The brte brought up the tactical map of the Chendar system, showing the Gas mining facility looking like some kind of bloated red arachnid in the centre of the map. The Invictus was lurking in the bottom right corner, the graphical representation of the Assault cruiser partially obscured by the asteroid belt. The rest of the map began to popte, as more information came back from the passive scans.


    There were three groups of picket ships moving inzy loops around the outskirts of the pirates base. Five more ships were docked at the base itself and a group of seven were heading out of the system, on a path that would take them fairly near the Invictus’ current location in the asteroid belt. All the ships had deactivated transponders, so the identity of each vessel remained hidden.


    “Let me see if I can shed a bit more light on the situation,” Sparks said impishly, as she began to hack the encryption on the blocked transponders using the same algorithm she had developed earlier. Within moments the tactical map redrew itself, showing the precise identification of each ship.


    “Excellent work Sparks!” John said enthusiastically. At a stroke she had eliminated a huge element of the unknown and it would make their nning for the rest of the battle iparably easier.


    The picket groups each consisted of a frigate with two corvettes and the outbound ships were a destroyer , two frigates and four corvettes. The final group docked at the Gas mining facility was the heavy cruiser, a destroyer and two corvettes.


    “I thought there were only supposed to be twenty ships? What’s that?” Alyssa asked, pointing at a mystery vessel that was docked alongside the Heavy Cruiser.


    “I can’t hack that code,” Sparks admitted.


    “It’s big, whatever it is,” Cra replied, looking at the mass readings for the unknown craft.


    “OK, same n as before,” John said. “We hit that leaving group and smash them as quickly as possible. Once they’re all destroyed, we move on to the picket ships. When we lose the element of surprise, I want an active scan of the ships near the pirates base.”


    “Yes, Commander,” the girl’s all chorused together, no-one joking now, the stakes too high.


    “Life sign readings from the Passive scans?” he asked Cra.


    “Low on all vessels, except the Heavy Cruiser, and the mystery ship,” the brte responded immediately.


    “It’s clean up time,” John said, d to not have to worry about innocent victims on the outlying ships.


    “Weapons hot and shields up, let’s eliminate that first group,” he ordered.


    The destroyer was the biggest ship, blocky and menacing, just over two hundred metres in length, and sat in the middle of the formation. The frigates were smaller,ing in at approximately half the size and they nked each side of themand ship. Finally the four much smaller corvettes ranged out in front of the formation.


    The Invictus leapt out from the cover of the asteroid, and pounced on the departing ships as they cruised by, oblivious to the danger they were in. Alyssa had waited until the pirate craft had travelled past their position, so when the Invictus surged out, they were directly behind the enemy ships.


    Cra’s right hand triggered the powerful beamsers, and all six hit their targets in the rear. The two frigates didn’t have shields active, so the beamsers cored through their engines, slicing them in half, and punched into the central hulls of the pirate ships. One of the beams prated through the entire length of one frigate, vaporising the bridge. The other was hit at a slight angle and two of the beams sted out of the side, depressurising the ship. Crippled, both frigates began to spinzily, all engine power destroyed as they continued their forward momentum.


    “Firing main guns!” Cra called a secondter, as her left hand cycled through the weapons.


    The Invictus trembled with the recoil, and the four heavy shells sted out from the enormous weapons, mming into the rear of the shieldless destroyer. There was very light armour over the engines, and the shells prated deep into the hull, before a chain of explosive detonations obliterated themand ship, scattering thousands of chunks of debris in a wide radius.Têxt belongs to N?velDrama.Org.


    “Nice shooting Cra!” John said, impressed by her uracy.


    Sparks was amazed at the sheer destructive capability they had at theirmand. Hitting unshielded vessels magnified the effectiveness of their weapons substantially.


    The four remaining Corvettes did not react immediately, as they were caughtpletely by surprise. By the time two of the Corvettes had begun to take evasive manoeuvres the beam weapons had cooled and were ready to fire again. Cra caressed the trigger and the six beams sted out, three per Corvette. The Corvettes had managed to raise their shields, but it did little good and the brilliant beams of energy instantly overloaded them before punching straight through the lightly armoured hulls. One Corvette exploded a secondter, the other had been skewered through the power nt, instantly taking out all power.


    By the time thest two Corvettes had powered up shields and begun to react, the Invictus was upon them, theser cannon batteries now in range. Alyssa pushed the nose of their Assault Cruiser down so that they would eventually fly under the fleeing Corvettes and Cra was able to open up with the sixteen top deckser cannon turrets. Each of the Corvettes was bombarded by an unrelenting hail ofser fire and both exploded seconds after their shields were overwhelmed.


    “Outstanding!” John eximed, the first contact going better than he could have ever imagined.


    The girls all grinned up at him, delighted at the one sided fight.


    “Time for those picket ships,” John said, looking up at the tactical map. The entire fight was over in just under 30 seconds, and so far none of the other ships had reacted to the devastating surprise assault.


    “One minute until we reach the first group,” Alyssa called out, as she brought the Invictus about in a smooth graceful arc to engage its next victims.


    Finally realising what had happened, the first of the picket groups moved to engage them, seeming unaware at just how heavily outssed they were. With the pirate vessels heading directly towards them, the Invictus was in firing range within forty seconds. Cra instantly gutted the frigate like a skilled fishwife, the six beamsers punching through the shields and then slicing the frigate in half.


    Suddenly shockingly aware of their impending doom, the remaining Corvettes turned to attempt to flee, but they were not fast enough to escape the Assault Cruiser’s hunger for blood. Alyssa kept their course steady and on the same ne, so that Cra was able to broadside each routing Corvette with 12ser cannons, the bottom deck turrets also able to add to the salvo. Unsurprisingly, the terror stricken pirate crews were killed momentster as each Corvette was ripped apart by powerful, military gradeser cannons.


    “Moving to engage picket group two,” Alyssa said confidently, as she pointed the Invictus towards the next three ships.


    “Picket group three is fleeing!” Sparks said, pointing at the third group that was turning in the opposite direction to the Invictus and desperately running for safety.


    “Let them go,” John said, “if we can eliminate the second group quickly, we might be able to hit the Heavy Cruiser while it’s still docked.”


    “Thirty seconds until we engage the second picket group,” Alyssa noted.


    “Active scans on the Heavy Cruiser and the mystery ship, when we get within range, Cra,” John ordered.


    “Yes, Sir!” the brte acknowledged, as she prepared to fire on thest picket group.


    “What are they thinking?” Sparks wondered aloud, shaking her head in bewilderment at the pirates stupidity. The second group came within reach of the Invictus and the ship devoured them in coruscating sts ofser fire.


    “Active scans, please,” John requested.


    “I’m picking up just over one hundred life signs on the Heavy Cruiser,” Cra said as she read the report from the scans. “Over five hundred on the other ship.”


    “It looks like most of the ves have been transferred to our mystery ship,” John surmised.


    “Sparks, can you bring up an image of the ship please?” he asked the eager redhead.


    “Sure John, there we go!” she said, as an image filled the screen in the centre of the bridge.


    The Mystery vessel was bigger than their cruiser, at well over nine hundred metres in length. It had ribbed ting across the top that bristled with weapons, while the underbelly of the ship was segmented, and bulged with sphericalpartments. Sparks thought it looked like some kind of enormous mechanical insect.


    “Those bastards, how could they?!” John eximed, while Cra gasped in horror.


    “What’s the matter?” Alyssa asked, surprised at such a strong reaction from her friends.


    “That’s a Kirrix hive ship!” Cra said, her voiceden with dread.