https://youtu.be/7_F_8tUtY44

“Oopah! Shiraui behind us!” Fallon shouted eyeing the screen before his chest was crossed with pink tentacles. “On it.” The world seemed to spin around him.

Half a second later he felt as well as saw that his ride had flipped herself upside down and though the screen could see the rifle being aimed before searing red bolts tore out of the weapons barrel.

The first two shots flew wide of their target as they tracked but as he focused on the fighter the third, fourth and fifth bolts found their target. The bolts of super charged energy tore into the Uec fighter's shields before breaking through and striking the fuselage.

Bursting out of the path of the destroyed scragged Shiraui lined up on another before that fighter exploded into a brilliant display of crimson light. Turning they saw another of the flayed burst past their position in its fighter mode. The lanky with the marking “13” fired two probe missiles before transforming into its wendigo form and slamming an open claw into the nose of another fighter.

Snapping her head to the side Shiraui burst to the left with so many Gs that had Fallon been an unaugmented he he would have surely died. Several bolts of golden magic seared the space where she had been before Shiraui flexed her left hand and swiped the cockpit of a cockatrice in half with her claws.

[Missiles incoming, nine o'clock vector seventy.] Armor said prompting Shiraui to fire her thrusters to jink out of the way.

“Jump.” The lanky construct said as she watched the missiles looping around to track her. Catching movement out of the edge of her visual radius she disappeared in a flash using her L-drive to avoid the missiles.

Reappearing a split second later she and her human placenta found themselves beside one of the Uec corvettes. Instantly one of the condenser cannons began to slowly turn toward her. An act she stopped by bursting up to the cannons crew canopy and slashing away the glass with her claws.

Shiraui watched gleefully as the enemy of the whole flailed and died in the void before firing her gifted weapon into the turret's control cluster. “Hehehe..” The damaged flayed giggled before turning and slamming her clawed fist through a window.

“Good bye.” Shiraui said as she grabbing a fist full of fleeing slaves and Uec personnel as the shield came up. With a violent tug she drew her hand out before shoving the bloody mess into her mouth.

“Alert multiple inbound contacts at nine o'clock, twelve, and five o'clock.” Armor reported as Fallon placed his hands down onto the arm rests of Shiraui's seat and activated his implant. “Oh no!”

“Shiraui, give me control.” He said as he felt his hands being encompassed by the fleshy control surfaces. “Okay. But be careful please. I've never had a human before.”

Feeling slightly sick Shiraui watched helplessly as her body slammed its hand down. Long claw marks were dug into the hull plating as her pilot used her free hands three and a half foot long claws to slow her momentum. As she did this she felt her legs kick out before what passed for her feet came down bringing her into a crouch on the hull.

With just a little luck
A little cold blue steel
I cut the night like a razor blade
'Til I feel the way I want to feel!
The way I wanna feel!

The rifle came up and began to track before her other hand came around and began to work the underslung pump action. The weapon bucked in her hands as grenade after grenade sailed into space to explode against the shields of the oncoming fighters.

The first explosied into a brilliant display of pyrotechnics before the second's shields failed and peeled off to come around for another gun run. Then apparently seeing a chance as the final fighters shields fell and it began to bank away she had kicked off of the ship and fired her thrusters.

In a split second Shiraui had found that her body had caught up with the fleeing fighter. An alarm from Armor drew her attention and she saw the other fighter burning hard to catch up with its comrade. But her placenta must have foreseen this as he maneuvered her body in such a way that used the previous fighter as a shield, before thrusting a fist toward the offending equestrian.

Three bone white penitratos speared out of the organ on her left forearm and into the fuselage. And as the fighter detonated she watched as she flipped up and around to fly inverted with the original fighter before she turned and she saw the fear in the pony pilots face as mister fallon aimed and fired the energy weapon into the cockpit.

There was a blast of heat and searing pain across her back as a large bolt of magic passed her. Snarling and chirping in anger she wrenched control from fallon and jumped back to the corvette who had managed to graze her with its energy lance.

When she appeared in front of the half dome of glass that protected the bridge she could feel the rage bleeding off of her human and into her. Through the window she delighted in the fear of the enemy before slamming her fist into the glass. Once then twice, and crack started to form. Then a third and a forth made the glass begin to chip and star sending lines across the entire canopy. Finally as she saw the bridge crew running from their stations she reared back and with a final punch put her fist through the glass.

Screaming horrified faces streamed passt her through the breach she had created. Shirauri clenched her fist and fired a penetrator mine deep into the bowels of the ship before bringing a foot up to brace against the glass.

“Hehe, one corvette down.” Then half kicking half firing her thrusters she blasted off of the corvette and into space with a pirouette. A display that Fallon had to admit was quite the elegant display.

“Shit, Shiraui, that destroyer blew past us. Tell the Defiant they'll have company soon.” Fallon said as he turned in his seat arching his back against the tentacle restraints. Even as Shiraui fought to keep the nanotized MOTH in place for his own sake he strained to keep his eye on the UECs equivalent of a destroyer as it burned past the fight.

“Im sorry, I can't jump yet. I have to regenerate my drive before I can.” Shiraui said as she slowly turned to face the rapidly shrinking escort ship.

Fallons only response was a resounding “Fuck!”. As he slammed his fist into the fleshy side if Shiraui's cockpit. “Ow, please stop that hurts.”

“Sorry.” He said before taking a his helmet off and taking a breath of the warm humid air. Closing his eyes he sat back in the seat and listened to she sound of what he guess passed as a heartbeat.

“Jesus, there goes another one.” The sensor operator said as he stared dumbly at the holo image.

“Tehe, fighter down.” The eerie voice of Shiraui crackled through the speakers as another red blip disappeared.

“Damn… those things are freaking scary man.” The Space born infantry guard said not to helpfully from his position at the railing.

“Captain.”

“What is it lieutenant?” I asked the key turner. Turning in my chair to look the girl in the eye.

“Um sir, the L-drive is red lining, it needs to cool down or something before we can coil, charge, and jump again.” She said with concern in her voice.

“How long until the drive is operational?”

“Unknown sir, the lab says it might be anywhere from thirty minutes to another hour.”

“...Alright keep me informed, I want to know the instant the drive is back up and running.”

“Understood captain.”

“Doll your the last in the pipe. Lights are green Call the ball.” I heard the flight controller say as calmly as she dared to the irate french pilot.

“I've got the ball, coming in.” Eyes glued to the tactical display I watched Lynx's fighter come in before the deck shook slightly as she made her landing.

“Another fighter down. Only twelve more to go.” Shiraui said over the radio before let out a yelp just before a bang resounded off of the bridge's entrance hatch.

With a sigh I swiveled my crash couch around to face the hatch being mindful to keep the tank in my peripheral. “Enter.”

The woman who entered was in her mid twenties, blond and incredibly irritated. “Captain Teigh, what in the…” The heiress of the Dunois family began before a new transmission came through the speakers.

“Skipper its Iceman, that tango blew past me. You're going to have some company real soon, single escort class ship.” Fallon said before I turned and disregard captain Dunois. If we just got the message that could only mean it was several hours old at least.

“Captain, contact at extreme range, just appeared on sensors. Single ship looks like a… single dominatrix class escort ship. Frigate flass.” As my sensor operator began to relay the relevant information I began to flash through the scenario in my head.
Q

‘The L-drive won't be ready to go for at least another forty-five minutes… let me see. If the data we got from those deserters on the gally is right then the dominatrix class should have three medium energy rakes, six plasma quarles and condenser turrets, ten missile launchers and a medium rated shield. That leaves me outclassed in raw tonnage and fire power…’ I thought to myself as I leaned forward eyeing the tactical plot. Around me the bridge came alive with the sounds of the ship being brought to battle stations.

“Action stations, action stations, all hands report to designated zones, damage control teams to stand by. Action stations, action stations.”

Leaning back I felt as well as heard the ghost ship creaking as if to shake out any cobwebs. ‘My ghost ship has two twin linked rail guns. Nine penetrator missiles, seven frag missiles, six plasma torpedoes, two ERMs in her racks and three twelve megaton nukes.’

“Captain, they just swept our position with an active sensor.” The Sensor operator said before the tactical officer spoke up. “Two fish in the water, inbound vector twelve twenty nine, and twelve twenty eight.”

“Orders sir?”

“PDCs. Return fire, fire two penetrators. Flip and burn for six, then kill the engine and reengage stealth. Dump the heatsink if you have to.”

“Aye aye sir! Returning fire now.” The gunnery crewman said before the ship vibrated with the reports of its point defence cannons coming to life.

“Turning and burning now captain!” Gs slammed me into my crash couch as I watched two torpedoes burst from my ships Icon mid turn. The two penetrator torpedoes then cleared the hull before flipping back around to face the oncoming ship and firing their drives.

“Killing engines… now!”

“Switching to passive sensors...and we are gone..”

“Gaagh! Fuck off!” Fallon yelled as he was knocked forward against my restraints as Shiraui was hit in the back making her cry out in pain.

Taking control again the nanotized MOTH maneuvered Shiraui into a sort somersault. Rolling with the explosion and coming out inverted he felt himself lifting her arms and firing the blaster cannon coring the fighter and making it erupt into a brilliant explosion.

[Pilot incoming. Warning we are outnumbered two to one.] Armor chimed in as Fallon redlined Shiraui's thrusters taking the two of them into the debris field of the destroyed Corvette.

Blood, coolant, bodys and small chunks of ship bounced off of Shiraui's hide as Fallon had her hug her back against what used to be an interior passageway. “Shiraui how are you doing?”

Risking a peak around the corner the flayed in question she saw the two fighters that had been pursuing her fly off. Drawing back she breathed a sigh of relief and placed a hand against her chest. “I’m fine, I can still fight. And my drive is almost done regenerating and should be done in about two minutes. But with all of the damage we are taking I may have to assign cells to regenerating my surface.”

“So you need armor?... I've got it.” Fallon said as he moved Shiraui further into the destroyed ship's wreckage. Passing through several corridors large enough for adult dragons to pass through Shiraui began to wander where her placenta was taking her before they came to a stop in front of a damaged blast door of some kind.

“Armor run a scan will it work?” Fallon asked as he maneuvered the lanky construct around the piece of metal roughly two thirds her size.

[Please wait… scan complete. Thickness two point two feet… Adequate.]

“Perfect. One ballistic shield, coming up.” Was all Fallon said as Shiraui felt herself reaching out before she ripped the door from its mountings. Satisfied her placenta grasped her left claw around the red “pull here” emergency handle. “Let's rock.”

Flipping back around as Armor changed the song and channel to keep the UEC from regaining comms Shiraui's blasted out of the ship and back into space.

https://youtu.be/B1q8Oe7AAVA

Scanning the operation area Fallon spotted 19 just as it's port engine was struck by a UEC missile. Damaged the fighter transformed and seemed to roar soundlessly in space. As it did the red parts of its body began glowing even brighter before a pulse of eerie red light emanate from its body.

Then entire fighter shook as three more missiles struck its armor and the entire thing exploded into a brilliant shower of crimson sparks and glowing debris. But before he could react Fallon half felt half saw two more waves wash over himself and Shiraui.

As the the red wave washed over Shiraui and her placenta she could feel the keening in his head reached an unbearable pitch. As a human he couldn't handle the methods of communication used by the lanky whole, nor her creator the one. Despite his conversion via his pattern's ignorant use of their L-blades.

As the pain of the sound washed over Fallon the fireflies that had been creeping at the edges of his vision since the start of the engagement vanished, replaced by a crystal clear view of space as if he was neural linked to armor's mech chassis.

“Mister fallon, are you... aagh!” Shiraui, worried about the readings she was receiving from her human placenta asked.

With clenched fists he jammed Shiraui's throttle forward. Activating his implant Fallon forcibly took control of the damaged flayed. “Eight left. Eight on one.” Her pilot said in such a cold voice it sent shivers down what passed for her spine.

[Pilot bogey inbound point 672.921 mark bravo. Distance fifty.]

Seemingly on autopilot Shiraui felt and watched her body twist around to face behind and slightly below her. The cocatrice fired its guns as it came and in response Fallon swung the improvised ballistic shield into place taking the hits on its face.

[Pilot bogey inbound point 354.041 mark alpha. Distance one hundred kilometers. Warning we are outnumbered two to one.]

Arching both his and Shirauis head to the side Fallon saw the fighter was coming from the exact opposite side as the previous one.

“Come on!” He yelled as he dragged the riffle up and fired two bolts into the cockpit of the fighter. As the second erupted into a shower of flame and debris he burst to the side to avoid the debris and thrust the tip of his rifle over the edge of his shield.

Keyed into the rifles targeting reticle he aimed and fired the weapon from around the shield scoring four hits on the cocatrice before it too dissapered from his contact screen. “Six. Shiraui keep me updated with the count.”

“U-understood. Sixty seconds. Incoming!” Shiraui shouted before Fallon backflipped of the path of two dumbfire missiles.

“You'll have to better than that.” Her human placenta said before he blasted her thrusters again and rammed the “shield” into the offending fighter as it passed. The cocatrice crumpled as its hull buckled under the sudden blunt force before exploding.

Kicking her legs out Shiraui felt herself being thrust in a completely opposite direction. However just as she thought she had over committed to the move her left arm came around, swinging the shield into position to block three bolts of gold magical energy.

[Pilot the shield is losing its integrity.] She heard Armor chime in. Sensing something coming Shiraui threw herself into a backwards spin just as two rockets sailed within a hair's breadth of her left leg.

Looking around Shiraui felt a gut wrenching feeling as Fallon took control and flung the shield towards the nearest fighter. “Five”

“Uum, thirty seconds left.”

[Pilot the Corvette is attempting to break contact and burn for the Defiant. Protocol 2.]

Another graceful flip and Shiraui found herself burning towards the distant UEC ship. Almost immediately the ship's two rear facing plasma quarrels opened up. Twisting down and to the right she avoided the first bolt of burning green energy before rolling to the left to narrowly avoid another from second cannon.

Thoughts of someone named Miiora filled her placenta's mind. She felt Fallons need to protect this person and the nanites inside of him telling him to kill, creating a sickening cocktail of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her. Taking what passed for a breath among her kind, feeling the stellar gases fill her air sacks she felt and sensed her placenta doing the same.

When she came back to herself she felt she flicked the firing selector she felt a wave of anxiety wash over her followed by an eerie icey calm as her placenta came too. The rifle in her hands discharge sending a long beam of red light toward the ship. She marveled at the beam for something in the whole drawing parallels with the beam weapons used by The One's claw ships.

Cutting the beam short to save energy as the first turret exploded, Fallon twirled Shiraui around a second ball of plasma before pushing the throttle as far as it would go. Instantly the G-forces of the sudden boost in acceleration smashed him against the seat.

Pain exploded from his back as he felt something wet pop and his vision constricted to almost a pinprick as the accelerometer passed fifteen-G and continued to climb. A shout of alarm from Shiraui brought the Iceman's attention to the sensor panel.

Linking his implant to the rifles targeting reticle he leaned the construct to one side presenting the smallest silhouette possible. Flicking the selector he proceeded to spray the area behind him filling the space between the fighter and Shiraui with bolts of energy. [The Corvette is pulling away pilot.]

“Shiraui, I need more speed.”

“But you could really hurt yourself mister fallon.” Shiraui said Fallon watched the corvette's icon begin to crawl farther away. “I can handle it.”

“A-alright, please hold on.” With that Shiraui snaked more tentacles around Fallons form and dumped what little reserve power she had left into her thrusters. The result was immediate, and just as he began to black out Fallon's suit began injecting him with the adrenaline cocktail known as The Juice. Instantly the encroaching darkness receded and Fallon pulled back to fly parallel to the Corvette.

[Warning: energy rake inbound]

Catching the primary close range weapons of the UEC heading his way Fallon threw Shiraui into a roll that caused the miles long magical beam to miss its target and pass by harmlessly with several inches to spare. “L-drive regenerated mister Fallon.”

https://youtu.be/e3bVHf8UEEA

“fire thruster two. Helm sixty degree ventral starboard roll, execute.”

“Thruster two, ventral roll sixty aye.”

“Sharron what's the status of our launch bays?” I yelled as I wiped blood from my visor. Below me I felt the stealth ship's engines roared to life.

“The tubes are inoperable sir, we have crews working to clear the debris but it will be ten minutes at beat before the tubes are clear.”

“Damn, what about Shiraui and Fallon are they still alive?” My XO asked before a claxon began to blare.

“Captain, the UEC ship has found us again. They are…” an explosion rocked the hull and the sensor operator's call out was cut off as a support beam snapped off and crushed her in her chair. Almost immediately the inactive captain Dunois rushed over to man the vacant station.

“Damage report!” I yelled as the deck bucked under under my crash couch making it gimbel violently.

“Hull breaches on decks nine through twelve. Stealth coating damaged and heatsinks down, we can't go stealth skipper.”

I gripped my seats armrests making the synth leather creak before coming to a decision that might just save my crew. ‘Alright girl, let's give em hell.’

“Helm engines hot, full one eighty flip max burn… take us on this vector. Tactical fire ERM torpedoes. Gunnery I want the PDCs and rail guns to give them whatever we can when we pass them..”

“Communications, send a message to the fleet. We are engaged with the enemy and requesting aid.”

“Aye sir!” My bridge crew shouted as the klaxons began to blare once more. “All hands stand by for High G, secure to crash couches.”

The seconds ticked by as I watched the icon marking the UEC frigate turn in our direction. The hull groaned and damaged pipes burst before it felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest as the ship flipped on its axis to face the frigate and accelerated.

During the flip two electron resonance missiles burst from their tubes before flipping around and blasting towards the UEC ship. Now as we accelerated I watched the missiles streaking ahead of my relatively much slower ship. Minutes passed during which we watched the missiles twitch and dodge incoming UEC countermeasures before slamming into the shields of the ship.

Those shields flared arcing with electricity before flaring violently and failing spectacularly. the entire ship then went silent it’s electronics fried for several crucial minutes as Defiant came barreling towards them.

When the moment came for the UEC to regain their sensors and control we were practically on top of them. “Tactical Fire a full spread of plasma and penetrator torpedoes, knock out their shield generator, and energy rakes. Let's see if we can make this an even fight.”

The hull shivered as the point defence cannons and port railgun swiveled to track the UEC ship. On the tactical plot the space between our two ships instantly filled with the streaks of thousands tracer rounds. Like the wet navy ships of old the Defiant gave the UEC frigate a full broadside perforating the larger ships hull, chewing large sections to pieces with the PDCs.

Then just as the lights aboard the enemy ship began to flicker on the twin linked railgun opened up. The reports of the weapons were silent but the vibration and recoil of the guns resounded throughout the hull.

The light flickered as the guns drew power followed by the boom… boom… boom of the railguns firing on the Defiants relatively small frame. The results were spectacular the UEC ship was struck just as its shields flaired back to life only for those shields to bow inwards from the first impact. The second salvo cracked the shield and the third shattered the dome of pearl colored magic like glass. Allowing the fourth and final salvo to slam into the ships lightly armored hull. Tungsten slugs pierced the hull going through decks bulk heads and personnel, perforating compartments before punching through the opposite side.

The entire event took less than three or four seconds before the Defiant had streaked past the UEC frigate. “Fire.” With a pop we heard six torpedoes burst from their tubes.

“Fish in the water.” My tactical officer said before a violent flash of light appeared almost two million kilometers off of the bow.

“Report.” I yelled watching the torpedoes flip from their launch vectors and fly back along the ship toward their target.

“Shiraui has destroyed the second corvette captain.” the sensor operator reported before klaxons began to blare once more.

“Vampire, vampire incoming missiles at vectors six ninety-four, six delta three, six twenty-seven and six eleven-three. They have entered the maximum engagement range and closings fast, estimate zero four minutes until impact.”

“Tehe, Only Three left.”

“Change PDC priority targeting. Come about stand by for CQB.” Minutes passed as I watched the displays showing the four amber missile icons inching closer and closer to the Defiant. Then all at once the ship's PDCs spun to life spewing thousands of flechettes into the black.

As they drew closer te missiles began to take evasive maneuvers in an attempt to improve their chances of hitting their target. But one by one the three of the four were struck down by the point defence cannons. “Captain the L-drive is…”

Defiant shook violently as the final missile ran the gauntlet of PDC fire and slammed into her hull. Consoles exploded in the CIC as lights flickered, the smell of smoke, burning plastics and rubber filled the air as the red emergency lighting kicked on.

Leaning over and wiping the blood from my visor. I jabbed my finger into my arm wrest hailing my chief engineer. “Shojiro! Damage report!”

“Skipper… L-drive controllers and Main comm dish are gone. Fires on decks two through fifteen, and bulkheads nine to sixteen are exposed to vacuum. Fire control for the port railgun and reactor two is about to overload I have to dump its core before it explodes!” She yelled between yelling to the damage control teams.

Hanging up I pivoted my chair as a desperate Idea came to mind. ‘With the comms dish down we can't alert the fleet. Not unless…’

“What are the chances that the Galactica would be able to detect a radiation burst from its current position?” I asked cycling through the various damage reports until I found what I was looking for.

Captain Dunois was the one to respond, shouting and coughing from her smoking console. “From its current orbital position… very likely but we…”

“Tactical load the mark nines into their tubes. Set them to maximum yield, three point dispersal, two second delay.”

“Two second delay, tri dispersal, maximum yield, aye captain. Twenty seconds.” the tymerian shouted as his clawed fingers danced across the display. “Skipper the UEC ship is closing to minimum engagement range.”

That made my blood run cold at that range about five to fifteen kilometers the UEC's smallest ships could deploy their energy rakes. A nasty energy blade that ran along a track on the hulls of almost every UEC ship that could cut through the thickest hull plating like butter.

“Energy build up at the escorts aft projector. Its rake is coming online.” Dunois reported as she waved the the smoke away.

“Neutrino burst detected off the Uec ship's starboard bow.” The sensor operator said bringing the sensor feed up on the tactical plot.

Space seemed to warp for a split second before a violent and insanely short lived flash of white light filled the right side of the UEC ship on the screen. When the light died down the escort ship had dropped its shields just enough to deploy its main weapon and a long golden beam burst from its tail end.

As we watched the energy rake began its acceleration along its track before a line of pink sparks hit the emitter at its base. “Zoom in that image quadrant, B ninety zulu six.” I said as we breathed a collective sigh of relief as the beam that would have eviscerated Defiant began to flicker die.

“Aye.” The image zoomed in before as the synthetic behind the sensory station began amplifying the image, removing the noise and compensating for time lag.

The image showed Shiraui, the Flayed had ramed herself sholder first into the base of the emitter and was firing her weapon into its track and inner workings. “Defiant, whatever your gonna do do it fast. Before they another emitter online.” Fallon said over the tac-link. Before Shiraui shouldered her weapon and jammed a penetrator mine into the whole she had made.

“Roger Iceman, radiation warning is in effect level four. Buy us all the time you can. We will send reinforcements when able.” I said as I received a thumbs up from the tactical station.

“Solid copy, Let's do this Shiraui.” Fallon said calmly. Followed quickly by an energetic “Right!” from Shiraui as I watched the flayed kick off of the hull and arch its back to fire it's rifle one handed sending a tight six round burst into a condenser turret.

“Mister Xel'der, execute.” Instantly there were three distinct pops as the multi megaton metroplex busters burst from their tubes. “One five seconds until nukes reach minimum safe distance.” The tymerian reported.

Catching movement from the corner of my eye I saw Captain Dunois turn in her seat and I waved her off knowing she was next to useless on the bridge at this point with the main dish gone. Instantly she unbuckled and jogged off of the bridge and down towards the hanger deck. Minutes passed until I received a report that Valkyrie had managed to clear and force their way through a damaged freight elevator.

https://youtu.be/jTEkfsGnRTA

Flying along the hull of the escort I drifted
Shiraui around a destroyed turret and towards one of the external shield generators. “Woah low bridge!” I felt Shiraui take control and kick herself into a roll passing over an external tubed walkway.

I could feel Shiraui's excitement feeding through the link as we flew along. Her soft giggling eventually became infectious and eventually the keening and anger I felt drained away to be replaced with a sense of joy. I wasn't quite at the point of laughing but It felt like I was a kid with a new toy.

“Coming through!” I yelled over the music as I brought Shiraui's “armored” left shoulder around and bashed through a glass tube. Dropping low I sunk Shiraui's hand into the hull drifting around a sensor antenna until the pulsing shield generator came into view.

Shiraui spotted and marked a large window on the half dome's face, and I locked her feet down onto the hull. Her thrusters fired and I sprinted towards it firing the blaster. Once, then twice cracking the glass until it stared violently on the third and by then we were airborne and crashing through the glass.The crew in the compartment screamed silently as they were violently sucked into space.

[Highlighting structural weak point.]

A large red glowing crosshair appeared on the spinning arcane structure. It marked one red highlighted cylinder below the central point. Shrugging I leveled the blaster cannon and fired three shots into its face.

The entire generator began to rumble and shake out of sync before explosions began to rack its surface. “Oh shit! Shiraui get us out of here!” I yelled taking a step back. In response Shiraui took control and kicked off of the exploding generator and launched herself out of the window.

As we flew out we came under fire from several UEC shuttles that the escort ship must have launched in an attempt to get rid of us. “Fuck.” goosing Shiraui's engines I breaked as hard as I could to avoid a hail of intersecting fire. They had me bracketed and with a quick mental command Shiraui vanished but when we appeared behind the two shuttles they exploded.

A collision alarm blared and I rolled out of the way just as two Gungnir fighters shot past my position. In the corner of my bucket’s HUD a box appeared revealing Charlotte's helmeted face.

“Highlighting targets…. Shield!” I yelled as three blindingly bright flashes appeared around us. All at once all off Shiraui's feeds cut out and she switched to a millimeter wave feed leaving me with a crude wireframe outline of the area around us.

I could feel my skin crawling as waves of radiation washed over us as my nanites fought to neutralize the radiological damage. Obviously the lankys had failed to mention the minimal shielding inside of the Flayed's cockpit.

When the light died down and Shiraui turned the displayed back on I saw Charlotte had pulled alongside Shiraui and shifted her fighter into its Valkyrie mode. “Bien?” She asked her face a mask of concern.

“I'll live. Talk to me Armor.”

[Tertiary energy rake has begun its warm up sequence. Recommend immediate intervention.]

“On it!”

https://youtu.be/jJiqwdWOhz8

“Radiation bursts supreme commander!” The sensor pony yelled before three small stars flared into existence around the stricken earther ship. Instantly the window darkened to protect their vision from the earthers barbaric nuclear weapons.

“What is the status of my escort?” The pirple maned unicorn asked folding her hands behind her back as she struggled to ignore the music still blaring over the speakers.

Its not like im walking alone into the valley of the shadow of death.

“It appears to be intact and engaged with earther fighters.” Earth pony responded before the image updated showing the golden beam of one of the escort’s energy rakes.

‘Perfect when the earther ship fails to report back the rest of its fleet will be forced to come in blind and we will catch them completely off guard. Krysk’s plan was completely… what's going on?’ The element bearer's train of thought was cut off as the rake cut off. Space to the left of the battle began to warp and spiral, and the fighters that had been harassing the escort all at once broke off.

“Neutrino burst!”

“What!” She shouted twisting to face the source of the unwanted news. “Incoming, Star swirl forming.”

Turning back to the window she watched the image expand and pan out as a the warp in space shifted before bursting into a swirling cloudy vortex of red and white. Through the vortex two massive human ship came barreling into space suddenly appearing on her ships sensors.

“Silhouettes match, ninety-nine percent match. Zero two annihilator class siege breakers. It's the NACS Donnager, and the...” The sensor pony was cut off with a wave of a well manicured hand.

“The Manitoba.” Rarity spat rage leaking from her every word. As she said this the two ships dashed out of the vortexes they had created. Their one thousand meter long hulls pulsed with light as they passes on either side of their stricken cousin.

Dozens of railgun batteries and Point defence guns swiveled and as the two ships passed beside the comparatively miniscule escort the space between them turned into the ninth circle of Tartarus.

Thousands of rounds courtesy of the rotary PDCs, and hundreds of slugs from the two ships compliments of light, medium and heavy rail guns. All of which lanced out to meat the two hundred meter escort. The earther saying “There's always a bigger fish.” crossed her mind as the once proud escort was transformed in a matter of seconds from a display of UEC power, into an unrecognizable cloud of expanding debris.

The bridge of the super destroyer was deathly quiet as the two human ships decelerated and pulled alongside the tiny two hundred meter ship. No pony, slave or other member of the UEC in the flotilla spoke as more starbursts began to appear around the three ship.

First one, then two, four, six, nine, twelve. One by one and two by two more and more ships burst into existence around the two ships. Running the gambit of almost thirty ships.

Ten Corvette class frigates, five of their destroyers, six of their big hammerhead linebacker space control cruisers, four of the leathy class siege breakers, one recolored UEC luna class super destroyer, two smaller UEC cadence class destroyers, and finally two more of the behemoth annihilator siege breakers.

Fred Johnson, Donnager, Astrid, Manitoba, Matayo, James holden, Yorktown, Minsk, Yamato, and Vancouver. Ten of the COG's siege breakers floated in space chilling the blood of the bridge crew and for the first time Raritt was glad Krysks was present and had pulled so many fleets together. She knew no one fleet could stand against the shere firepower on display even stranded as they are.

“Neutrino burst. It looks like something big is coming through.” The dry fear leaden voice of the sensor pony said as the screen panned out. Indeed if one were to see the COG formation as a whole they could see a huge vacancy directly at its center.

Space warped for half a second before the behemoth dreadnought burst into existence at the fleets center. Its ugly grey hull was covered in vast empty spaces where it appeared these other ships would dock marked almost half of its almost one and a half mile long hull. Amidships at its dorsal and ventral sections were absolutely massive three barreled turrets, at four hundred meters long they looked like something that belonged on an ancient seafaring warship.

She read the name on the side of the ship, burning it into her memory. “NACS Galactica.” Taking a dread filled breath and swallowing the rapidly growing lump in her throat she tossed aside her pride and gave the order. “Send word to supreme commander Krysk, We have made contact with the enemy.”

Author's Notes:

I appologise for the wait, I moved into my new apartment recently and I havent had much time to work on anything. Since I have been busting my ass at work and struggling with a bit of writers block.