[Starhawk]

2405.3 A Victory Bittersweet
It was a routine day as far as the crews of HMS Claw and HMS Bounty were concerned, they had been guarding the 6-11 warp point from the unknown hostiles for over a year and both crews were ready for their stand down and rotation back to Icara while another pair of destroyers were assigned this dreary post for a year.
But suddenly that routine calm was shattered as an energy signature appeared from within the warp point leading to the unknown system beyond and a warship larger then either of the two Icaran vessels came tearing out of the warp at high velocity.

“General quarters all hands general quarters!” The tactical officer aboard Claw screamed over the com net as she tabbed button after button, triggering emergency drive activation, weapons activation and the battle display mode of the holotank.
“Enemy vessel accelerating at six-zero gees skipper, mass reading indicates she is 400,000 tons, scanners identify unknown weapons on her port and starboard.” Executive officer Tyler called off as Captain Manning sat down at his own command chair and activated it’s repeaters.
“Bounty this is Manning, what’s your status?”
“Bounty here, we are accelerating parallel to you Claw, estimated time to missile range is one-zero-zero seconds” Captain Jessica Smith’s voice sounded cold and professional as she read off her ship’s intercept times but Manning could hear the tense anxiety in her voice that he too felt as they engaged an unknown.

The two Icaran destroyers entered missile range at about the same time and both vessels spat two capital ship and one sprint missile each in the direction of the intruding enemy Light Cruiser and within seconds it’s point defense clusters were tearing at space with thousands of titanium slugs, desperately trying to kill the Icaran missiles before they killed it.
The light cruiser’s defenses actually succeeded in taking down one of the missiles and it turned away from the others and bore down directly on Bounty seemingly ignoring the other missiles which were yet to enter a threatening range.

Captain Manning and his bridge crew watched in horror as Bounty attempted to escape the massive enemy ship, she was losing ground fast thanks to the gravity waves caused by her closer proximity to the warp point then Claw had been, and the enemy ship already had the advantage of coming out of the warp at maximum thrust while the smaller Icaran destroyer had to trigger her drives after she launched her missile salvo.
“Captain Smith we are turning about to see if we can get that bastard off your tail just stand…..” Manning winced as a brilliant light ball erupted from one of the enemy ship’s mysterious cannons, then another and yet another glowing sphere tore across space…..Bounty zig zagged and twisted like a desert hopper trying to escape a tree raptor but all three of the massive spheres found there target.
Whole sections of the Icaran destroyer vanished in a wash of energy and flame, debris and atmosphere erupted from her like gore as she writhed under the fire.

“Captain Manning this is Bounty we are down to one cannon, engines are gone, so is life support, my whole aft section is engulfed in fire or exposed to vacuum…. “ Jessica’s voice sounded tortured as Manning listened in absolute shock, his heart sank as he heard a girggling cough from his friend and realized that her bridge must have been hit and she must have been hurt worse then she would tell him.
“Captain…..” Her voice was cut off as an explosion in the background signaled the destruction of her communications array.

“Helm, can we intercept?!” Manning’s voice was ice as he watched the burning wreck that had once been HMS Bounty level her lone cannon defiantly against her murder, the shell actually impacted on the enemy ship and Manning couldn’t help but feel all the worse for it, the sad defiance of a ship and crew who knew they were dying.
“Sir intercept in fifteen seconds!” The helmsman’s voice was agonized, everyone on the bridge knew that there was no chance of them getting there any faster but they also knew with absolute certainty and dread that their sister ship and 400 Icaran spacers would be gone by then.

Five seconds after her defiant Last shot HMS Bounty and her crew vanished in a brilliant flash of light and wreckage, as she was torn into thousands of pieces by the sheer force of the Light Cruiser’s unknown weapons. The enemy ship’s triumph was brief however as 5 missiles slammed into her, tearing great holes in her hull and thrashing her own cannons into non-existence.
“Sir!” Chief Gunnery officer Tanner shouted as she watched the ship who had murdered Bounty limping and spinning in space.
“Bring us into Cannon range helm.” Manning’s voice was pure venom and hatred as he watched that bastard floating lamely in space.
Vengeance belonged to Claw as she swooped down upon her crippled pray and leveled a devastating broadside into it’s shattered hull, all four cannons struck home and as the Last shot turned the enemy ship into a glowing ball of plasma and wreckage the crew of Claw felt nothing but sorrow.

400 Icaran spacers died aboard His Majesty’s Ship Bounty and the entire crew of her sister held memorial services the very day she returned to port at 6-11 base for re-supply and minor repairs.