GRRRRR gonna have to fix the formatting, it got screwed when I transferred it

p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"emThey caught me when I was wearing dress whites, of course./em "Gerard? Talk to me." The AI didn't bother to project an image as Sessue ran to the navigation bridge, but he heard his mildly-accented French voice through his neural lace. "Ever since we arrived in system, I have been tracking an object that the scopes read as an asteroid. It's conveniently drifting from the outer system into orbit around Balaho, about 200 kilometers from where we are now." "And?" "It just made a retrograde burn, landfall on Balaho in 30 minutes." "Try to make contact." "emOui, mon capitaine/em."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"Mifune arrived at the bridge, taking the conn from Garcia, then rushed to the sensor operator's booth, who was already tracking the object. "Diffusion is too strong to make out any detail, Captain, but it's obviously trying to land on Balaho." Bipzam's voice squeaked in from just outside the bridge, Kesh 'Vadam accompanying her. Mifune granted them permission to enter the bridge. emI have no clue what a Kig-Yar raider might look like, but Bipzam and 'Vadam probably do./em He explained the situation to Bipzam, who relayed it to 'Vadam, processed his response, and asked "check how much sunlight the object is reflecting relative to Tala, the closer it is to one, the more likely it's a raider. Kig-Yar polish their ships as much as possible to cool them for cheap."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"Human ships had done the same back in the 20supth/sup century when they made their first forays into space. The sensor operator waited a few seconds, getting a better read on the object while Gerard reduced the gain of the sensor to remove the backlight from the stars. "Almost 1 captain, zero decimal nine nine." "It's a Jackal raider," said Mifune with increasing animation, "Gerard! Sound general quarters."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"The siren blared, the emergency lights turned red, as the officer of the watch activated the ship's PA system. "General quarters! General quarters, all hands man your battlestations!"/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""I'm sorry," Mifune said to Bipzam, "but your delegation will have to remain onboard for the duration of the engagement. The Shipmaster had already been trying to give a message with a similar sentiment to Bipzam. "My Shipmaster says he would wish to remain aboard anyways, to better understand how the humans fight."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"Mifune nodded, strapping himself into his captain's chair. "Tell him he's about to get a crash course, and Bipzam? I'm going to need you to speak to the ship anyways. Go over to the comms station and tell him how to hail the raider."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"Bipzam saluted, human-style, and barked an enthusiastic "yes, captain!" as she waddled to the sensor station. 'Vadam stood to the side of Mifune's seat and a little behind, to not obstruct his field of view./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Nav, plan a burn, get us in Archer range of the raider in fifteen." "Aye, captain," said the lieutenant as the stationkeeping thrusters but some distance between Vicksburg and Sword of Unity, who had already begun her own maneuvers under the command of her deputy shipmaster./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Weapons," said Mifune, "what do we have to work with?" "Sixteen of twenty-six Archer pods green, all other systems green." "Engineering, give me one hundred percent on the reactor." "Aye, captain." "Comms, hail the Kig-Yar vessel. Bipzam?" "Yes?" "Tell me all I need to know about this ship."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"Kig-Yar vessels weren't built to a standard pattern. They were meant to chase down unarmed merchant ships and kidnap their crews. No armament beyond heavy plasma cannons and maybe a pulse laser. Fragile, hot, cramped, unsafe./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Is there any chance there are already Unggoy captives aboard?" asked Mifune. "Odds are very high there are at least some, with how big this one is." It was about 150 meters long. "Stay closeby, I'm going to need you and the shipmaster to tell me where to hit it in order to disable it without destroying it." She relayed the message to 'Vadam, who responded affirmatively./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Captain?" came a voice from the communications booth, "the Raider is ignoring us, Bipzam says the emUnity/em is reporting the same."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Weapons," ordered Mifune, "fire a shot across her bow."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"emVicksburg/em shuddered as her stationkeeping thrusters found the firing solution, and then rang like a bell as the magnetic accelerator cannon fired a 300-ton depleted uranium slug at 0.4% of the speed of light 50 meters in front of the raider./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Helm, roll us 90 degrees to port," ordered Mifune, closing his eyes. He wouldn't turn sideways, obviously, but the rotation of the starfield always made him nauseous whenever a ship changed attitude. He opened them when he felt the reaction control system's stationkeeping thrusters end the attitude change. emVicksburg /emwas still burning to close the distance, emSword of Unity/em was racing ahead, the points of her pulse lasers glowing, ready to fire./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Comms, tell Unity to fire when ready and inform us when the ship is disabled." Bipzam took a headset and relayed the message to their sister ship as the comms crewman kept trying to hail the raider, telling it to turn around or they would be boarded./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""emUnity/em will fire any moment now," Bipzam relayed to the bridge, as the covenant frigate adjusted attitude, moving it's "nose" "upwards" relative to the direction she had been moving, and then elegantly sliced the engine block clean off the raider with a pulse laser. The raider's momentum continued of course, but Vicksburg and Unity had twenty minutes to board it and put it back into a circular orbit./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Breaker Actual, this is the captain," "I read you, Captain," replied Major Litvak, answering to her radio call sign. "Prepare to sortie all pelicans to board and circularize the raider's orbit." "Wilco, Captain." "Helm, give the raider our port broadside." "Aye, Captain." span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanThe bridge would lose visual with the raider but would lose nothing due to the camera coverage. "Captain, CIC," Garcia's voice sounded across the PA, "CIC, Captain," responded Mifune, "three new contacts, Sword of Unity has launched one Tick and a two-ship flight of Space Banshees."/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;""Handguard 1-1," said Mifune to the commander of the Pelican detachment, "launch when ready." "Captain, Handguard 1-1, launching." The camera's hazed as the four pelicans launched one by one and from the port hangars and fell into line, preparing to intercept the disabled Kig-Yar raider./p