Galaxia

[Kr34t0r]

She's pretty young for a captain unless you count it as "dog years". :p This was a pretty awesome chapter, keep it up.

I'm struggling in ch. 3. My schedule's messed up in a way. :mad:

[Toontownguy]

It makes me feel nerdy because I'ma trekkie, but I love this story.. Its the first thing I check whenever I come on the forums xD

[Aurora]

Thanks for all your comments, guys. :D

[Aurora]

Chapter 4

The members of the crew lounged around in the bridge, exchanging friendly talk - talk that was restricted from getting near work. After all, they were now in a new system entirely, on the way to a planet, and they might be attacked at any time; best to keep themselves awake with talk. It'd been nearly eight Earth hours since the attack, and every single crew-member was tired. They had taken turns changing, and were all back in uniform. Except for Christine, that was, her position as captain didn't permit her to take breaks.

"Status report?" Ann spoke into her headset. "All ships are currently in formation and are on red status," the captain of one of the Hercules destroyers reported. Something was nagging at the base of Christine's neck though, she felt that the place was too quiet. "Run a full SAWACS sweep. I don't want any stealth pirate ships jumping on us," she ordered, massaging her eyes. "Okay..." the communications officer sighed and pressed a button on her console. A few seconds later, the sensor equipment beeped. "Stealth ship at 6 o'clock!" she almost jumped up. "I'm on it," Conrad nodded as the rear guns started blazing. An explosion followed soon after, only to have the SAWACS beep again.

"A fleet of 20 ships headed towards us, 10 kilometres away at 2 o'clock," Ann reported. The tired captain nodded, then cast a glance at the monitor. The other ships in the fleet were still around them, and would have a much better chance of intercepting the attack before the lumbering dreadnought got there. However, there was a chance that it was a trap. She considered her options. Either send the rest of the fleet off to destroy the incoming ships, or just continue on course. The planet loomed further ahead, a ball-sized speck from the ship's bridge. "Send the fleet off, cut off the attack before they get us," she ordered. "Roger that," the communications officer replied, sending the message over the channels. The other ships began to break off, then swung towards the direction of the incoming fleet and set off at full thrust. Their top speed was higher than the Agamemnon's by 100%, so it wasn't long before the bridge crew couldn't see them.

"Bandit on our 10!" Ann cried out as the SAWACS lit up. "What!?" Christine almost leapt up. "This reading is...... EMP! It's got an EMP cannon!" the communications officer gasped. "Hard to port! Evade!" the captain barely had time to react as the first blue pulse hit the ship. The shields barely held against the attack. "Shield strength down to 19%! More bandits incoming!" Ben yelled. Christine stared out the windshield and ordered, "Shoot that EMP ship down before it fires again!"

The order couldn't be carried out in time. The second EMP burst hit the rear starboard engine, creating a chain reaction and disabling all four engines as well as every single weapon on the ship. The bridge jolted as the immobilized ship grinded to a halt. "Picking up multiple enemy ships headed right for us...... Probably boarding crews," Ann brought up the SAWACS screen on the main monitor, highlighting four ships among a small fleet of eight on an intercept course. "Tell the crew to prepare for close-range combat. We need to be ready for them," Christine ordered, flicking a switch under her console. Training simulations dictated that emergency firearms be placed in an easily accessible location in case the ship was boarded. The weapon, in this case, was an IFF-calibrated pulse rifle that packed enough of a punch to push an old car on its side. The IFF calibration meant that the pulse wouldn't hurt friendlies.

She checcked the weapon's loadout as she got up, noting that the battery was full. The rest of the bridge crew had laser rifles in their hands. "Contact in 3 minutes," Ann announced, cradling her rifle. The now-anxious captain stared at the main screen, which now showed the four highlighted ships moving for the Agamemnon while the other four stayed a little behind, out of weapons range. Not that she could shoot them, the EMP would take time to wear off.

"1 minute," the communications officer nodded, and the bridge crew raced out of the bridge to the nearest projected entry point, which was the frontal starboard docking port just nearby. Already, the crew were there, armed and ready to fight for the ship. "Looks like they hacked the docking ports, they'll open up to the pirate ships," one of them informed. "10 seconds," Ben checked his watch. "9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, boarded,"

The moment the docking port doors opened up, a crew member threw a flashbang into it and closed his eyes. There were yells from the pirates as the flashbang blinded them, then a fragmentation grenade went in too. More yells, and an explosion which didn't damage the boarding tube. Christine jumped right in front of the tube, then pointed her pulse rifle into it and fired. The sonic pulse sent the few pirates that weren't dead flying back into their ship, only to get massacred by well-placed laser bursts. One of the crew members was carrying a portable cluster mine launcher, and he set it up in front of the tube and fired. A small ball exited the barrel to explode in mid-air in the middle of the tunnel, releasing multiple small mines. Anyone trying to get through would get blown up.

Christine, sweating, dashed off to the next boarding site, well aware that the previous one was clear. The very next one was at the other side of the ship, only a few corridors away. No trouble either, except for a lucky pirate who managed to get through the hailstorm of laser bursts. He only managed to yell a catcall at the captain before getting a point-blank pulse rifle blast through the stomach. Ann kept track of events through her headset, so she knew exactly where fights took place and the status of the vessel. "The ship's all clear, I think the pirates expected less crew onboard. Well, we won't be needed, so let's get back to the bridge," she sighed.

Since the captain's room was near the bridge, the captain took the chance to change back into uniform while the crew went ahead. The smart female captain's uniform consisted of a blue knee-length skirt and a white shirt with a blue overcoat on which sat her badges. It had to be custom-made, since there were hardly any female captains in the fleet for it to enter mass-production. The only other accessory was a belt.

When Christine reentered the bridge, the crew were already at their stations, watching the countdown to reactivation tick. Currently, it was at 30 seconds. "It'll take some time for the FCS to restart again, Officer Jenkins, you'll have to do the gunning manually," she took her seat. The gunner nodded and flexed his fingers. He began selecting targets on his console, directing each and every gun to a separate target quickly. Pressing a button, he released the assault drones stored in bays around the SAWACS dish in stealth mode, letting them drift towards the EMP-equipped pirate vessel. It looked like a crab.

The very second the ship's systems came back online, the boarding ports were sealed off and all guns and drones opened fire. The pirate ships were taken by surprise, and were completely annihilated in just a few seconds. "Serenia to rest of fleet, do you copy?" Ann said into her headset. The main screen came back online to show an enlarged radar globe. On it, the blue dots representing friendly ships were returning to the Agamemnon, with no casualties at all. "Copy that, Serenia. Captain Bey here. Those other pirate ships just retreated when we got into firing range, and we figured something was wrong when we kept on chasing them and they kept running. Then we lost contact and thought we'd come back. No way we're losing the Serenia in a place like this," the captain of a Hercules responded. Christine smiled, recognizing the voice of her friend. The bridge crew heaved a sigh of relief.

"Wait, that EMP ship isn't down yet," Ann checked the SAWACS console. A lone red blip appeared just a little to the front of the dreadnought. The computer determined that the ship was heavily damaged, but not gone yet. "Sink it," the captain ordered. Complying, the gunner locked the Dark Matter Cannons onto the lone ship, then fired one shot at normal strength. The big ball of dark matter was just big enough to envelop the enemy ship, vaporizing it. "Problem solved," he grinned.

Once the rest of the fleet returned, Christine ordered them to move ahead to the planet, staying vigilant all the time. It seemed that the pirates had learnt their lesson though, as small readings popped up on SAWACS every now and then. Scans determined that they were just fighter-size craft with makeshift sensor arrays clumsily cobbled on. The Agamemnon's special ECM field was strong enough to render their sensors useless, although the other Earth ships with an equally high degree of information warfare technology installed would be able to use theirs normally.

[jiahao_94]

Way ta go! *slaps at invisible hand in the air*

Update faster please. =(