Chapter thirty one

They have a unique mindset that emphasises individuality, but does not shy away from sacrifice. For example, a person would put their life in danger to save a stranger, or even to save a non-sentient pet. -extract from “The First Terran War; Coincidence or Certainty?”

“Sir! Contacts spotted at 4 o’clock! Sensors say 15 ship-sized masses.” All of a sudden, the calm of the bridge was interrupted by alarms and shouting.

“Everyone shut up! Sensors, give me a more detailed reading!” Osboel shouted at his bridge crew. It was just meant to be a routine escort mission, so how had it turned into a possible fight so quickly?

“Sir! Sensors have identified them. 3 cruisers, 8 frigates and 4 corvettes. All identified as Grent vessels.” He slumped further into his seat. His own escort group only had a single cruiser, his flagship, 3 frigates and 3 corvettes. He was outnumbered, if a fight happened.

“Coms! Hail them, ask them for their purpose.”

“Sir, they’re powering up weapons and shields!”

“Damn! Power up shields and weapons, mark all of them as hostile, and send a omni-directional distress signal through Terran Channels. Tell the convoy to get out of range of the jammers, then jump out.”

“Sir, enemy will be inside weapons range in 30 seconds.”

“Very well. Have all ships spread out and concentrate on the cruisers first while we draw fire. Tell all ships to fire when ready.”

“Sir, hostiles will be in range in 3.”

“All ships, Fire!” A volley of slugs and missiles sprang out of gun barrels and firing tubes, slamming into the enemy shields that flickered for a second. The battle soon degenerated into a tangled melee as both sides tried to flank and outmanoeuvre their opponents.

“All guns aim at the middle cruiser! Load a volley of shield-piercers, and aim the tubes at their engines.” All of a sudden, the lights flickered.

“Sir, shields at 80% and dropping.”

“Reroute power from lights to shields, and bring the reactor up to 100% capacity.”

“Sir, corvette Diver is reporting nearly expended shields.”

“Tell them to get behind us and fire missiles around us while they recharge. Reroute 50% power from engines to the defence grid.”

The battle continued, but it was just a struggle against the inevitable. More of the Terran ships depleted their shields, and a few had been destroyed, exploding into short-lived fireballs as their reactors lost containment. But, they hadn’t fallen in vain. Each fallen Terran ship fired all they had at their end, dragging down at least one enemy ship with them.

“Sir, we’ve lost the corvettes Diver and Dancer, as well as the frigate Island. Our own shields are down to 20% and dropping fast. The enemy still has 2 cruisers and 4 frigates.”

“Very well. Tell the other ships to disengage and jump away. Execute protocol Omega. Overclock the engines, and set the reactor to blow. If we’re not going home, we’re going to go out with a bang.”

The faces of the bridge crew paled, but no one argued or disobeyed. They just went around their tasks with a grim efficiency, while those with no tasks lined up in a row in front of the captain.

“Sir, the others have jumped.”

The captain sat up straighter in his chair and saluted to the crew, to which they saluted back.

“Very well. It was an honour working with you all, and I hope we’ll meet again in the afterlife. For Humanity!”

“FOR HUMANITY!” The crew yelled back, all with different emotions but none wavering.

The Grent vessels finally noticed something was amiss, and tried to escape, but they were far too late. The Terran cruiser exploded into a ball of destruction, taking the remaining Grent ships with it.

In FTL, the captain and crew of one of the remaining frigates watched the scene through a drone they had left behind. The captain lifted a hand to his tearful face and gave a shaky salute, which his crew imitated. “For Humanity.”