Rodney Smith - Scout force

“No, I will assume command. Have some undamaged frigates close with us. I will decide on whether to move to another ship once we determine our status. Where are the damage reports, captain?”

Damage reports came in. The engines were down and would need to be restarted. Engineering expected it would take ten minutes to have maneuver control and twenty for full power.

“Inform the Fleet that I have assumed command. Have the Frigates lay alongside. The remainder of the ships should form a defensive bubble.”

Vigilant held position in the gas giant to give the K’Rang a chance to settle down. Two frigates moved to the disabled destroyer’s aid, probably to pull off survivors, arrange a tow, or assist in damage control. The remaining ships formed a defensive bubble. The three remaining destroyers and two frigates formed a perimeter around the remaining missile cruiser in the center of the formation. All ships pointed outward, away from the cruiser.

The captain gave orders to jump out to fire the last four missiles at the cruiser and active destroyers. Once the calculations had been completed, the helm jumped the ship to within 100,000 km of the formation. As the missiles left the launcher, the Vigilant made the jump to the larger nebula. The missiles did their work, taking out the four larger ships, but two frigates were hot on the Vigilant’s tail. They had figured it out. They were on a direct path to where the Vigilant had entered the nebula, and they looked angry.

The Shadow Leader chastised the frigate commanders for their reluctance to chase the Human ship into the nebula.

“It is only one ship. It should be easy prey. Go in and flush it out.”

As you command, Shadow Warrior, but for one ship, it has wreaked a significant amount of devastation.”

The Shadow Leader personally worked a sensor console to attempt to resolve the location of the Human ship in the nebula. The earlier blast had destroyed many of the specialized sensors that made a Shadow Scout Destroyer so formidable. The Shadow Warrior was unable to coax the remaining sensors to give up the Human’s hiding place.

As the frigates entered the nebula, their communications were lost.

Vigilant moved deep into the nebula and ordered a turn 30 degrees to port and 30 degrees up. No use being where the enemy expected you to be.

“Bridge, Sensors, the destroyer is moving again. It and the two other frigates are moving in this direction.”

That complicated matters.

The frigates reached the point where the Vigilant made its turn and continued straight ahead. The captain gave orders to go wide around them to come up on their rear. If the Vigilant could take them out while they were blinded by the charged gases in the nebula, it could even the odds some.

As the Vigilant moved above and to port of the frigates, they showed no reaction. The Vigilant came around to abeam of them and was preparing to turn to attack their engines when both ships erupted in gunfire. Every gun on the two ships was firing blindly into the space around them. Fortunately, none of the fire came close to the Vigilant.

The captain lined up with the sterns of the two ships and waited. They wouldn’t be able to keep the firing going for long. As soon as the firing let up he would order the ship in to take the two frigates out of action. Chief B called forward to report the destroyer and its two escorts were holding just outside of the nebula.

The firing ceased and the Vigilant shot forward. As it closed the distance on the two ships, and before the Vigilant could open fire, the ships began firing again. Their firing appeared to be more directed toward the Vigilant’s path and less random. It was obvious they had some sensor indication of the Vigilant’s position. The gunner shifted from visual to sensor view, locked onto the exhaust of the closest frigate and opened fire. The plasma bursts tore into the frigate's engine spaces and sent it drifting. The helm turned to line up on the second frigate, as the turret gunners concentrated on the gunnery control and sensors of the disabled ship. A few pulses from the frigate's short-range guns hit the Vigilant’s shields, but were harmlessly absorbed. Kelly felt a slight jolt, but none of the frigate's big-bore guns had their range.

The second frigate came into range and the gunner made equally short work of him. A strong jolt was felt. One of the long-range guns from the first frigate had scored a hit. One of the turret gunners gave that frigate's turret a burst, and put it out of commission. Kelly asked for a damage report from all sections.

The second frigate’s engines were knocked off line and it also drifted in space. The turret gunners destroyed both its rear turrets and the communications module as the Vigilant moved on. The Vigilant turned parallel with the two ships and stopped just beyond the K’Rang’s apparent sensor range, and waited.

The damage reports came in. No major damage was reported. Engineering reported a moderate loss in shield strength. Chief Miller was affecting repairs, but he didn’t have an estimated time of completion. The captain asked for a status report every 15 minutes.

The captain studied his sensor display for a few minutes and said, “Helm, move us away 50,000 km and park us until we get shields back to full strength. Neither of these guys are going anywhere. We’ll come back later and finish them off if we can.”

“Bridge, Sensors, the support ship and frigate from our first attack are moving again. They're coming to join up with the destroyer and the two frigates sitting outside the nebula.”

Kelly looked at the sensor display and said, “Captain, the K’Rang ships are awfully close to the nebula. Do you suppose we could sit in here and throw some carefully aimed potshots out at them? If nothing else, it may back them up and give us some more maneuvering room. We just need to make sure we don’t sit in one spot so they can fire back down the path of our pulses and hit us. There is a technique we use in fighters called off-axis shooting. It may work here. This is where you turn your ship away from the direction you are flying to fire off your axis of movement. If we do it right, we can get several shots in on all the K’Rang ships and they won’t know where the fire is actually coming from.”

‘I like it. Their frontal armor is pretty tough, but we may get in some lucky shots. Make it happen, Exec.”

Kelly made some quick calculations, took over the helm, and flew the ship to where he wanted to start his gun run, some 10,000 km inside the nebula. He locked the turrets to fire forward and took over gunnery control.

The ship moved out smoothly at his command. Once at speed he fired the maneuvering thrusters to turn the ship to face out toward the K’Rang ships. The captain grinned, looked over to him, and said, “Fire as your guns bear. I always wanted to say that.”

Kelly ignored his captain’s humor. He watched the first frigate start to line up in his cross hairs. He adjusted the angle of the ship and opened fire. Nine cannons opened up at once, piercing the veil of the nebula and striking the frigate’s forward armor. One missile launcher was put out of commission. The forward turret stabbed out at where they thought the Vigilant was, but she had already moved on.

The destroyer was next. Kelly tried to concentrate his fire on the forward missile bays. His efforts were rewarded with secondary explosions as his fire took off one of the armored hatches and set off the missiles’ warheads inside. Other explosions followed. There were now two damaged and one to go.

The second frigate had been tracking the fire on the other two ships and its turrets were swiveling to where they expected the Vigilant to be. Kelly increased forward momentum and held his fire until directly in front of the frigate. This threw their targeting solution off. The frigate opened fire on empty space. Kelly returned fire, taking out one of its forward turrets and doing major damage to its bridge. He turned the ship back on axis and moved them deeper into the nebula.