Battle at Marrallang A1
19 Aug 2024Aeryn Airstryder
Recommended Listening: Battle ScherzoThe deck shuddered violently as the ‘Yamato’ speared its way through the Marrallang Empire Pact cutter, separating the cockpit from the rest of the hull, both sent spinning to their destruction.
“Shields at 23% and dropping Captain, I’m not sure how much more of this they can take” yelled the grizzled, olive skinned man from the engineering station.
“Do what you can chief! divert a bit more power from the thrusters if you have to!” Aeryn yelled back.
The ship gave another shake as a barrage of plasma munitions collided with the shields dropping them further.
O’Brien, the Yamato’s tactical officer cursed aloud, something about swearing he felt his teeth rattle in that last hit.
“Helm, bring us about to relative bearing 185, roll 80 degrees to starboard, give our beam turrets a clear shot!”
‘Flight assist off’ appeared as a warning on Aeryn’s screen just as the Yamato’s engines flared and the entire ship seemed to slew about in a long sweeping arc facing back the direction they had come, another burst of acceleration and the massive vessel shot back the way it had come.
The Yamato’s triple
beam turrets opened up on the python that had just moments before been pursuing them.
The python put on a burst of speed and tore past the bridge so close that Aeryn could have sworn he could seem the whites of the opposing commander’s eyes.
As it passed there was a bright flash as the two shields connected and failed.
“Shields offline! Missiles incoming”
Aeryn cursed and spoke into the ship-wide address.
“All hands brace for impact!”
The Yamato’s point defence turrets put up a valiant effort but one of the incoming projectiles made it through and tore deep into the port side of the upper hull before detonating in a dazzling display of flames and shrapnel.
A siren began to wail as the chief engineer reported hull breaches on A deck.
“Close bulkheads in the effected sections, medical and damage control teams to respond!” Aeryn ordered as another explosion rocked the deck, this time from a thermal weapon that had raked the length of the cargo hold and decompressed it from the starboard side.
Aeryn could see the python on his screen coming around for an attack in their blind spot, the ship shook again as another barrage landed, then quite suddenly, the python disappeared from the scanners, replaced by a green dot that quickly overtook the Yamato.
The dot in question had been a vulture that rocked side to side in the fashion of an old aviator’s salute as it passed.
“Chief where are my shields?” Aeryn demanded as the ship rocked with blow after blow of incoming fire from all sides.
“50% charged Captain, diverting all power from non-essential systems”
“Helm, evasive manoeuvres, we can’t afford to take too many more hits like that”
“Aye, sir” Ryker responded as she threaded the Yamato between two BWSF ships, narrowly avoiding a collision.
“Captain, transmission from the General Elles; Enemy reinforcements are leaving orbit, they are running, transmission ends” called the comms officer.
“Shields online!”
Aeryn typed a command into his keypad and addressed all BWSF ships in the combat zone
“This is the Yamato, enemy reinforcements are withdrawing , we have them on the run, hit them with everything you’ve got! Push them back!”
Even as he said it, Aeryn could already see the distant flashes of ships warping out of the combat zone.
Before long the empire pact had fled in their entirety from the combat zone.
“All ships, we are victorious, return to the carrier”
Aeryn let out a sight of relief, and glanced down at the damage readout before him, hull integrity at 23% multiple systems offline, ammunition reserves all but exhausted, that had been close, too close.