“The Imperial ships are firing”

Valerie’s voice rang out across the bridge delivering the expected message. “Battlestations. How are our defences holding up?” Rhea asked. With such an exotic and new enemy, she had to determine quickly what sort of measures had to be taken to protect her ship. While by no means fragile, the Intent just wasn’t built to soak up fire the way an XMC could. Valeries hologram appeared next the captain looking more than a little put out. “They appear to be using high powered particle beams. They move too quickly for defensive missiles. The good news is that our ECM seems to have prevented them from locking onto us. I’ve not been hit ye-” The bridge shook as a bolt winged the ships hull. “Lucky shot.” Valerie said in a huff.

“Alright Valerie, prepare a full offensive salvo and target the nearest of their cruisers. Hold fire for my mark, I have a feeling our friends in the Hive are going to respond to the Imperials any minute now.” The two women, one genetically engineered perfection and one coherent light, watched on the viewscreen as the massive vessel below them turned to engage. It was more nimble than it appeared, and quickly brought its weapons to bare. The opening salvo was a thing of beauty, raking across the enemy ship with fire. “Target sustaining heavy damage. Should I finish them?” Valerie’s voice contained just a hint of vicious eagerness that belied her nature as a Warship. “At your leisure.” Rhea said casually. Thus far the battle seemed fairly meagre, though it had the potential to escalate rapidly. With a smile on her holographic face, Valerie simply said “Firing.”

Points of light in groups of four shot from the recesses in the Intent’s hull as the AP cannons fired, as well as a far less noticeable but no less deadly grouping of a dozen missiles fired in rapid succession from the four missile tubes in the Intent’s nose. The AP rounds struck first, only moments after the Hives salvo, stripping away what little armour remained on the Venators facing surfaces in brilliant flashes of matter/antimatter annihilation. Shortly after, the spread of offensive missiles struck, seeking out unprotected ruptures in the hull of the Venator before detonating. The hull bucked and tore apart, great quantities of material being thrown away as the forward section of the ship was gutted, leaving it little better than a burning hulk with engines.

“Target crippled.” came the smug announcement from Valerie. Before Rhea could give the order to finish them with another salvo though, Valerie made another announcement. “There is a small Imperial ship pulling alongside the Hive. Orders?” Rhea didn’t know in the slightest how the ‘hyperspace’ that the hive commander had mentioned worked, but if it was anything like slipstream, having an unwanted ship right on top of you was a bad thing. She had to destroy it, but she couldn’t afford to pull the ship out of position without jeopardising her capacity to hitch a ride with the Hive. “Launch remaining drones and engage it. We need to clear them away.” It wasn’t the only threat the ship faced though, as another lucky shot winged them and rocked the bridge. “Turn the ship and fire on the next nearest Imperial cruiser with AP canons.”

The Valourous Intent swung around on the spot, demonstrating the superb manoeuvrability inherent in its class and opened up on the next Venator, though the AP cannon bursts were deflected by the ships shield. A short distance away, the Intents drones were pelting the smaller imperial ship with low yield missiles, its hull showing signs of great strain, though it was giving as good as it got, with the wreckage of several drones floating nearby. Rhea could tell they were fighting a holding action at this point, and she would soon have to choose whether to go with the Hive or make a break for safe Slipstream distance. But then, this was exactly the kind of situation she lived for. She was after all, only Nietzschean.