BSBxKc Chpt 6

==Blue Squadron (Battletech x KanColle(ish) crossover) - Chapter 6 -==
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
----
===Waiting in the Dark===
System 1339, Deep Periphery
"Come on. Where are you?" Swift Justice murmured under her breath. The wait was starting to feel long to her. She gazed over at her two companions.
 
Amber Lotus and Brest did briefly lock eyes with her, before returning their attention to the system's jump points.
 
Blue Squadron were back at the site of their first battle, back in the orbit of the nameless ice-giant's moon. They had decided on this course of action while they were recharging their K-F drives. The plan they had come up with was a compromise between risk and reliability.
 
The three of them, via pirate point, had jumped directly into their orbit around the snowball below them. As intended, they had appeared "behind" the moon when viewed from the system's primary, and shut down most of their systems as soon as they were reasonably certain they had not been seen. It was to make themselves as hard to detect as possible, while they waited for the enemy to show up.
 
So the formation of cruiser and two corvettes waited, running on battery power mostly unmoving and radio-silent.
 
After a dozen more orbits boredom had apparently overcome tension.
Amber stretched her back, rolled her shoulders, and turned towards her flagship with a frown. With quick gestures of the hands she asked in sign-language. "Should we abort? I am worried with leaving 135 undefended this long."
 
Scratch boredom. It was worry that made the dark-haired corvette restless. The girl truly cared about the people on 135, or was more upset than she let on by what they had seen on Vespucci. Maybe both.
 
Swift did her best to reassure her young escort. "I understand what you feel. I admit, I am uneasy myself, but i also think we are doing the right thing. We need to be patient." 
 
Brest followed the exchange out of the corner of her eye, while she was diligently keeping most of her attention on the primary's zenith and nadir jump points. At least while they were "in front" of the ice-block.
 
When Amber's eyes remained troubled, the grey-haired woman tried a different approach. "Look at it this way. If our intel is right, and i am confident it is, we can intercept them. Maybe even surprise them if we are lucky. And where would you rather fight them? Here, or at Jan Mayen, where they might decide to attack the station instead of us?" 
 
Huffing a breath, the girl replied wearily. "I know, i know. But that plan relies on them doing what we expect them to. What if they bypass this system, and strike at 135 while we wait here?" She sighed again, her voice almost pleading. "Can't we get periodic updates from them or something, nanodesu?" 
 
Swift shook her head, expression sympathetic. "We are at war. We have to assume that our fax messages can be deciphered by the enemy and other parties." She added the last part sourly. Unfortunately there was no lack of groups with the motivation, as well as the ability, to listen in on their comms. "Even if they cannot read the contents of them, the station sending messages would look suspicious. It would give away that something is up."
 
The draconian's jaw clenched, and she looked away.
 
Swift thought she saw the usually composed girl's lips quiver. She carefully reached over, gently placing a hand on her charge's shoulder, and could feel the tension in the corvette's frame. Turning Amber to face her, she gestured. "Why are you so upset? Talk to me, please."
 
At first the draconian tried to look away again, but was denied when Swift placed a hand on the girl's other shoulder, and kept her in place.
 
When Amber finally looked into Swift's eyes, she seemed to be on the verge of tears. She gestured. "I had a nightmare."
 
Surprise colored the cruiser's features, and she did not know which startled her more. The nightmare, or the fact the girl managed to actually sleep. After a moment she wordlessly prompted Amber to continue with an expectant look.
 
"I dreamt that we went on this sortie, and when we got back everyone was dead. Shot, sucked into space, torn to pieces. I..." She stopped there, expression crumbling. She squeezed her eyes shut and looked away.
 
A new, yet familiar instinct made Swift act before she knew it. She drew the girl into an embrace and held on.
 
Amber Lotus, after a moment's hesitation, returned the hug fiercely. She leaned her head on her flagship's shoulder and cried.
 
Feeling the girl tremble, Swift ran a hand up and down Amber's back soothingly. Although knowing, from memories that were not her own, that hugs felt nice, the Aegis was still surprised how effective it was at calming the corvette. Despite the other half of her dual nature protesting.
 
After just a few minutes the girl's trembling subsided, and she extricated herself from the grey-haired woman's embrace. Swiping the remaining tears from her eyes, Amber gave her flagship a weak smile, gaze steadier than before.
 
With a gentle expression, the cruiser gestured at her young companion. "We will do all we can to prevent that nightmare from becoming reality. We are already doing it." She gave the corvette a once-over. "Are you good to continue?"
 
Heaving a sigh, Amber' Lotus nodded. She still seemed shaken, but there was a new determination in her eyes.
 
Taking the dark-haired girl's hand in both of her own for a moment, the Comstar-cruiser added. "Trust in the process. Sometimes it is all we can do."
 
Composure returning to her, Amber sent a grateful smile to Swift and turned to observe the jump points again. Once they came around the moon, that was.
 
For her part, the Aegis was satisfied. With how she had handled this new situation, and how Amber had gotten herself together again. She made a mental note to herself. "Use hugs in case of distress." The cruiser could get used to that method. It had felt good, despite all of her instincts as a warship screaming at her, that two spaceships should never be this close. The proximity alerts going off in her head, which had warned of imminent collision, were slightly distracting.
 
When the cruiser turned to continue observing, she caught Brest's gaze. The girl was looking at her with a strange expression. When she noticed the woman's eyes on her, she smiled gently and gave a single nod.
 
Not quite sure what to make of it, but glad she had the girl's approval, Swift returned her attention to the task at hand.
 
Crossing the moon's day/night border, the three of them naturally lost sight of the jump points. The fleetmaidens remained silent while the they were on the giant's night side.
 
With her attention not occupied any more, something occurred to the cruiser. They could not have done this in their original forms. Not the hugs obviously, but the silent talking with each other. There were other ways of communication aside from radio, of course, but all of them could be detected someway. This though, talking with gestures? It bore no elevated risk of discovery, and Swift made a mental note to try and think outside their usual box more often.
 
There might be more advantages to their new forms they had not thought of yet.
-----
===Contact===
It was some time later, with the three of them about to leave the snowball's night-side behind, when Brest quickly turned towards the other two. Her gaze sharp, she gestured animatedly. "Contact."
 
Tension sprung up in the fleetmaidens. As they came around the moon, the other two could see as well. There were two new dots of light at the zenith jump point. As the squadron watched, two became several, with smaller dots appearing next to the initial ones.
 
Despite their very acute vision they could not make out details yet, but two ships had obviously arrived in the system.
 
Blue Squadron, as one, had their gazes riveted to the contacts, until the giant's satellite obscured their sight again.
 
Swift exchanged glances with her two escorts. "Well, the first part of the operation has gone according to plan."
 
"On to the second." Brest replied, flexing her hand.
 
"We will decide how to proceed once we see what they are up to."
"Assuming it is the foe." Amber remarked.
 
"Considering where we are..." Brest retorted.
 
The dark-haired girl conceded the point with an incline of her head.
 
When they came around again, all but one of the dots in the distance had moved. It took the fleetmaidens mere moments to extrapolate their direction.
 
"Stage two it is." The Aegis motioned, after double-checking.
 
For the rest of the orbit the fleetwomen tracked the single large dot, along with its smaller companions, on their vector towards the snowball they were orbiting. The other large dot remained at the zenith point, apparently a JumpShip.
 
Upon their next revolution they could see details on the inbounds.
 
"Damn these things." With Brest in the lead, she was the first to identify the contacts. "It really is them."
 
Moments after Brest, Swift Justice could see them as well. It was doubtlessly the enemy. The cruiser was just close enough to tell, for certain, that the large dot of light was a single ship, instead of several in close formation. More importantly, the light from all the specks was familiar to the fleetmaidens, sharply limited in its spectrum. The enemy's only two colors.
 
The three of them did not move while in sight of the approaching enemy. Only after they were submerged in the moon's shadow again did they converse.
 
"That formation has a proper warship in it." Brest did not look enthused. "If we shoot as well as we did last time..."
 
"It will be different today." Swift made it a point to look certain, projecting as much confidence with her body-language as she could.
 
"I'm not as certain as you are. Nothing has changed compared to last time." The Fox class' skeptical look said more than her "words".
 
"We have no choice. Nobody else can fight these things properly. We have to face them, terrible accuracy or no." The grey-haired woman's brows were drawn in something bordering a scowl. She had to make the girl understand. "We are the only thing standing between them and Jan Mayen."
 
Reluctantly, Brest agreed. "I guess you're right." She signaled back.
 
"They don't appear to have seen us yet. So are we are still following the plan?" Amber Lotus brought the conversation back on track. She was all business again, gaze sharp and a subtle tension coiled in her slender frame.
 
Battle did something to that girl's mind, Swift thought, before she returned her attention to the matter at hand.
 
"Yes. Make ready to quickstart your systems for the upcoming orbit though. We have to assume they have seen us, and are sly enough to play stupid." She gave both of her escorts a meaningful look. "In that case they could try to go to full thrust, if they have ships that are fast enough, to reach orbit before we come around again. That would be a nasty surprise, so be prepared to start up at the first sign of trouble."
 
"Should we launch for them on the upcoming orbit? That way they couldn't get the drop on us." Brest brought up a valid alternative.
 
Seriously considering the suggestion for a few moments, Swift ultimately shook her head. "We stick to the plan. The risk is worth the chance to maybe surprise them."
 
Blessedly, the brunette accepted the flagship's decision, and turned her attention back to the snowball's horizon.
 
The next revolution came, after anxious waiting. Had the enemy seen them? The members of Blue Squadron would know as soon as they got line of sight on them. The tension in the vacuum around the fleetmaidens was almost palpable, as they crested the moon's curvature. All three of them prepared to spring into action.
 
Lady Luck seemed to be on their side. The enemy was still in formation, their trajectory and speed unchanged. And close enough to see them in detail.
 
A gasp escaped Swift's throat before she could clench her mouth shut. She recognized the half-dozen DropShips around the enemy warship. They were identical to the ones she had seen attacking Waystation 135, in looks and number. That realization was eclipsed by the warship they were escorting,though.
 
"What is going on?" The grey-haired woman muttered to herself. What she saw, when she looked at the enemy warship, was very unexpected. She could identify it as the hull of a Quixote-class, with its lines deviating from what they should be, in places. More important to the cruiser was what she could see with her new, human, sight. And it threw her for a loop.
 
The Quixote looked like a young woman, equal parts disturbing and enchanting. Her skin was pale as snow, and wild, raven-colored tresses of hair reached down to her knees. She was wearing some kind of military uniform that was the same color as her hair, and torn in a few places. The woman's face was hauntingly beautiful, with piercing blue eyes complementing an expression of absolute neutrality. She may as well have been made of marble.
 
The woman's perfect features made her grotesque parts even more jarring, in contrast. There were several black tubes, or some kind of electrical wiring, that came out of the woman's torso and connected to the parts of her hull that were attached to either side of her. The most unusual thing was her right arm. It ended at the elbow and continued from there as several long, thin, black tendrils that had thorns on it. They brought to mind a jagged whip.
 
Giving herself a mental shake, Swift Justice returned her attention to the matter at hand. Everything else could wait until later. As Blue Squadron continued on their orbit, the enemy approached further still.
 
Shortly before they disappeared behind the ice-block again, the three fleetmaidens heard a radio message that made them wince. It was coming from the enemy formation, and was unencrypted. It was nothing but screeches and chittering, and the Aegis could not help the shiver that ran up her spine.
 
As soon as they were in the moon's shadow again, the grey-haired woman got about giving orders in rapid-fire sign language.
 
"Alright you two, this is it. As soon as i give the signal we will go loud. Start all your systems then, launch DropShips and fighters, load your guns."
 
"Copy that. Does anyone have an idea what kind of warship our opponent is? I can't identify it, nanodesu." Amber truly had her head in the game again.
 
"I'd rather know what's going on. Did you see that woman?" The Fox pointed animatedly at the enemy formation behind the giant's satelite. "She is like we are! Are we dealing with a traitor?" 
 
"We can think about that later, Brest. For now, we have a battle to win." Continuing the impromptu briefing, the flagship gazed at Amber. "What we face is a Quixote-class missile frigate." She paused for a moment. "Do not let the designation fool you though. That class was designed as a battlecruiser, and is capable of launching more than 60 capital missiles at once. Killer Whales, White Sharks and Barracudas."
 
"That's bullshit! How are we supposed to..." After a moment Brest realized what she had "said", and awkwardly apologized. "Sorry."
 
"Nothing compared to fighting an SDS." Swift muttered to herself.
 
"So how do we deal with clouds of armor-piercing missiles?" Amber Lotus asked, while she was busy detaching her DropShips and preparing to launch her fighters.
 
"We keep our screen around us tight, and our formation even tighter. Cover each other, as well as our DropShips and fighters. Prioritize the capital missiles with defensive fire. They are the main threat." Swift hesitated. "I am very reliant on you two, and our screen, to keep them away. I cannot protect myself against those, and i expect them to target me primarily."
 
"Leave it to us, nanodesu." Amber seemed confident, her brows drawn in concentration and expectation. She added as an afterthought. "We should also stay away from that frigate's whip-arm."
 
"Yeah. What's up with that?" Brest agreed vigorously.
 
"If one of us actually got into range of that whip, then things have already gone terribly wrong. But it is something to keep in mind." The cruiser was carefully deploying her own fighters. Doing it without the fighters' fusion engines left just their maneuvering thrusters, which made the task difficult.
 
"What about that radio call? Do you think that was meant for us?" Brest shuddered visibly. "It gave me the creeps."
 
"Nah. It was not even coded. They have no idea we are here, nanodesu." Amber was directing all her assets into a proper formation.
 
"They will suspect now. That radio message was meant for the DropShips we destroyed last time, and they obviously will not answer." Swift was done as well and turned to Brest. "Ready?"
 
"Just about." The brunette motioned back.
 
"Good." The grey-haired woman gave each of her young charges a measuring look, then turned forwards again.
 
The wait was torment. Minutes fractured into seconds, and the fleetmaidens were alone with their thoughts. While Brest occasionally glanced at the formation's other members, Amber never once took her eyes off the spot where the enemy should be, obscured by the frigid moon as they were.
 
The Aegis had an easier time of it. It was just another battle, and at some point one stopped feeling the jitters.
 
Eventually the time came. The grey-haired woman mimed to her escorts. "We are go. Start your power plants."
 
They did not need to be told twice. Each fleetmaiden started what was, for all intents and purposes, her heart. The process was mirrored by their accompanying DropShips and aerospace fighters.
 
Still using sign language, Swift gave more orders.
 
"Alright, no turning back now. If they have proper sensors, they will have noticed the neutrinos from our power plants. I assume they have, so we will aim for a high orbit intercept. Follow me." The woman went to full burn and took point in their formation, with her two escorts taking positions slightly behind her to the "left" and "right".
 
At Swift's maximum acceleration of 1.5g, the three of them swung themselves around the snowball, using its gravity well to gain even more velocity and climb onto a higher orbit.
 
After a short while the enemy came into view. Their adversaries were approximately where they were expected to be.
 
Mere moments later the enemy warship's head whipped around and her unsettling, icy gaze fastened onto the fleetmaidens. The pale woman began to maneuver, to get into a better engagement-position.
 
"Looks like they did notice us beforehand. Their fighters are out." Brest remarked as the distance closed.
 
Swift shook her head. "Their formation was pointed away from us. They launched fighters because there was no response from their first batch of DropShips."
 
Conversation died down until they were almost in weapons range. Just before the shooting started, Swift reminded one last time. "Remember to aim for the missiles."
 
When the two sides came into weapons range, the enemy formation of one warship and 9 DropShips went for it immediately. Launch trails started appearing from the pale woman's position, and most of the enemy aerospace elements came rushing at Blue Squadron. Their intention was clear. Overwhelm the fleetmaidens' protective screen and make them vulnerable to missiles.
 
Swift Justice waited for several moments more before she gave the order. "Weapons free. Brest, from the second salvo onwards, concentrate your own Barracudas on the enemy warship and the DropShips around it."
 
"Copy!" Brest yelled over the electromagnetic interference on radio, which Amber was causing by throwing bolts of artificial lightning at the closing DropShips. 
 
The Fox and the Aegis launched their own capital missiles almost at the same time, more than a dozen of them leaving trails behind as they tracked towards the approaching enemy fighters and DropShips. Half of them were intercepted, and a few missed, but a handful found their mark. A few enemy fighters fewer to deal with.
 
Carefully optimistic that their accuracy might be fine this time around, Swift had enough time to fire her Naval Lasers at the enemy frigate, before a swarm of black fighters smashed into the fleetwomen's own screen. Her attention was entirely on directing her fighters and DropShips, so she did not see if she scored any hits. Moments later she felt the first pinpricks of pain, the first losses of the battle. In the mad scramble for space superiority, aerospace fighters turned into fireballs or were blown apart entirely.
 
Tension ratcheted up when the enemy frigate's main weapons arrived into the mix. Slow at first, the missiles had been accelerating steadily. Without an atmosphere to slow them, they were very fast at this point. Too late did Swift realise what their targets were. "Watch out! Missile strike immediate!"
 
All three fleetmaidens winced as the salvo of missiles went home, and claimed more than a dozen of their fighters, along with one of Brest's DropShips.
 
"That's complete bullshit! How?!" The corvette was livid. She fired her NLs, and a salvo from her NACs, at the offending party. "Assholes." The girl kept cursing under her breath while she used her suite of smaller weapons to drive off several fighters. They had gotten through their screen and were trying to strafe her.
 
"Those damn missiles have proper guidance packages." Swift remarked. Her main guns had finished reloading, and she fired again as the distance to her main adversary shrunk further. "Unless intercepted, they are likely to hit."
 
A response to Swift's salvo came in and hit the cruiser almost head-on. Her entire hull rang with the deafening clang of metal on metal, the massive round barely stopped by her advanced armour. Almost as an afterthought, she noticed a bright light from the system's zenith jump-point. The enemy jumpship had left.
 
Rubbing at the dent in her armor plating bruise that had formed at her collarbone, the cruiser took stock of the battle. The dogfight raging around them was costly, but their screen of fighters and DropShips held. They were winning.
 
As if to punish the mere thought of optimism, the enemy Quixote-class chose that moment to launch another alpha strike.
 
"Heads up! Another volley inbound, nanodesu!" Amber instinctively placed herself between the approaching cloud of missiles and Swift.
 
"I see it." Brest's answer was immediate, and she too moved up.
 
Her new position gave Amber a clear shot at an enemy DropShip, and she let loose with her PPCs. The spheroid DropShip, which looked like a large orb with a maw and many teeth in it, got hit by a dozen bolts of artificial lightning. Its propulsion visibly failed, and its weapons stopped firing. Amber spared it a moment of attention more. "Those things remind me of an ancient videogame."
 
"I wish this were a game!" The Fox-class yelled back breathlessly, while she was busy fending off another fighter. This one had made it through, and launched a volley of LRMs at Brest. The corvette's anti-missile systems shot down part of it, but the rest of the guided weapons hit her in the back. "Son of a gun!"
 
Swift took their formation around in a wide arc to better utilize her main weapons. "Be prepared! Missile salvo about to reach us!" She fired her NACs again and tracked her ordinance. The grey-haired woman smiled tensely as she saw some of her rounds hit home, and maybe take out a turret on the Quixote?
 
Then there was a storm of missiles again. As expected, they hit fighters and DropShips. Swift's Leopard took a mortal hit and went silent, the pain of losing the DropShip like a stab to the woman.
It was quickly forgotten though. "Watch out! Most of them are aimed at us!"
 
The two corvettes saw it themselves, yet their screen had been weakened enough by the previous missile salvo, and prolonged battle, that a number went through. And found their targets.
 
Amber was barely able to destroy one, and get out of the way of another.
Brest was not so lucky. Her AMS also took out one, and she tried to evade the other by bending her entire frame in an arch. flipping herself around like a gymnast. It was not enough to escape the terminal guidance system on the Killer Whale.
 
The brunette screamed in pain when the armor-piercing missile hit her in the propulsion systems legs. The detonation knocked out her drives, and she continued on her trajectory, crippled.
 
"Damnation! Brest, come in!" Instinct warred with professionalism, as Swift wanted to pull up to Brest to protect the girl. The old soldier in her won out, and she made a decision. "Amber, we need to destroy that Quixote now, before it can reload its launchers." Swift changed course so she could use her broadsides effectively, fighter screen be damned.
 
"Charge?" The draconian's tone had been inflectionless, yet still soft, when the battle commenced. Now there was ice in her voice.
 
"Go for it. Take your Achilles with you, and send the rest of your fighters to protect Brest. I will do the same."
 
The girl needed not be told twice. Amber Lotus accelerated up and went at the enemy warship, while firing as quickly as her weapons reloaded.
 
"I'm fine! Just shaken!" Brest's tense voice came over the radio. The girl was gritting her teeth.
 
"Hang in there. Keep all your escorts around you." The Aegis ordered as her guns spoke again. She followed the salvo up with her capital lasers, and smiled in satisfaction as, what she knew to be a launchbay of missiles, went up in flames on the enemy warship.
 
It was then that the deathly pale woman changed course and accelerated, her eery, haunting eyes fixated on the stricken corvette.
 
Swift Justice realized after a moment what was happening. She had expected the Quixote to retreat. Most of the enemy fighters and DropShips were disabled or destroyed, after all. Instead, her adversary was going onto a course to intercept the disabled Brest.
 
"Oh no, you don't!" Amber Lotus did not need to be ordered. She was at optimal engagement range, and closing with the frigate still. Swatting aside one of the two remaining DropShips the enemy had left for escorts, the dark-haired girl blazed away at her friend's assailant.
 
The Aegis herself went past what was safe thrust for her. They had to take that thing out. Now.
 
The seconds ticked by. Swift launched missiles of her own. Amber landed a good hit with an NPPC. Swift tore several holes into the enemy warship with a salvo from her main guns. Amber destroyed the last DropShip around the Quixote.
 
It was not enough. The pale woman was damaged and trailing smoke, yet still launched two dozen capital missiles. And they were aimed at the Fox, who was still unable to maneuver.
 
"No, you...." Amber sped up even more and went dangerously close to the pale woman, unheeding of the weapons that were still firing at her. She intended to destroy as much of the dangerous ordinance as she could, before they got too fast for her to target. She managed to blow up a few of them, yet had to get away quickly when the pale woman swiped at her with the whips on her arm.
 
"It launched again! Brest, look out!" The Aegis felt helpless. She was too far away to do anything directly, reduced to steering her fighters and DropShips, hoping to intercept the missile salvo before it reached her young charge.
 
"I see it! I'll be ready!" Brest sounded distracted. The enemy's fighter- and DropShip contingent was almost wiped out, yet the remains did their worst to keep the corvette's screen busy.
 
With the enemy frigate much closer, the missiles reached Brest much quicker. Blessedly they were also slower, though.
 
The DropShips and fighters defending the crippled corvette performed admirably, and shot down many missiles. For a split second Swift thought her escort might be alright.
 
A moment later the three remaining guided weapons cleared the mad scramble of aerospace craft. They were mere seconds from impact.
 
Brest's eyes widened. A startled yell tore out of her throat, as she fired her Point Defense weapons out of reflex. The streams of lead from the Fox's AMS exploded one missile, the shrapnel of which seemed to damage another close to it. It stopped tracking the corvette and went wide.
 
It was not to be for the third one. Too close and too fast, it got by all defenses. Brest yelled again and tried to spin herself out of the way. As a result the missile hit her dorsally in the back, and the girl's yell turned into a scream of pain that echoed impossibly through space.
 
Swift Justice felt sick. Unable to help directly, she could only watch the cloud of debris that flew out of Brest's back with horror. It nearly turned her stomach. "Brest, what is your status?! Come in!"
 
There was no answer from the corvette, and she was not moving any more either.
 
The grey-haired woman grit her teeth and returned her attention to their only remaining adversary.
 
Heavily damaged, the Quixote was trailing smoke and venting atmosphere from several places, courtesy of Swift's earlier hits and Amber's relentless attacks.
 
"You will regret this." Ironically, without any aerospace assets, or weapons capable of defending herself from them, the Quixote was an easy target for missiles. And the Aegis felt spiteful enough to give the ghostly woman a taste of her own medicine.
 
With a yell the cruiser launched a dozen of her own missiles at the pale woman, and followed up with a salvo from her main guns.
 
In response, a beam of red light hit Swift in the leg and singed her uniform. It was a reminder that, despite its fate being sealed, the Quixote was not defeated yet.
 
After two more salvos, that saw Swift close the distance to the enemy warship, her missiles arrived. They were lighter-weight than those the enemy used. With most hitting home though, the effect was still good. Enough to knock out the enemy's propulsion.
 
As much as the Aegis wanted to keep pounding into their adversary until the woman was reduced to scrap, professionalism won out, and Swift gave the order to stand down. "That should do it. I think she has no more weapons left. Cease fire."
Several powerful bolts of artificial lightning hit the disabled frigate. Vaporized armor plating and pieces of hull were blasted off the dark vessel. Amber did not seem to be in a mood to listen.
 
The Aegis properly looked at the corvette then. What she saw unsettled even her.
 
Cast in shadow as the girl's front was, a result of facing away from the orange star, her features were lit up every time she fired her PPCs. The draconian was wearing a thunderous expression, all unfeeling wrath, as she threw lightning bolt after lightning bolt at her foe. The scene brought to mind ancient depictions of a greek god.
 
"Amber Lotus! Cease! Fire!" Swift yelled. This was no time for the girl to have a bout of insubordination.
 
The corvette started, drawn from her fixation, and snapped her gaze onto Swift. Belatedly, she stopped shooting.
 
"Load boarders onto your small craft. Start them as soon as you are ready. Take that frigate." Swift's tone was terse. Too many things had gone wrong, and not knowing if Brest was alive or not did not help matters.
 
Swift followed her own orders. She had pulled along their crippled enemy and launched several shuttles.
 
The eery woman had watched it all with seeming indifference, and her expression had not changed once during the battle. Only when the shuttles with boarders in them were about to deploy their infantry did she show emotion. Her face became a rictus of derision and hatred. A split second later she emitted a shrill, distorted scream of fury that chilled the fleetmaidens to the bone.
 
Something tickled at the edge of Swift's perception. After a moment the cruiser realized what was going on. "Amber! Get your small craft clear!"
 
The warning came barely in time. A surge of electromagnetic radiation emanated from the Quixote, and after a moment there was a blinding flash of light. When it dissipated the warship was gone.
 
Amber turned her perplexed gaze at Swift. "She jumped away. She jumped without a viable jump-point, and I'm pretty sure i could see into her K-F core through the holes in her hull! That's crazy, nanodesu!"
 
"Yes it is." Swift elected not to go into why someone would choose certain death over being captured. It brought up bad memories, and there was time for speculation later. The Aegis' only concern at that moment was her young escort.
 
Turning, the two warships made for their crippled companion, hoping Brest was still alive.
----
==Chapter Notes==
*; Author's Chapter Notes : This is what happens when I write a battle with even slightly more detail. It grew so much I had to break it into two chapters.
----
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
6