The nafalli pilot fired up the four main thrusters, favouring the new replacement pods and in a surprising display of skill guided the Triton out of the crater she'd called home for only a few hours. The route she was taking would guide the ship through the thinnest of the debris tailing the asteroids and keep the gunnery deck pointed towards the enemy battlecruiser.
"All torpedo, beam and missile rooms, load for high penetration, close range," Oz ordered. "How are our shields?"
"We're up and fully charged, we even have reserve power. Somehow Chief Grady got all our power plants back online and the temporary emitters installed," Laura reported with a nod at Chief Grady's hologram.
"So I noticed. Focus most of our shielding on the core sections of the ship and gunnery deck. Now if he could get the cloaking systems back up and running I might recommend he gets a week off," Oz remarked.
"That's not going to happen while we've got a through and through hole big enough for a fighter, sorry Commander," the Chief replied.
"Just wishful thinking." Oz watched as the Triton neared the edge of the comet like trails left behind by the asteroids and planetoids they'd used for cover. The enemy ship's shields were reading no power, and Frost had switched to ripper slugs, ammunition that was heavy and sturdy enough to cut through the thick nebula material without going off course before tearing into the enemy's hull.
The battlecruiser changed course, turning towards them. It was completely against what he expected. If Oz were in command of the enemy ship, he would have used the nearby asteroid cluster as cover, or rotated the ship so they could recharge their shields one bank at a time.
"Oz, this pattern suggests-" Jason started.
"All torpedo and missile batteries, fire," Oz ordered calmly.
"Hold!" Jason countered. It was too late. The torpedo ports lining the edges of the Triton’s hull lit up momentarily as the entire ship fired a volley. "Oz, this pattern tells me that ship has backup, and they’re nearby. It’s trying to get close so it can block a line of fire while on another group while it closes in."
Oz looked at the tactical display in the middle of the bridge again. "I thought the same for a minute but I don't see anything. No electromagnetic signals, nothing on thermal scan."
The Triton continued to close the distance between it and the battlecruiser. It was doing its best to counter the impressive attack, firing its beam weapons in sweeping arcs to counter the incoming rush of torpedoes and missiles.
As the ships closed to within five hundred kilometres the torpedoes struck, the intensified fire of the gunnery deck ripped into the vessel and the few missiles that made it past the ship's defence impacted soundly in the middle of the bulky cruiser. Explosive decompressions and sudden implosions followed directly after the impacts, leaving the starboard side of the vessel an erupting ruin.
"There they are!" Agameg announced, highlighting the outlines of several vessels on a second, broader tactical display he initiated on the bridge. "They were hiding just in front of the cluster, putting a planetoid between us and them."
Oz's heart sank. He hadn't even considered that they would position their ships right in front of the largest planetoid, using the heat and the mass of the body to remain perfectly hidden while their decoy scanned for them and drew them out. "Panloo, get us out of here! Head for the nearest edge of the nebula. Don't spare the thrusters."
"They're firing sir," Agameg announced.
The tactical hologram in the middle of the bridge highlighted a group of five ships, all heavy battlecruisers. Three were the trio they had initially attempted to escape, and their energy shields were already low from being so close to the flaming front edge of the planetoid. The other two were part of the new group, and filed in between the others as they gave chase, firing their high powered beam weapons.
"Frost, begin firing flack rounds in a high density pattern so we can mitigate some of this heat damage," Oz ordered.
"Aye sir, changing firing method."
"Torpedo rooms, finish that battlecruiser off then load for long range. We have to give our ships enough cover so they can get away."
“We have breaches, section Q14 to S12. No one reported in those areas,” Agameg reported as passively as he could manage. “Their particle beams are sweeping sections of our hull, probing for weak spots.”
“All right, we have to change tactics here, we won’t make the edge of the nebula. Helm, reduce thrust and keep the hangars away from enemy fire. We’re redirecting as much power as we can to shields.” Oz dropped into the command chair and brought up his own, more detailed control interface. The smaller holographic displays surrounded him as a two dimensional control board closed over his lap. His own tactical display was far more complicated than the one in the centre of the bridge, made to be an overlay on the visual representation for the primary commander aboard. The first piece of information he found useful was how much the thick nebula's particle field was reducing the effectiveness of the particle beams. Their shields were holding up to the punishment again but the new main thrusters had taken real damage already. They were losing momentum quickly thanks to the thick particles of the planetary nebula, and it was all Oomal could do to keep the Triton drifting slowly away from the planetoid cluster.
“What if we use the asteroids behind us as cover?” asked Jason.
“They’re shedding too much material, it would reduce our shields too fast and we’d be open.”
“Then we’re out of options,” he whispered as he began calling up software from his personal drive.
“Looks like.”
There was a raise in spirits as the first battlecruiser they had seen was obliterated. The space around it was filled with escape shuttles as the final volley of torpedoes struck it. That was the morale booster the Triton’s crew needed for what was to come.
"Security, lock the Botanical Gallery down tight," he said quietly. “I don’t want anyone to have access until we have a ship wide all clear.”
"We haven't completely evacuated medical yet, sir," Kameri replied.
"Then lock that down separately. We're out of time."
"Yes sir," he replied.
"Torpedo rooms, Gunnery deck, target the furthest battlecruiser and finish him off. She’s still showing extensive damage from earlier. When they’re dead in space, shut down and get into position. Engineering, prepare to shunt all power to charge our reserves then shut down all core reactions. Flight Operations, launch all ready vessels. Tell them to head for the edge of the nebula and proceed from there. Use the Triton as cover."
All the departments acknowledged his orders.
"Are you sure about this?" Jason asked. “Last chance to cancel this and keep the crew together.”
"We're not going to escape as we are, and the crew is already separated from their rightful commander." Oz whispered back hurriedly. "Panloo, angle the ship so our top side is facing the incoming cruisers and cut all thrust. We need to give our pilots cover."
"Just tell me when you want me to work my magic," Jason said as he worked at his station, preparing several programs.
Oz watched as the fighter launch systems activated like a wave across the bottom of the ship, sending two dozen Uriel and Ramiel fighters into the nebula. Two other vessels they had salvaged from the raiders launched from the main hangars. "Is that everything Chief Vercelli?"
"No, there are two launches left. We need another minute.”
Oz looked at his small Flight Deck status screen and watched as Uriel and Ramiel fighters were loaded into the punter system. He’d never seen the crew work so quickly. The Skimmer, a captured raider vessel reported that it was loaded and was launched straight away.
“Ripped that one up, taking care of the second one’s engines. We found a soft spot!”