This weeks flash fiction from Ecliptic Rifit is “If this goes on…”
***
Rurik lounged back in his Command Chair looking at the new arrival in his office.
“Lieutenant Korsakov, as you may know we have recently lost one of our agents in the field, which is unfortunate for us. Fortunately, though intel has managed to locate where he is going to be held, a little out of the way integration facility over in the Hamah system on planet one. So Lieutenant you job is quite simple; destroy the holding ship before it reaches the facility and end the danger our agent presents to this organisation. I suggest you do so as the transport ship prepares to dock at the facility. Here is a datachip containing the known details of the transport ships route and the estimated time of arrival. Dismissed Lieutenant”
Korsakov saluted “Sir,” about turned and strode out of Rurik’s office leaving him to think about what was to be done next.
***
Lieutenant Korsakov looked out across the Bridges viewport into fires of the local sun. Even with the viewports fully tinted the glare of sun was painful to the eyes. The Caracal’s structure creaked and groaned as the solar storm buffered the ship, providing cover from any electronic sensors attempting to find them.
Sub-Lieutenant Povas approached him on the bridge “If this goes on much longer sir the ship will fall apart. The engineers report a lot of the stress is being placed on the capacitor.”
“Fortunately Sub-Lieutenant, it won’t have to go on much longer, the prison ship should be arriving imminently.”
Korsakov turned back to sun and waited a few tense minutes listening to his ship groan beneath him.
“Sir, our probes are picking up a new contact, tracing it now….. they indicate that it is a Iteron Class industrial, the transponder matches that of the one provided by the Captain.”
“Navigation prepare for warp. Sub-Lieutenant inform the ships personal to prepare for engagement. We are going in with our weapons hot” ordered Korsakov.
Korsakov felt the Caracal lurch into warp and watched the sun recede into the distance as the ship headed towards the interrogation facility and the waiting prison ship. Korsakov turned around and headed to his command chair when a muffled blast went off in the depths of the Caracal. The ship shook, scattering anything that was not fastened down. The main lights dimmed and then flickered over to the emergency lights.
“Situation report” barked Korsakov. A few tense seconds later the Chief Engineer looked up from his display.
“Sir, there is damage to the capacitor battery due to the stress the solar storm was placing on it. It will no longer be able to keep the ship operational with all systems running. Moreover when we exit warp, if we engage with all our systems in use the capacitor will die on us. We will be unable to warp.”
Korsakov stood there thinking. Engaging would mean he wouldn’t be able to warp away, condemning his crew to death at the hands on the stations defenders. Not engaging would mean the Gallante Dogs of War would gain a valuable asset. Neither option was acceptable.
“If we diverted all power from our shields to the engine would be able to enter warp?” Queried Korsakov
“We could Sir… but we would be defenceless. We will die.”
“No we won’t. It’s only a Iteron, it should be dead before the Interrogation facility is able to scramble a defence. Navigation as we land I want you to align us to the escape vector. Weapons, you are to engage that Iteron as soon as we land.”
A series of affirmatives answered Korsakov’s orders from across the bridge.
“Exiting warp in 3… 2… 1…”
“Target is 17.5 km away”
“Aligning to exit point”
“Locking target…..”
“Enemy Frigates are scrambling from the Interrogation Facility…”
“Missiles are away.”
“Station guns are resolving locks on us…”
“Drones are being deployed against the enemy frigates..”
“Targets shields are gone.”
“Sir the station guns are tearing our shields to pieces.”
“Targets armour is destroyed.”
“Enemy frigates are approaching disrupter range..”
“Armour is nearly depleted, damage is starting to bleed into the structure.”
“Target destroyed.”
“Warp out. Warp out.”
“Warp initiated.”
The whole bridge relaxed as the ship entered warp. Korsakov stood up from his command chair and turned to face his crew.
“Mission accomplished people. Good work.”
[...] The Captain’s Log [...]