Chapter 15: Sacrifice Of Angels

The Ha'taks moved away from Thundersdawn, without power the station was unable to fight and so was not a threat. Eisenhower and the remaining fighters were however. Ba'aca momentarily considered recalling the Al-kesh, to destroy Thundersdawn while the Ha'tak's cleaned up the remaining resistance, but stopped when he noticed there were no Al-kesh left. He frowned, unfortunate. This mission had already cost him enough that he wondered about Ba'als displeasure, he dismissed the thought, if he succeeded, Ba'al would forgive much.

Dafydd looked over the shattered remains of the bridge and a wave of despair passed through him, this was a new ship for god's sake! They hadn't even had a chance to prove her worth, and now they probably never would.

Coughing and cursing in the smoke filled air; Lieutenant Tomas made her way over to her Captain.

"Sir, as far as I can tell from what remains of the sensors, We're losing sir, Iwo Jima has disengaged, Thundersdawn is off-line, most of the fighters are gone, and there are still three Hatak's around"

Dafydd cursed, then said quietly, "Whats our status?"

"Dead loss, sir, She's broke her back, the Gauss rifles, hyper drive and the shuttlebay are gone, and air is leaking from every compartment we can contact."

Dafydd stiffened, "In-system drive?"

"Only thing that's good captain, we get about 75%, would have more but not enough power"

"Tomas, target the most undamaged Ha'tak"

"What with, Captain we have no weapons left"

"Take Helm, Tomas."

"Helm sir?" Her eyes widened, and she gulped, tears springing to her eyes, she understood, "Helm aye, Captain"

"My Lord, the unidentified Tau'ri vessel has just brought its in-system drive back online, they mean to ram!"

"Move us out of here, quickly!"

"My Lord, they move to fast."

Ba'aca turned and looked with widened eyes as the crippled hull of the Dauntless hit his command ships shields. The shields gave, and Dauntless ran unmanned into the Ha'tak's hull, her crew killed by the force of the impact on the shields. The structural integrity of both ships failed utterly, and the debris rained across space, large chunks hitting the shields of the remaining Ha'tak's, the remaining Tau'ri fighters manoeuvring frantically to avoid being hit.

Eisenhower moved decisively, unloading a full broadside into a Ha'tak's hull as they were still reeling from the death of their leader, and the impacts on their shields, volley after volley was fired, Eisenhower receiving only sporadic fire in return. Just as the Ha'tak's got their act together, and began to attack, Eisenhower fired a volley that passed through the Ha'tak's shields, the Naquadah tips of the gauss rifle rounds blowing chunks of the hull, fire quickly bursting through the hull as the Ha'tak died, spinning away uncontrolled.

Iwo Jima, having repaired as much of their damage as they could, reengaged, their movements sluggish, Eisenhower and Iwo Jima moving quickly to tag-team the surviving Ha'tak.

The Ha'tak broke off, attempting to disengage, before quickly coming to a complete stop, it shields switched off, its weapons powering down and the drives off-line.

It was over.