“Shields at eighty three percent.”
The Liberty continued to hurtle headlong through space towards the safety of the moon, the tiny ship’s flight path criss-crossed with deep violet laser lance blasts from the Dracos cruisers chasing it, several slammed into the Liberties aft shields, weakening them further.
“Shields are down to fifty one percent, we won’t be able to withstand this kind of pounding for much longer!” Logan Jones replied.
The ship rocked violently under the withering onslaught; a console shorted out, exploding in a shower of sparks and shattered glass flying across the bridge.
“Hold your course Eldathar!” Michael shouted over the din of explosions and violent shaking.
The Solarian pilot nodded an affirmative as he concentrated on trying to dodge the hail of weapons fire directed at them. He had managed to evade the majority of the fusillade of laser lance fire, but in doing so had flown straight into the path of three torpedoes heading straight for them.
“Brace for impact!” the Solarian shouted in alarm.
All three warheads slammed headlong into the Liberty, crewmen were thrown through the air with the sheer force of the impacts. Conduits exploded all over the ship, power flickered in several sections, as delicate circuits struggled to cope. Smoke and the debris of collapsed supports filled the bridge, virtually all the command staff were thrown hard to the floor.
Kinraid lay unconscious near to his ruined sensory console, the display had shattered, leaving nothing more than a blackened charred wreck, filled with sparking and damaged circuits.
Michael groggily got to his feet, his head throbbed, and he rubbed his temples to clear the fog from his mind. Wiping away the debris from the grey leather of his command chair, he slumped slowly back into it.
“Status,” he asked weakly.
Logan managed to make his way to an auxiliary sensory console to the left of where he fell, picking his way through the detritus littering the floor. “If I’m reading this right, we’ve lost the aft port graviton generator, the other one is about to shut down to vent off excess energy. Main engines are still intact, though we have several stress fractures along the aft hull.”
“So we are defenceless?”
“It looks that way.”
“Injuries, casualties?”
“Yet to come in, so far we have two casualties reported.”
“How long until we reach the moon itself?”
“Another three minutes sir,” Eldathar replied studying the display in front of him, one of the few that remained undamaged on the bridge.
“This is it, we have no more room for error, if we even take a single hit, we are done for.”
Eldathar gravely nodded his understanding, just as a laser lance shot smashed into the undefended rear of the Liberty, blasting straight through the hull, and almost pitching the ship into an uncontrolled spin.
The Solarian wrestled against the controls with every ounce of his strength, in an effort to keep the ship stable, if he lost control again they were all doomed. Alarms signalling damage to the ship blared out loudly throughout the vessel.
“We’ve got a hull breach, deck three, aft section, casualties reported,” Logan said.
Michael slammed his fist down into the arm of the chair, he was getting a little sick of being shot to pieces, “main engines?”
“They missed them, by a matter of just two metres.”
The Liberty captain let out a relieved sigh, at least he still had the engines intact, it was about the only thing in his ship that was.
“Structural integrity is at sixty three percent,” Logan reported.
Eldathar managed to jink the ship to avoid another barrage of fire, just as a voice came across the speakers.
“You have fought bravely, your ship and crew should be commended. However, you cannot win this battle. You are out-gunned and outmatched in almost every regard; it is over. If you surrender now you have my personal word that no harm will come to your crew.”
Michael considered this for a moment, but didn’t believe a word of what he was hearing, “to whom am I speaking?”
“My name is Calvaris Senergid, commander of the Blade of Rhovanion.”
Michael carefully picked his way through his debris strewn bridge to Eldathar’s position, before whispering, “are we still on course for the moon?”
“Yes, captain.”
“Good, don’t deviate for a second.”
“Understood.”
“I am giving you one last chance to leave here with your ship and crew intact; I await your reply.” Senergid said once again, the sternness in the Dracos commanders voice all too apparent.
Michael calmly re-took his chair, eyeing both Logan still manning the tactical station, and Eldathar in the pilot’s chair.
“It’s a fine offer, Calvaris Senergid, a noble one. But one thing you don’t know about us. Is that the Liberty or its crew never surrenders to anyone. So in the words of my people, screw you!”
“How dare you spea…” Michael nodded to Logan to cut the transmission, which he did with a smile.
Kinraid slowly regained consciousness, and staggered his way over to the auxiliary sensory console that Logan was using, his face was burned and bore a nasty cut down his left side, which bore the brunt of his console exploding. His long auburn locks were blackened and matted, the pain in his movements evident to see.
“Glad to have you back commander.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for te’ world cap’n.” Kinraid smiled weakly.
“You cannot hide, you cannot run, we will hunt you down and destroy you, I am offering you a way out.” Senergid’s voice came across the speakers once more, his voice still betraying the anger at being unceremoniously cut off.
“Is he still speaking?” Michael asked with a smile.
Kinraid whispered, “Approachin’ the moons gravity well in ‘tirty seconds.”
“Can you get a transmission to the Eisenhower?”
“Once we’re on te’ other side of the moon, yes. ‘Tey won’t be able to jam our transmissions then.”
“Good, do it, we’ll need their help.” Michael smiled, he had the plan, now all he had to do was carry it out.
“You cannot possibly think you can mount an effective defence any longer, surrender…” Michael motioned for the transmission to be killed with a silent wave of his hand.
“Approachin’ gravity well in five, four, tree, two.”
“Hold on to your hats,” Michael said, betraying just a hint of nerves.
Eldathar poured every last drop of power remaining into the engines at the exact instant the Liberty hit the moon’s gravity well, the ships own momentum, in addition to the gravitational pull of the planetoid, meant that the Liberty surged forward, far outpacing the Dracos ships in pursuit.
The small ship shuddered and rocked as Eldathar fought against the gravitational stresses of the moon that threatened to pull the vessel toward it.
“Speed is at twenty percent over maximum, we are approaching eighty percent of light speed.”
“Keep it coming!” Michael shouted over the din of violent shaking and rocking, the occasional snap of a torn power cable, and general rattle and crash of fallen debris.
The Liberty raced forward, inverted to the cratered lunar landscape below them, giant boulders, impact craters from asteroid strikes, peaks and troughs shot past them in a grey blur as the ship continued to ride the crest of the moons gravity well.
The Dracos ships attempted to maintain some kind of a pursuit, but their hesitation had cost them dearly, the Liberty was now far ahead of them. Senergid ordered the two ships to a stop while they waited for the Liberty to come around the far side of the moon.
“Transmissions ‘r’ free cap’n, ‘te moon itself is blocking their jammin’ systems.”