Chapter 41

43

Earth Alliance Heavy Cruiser Lexington
Near Eridani system
Earth Alliance Border.

"All hands be advised, hyperspace exit in ten minutes." A gently modulated electronic voice announced. "Ten minutes to destination."
It was the standard warning for the ships crew to prepare for the entry into normal space which usually meant standing ready at defence stations. So far Earth Force hadn't been able to find a way to scan through the hyperspace barrier with anything more than a tiny beam of Tachyons, which worked to send messages but was useless as a method of seeing if an enemy ship was waiting just outside the Jump gate. As a result it was standard practice for Earth Force ships to be prepared for any eventuality when they returned to normal space, even in safe areas.
This time however there was a little urgency to the crew not normally seen because this time they knew that there could be trouble waiting for them. When they arrived they would find themselves face to face with a Dilgar task force holding in the Earth controlled system centred on a Dreadnought with a full escort of cruisers and escorts. The base had given a number of thirty ships, many more than Earth Force had expected but in hindsight understandable. The Dilgar had been forced to travel through Narn space to reach this distant world and while the Narn were staunchly neutral they were also known to be not entirely trustworthy.
Never the less, the ships were here now and were patiently awaiting the arrival of the diplomatic team sent from Earth to handle this situation. The meeting was being kept extremely secret for now with no word of it mentioned to the people of the Alliance or their allies, at least not until the truth of this meeting was established. The initial transmission had simply asked for a meeting to discuss a treaty of non-aggression which had rather taken President Hauser by surprise. Director Durban of the EIA had informed him the Narn had a similar arrangement and it seemed the Dilgar were going to make an effort to buy Earth off with peace. Or at least a piece of paper.
In many ways a piece of paper was more deadly than a fleet of warships, if made immediately public it could lull the Senate into a false sense of security slashing the military budget and making Earth unable to defend itself based simply on a Dilgar promise. Hauser did not especially like the idea of that so made sure his negotiation team was the best he could assemble backed up by the EIA and as much covert intelligence as they could find. Even now the Director had his new ship heading to Krish to gather information that could be used to test the honesty of the Dilgar position. Until that mission was finished the orders were to keep the Dilgar talking.

"Still think this is a bad idea my friend?" The grey haired man wondered.
Ambassador Sir Richard Grenville was living in the wrong century. His clothing looked like that of a Victorian gentleman with waistcoat, fob watch and tall collared white shirt beneath a long black coat. In fact he bore more than a slight resemblance to an undertaker. His face however was dominated by a generously sized moustache and bushy eyebrows, both grey and both immaculately kept even in the zero gravity of the warship.
The Englishman had been one of humanity's first extraterrestrial representatives with a solid fifty years of experience in the diplomatic corps and a natural affinity for the fine art of negotiating. He had served as Earth's first true ambassador to Centauri Prime where his curious sense of dress had actually gone down very well and allowed him to fit in among visitors to the Royal Court. It was even stated that the new Emperor had shared a few jokes with him before Grenvilles time as Ambassador ended.
Under President Hauser's administration he had been appointed as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a post with great status and plenty of responsibility designed to set up human embassies on alien worlds and look after the various alien delegations on Earth, which were currently few and far between.
He was a natural choice for this sort of mission and his ability to speak flawless Centauri would give him a common language with the Dilgar representative heading their side of the talks. There were few who had the same level of understanding into alien minds as Grenville and if the Dilgar were trying something he'd be the first to know.

"I think anything involving Dilgar is a bad idea." his companion answered in a gentle accent originating from the American Midwest. "Gives me a chill just thinking about it."
Earth liked to send it's diplomats in pairs and tended to put people with different back grounds together. The idea was that the two different negotiators would stand a better chance of seeing any lies or evasion on the part of their opposite numbers and therefore keep Earth safe. In this case the President had hand picked one of the rising stars of the Diplomatic corps, a balding short man called David Sheridan.
Sheridan was a perfect diplomat because he was not what he first appeared, that silent and calm exterior hid a quick mind that had surprised many human and alien negotiators. The ineffectual and inoffensive demeanor Sheridan projected was in many ways his true personality, a gift from an idyllic child hood growing up amid the corn fields of the great plains basking in long and glorious summers. It had done a lot to shape his view of Earth and his desire to preserve it.
In contrast to Grenville he wore warm and earthy colours, simple browns and very dark reds styled into a plain and almost cheap looking suit, all serving to project this carefully orchestrated image. While his hair was fast vanishing he still had some red hued locks and kept them neatly trimmed and tidy. For all the galaxy knew he could have been a local Bank manager or store owner.
His record told the truth of course, Sheridan had been a successful aide in negotiations with the Centauri, Koulani and the African Block on Earth. More recently he'd led diplomatic missions to keep the peace with the mining guilds and Belt Alliance while also working with the Narn to resolve a handful of border disputes, including the important Peace Treaty with the Regime after initial violence after the First Contact. He had aided Grenville there and made a good team, now they were together again facing an even more dangerous opponent.

"The question is, what do they want?" Grenville mused. "Nobody negotiates for the benefit of others, just for their own interests. How does this serve the Dilgar interests?"
"They want to keep us out of their war." Sheridan answered. "Just like the Narn, they must consider us a threat to their plans."
"Which means they've studied us, assessed our military and available resources and come to the conclusion that we can hurt them." Grenville continued. "They know a good deal about us, I would wager they have also studied our history and elements of our current culture, probably language too so they may be able to understand us, though I doubt they'll show it."
"You think they're here to study us?" Sheridan asked.
"As one of their goals, yes." The Ambassador nodded. "Though I also think they genuinely want this treaty, they travelled a long way at great risk to attend this meeting. If they just wanted to study us they'd send a small expendable team in secret."
"Like the agent the EIA found in Earth Dome."
"Exactly. Probably best not to mention that, I'm sure our spooks have a plan to handle that internally."
Sheridan nodded in agreement. Their directive from Earth was to attend this negotiation and try to get a feel for what the Dilgar were really like. So far humanity's only contact with the species had been violent, on the one hand there was the Persephone, and on the other the Dilgar Agent on Earth trying to steal highly classified data. The Government had done a quick job covering that up, blaming disaffected terrorists for the destruction and keeping the alien connection secret.
Now there was a chance to meet a Dilgar and talk with them, and as far as Sheridan was concerned you could learn a lot more with some subtle questions than by any amount of observation or research. He was going to be keeping a very close watch on the expressions and body language of the Dilgar diplomats as Grenville started asking difficult questions. First and foremost was going to be the Persephone and the atrocities on Tirrith.

With a slight shudder the Lexington dropped out of the main jump gate and began the final stage of the journey.
"All hands, maintain condition two alert." A strong female voice ordered, that of the ships commander Vice Admiral Thornhill. She had commanded the Cruiser Squadron that at one time had included the Persephone and Sheridan could sense a hardness in her tone. She was clearly no friend to the Dilgar. "Prepare shuttle in Bay two for deployment, diplomatic team report to Bay two at your convenience."
"That's our ride." Sheridan began unbuckling himself from the seat he had been in for most of the trip, unlike most of his family he hated Space tracel. Grenville on the other hand wasn't quite ready to go yet. He moved to a communication panel and activated it.
"Admiral, this is Ambassador Grenville."
After a few seconds there came a response. "Mr Ambassador, is there a problem?"
"No Admiral, I was hoping you could show us the feed from the visual sensors. I'd quite like to see the Dilgar ships as we approach."
"As you wish." Thornhill replied, and a few moments later the large screen in their lounge blinked to life.
"Why do you need to see their ships?" Sheridan wondered. "We saw them in the intelligence briefing."
"Just curiousity." Grenville shrugged. "And perhaps to put me in the right frame of mind, these are a militant people, aggressive but subtle. We're going to have to tread carefully with these people. Let's hope they've sent a Moron to negotiate with us."

The Eridani outpost was in two parts, on the surface was a fairly small and largely unimportant scientific research facility doing climate experiments and in orbit was the more impressive trading post and military garrison. It was a standard Orion class station with a habitation ring spinning steadily around the central zero gravity core and docking bay. It was well armed with guns and missile batteries and a healthy sensor suite, not to mention thicker armour than most battleships. It grew steadily larger as the cruiser approached, a flight of Tiger class Starfuries escorting them in. Not, Sheridan noted, the latest Nova class Furies.
Earth was playing a careful game with the Dilgar making sure to hide evidence of it's true strength. The model Starfuries were by all accounts startlingly good fighters and a major ace in the hole the Alliance could count on, right along side the similarly named Dreadnoughts. Earth Force knew the Dilgar would be using this as a grand opportunity to gather hard sensor data on Human military units and their capabilities, as well as numbers and formations so Admiral Hamato who commanded this sector was doing his best to keep the potential enemy guessing.
But at the same time Hamato was aware of the potential danger this represented Not only did the military desire to hide it's technology but they also didn't want to show exactly how many ships they had, deciding to send just Admiral Thornhill to meet the Dilgar fleet. In addition to the base Hamato had deployed just five cruisers to hold station and face the Dilgar fleet of thirty, and even considering the strength of the base it would be a short fight if hostilities erupted. There were precautions of course, the sector Admiral had deployed two full Divisions in hyperspace riding close to the system beacon ready to enter at the first sign of trouble, Twenty Dreadnoughts lead by the Hannibal, his personal flagship with a full escort wing of about fifty smaller ships.
It was a gamble, but hopefully the base would hold long enough for the fleet to jump in to the rescue.

Carefully the Lexington moved into position and came to a relative stop on the nearside of the station, with the Dilgar fleet arrayed on the far side. Using the Lexington was also part of Admiral Hamato's ploy, she had previously rescued the survivors of the Persephone incident and was already known to the Dilgar. By sending just heavy cruisers he was again denying the Dilgar an opportunity to investigate any of the unfamiliar Earth Force warships.
Moments later the shuttle departed from its bay just forward of the Lexington's lower conning tower and made it's journey to the main docking bay at Eridani Station, a squadron of fighters escorting it under the guns of the base and task force. The Dilgar however made no move and simply waited until the shuttle was cleared through the dock before beginning their own preparations.
With simple efficiency the Earth shuttle was locked away and the bay prepared to receive the Dilgar delegation, Grenville and Sheridan making their way out to the gravity positive sections of the station.
"Gentlemen." They were met in customs by an officer in full dress uniform. "My name is Commander Drezler, welcome to Eridani sector."
"Thank you Commander." Grenville answered. "Is the room set up as I asked?"
"Yes sir, shall we inform the Dilgar we are ready to begin?"
"Please do." The Ambassador nodded.
"Is the escort ready?" Sheridan then joined in. "You found the unit I asked for?"
"We did sir." The Commander flickered a smile. "Maybe the Dilgar will remember them?"
"Make sure the cameras catch their faces as they arrive." Sheridan nodded. "I want to see if there is a reaction, give us a little insight into their character."
"Also your experts are waiting, two EIA agents from Earth."
"Field agents?" Sheridan wondered.
"No sir, technical." Drezler answered. "Agents Clark and O'Leary, they're young but supposed to be the foremost experts on the Dilgar. They even speak enough of the language between them to translate."
"Negotiations will be in Centauri." Grenville said. "But keep them listening in on the security monitors, if they say anything to each other they can hopefully catch it."
"Understood sir."
"Well then." Grenville rubbed his hands together and grinned at Sheridan. "Let's see what we are up against. Clear them to land Commander and we'll start this little game."

Krish Star system
Dilgar occupied.

Jors did not take his eyes off the proximity sensors for the twelve full minutes it took for the pair of Thorun Dartfighters to leisurely cruise in and out of sensor range. Beside him the rest of the Space Race crew remained equally tense and motionless as if by not moving in their chairs they could avoid drawing the attention of the military craft passing by on standard patrol. At one point they had come close enough to see out of the forward bridge windows, green trident shaped predators weaving in and out of the massive flocks of harmless freighters now trapped in this conquered system.
"I think they're leaving." Toby whispered completely unnecessarily.
"Wait until we're sure." Paul Calendar stated. "Give it another few minutes after they make it out of range."
The two fighters left the small computer generated circle that represented their predicted sensor range and put the Race back in the dark as far as the Dilgar were concerned. Paul however was not about to take any chances and he waited until the fighters were another five minutes away before giving the go ahead for the ship to continue its monitoring operation.
"Estimate an hour and a half until they head back into this sector." Jenny reported from her station to the right of the small bridge. "Until then we should be free and clear."
"I've heard that before." Jors muttered as he finally brought his attention back to the flight controls. The system had been on cold standby while the Dilgar were conducting their patrol to avoid drawing attention, and now very carefully he brought the reactor up to optimal power.
"Put us back on course, slow and steady." Paul ordered. "Loop around the planet, get some readings and rendezvous with the Delphi on the far side of the fifth planet. Nice easy job."
"As long as we don't get caught." Toby commented. "Then it's going to just get ugly."
"Nothing new for us." Paul answered. "Jors, lets get this done."

The Space Race had arrived a few hours earlier through a jump point opened behind a particularly large asteroid which would hopefully mask their arrival from Dilgar sensors. There had been no increase in communication among the Dilgar ships and no fighter units vectored in to check out the area so Paul had made the decision to proceed, the EIA cruiser Delphi returned to hyperspace and made the quick journey out to the rendezvous point further out in the Krish home system, there it would wait until the Race arrived and open a fresh jump point through which both ships would retreat and take home a bundle of vital intelligence. At least in theory.
The key to the mission was using the Space Race to get close enough to Krish for it's newly fitted sensor pods to get some solid readings from the surface and if possible from the naval forces holding station between the world and the local jump gate. Krish space was literally packed with cargo ships, liners and freighters of every description from all across the League, ships that had been chartered to evacuate refugees from this planet but had not made it to the gate in time. Only a fraction of the refugee fleet had escaped, a few thousand people at most before the Dilgar invaded ahead of schedule and nailed the doorway shut.
The Race would mingle with these trapped freighters and pretend to be one of them, it's external appearance was battered enough to make it look like it'd been plying the routes for years and was a harmless tramp ship, which a few months ago would have been quite true, however that camouflage now concealed a potent little package of anti fighter and even a few anti ship weapons. It's four cargo pods had been replaced by two advanced sensor pods on loan from the EIA and a couple of Earth Force Q-Ship weapons pods packed with a nasty plasma cannon and a dozen missiles each. The pods looked like regular cargo containers and a casual scan would show them as simply empty space, but even so Paul wanted to make very sure he didn't cross paths with a Dilgar patrol. Not with their luck.

"Course set." Jors announced. "Here we go."
He gave the ship a brief nudge form the engines and then let inertia do the rest. Running the engines constantly would probably draw some attention which was the last thing they wanted so they would simply coast and use Krish's gravity to curl them around the planet and put them on course for the rendezvous. With so many ships in the area Paul was hoping they would go completely unnoticed and not get shot to pieces.
"No activity." Toby checked the ship's standard sensors, now upgraded to military grade. "I don't think the Dilgar spotted us. Or they don't care."
"Most of the freighters are trying to get away from the planet." Jenny said. "Slipping past the Dilgar patrols and heading for the outer edges of the system to hide. If I was a Dilgar officer and I saw a ship heading the other way I'd be pretty suspicious."
"How long until we reach the planet?"
"About an hour." Jors said. "We'll pick up some speed with a little gravity slingshot as we flyby, then make it out of Dilgar sensor range less than half an hour later. We should be out of here in just under three hours if we play it right."
"And just under three hundred pieces if we don't." Toby reminded them.
"Well you never know." Paul smiled. "Maybe the Dilgar will welcome us back as old friends."
"Yeah, with open gun ports." Jenny chuckled.
"Just keep us nice and steady." Paul told Jors. "No sudden movements, just fly casual."
"Fly casual." Jors scoffed. "Where have I heard that before?"
Slowly and silently the Space Race slipped through the Dilgar lines and travelled closer and closer to the planet itself.

Eridani Station

Sha'dur was isolated enough inside the cocoon of the diplomatic shuttle but he still had an uneasy feeling like he was being watched. In fact he supposed he was, with the eyes of the Dilgar senior leadership firmly focused on the success of this mission, and in all likelihood the equivalent members of the Earth Alliance doing the same.
He knew his sister would have killed to be here face to face with members of the human leadership, and in all likelihood would one day kill Len'char for taking her place here, but the Supreme Warmaster had been adamant Jha'dur was needed elsewhere and was currently moving to the Cascan border. She had gathered her fleet once more, resupplied, and was now just a couple of days away from all out war again, one more front to fight on, one more empire to break, one more step on the path to salvation.
As soon as she established a foot hold and began to engage the main Cascor fleets Sha'dur and his fleet would move to engage the Ipsha, a reasonably advanced race just beyond Cascor space at the limits of the League worlds. If all went as scheduled this conference would end quickly and allow him to lead the flee tin person rather than commanding from afar, though he did trust his aide War Captain Evenil to fight skilfully in his place.
He had come a long way in a short time, from a rash officer to a genuinely skilled Warmaster who was fast earning respect within the Imperium. He had received invaluable instruction from jha'dur on how to fight, and from Gar'shan on why to fight which was if anything more important to him than plain sills and tactics. He had driven the Brakiri to ruin but not wasted his ships in trying to secure a phyrric victory, he had learned to control his emotions and fight coldly, and it had put him at about the rank of third most effective soldier in the entire Imperium, behind Dar'sen on the Drazi front and of course at the top Jha'dur herself.
Now he was being trusted with a place on this diplomatic mission, something he had no true experience in. Len'char was leading the delegation and while Sha'dur was technically there to assist him in reality Sha'dur was there to watch Len'char and report directly to the Supreme Warmaster. It was no secret the two leaders were opposed to each other and it had divided the government, a potential dangerous situation in wartime. No rift had yet opened, and by keeping a close watch on Len'char hopefully those loyal to Gar'shan could prevent a disaster before it happened.

The shuttle docked carefully in the stations central bay before following a series of lifts and conveyors out of the zero gravity area and into a positive gravity private docking bay in the stations ring. The ship rumbled to a stop and the bay sealed and pressurized around them.
"You have your papers Warmaster Sha'dur?" Len'char asked with a hint of disdain. There was no doubt the intelligence head was also fully aware as to why he had been assigned a second on this mission.
"Ready when you are Warmaster."
Len'char was the senior officer of the two having held the rank longer, indeed he was senior to Jha'dur too but wisely had never tried to order her to do something on his authority alone. Sha'dur had to suppress a smile when he imagined his sisters likely reaction to such an event.
"I shall negotiate." Len'char continued. "You will provide facts and data when asked by me, otherwise you will remain silent."
"As you wish." Sha'dur had no intention of playing lackey to Len'char, especially as his sister had made sure Sha'dur spoke passable English. One more reason to come along, but no need to tell Len'char all the details.
"These humans are a new race, newer even than us, I don't expect any problems but even so do not give anything away." The lecture continued. "Our orders are to produce a non aggression treaty, even if these humans are no threat our great leader has spoken, so we obey or are executed."
"Indeed we do." Sha'dur smiled thinly. "A sad end to your career Warmaster."
Len'char shot him a glance, but did not press that point. "Gar'shan has executed a great many people. He is not the hero you believe. He is as power hungry as any of us."
"Perhaps." Sha'dur replied. "But he has the wisdom to use what he has gained wisely, his Grand Strategy in this war is flawless."
"It is reckless, we are spread too thin."
"We have the initiative, and offense is the best defence."
"Now that is Jha'dur talking." Len'char scoffed. "Always ready to attack somebody new."
"No." Sha'dur said calmly. "She fights when she knows she can win, which is why she supports our treaties with the Narn and now Earth. She knows we cannot fight larger powers and the League, she knows there is a time to fight and a time to prepare."
"We will see what she knows." Len'char answered darkly. "But for now we have our duty, prepare to leave."

The shuttle was officially carrying four passengers, consisting of pilot, copilot and the two Warmasters. In truth it was carrying five, unknown to everyone except Sha'dur the shuttle had an extra guest, one of Jha'dur's Spectres. His job was to act as insurance, partly in case the humans tried anything, which Jha'dur doubted, but mostly to protect against an act of treachery from Len'char or one of his cronies.
The Spectre was called Arn'dal and was rated second only to Dar'ro in Jha'dur's estimation. With Dar'ro on long term assignment to Earth Arn'dal had become her personal bodyguard and most trusted enforcer, the only one she could trust to ensure her brothers safety. Arn'dal was larger than Dar'ro had been and did not suffer from baldness like his colleague, if anything he was the perfect specimen of Dilgar adulthood, tall, broad and strong with an unusually quick wit. While Dar'ro was faster and more determined Arn'dal had a far more interesting record, and a kill list unmatched by anyone without resorting to aerial bombardment. He had a tendancy to create a lot of collateral damage during missions which had kept him from Earth but made him the ideal bodyguard. Nothing ever got past him.
They left the pilots in the ship and headed to the doorway leading to the habitable sections, behind them Arn'dal quietly followed undetectable under the shroud of his stealth suit. So far there had been no system that could break through the capabilities of these suits, and while this was a standard model which could only be truly effective when simulating invisibility, it's workings remained an extraordinary secret guarded by Jha'dur's inner circle at Research and Development command.
The airlock door whined and opened revealing a line of soldiers standing flush to the wall beyond and a tall and powerful looking officer a few yards ahead waiting to greet them.
Each of the soldiers was wearing dress uniform, a grey long cut uniform jacket with black trim and some gold braid, clearly the humans shared the Dilgar appreciation for finery. The officer had dark skin and a bald head, Sha'dur noted a few different skin colours among the soldiers but noted no particular pattern regarding their ranks, judging that human soldiers were not segregated by class or caste. That had to mean they were given rank based on merit, the pattern was too random to suggest family or national prejudices.

He followed Len'char through the doorway, noting that the soldiers forming the honour guard were well armed with energy rifles and combat knives at their belts, perhaps a sign that human soldiers had no concerns about engaging in face to face combat? Sha'dur could certainly respect that, and he noticed not one of the men or women even flicked an eye his direction. They remained utterly under control waiting for their officer to speak.
It was then Sha'dur was taken completely by surprise by a deep throaty growl, something he totally did not expect from humans. Narns yes, but not humans. It took several seconds for him to see it wasn't a human but some four legged furry creature which looked deceptively powerful despite its lack of height. It also had plenty of teeth and was straining against a lead held by another black skinned soldier.
Sha'dur grabbed the word 'Dog' from somewhere in his memory and gave it some distance. But the animal was not snarling at him, it was snarling at something behind him, and there was only one possible explanation. It knew Arn'dal was there. Sha'dur didn't have time to figure out how it knew, but clearly it did and Arn'dal's discovery would not only jeopardise the mission but would compromise his own security in case Len'char did have designs on his life.
With a subtle hand gesture he motioned for Arn'dal to fall back and return to the shuttle. No doubt the Spectre was not happy about it but he obeyed instantly, and the Dog beside him fell silent.
If the dark human officer knew what had happened he did not display it.
"Welcome to Eridani, My Name is Captain Richard Franklin, Earth Force." He announced in Centauri.
"We thank you for receiving us. I am Warmaster Len'char, this is Warmaster Sha'dur."
"If you would care to follow me I'll escort you to the meeting room." He turned to a man beside him. "Sergeant Garibaldi?"
"Sir." The man answered.
"See that Delilah gets a steak."
"Yes sir." He said, quickly hiding a grin. Sha'dur did not know what that meant, but he did now these humans had something to be pleased about, and while he couldn't prove it he knew it had to do with Arn'dal's discovery by that beast.
They were led further through the station, and Sha'dur resolved himself to learn all he could. These humans were going to be trouble.

Krish.

"Uh oh." Toby said ominously.
"Don't do that!" Paul snapped. "Never, ever, ever say that on this ship because you just know what happens next!"
"Fire, explosions, us running for our lives." Jors elaborated. "Never good."
"Sorry." Toby said absently. "I just meant, well, Uh oh, we got problems."
"He's right." Jenny confirmed reading the data from the far better sensor pods currently fitted to the Space Race. "We just had some major hyperspace activity."
"How major?" Paul asked.
"About the entire Dilgar navy." Toby groaned.
"Make that a thousand ships." Jenny said more precisely. "At least a third of those are heavy warships of cruiser size or above, based on markings I'd say it was First Strike Fleet."
Paul grew a little sick at the report. "Warmaster Jha'dur."
"Same ships from Abbai space and Tirrith." Jors said with palpable bitterness. "About as mean as they come."
"Think they remember us?" Toby wondered.
"From what I've read on Jha'dur, oh yeah." Jenny confirmed. "She's the sort who holds grudges."
"I hate Dilgar." All three male crewmembers said in perfect unison.
"I recommend we stay on course." Jenny said calmly. "If we start firing engines it's going to get us noticed. The fleet is holding station near the gate, we won't be travelling anywhere near it."
"So we just float past them and hope they don't spot us?" Toby grunted. "Why don't we call the Delphi? Get us out of here quick."
"Because it'll have to get here through hyperspace first." Paul answered. "And it's at least five minutes to recharge the jump engines, and It won't take the Dilgar five minutes to see it, shoot it, and then shoot us too." He shook his head. "We hold course, finish the mission."
"You really want that money?" Jenny half joked.
But did not laugh back. "We took a job, and we owe it to our employers to get it done. We owe a lot of people to get this done."
Paul didn't say any more, but it was quite obvious what he meant. The Dilgar had done a lot of damage, to the ship, to the crew, to the universe at large. Paul wanted to do something about that, it wasn't about the money anymore, it was something else. Paul would say justice, which would be a first for him, but Jenny was minded to call it something darker.
"Toby, watch the Dilgar." He ordered. "Jenny, get ready to scan the planet, we're coming up in a few minutes."
"Angels and Ministers of Grace defend us." Jors muttered, then put his hand on the emergency engine start and did not move it away again, just in case.

Dreadnought Deathwalker

It was with satisfaction Jha'dur surveyed the system, her brother had taken it quickly and cleanly with no losses to his fleet and no damage to the planet. At least not at first. He had let his ships work out some aggression on the vast numbers of freighters clogging the system and there was a lot of debris near the gate where some vessels had tried a breakout. She had plenty of new ships in her fleet to replace war losses that had yet to see combat, a little live fire practice would probably come in useful.
Krish had been a prospective home for the Dilgar species, but ultimately they had chosen the world Jha'dur had taken, Mitoc. The Supreme Warmaster and the council had confirmed it mere days ago and already the first construction teams were there setting up an orbital defence grid and the first houses for the engineers and workers from Omelos.
The population had been left alone for now, but that was going to change. Jha'dur had set up a system of work camps that would soon be built to turn the native Mitoc into a huge source of slave labour. Hopefully it ould speed up the process of altering their infrastructure for Dilgar needs, and at the same time remove most of the population as the died of overworking and brutality.
Jha'dur had complemented herself on the elegance of the plan.
It had meant that krish was now surplus to requirements. While the idea of two habitable planets had suggested they could save twice as many of Omelos' population Jha'dur had found it would make no difference. They had enough ships to evacuate around two billion billion people in the estimated three years until the star exploded, and it was better to put them together on one world rather than split them and thereby split the defences being planned for them.
Krish was no threat, but nor was it a benefit. Sha'dur had however found some use for it, the same use he had found for the refugee freighters. Target practice. Once word came through Mitoc was their new home there was no need to keep the world intact, so Sha'dur had systematically destroyed every population centre in less than two days, efficient even by Jha'dur's standards. She smiled a little in approval.

But already the war had moved on, the Imperium still needed to secure territory to safeguard it's new home and make sure the League was in no condition to fight back once the war ended. It wasn't about finding a home anymore, which meant the Dilgar no longer had to restrain themselves when it came to planetary assaults.
It amused Jha'dur slightly, with at least five billion casualties in this war already it was hard to accept the Dilgar had been pulling their punches, but her fleets had been very careful with their weapons of mass destruction in the event they didn't find a better world and had to evict an established League race like the Abbai or Hyach, or even the Brakiri.
Now she could finally use her weapons to their full potential, and she had been stockpiling an assortment of biological agents for exactly this purpose. The League thought they had seen the worst of the Dilgar, they hadn't seen anything yet.
The Cascor would be the first, then the Ipsha a week or so afterwards. Again the Dilgar would be advancing on two fronts engaging two races at a time. It had worked against the Hyach and Brakiri, the superpowers of the League, against the cascor and Ipsha it was going to be far easier.
That did not mean it wouldn't take some effort, but there was no doubt as to the outcome. The Cascor were at least competent warriors and according to scout reports they were fully mobilised and ready for war, unlike most League races they knew the Dilgar were coming and had prepared a warm reception.
Jha'dur valued the element of surprise and she deeply enjoyed slaying her enemies while they fumbled around trying to react to her tactics, but after the Hyach campaign she had found herself missing something, some sense of fulfilment after the battle. It was too easy, and while she knew no warior should ever complain of a victory being easy she found that she was. Jha'dur sought a challenge, an enemy who was ready to fight, and it looked like the Cascor fit the bill.
She had formulated a plan to try and take the greatest Cascor strength and turn it into their greatest weakness. The fleet was gathered stronger than ever and the deadline was just days away. She would be back at war, and she found herself looking forward to it. She had never once felt fear in battle, just confidence.
She admitted she had felt worry in battle before, usually involving someone she cared about taking a risk or doing something stupid, but she had never feared for herself or considered death. If it came, it came and she wouldn't hide from it, but she firmly believed there wasn't a ship or Captain in the League skilled enough to destroy her flagship. She didn't consider it arrogance, just a sure and certain fact.

"System report Captain." She asked quietly. "Anything of interest?"
"No Warmaster." An'jash ran through the sensor readings. "No military presence, just freighters and liners. Scans show multiple life signs."
Jha'dur looked at the tactical screen, it showed the freighters were mainly grouped together and tended to be moving away from the Dilgar at a painfully slow rate. Without jump engines and with the gate under guard they were trapped, she guessed no more than a month before the passengers starved to death. Longer if they resorted to cannibalism. She felt a smile twitching at her lips, that would actually make an extremely fascinating experiment, a test of the instinct to survive in this race.
"Order the ninth and tenth battlegroups to engage the nearest cluster of freighters, they need some gunnery practice."
"Yes Warmaster."
"Leave the other freighters intact, and I want them monitored by the guard ships. I'll provide more instruction for them in this matter before we leave."
"It will be done Warmaster."
She prepared to leave the bridge and oversee the final replacements to bring her force to full strength when she spotted something on the sensors, a tiny, lone reading near the planet. It hadn't raised any suspicious with the crew or the sensor officers, but it bothered her. She watched it for a while as it moved closer to the planet.
"Captain, what ship is that, there?"
An'jash brought up the data. "Light Freighter, generic design."
Jha'dur looked at the information carefully, the mass and dimension data seemed basic enough, but the hull material wasn't any League produced alloy. "Can you get a visual from a nearer ship?"
Her suspicion had been raised by the ship heading toward the planet, not away like all the rest, and when they finally picked up a visual feed from a nearby frigate she instantly recognized the design. So did An'jash.
"The Tirrith freighter!" she gasped. "Humans!"
"Correct." Jha'dur confirmed calmly. "Launch a fighter squadron to disable it."
"At once Warmaster."
"Then find Squadron Leader Ari'shan, I have a job for him."

Eridani Station.

"Gentlemen, I am Secretary of Foreign Affairs Sir Richard Grenville, this is my Second Mr David Sheridan."
"I am Warmaster Len'schar of the Dilgar Imperium, and this is Warmaster Sha'dur, my second."
The bowed slightly to one another before Grenville gestured at the seats around the table. "Shall we sit down gentlemen?"
"Thankyou Ambassador." Len'char nodded. "I do look forward to beginning these talks."
"As do we all Warmaster." Grenville answered carefully. "Can I offer you any food or drink?"
"That is not necessary, thank you." Len'char took his seat, Sha'dur quietly following suit.
The conference chamber was rather Spartan in nature as befitted such an out of the way outpost with plain metal walls with very little decoration, just one picture of a city skyline taken on either Earth itself or one of the more developed human colonies. Sha'dur paid it a good deal of attention as Len'char fiddled with his notes, appreciating the simple linear designs of the city and the ordered arrangement of the buildings. He could also appreciate a little of the artistry in the way the image itself had been captured in the last light of the sun.
"I'd like to start," Len'char spoke in accented Centauri but clear enough for the room to understand. "By bringing greetings from the Emperor and government. We humbly thank your people for this audience."
"Thank you Warmaster." Grenville answered politely. "I'm sure these talks will be very enlightening for all concerned."
Grenville had learned his language skills from the Centauri themselves and spoke with a cut and flawless accent perfected in and around the Royal court where slang words were frowned upon. The formal and rigid way he spoke matched the way he dressed which Sheridan could appreciate. Grenville wasn't typical of all humanity, nobody was, but he did project a very carefully cultivated image of himself to keep the alien races guessing about how representative he was of the species.
"I am a man who likes to get things done quickly and plainly." Len'char began, and Sha'dur had to exert a good deal of will not to scoff at the idea. "So I will say this simply. The Dilgar Imperium wishes to sign a non aggression treaty with the Earth Alliance."
Grenville nodded. "So if I may be equally blunt, why?"
"Because we do not want a war with your people, my government believes you are a strong and honourable race and we should co-exist as friends, perhaps one day allies."
Len'char did not believe the Dilgar needed friends or allies, just slaves and dead enemies. However even he had to admit that Gar'shan's wisdom in dealing with larger alien races one at a time was better than just attacking with no assurances.
"Our people are very widely separated." Grenville said. "Until recently we had very no dealings with each other."
"Correct, but as we conduct peacekeeping operations we find we are growing closer and closer to your borders."
"Peacekeeping?" Grenville said. "Do you mean your invasion of sovereign worlds?"
"Worlds that have sponsored piracy against the Imperium for many years, and who were threatening to invade us."
"They kept that plan quiet." Grenville said, feigning surprise. "We have extensive trade relations with the Brakiri, can't say we ever noticed anything. Well, had trade relations, now we can't seem to get close."
"The blockade is for everyones safety." Len'char said calmly. "To keep the terrorist Brakiri imprisoned until we can arrest them. When it is done the world will be freed under a legal government."
"A Dilgar government?"
"A legal government." Len'char repeated.
"Like the other worlds you have taken?"
"Exactly."

Grenville nodded over to Sheridan and the balding man produced some documents and laid them on the table.
"These are reports we intercepted from across the League." Sheridan stated. "They contain some vivid reports of war crimes and atrocities committed by your people. The scale is simply shocking."
"Propaganda." Len'char dismissed. "The Dilgar military is a professional force, not a gang of thugs."
"You deny these events took place?"
"Completely."
Sha'dur kept a straight face, Len'char was being led into a trap, but for some very obvious reasons he didn't really care. He was just sad Jha'dur was going to miss it.
"We'll come back to that later." Sheridan said patiently. "But why don't we discuss a little about the last time our people met."
He dropped a picture in front of Len.char. Sha'dur leaned over a little and recognized the design as a human war cruiser. No doubt the ship his sister at destroyed nearly half a year earlier.
"The Persephone." Sheridan clarified. "Lost on patrol at Tirrith in December last year."
"A regrettable accident." Len'char sighed. "One for which we have apologised and offered reparations for."
"Money does not make up for the deaths of a crew without provocation." Sheridan said flatly. "We recovered the data recorder from the Persephone and know exactly what happened. Your ships fired first."
"We believed your cruiser was an enemy vessel." Len'char replied.
"She was broadcasting her neutrality on all frequencies."
"In a language we did not understand."
"In interlac Mr Warmaster." Sheridan stated curtly. "She was attempting to prevent the destruction of thousands of refugees."
"The enemy fleet contained numerous terrorists, criminals and pirates who had commited crimes against the Dilgar." Len'char said firmly. "We were conducting war time operations."
"Criminals?" Sheridan shook his head. "Women and Children who's only mistake was trying to get out from under the guns of your fleet."
"We were fighting a war, and your ship got in the way!"
"It shouldn't have had to, no civilized fleet fires on refugees."
"If your Captain wasn't skilled enough to…."
"The incident," Sha'dur cut in, interrupting Len'char before he said something really stupid. "Was regrettable, and we Dilgar take full responsibility. The officer commanding the vanguard forces was overzealous and not representative of the Dilgar fleet. If he had survived the battle he would have been court martialled."
Len'char shot him a look that would melt steel, but remained silent.
"And what about afterwards, the Persephone survived those first ships."Sheridan stated
"When the main force arrived they saw the Vanguard destroyed and your ship in their midst, they reacted as any military leader would." Sha'dur sighed. "With more information I am sure the fleet commander would have acted differently."

"The fleet commander." Grenville mused. "A Warmaster Jha'dur, correct?"
"Correct." Sh'dur answered. "May I ask how you know?"
"Your own news service." Grenville told the half truth. "She seems to be quiet popular, any relation?"
"My sister." Sha'dur confirmed. "Twin in fact, about thirty seconds older."
Len'char made a disgruntled noise which was pointedly ignored.
"There is still the point that the Persephone was lost in an unprovoked incident." Sheridan continued.
"All I can say is that we regret it." Sha'dur said contritely. "And we hope that nothing like that happens again, this treaty will ensure that."
In truth the Persephone was no accident, while her actual destruction hadn't been planned the events around it had been part of Dilgar foreign policy. A few years earlier when the Dilgar had been planning this war they had performed a similar ploy on the Narns, destroying one of their cruisers in a confused battle with Raiders involving ships from four separate groups. Newly appointed Supreme Warmaster Gar'shan had apologised profusely, offered the Narn a hefty compensation package and then a treaty to ensure it never happened again.
That treaty had ensured the Narn would stay neutral in this war, and doomed the League to their fiery death. There were standing orders to do the same to any Centauri ship that stumbled into the battle field so a similar ploy could be enacted, and they even had orders to shoot any of the fabled Minbari ships they came across. Though Jha'dur was arguing vehemently that while Narn and Centauri reactions were predictable not enough was known about the Minbari to risk such a thing.
"How is your sister?" Grenville suddenly asked.
"Ambassador?"
"Your sister, she is well?"
"Yes." He said, a little mystified. "She is well, thank you."
"But she didn't want to attend this meeting and talk about the Persephone?"
"I'm afraid she has other duties." Sha'dur replied. "But I do know she regrets the loss of the ship and considers its crew among the finest crews she has yet seen."
Ironically he was telling the truth, Jha'dur had found respect for that crew and it had set a seed of doubt in her mind when it came to humanity. If all humans fought that well she was in no mood to antagonise them. Gar'shan had agreed and pushed for this treaty ahead of schedule.
"My government is considering whether or not to indict her on criminal charges for the incident." Sheridan noted gravely.
"As I mentioned, the responsibility rested with the leader of the Vanguard fleet, he was not under orders from above." Sha'dur was lying of course, the squadron commander had been told to destroy everything in the system regardless of its origin.
"Our compensation offer was most generous, and it still stands." Len'char added, now calmed down. "We do regret this incident occurred, and wish to avoid a repeat in the future."

Grenville nodded slowly. "Well then, I think we have something in common. I suggest a short break, then we can begin discussing this in greater detail."
"As you wish Ambassador." Len'char said, trying not to look at his second, who just found it amusing.
"You have quarters set up immediately adjacent, we will meet again in fifteen minutes." Grenville stood. "After you, gentlemen."
The group went it's separate ways, with the Dilgar in one room and the two humans in another, waiting for them inside were the base commander and the two EIA agents dispatched to help the negotiators.
"Anything to report gentlemen?" Grenville asked the two young men.
"Not a whole lot sir." Agent Clark replied. Although he wasn't in favour with EIA Director Durban after metaphorically nailing his colours to Secretary Brogan's mast who was a political rival to Durban and many others, Clark still possessed a good deal of knowledge regarding the Dilgar and was still an important part of the EIA.
However as more and more was learned and a greater priority was placed on this alien race his unique position was shifting and the EIA was creating more Dilgar experts, foremost among them was Francis O'Leary, Durban's little protégé. Clark was feeling somewhat resentful towards the young man, he knew a replacement when he saw one, but Clark knew his future lay with Brogan and the government he was going to create during the next term, and Clark appreciated the long term rewards due to come his way. This negotiation was of interest to the President and Director Durban, but through Clark it would also come to Brogan, just like the fate of the Spectre on Earth had.
"We've identified Sha'dur as one of the progressives, a small group in the Dilgar who favour a more direct way of governing and warfare. Most consider them radicals but they have a lot of influence at the top." The second man reported. Francis was still extremely shaken from his recent experience but Durban believed the best way to handle the emotions was to keep busy and then relax when he had some perspective. "From what we can glean from Dilgar information broadcasts and communication intercepts the leader, Len'char, is a conservative and opposed to the new ideas. These two don't get on, and if you examine their facial expressions you can see Sha'dur enjoying his comrades discomfort."
"Great bunch." Grenville huffed. "Even at war they don't get on with each other."
"We should try and exploit this," Mused Sheridan. "Raise point's they'll disagree on. If we get them mad with each other something useful might slip through."
"Give them ten minutes." Grenville said. "Let them go over their performance and get even more bitter about it, then we'll continue. We want them divided when we drop the big questions."
"Which questions?" Clark asked.
"Their future intentions for this part of space and the Earth Alliance." Sheridan asked. "Hopefully by the time we ask they'll be too divided to lie convincingly."
"Also my superiors should have evidence of Dilgar atrocities by then." Francis added. "Something else to trip them up on."
"Good." Grenville rubbed his hands together with a grin. "Anyone for tea?"

Krish System

Paul's eyes were locked firmly on the digital clock counting down the seconds until they were in position, the red bars flashing and twisting around their linear shapes as the forward windows filled with the still breathtaking blue and white world.
"What do we know about the Krish?" Toby asked. "I mean are they good guys?"
"I don't know." Jors shrugged. "Never really met one. Guess I never will now."
"You still might." Jenny said in correction.
"No we won't." Paul said flatly. "The Dilgar own this place, it's a death sentence."
"These people were part of the League." Observed Toby. "By now the League should be reacting, preparing to counter attack and liberate these places?"
"They can't even save themselves, they don't stand a chance actually counter attacking the Dilgar." Paul shook his head. "The League had turned into a joke, the Dilgar were the punch line."
Jenny had never seen Paul like this, his every word and move done with such bitterness. He was blaming the League for it's failure to stand up to the Dilgar, as if he thought a united group would have made a difference. She considered that it might have done, but given the effectiveness of Dilgar warships and their radical new tactics it could have just killed the League fleets that much faster.
"If the Cascor, Vree and Markab united they could still win this." She stated. "Especially if they co-ordinate with the Drazi."
"They were always just supporters of the League in name." Paul dismissed. "They never really took part. The only powers that truly believed in a League or worlds are gone now, either dead or dying with a fleet of Dilgar ships ready to deliver the killing stroke. This war was lost before it started."
"They've been driven back before." Jors pointed out. "The Dilgar can be beaten."
"They just come back stronger and madder. You can't stop a fanatic, and the Dilgar are all fanatics." Paul snorted. "Especially that one." He gestured at the fleet on the sensor display.
"Jha'dur is no fanatic." Jenny replied. "Fanatics are out of control, they just do as they're told. That Warmaster is too smart to be out of control. Ice cold."
"She's insane." Toby added.
"Not by a long shot." Jenny disagreed. "That one knows exactly what she's doing."
"Wiping out whole planets is not sane." Jors sided with Toby. "How can it be?"
"It's war, total and complete." Jenny explained. "To the Dilgar everyone is an enemy, so they all die. Whole worlds, so they don't have to garrison them and weaken their front lines."
"Genocide." Paul said.
"Yeah." Jenny agreed. "But for the Dilgar it's a necessity."
"It's never necessary." Jors said. "Not even for them."

Before Jenny could continue the timer warned them they were approaching their target. She had spent a lot of time trying to think like a Dilgar to better predict their strategy and plan for future covert operations, and it had not been pleasant. The Dilgar conduct was logical in a cold and detached way, but when she saw smuggled out footage of Dilgar soldiers revelling in slaughter and enjoying the act of killing, it had shaken even her hardened nerves.
"Stations." Paul ordered. "Jors, use thrusters to make final course alterations."
The angular ship tilted in space, small jets of white pushing it into position for a sling shot around Krish itself. As they approached closer more and more of the planets story unfolded. Pieces of wreckage bounced of the hull clattering like rain on a tin roof growing more and more intense as the Race drew in closer to the planet. The shattered remains of a civilian spaceport still hung in orbit surrounded by twisted shards and twisted remnants of freighters and shuttles that had sought sanctuary there.
Below the planet was scarred with areas of brown and grey, dust clouds visible even from this range marking out where weapons of mass destruction had been used days earlier on major population centres. From afar it was a beautiful world, but as they examined it closer Krish was a graveyard.
"Beginning sensor sweep." Jenny said in a subdued voice. The high powered devices penetrated the dust clouds and surveyed the cities and land below, sampling the air content and recording particulate matter high in the planets atmosphere. It checked radiation levels, airborne virus' and ambient temperature. All the clues needed to see what had happened here, as if the pillars of smoke were not enough for them.
"They used Mass Drivers." Paul said. "They had to."
"Nothing else can do that to a planet." Jors agreed. "It would have been quick."
"Doesn't make up for being dead." The Captain grunted.
They watched in a trance as the ship performed a fast orbit of the planet, trying to imagine what it was like down there.
"I'm still seeing a lot of life signs." Jenny reported. "But the Dilgar gave this place a real working over. No sign of planetary defences, it was just target practice."
"No warships, no weapons. This world was no threat to the Dilgar." Paul remarked. "But they still attacked and killed countless millions. Makes me sick."
"I've got everything we need." Jenny reported. "We can go, it's proof of Dilgar atrocities, solid undeniable proof."
"Jors, break orbit." Paul said. "Slingshot us out to the Delphi."
The thrusters fired again pushing the ship into place, so far they hadn't needed the main engines and so apparently hadn't been noticed. They had gathered a fair amount of speed by now and would be at the rendezvous in less than an hour at the current speed. They crossed the area of thickest debris and began coasting through the system away from the Dilgar fleet and the chaos left behind them.

"You know that is a lot of ships." Toby frowned. "Two full fleets you say?"
"Two over strength strike fleets." Jenny confirmed. "Probably a fifth to a quarter of the whole Dilgar Navy if the intel was right. Major gathering."
"Someone's going to get their butt's kicked." Jors stated. "That's an invasion fleet if ever I saw one."
"Probably Cascor or Ipsha, those are the closest powers to this system." Paul said absently. "More Lambs to the slaughter."
Jenny took a moment longer to look over the fleet listings. "The other fleet is run by Jha'dur's brother you know. Twins."
"There are two of them?" Toby scoffed. "Bet they were fun to teach in school."
"Dilgar news is always talking about them, but most of it is propaganda." Jenny shrugged "We're trying to find out her real story, but without a source on Omelos it's a hard job."
"Guys." Jors interrupted. "Better look at this."
"What is it?" Paul sat up, senses going on alert.
"Dilgar fighter patrol." Toby checked his sensor screen. "Full squadron, heading this way."
"Make that two squadrons." Jenny added. "Starboard side low, Port side high."
"There aren't supposed to be patrols in this sector."
"No sir." Jenny agreed. "And it's too strong for just a patrol force, somebody sent them specifically for us."
"That's confirmed, they're on a direct intercept course. We've got a minute." Toby warned.
"Our cover's gone." Paul grunted. "Smart old witch found us out."
"How?" Toby demanded. "We didn't do anything!"
"She must have remembered us from Tirrith." Jenny guessed. "This ship is pretty unique, she must have spotted us and sent these guys to bring us in."
"They want us alive?" Jors asked with a hint of trepidation.
"If they wanted us dead they'd have sent a cruiser to use us for target practice." Paul replied. "No, it's too late now. Bring engines online, full power. Standby on defence grid, but don't activate weapons until they're right on top of us. Lets keep our cards close for now."
With a low hum the Space Race powered up and began to accelerate, instantly the Dilgar fighters increased their own speed and closed in. They were still moving away from the main fleet and towards the hidden Earth Force ship, but they weren't going to make it remotely soon enough.
"Enemy fighters in range." Toby reported. "They're locking on."
"Jenny." Paul barked. "Let 'em have it."

Ari'shan was glad to be back in a fighter, for a brief time he had considered that those days were gone but Warmaster Jha'dur had other ideas. He was now assigned to her fleet and was in the process of transferring over his squadron when he had been contacted by the Warmaster with this mission. As his squadron was still in transit he had been given two fresh squadrons to command for this particular operation and told to disable and detain a renegade freighter crossing the system.
His wing mates were new, barely out of the academy but displayed reasonable coordination and flying ability, hopefully they were capable of handling one small freighter.
"Very well Daggers two and three," he spoke on the network. "Move in and engage, fire on the engines only. Everyone else observe and prepare critique."
Two of the Thoruns broke formation and swooped in while the remainder held their distance and watched the angular freighter vainly trying to outrun the Dilgar fighters. They lined up on the blocky engine structure and locked on their weapons.
"Pay attention." Ari'shan continued his lecture. "We know the ship is armed but Two and Three are failing to take evasive action. Never fly straight and level in a battle for more than three seconds."
In that moment every threat warning system in his fighter lit up, driving away all thoughts of educating these new pilots and replacing them with the need to get the hell out of trouble.
"Break off!" he yelled, yanking his own controls to spin away from the rapidly arming freighter. "Evasive action, all craft break and run now!"
For all the bravado the Dilgar News service broadcast the Dilgar were not stupid and recognized that running away in order to preserve valuable assets was a vital piece of military training. It was nice to believe the Dilgar would rather die than give ground, bit it was no more than a myth to rouse the public. Ari'shan's pilots reacted in an instant, scattering in completely different directions and blossoming out in order to split the expected defensive fire. They had no idea why the freighter should suddenly be so well armed, but those mysteries could wait until after they had finished trying to stay alive.
The small particle cannons on the freighter registered a huge energy increase, far more than was normal for such weapons as they rapidly tracked the retreating Dilgar fighters. Ari'shan's warning signals coalesced into one long tone as the enemy weapons reached their final charging stage and began to fire.
The closest two fighters that had been angling in on the engines vanished with the first two shot, both rounds hitting perfectly right in the centre of the Thoruns tearing them to pieces. The weapons were firing much faster and with much greater accuracy than conventional low grade weapons, and an instant later three more fighters that should have been safely out of effective range were also transformed into super hot gas and shards.
Ari'shan rolled hard to port, flipping the fighter on every axis as four energy bolts raced for him. He saved his final most violent piece of flying until the bolts were almost on him, barely taking time to rejoice in the huge test this surprise was for his skill as he gauged the distance to the projectiles by sight alone. He redlined the retro thrusters and changed direction completely, reversing his course and suffering massive G-forces in the process that threatened his consciousness. The blue bolts grazed past a few feet from his canopy, close enough to heat the outer hull of the dart fighter before disappearing into the distance.
"Reform!" he ordered, noticing six fighters were no longer on his sensor readouts. "Assume attack Formation Eight."
"Sir," a voice replied. "Sir, we don't know what that formation is."
He paused. "What formations do you know?"
"None sir."
Ari'shan shook his head, wondering exactly what the academy was teaching its new pilots. "Alright, just follow me, and stay mobile." He said. "Stick to me like glue."

"That's six." Toby confirmed with a grin.
"Nice shooting Jen." Paul was also smiling, glad to see the Dilgar taking a beating for a change.
"Not so fast, we still have eighteen fighters out there." Jenny cautioned. "They're coming back."
"Jors, hold course. Best possible speed. Jenny, I'll leave it up to you haw to handle them."
"Thanks." She muttered and aligned the range finders. "Jors, can you be ready to bank to starboard and open up the lower weapon arcs?"
"Ready." The Swedish pilot confirmed.
She held her breath a few more seconds as the Thoruns raced in, keeping a looser formation this time and performing evasive action. Fortunately for her the tracking systems for the interceptors were designed to correct their aim and predict any evasive action an enemy may attempt and put a spread of rounds up to cover any possible path. The bolts travelled so fast they usually took out the enemy before they could pull a particularly tight evasive manoeuvre though there were always exceptional pilots who somehow managed it.
"Now Jors! Hit it!"
The pilot locked the controls hard to starboard throwing the ship into a spin that pressed the crew flat into their chairs, the restraints automatically tightening to keep them secure. The hull bracings groaned and complained at the immense strain being put on them, the stars spun in front of the window and a series of alarms warned of excessive hull stress and thrusters overheating. The old Space Race would have broken up under such a turn, but with its rebuilt hull and military grade alloys the improved Race was just about handling it, slewing right into place to oppose the incoming squadrons.
The turn caught the Dilgar by surprise, they had twice underestimated the freighter and were going to keep paying for it. Jenny had a perfect shot as the Thoruns reacted too slowly and only just began to break formation as the interceptors locked on. She couldn't keep the faint predators smile from her lips as she depressed the firing button and opened up with half a dozen turrets, as much point defence fire as an average sized corvette, and watched Dilgar fighters burn.

White and blue energy traced the dark in short sharp bursts, the not so innocent looking freighter firing again with enough weapons to gun down five squadrons, Ari'shan's rookies didn't stand a chance. The first four died quick, the particle bolts unerring in their precision striking dead centre on the Thorun's hulls. Two of the fighters held their course and fired upon the freighter, their cannons doing nothing but glancing off the dirty grey armoured hull and attracting the ships attention and allowing it to accrue two more Dilgar kills.
"Get out of here! Full power!" he yelled to the squadron. "Just go!"
The surviving Dart fighters put every ounce of power into their engines, the ion thrusters blasting out blue and purple spikes of exhaust as they lurched away in all directions to escape the rapid fire defence grid. It didn't make much difference, the turrets twisted and elevated with remarkable speed, keeping their muzzles on the fleeing fighters and churning out round after round towards the Dilgar. Fighter after fighter flashed briefly as it was hit, twisted wreckage fluttering like falling blossom in a hurricane.
Finally they made it out of range, a spluttering engine spinning past Ari'shan's canopy as it expended the last of its fuel, the rest of the fighter following behind in a cloud of pieces.
"Report status." He ordered, trying to keep the pilots focused. "Check your displays, how many of you can still fight?"
Beside himself three fighters had made it to a safe distance, which meant the human freighter had sent twenty pilots to their callings in the next world. It had deceived him, it had hurt his squadron and it was still getting away without a scratch. This made Ari'shan furiously angry but he had to maintain control. He had to admit a grudging respect for the effectiveness of the system and its crews sheer audacity sneaking in between the biggest gathering of Dilgar warships to date, but they had still hidden themselves and used guile instead of engaging in a straight fight, and that offended his sensibilities.
The three fighters checked in, all operational. "Orders sir?"
"We hold here." Ari'shan said. "Attacking that is suicide for fighters. I'm requesting warship support."
"I can take it." Dagger Eleven said. "Cover me."
"I said hold." Ari'shan snapped.
But the fighter was already on the move, four missiles held under its wing.
"I won't get close." The errant fighter replied. "Just enough so they can't stop these."
The Thorun blasted ahead for a few seconds, then unleashed all four missiles in a ripple volley before breaking away. "Nuclear warheads away."
"Nuclear weapons!" Ari'shan exclaimed. "You idiot, the Warmaster wanted them alive!"
Utter silence reigned in Dagger Eleven's cockpit.
"I'll let you tell Jha'dur why you disobeyed two direct orders." He said. "You better pray she's in a good mood."

"Now that was just a joy to watch." Paul congratulated. "I love this little ship, did I mention that?"
"She was born again bad ass." Toby laughed. "I bet those cats never knew what hit them!"
Jenny smiled along, but while it was a hell of a victory for the venerable freighter she had to remind herself they were celebrating the deaths of twenty people. Sure they were Dilgar, and sure she'd do the same thing again in a heart beat, but she was a trained soldier and Special Forces operative where killing was just a mundane task like setting up a tent or cleaning her uniform. She held no passion for it, just a skill, and certainly didn't rejoice in death. Especially not after having to kill her former friend and more recently Traitor to Earth, Agent Leung. It worried her that her friends felt joy at killing these Dilgar and didn't really understand what that meant. Although it worried her even more that they did understand and celebrated anyway, and that was beginning to look true of Paul.
"They're breaking away." She reported. "Probably calling in backup as we speak."
"Let's hope we're clear by then." Paul said. "I doubt they can move fast enough to run us down."
"Uh oh." Toby stated with ominous foreboding, earning him a glare from Paul.
"How many more times, don't say that!"
"One of those fighters fired something our way, missiles."
"Jenny?" Paul turned to look at her, wondering what her more accurate sensors said.
"Nukes." She reported blankly. "Four nukes coming in fast!"
"Shoot them down!" he ordered.
"I'll try but I'm not that good." She was already locking the interceptors on. "These guns are ageneration out of date, I couldn't get the latest models!"
"Jors, drop the hammer, everything we've got." Paul ordered quickly. "Full emergency thrust and standby evasive, Toby, counter measures. Drop two screens now and standby on noise makers."
The engines blazed as the Race shot forward, interceptors working on full efficiency. It allowed them to fire much larger bolts increasing the chance of a hit but put massive strain on the capacitors, they had less than thirty seconds before they burned out. Of course they only had fifteen until the missiles hit, so if they missed fried capacitors would be the least of their problems.
"Countermeasures away!" Toby reported. "Second batch ready!"
"Ten seconds!" Jenny called. "This isn't going to be fun!"
Two spheres fell from the Race and burs topen in a black cloud. On the surface it looked like simple black smoke but in fact contained a wide number of particles and compounds designed to deflect and break up sensor returns across a wide range of systems, with the black colouring helpfully blocking out visual scans. One missile was decoyed, streaking off into the far distance but the other three were smarter, two carried on clean through the cloud and reacquired the freighter on the other side, and the third popped up over the cloud and continued on.
"They're still with us!" Jenny warned. It had bought them some time but not much.
"Jors, standby evasive starboard." Paul spoke with abstract calm. "Toby, I want countermeasures fired to port."
The guns chugged, miraculously bringing down the closest wildly swinging missile. It exploded briefly in a flash of fuel but nothing else, the warheads designed to arm only when right on top of their targets to minimaise the risk to friendly units and neighbouring missiles. This meant the other two rushed on without impediment.
"Five seconds!"
"Hold steady." Paul intoned. "Steady."
Jenny caught another missile, but she wasn't going to get the final one, it was coming in too fast even for her interceptors. "This is it!"
"Now!" Paul yelled.
In that moment Jors threw the ship into a ninety degree turn, the sort of spin a Starfury pilot would envy before putting everything that was left into the engines. In the same instant Toby fired the second countermeasures from their launchers, small missiles that broadcast a powerful false sensor image designed to overpower a missiles guidance system and decoy the incoming weapons after what appeared to be the real target while letting the ship itself reach a safe distance.
It worked, the Dilgar missile followed the decoys but by now it was travelling at an extremely high speed catching up to the decoy in seconds. They were designed to lure enemy weapons a hundred miles away from the friendly ship, this one made it to just twenty.

Jenny had never been caught in a nuclear explosion before, she'd sent plenty on videos in her training, even talked to an older Earth Force Captain who had taken a ship up against the Ch'Lonas and skimmed a multi megaton blast, but this was something different. There was a bright flash, intense but not nearly as impressive as she might have expected. With no air there was no mushroom cloud or blast wave, but there was enough energy put out to reach the freighter and flash boil the outer layer from the port side hull.
The effects of losing several tons of metal threw the ship hard to the side, bending the reinforced bulkheads and opening up a score of minor breaches throughout the ship. The EMP from the detonation shorted out the more sensitive systems including the advanced sensors and the pinpoint trackers on the interceptors, for a few seconds the flight deck went dark before back up supplies kicked in.
"Main reactor safe!" Jors called. "Engines are still on line!" he sounded genuinely surprised. "And we're still making full speed!"
"You mean we're still flying? Nothing blew up?" Toby was equally surprised.
"Nothing vital." Jenny confirmed. "We're armed and mobile."
"I love this ship." Paul slapped his chair arm. "We rode out a nuke!"
"Yeah, but my lunch almost didn't." Jors added. "Remind me not to eat before a job in the future."
"Long range sensors are out, but I can still detect those fighters." Jenny reported, getting back to business. "They're shadowing us but keeping their distance."
"Smart move." Paul grinned. "By the time they catch up we'll be long gone and they'll be none the wiser. Keep us at full power."
It was Toby again who broke the mood. "I don't want to say it, and I won't say it."
"Say what?"
"We've got trouble. Again."
A shape appeared at the edge of the sensors, something noticeably bigger than the Space Race and moving fast to cut them off.
"Dilgar Warship." Jenny said with an even tone, years of training and practice suppressing the panic she felt. "Jashakar class Frigate."
"Can it catch us before we meet the Delphi?" Paul asked.
"Yeah." Jenny confirmed. "And it's packing enough weaponry to out gun the Delphi if they meet, we were still outfitting her when this mission came up and we never finished."
Eventually the new EIA Jump ship would have a whole arsenal of surprises, but they were still gathering the necessary plasma cannons and missiles, right now she had a solid interceptor grid and some light guns, enough to stop fighters but not much else.
"We can't risk the Delphi." Paul said firmly. "We'll handle this ourselves."
"What?" Toby spluttered. "How? By showering them with our smashed ship and dead bodies?"
"He's right Chief." Jors added. "This is a warship we're talking about, a real one."
"One of Jha'dur's personal fleet." Jenny also threw in some thoughts "They're not going to be fools."
"We have one more surprise." Paul smiled. "The gun pods."
"That's officially insane." Toby snapped. "Even if we had nukes we're still a freighter! They'll waste us the second they spot trouble!"
"Which is why the powers that be gave us interceptors." Paul replied. "Jenny, are they still working?"
"Enough." She confirmed. "But targeting got screwed by that blast, I can't gurantee we'll stop them all if the range gets too close."
"It'll have to do." Paul considered. "We need to get close, real close. This is going to be hard, but lets hope they want us alive. That gives us an opportunity to hit them hard and hit them first. You with me?"
Despite their doubts there was never going to be any hesitation.
"All the way." Jenny stated with a smile. "Even if you are crazy."
"Well, I just got comfortable in this chair." Jors nodded.
"I guess it'll make a hell of a story." Toby provided a lopsided grin. "And it'd be worth it just to guess at Jha'dur's expression."
Paul grinned at that. "It sure would. Okay, throttle back, make it look like that nuke hurt us worse then it did, we lure them in and then drop the hammer."

Ari'shan had no way to wipe the smile from his face, despite everything he was actually pleased that the ship was still alive if apparently crippled. In part he was glad that Jha'dur would not fly into one of her rare angers at having the crew killed, now capture was a possibility once again, but mostly he was just impressed by the skill and luck these humans were displaying. They had been underhanded getting here but were now proving worthy adversaries. It would be an honour to present them to Jha'dur, and hopefully she would heed his recommendation and treat them better than she handled most captives.
"Dagger unit." He spoke to his remaining wing mates. "I want you to hold here, I'm going to check out that ship."
"Sir,that might not be wise." Dagger four cautioned. "With respect." She quickly added.
"So noted." He confirmed. "But I've seen what they can do, I am ready to face them. Stay here, if they are defenceless you can help me disable them for the Frigate to pick up. If not then I can escape danger and retreat. That is all."
He opened the throttles and closed in, setting a long curving path to the freighter which kept him at a distance until the last few moments. He had seen the interceptors and recognized them from the battle footage Jha'dur had shown him from the Persephone. The ones on the warship had better range and more raw power but the rate of fire and accuracy were no different, an exceptionally dangerous system but he was confidant he could evade their attack at medium to long range.
He spotted the Frigate on sensors closing in and noticed the freighter was altering course to avoid it, but it wasn't going to be able to outrun it. The dedicated warship had engines that probably outmassed the whole freighter, it was about three times larger overall and packed a lot of firepower onto it's Frigate scale hull. The Dilgar liked to make sure even the smallest ship had teeth, and this one was no exception.
"Squadron Leader Ari'shan to Frigate, respond."
After a few moments a cold voice returned his call. "Combat Captain Lar'cas, Frigate Bow Blade responding."
"Captain, I have orders from the Warmaster this ship is to be taken with minimum damage."
"Those are our orders too." The Captain confirmed. "The Warmaster want's them alive." He grunted. "It would be more merciful just to kill them, but the orders stand."
"I'm shadowing the freighter, she has taken heavy damage to the port side and seems to be running at low power."
"Our sensors agree." Lar'cas spoke distantly, as if this mission were somewhat beneath him. "We're coming up on their damaged side to make breaching easier."
"I'll watch for escape pods or shuttles." Ari'shan stated. "They won't be escaping, but they might try something else."
"We're ready for them."
"Twenty dead officers thought the same. Be cautious."
"We can handle this." The Captain dismissed. "We appreciate your company, this will be over in a minute."
Ari'shan hoped the Captain's confidence was well placed, but armed weapons and kept his hand on the throttle just in case the humans had another surprise.

"They're going to try and board us." Jenny watched the Frigate getting closer. "They've got a boarding tube, if they follow procedure they'll knock out our engines first, then grapple us and extend the tube."
"But they need to get closer for a clean hit." Paul said. "For all they know we're just a regular freighter with better guns, one near miss and they could shred our hull and blow a fuel tank."
"I guess so." She checked out the lone Thorun to Starboard, the same one that had avoided two barrages of interceptor bolts. "They need to get close to board anyway, I expect they won't shoot until they're ready to latch on."
"Problem will be the gun pods." Jors said. "It takes thirty seconds for them to go hot, and while they're powering up everyone in the system is going to know what we're planning."
"And it'll take less time than that to waste us." Toby pointed out. "Even with the armour."
The two gun pods mounted left and right on the central core of the ship came straight from the Belt Alliance armoury, each one packed a medium plasma cannon and eight missiles designed to give raider ships a very nasty surprise. They had a fairly stealthy hull material and a sensor jammer designed to broadcast the appearance of regular cargo in the pod to enhance the illusion and draw in their enemies to a point they couldn't escape from.
There were however three disadvantages to the pods, first they had limited arcs, second they had limited ammunition. Each plasma cannon was fed from a high intensity battery also housed in the pod, which had the advantage of making it self sufficient to a point where they could be detached from a fleeing ship and still function, but had the disadvantage of allowing just five rounds to be fired. A warship would draw its firepower from it's main reactors and as long as it had fuel could shoot all day, but with smaller reactors and less reaction mass no freighter could realistically mount a sustained barrage so had to use batteries. Each blast was equal to a main turret on a Hyperion class cruiser which was a hell of a kick, but a cruiser could go through five round sin two or three seconds, the Race was going to have to make every shot count.
The third problem was charging time. The battery took thirty seconds to feed the capacitors and create plasma for the gun to fire, and in that time there would be no mistake what was happening. Against slow moving Raider ships it was no great problem but against a real warship, and a Dilgar one at that, it could get messy.
"I'm trusting you to keep the interceptors working." Paul said to Jeny with sincerity. "I don't know how many hits we can take, but none at all would be good. We just fixed her up, and the old girl's already suffered enough today."
"I'll do what I can."
"Frigate is almost on us, less than thirty miles." Toby said. "It's arming weapons."
"Try some evasive action." Paul said. "make it look good."
"Frigate matching speed." Toby was glued to the sensors. "She's cutting engines, firing retros. Speed matched. Energy spike!"
"Jenny?"
"Let them try." She said grimly, then brought interceptors to full readiness and started the plasma cannon arming sequence.

Ari'shan sensed the trap long before the weapons reactivated, he knew they weren't going to go quietly and were bound to try something else. The power readings went back up to full, the defences locked on and most disturbing of all an entirely new weapon signature began building in the middle of the ship.
"Captain, get some distance!" He called, but apparently Lar'cas had seen the same thing and was increasing power to engines, an instant later the Frigate opened fire.
From his vantage point Ari'shan could see the bolter cannons running into interceptor rounds, the range was so close the freighter was barely stopping them, some just a dozen yards from the hull, but as close as it was the little freighter was holding it's own and putting power into it's own engines to stay with the Frigate. The sight was remarkable, a warship of the Imperium was actually being chased be a freighter a third of its size. Jha'dur had been right, these people were worth talking to, but only if they were stopped.
He dropped the Dart fighters nose and barrelled in, with the interceptors busy no defensive fre rose up to meet him and he had a clear path to the ship. He guessed he had two options, the engines or the guns which he could attack. The guns were the most tempting target, they were distracted and very dangerous but taking them out would allow the Frigates guns to hit the Freighter, and in their current full attack mode they could tear the ship apart before Lar'cas could order a ceasefire. He angled on the engines, if he could slow the ship down or disable it himself the Frigate could withdraw and come back more carefully.
The freighter was really pouring on the power now, far more than a regular ship it's size but after what he'd seen Ari'shan was not surprised. Getting in right behind the engines was not a good idea, the bright blue Ion trails were hundreds of metres long as the vessel matched speeds with the Frigate. It was gradually getting further away, it's superior military engines giving it an edge but not enough.
He matched speed and twisted the fighters nose, travelling alongside the freighter but facing its engine assembly. With a last look at the weapons to make sure they were still busy he started firing, the first rounds doing virtually nothing to the armour. He perservered, hitting the same spot again and again waiting for a chink to open. Absently he wished for a couple of anti ship missiles, but using autonomous weapons went against his philosophy of decided battles by skill, not simple button pushing, so he would finish this the hard way.

The Space Race jolted with another rimpact.
"Would somebody swat that little mosquito?" Toby demanded.
"We need the guns to hold off the Frigate." Paul replied evenly. "Let Jenny work, we're almost there."
One of the particle bolts finally penetrated the defences hitting the top most sensor pod, fifty million credits worth of sensors vanished in a blink, the pod left looking like a partially opened rose with steel petals. Paul grimaced, but his ship was undamaged and just about ready to hit back.
"We're up!" Jenny yelled. "Main guns ready, missiles fuelled!"
"Hard about, line us up and open fire!" Paul lost his cool finally, the excitement ruling him now. He was going one on one with a Dilgar ship far bigger than his little freighter and he had them right where he wanted them. "Take them out!"
The Race altered course to broadside the Frigate, the range had opened somewhat but they were still close enough for the Plasma cannons to do full damage without radiated much energy into space. Explosive bolts blew away the panels to the gun pod an the starboard side, the sheets of metal spinning away and clearing the line of fire for the big gun. The simple black barrelled cannon made a last adjustment, four missiles on either side venting gas as they too prepared final ignition, and then Jenny hit the control.
The Race was not built with military grade cannons in mind, and as the cannon fired the freighter shuddered from the recoil with each shot shaving a percentage off it's velocity. Green balls of plasma crossed the gap in no time, tearing into the relatively thin armour of the Dilgar warship and causing massive internal damage. The engines took the first hit, the blindingly hot Earth produced material knocking out the two closest thrusters as it burned its way from the outside in.
Unfortunately the recoil had also had also changed the Race's axis throwing off the aim of the main gun, the next two rounds missed by a few feet while the thirs barely scored the lower hull, a great molten gash running the length of the ship. With three of the priceless shots squandered Jenny had to make the last one count. She made a last minute adjustment, then fired one last time. The green shot struck the closest side on the Dilgar ship, travelling along its length and shearing off almost its entire port side as it a guillotine had invisibly severed the green hull. Several hundred tons worth of metal fell away taking an entire gun turret with it, gas billowed into space flaring briefly as it burned out in the cold.

"That got him!" Toby cried out in exultation. "He's losing power, engines going down, he's switching weapons from defense to offense."
"He's going to try and take us with him." Paul noted. "But if he's switched all power from point defences to his main guns it gives us an opening. Jenny, missiles."
With the plasma cannon expended the antiship missiles were the Races remaining heavy weapons. They had been pre-fuelled and armed meaning all Jenny had to do was launch them. The missiles were standard short range single stage dual warhead devices commonly used on Corvettes and other escort ships coming in at about twenty metres in length, half the size of capital ship missiles and a quarter the size of those used on dedicated Missile ships and fixed defenses. They tended to travel quite slow and with point defenses the Dilgar ship would have been able to shoot them down quite easily, but right now the ship had no defenses and was extremely vulnerable.
The clamps holding the weapons in place and with a push from the EM launch rails the missiles sailed away, the engines igniting in blue flame a moment after they cleared the Space Race's side. The eight missiles split up and drove in from different directions taking evasive action despite the lack of small weapons fire coming up from the Frigate. "Lar'cas had realised his mistake and was re-routing power to his pulsar turrets, but it was going to be too little too late.
The missiles entered their terminal phase, the guidance systems linked to each other timed the approach so all eight hit at the same time in a sequence designed to split open the Dilgar hull with the first missiles and then gut the inside with the last few. The lead missile struck the already weakened section of the Frigate, it was designed like most Earth Force anti ship missiles with two warheads, the first was an intense plasma charge that explode don impact. Its job was to fire a jet of plasma through an enemy hull and burn through to create a channel for the larger secondary warhead to pass through and then explode itself under the armour. On a regular missile that secondary warhead would be a nuclear device ranging from a hundredth of a kiloton right up to tens of megatons, Earth knew area affect explosions in space were not the most efficient use of nuclear weapons, but if it could get a warhead to explode inside a target then even a tiny nuke would be more than enough to completely destroy an enemy cruiser.
For all Jenny's influence and for all Director Durban's insistence there was no way Earth Force was going to give nuclear weapons to civilians, they would turn a blind eye to old interceptors but not multi megaton missiles. The Race's missiles therefore had a conventional explosive warhead, but still the most powerful the EIA could convince the Navy to part with. It might not be enough for a cruiser, but the eight of them were more than sufficient for a Frigate.
The first four missiles bored in and exploded, splitting the green hull open and creating bulging rents and gaps across the upper surface of the ship, weakpoints that were then exploited by the last four weapons. They punched deep into the tangled innards of the Frigate and then exploded, shredding the interior and triggering secondary explosions from bow to stern. Debris and jets of coloured flames leapt away from the dissolving vessel, torn and twisted chunks of metal were catapulted away from their bulkheads as the outer skin melted away revealing skeletal girders and braces within, black lines against the white fire. Within seconds it was over, the Bow Blade an emaciated blackened form surrounded by ice crystals and wreckage.
Paul tapped his arm rests. "Did I mention I love this ship?"

Ari'shan suddenly felt extremely alone and extremely exposed. His warship support had been vanquished, his squadrons decimated and now he was alone facing a now unoccupied interceptor grid at point blank range. The danger of this situation was clear for even the simplest pilot to see, he immediately broke away and took the wildest evasive action he could think off trying to get away from the interceptors kill zone.
The gun turrets were already rotating into place, four separate weapons tracking and locking onto his Thorun, warning alarms sounding in a dozen different tones all getting closer in tone and pitch to each other. When they merged into one identical clarion call it would mean the guns had him dead in their sights, which given the accuracy of interceptors would not end well. The Freighter didn't wait for a clean lock, it fired early taking Ari'shan by surprise, he barrel rolled the fighter as bright energy glared past strobing the instruments in his cockpit.
The fighter was shaking as he spun it for all it was worth, his wings bending and flexing as the wing tip mounted engines pulled in opposing directions to maintain the spin, a cartwheel hurling him clear of the guns and out to safety. It almost worked. One of the rounds was on target, catching his left side wing tip engine. The heavy cylinder exploded, gouting flame and ions in all directions and throwing the already wildly spinning fighter into an even more radical manoeuvre. Ironically the sudden push probably saved Ari'shan launching him far enough away in such a random direction that the rest of the salvo missed.
He battled to stay conscious, focusing on the controls and ignoring the disorientating stars streaking past as white lines outside. He tensed every muscle to keep his blood flowing and cut power to the damaged engine before activating the extinguishers. The flames went out but with a severed fuel line it was still jetting reactant into space which was still pushing his fighter in a sidewise direction, the black and mangled remains of the engine a tumour on the wing tip. He countered with the surviving right hand side engine, adjusting it's thrust to compensate for the loss of his left hand engine and then added power to the main centreline thrusters behind his cockpit. He could barely keep the nose straight but he had a job to do, and so with a grim visage he pointed to the where his sensors told him the human ship was and accelerated.

"We made it." Jors was grinning widely. "Crossing orbit of the target planet."
The freighter, now restored to its shot up and blackened appearance rounded the uninhabited world and put the body of the planet between itself and the Dilgar fleet hiding from their sensor scans. The Race had performed incredibly well, it's interceptors had stopped a barrage of energy weapons and made short work of two Dilgar squadrons while its hidden gun pods had destroyed a frigate. Compared to the under gunned and under powered ship of last year Paul Calendar's new home was an entirely different creature, yet still had the heart and soul of his original vessel. It was a perfect combination. Most importantly of all of course was the fact they had succeeded completely in their mission.
"There she is." Jenny spotted. "Right on schedule."
Holding position sheltering behind the planet was the Delphi, equally battered looking and ancient but in the process of being modernised. It was a sight that elicited sighs of relief all round, that ship was their only ticket home and to see it waiting patiently to save them was more rewarding that staring at the biggest pile of jewels and and gold they could imagine.
"Space Race," A voice hailed them. "What is your status?"
"We found a little trouble." Paul admitted, not that it was anything new to this ship. "Sorry about your sensors, I hope they weren't too expensive."
They were of course, but if the mission had been a success the EIA would gladly accept the cost as casualties of war. "Did you accomplish the mission before you lost the sensors?"
"We got everything." Paul smiled. "Undeniable proof the Dilgar are using weapons of mass destruction against completely defenceless civilians, including biological weapons."
"Excellent work." The Delphi officer sounded genuinely pleased. "We're preparing to jump now."
"This is it." Paul said confidently. "All Earth needs to finally do something about the Dilgar."
Jenny shook her head. "Maybe, but I wouldn't get my hopes up."
"They're murdering billions of people." He returned. "And we have the proof, Earth has to intervene to stop this!"
"And I hope they do." Jenny said. "But just don't count on it."
"It's the right thing to do, you know what the Dilgar are like."
"I know." She remembered her encounter in Geneva and shuddered imperceptibly. "I know, but that isn't how Governments work. It is morally the right thing to do, and Ihope they do something, but I just can't see them sending in the Marines for something happening so far away. I'm sorry."
Paul looked visibly upset. "Somethings going to have to be done about this, I don't know what but it had better happen. The Dilgar have to be stopped."
Jenny agreed, she felt as strongly about it as any human. But there was a part of her which questioned whether that was even possible, so far nothing had stopped the Dilgar and she wasn't sure if anything ever would.

The four Thoruns thundered around the planet, Ari'shan's plane reverberating with the exertions of the engines being pushed beyond limits. With a full functional fighter he had been little more than a plaything for the Earth ship, in his current state he was doomed, as were the three rookies with him. However meeting their ends at the guns of an enemy was a better choice than going home and telling Jha'dur what had happened. She wasn't the sort of Warmaster to kill people for bad luck, indeed even if they had simply tried and failed to capture this ship she probably wouldn't hold it against them unlike a lot of other senior officers who had a tendency to execute people on the spot if they failed missions. Jha'dur at least understood that sometimes circumstances were against her warriors.
However they had not simply failed, but disobeyed an order and failed. While only one of their number had fired nuclear weapons in violation of Jha'dur's wish for prisoners the squadron would stand together when facing punishment, and although not officially a member Ari'shan would stand with them as honour demanded. This time he doubted Jha'dur would make an exception for him, she couldn't do that twice. It was probably for the best, at least this enemy was a worthy one and his death would be an honourable one.
The flight crossed the terminator of the planet and entered orbit on the far side expecting to see the Freighter, instead they saw nothing.
"What happened?" Dagger Eleven questioned. "Where is it?"
"Go active on sensors." Ari'shan ordered. He watched his own stuttering display, it showed a faint ion trail and then nothing. It was as if the ship had simply vanished. The humans had been tricky, but not so much they could vanish into thin air.
"Was there anything in the logs to suggest a jump engine on that vessel?" he demanded.
"No sir, even in combat it didn't have enough power to run a jump engine."
"It can't just vanish!" Eleven called. "It isn't possible!"
And yet there was nothing to be seen, the ship was gone.
"This is over." Ari'shan said. "Return to base, I will report to Warmaster Jha'dur in person."
"I can't go back." Eleven said. "I can't."
"We have nothing else to do." Ari'shan replied. "Form up, there are three cruisers heading this way to support us, we will land on them."
"I take responsibility." The pilot stated. "Make sure the Warmaster knows that."
He turned his fighter towards the planet and broke formation. Ari'shan did not try to stop him, nor did he begrudge the decision. He watched the Thorun accelerate rapidly pointing straight at the centre of the barren world and appreciated the act. By taking responsibility and then taking his own life the young pilot had probably saved the surviving squadron members, if Jha;dur followed tradition she would deem it an acceptable payment for the mistakes made in this conflict.
He saluted his comrade, known only for an hour or two but long enough to finally earn his respect. Then with a final look at where the freighters ion trail stopped he turned the fighter home and pushed his ruined craft and ruined squadron back to the fleet.