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“Second contact! Down range of the first!” the sensor operator announced! “Transferring track to tactical!”

The commander examined the second track, comparing it against the first to save time, a trick he had learned on his previous assignment. “Same type of ship, Captain. Torpedo impact in five seconds.”

“Helm! New course, bring us onto the second contact!”

Aye Sir!” Within seconds Cameron had fed him a new course as Nathan raised the nose of the ship slightly and to the right to head toward the second contact.”

“Torpedo impact!” the commander reported.

Everyone held their breath as they waited for the impact assessment.

“Contact One lost!” the commander announced happily. It was the Aurora’s first shot fired in anger, and it was also her first kill.

“Can you re-target the second torpedo?” the captain asked, hoping to send it after the second contact to save time and ordnance. After all, he only had so many torpedoes in the forward bay. The rest were still in storage down in the hangar deck.

“Negative, second torpedo was destroyed by their point defense turrets!” The commander glanced back down at his tactical display, realizing that two of the six missiles launched by the first patrol ship had made it past their defense screen and were about to strike the Aurora. “Incoming ordnance!”

The first missile struck the bow, slightly port of her centerline. They were not big missiles, but without any shielding, they were big enough to take out one of their rail gun emplacements. And with less than half of them operational, they needed every one.

The ship rocked from the explosion, which could be seen on the main view screen, the glare bathing the bridge in yellow-orange light that faded quickly. The second missile could be seen streaking overhead on the view screen, striking aft of the camera emplacements against the elevated drive section at the stern of the ship. The second explosion could not be seen from the bridge, but they could definitely feel it.

“Deep space comms are down!” the comm officer reported. “That last missile must’ve taken out the array!”

“The second contact is making a run for it, Captain!” the commander exclaimed.

“Get a solution for one and three on that contact!”

“She’s still out of range, Sir.”

“Ensign, how quickly can we get in range at full thrust?”

“Two minutes,” Cameron reported.

“Full power, Lieutenant!”

Nathan brought the main engines back up to full power, pushing everyone back in their seats once more. Only this time, they were expecting it and were better prepared for the sensation.

“Torpedo range in a minute forty,” Cameron reported calmly.

“Will we catch her before she can get up to light speed?” the captain asked the commander. Their FTL system was offline, since the emitter systems were being used by the special projects team.

“I guess we’ll see,” the commander shrugged.

It seemed like it took forever for them to close the gap. The little ship could outrun them, but the Aurora could accelerate faster. But without the emitters, she could not generate the field that negated her mass and allowed for the transition into FTL velocities.

“We’re passing through the first contact’s debris field,” the sensor officer announced. All along the ship, the sounds of debris striking the hull could be heard as pieces of the destroyed enemy ship of varying sizes struck the exterior of the ship. Most of it sounded like rain, although a few were loud enough to cause Nathan to flinch once or twice.

“Torpedo range in sixty seconds,” Cameron reported.

“Firing solutions locked and ready,” the commander announced.

“She’s got an antimatter reactor on board, Captain!” the sensor officer reported.

“A patrol ship with an antimatter reactor?” the captain asked the commander. “You ever hear of that?”

“No, Sir. But our intel on their ships is still limited.”

“I wonder what else she’s got?” The captain thought for a moment. “Can you re-target the torpedoes to take out her engines without destroying her?”

“I can try, but I’m not making any promises.” The commander looked his captain in the eyes, as if reading his mind. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“She might have some tech we don’t know about yet.”

“Re-targeting,” the commander announced, not waiting for the order.

In the Special Operations section just forward of the Aurora’s flight deck, Jessica and her teammates sat waiting for something to do. They were all highly trained in the art of specialized combat and covert operations, and they could handle just about anything. But during a yellow alert, all they could do was sit in their ready room and wait.

Being assigned to the Aurora was about the last thing that Jessica had wanted upon graduation. She had hoped to get assigned to a deep cover intelligence gathering team that would be smuggled onto one of the core-system worlds occupied by the Jung, in order to collect intelligence to forward back to Earth. Such assignments were the dream of every spec-ops officer, since due to the difficulty of getting info back to Earth, they were authorized to take whatever actions they felt necessary to protect the interests of their homeworld. It was a life of excitement and danger, where your fate was in your own hands, and not the hands of some brass hat sitting behind a desk somewhere back on Earth.

But instead, she had been assigned here. She understood why every ship needed its own spec-ops team. And this ship, with its FTL capabilities, at least had the ability to get her somewhere interesting. So in that sense, it was better than getting assigned to one of the older sub-light ships.

When battle stations had been called, she had been sure it was a drill, despite the fact that it had not been announced as such. Even when the ship started maneuvering hard and accelerating sporadically, she still had her doubts. But then they heard, and felt, torpedoes being fired. And then the constant pounding of the rail gun cannons as they laid down point defense flak. While they might fire the cannons in a drill, there was no way they were going to waste a couple of torpedoes. Those things were like small space ships, and were armed with small tactical nukes.

But the final evidence had been the explosions, the first of which struck very close, above and forward of them, knocking them out of their seats. A few minutes after that, two more torpedoes were launched. Either they were fighting multiple ships, or one really big one. But in the orbit of Jupiter? It just didn’t make any sense.

But after the last batch of torpedoes had been launched, it had suddenly gotten quiet. The main engines, which had been running at full thrust, had also quieted. And she was sure that she felt deceleration-sometimes it was hard to tell with the inertial dampeners in play.

Suddenly the room turned red and the action alarm squawked a single blast. The master chief in charge of the unit picked up the comm handset and took the call.

“Spec-Ops,” he announced. The master chief listened intently for a few moments. “Yes Sir!” The master chief hung up the handset and turned to face his people. “Alright! Listen up! Suit up for an EVA boarding action! Two insertion teams, four elements in each team! You move out in ten minutes!”

“Holy shit!” Jessica exclaimed. Maybe this ain’t such a bad assignment after all!

“Her main drive is definitely wiped out,” the commander proclaimed. We nailed her square in the ass with both shots. Just about blew her tail off.”

“What are you seeing over there?” the captain asked his sensor officer.

“She looks pretty dark, sir. I’m pretty sure she’s running on emergency power. Her shields and weapons are down, but her antimatter reactor is still online. She’s probably blown her power distribution system.”