The Alliance ship Captains were caught completely flat-footed by the new combatant in the arena. "Frigate on our port side has taken several direct hits from Volma fire and is turning to engage them , Captain." reported Priya, her eyes glued to her sensor read outs. Pheny did not hesitate to take advantage of the new distraction and began issuing her orders. "Take us straight at the frigate on the starboard side. I want full cannon concentration on that ship!". Both Amie and Tassos acknowledged the command and the ship immediately accelerated and began its turn to port. "Priya, let me know what the one in the middle does. If they any sense he will continue his attack on us as we are the weaker opponent at the moment." Pheny said. She heard Priya chuckle slightly before she said, "Well it seems they have no sense Captain, They are turning towards the Volma."

The Trinity rocked violently as the reactive armor intercepted two more cannon blasts. A quick succession of several low thuds rang through the ship as their own cannons began belching fire. Pheny watched as their fusilade impacted the frigates dorsal surface, punching a line of holes from just behind its bridge back to its engine bells. The frigate returned fire, the glow of three superheated projectiles closing fast. Two of the three appeared to be heading for the keel of the ship, the last however caused alarm as it was heading right for the bridge. "Evasive!", Pheny ordered in a rush. They began to roll to port as the bow pitched upwards at the same time. The tell-tale jolts of the reactive armor intercepting the first two shots were felt as the bridge crew seemed to be collectively holding their breath. The last projectile appeared to be within two hundred meters when Pheny noticed about a half-dozen one meter by one meter octagonal plates enter their view.

She realized she had just seen the ships reactive armor system at work. The skin of the Trinity was covered from bow to stern with one meter thick octagonal magnetic plates, four layers thick. When an incoming projectile was detected, its vector was calculated and the system engaged. The plate underneath the outermost plate would have its magnetic polarity reversed causing the top plate to shoot away from the ship in an attempt to intercept projectiles before they could impact. There were drawbacks as sometimes during evasive maneuvers the plates would have too much added movement. Thankfully this time the plates were exactly where they needed to be. The projectile slammed into the ejected armor about twenty meters away from the bridge, the detonation so bright they had to cover their eyes. Unfortunately though debris from the impact was driven at the Trinity and a sizable hunk of metal slammed against the view port producing a long spidery crack in the outer layer.

Again the sound of their own cannons firing reverberated through the ship, and again Tassos and his gunnery crews were spot on. This round of fire ripped through the aft section of the frigate. Pheny saw the engines go dark, followed shortly by all the lights visible through view ports wink out. The frigate was no longer a threat. Pheny addressed her bridge crew, "Amie, vector us to the last frigate. Priya, Status report on the Volma and their target.". "Coming about!" Amie replied. Priya's update arrived shortly afterwards, "The fourth frigate looks to be disabled by the Volma, Sir. Volma ship is vectoring toward....". Pheny turned towards Priya, noticing her incomplete report. The womans face was marred by a hint of shock.. "Sir! The first frigate just detonated. It appears to have been the self destruct." Priya said as her hands darted to and fro across her console. "The remaining three disabled frigates all show reactor overloads in progress, sir!"

Pheny growled under her breath, "Why?". She moved quickly over to stand at Priya's side and looked over her sensor readout. Indeed, the disabled frigates had all activated their self-destruct protocols. It dawned on her that if they came out here unofficially and failed in their mission, the presence of witnesses would be problematic to whomever was behind this. "Leave no witnesses" Pheny thought. As she studied Priya's sensor screen she noticed the last frigates heading and speed. "Amie! Get us as much speed to the last frigate as you can!" Pheny suddenly ordered. Priya, noticing what Pheny had seen, gasped in shock. The last frigate was on a collision course with the Volma ship. Pheny turned to the tactical station, "Tassos as soon as were in range pour as much fire as we can into its engines" She said. Tassos nodded with a reply, "Already locked on, just need to get in...".

Priya cut Tassos off suddenly, "Sir! The last frigate just sent their reactor to overload!". "Son of a motherless goat!" Pheny exclaimed. "What's our range to target?" She asked quickly. Priya frowned deeply "About two thousand kilometers Captain! We won't make weapon range in time. Volma ship is trying to put distance between them and the frigate," All eyes snapped to the main view port. From this distance the ships looked like two grains of rice. "Maginfy!" Pheny ordered. The view port flickered and began to zoom in, the ships becoming more defined. Intermittent bursts of static obscuring the view at times due to the damage the screen had suffered. All at once the Alliance frigate detonated and momentarily obscured all sight. When focus returned to the view port they could see that the Volma ship was still there, however it was in an uncontrolled spin.

Priya, sensing what Pheny's next request would be, reported "Volma ship sustained damage to their aft quarter. Their engines are down and I'm reading extreme reactor fluctuations.". "Try to hail them. I don't know if they'll understand us, but tell them we're coming in to aid, and we mean them no harm." Pheny said. This caused all heads to turn and look at her with wide eyes. Tassos interjected, "That's a Volma cruiser, Captain. We would be putting ourselves and this ship in...." Pheny glared at the man and cut him off mid sentence with an irritated growl, "I don't need this mansplained to me Lieutenant! They could have jumped in and attacked us. Without their assistance we could all be dead. We are helping them! Anyone has a problem with that they can get in an escape pod and bugger off!"

"There's another issue, Sir. The blast pushed the Volma ship towards Cranoz. At the current rate we have about fifteen minutes before they're too far into the gravity well to help." Priya stated. Pheny, still glaring daggers at Tassos, spoke without hesitation. "Shut down weapons and prepare magnetic grapple lines. As soon as we're in range let's try to reel them in." The tactical officer grumbled an acknowledgement, clearly unhappy about being reprimanded. "Now Priya, Open a channel" Pheny ordered. Once Priya confirmed that the communication was live Pheny proceeded, "This is Captain Clarrington of The Trinity. We are powering down weapons and heading to assist you. I repeat we mean you no harm and are coming to assist.". Silence permeated the bridge as the distance between the two ships was steadily closing. After about a minute of tense silence, the bridge speakers came alive with a deep gutteral voice. To everyone's immense shock whomever it was spoke actual words instead of the clipped binary they had been used to receiving from the Volma, "Hello. Captain Clarrington..."