Captain Whitcomb stood on the bridge, trying to concentrate despite the alarms and flashing lights all around him. A technician turned from his console to face him.
"Sir, most of the second wave of dropships is onboard and the last few that went back for the marines are inbound."
"Good, helmsman prepare to get us out of here, navigator have a course plotted and ready when we clear the planet's gravity well."
The ship shook as it was hit by another salvo of laser blasts more than a meter thick, and although it hadn't seemed possible, even more warning sirens and flashing lots started up.
Outside the viewport Whitcomb saw a storm of laser blasts tear through the battle cruiser Defiance. Huge chunks of tristed, melted metal were torn from the ships hull as it began to spew wreckage of every kind into the space around it, like a warrior lying in a pool of his own blood. With a final explosion the running lights on the ship's starboard side flickered and went out, the glow from its engine exhaust ports died, and the ship began to spin like a stray asteroid. Something else suddenly caught Whitcombs attention, a Brotherhood frigate came plowing through the floating debris, maneuvering to avoid the ravaged hull of the Defiance and came at them at flank speed with its heavy guns already turning to come to bear on the Defender, seemingly pointed directly at him.
"Damn it isn't fighting another battle cruiser enough, now we have to fight a frigate and an enemy battle cruiser." He thought out loud.Whitcomb smiled as an idea came to him.
"Helmsman set to course two-nine-five and get me flank speed."
"Yes sir, be advised we will be headed right for that Brotherhood frigate."
"That's the idea lieutenant."
The ship rumbled and shook as it accelerated, picking up as it went. The Brotherhood frigate grew larger and larger in the viewport as they sped towards it, but showed no signs of moving.
"Ten seconds to impact sir, nine, eight, seven."
"Sound collision alarms lieutenant."
"Yes sir."
A deafening alarm klaxon began to sound throughout the ship.
"Six, five, four, three."
The captain of the Brotherhood frigate finally lost his nerve and the ship suddenly went hard to port, trying desperately to get out of the way. The frigate swung off to port with speed the Defender couldn't match, but that was all part of the plan.
"Brace for impact!"
A deafening screeching came from somewhere on the starboard side and the entire ship shook as the two warships graced just barely graced each other. Energy arced around the two ships as their shields were torn away by the impact.
"Fire all starboard and aft weapons."
A flurry of crimson energy blasts arced from the Defender and stabbed into the frigate, boiling away hull plating and tearing apart the ships bowels. The frigate went into an uncontrolled spin as the Defender blazed past it. Captain Whitcomb let out the breath he'd realized he'd been holding and looked at the countdown timer that displayed the estimated to clear the planet's gravity well, four minutes.
The sky was replaced by the blackness of space as Krystal blazed out of Dinosaur Planet's atmosphere and into space, where a fierce battle was taking place as the outnumbered Cornerians tried to retreat. Fox's Arwing roared by hers and into the battle, dodging a large chunk of wreckage. Krystal activated a turbo boost and followed him. Hoards of fighters screamed by as they shot through the battle pausing occasionally to pick of a Brotherhood fighter or two. Krystal dove hard to the left as a Cornerian carrier was torn apart by a massive explosion, and flew under the remains of a Brotherhood light cruiser. As she came out from behind the wreck she could see the Cornerian fleet up ahead, the only problem was that a Brotherhood destroyer was between them and it.
"Krystal break left and hit the brakes!"
Without thinking she dodged to the and a burst of laser fire tore through the empty space where she'd just been, as she hit the breaks a Wraith screamed by and was blown apart by a laser blast from Fox's Arwing.
"Thanks Fox."
Before Fox could reply a storm of laser blasts began to arc by as the gunners on the destroyer spotted them and opened fire. Sweat began to run down her brow as she entered the storm of laser blasts and began dodging and juking, trying to make herself a difficult target. The storm of death intensified as the pair of fighters got closer and closer to the destroyer's gray hull.
"Krystal slave your targeting computer to mine and get ready to fire all your bombs on my mark, ready, three, two, one, now!"
Eight novastar bombs shot out of their launchers and lanced toward the destroyer.
"Pull up, pull up!"
Krystal jammed the stick back as her Arwing blazed over the Brotherhood ship missing the hull by mere meters. There was a massive explosion behind her as the bombs hit. The first six bombs hit the destroyer's shields creating a small opening for just a brief instant, the last two bombs shot through the hole in the shields and slammed into the hull, tearing apart three gun turrets and causing an explosive decompression on that deck as they breached the hull. The engine glow from the back of Fox's Arwing flared, signaling a turbo boost, Krystal cracked the throttles wide open and left the destroyer behind.
Warships were torn apart by massive explosions, swarms of fighters engaged in their deadly dance while flying storms of laser fire from the capital ships, through the chaos blazed six dropships. Sweat trickled down Caitlin Monroe's forehead and she raised a hand to her face and wiped it away, wishing she was in the cockpit of her Broadsword fighter instead of this sluggish flying monstrosity. She rolled the dropship to the left to avoid a spinning, burning Wraith and tried to urge or more speed from the dropship as she streaked past a burning Cornerian frigate.
"Heads up Wraiths at three o'clock."
Katt glanced to the left and caught a glimpse of three Wraiths screaming in on an attack run.
"Break formation!"
The dropships scattered as the Wraiths attacked, desperately trying to outrun the smaller, faster fighters. The trio of Wraiths settled in behind one of the dropships and opened fire, sending ruby laser blasts tearing through space after the hapless dropship. They screamed past the ship as it was torn apart by an explosion and settled onto the next dropship's six blowing it apart just as fast. She cursed as the three fighters came in on her tail like predator's falling upon a sluggish herbivore. She dove and juked as laser blasts arced by and winced as one of them tore a tail fin off. Suddenly one of the Wraiths exploded. The second was torn apart by a flurry of laser blasts and the third was hit by a homing shot as it dove and streaked away. Katt looked in the direction the fire came from and saw three Cornerian Broadsword fighters scream by. She tossed a salute to the anonymous fighter pilots and then dove hard to avoid flying debris as a Cornerian light cruiser was torn apart by heavy laser fire. As she flew around the explosion she spotted the battlecruiser Defender maneuvering at flanks speed for the edge of the system and pummeling any Wraiths that got too close with its numerous weapon emplacements. She pushed a little more speed from the dropship and entered the sphere of protection provided by the Defender's covering fire. The other three dropships entered the safety of the battle cruiser's starboard hanger. Katt brought her dropship through the hanger's wide entrance as the massive doors began to close. She began the landing cycle and as the dropship settled to the metal hanger floor, Katt collapsed back in her chair and closed her eyes for a second before pushing the button to open the troops doors and heading aft to the troop compartment as the marines piled out hoping she would never again have to fly one of these oversized bullet magnets again.
Fox and Krystal were the last ships to enter the Defender's port side hanger. As their Arwings touched down the massive hanger doors closed and sealed. Fox jumped down from his Arwing's cockpit and felt the entire ship begin to vibrate, a hyperspace jump. He wiped the sweat from his face and walked over to where Krystal's Arwing had landed. A jump alarm sounded, announcing that the ship was jumping to hyperspace, leaving the battle behind but with every intention of finishing it another day.