"Damage report!! She hollered in an attempt to make herself heard over the klaxons and various warning alarms blaring at full pitch around the bridge.
"We've got shields back on line, but multiple decks are reporting atmo venting."
"Tell engineering to get those decks sealed best as they can, we can't afford another..." She was cut short as an explosion rocked the ship, flinging her in to a nearby console.
The world slowed to a crawl for a few seconds, deck hands running to put electrical fires out, officers at their stations furiously punching commands and calling various commands through their headsets or relaying information to other officers. Katyana felt a warm, slick sensation running down her forehead, reaching for it with her right hand she pulled it into her field of view to see it covered in deep red blood. She wavered, suddenly feeling a sharp pull to her left, groggily she tried to fight it until she recognised the grey and blue of the crew mans uniform. She stood aided by the crewman in time to see the front view port fill with the sight of the remaining Terran cruiser zipping towards them, unleashing several salvos as it did.
"Warden reports confirmed hits on enemy cruiser ma'am." The comm officer called with a tinge of hope in his voice, a small grim smile accompanying it. It was dashed almost instantly as the reply came across the destroyer's port flank, cannon fire flashing and pounding at the cruiser's shields until they shimmer and failed, dissipating into nothingness. Swiftly following this dark shapes streaked forwards rocking the destroyer slightly as they flew, racing into the midsection of the Warden, the first blowing a gaping hole and the others following suit, the resulting explosion tore the ship in two, the aft becoming a giant firework of minor explosions as the fuel ignited and the engine exploded in an almighty crescendo, the fore spinning off towards the planetoid's gravity well. 'I only hope their end was quick' Katyana thought to herself as she watched disparagingly, hiding it behind her cool exterior.
"Helm, fire up the FSDs, I want full power, random jump, just get us clear." She bellowed. The reply was a swift 'aye' and in a few moments the stars melted away and Katyana walked to her chair, lowering herself into it gingerly.
They had been lucky to get away, lucky to survive. The enemy fleet had evaded all their long range fire and as they had tried to close, three cruisers jumped into the heart of the fleet. They had thrown everything into disarray, swiftly killing one of the cruisers and crippling another, the frigates fell to the other cruisers, swiftly closing the net. only the brave actions of the last frigates's captain had saved them, plowing into a mine in order to detonate it behind the cruiser that had just deployed it, giving the rest of the fleet chance to eliminate the 'shunt cruisers' as the captain of the now destroyed Warden had coined them. Two had fallen swiftly, the third shunted a little too far and crashed down on the planetoid. From there they had tried to push but having lost the other Destroyers from the squadron their firepower was limited and though they had put a sizeable amount of damage into the cruisers, they just kept coming time after time. Katyana rubbed her eyes, it had been a tactical nightmare, but at least she could inform the main fleet the area was indeed hostile. A small victory for such a steep price, she grimaced.
"Comms send a message to Admiral Harper, distress beacon was a trap, 2nd HKU down 90%, send reinforcements to rendezvous point Alpha." She had learned a great deal from this fight and wouldn't make the same mistakes again.
of what fell like a dozen suns. Ten of thousands of lives could've just blinked out of existence in the blink of an eye snuffed out by an apocalyptic firestorm. In the grand scheme of conflict, such an occurrence was like her drawing a breath, but in that moment as she surveyed the field of battle seeing all the twisted metal, hull fragments and other debris floating in the space before her, the feeling was akin to a knife stabbed into her chest and tearing out her insides in the process. She watched as the intended targets, the remaining enemy frigates, skulked around the planetoid probably using the gravity to slingshot round to avoid another salvo. Katyana cursed at their misfortune, watching as the holodisplay flickered trying to maintain the picture.
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