Fortunately they were now flying directly underneath the alien vessel and it’s weaponless underbelly was exposed to the topdeck of the assault cruiser. Cra opened up with theser cannons and a cascade ofser sts ripped into the bottom of the enemy ship, their shields zing brightly as they absorbed dozens of hits.


    Suddenly the shields winked out, overwhelmed by the ferocious barrage ofser fire and theser cannons began to strike home on the hull of the Kirrix ship.


    “Stop firing!” Sparks yelled in rm, causing the others to look at her in surprise.


    “The active scan is showing all the humans located in the belly of that ship. If we keep hitting the bottom of those segmented sections, we risk killing the captives!” she said urgently.


    “What are our options Cra?” John asked the Latina.


    “I don’t have technical readouts for the ship, so I’m not sure where the vulnerable systems are located. I can take out the engines easily enough though” She replied confidently.


    “Good n, take them out!” John ordered.N?velDrama.Org owns all content.


    “Yes Commander”, the gorgeous brte said resolutely.


    Cra targeted the bulky sections at the rear of the alien ship that were obviously engines, given away by their ion trails and theser cannon turrets swung around to focus on them. She began to carefully strafe the rear sections of the engines,nding repeated hits and blowing chunks off the armoured engine housing. Finally realising the serious danger presented by the Invictus, the Kirrix abandoned any idea of escaping the system and began to roll the ship to bring their neutron beams to bear.


    “Adjusting course to maintain position” Alyssa stated as she brought the Invictus around, turning so that they began to gently loop around the alien ship, matching their roll rate.


    The relentlessser impacts began to take their toll and one of the three Kirrix engines ruptured, spewing smoke and debris out into space. The Kirrix suddenly reversed the direction of their roll, causing Alyssa to pull the nose up hard on the Invictus to avoid flying right over the top of the enemy ship and right into their killing zone. Unfortunately they were still exposed to fire from some of the Neutron beams and three of the four enemy beams scorched their way across the Invictus’ shields.


    “Shields down to 40%!” Sparks shouted in rm.


    “I know, I know!” Alyssa eximed, her calm countenance finally shaken.


    John had been watching the active scans as the Kirrix opened fire on them and he spotted something interesting.


    “There was a power surge when they fired on us!” he said hopefully.


    “Cra, target that rounded section near the rear of the ship on the port side” he ordered the brte.


    “I see it Commander!” the Latina said excitedly as Alyssa brought the Invictus back in a tight loop so they were pointing directly at the alien ship.


    Cra pulled the trigger and the six beamsers sheared the entire bulbous section from the side of the hive ship. The ship’s hull was left with a glowing wound, where the beams had gouged deep furrows through the craft and when the bulbous section exploded a few secondster, the port side was peppered with debris. The Kirrix craft seemed to shudder and half the ship went dark, all lighting on the port side extinguished in an instant.


    “Nice shooting lieutenant!” John said, impressed by her incredible pinpoint uracy.


    “No problem Commander” she said, grinning at him.


    “Now take out thest of those engines” he said, to which the brte nodded her agreement.


    Alyssa had brought the Invictus back around and their ship was now positioned directly under the Kirrix’s underbelly again. The loss of the port power distributor had badly affected the hive ship’s ability to make rapid directional changes, so it was now easy for her to stay directly beneath them and she grinned confidently. Cra renewed her assault on the enemy engines, scoring numerous hits with theser cannons.


    “John something justunched from the ship!” Sparks said in rm.


    John narrowed his eyes as he looked at the small shapes on the system map. “Dropships!” he said with rm, “Cra take them out!”


    Cra flipped over to the defence grid and the Gatlingsers span up as they targeted the iing dropships. Ribbons ofser fire arced out, lighting up the Kirrix dropships with strobing shes of light as they were hit by multiple streams ofser bolts. The shields on the first dropship copsed and theser fire punched through the cockpit, sending the small craft spiralling out of control. The second was hit multiple times and dropped the shields, but the armour proved resilient and the dropship was able to weather the storm ofser bolts. It moved around to the nk of the Invictus and began to close in to begin a boarding action.


    “Sparks, can you fly the Invictus?” John asked bluntly.


    “Nowhere near like Alyssa, but I can keep us out of trouble” she replied apprehensively.


    “Good, take control” he ordered brusquely as he lurched to his feet. “XO we need to repel boarders!” he said urgently.


    Alyssa nodded and the two of them dashed for the elevator.


    “You’ve got about 30 seconds until they dock John!” Cra warned him.


    John nodded his understanding as the doors closed and they disappeared from view. The elevator only took five seconds to drop to deck 2 and for the doors to open, but when every second counted it felt like a lifetime. The two of them raced to their quarters and grabbed their rifles.


    “We need armour piercing not hollow point!” John said to his youngpanion, as he grabbed two magazines of the correct type of caseless ammo.


    Alyssa nodded her understanding and grabbed a couple of mags of armour piercing rounds and the two of them sprinted back to the elevator. John hit the button for the bottom deck and they used the 10 seconds it took for the lift to descend, to m their magazines home into the bullpup ammo slot and check the weapon sighting.