"Lock all missiles on that vessel and blow it out of the sky!"Commander Kim ordered her Weapons officer,Lieutanent Rosemary.
"Aye,ma'am.Missiles away,"the cool,porcelain-featured lieutanent calmly replied.
On screen,dozens of elonganated Fletcher missiles streamed towards their target,their exhaust leaving white streaks on the blackness of space.The Rencond Rampage-class destroyer,however, did not attempt to take any evasive manuevers.Instead,it just held its position,and continued to pummel the Freedom Alliance with energy beam after energy beam, reducing its proton shields to twenty-two percent,and dropping further.
The Freedom Alliance,a Terran Tempest-class destroyer, was a vessel built solely for the purpose of war.It sported two Supersonic Shock Cannons,thirty pods of twelve Fletcher missiles each,two Jupiter-class nuclear missiles as well as a launch tube capable of firing the vessel's sole Gamma Charge,its three Sparrow-class interceptors,or a team of highly-trained commandoes in a space-faring pod.A destroyer also had almost two meters of armor plating covering it from stem to stern,along with the standard-issue proton shields.Theoratically,the Freedom Alliance can take,and deliver,an enormous amount of punishment.Right now,that theory was being tested.
The Rencond equilvalent of the Freedom Alliance appeared out of the distorted space created by the Rencond monolith flagship.As soon as it re-entered normal space,it started attacking the Freedom Alliance,blasting her with energy beams and torpedoes.Commander Kim had lost more than twenty hands since she engaged the enemy,and she was not about to let them die without avenging them.
***
The Hydra lay hidden in the debris field,awaiting the chance to launch an attack on the Rencond forces.Already,the fleet had lost twenty ships,frigates and destroyers.Zion Prime did not want to risk the Armada-class carriers,for fear they will be easy targets.Captain Ziegler flinched.A carrier was two times larger than his crusier,and had nearly four meters of armor plating as compared to his three and a half meters.Each carrier was equipped with forty-eight 40 mm autocannons for mounting a point defense against the smaller ships,and relied on other ships for protection.However,the presence of a carrier would significantly increase the striking power of the fleet.Each massive ship carried six Assault Units,humanoid robots armed with a heavy machine gun and two pods of Fletcher missiles,capable of dealing massive damage to an enemy target over a short period of time.Six Sparrow-class interceptors are also carried on the giganyic vessels to tackle the faster ships of the enemy fleet.Along with those,carriers also had four Hawk-class Fighters.These larger versions of the Sparrow fly at Mach 4 and are capable of both deep space and atmospheric flight.A quartet of fifty millimeter cannons and a Fletcher missile pack served as the armnament for the swift ships,and are sufficient to put a Zelarian Hyperthorne-class crusier out of commission in just ten minutes.Ziegler,for once,resented the higher-ups' decision,but shrugged it off and continued to find a way defeat the Rencond,just as the frigate,the Mackenzie,flew up to the starboard flank of it,missiles firing.
What the hell was that ship's captain thinking?Ziegler thought,That's suicide!
As if he was right,a slender blue beam shot out from the black,equipment laden area,and engulfed the Mackenzie,immoblising it.A tractor beam of some sort,Ziegler pondered,interesting.
"Sir,we are receiving a distress signal from both the Mackenzie and Freedom Alliance,"Jack,the operations officer,suddenly called out.
"On speakers,"Ziegler calmly replied.
"Mayday,mayday!We are incapable of moving off!The Rencond ship has us trapped in some kind of tractor beam and we are detecting high levels of energy coming from the ship!Hurry! Send hel-"The speaker went dead,and static filled the room.
On the other speaker,"Commander Kim of the Freedom Alliance requesting reinforcements at these coordinates.We had depleted all of our ammunition and shields are at 8 percent and dropping steadily.Rencond destroyer and frigates bearing down on us.Please send aid,fast."
Captain Ziegler looked worried.He had to help both the ships.Both were under his command.He had to think of a solution fast,or else hundreds of lives would be lost.Finally,he made a decision.
"Lieutanent Timmons,plot a course for the Freedom Alliance's position but make these corrections to the course.We are going after both of them."
