[Dracus]

Just as the first of the mines were within seconds of hitting the Little Thunder. Sweeper 001 Made contact, the force of the impact caused the mine to travel along the outer hull of the ship before bouncing off and exploding.

****On the command Deck of Sweeper 001******
“Sir the first mine of the group will make contact with Little Thunder in 30.”
“Take us across her bow.”
The Sweeper crossed so close to Little Thunder that it looked as if they had made contact.
“Ram that Mine!” Ordered Robert.
Hem quickly turned the ship and the mine slammed against the hull plating. The explosion rocked the ship but the plating held.
Now that the sweeper was between the mines and Little Thunder, the Mines were no longer homing in on the flagship.
“Impact in 10!”
“All hands prepare for impact.”
The Last of the mines began colliding with the sweeper.

****Command Deck ---Little Thunder******************
“Those Mines are heading straight for us. Capt.!” Reported Ops.
Amber headed for the view port to get a better look.
Just then the ship shook, knocking her to the deck.
“What the hell was that?” Amber yelled as she rose to her feet.
“Another ship just came across our topside,” responded Ops.
Amber ran to the view port just in time to see the Sweeper being pounded by mines.
“Get us away from that ship!” She screams.
“Main engines are still down”, responds Helm.
“Then use the docking thrusters and push us sideways!” Amber replies turning from the window.
Just as the ship starts to move, the shock wave of a large explosion slams into the ship. The outer hull buckles as the communications array is ripped from its mount.
A Cascading failure shuts down helm control and the docking thrusters.
“Damage Report!”
“Helm, communications, and sensors are all down. We have no way of knowing how many are dead. Looks like life-support is on backup battery power. “ Responds Ops.
“Issue the hand-held two-ways and get some-one down to the engine room to work on life-support. Those batteries won’t Last forever.” Orders Amber. “And get those sensors working, we need to know if any enemy ships are heading in to finish us off.”


****Ship’s Log ---Little Thunder*************************

“It has been 8 day’s since we first entered Z’top. Repairs on the ship are coming along slowly. The crew has done wonders with limited tools and spare parts we had onboard.
Life Support has been fully restored and we have managed to get external sensors back Online.
We lost 18 crewmembers for the total complement of 83. Our chief Engineer was injured but the doc says he will live.
Once we got sensors back Online, we could not locate any of the sweepers. It appears they have all been lost. There were a few escape pods floating around but due to engine damage, we were unable to rescue any before their life-support ran out. Official loss is all hands for all sweepers.
The minefield is gone but we have no way to transmit this information back to high command. We have our engines back up but are unable to generate the field needed to safely travel the warp channel.
Scans of Z’top show that there are a handful of enemy ships in orbit around the planet on the far side of the system. Either they do not know we are here or they know that we are damaged and do not feel threaten.
Engineering is preparing a device that we can load all data onto and drop in space. In case we do not survive. It will be ready in 3 days and then we plan on attacking the planet nearest to our current position.
I would also like to state for the record that the crew of sweeper001 gave their lives to save ours by driving their ship into the Last of the mines. “
“End Ship’s Log. “
As Amber finishes the log, she thinks to herself; “God I hope he understands.”
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Next---- I don't have a clue I will have to play a few to find out.

Hope you all have enjoyed the story so far.


I will continue writing this after christmas if you all are still interested.