[Strategia_In_Ultima]

-----CHAPTER SIX: ENDGAME-----

The Vulture sped out of the dead storm at speeds so high the ship itself seemed to distort from an outside viewpoint. The Kent’s long-range torpedo had hit the Fortitude right under the engine block, rupturing its emergency drive plasma storages. The plasma got in the photon torch exhaust, and the entire engine block detonated a moment later. Virtually no debris larger than roughly the size of a fist remained of the small but potent warship.

Tamarillho ordered Ensign Durryn to get them back on their original course. It already cost the crew of a warship and an entire command station their lives, so what she was ordered to do must be very important.

“Ma’am! Large-scale warp point activity! There’s a fleet coming out of the Yhunni warp point!”
“Divert course! Divert course! I don’t want to end up approaching an enemy fleet dead-on!”
“Wait a sec..... no, that isn’t an enemy fleet..... those are our Edinburgh-class exodus transports!”
“What? How many?”
“It looks like..... Well, it looks like eighteen of them.”
“What?!? EIGHTEEN?!?”
“Erm, well..... yes.”

This couldn’t be. Eighteen Edinburghs? That equalled about 4.5 BILLION people.

“You’re getting false readings, Lieutenant. Run an internal sweep of the sensors.”
“The sensors are working fine.”
“Can you determine their load?”
“Each one chock-full of population.”

Tamarillho slumped. 4.5 billion people had just warped into the system, a system also containing an immensely powerful and obviously enemy warship. She was all that stood between the 4.5 billion men and women and the modified combat lander. She knew she had to do something, but what? Her small ship couldn’t possibly hope to take on the refit Kent, which was about the equivalent of a rather large warship. On top of that, it boasted both long-range attack power as well as short-range heavy hitting capability. How could an apparently unarmed ship hope to stop that much attack power?

“Look for non-comms buttons on your console.”
“Ma’am?”
“Buttons which have nothing to do with comms traffic.”

The Lieutenant hunched over his console, examining every tenth of an n-click of it. Tamarillho went over to him.

“Oh damn.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind.”

Tamarillho went back to her command chair in a ponderous mood.

“Durryn, place us between the Kent and the transports,” she said absent-mindedly.

Why had she been given a Hunter Assault Craft without weapons? What was the point? And why did the ship have such an unusually large cargo bay? Most salvage ships had bays just over half the size of the Vulture’s.

“Three birds in the air! Three long-rangers on the transports!” the TO cried. Tamarillho acted quickly, in a slight daze.
“Durryn, place us in front of those torpedoes! Now! Stand by lifeboats!”

Durryn guided the Vulture straight into the path of the torpedoes without hesitation. The three specks became larger and larger.

“All non-bridge crew abandon ship! Repeat all non-bridge crew abandon ship!”

Metallic clunks and wooshes indicated life pods being launched everywhere but from the bridge lifeboat bay. Three heavy explosions rocked the ship.

“Structural supports on decks two through four completely gone! Hull ruptures everywhere! Cargo hold’s been breached! Salvage arms blown away! It’s loading capship killers!”
“Abandon ship! Abandon ship!”

The bridge crew simultaneously turned to Tamarillho. The same thoughts crossed the minds of all three men. Did they really hear that correctly? Was Tamarillho ordering them to abandon ship?

“Now! Get the hell out of here!”
“It’s firing a pulse turret!”
“Get out of here! That’s an order!”

Tamarillho didn’t watch her bridge crew enter the lifeboat bay. She focused her gaze on her small screen and multi-functional console. She transferred helm control to it, then quickly grabbed a nano-activated vacc suit and activated the auto-function. She felt the slight chill as the nanofilaments pulled themselves into place all over her body. The evasive maneuver she made didn’t completely avoid the pulse. It skimped the ship, blasting away the front side of the bridge, obliterating the viewscreen and sending debris flying everywhere. Se was granted a free view of open space.

Glancing only momentarily at the evac fleet near the warp point, she didn’t think and simply acted. She turned the Vulture to face the oncoming Kent. She knew its weak spot. A flash on top of the warship, and a second pulse blasted away the tactical console. Pieces of debris pierced Tamarillho’s suit and punctured her abdomen. She aimed the ship specifically for the energy conduit juncture beneath the bridge of the approaching warship. She accelerated the ship at forty gees, and felt her body being thrusted into her command chair as the EM stabilizer fields that usually negated high-gee effects were gone. She steadied the speed at four first-grade max.

The warship realized what Tamarillho was doing only when it was too late. It tried to take evasives, but Tamatillho knew they wouldn’t work. Moments before the Vulture rammed the Kent, she took one last action and jumped through the gaping hole in her bridge. The warship’s anti-radiation fields deflected the small object with ease.

Tamarillho’s vision blurred. The large brownish streak in front of her turned into a bright flash just before she blacked out.

Commander Elsee Tamarillho was dead.

-----END OF CHAPTER SIX-----

---------------END OF PART ONE---------------