The Omegan second in command gave his commander a quizzical look. “Are they attempting to escape, Lord?”
Hunched over a tactical readout, the ship’s commander found himself smiling. He straightened himself before addressing his friend. “They must be in worse shape than we thought. We hit them where it hurts and they’re fleeing for the teat of their mothers. Lay in course and follow!”
“Lord, we just lost a fighter,” the tactical officer said, his voice sounding almost happy.
“The warrior shall live on in Erestia,” the commander noted. “So may we all.” The battle cruiser began moving, following the War Angel toward the planet’s rings. “As soon as you have targeting, continue firing,” he added. Victory felt close.
The War Angel crashed through Saturn’s rings, sending a spray of dust and rock outward at high speed. The ship now appeared to be on a full run away from the Omegan cruiser, and true to their reputation the enemy was in dogged pursuit.
“They’re just about completely on our backside, Jack,” Kate noted, her eyes focused on the sensors. “Thirty seconds and they’ll have full firing solution. Fighters are taking the long way around. Ninety seconds out.”
Jack leaned forward in his chair. “Gina…” he counted to five in his head, “now!”
With a surprising amount of grace, Gina hit the braking thrusters, spun the ship along its axis and made a sharp right turn. As the War Angel cleared the hole that it had made and took a position above a full section of Saturn’s rings, Sarah wiped a fresh supply of blood out of her eyes. Jack slowly turned around toward her. She gave him a nod, indicating she was ready. “All cannons on set for bombardment.”
“Omegans closing to 1000 kilometers,” Kate said, dispassion in her voice. “750. 600. 550… 500!”
“Fire!” Jack ordered.
The War Angel’s cannons, now on their lowest setting, impacted the rings and sent material flying in a wide-angle pattern at the Omegan cruiser. The smallest particles were vaporized by the energy blast, but the larger boulders were merely given momentum. Momentum that they carried directly to the hull of the enemy craft, creating impacts that their shields were not designed to handle.
“Multiple hits!” Kate said, her joy barely contained.
“She’s all yours, Sarah,” Jack said, sitting back in the captain’s chair. “Take your shot.”
Sarah licked her blood-encrusted lips and moved her fingers slowly across the targeting screen. The Omegan ship was in distress, wobbling on her path and still approaching the hole that the War Angel had made when crashing through the rings. She watched carefully as the battle cruiser made its way through, and as it did, her primary target came into view. ‘Ten seconds to target acquisition, Captain”
“The fighters-“ Kate started to speak, but Jack gestured for her to stop.
“Target acquisition,” Sarah continued, “in two… one… firing.”
Three energy cannons sprang to life, deadly red laser bolts carving their way through the debris-strewn battlefield and hitting the same spot on the Omegan ship. An explosion tore across that section of the cruiser’s hull, sending twisted metal and four bodies flying away from the ship.
“Direct hit, Jack!” Kate began furiously working the sensor controls. “Not only did we hit our spot, we even got a hull breach out of it. Nice shooting, Sarah!” Kate stopped. “Fighters incoming in twenty seconds.”
“Full stop and 180 turn, Gina! Sarah- more nice shooting needed,” Jack said, smiling. The War Angel spun around her axis, moving her starboard side around to face the fighters while Sarah took aim. As the fighters drew in, she fired all three cannons, using the fighters’ trajectories against them. Cannon one forced the first fighter to move towards the central part of the ship, whereupon it struck one of the other fighters. The two spiraled out of control, ultimately crashing into a larger hunk of rock in one of the rings and destroying both craft. The third fighter, seemingly stunned by that turn of events, was a sitting duck, and Sarah blasted it into millions of pieces.
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