Rodney Smith - Scout force

Shadow Leader M’trang picked himself up from the deck again. The captain lay dead. He punched up the communications console. “All ships move back 10,000 km and hold positions. All ships with working forward guns fire straight ahead on a random basis. Keep them from doing that again.”

The Shadow Leader pondered his situation. He was down to three ships, four if the engineers on one of the support ships could get power back up. He had too little combat power to influence the battle at New Alexandria. The other two fleets would have to deal with that situation. His long-range communications were off line, so he couldn’t even find out what was going on outside this small battle.

He chose to fight the battle he could. He called the two frigate captains and informed them of his plan to take out this lone Human ship. They could not leave this ship behind them and would need to destroy it before proceeding to New Alexandria and his triumph.

“Good work, Kelly. That should back them up a bit as they lick their wounds. Engineering, how are the repairs coming?”

“We’re almost there, Captain. We need a few minutes to calibrate the shields, but we should be back at full power in ten minutes.”

“Good work, Chief. Kelly, let’s go see what our two blind mice are up to.”

Kelly turned helm and gunnery back over to the bridge crew and ordered them to move closer to the two frigates they had dealt with earlier. Sensors showed both ships still dead in space. One had the engines completely off line and its comms suite was gone. One of its rear turrets was smoking and venting atmosphere into space.

The second frigate was in worse shape. A secondary explosion must have blown a large hole in the side of the ship. Kelly suspected the missile magazine may have been touched off by the engine fire. The Vigilant’s guns couldn’t have done that much damage on their own.

The captain studied the sensor displays for a bit and called out, “Gunner, bring all guns to bear on that hole in the K’Rang ship.”

The gunner aligned the turrets to fire forward, fired thrusters to line his cross hairs on the hole, and opened fire. The effect was incredible. The frigate blew apart. The shock wave rocked the Vigilant. A large chunk of the stern flew into the side of the other frigate and took out all the short range defensive guns along the port side and slammed into the bridge. The captain ordered the gunner to fire into the bridge spaces of the second frigate. The bridge was easily punctured and the Vigilant’s bridge crew watched as debris, parts of bodies, and atmosphere poured out into space.

“Good work, gunner,” the captain said. “Now, helm, move us out of here. These two aren’t going anywhere. Wait! Are there any big chunks of the first frigate floating free?”

Timmons studied his sensor display and found the large piece of the stern that had hit the other frigate.

‘Helm, take us into tractor beam range of that piece of junk. I want to go bowling.”

Kelly stared quizzically at LCDR Timmons, then the realization dawned on him.

“You thinking of throwing that bit of junk at the guys waiting outside?”

“Exactly! They didn’t take the hint and back off like I wanted them to. I want to give them two things to think about. One, we got their buddies and two, we can still hurt them.”

“Helm, pull in that bit of junk and lay in a collision course for the destroyer at just below FTL.”

The helm and navigator worked quickly to plot the course, while the gunner locked the tractor beam on the wreckage. The Vigilant moved forward, slowly accelerating their increased mass to just below FTL. When Timmons was satisfied they were aimed correctly, he ordered the tractor beam turned off and the helm to execute a loop and keep the Vigilant in the nebula.

The K’Rang ships opened fire on the debris as if it were the Vigilant coming in on an attack vector. They realized too late what had been done. The gunfire and missile fire shredding the wreckage merely increased the damage as the mass of the stern section plowed headlong into the destroyer. The smaller pieces fanned out and hit the two assembled frigates, causing more damage. The destroyer was a total loss as multiple explosions wracked the ship.

The captain ordered the Vigilant deep into the nebula to give the crew a break and a hot meal. It was obvious the K’Rang weren’t coming in and with three frigates sitting outside, they weren’t coming out.

The Shadow Leader made his way to an escape pod while the ship was wracked with explosions. He launched himself free of the destroyer just as a final explosion consumed the ship. He made his way to the nearest frigate and once onboard, ordered all ships to move themselves out 100,000 km from the nebula. It was plain that the two earlier frigates had been destroyed and this Human ship was still dangerous. He placed the three ships (the support ship had joined them) so they could cover the Humans’ escape paths.

The captain ordered Cookie to prepare a hot meal for the crew while he studied their options. There were three frigates and a support ship patrolling out there and waiting. The K’Rang were wounded, but still had teeth. In addition, the frigates had long-range missiles that were almost two times faster than the Vigilant. Running for it, therefore, was not an option.

The captain had Chief Watson change out the watch as the crew was fed, so fresh eyes and minds would be on the controls, sensors, and gun sights.

Cookie did wonders with the meal. He produced steaks, potatoes with gravy, corn on the cob, fresh green beans, and caesar salad. The crew was fed first and then Chief Watson, Kelly and Timmons ate, while discussing their situation.

“Well,” Timmons said, “we can’t run and we can’t stay here and hide. We are too far into K’Rang space. At some point, reinforcements will show up to conduct a concerted cordon and search of this piece of the nebula. The K’Rang ships out there have positioned themselves well. They can watch every escape route. They are far enough out that our weapons can’t affect them if we stay here inside the nebula. If we come out to try and pick one of them off, the others can come to its aid. If we try to run back up the nebula it takes us further into K’Rang space, which isn’t good now that we’re out of missiles. I don’t think we will be able to use the Algolian Gambit again. They seem to have figured that one out. Do you two have any ideas?”

Chief Watson just scratched his head. “Sir, if we have no real alternatives, why don’t we just take out as many as we can and go down swinging?”

“Chief, we may get to that, but I want to expend all other options first.”

Kelly finished chewing a bite of his steak and said, “I wonder if there are any missiles we could borrow from the two frigates in here? If we could pull some out and rig them for firing, even if they don’t hit anything, they may distract the K’Rang enough for us to get a head start to the frontier.”

“Nice idea, Exec, but I don’t think we have the time or expertise to make that happen.”

“Captain, I’m kind of out of ideas, then.”

“I know, so am I. I want us all to get some rest. Nothing is going to happen for a while. If we get some shut eye and approach this with clear heads, we might come up with some options. Go to your quarters. Chief Billings will take the conn. Chief, have the other chiefs get some rest.”

The three of them finished their steaks and retired to their quarters for some rest. When there are no better options, sleep is a good course of action.

In three hours, Kelly hadn’t slept or come up with a viable course of action. He saw no other option than to try and battle it out. No tricky moves came to mind. It would be a slug fest. He couldn’t see how the Vigilant could survive battle with three frigates, even with as much damage as they had already inflicted. They still had more firepower, shielding, and as much speed as the Vigilant.