Two stealth ships shot past just above the Liberty, their speed far too fast for the floating myriad of battlefield detritus all around them, the captured former stealth ship pursued them. The enemy ships weaved to and fro, through the debris of devastated shipping.
“ Ready fusion cannon,” Michael ordered as the Krenaran ships continued to weave and zigzag their way through the debris field.
“ We have target lock,” Lieutenant Jones announced.
“ Fire!” Michael shouted; fist clenched.
The intensely bright incandescent blue beam lanced out past the destroyed form of an Alexander class medium cruiser, bathing its crumpled hull in a bright electric blue light. The beam tore into the Krenaran ships engines, blasting them apart instantly. The ship careered into a giant piece of hull plating, and then crumpled in a kind of concertina effect before exploding brightly.
The second ship continued to dodge and weave, trying desperately to shake off the far deadlier Liberty, but to no avail, as three high energy torpedoes slammed into the rear of the enemy vessel, it plunged headlong into the blackened ruin of a Washington class heavy cruiser; turning the charred ruin into a flaming inferno once again.
The Liberty continued on its course as up ahead hid the monstrous form of another of the Krenaran command carriers.
Eldathar banked the ship so that it flew between the blackened wrecks of two Jefferson class heavy destroyers which drifted nearby one another. The Liberty levelled out once it had passed the hulks and continued towards its target.
“ Is the fusion cannon fully charged?” Michael asked.
“ Ninety four percent,” Lieutenant Jones replied.
The massive Krenaran carrier recognised the comparatively tiny former Krenaran ship rapidly baring down on its position, its engines were completely different to any typical Krenaran ship, and its weapon systems had been changed, the moment of confusion allowed the Liberty to close with its prey. Recognising the Liberty for what it was, a captured ship, it unleashed three of its deadly H.O. T rockets straight towards it. The deadly accurate missiles raced towards the Liberty with terrifying speed.
“ Torpedoes, fire!” Michael shouted in desperation as he saw the bright light of the enemy missile engines streaking towards them. With the little time they had, the Liberty only managed to launch two of its own torpedoes, both the incoming missiles and the ships own torpedoes slammed into one another and exploded in a gigantic, blinding explosion that lit up the space all around them; the shockwave blasting nearby debris in all directions.
Briefly the viewer turned an intensely bright white, Michael and the command crew had to shield their eyes from the blinding light of the explosion.
The Liberty shuddered violently, as the shockwave slammed into it. People were thrown from their consoles; Michael desperately hung onto his seat. As the viewer began to clear, the shape of the third rocket was briefly visible as it hurtled its way towards them.
Completely unable to avoid this third missile in time, the warhead struck home with devastating impact, instantly detonating, and blasting apart one of the high energy torpedo launchers, the sheer force of the explosion sent the Liberty spinning out of control.
Onboard, the scene was one of utter devastation, Eldathar was flung completely from his seat, consoles and sensitive electronics exploded violently; support girders collapsed and fires broke out. Kinraid was thrown into the air and smashed into another console; he lay on the deck unconscious.
The impact was so powerful that the Liberty was flung into a wildly uncontrolled barrel roll. Michael crawled his way over to the navigators chair and tried desperately to regain control of the ship.
The unstable flickering image of the enemy carrier filled the viewscreen as the out of control Liberty sped towards it. Michael heaved on the arms of the pilot’s chair with all the might he could muster, if he couldn’t steer the ship away from the hull of the enemy carrier in time, they were all dead. His face was grimy as the sweat from the heat mixed with soot from the small fires which had begun to take hold in some parts of the bridge.
He screamed, as he put every last ounce of strength he had into the controls, “come on, you son of a bitch!” he shouted.
The Liberty; barely meters away from slamming into the carrier’s deck, responded and Michael had control again. He mashed the button for the fusion cannon, and as the ship made an almost impossibly steep climb, the fusion beam shot out at point blank range tearing a deep fiery ravine down the length of the carrier.
The devastating beam cut a swathe along the centre of the Krenaran ship and up across its command structure, almost shearing it clean in two, it tore itself apart under the force of the cannon impact.
The Liberty had missed careering into the Krenaran ships hull by barely a meter. Nearby Solarian ships, seeing the badly damaged carrier, converged upon it, and mercilessly cut it to pieces with several more fusion cannon hits.
Michael looked upon his debris scattered, smashed bridge, taking in the forms of several mangled E.D. F and Solarian crew members lying motionless on the floor; his heart weighed heavy in his chest as he grieved for them immensely, his head felt fuzzy from the heat and the pain of being thrown around from the torpedo impact.
Since the crew of the Liberty was such a small one, it was like everyone was a friend, and everyone knew everybody else onboard. Michael didn’t have the luxury of letting his grief show however, he was in command. And right now they were in desperate trouble, the grief would have to come later.
Logan slowly picked himself up, dusting off his blackened, soot stained uniform. Kinraid slowly regained consciousness and woozily got to his feet as well, his forehead sported a nasty gash from slamming into the console earlier, which bled down the side of his face and onto his uniform.
Michael looked down at the prone form of Eldathar, lying motionless just a few feet from his position at the pilot’s chair. Kinraid gradually managed to pick his way through the debris to check over the Solarian, he had been taught basic first aid at the E.D. F officer training centre on Delta base, although he hadn’t the faintest idea of Solarian physiology.
He was breathing, but only very shallow, his Solarian officers uniform was torn in several places revealing his blue tinged skin; a viscous blue-ish green blood seeped out of deep cuts and scrapes on the exposed parts of his body.
An emergency damage control team managed to scrabble their way onto the damaged bridge, and began to put out the electrical fires and secured some of the damaged, sparking conduits. The lingering smoke slowly managed to clear as the emergency environmental controls began to take over again, much to Michael’s relief.
“ What’s our status?” He asked rubbing his throbbing head.
Logan made his way over to one of the still functioning internal diagnostic terminals. “Reactive hull armour is down, starboard torpedo launcher is completely destroyed which has left a large breach on decks 2 and 3. We also have some structural damage on deck 4, heavy casualties have been reported; we’re lucky it’s not worse sir.”
Michael pressed his wrist comm. “Alexander to sickbay, we have wounded on the bridge.”
“ Received, we have a medic team on its way to you now,” the familiar voice of Ensign Kathryn Jacobs, the chief medical officer onboard replied.
The small, rather limited sickbay was littered with the wounded, dead and dying. She had been working frenetically to help those most in need. Her long dark locks were bedraggled and knotted, sweat trickled down her gentle youthful features, her bloodstained uniform testament to her work. She quickly tended to a man who had been working in engineering when a backup conduit supplying ionic energy to the starboard turning thruster ruptured and exploded next to where he was standing. His body had received eighty percent burns and most likely would not survive, despite her best efforts.