Things were getting crazy as attacks came in from several sides.  Marsha's twin gatling guns ripped through the approaching robots like tissue paper, they had numbers but they were obviously not designed to last.  They would eventually run out but the pirates were trying to take advantage of the situation, even as the alien forces attacked them as well.  One of the crab bots slipped through her barrage and tried to speed past her but her mecha grabbed a 'leg' and hurled the robot into a stream of fire and watched it get ripped apart.  Being previously an industrial type machine her vehicle was very strong, capable of overpowering most, if she could get a grip on them at least.

[color=darkred]"These things are just fodder, the real threat right now are the pirates."[/color]  Marsha watched as the main pirate force started to make a turn toward the rear of the [i]XEON III[/i].  [color=darkred]I'm moving to intercept."[/color]  Marsha moved toward the back of the ship and started to fire at the approaching pirates, one of them got caught by surprise and spun off from the group, too damaged to continue.  She needed to reduce their numbers as much as possible so up her unit's [i]wings[/i] went to reveal her flak canons, which slowly turned toward the front and started firing their rounds.  The shells exploded into the pirate fleet, spreading destruction wherever they exploded.

[b]XEON III[/b]

The captain sat down in a chair, his fingers laced together in thought as he figured out what to do.  The XEON III was in a precarious positions, being hammered on at least two sides from two different forces, the bright side was that the unknown force was attacking the pirates as well, at the moment they were in the worst position though.  There was also that unknown Mecha that had retreated for the moment, he wished to get his hands on it but that would have to wait, saving the lives on the XEON III was his top priority.

He jerked his head up when a thought came to him, they were outnumbered so there was really only one thing to do, escape.  Of course this was not exactly the most simple of tasks; however, there was one extra resource they could use in this fight, it was a gamble but in a way it would provide them protection, from the pirates at least.  "Helm, plot a course as close to the unknown's hidden base as possible, we're going to shoot right through their forces to outside this small asteroid field."

"You want use to go through that!"  The helmsman protested pointing toward the swarm of crab-like bots still in view, at least they were noticeably fewer in number than when the fight first began.

"Full speed ahead, ram right through them, those robots are somewhat fragile so we should be able to crush them on our way out.  Also any of them that fly past us will head right toward our pirate pursuers, adding an extra layer of defense.  If those pirates manage to take out our engines while we're still here we'll be sitting ducks.  It's either use, them or the unknowns that win today, and I'm gonna make sure we live to tell the tail!"

With that the large expeditionary ship turned toward the unknown base asteroid and picked up speed to move through the alien defense grid.

[b]IRIS I[/b]

The IRIS I was being pursed though the AI was not particularly bothered by this revelation.  The humanoid Mecha had already retreated near its base and turned to face its pursuer with laser canons an pulse shots.  The IRIS I was accurate and deadly but its function was more for information gathering purposes than combat, as most of its functions kept sifting through the vast amounts of information poured through its processors every nanosecond.  Then something curious happened, the solar vessel had turned toward its forces and had started to plow through the sector at ramming speed.  Most vessels would try to run away from enemy forces, not toward them.  The IRIS I AI was having a hard time figuring out the next course of action.  Many of the swarm bots that attempted to latch onto the [i]XEON III[/i] bounced off and shattered on impact as the largest vessel in the immediate vicinity streaked through on a seemingly suicidal run.