main engines, cut the deck engines, and fire all keel engines full burn," I shouted to the bridge crew.

"Aye sir!"

"Enemy closing," an officer called out.

"Fire the chain guns, convince them to back off," I barked back.

I heard the main engines fire. I checked our rate of acceleration. Twenty seconds until we're out of the way. Hopefully Thanatos can take out the warp disruptor and we can FTL into the range of one of the Battleships and burn the bitch. Then the B team could take out the Cruisers, and we'll see if they retreat.

"We got a kill with the chain guns!" Lt. Babanin sounded thrilled.

I saw another debris field appear where a Destroyer once was. Their shields couldn't even withstand Sabot rounds? They're literally just as weak as the personal shields. Getting killed by these guys would be embarrassing. Eight Destroyers left. Ten seconds until out of the way of Thanatos. Forty seconds until within range of the Battleships. Cruisers firing macs.

"Brace for impact!"

The ship rocked as two of the four MAC rounds hit us. Shields at 52%. I checked out ship-map. Two cargo bays in our nose. There's an idea...

I stood to look at Babanin, "Evacuate the bow bays. Both of them. Then over-pressurize them to stress max."

Babanin looked up at me with a mixture of concern and confusion. I grinned back at him, and he shrugged and followed my orders. This was going to be insane, but hopefully in a good way. Or it was going to tear the ship in half.

I looked back at the map just in time to see Thanatos fire its deck MAC. That round was probably going to get a wash in our exhaust, but tracking showed it would connect. Battleships charged to... interesting. The battleships were moving to intercept the MAC round. A sacrifice play. That would be smart in most circumstances but it just gave us the win.

"Are the bays clear and overpressure?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Cut the stern keel engines and open the bow keel airlocks to those bays! Once we're pointed back to the enemy cut all keel engines!"

The ship groaned and creaked as our nose came back up Y. Both Battleships were DIS but the Warp disruptor remained. And we were in range.

"Get me a solution on the small ship and fire everything we have! I want that thing evaporated!" I yelled.

"AYE SIR!"

More missiles impacted our shields. Not many thanks to Tim, though. 43% integrity. As we fired our minimacs another round from a cruiser hit us. Shields at 26%. All batteries opened fire on the warp disruptor as we came within range and some sort of mine from the battleship debris detonated. 4%.

"Disruptor down, sir. We can warp!" Tim informed me.

"Get us back to the Thanatos!" I ordered.

I watched our FTLD indicator begin to power up. Only a few more seconds. Another couple of missiles hit us. 2%. One of the cruisers had obtained a firing solution and was sending a mac our way. As it inched closer our FTLD reached minimum charge.

"GO!"

The ship lurched as we entered warp. A cheer went up from the crew, Lieutenant Babanin loudest of all. I sat back down and watched the map as our backup disappeared. As we exited warp near the Thanatos I watched them reappear behind the enemy cruisers. Clean up time. I did a quick tally. We had killed five destroyers and the warp disruptor. More than a quarter of the enemy single handed without losing our shields. I suppose I'll have to be pleased with that. I leaned back in my seat.

"Tim, get me Captain Reynolds."

"Aye, sir. Connecting... connected."

"Yes, Captain Wong?" Reynolds responded.

"Captain Reynolds, permission to dock and come aboard."

"Permission granted. Welcome back, USSS Valor."