1808/AC02-10EVENTLOG

Ω CHAPTER TEN: Widow's Run

“Enemy contacts downrange... All batteries free fire!”

“Brace for reversion!” Skip called as the Phoenix began to toss and turn, enacted upon by an ethereal turbulence. He checked over the charts KT held up on her datapad. “Guna be a big one!”

She managed to seat herself just before the endless flickering starlight of space afore them shattered into the rocky surface of a large asteroid. Skip kicked the throttle back with an audible clunk, shoving the control yoke to one side as hard as he could. Sweat wet their necks. The alarms began to blare, the surface became more and more detailed…

Yet the Phoenix obliged.

She swung to her starboard even with her drive fins still raised. She came so close her thrusters ignited the surface of the asteroid, cracking and glassing it’s surface only to shatter it as a dispensed heatsink detonated upon its surface. As bright as the inferno was, it became completely eclipsed by the emergeant belch of white fire from her main engines. The little ship blasted across the asteroid’s surface, strafing it at a slowly increasing distance.

The moment that she could, she spun in flight to pull around it’s circumference only to swing through the thinnest of spaces between the rock and it’s neighbour. Her fins closed moments before the fire engulfed them in a tunnel of fury. Seconds later the Phoenix exploded from it’s fire triumphantly like a bullet from a gun into a clear patch, already deep within the rocky wasteland.

But they were not alone.

They damned wish they were.

“Squadron five move in...”

KT activated their transmitter on sight of the small cluster of ships they approached, seemingly sheltering as the battle above lit their sky afire. The class of the Titans was violent yet, for now at least, they were safe from it

“SX05A Phoenix to BSR vessels. We only wish to pass through this region, we are not, repeat not here for you. Let us pass and we will not report your presence.” She sounded surprisingly menacing, like the spirit of the clashing god's above them made her their avatar.

“This best not get too hot… Structural repairs are already stressed…” French muttered. There was no acknowledgement, but he knew he was heard.

“How many you got Jax?” Skip glanced over as they loomed forward. The ships began to disperse, but they did not retreat. The largest remained in their way.

“I count six, maybe more. Two capitals, the biggest looks like a light carrier.” She looked over to her captain. “This could get messy.”

“They have not responded.” KT announced after a short while, they were closing in on the group rapidly. The Phoenix waited as tentatively as her crew did, and as her crew glared upon the blockade, she did too.

Skip pulled down his handset.

“Phoenix Captain to BSR vessels. We will go through you if we have to. I would suggest clearing our flightpath before we collide, no one wants that mess.” He noticed a twitch from the carrier,it’s sister battleship began to turn her broadsides to face them. He slipped his free hand into a gauntlet. “Jax go weapons hot, don't track them yet.”

“Are you sure Skip? Cause they’re tracking us.” Jax was completely in the zone. She activated each turret in turn. They flashed upon her screen, ready for blood. The sounds of whirring and clunking denoted their rise from their hull into combat positions. All the while their challenger’s weapons followed their every movement. Like beasts hoping to display dominance, soon the fight for it would begin.

“In that case…” Skip reached for a small dial away from his normal controls. The moment he turned it, their bridge lights all turned red, and the Phoenix’s veins coursed with the energy of the coming battle. He punched his hand into the remaining mechanised glove. They both glowed faintly as they came online, alongside an audible pulse of hydraulics with each twitch of his fingers. “Light them up! French, KT Everything you can to get us through this.”

The silence of space covered the gentle whine of her batteries turning. The ship’s were still silent as they bore down on one another. It took a few moments…

Then the call of war echoed once more below the ever growing firefight above. The debris field was alight even with the opening barrage. As soon as the first rounds let fly, the Phoenix spun off into a strafe to starboard. Her trail of flame was punctured by the vicious surge of fired artillery, the rounds collided where they were moments before, shattering into sparks and shrapnel. The crew were all too aware the battleship could terminate them with just one direct hit, they had to close the distance fast.

The Phoenix’s bows faced down the carrier’s hull, and lighting up the sky as she went, that's where she headed. Her fins opened once more.

With a blast from her drives she leapt forth, turning to bear upon the next vessel with the carrier flying past beneath them. Lines of fire leapt from each of her guns, tracking and turning independently from target to target. They detonated either on impact or at distance. Each round engulfed the hulls of any vessel they laid upon in reverberating explosions, and enshrouded the battle in a sphere of fire. The carrier's hull fragmented into debris and rendered metal as it became sundered and perforated by the Phoenix's guns... as well as those from it’s allies.

The barrage struggled to track the bringer of fire… The Phoenix was just too fast for them.

“All batteries ripple fire!”

The carrier let loose its strike wings in a scrambled attempt to fend off the vicious gunboat, however they were launched straight into the firing line.

Before the lesser ships had even begun maneuvering away from the airlock the Phoenix was upon them like a pouncing predator. Her rounds cleft through many of them, tearing open their cockpits and removing wings and engines like a child with an insect. Those that survived looked back to see their brethren fall one after another to this seemingly insignificant gunboat. They outnumbered it, most vessels even outsized it. But none, not one of them outclassed it.

The Phoenix smashed through the still launching strike craft. The rattle of debris upon her hull seemed insignificant. It did little to maim the pouncing monster, yet it’s paintwork began to ablate and scratches became battlescars. Her dorsal turrets all pointed straight down, perforating the airlock with a viscous barrage into the carrier’s maw. They cleaved through the hanger’s internal door, puncturing deep into its heart.

The atmosphere vented first. Then backed by a mighty explosion, the Carrier’s hull plating blew away, leaving nothing more than it's burning superstructure at its midships. They might not have severed it, hell they might not have even destroyed it, but they had completely disabled it in a few well placed shots.

That is what cut the line between them and their enemies. That is what defined a spacer over a mere pirate...

“That is what I call a kill!” Jax hooted triumphantly, igniting a cigarette as she locked onto her next victim. The Phoenix’s fire burned in her eyes, it pulsed through her veins. In combat, gunner and war machine were one.

“Heat’s buildin’ within the ICE.” French announced, disengaging the system once again. “We can’t overmaneuver in this mate, we only got two left!”

The glowing device emerged from the Phoenix’s stern, her prancing dance through the fight began to become far more sluggish, and far more predictable.

It was now their rival’s hits began to land. Light weapons fire caused the Phoenix to spark and clatter as they did little to harm her.

But that soon changed...

In the blink of an eye, the Phoenix was batted aside as a shell ricocheted off her starboard hull. It sang off into the asteroid field, having cleaved through the armour plating without slowing. Her starboard wingtip was shredded even further, her thick armour became splayed and torn, flapping in long sheets, many came free of the Phoenix shortly after. Sparks and debris entered the fray, erupting in a seemingly endless arc as she fell into a spin like a bird clipping their wings. Her thrusters desperately cast plumes of flame to arrest her roll. The Phoenix had taken a heavy hit.

"Artillery Inbound!" KT murmured with her head heavy, she caught sight of the flash of light from their first attacker, uncaring of a miss now their carrier had fallen. The rounds sang silently across the battlefield. A glance at her screen said it all, it was lined up for the kill.

French had hit a button upon his console before the thought to do so had even registered. In an instant their emergency thrusters ignited. The Phoenix lurched downwards violently. The belch of barely contained explosions from solid rocket motors let fly besides electric fire of their brethren. The rippling plume of fire was intermixed with sparks and smoke, and lasted mere moments.

However it was enough. The rounds sailed past a few feet past their hull. The would-be kill shots sailed into the void, smashing against their allies’ wreck. The sundered debris blasted into their battlefield, the death blow tore the crippled carrier asunder, scattering what little remained into the void under the beat of a gentle inferno. The eruption gave great cover for the Phoenix as she took the time to flee.

The debris became a cloud that expanded into the battlefield, at the speeds of combat the debris might as well have been made of daggers and knives.

"Mark it KT." Skip ordered, sinking back into his seat in relief. The battleship continued to track them. He glanced to his side. “KT? Jax get her injected now!”

“Looks like the starboard gyroscope is, well gone...” French announced, he focused heavily on the display in front of him, all the while running through the ejector sequence for their used single burn motors seemingly on autopilot. He shot a concerned glance towards their crewmate as Jax stabbed her in the back with a large syringe.

“Yeah she’s feeling a bit sluggish, on her starboard roll, can you counter it? Got an ignition fault on the forward vertical thruster aswell.” Skip frowned as they dove through the debris field. He could feel the damage quite clearly, the Phoenix was wounded. He could hear French scrambling through junction boxes behind him. There was a brief moment of panic as his controls did not respond at all. A rapid trail of sparks ran the length of her hull, leaving mere dents behind. She leapt from the stream of weapons fire the moment the controls reengaged, she was back, but only just. Their enemy still closed.

“Boosted power to the port gyros. That thruster ain’t respondin’ to anythin’. Something’s come loose, you’ll have to counter it when it starts firing.” French’s announcement was far from desirable.

“Can’t you shut it down?” Jax didn’t remove her eyes from her screen. She didn’t even know if she was heard, she just focused on keeping those ships at bay.

“It's in the forward cluster if we cut power we lose the lot. Then we’re fragged.”

They rounded another asteroid as the relentless barrage kept coming. The mighty beast of war was shadowed by the rock, however it quickly rendered it too into dust. The Phoenix fired back at the few craft following them, kicking up her bow to allow her gunner to lay as much fire as possible upon them.

“We’re roughly halfway now guys we might-” KT was cut off by the distinct sound of rending metal.

The Phoenix was shedding weight. Her splayed armour came free, drifting away from the ship and leaving fast swarths of her fragile hull exposed. Their rival’s seemed triumphant, one to one they couldnt beat her, yet out of attrition they were winning. Their fury kept coming, and despite everyone’s desperate attempts to keep their weaknesses covered.

The Phoenix was now losing.

“Wreckage ahead, wall of micro asteroids surrounding it. Unless we want to detour around it we’ll get shredded.” KT announced, barely catching a glimpse of the dark hulk through the flashes of weapons fire. She jumped back as another artillery round hissed past the viewport, barely dodged by their helmsman.

“Give me its location.” Skip hissed. He swung to face upon their pursuers. He flew them only on Nav data alone through the asteroid field. They lit up their pursuers with every weapon they had. They tossed and turned, spinning around their rival's rapid weapons fire with deft ease, all the while their batteries spat death through the Phoenix’s tailing inferno. Skip saw the ping appear on his console. An idea formed as he watched an enemy gunboat become claimed in a fiery shockwave. “Good shooting Jax.”

“Lucky only Skip, he was venting his drive.” She announced, she had a look of deep concern that only worsened as alerts sprang up next to every displayed weapon’s emplacement “Our muzzle velocity has dropped, we're losing power to weapons! Our rounds can’t puncture their armour anymore!”

“Target’s moving up to starbo- Port reactor taking hits! Radiation alarms going off shipwide!”

“French. Max thrust capacity to primary engines, open drive fins!” He barked. Another idea made its appearance. “Jax, release our tow cables, talon mounts.” Skip powered the throttle forward, the force made the ship’s air burn like fire. As her radiators began to glow a dull red, the Phoenix bounced at her oppressors.

She turned into a fireball, charging through the debris at breakneck speed. The pursuing strike craft had little time to react before they were encased in her wicked inferno, rendering the pilots as cinders merely in its passing. But the corvettes that followed were the target, they were merely casualties of warfare.

The crew felt the faintest of jolts as four viscous hooks reached full extension upon cables so black that they almost looked like they shouldn’t belong.

The Phoenix looped underneath her opponent, the exchange of weapons fire between the vessels did little to ail one another. She entered into a spiraling dance with a rival. Their weapons bounced off it’s armour with little effect, unable to catch it in a weekspot, but little did the enemy know that wasn't her intention. Their gunners began tracking towards their more vulnerable components, yet all Jax had to do was keep their focus away from their towlines. They didn’t have long before their rivals hit somewhere critical.

She ended up behind them, staring down the armoured glow of their enemy’s drives. She fired upon them as one would expect, but neither did, nor was it her intention to damage them.

The Phoenix waited...

Waiting patiently for the opening.

And in a moment easily missed, hence it came...

Their enemy tried to turn, an attempt to bring its fore turrets to bear upon the terrifying gunboat, but by the time the cannons faced aft, their target had already thrown itself ahead of them.

The four talons connected with it’s hull at it’s midships, tearing between armour panels and into it’s delicate internals. The razor sharp hooks locked in strong to its internal structure. Both craft shook and jolted aggressively, a tug of war, of which only the fastest would win. The Phoenix had her prey in her grasp. Her victim’s lives were at that point effectively over, she would not let them go alive.

French wiped away a thick sheen of sweat as he tentatively waited for their engines to charge with unfathomable power. The rate was woefully slow, yet with each little bit the raging fury in her drives grew. Various alerts flashed, their meaning was lost to him. Only his own knowledge told him she had a lot more power just waiting to be unleashed.

“French?” Jax watched as the captured ship desperately fought to free themselves. Every moment that went by the hooks withdrew slightly from it’s hull. The brothers of their prey began to orbit. The Phoenix could barely hold them at bay. Alerts flashed as system after system began to take heavy damage. “French!”

“Punch it!” He barked the very moment the gauges filled. His words were unnecessary, the moment he’d opened his mouth Skip punched the throttle forward, and the Phoenix took flight. Her engine baffles spread wide open, the burst of energy from her engines streamed from her nozzles and every other vent along her oversized drive modules. The exhaust jetted across the battlefield, melting all in it’s way.

The Phoenix overpowered the lesser vessel with remarkable ease. She tore off the mark through the debris field with her prey in her clutches, fighting off it’s brethren whilst the inferno from her drives scorched the hull of the powerless vessel. They were upon her whim, cast into a nigh unbreakable hold. But the plan was far from over.

They looped in a circuit around and around again and again. The firefight in the stars above continued to echo, as the four vessels seemingly raced above the ancient wreck. The exchange of fire between them was vicious, rounds would let fly only to be struck from the sky mid flight. Their defensive fire was the only shield they had. Explosions echoed in the distance, the behemoth of war was approaching, tearing apart the asteroid field to reach them.

Skip waited for the moment with baited breath. He counted on the clock with each revolution. The crew began to look at their captain, seemingly out of the loop as well.

Apart from one of them anyway...

“-amage on deck… Weapons no-”

French began to laugh, almost in full hysterics at that point. He leant forth, tapping his captain on the shoulder.

“Battle of Giant’s Whisper?” French got only a nod in return. He leant back with the goofiest grin one could imagine, casually opening their radiators to the fullest. “You ladies are in for the ride of your lives…”

“Five seconds Frenchie.” Skip couldn't help but smile as well.

When the countdown ended, only then did the status quo change completely.

The Phoenix’s single burn motors fired once more, but not to shunt her aside. She kicked into a much tighter loop, barely a third the radius of their previous. It was a move that none of her opposing vessels expected, neither did they see the reasoning until it unfolded.

The lead vessel ignited in a catastrophic explosion as their ally, caught in the Phoenix's grasp, slammed into their fore section. The force wrenched the grapples from the hull as both ships disintegrated into little more than their component parts. The victor withdrew her lines, pulling upwards into a steep climb from the wreck they once encircled as a white hot heat sink puffed from her stern.

“That… was too cool.” Jax wanted to hand out the highfives, but they were all pinned hard against their seats. KT was notably less impressed however.

“Ancestors I implore you…” Her prayer was drowned out by the renewed rattle of weapons fire upon their hull… The last two gunboats remained battle ready on their tail.

She swung into a dive, charging for the ancient wreck with a reckless abandon.

“All ahead full! Hit ‘em on that main weap-”

French’s calm outlook vanished quickly. He shook his head viciously.

“No no, no Skip! No! Skip!” He shouted in horror, the hull began to rattle from debris impacts. Jax saw his plan immediately, locking her turrets forward and letting loose as much ammunition as she could all the while screaming a battlecry. Whilst ahead of her, her crewmate tried to give their calm helmsman as clear an image of the wreck as she could. Her sensor’s spoke of passages and chambers linked by battle damage and age, it was her job to give him a course he could take.

Within moments the Phoenix was blasting through the wreck, spinning and strafing through decks and around broken bulkheads. She sidestepped blockages and entered passageways long missing the presence of their masters. It took little time for her to emerge, tearing off into the depths once more. A resounding detonation marked the destruction of one last pursuer, claimed attempting to follow them.

"That's why I hate it when he has an idea." French still cringed.

"That's why I love it." Jax felt like she was on a high. It became almost ecstasy as she looked down to see their rival's ping out of tracking range. She stood forward shaking her fist, as well as a few obscene gestures, at the void beyond. “This is what we do!”

“And that children, is why I am your designated driver!” Skip barked triumphantly down the comms. He brought the Phoenix about as her fins and radiators retracted. She twitched from side to side in a taunting dance, staring down her halted rival. It was another Chariot, a sister of their own. “If you're feeling a bit pissed then come get us, but be quick, we’ve got an appointment!”

They watched what looked like a wave of smoke emerge from the vessel. Strange no doubt, then the alarms blared.

“Thirty, no Fifty plus warheads inbound!” Jax bellowed. Immediately her fins sprung open and the Phoenix turned about in a flash, charging off through the Run. She discharged flares like wide wings of spectacular colour. Some of the missiles veered off into the distant reaches of the Run, yet many still came. “Not fast enough, closing time four minutes.”

“Then shoot them out of the fragging sky!” KT barked, she tapped the photograph again, praying for all of them in rapid gasps. Something in that moment appeared on her sensors, something that shouldn’t be... “Inbound! Multiple Capital vessels descending towards the planet!”

“All crew abandon ship! Repeat Abandon ship! Save yourselves!”

But that wasn't all that rained from the heavens…

That wasn't all…

A sight unfolded that would never leave their thoughts again.

The Siege of Hodge’s Moon had begun.

A blast of light cleaved through the asteroid field. Rocks and debris were rendered to dust and ash in their wake. The sickly green beam fell at a steady, and unrelenting pace to the planet below, joined by the remains of a fleet that once brought upon a shadow of terror, yet also the light of protection. Their gaze followed the stream of unknown power through the atmosphere. It cut through the clouds, igniting them with blue flashes of lightning and shrouding it’s surface with a wicked aurorae. It’s target was a clustered network of lights spanning a large island...

They went dark, then the surface fanned an inferno that erupted into an expanding firestorm.

More blasts cleared large swarths through the asteroid field, then they too were joined by something they all finally recognised.

It was a Proteus class Battlecruiser, large and proud. One of many in the OSFC. But this one was far from proud now. It was the first of many hulls now sundered as burning pieces, they rained down around them. The columns of smoke separated the battlefield.

The closest was whole, but burning all the way. Escape pods were let free, descending to the already scorched planet’s surface in a vain hope of survival. Many didn't make it that far, exploding against the various asteroids and wreckage too small to detect.

The distress calls grew more frequent, drowning out into a frenzied chorus. Their sources were no longer obscured. The desperation was felt in every direction...

The fight hadn’t found them... The damned had.

“Launch all evac shuttles!”

They charged underneath a descending hulk, the missiles breaking and detonating against it and its fallen brethren. They could see it’s crew pleading for help, and being blown out of the mighty battleship as it tore itself apart. The escaping atmosphere brought with it something haunting: The sounds of rending metal, raging fires, echoing explosions and the screams of those whose time had run out.

“We are so fragged…” Jax muttered as she read the class name: Graephal. She gave a sharp kick to their navigation officer’s chair. KT’s breaths had begun heaving, her body shaking. The angry, yet tearful look she shot back was met with Jax shaking her head, and the simple, yet respectable mouthing of ‘Not now.’

Hope here had died under the gentle breeze of what was still unknown.

The next burning wreck blocked their path completely. The dreadnought’s hull was gargantuan, stretching from far above them down to the planet’s burning skies. It’s bow ignited in plasma fire as it began to cut into the atmosphere, descending under its own power in a death fall towards the growing inferno across the planet's surface.

“Prepare to scream Frenchie.” Skip spoke with a fury so intense he was once again sounding calm, yet his voice contained a hidden snarl that rolled at the end of every word. He threw the Phoenix into a harsh climb along the dying behemoth of war. Their thruster fire ignited it’s hull even further, blowing away panels and components as she swept past. Survivors hoping for an escape found one as their compartments ruptured under the intensity of the Phoenix’s drives. Her wake whipped up the descending smoke into cyclones. Her spotlights cut through the murk, searching through the rain of debris and ash until they found it, the way through.

She turned over, around in graceful arch, their exhaust flared to the sides like the wings of a landing bird. The fire swooped backwards as she charged forward, flying against the stream of escaping strike craft and shuttles straight into the deteriorating hanger. People flagged her down, yet the Phoenix wouldn’t stop.

She refused to stop.

When they emerged they were confronted with the remains of the entire fleet. There had been not one survivor. Vessels of all sizes, and designs burned, falling from their titanic battle to the dying world below. They were sundered and torn as they went, trails of smoke and fire all that made up the sky. Some crashed into asteroids or another burning hulk, and some were simply ripped in twain under their own death fall. Regardless of their means, they were all destined to the desecrated world they fell upon.

Stars vanished behind the glow of fire, the burning remains of mortal men. Their fall was more devastating than any bombardment, those that had passed through the atmosphere impacted in blasts visible from space that spread across the world without care. More city lights went out as the waves passed through them, mountains were levelled as the titans lain dead upon them. Valleys were filled by wreckage and the heat of fire boiled the oceans. Continents became molten under the never ending wave. The heat ignited the atmosphere, and in an almost graceful dance of flames the planet began to cook.

The fleet had failed, Hodge’s Moon had fallen...

“Ancestors I implore you...” KT whispered. The display of faith made the spacers all feel uncomfortable.

“...Take them into the Abyss…” Jax’s continuation of the prayer surprised them all.

“There's nothing we can do.” Skip announced, cutting through the shock and silencing the horror. “They’re dead already.”

He tilted them up, although even he wasn't brave enough to actually send them that way, as much as the Phoenix wanted to desperately try her hand at toppling this unstoppable force. They saw the silhouettes of more burning vessels falling like an apocalyptic rain, and behind them…

“KT, record everything we are getting, don’t miss a thing…”

“Have been…” She answered, pointed to the taped down record button.

The victorious fleet continued to fire, not caring that their enemies were already defeated. They wanted absolute victory, they wanted total decimation. The ships were far more cruel, vain and awesome in person, each one of them as dark as night and lethal as poison.

There was such more of a variety than what they had seen previously. The vicious black vessels acted like strike craft despite their much grander scale, their command ships stood away from the conflict. Their capabilities remained unknown, but their silhouettes against the life giving sun was like the veil of death falling across the entire system. They made the lesser craft seem like motes of dust in comparison. The potential power of such a leviathan turned the freshly spilled blood cold as ice.

Not one of the ships showed signs of damage. Not one of them. Who knows how long they’d fought for, but nothing had slowed them. They remained as adamant as the stars, and as unending as the void beyond them. The OSFC’s strongest weapons left little more than the faintest of scratches upon them.

“Skip?” KT’s hand was on his own, but he didn't know when it’d happened. He'd been staring at these monsters with utter venom, and by the sheer feeling of anger behind him and beside him, he hadn't been the only one. “We’ve got all the telemetry we can… It is time to go.”

“This ends today guys.” Skip announced. “But we won't be the victors… We can’t beat this thing.”

“Ground contact in five… four...thr-”

He felt a very hard kick against his seat, whipping his head back at French looming over him. “What the frag are you playing at!”

“What are you, ‘Captain’!” He barked, his voice shook them all. He’d spat them with such scorn. “Be the fraggin’ Captain and be the one who says we’ll win! Nothin’ will stop us! We will win if you get us to Mercurial before those bastards!” He grabbed his friend’s hair forcefully and yanked him eye to eye. “So stop fraggin’ shakin’ and skim the fraggin’ ship!”

Skip pushed the man back to his seat with ease, fully aware that he had two sets of eyes watching the entire confrontation. He slammed the throttle forward, launching them up towards the looming vessels. His movements were jerky with rage. For a moment it seemed as though he was actually charging at them.

Reason one out, thankfully. They arched over, aiming for a small twinkling light far away from them, without a whisper or a word said the Phoenix leapt forward, echoing away from the graveyard in a trail of fire.

But whilst the battle was over, the conflict aboard was far from it.

Skipper was at his feet the minute the stars returned and the tranquil waves of colour enshrouded the Phoenix. He rounded the console with his boots rattling the grated floor. His hand snapped to his friend’s neck. With absolute ease he dragged French out of his chair and up against the bulkhead without any sign of strain nor effort.

“If you lay a finger on me again I will kill you.” The soldier hissed, rage clouding his thoughts.

French just laughed. Deliberately placing his finger between Skip’s eyes. “It’ll be quicker than if you fraggin’ ruin this mission because you doubt your own word.”

“Trust me, it won’t.” The Captain replied without waiting a moment. The venom in his voice was only skin deep. “I will make it as slow and painful as I can.”

“Gah. KT bloody hell love he must ruin you.” He chuckled again, not even showing signs of intimidation. He locked his eyes on the man. “If we lose, because of you, I will make you feel as lonely as you were the day you came back. But even then, you will look to your side and find me there.”

French shoved the captain hard, making the man take a step back. He placed his finger over his friend’s heart, despite the adrenaline of the moment he couldn’t feel a thing. “You can doubt yourself all you want, but if you turn to us and say you want us at our best and don't do it yourself… Then it's no surprise you lost the Pegasus…”

Skip began breathing, his chest heaving with rage. French wasn’t done though. “But I will jump on as many grenades as I need to to keep you, KT, Jax and the Phoenix from suffering that fate. If we lose, we will be the last ship still fighting. But we can’t do that without our captain.”

“Better hope that we atleast have a chance to keep ahead of this thing.” Skip growled. “KT how long?”

“Two days, Sir.” KT stopped only a few steps short of leaving the bridge. She didn’t even want to be involved when the crew clashed. The moment she’d said her peace she quickly ducked out the airlock.

“Three hours of LS left?” Skip was still frowning when he turned back to his engineer, the man seemed light hearted again, not one care in the world.

“Less now.”

The heat of the moment faded all together. In a crackle of static a voice broke through the silence. It might as well have sounded the drums of war.

“Rally Call. Rally Call. transmission relayed through destination station Mercurial Eye. All vessels, military or otherwise are ordered to cease operations and assemble at the destination coordinates attached. A hostile force is moving through this sector. Avoid all traderuns and make way at maximum speed. Be combat ready on arrival. This message will now repeat…”

The time had come...

“Get in your tubes.” Skip ordered, he had regained the firmness they required, earning an approving nod from his oldest friend. He held out his hand, if it was too anyone else he’d be surprised they’d taken it. “I’m sorry mate, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You’re an idiot Skip.” French smiled. “But fightin’ fate we all are.”

The call to war had come…

They prayed it wasn’t too late...

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