From the main viewport, Bradley managed to witness the huge cruisers belonging to the Empire move in closer to the [i]Andromeda[/i] and its company. Soon after, the ships opened fire, lashing out with storms of lasers and deploying many smaller ships from their underbellies. A few of the small craft streaked by the [i]Osprey[/i], quickly pelting down the shields at their close range.

He wasted no time in sounding the alarm. "All hand to battle stations! I repeat, we are under heavy attack from the Imperial fleet! Strum, get on Engineering and bring me full power, stat! Sam, get the weapons up. I'm pulling us out until we can afford a jump." As Brad issued the commands, he followed on his own and opened up the throttles on the [i]Osprey[/i], breaking their makeshift formation to duck under and past the [i]Icarus[/i]. All the while, the repeated fire from the fighters and destroyers quickly broke through their shields and began to tear apart the [i]Osprey[/i]'s vital frame.

"GAH! Sir, we've got fires in the teleporter-"

"Shielding can't keep with the enemy's assault,sir- NNGH-!"

[i]"Warning! Hull integrity: 75%"[/i]

"I'm giving the engines all we have!"

Doing his best to press through the danger, Bradley cursed the situation from going bad to worse to outright hellish. He noticed, however, the crusiers themselves were not giving direct pursuit, instead opting to let the fighters be their first wave of offense. Though it meant they were well armed, it also implied their propulsion was somewhat lacking... "Change of plans. Sam, get the missiles powered up. We're giving one of these bastards a hard time if we can help it," the pilot said, pulling evasive maneuvers as best as he could under the circumstances. Shields managed to pulse back to life, only to get shredded again by the agile fighters. 

"I need twelve more seconds."

Brad pulled up one of the destroyers on a monitor, setting a course designation. He felt his knuckles tightening on the helm controls as he braved the [i]Osprey[/i] through the hail of laser fire. The pilot set the weapons locks on what looked to be the starship's command center, if their structure would be at all similar to the Osprey-class.

"Three seconds. Two-"

"Fire at will!" Bradley heard himself yell, over the computer's declaration of '[i]Hull integrity: 62%[/i]' and '[i]FTL charge: 46%[/i]'