"She's breaking up!"

Tanbor tore his gaze from the damage report list, squinting past the sweat stinging his eyes to see the viewscreen. The battle had been hard fought; at such close range, the Yamato and the alien vessel had traded horrific broadsides with one another for several long minutes, resulting in heavy casualties for the great capital ship, and a loss of several key systems, including eighty percent of their life support systems. Landing on the surface was now a necessity.

The haze of destroyed electrical systems on the bridge clouded his vision, but the burning brilliance of the alien craft cut through it all. Indeed, large pieces of the craft had begun to break away from the main hub, blue fire and plasma hissing out and fizzling in the vacuum of space. Shields had dispersed from the craft, and it was falling into the atmosphere, to be incinerated on re-entry. Tanbor gave a feral grin, running a shaky hand through his hair.

"Take that you-"

"Mr. President!" One of the weapons officers, a young Asian woman, disheveled and sweating from the long hours at her post, yelled out, "Their shields are still up around the central hub, and I'm detecting engine signatures!"

"They've set up a course for Canterlot!" a nav-officer added, his middle-aged face pale, "Goddamnit, they're going to kamikaze it!"

Tanbor froze for a split second, eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at the unbelievable dedication to destruction these aliens had. Even, clearly beaten, they were going to fight and kill as many as possible.

"Open fire!" he roared out, "We have to stop them! The Princesses and the rest of the Equush leaders are in Canterlot!"

"They're using the debris field as a shield, sir!"

"Then get us through it!"

The Yamato rumbled as its distressed engines began to power it forward, but the alien craft was far swifter in its untethered state. Great blobs of plasma began to rocket down into the upper atmosphere.

Tanbor scrambled down to the comm station, shoving its attending ensign to one side- he would apologize later.

"Attention all craft, the enemy is trying to ram itself into Canterlot! Anyone who can respond, we have to take it down, NOW!" he cried as he lit up every comm in the fleet, "This is President Marcus Tanbor, and this is a direct order! WE HAVE TO STOP THAT SHIP!"

"Mr. President, this is Captain Jonathon Lucas of the USSV Enterprise," a firm, calm voice replied within moments, "We have this, sir. Helmsman, intercept course with the alien vessel. All power to shields and engines."

Marcus blinked slowly as he stood up, mildly confused for a moment as his mind ran through the list of ships in the military fleet of the United States of the Americas.

The Enterprise... wait, THE Enterprise!?

"Bring that ship on viewer, now!"

The USSV Enterprise had been the flagship of the Terran Republic's fleet until the construction of the Yamato, built by the USA as a comet-cracker. With a heavily armored forward hull and two seperate power plants to run the forward shields, it had been used to ram into soft-bodied comets to break them up for mining or protective purposes. Having been out-sized and out-armed by more modern vessels, the Enterprise had been relegated to protecting the troopships of the Primary Landing Force. Cigar-shaped but with a sharp, ram-like stern, the Enterprise looked like a flying submarine as it knifed through the atmosphere of Equus. Captain Lucas had left the com channel open for the entire fleet.

"Captain. they've opened fire on us!" The Enterprise's nav-officer informed him, voice a strained shout.

"Stay on target."

Blue and green blobs of super-heated plasma struck the forward shields and splashed off, streaming behind the speeding Enterprise. To Marcus' horror, one shot broke through the starboard shields, and a mighty explosion tore through the side of the aging craft.

"Hull breach on C and D deck!"

"Seal it up, but keep on target. Give me all the speed you can, aim for the center mass of the craft. Spool up FTL!"

"Charging, Captain!"

"Zoom out, just a little bit," Marcus whispered, eyes wide in awe.

The alien craft, looking all the world like a giant, off-blue manta ray, had begun its dive towards Canterlot, plasma bolts streaming out as fast as it could fire at the charging human vessel. More plasma tore into the Enterprise, explosions rocking the aging craft and taking large chunks out of its upper decks, and annihilating two of its main guns.

"Mr. President!"

Marcus glanced back in surprise as First Officer Benjamin, who had been manning the station for the Yamato's main railgun, jerked to his feet, eyes glued to his screen.

"I have a shot on the alien craft, sir!"

"Take it! Bring that bitch down!"

The Yamato roared as its main armament opened up, the heavy slug tearing through the atmosphere and shredding a piece of debris, hardly slowing down for a second. Marcus gripped the console in front of him tightly, the metal cutting into his fingers and the brightness of the console burning his eyes. The railgun round tore into the front of the alien vessel, plasma blooming out as its bow and upper deck were ripped away. No more plasma balls rocketed out to meet the Enterprise.

"FOR THE REPUBLIC!"

The Enterprise tore into the alien vessel like a speeding missile as its FTL drive kicked in, blasting both vessels out into the depths of space, close to the still ongoing battle between the frigate line and the alien corvette fleet. Fire bloomed from both vessels as the Enterprise emerged from the depths of the alien craft. Horrific scars and gouges were rent in the aging vessel, entire decks stripped clean and exposed to the vacuum. As it cleared the enemy vessel, the engines sputtered to life, slowly turning the Enterprise towards the alien vessel. Radialogical alarms began to sound over the Yamato, and Marcus stepped back slowly as the viewscreen polarized. The com unit crackled to life once more.

"Mortibus... nostris... adduco futurum..." Jonathon's voice, wheezing and pained, hissed over the channel, "Go... to hell, you monsters..."

And as one, every one of the thirty nuclear weapons stored on the vessels detonated; the shields of the Enterprise held in the explosion for just a fraction of a second, tripling the yield when it finally burst. A miniature sun overtook the sight of the human fleet, and the massive explosion enveloped the alien vessel, which had feebly attempted to launch small pods away from itself. When the light finally cleared, not a trace of either vessel could be found. They had been wiped clean from the face of the universe.

Author's Notes:

Almost done with the small ones, I promise. XD

And after giving it much thought, I'm going to be focusing on two of the characters I have introduced so far. You know Victoria; anyone want to hazard a guess *cough* vote *cough* on the other? ^___^