A/N: Applicable author's notes are being moved to the reviews section from here on out.
Alteran date: year 6, month 6, day 7, time 16:00
The proximity alarm pulled the bridge crews into action at the appearance of the clear skies, her gold-white hull gleaming in the starlight. The two sister ships Tempest Flame and storm-wave hung suspended in the cold void. The few personnel that were in the observation decks on each ship, stared in awe of the white-gold impossibility before them.
The two ships were scarred from the battles they had witnessed and partook in. The Tempest Flame's hull had a nasty blackened rip running along the lower hull crossing 2 decks for about a quarter of the ships length. The Storm-wave's hull was more intact but hundreds of relatively small marks dotted her hull small weapons impacts had worked the hull over causing sections to resemble the surface of a small moon. The scars were both from the fight to escape their former home planets and on the journey to where they now were.
Morale was at an all-time low, the crew of two ships kept each other going. It was a combination effort of chewing-gum, string, duct-tape and anything else they could get their hands on. They had scavenged basic shield generators a few battles previous giving them a jumpstart on creating their own shields. At the moment their first attempts at the technology, a fragile web of light over the gash in the side of the Tempest Flame's red hull, held a fragile net of light preventing atmospheric decompression in the section while repair teams worked to reverse the damage.
That battle had been a particularly nasty one above a small mining outpost they had established. Caught off guard away from the Storm-wave and out of tungsten slugs for the plasma cannons the Tempest Flame had barely managed to fight off the other ship long enough for the Storm-wave to arrive. Amazingly her casualties were limited to minor injuries, as everyone had moved closer to the core of the ship.
Neither ship had the particle accelerator that clear skies had wrapped around her hull. though their design allowed for it. The weapon and part-time research tool had not been completed before they left having still been in the experimental stages. In the short time it took for the computers to register the identification codes broadcast by the clear skies, the two captains had sighed in relief cancelled the proximity alarms and hailed their new arrival.
As the light cleared from the display on the bridge revealing the damage to the other two vessels, Captain Fenris ordered repair teams to stand-by to assist the other two cities. Everyone on the bridge and the observation deck were relieved they had taken the time to pack as much refined materials as they could and then filled the rest of their empty space with raw ore before being sent to the two ships before them.
As the repair bots swarmed out of the open hatches on her golden hull towards the more damaged red ship, repair teams awaited in shuttles for clearance to leave. They made short work of the procedure, as their shuttles met and then passing the delegations from the other two ships bringing damaged shuttles into the better stocked repair bays onboard the clear skies.
Just as the last shuttle cleared the open space and the cities had closed the doors, five smaller delta wing fighters painted brown and purple, each bearing white lettering in an alien language dropped from FTL. A signal broadcast from the lead ship showed an insectoid clicking menacingly into the recording device.
A short time later a translation program deposited by the race from the pyramid activated. The clicking quieted replaced with a synthesized voice demanding they surrender all cargo, and provide a database dump. To emphasize their point the lead ship fired a warning shot across their bow into the empty space between the three ships.
Fenris not one to be bullied by pirates ordered weapons hot and to return the warning shot with a one of the accurate but lower powered ion cannon arrays. The limited sensors of the bug ship picked up the buildup of energy from the particle accelerator, and the refocusing of the plasma cannon turrets as each cannon lazily swung into a weapons lock
The pirates used to facing the softer targets of the other two ships, chittered back and forth not quite loud enough for the translation program to pick up their words. They knew that this new gleaming monstrosity before them was obviously pointing weapons at them but they didn't quite understand just how deadly she could be when her captain wished. A side channel opened tight-beam from the other two ships giving Captain Fenris the information he needed to mark these aliens as hostile.
The alien pirate on the screen grew visibly agitated, if they had been able to understand his body language the captain would have read nervousness and a healthy touch of fear from the pirate commander. The alien chittered and clicked into the camera demanding their immediate surrender and prepared to fire directly at the Clear Skies. The weapons lock was all Captain Fenris needed to order fire at will.
Four tungsten slugs were launched at four of the hostile ships accelerated by the superheated plasma with a barely visible flash of light. The silent but deadly munitions crossed the void in less time than it took to blink travelling in excess of mach 10. Given the deadly accuracy and the point blank range of the attack four of the pirate ships were hit head on by the slugs. the limited shields of the smaller pirate vessels countering probably less than ten percent of the momentum, crumbled beneath the kinetic energy imparted by the dense tungsten. They each hit their target hulls with the force of a small tactical nuke. Ripping through the super-dense alloys like a knife through warm butter, before impacting the engines leaving the four fighters as lifeless wrecks.
For the slightly bigger leading ship the particle accelerator hit them with a point five second burst of focused verdant green. The beam reached out from the outer ring around the ship and swatted the pirate vessel. It's shields flared before collapsing as the beam continued onward in it's relentless path. they sliced through the hostile ships engines cutting their weapons power and motion before the beam cut off from the larger city ship. A ragged cheer arose from the people watching on the other two ships.