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Halastar brought The Fury in hard.

“Frigate wing, your job is to reinforce The Gauntlet. Leave Heavenfall, and Spiteful to us.

There was a chorus of affirmative responses over the fleet-com, and the seven Terran frigates split their vector off, making best speed towards the ailing Gauntlet.

Halastar turned to his helmsman. “Helmsman, take us straight in. Gunnery load up all tubes and batteries.”

This would have to be quick, the shipmaster realized, The other vessels don’t have long.

Halastar weighed his options. They wanted to capture as many vessels as possible, but they could not wait for a boarding party to seize control without potentially losing ships of their own. With that in mind, four enemy vessels against two damaged cruisers and the Fury was hardly a guaranteed win. They had to turn the odds somehow.

“Sensors, give me a full scan sweep and profile of the enemy vessels.”

The young ensign, pale faced, but resolved, replied “Enemy vessel’s shields are up, but they’ve taken some damage. I’m reading fluctuations in drive signatures that suggests they’re pushing their reactors hard. There is also indication of significant hull stress along the aft of vessel one and two.”

Halastar thought carefully, surveying the data as it scrolled across his display.

It would be a gamble.

“Helmsman, belay that last order.” He called out, “I’m sending you a new vector.”

He quickly did the math, and typed out a course, sending it to the helmsman’s station.

The officer turned at looked at him, “Confirming intercept course, sir?”

“Confirmed.” Halastar replied, turning to face the other bridge officers, “New orders, listen up! Engineering, take the safety limiters off the reactor, I need twenty points of extra yield. Shields, raise prow shield to maximum yield, draw down all other emitters to minimum. Master at arms, signal the prow compartments to evacuate.”

Now all the bridge stations were looking at him with uncertainty writ large on their expressions.

He looked each and every one of them in the eyes.

“Sound the brace alarm, we’re going to ram these bastards.”

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On the bridge of Heavenfall the situation was grim.

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Shipmaster Hiad listened to the chorus of calls ring out around him.

“Shields are falling at aft, port shields at ten percent!” An officer called.

Hiad turned to his Helmsman, “Roll us to present port shields.”

It was hopeless, he realized, his desperation overflowing, We’re done.

Their sensors, weapons and shields were all failing, and their gun batteries were next to empty. Soon enough their luck would run out and their shields would fail catastrophically, and a torpedo or projectile would end the fight with a flash of blinding light and pain.

The Spiteful was doing no better, he knew. They had stopped responding to hails ten minutes prior. Either their communications systems had been damaged, or… or…

“Bring up optical sensors on the main display, please.”

Hiad stood up from his bridge station, straightening his uniform as he did so. Despite the rising panic he felt in himself, he resolved to not show it in front of his officers. He was immensely proud of all of them, and he wouldn’t disgrace their efforts by breaking down.

On the main displays he saw the cruiser Spiteful taking a withering amount of fire. The vessel’s flickering shields stopped most of the shots, but as the energy envelope began to fail projectiles and kinetic force began to bleed through. There were impact plumes across the hull, venting atmosphere and detonations.

Hiad tried the communicator again, without success. He said a silent prayer for the crew of the Spiteful.

Then his communicator pipped.

“Heavenfall, report.” Halastars voice screeched out over a background interference.

“Clean that signal up!” Hiad yelled at his Comms officer, then activated his communicator*,* “You took your bloody time, Halastar. We’re heavily damaged, and our shields don’t have much left in them. I can’t raise the Spiteful.”

“Cut drive and weapons,” Halastars voice rang out, “Raise your shields as high as you can. We’ll be with you momentarily. Sorry about the delay, we stopped for coffee.”

Hiad laughed out loud, turning to his bridge crew.

“All systems to zero power, except shield and life support”

The chorus of aye ayes came back, loud and strong.

The white lights in the bridge flickered out, replaced by the glow of red emergency lighting. On the main screens, Hiad watched as the enemy vessels closed in, firing relentlessly on the stricken cruisers. Then one of the enemy vessels, a destroyer class, suddenly broke off its vector, seeming to lose interest momentarily.

The enemy vessel turned slowly, breaking momentum. Hiad saw a second shape, a dark-gray knife on the navy backdrop of the void. It plunged, headlong and fast, into the side of the maneuvering enemy ship.

There was a flare of light, as two energy shields collided, grinding electromagnetic fields into one another. The two vessels were illuminated for the briefest moment, outlined by the profile of their shields. Then, detonation. The enemy vessel's shields blew out with a catastrophic failure, and the black knife of The Fury pushed through the vessel, wrapping it around its shield envelope like a crumpled cardboard box. Flames and nuclear reactor fire spewed from the stricken vessel as it deflagrated off the Terran battleship's second skin.

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Halastar, along with every soul aboard the Fury, struggled to brace themselves against the jarring impact.

Alarms sounded, and there was a titanic sound of creaking metal. The vessel shuddered as it passed through the debris field of the enemy vessel.

“Report!” Halastar cried out.

The Sensor ensign was the first to respond. “Three enemy vessels are vectoring to intercept us. They’re peeling off the cruisers for now.”

Halastar bared his teeth in a half-smile, half-growl.

“Good.”

The sensor's ensign spoke up again, “Sir, I’ve got long range picking up a fleet vectoring towards us. Fifty ships, coming up from Iunthor.”

Halastar hesitated. That was either very good news, or very bad. Halastar activated his comm. “Marcus, are you feeling up for stretching your legs?”

The response was immediate, “Ready when you are, shipmaster.”

“Do you want the big one or the little one?”

“I had a big lunch, maybe just the little one.”

Halastar laughed and turned back to his crew. “Teleport boarding is authorized, target and deploy on that destroyer. Everyone else, the cruiser is ours.”