A DarkSpace 'Fan Fiction' Short Story
© Copyright David Pitts 2003, reproduction permitted
with credit to the author.

Chapter One - A Rude Awakening
-------------------------------

Vice Admiral Derno Janson looked wearily at the chronometer on his wrist. More than two days had passed now since the last communication from the Captain of the 'Eagle's Eye', a stealth scout ship sent into Delta Pavonis - a system well known for K'luth activity. This was most likely because of it's proximity to the only known location of K'luth command activity, the Sirius system.
An additional worry was that Delta Pavonis was just a few days long jump to the Lalande system, usually frequented by UGTO patrols to help early detection of any hostile incursions.

Janson leaned back into the firm leather of his command chair, temporarily letting his mind wander. . . He felt secure on the bridge of his Assault Cruiser, the 'Vindicator'. He also felt pride in the fact
that this was his first command of a Fleet Battle Group.
He glanced at the tactical display to his left, the Tacts-Officer working fervently at her console.
"She knows I'm looking at her station. . ." he mused. "As I recall, her performance evaluation is coming up. I think the term 'attentive' might slip in there somewhere." Janson smiled, he appreciated a crew who were tuned into his moods. They made for a smooth running ship.

The tactical display showed a 'Cruiser-Class' designation in the centre, that would be the 'Vindicator', surrounded by two others, the 'Anvil's Fire'; a fellow Assault Cruiser; and the 'Loki'; a Missile
Cruiser. Three other, smaller blips held formation around them on the screen, 'Destroyer-Class' ships. Janson glanced over the names displayed above them, the 'Hornet', 'Rapier' and the 'Bull's Eye'. Two Combat Dessies, and a Bomber.
He thought back at the reluctance of the 'Work-Horse's' Captain to come this far into enemy territory, the convenient "Tachyon Drive malfunction" that developed right after the rest of the group had begun to enter the inter-system jump gate between Epsilon Ind and the BD-43*44A star-systems.
A lone supply ship wouldn't stand a chance if jumped by an enemy force, so a Carrier Cruiser offered to tow and escort the ship back to a friendly planet for drydock repairs.
"Would have made for a respectable Battle-Group," he thought to himself.

"Sir!" A young ensign spun on his chair, jerking Janson back from his distractions. The officer sat forward, looking into the fresh recruit's eager face, "What is it Berkley?"
"A communication from the 'Eagle's Eye', Sir!" Berkley responded.
"Put it on the main viewer, Ensign."
"Sorry Sir, only audio - the signal's too weak."
"No way to boost the reception?", Janson pressed a key on the arm of the chair, "Engineering, can we boost power to the communications array?"
A gruff voice crackled over the ships' intercom, a steady hum was audible in the background, generated from the power on the Engineering deck. "Sorry Sir, no can do. We're pumping all we've got into the ECM emitters. If you want us to power-up the reactor, and risk being detected
I'll go right ahead. . ."
"Negative Engineering, continue silent running. Alright Berkely, put it
on speakers."
"Roger that, Sir." replied Berkely.

His fingers worked over his console, then static filled the room, and a voice was heard inbetween the bursts of white noise:
"----eporting. We've disco---------at seems to be a K'luth traini--------o way to get out in time, we've lo---------yon jump drive, down to fifty percent hull, we-----------rvive another volly, recommend
immediate strike before reinforcements arrive. Repeat: This is Captain Salmerz of the ICC-GDC 'Eagle's Eye' reporting. We--------,"
The speakers fell silent.
"Signal lost, Sir. They must have. . ."
"May they find peace among the stars." Janson bowed his head, and the bridge crew followed suit.
"Navigation!" Janson waited a split second for the Nav-Officer to reply before continuing.
"Sir!"
The officer began barking orders, "Plot a course for Delta Pavonis! I want us 3000gus from the 'Eagle Eye's' last known location! Comms, instruct the Group to form up, and divert all available power to the
Jump Drive! We jump as soon as all ships are ready!"
"Roger, Sir!"
He waited impatiently for the replies from the other ships to come in, but knew there was no point jumping before the rest of the Group were ready - it could mean suicide. He remembered that HE was in command now, there were more than just his crew to take into consideration.
"All ships ready, and course laid in, Sir. Tachyon Drive charged and ship secured for Faster-Than-Light speed."
The Vice Admiral gazed at the cut-down navigation screen on the arm of his command-chair. Looked at the fleet's Identify Friend-or-Foe tags showing their locations around his ship.
He looked to the navigation officer, "Activate Jump Drive."
The lights on the bridge dimmed slightly and the ship shuddered as in an instant the 'Vindicator' and its Battle-Group were propelled through the light-barrier and towards the location of their fallen comrades.

Chapter Two - Discovery
-------------------------------

As the ships hurtled through deep space, Janson looked out through the permaplas window in his personal quarters, at the rings formed around the group. He knew the rings were simply the fluctuations as light reflected around the cone behind them, created from travelling faster-than-light, but he felt they seemed more like markers - each one reminding him that he was further away from home, and any chance of reinforcements.

A buzzing brought Janson back to reality. A light was blinking on the console set into his desk. He walked back over to it, and depressed a key next to it. "Yes?"
A young male's voice was heard over the speakers, Berkely the communications officer.
"Sir. We've managed to intercept a K'luth transmission from Delta Pavonis. It seemed to be directed at the Epsilon Eri system."
"Hmm." Epsilon Eri was the system they had just begun the long FTL jump from half-a-day earlier. "Seems there must have been some bug activity there after all. Good job we came with heavy ECM cover."
"Sir, I believe the preferred term is now 'lobsters'." the ensign corrected.
"Thanks Berkely, I'll remember that. Have we been able to decode and translate it yet?"
"No Sir, seems they're using a new encryption algorithm, but we've sent back a copy to Exathra for analysis."
"Very good Berkely. Is that all?" Janson added a hint of finality in his tone, not wanting to further the conversion more than necessary.
The ensign sounded ruffled, "Err. . . No Sir, there is something else."
"Very well, out with it then." Janson looked at his brandy decanter, would have to wait a little longer it appeared.
"I've been looking over the last communication we had with the 'Eagle's Eye'."
"Yes, and. . ." Janson sounded a tad impatient.
"When the signal cut off, it wasn't because they stopped transmitting. They were jammed."
"My God, Berkely - you mean they could still be alive?" the officer leaner over his desk to look at the screen with Berkely on, he looked excited.
"Yes Sir, the probability is quite high that they were simply disabled and boarded." The ensign finished his sentence with a flourish, he was proud of what he'd discovered.
"Excellent Berkely, inform the rest of the Group that we're going in to recover the crew of the 'Eagle's Eye'!"
"Roger that, Sir!"

Janson depressed the key again to end the conversation, and looked back over to his brandy decanter, "Looks as though I'll be saving you for a celebration!"

Captain Salmerz slowly opened his eyes to the dim light around him. He grimaced as he remembered the wounds to his back and legs, the disrupter burn on his left arm. It was starting to come back to him now.
He was on a reconnaissance mission. . . in DeltaPav. Yes! That was it. He was running in full 'stealth' mode, with total ECM cover and silent running. The tactical officer; what was his name, Rignor yes, Rignor; had just reported a complete scan of the planet Zayd, and had found it to be a K'luth training camp. There appeared to be minimal forces in the area, and the camp looked to be full of recruits.
He'd ordered his comms officer, Eely, to open a secure channel to the 'Vindicator' at her last known co-ordinates, when a blast shook the ship. He'd called out for a status report when another, more violent blast hit them. He remembered Eely telling him that the channel was open, and then the status report scrolled across the display on his chair-arm.
As he'd begun to transmit his status, Rignor had shouted out that three 'Scale' class K'luth cruisers had de-cloaked around them and destroyed their ion drives.
Salmerz winced as he recalled what had happened next. Just as he'd begun to repeat the transmission to the 'Vindicator', Eely had informed him that all communications had been jammed, and Engineering had come over the ship-wide comm to inform him the Tachyon Drive was disabled. That's when the ship reverberated with a sound he was not wanting to hear. Rignor re-iterated the point, "Sir, K'luth 'Infector' class ram-ship detected off the port side. We have been boarded."

Janson felt comfortable back in the command chair. He felt confident his crew would do their duty to the fullest. He was certain that the rest of the Battle-Group were with him one hundred percent. What he was not trying to think about was that this was still his first command of such a group, and he was leading them deep into K'luth territory with no hope of assistance arriving in time to be of any help.
"Navigation, how long until we revert to sub-light?"
"Another three hours, Sir." came the prompt reply.
"Engineering." Janson waited for the response from the deck chief.
The Engineering chief came back over the comm, "Sir?"
"How fast can you get that reactor installed and fully charged?"
"Give me thirty minutes Sir, and I'll give you your reactor."
"You've got three hours to get that down to ten minutes." Janson clicked off the comm before any smart reply could bite him.

Salmerz moved his head from side to side, (it was the only part he could move), and glanced around the dark room he was in. The floor seemed to be dirt, and the walls were blackened stone. There
were blood stains on the floor, the dirt had dark brown patches here and there. He seemed to be the only one in the room, he could neither see nor hear anyone else around him, but. . . There was a feeling. . . He did not FEEL alone. . .
He realised then, that he was finding it difficult to breathe. This may have been due to his injuries, but Salmerz realised that it was the atmospheric make-up. K'luth required denser levels of carbon dioxide.
He lifted his head upwards, trying to get a look at the only source of light in the room, but he did not have enough energy to complete the movement. His head fell again to his chest, and he gasped with the sudden pain he felt as it did. His eyes made out a tall, slender figure when it stepped forward from one of the corners of the room. It was humanoid in stature, but that was where the similarity ended. It had two sinewy legs, but they were double-jointed, and had claws at the end instead of feet.
It also had four long arms, two of which held what looked like an electro-whip taught. The dim light seemed to display changing colours on its surface, as though its 'skin' reflected to the light somehow. As it stepped forward, guttural noises emanated from it. It was then that Salmerz realised he could understand those noises, it was as if he could hear words in his head right after the thing stopped grunting.
"I am Kel'Tareth." The words said to him. "You are a Child of Sol."
Salmerz shook his head, "No, I am ICC. I have never been to Sol."
The K'luth lashed at him with the whip and searing pain erupted across his stomach. Salmerz cried out, and the K'luth roared at him. "SILENCE!"
Salmerz looked at the whip, hanging down by the K'luth's side. It was no electro-whip though, it was more like an eel or a snake of some kind. Electricity could be seen coursing through its length.
He glanced at his fresh wound, there were bite-marks and burnt flesh surrounded them.
Kel'Tareth continued, "You will not offend my aural receptors with your blasphemous speech. You can only understand me because we have shaped you."
Salmerz wondered to himself, "Shaped? I remember something about this back in Tactics Training, we were covering the K'luth background.
Shapers mess with DNA, that's how they have all their bio-tech."
"Correct, Child of Sol. You have been shaped and so we can understand each other, if only for a short time. . ."
The Captain thought, "Short time?"
"Indeed, unfortunately for you, the master shapers have been unable to successfully alter you 'humans' to enable communication for more than a few hours before you go, what's the human term," Salmerz thought the alien seemed to be glad, "Oh yes, that's the word: 'insane'."

Chapter Three - Breaking Point
-------------------------------

Janson sat in the command chair, impatiently drumming his fingers on the arm. "Navigation!" He said, a little too loudly, "How long until DeltaPav?"
"Thirty minutes remaining until sub-light revert, Sir."
The reply was a tad strained. Janson realised he had been asking the same question every half-hour since the discovery of the 'Eagle's Eye's possible capture.
"Engineering," the comm crackled with the buzz of the Tachyon Drive in the background, "What is our current status?"
The Engy Chief, Fields, answered coarsely, "I can get you the reactor on-line in fourteen minutes, no less Sir. That's without running full diagnostics before startup."
"No chance we can cut it down? I'll need that energy ASAP when we power down the ECM emitters, Fields." Janson thought it was worth a shot, engineers were known for 'conservative estimates. It made them look good when things came out before time.
"No Sir. I'll have all available personnel on it as soon as you need it, but I can't make the damn thing charge up faster than its capacitors allow! I'll be running it at 120% as it stands! Any more and we risk immediate over-load and a core breach!" The Chief sounded exasperated.
"Understood Fields. Thanks for the effort."
Janson clicked off the comm, and switched to ship-wide. The whistle came on the speakers all over the cruiser, notifying the crew that the commanding officer had an important announcement. "Berkely, transmit this to the group."
"Roger that, Sir."
"All right everyone." Janson paused and took a deep, calming breath before continuing. "The situation we are heading into may well be a trap. We are relying on the fact that the enemy is complacent. We are relying on the fact that they will assume the scout was just that: a lone scout. We know we can get to our friends before reinforcements can come from any enemy outposts in neighbouring systems, so we are also relying on the 'Eagle's Eye's report, which indicates a minimal guard force in the system. On sub-light revert, we will be dividing into three attack groups. The 'Vindicator' and 'Anvil's Fire' will jump in ahead of the group, and will refit all ECM emitters with the reactors and ECCM emitters
carried in cargo.
Upon contact with the enemy, the 'Loki' will provide long-range support as the 'Hornet' provides escort for her, and additional ECM support.
Once we are confident the enemy have dispatched all available ships to intercept the assault group, the 'Rapier' and 'Bull's Eye' will jump to the inner-system and scan the planets for the crews' locator beacons.
Upon detection of the crew, they will jump to the planet, where the 'Bull's Eye' will commence saturation bombing of the training camp to distract any planet cover from the 'Rapier', who will orbit the planet and dispatch ground troops to recover the crew.
Upon successful recovery, the 'Rapier' will withdraw to a safe distance out of the system, while the 'Bull's Eye' continues to provide distraction. Once the 'Rapier' is clear, the 'Vindicator' will lead the jump to different coordinates in case of Jump-Vultures.
Once we are clear of the system, we will rendezvous with the 'Rapier' and once any repairs are complete, and ECM refitted, we will begin the long-jump back to Epsilon Eri.
"Are we clear?"
Affirmative responses came back through the comm system..
Janson cut the communication, and turned to Temula, his navigation officer, "Navigation, time to revert?"
"Fifteen minutes, Sir." She replied.
Janson felt the adrenalin beginning to pump, "Let's get ready to rock, people." He whispered under his breath.

Kel'Tareth stalked out of the room through the aperture in the wall, it quickly closed behind him.
Salmerz reeled from the fresh pain that had been inflicted upon his body. He was strong, but the whip-like reptile the K'luth torture drone unleashed upon him time after time was taking its toll on his flesh. He could see muscle through the blood now, parts of the flesh on his stomach had been flayed almost completely away. If he wasn't held to the wall by some sort of binding gel about his wrists and ankles, and around his throat, he would be crumpled into a foetal ball on the floor by now.
This was worse than anything he had been shown back in advanced training, once he had been given command of his own ship. He tried to remember more, but. . .
"They don't want to hurt you, you know. You should just tell them what they need to know."
Salmerz was startled, but had too little energy left to jump.
He was sure that was a voice, there were no grunts, no guttural tones. . . He lifted his head to where the voice came from.
Another man was held to the wall in the same manner as he was. (Was there someone else here before? He couldn't remember anymore.) "What did you say?" Was all he could manage.
"I said: They don't want to hurt you. Why don't you just give in? It'll be easier."
Salmerz couldn't grasp what was happening, "I. . . I don't understand. . . What. . . What are you talking about?" Each breath was a labour.
"I first thought like you, I refused to help them. I stuck to my training. But then. . ." The stranger paused. "Then I was. . . enlightened." The stranger suddenly dropped to the floor, free of his bindings.
Salmerz' eyes widened at the event. "I. . . I could be free too?"
"Yes, friend. You too could be like me." The man smiled, it was not a warm expression.
"Yes. . . Yes I could be like you. . ." Salmerz moved his head slowly around from side to side, seeming to look at unknown objects around the room, perhaps persons?
The captain's mind was starting to falter. He had already lost most of his short-term memory functions, soon his long-term memory recall would be affected. The stranger turned to his side, where Salmerz could not see his face, and closed his eyes. "Kel-Tareth, this is DeathScythe. He is becoming
co-operative. Soon he will be ready."

The edge of the Delta Pavonis star system. Two bright flashes expand into waves of light, but slowly
dissipate as they do.
"Engineering, get me that reactor online, NOW! Tactical, what's the status of ECCM?" Janson was in full flow now, all worries left behind him in the FTL tunnel. All that mattered now was the task at hand.
The tactical officer, Ulians, replied, "ECCM powered-up and fully functional at ninety-eight percent effectiveness. 'Anvil's Fire' reports ECCM powered-up and at ninety-nine percent detection rate."
"Comms, what's the status of the other two attack groups?"
Berkely responded to the order immediately, "The 'Loki' and 'Hornet' are in position and under ECM cover, the 'Loki' reports current energy signature of -0.2 and the 'Hornet' reports a similar figure. The 'Rapier' and 'Bull's Eye' have charged Tachyon Drives, and are ready to move at your signal."
"Thank you Ensign. People, now it's up to them."

DeathScythe walked around the room, looking Salmerz up and down. "What a detestable species. Was I really once like that?" He wondered to himself.
"Yes, pupil you once were." Kel-Tareth's sombre tones were inside his head. He remembered the K'luth's psionic communication method was not exactly 'specific' in operation. A simple thought and anyone within three hundred metres knew what you wanted for breakfast.
Emotions were more complex, however. As far as he understood, they just came across as static - white noise.
"Of course, Kel'Tareth. My thoughts mean nothing."
"This I am aware of, 'human'." The K'luth's tone was condescending. DeathScythe imagined his superior gloating over his lapse of control.
"Thank you for the correction, I will observe more caution in my thoughts." He looked hard at Salmerz. "Will you help them now? I *promise* to tell them that you meant no disrespect before, and were simply 'confused'." He added a hint of brotherly concern to his tone.
Salmerz was nodding now, belying the obvious pain it must have caused him to do so. "Yes, yes! I will tell them all!
I want to be like you, my friend - free! Yes, yes. . ."
"Excellent, my friend. A wise decision."
The traitor turned and walked from the room. He knew his work was done. This human would not see the light of his homeworld again.

Chapter Four - Meltdown
-------------------------------

"Berkely! Get me a status report from the rest of the group!"
Janson rocked in his command chair as the shields sustained another volley of disruptor fire.
Berkely's hands flew over his console, "Sir! The 'Anvil's Fire' has received moderate damage to her secondary hull, but shields are back up and holding. The 'Loki' and 'Hornet' are still under ECM cover
and are undetected at present. The 'Rapier' and 'Bull's Eye' are in position in-system, and are scanning the neighbouring planets for the 'Eagle's Eye' crew locator beacons."
As Janson listened to the update, he looked at the report scrolling across the screen on his chair-arm. The 'Vindicator's shields were holding, as he had the engineering deck working double-time keeping
the reactor cooled and supplying fresh juice to the emitters. One of their chemical laser cannons, and two fusion torpedo launchers were damaged though, due to a lucky shot by one of the 'Scale' class
K'luth cruisers who had hung off to the starboard side of the ship, cloaked, while it's two companions had poured hot laser fire into the port shields. Once the alien ship had detected more power diverted
into the opposite shields, they had unleashed an Alpha-Strike into the weakened defences of the ICC ship.
"Tactical! Give me a heads-up of the field!"
His tactical officer, Ulians, worked at her station, patching in the necessary information to display the tactical map onto the ships' main viewscreen. The screen was soon lit with the IFF markers of each
detected ship in sensor range. The 'Vindicator' was flanked by two of the K'luth cruisers, while the 'Anvil's Fire' was slugging it out with the third. The 'Loki' and 'Hornet' were both still out of
standard sensor range, and providing long-range missile support.
Thank God for the 'Loki's ion-tracker missiles. They were the only things keeping the K'luth from dominating this encounter..
Janson looked further in-system and saw the two destroyers flying around the planets closest to the systems primary, slowly working their way outwards, scanning for the crew beacons.
The ship rocked again as the shields withstood another impact.
Janson sat forward, "Return fire!"

Kel'Tareth shook his head in exasperation. "No, no you pathetic human. Why were you in this system? What was your mission here?"
Salmerz lifted his head from the dirt floor. He was so happy they had let him down from the wall. That gel was starting to hurt him, and he knew they didn't want to hurt him. He was sprawled out
on the floor now. His congealed blood hardening across his stomach.
The K'luth torture creature's venom contained a fast coagulant. It prevented victims from dying of blood loss too quickly.
He couldn't understand all these strange words in his head though. They were very confusing. 'Why?' this and 'Who?' that. He just couldn't understand how it was so important to answer all these
questions. He'd told them he would help them, and so he would. As soon as they wanted him to shoot something. That's what he was good at. He remembered that much. He got his first las-rifle when
he was just fifteen. His Mom thought he was too young, but his Dad knew he would be careful. He'd take his rifle, and climb up the tree in the yard, and. . . He reeled from the blow to his ribs as the
K'luth's bone-covered shin collided with his side, and rolled into a corner of the room.
The alien's words bit into his thoughts, "Damn you paleskin scum."
He thought towards where his commanders were awaiting his report.
"This one is of no use to us now. We have discovered that a force was with him, and this force has now shown itself at the far side of the system. We need him no longer."
The thoughts of his fellow Artisens were mingled with that of his own. "Yes drone, we are in agreeance. Do not waste any more of your time with this Sol-Child. Leave him to his madness, the
shapers did well with his primitive mind. Soon we will have further success. DeathScythe was just the beginning."
Kel'Tareth walked from the room, not even glancing at the creature which was once a man cowering in the corner, mumbling to itself nonsense that only it could decipher.

"Sir! Report from the 'Rapier'. They have found the remains of the 'Eagle's Eye' -- It is in orbit of the planet Laban!"
"What? Is the crew still aboard?" Janson held his breath for the answer.
Berkely answered with a sombre tone, "No sir, the ship has been completely hulled and stripped, no-one is aboard. The 'Bull's Eye' reports a brief flicker from the planet Zayd, but there are no further transmissions from any of the beacons."
Janson slammed his fist on the arm of his chair, "Dammit! We took too long! Tactical, status!"
"Shields down to twenty-three percent, hull breaches on decks four and five, three torpedo launchers are disabled, one of the CL five hundreds is destroyed, and the Tachyon Drive has sustained minor
damage, Sir."
"How are the rest of the group faring?"
The communications officer sent out a status request, and quickly received the reports from the rest of the friendlies. "The 'Anvil's Fire' has had it's shields completely disabled and has diverted all remaining power to engines and weapons, their hull is currently holding at ninety-seven percent; the 'Loki' and 'Hornet' have had to retreat to a position out of IT missile range due to a lone K'luth
scout ship; and the 'Rapier' is currently covering the 'Bull's Eye' as she makes a bombing run at one of the training camps on Laban. The 'Rapier's shields are also down to forty-three percent, and she
has sustained damage to her ion engines due to planet defences."
Janson only had two options. "Berkely, get me the 'Anvil's Fire's commanding officer on screen."
The First Rear Admiral appeared in the top-right corner of the main viewer. Janson addressed him, "Emnas, we've got a couple of choices here. I think you've got an idea which one I'm in favour
of."
The other commanding officer looked Janson in the eye. "The crew of the 'Anvil's Fire' is with you all the way, Sir. We might be going to Hell, but we'll make damn sure we take some of those bastards with us!"
Janson looked to Berkely, "Group comm Ensign."
The comms officer switched to the groups' transmitting frequency.
"They're ready and listening, Sir."
"Okay people. In all probability, we won't survive this encounter, those of you who can retreat are hereby given leave to return to Epsilon Eri and make the trip home. The 'Vindicator' and 'Anvil's
Fire' will remain behind to cover the retreat. Janson out."
He waited for the responses to come back over the comm.
"'Mandible' class dreadnaught jump signature detected!" shouted Ulians the tactical officer.
Janson's face dropped, "Dear God, what have I brought us into?"

Chapter Five - End Game
-------------------------------

The K'luth dreadnaught de-cloaked directly aft of the 'Bull's Eye' as she began her bombing run. The destroyer's captain didn't even have time to give the order to abort the run, as tera-watts of energy slammed into their shields. The alien's disruptor cannons sliced through the rear armour of the ship, breaking through the outer covering of the ion-engines and causing secondary explosions
throughout the engineering section. Flames spewed from the holes in the ships' rear as another volley of charged energy beams ripped into the inner hull of the ship. The bomber began to drift as her
propulsion systems were blown to pieces. Parts of the hull and internal components began to rip away from the ship as its momentum carried it on towards the planet.
The dreadnaught powered-up its own sub-light engines and began the chase. As it closed, several torpedoes blew from their launchers, and sped towards the gaping mess that was once the 'Bull's Eye's rear section. As the projectiles smashed into the ship, the anti-matter detonated with its intended target, wrenching the insides of the ship from their fixings. The front of the craft suddenly separated
from the rest of the ship and began to come apart, as a massive internal explosion tore the ship in two. The bombers' payload had been detonated by the torpedoes.
The Mandible turned away from the bright explosion and aimed towards the other destroyer.

The 'Vindicator's shields bucked, crackled then failed completely as they took another attack from the two K'luth cruisers. The ship turned and fired its three remaining torpedo launchers at the cruiser
in front of them. The three torps streaked through space, then exploded into the side of the enemy vessel. It lurched to one side with the impact, but continued on its path.
The 'Anvil's Fire' again lined up its chemical laser cannons at the alien cruiser in front of them, all three beams hit simultaneously at the same point, melting the living-ship's outer hull instantly and
vaporising everything in their path until they ruptured out the other side of the ship, skewering it on the beams of energy. Fire erupted from inside the craft, it was suddenly visible as the cloaking device
faltered from the lack of energy.
The 'Vindicator's engines flared as they were suddenly ramped up to full-power, the ship bore down on the wounded enemy and, before it could jump to safety, fired all its remaining weapons at the sleek
alien craft. Long gashes were cut along its length as the lasers burnt through the outer armour. The fusion torpedoes impacted an instant later as two of them exploded on the outer of the ship - one
flew straight into one of the gashes in its side and detonated inside the command centre of the ship. As the explosions were tearing through the inside of the craft, it began to spin end over end, the navigation controls suddenly lost.
As the 'Anvil's Fire' turned from the 'Vindicator's path, the three streaks of energy from the friendly ship sliced into the damaged 'Scale'. The two remaining enemy cruisers formed up and came about to
concentrate their fire at one ship.

The 'Rapier' came around again and fired upon the K'luth Mandible. The ships' outer armour was barely scorched by the light vessel's weapons. The human ships' navigation officer was good, he was using the ships' speed to keep out of the alien ship's firing arc, but they were still receiving a sound thrashing from the larger craft.
The 'Rapier's captain received the order to assist the cruisers, and so slowed to jump to their position. Just as the ship powered-up its Tachyon Jump Drive, the Mandible came around enough to let loose some anti-matter torpedoes. As the ship generated the tachyon field, the torpedoes slammed into the back of the ship through the weakened shields, instantly destroying the sub-light engines. Then the
destroyer propelled itself faster than light towards its allies.
As soon as the 'Rapier' came out of the FTL-tunnel, it was adrift. The engines were a mass of tangled parts and flaming fuel.
The Mandible appeared less than one hundred galactic units behind it, and fired almost immediately at the helpless ship, tearing through the smaller craft's hull. The destroyer was engulfed in a fireball,
as it exploded from the rear forwards.
The alien ship emerged from the fireball, and changed course to intercept the two remaining cruisers.

As soon as the 'Loki' was confident the K'luth scout had been lost, she and the 'Hornet' jumped back into range of the battle. A quick survey of the scene proved that the aliens would soon dispatch her
allies.
The 'Hornet's engineers quickly refitted the ECM emitter with the Pulse Shield carried in cargo. When it was almost charged, the 'Hornet' jumped into the fray, coming out of FTL mere tens-of-meters from the 'Anvil's Fire'. As the enemies' torpedoes hurtled towards her, the ship activated its Pulse Wave Shield - instantly detonating the projectiles before they could impact. The two K'luth cruisers turned away, disoriented at the sudden reinforcement. The Mandible, however, continued to approach.
As the 'Vindicator's engineering crew worked frantically to get the shield generators back on-line, the ship accelerated away from the now derelict alien cruiser, turning back towards the 'Anvil's Fire'.
The K'luth cruisers quickly realised that there were no more human ships jumping in with the destroyer, and resumed their attack on the weakened cruiser. As they neared, the 'Hornet' flew
top-speed towards them firing as soon as they were in range. The small ships' weapons scored across the larger vessels hulls - already damaged from the skirmish with the cruisers - as the destroyer overshot the two ships, the Mandible loomed into view.
The 'Hornet' turned quickly away from the dreadnaught, before the torpedo launchers could obtain a lock, but the disruptors hit the port and aft shields as the ship flew past, some of the beams cutting through and blowing great crevasses into the side of the ship, and damaging the port stabilising jets.

The 'Anvil's Fire' withstood round after round of fire from the two enemy cruisers, trading blow for blow with one of them, but the fight was fruitless. The cruiser received a volley of torpedoes
from one of the 'Scale's which impacted on the forward section of the ship, completely destroying the beam weapons. The other 'Scale' was concentrating on the rear of the ship, pounding away at the
engines and torpedo launchers.
As the 'Vindicator' completed its turn, the 'Anvil's Fire' exploded in a massive supernova of white flames. One of the two alien ships turned towards the Assault Cruiser, and received white-hot chemical lasers for its lapse in concentration. As the beams sliced through the front of the vessel, ion-tracker missiles from the 'Loki' suddenly slammed into the ship, ripping the whole forward section open, and leaving a widening hole which the lasers continued to fire into, tearing through the delicate innards of the craft. The cruiser flew onwards, hulled and dead in space.

That left just the 'Vindicator', 'Hornet' and 'Loki' against the remaining K'luth cruiser and the approaching Mandible.
The 'Hornet' closed again on the Mandible, firing as soon as the weapons were in range. The dreadnaught's outer armour was scored by the smaller ships' weapons, but they had no chance of breaking through. As the destroyer flew past, the K'luth ship unleashed an Alpha-Strike
into the side of the vessel. The impact alone blew the craft off-course, but the attack was not in vein. For as the K'luth ship fired on the destroyer, the 'Vindicator' closed fast and fired all her available weapons at the starboard side of the dread.
As the lasers ate through the armour, and the torpedoes slammed into the ship, the 'Loki' fired the last of its IT missiles at the same side of the alien bio-craft. The tracking missiles closed fast, and as the
'Vindicator' turned and sped away at maximum speed, the projectiles pierced the side of the craft, penetrating the weakened armour. The missiles detonated within the vast ship, causing explosions within its hull.
As the ship recoiled from the attack, the fatally damaged 'Hornet' flew directly into the wounded side of the ship, already counting down the self-destruct sequence.

The 'Vindicator' fired one last volley of torpedoes at the K'luth cruiser before engaging the jump drive. The flash of the Tachyon field was dwarfed by the explosion from the side of the K'luth
Dreadnaught as the destroyer self-destructed. The explosion wouldn't destroy the massive alien ship, but it would cause enough damage to deter them following.

Vice Admiral Janson sat wearily in his chair. He was in his personal quarters. Sparks popped around his head as cables flapped around in the air from loose panels, and burns marked most of the electrical
points on the walls. He thought about the status report. Berkely was dead, his station had exploded in his face, burning him beyond recognition. There were similar events all around the ship. A lot of
good people had died today. A lot of people Janson counted as 'friends' had died today. The loss of the 'Eagle's Eye' was not least among those losses.
Janson stood up, and walked to his brandy decanter on a wall unit. He poured himself a large glassful. The 'Loki' was visible out of the viewport to his right, travelling alongside the 'Vindicator' back to Epsilon Eri, and then Home.