Reynolds stood up. He had been on shift for a few hours and wanted to stretch his legs. The bridge was fairly calm and the system quiet. The Coto along with a squadron of 1204s was currently on patrol. A few thousand kilometers out from the Enterprise. Keeping an eye out for potential threats while the larger vessel was conducting operations near the now shattered second planet. Namely mining and research operations. Speaking of research, the Umikaze was out near one of the local debris fields. A bit further out from the Enterprise than the Coto was but still close enough to support if needed. The ship was acting as a landing base for another squadron of 1204s as they conducted tests of the new Pulsar torpedoes. Although he had also heard them referred to as Electro Plasma torpedoes. Whatever you wanted to call them, they weren’t traditional torpedoes. Which made it easier for the limited facilities of the Umikaze to act as a base. Unlike the Enterprise her hangers weren’t outfitted to store ordinance or even stow the fighters. She also lacked catapults, but she did have enough space for a single squadron to land and refuel. Which is all the Umikaze was needed to do. 

Walking down the stairs to the lower bridge, he considered how quiet things were. Perhaps a little too quiet, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy the peace while it was there. Assuming they maintained their vigil. It was a hostile galaxy afterall. This sector alone was rife with pirates and warlords. Not to mention it was known for being politically unstable. Certainly, not an area they would settle and definitely not a place to let your guard down in.

As if to prove his thoughts right, his Ops officer looked up from her console, “Hyperspace window detected sir. Bearing two two seven mark three eight. Distance six hundred thousand kilometers.”

He turned to her as he noted that down. That was off the starboard bow and well outside the range of the main guns, but not his torpedoes. “Intercept course, ahead flank. Set condition yellow. All weapons on standby, full power to the hull plating. Alert our escorts, I want them in formation Bravo one eight.”

The crew scrambled to carry out his orders, as he inquired, “How many ships?”

“Looks to be just one sir.”

He glanced up at the relevant screen and watched the swirling eddy that was a hyperspace window. A mixture of red, and green. They varied depending on the drive and who built it, but he wasn’t familiar enough with the drives to know who this was. A moment later a single cruiser emerged as the window collapsed. Predatory lines, scorch marks and hull breaches along her hull, but nothing that looked crippling. He recognized it, “A Voskar stealth cruiser!? Battlestations! And someone signal the Enterprise.”

The lights turned red, just as the ship on sensors shimmered. Vanishing from his screens. “Initiate particle sweep! I want that ship found.”

“Aye sir!”

A second later the beam arrays lit up. Sweeping across space with high concentrations of charged particles. They had already closed a good chunk of the distance, so it wasn’t long before something lit up on his screens.

“Found them sir bearing two two eight, mark six three. Heading one one seven mark two six, speed .4c”

“Adjust to intercept, I want them crippled, lock torpedoes.”

“Torpedos locked!” came the report just as the target disengaged their cloak. 

“Hostile has raised shields, weapon ports charging.”

“Fire!”

A series of whooping sounds echoed as a volley of torpedoes fired from the forward tubes. A mere fraction of a full volley. A dozen blue streaks careened across space straight for the target. A moment later, the target opened up with a number of rapid-fire particle cannons. Point defense from the look of it. Several particle bolts found their mark, but it was too little too late. Four torpedoes were destroyed but the remaining eight slammed into the shields, two of which penetrated to detonate inside the shields.

The target however survived the hit, “Direct hit, hostile has lost shields, damage to main power grids. Multiple hull breaches. I’m detecting an energy build up in their hyperdrive, I think they are about to jump.”

“Activate jamming field.”

“Field engaged.”

The target came about, her torpedo tubes glowing, a moment later she fired 36 warheads. “Torpedoes fired, sir!”

“Standby main cannons, the status of Energy webs?”

“Energy webs are on hot standby, ready for automatic deployment.”

“Excellent.”

A moment later, the energy webs flared before the warheads slammed into the dense laser field one after the other. Not a single one penetrated to strike the hull. The result was an impressive light show as a series of bright flashes filled his screen.

When it cleared the ship was gone. He blinked, “Sensors!”

“Contact lost! Initiating particle sweep.”

A moment later the ship reappeared, they had gained some distance and were accelerating rapidly. Clearly attempting to escape, but he knew his orders. They had no reason to allow that. “Alert Alpha Squadron to cut them off. Lock torpedoes on their primary thruster manifolds.”

“Torpedoes locked.”

“Fire!”

A series of blue flashes streaked across space, as the fighters pulled ahead. The cruiser opened up with particle fire, as she banked hard. Scoring a few pd hits and evading a few more by slipping into a debris field. Regardless a couple found their mark, scoring direct hits. The Coto followed them in moments after. Their prey was crippled and they had a squadron of fighters in pursuit. Elsewhere, the Enterprise was launching additional patrols. Something Reynolds was happy to hear about. In addition he was informed that the Coto was recalling the Squadron assigned to her and preparing to begin patrol duty.

Turell bit back a curse as her engineer told her of the damage. “Do they have nothing better to do than chase one lone ship?” she muttered to herself.

They had taken four low yield torpedo hits and she was lucky that they hadn’t fired anything else at them. It didn’t help that they could saturate a huge area with charged particles, her trick with resetting the cloak was likely not to work. It didn’t the first time and now it was off the table. Too much damage to the grid. She cursed her luck as well. This system was supposed to be empty, a nice quite place where they could stop and do some patching of the hull. The damn valorians had done more damage than she thought and she was leaking fuel. Now she was under attack by a Refuge Destroyer. It seemed today wasn’t her day. Worse her hyperdrive was being jammed, which was going to make escape difficult. Some might say impossible, especially with the fighters moving into the field, but she still felt they had a chance.

Nearby a crewmen declared, “We’re gonna die!”

Standing up, she replied, “We aren’t going to die.” Turning to the engineer, she continued, “Patch the manifolds, we will do a proper fix later.”

The crewman didn’t seem convinced but she had a plan. Tapping the strategic display she said, “Chalsi! What do you see here?”

Her ops officer turned, “Um the positions of ships and fleets being tracked by local listenings posts and monitoring stations. What about it?”

She tapped the position of a small fleet nearby, “and who is this?”

“A Valorian...” hers widened, “privateer fleet, you want me to fake a merchant in distress?”

She smiled, “Make us look like a nice juicy target. I want them salivating enough to make a run for us.”

“Can do!”

Several crewman blinked, as she turned to bark a few orders. With any luck that privateer fleet would show up quickly enough and serve as a nice juicy distraction to get that Heavy Destroyer off their tails. They also had a squadron of alien fighters to worry about, but hopefully the debris field would prove obstacle enough to keep them away for the time she required.

Reynolds watched the plots. As the cruiser started playing a game of cat and mouse with him. He knew he had them wounded and it was only a matter of time before he had them cornered. Perhaps it was a bit aggressive to engage on sight, but the Voskar had already attacked them once unprovoked. He wasn’t going to allow that a second time. Not only that, but he wanted answers. No matter how he looked at it, their previous attack made little sense to him. Three ships was not much of a fleet, they were dozens of lightyears from any known Voskar outpost or colony. There was no official state of war between their governments. Hell that was their official first contact. In some respects it reminded him of the Cathamari, but at least they had the decency to try talking first even if they were arrogant lizard scum. 

Ahead the cruiser dived behind an old wreck. One of the larger ships that went down here, a battleship from the look of it. Heavy plating, numerous wrecked gun ports and huge engines characterized the wreck. She was littered with hull breaches and long vented to space. The ship was long dead, not even a single reactor showed signs of life. He chuckled, it seemed they thought the wreck would prove to be a shield. They were right in that it would block torpedoes, but they were now entering main gun range. The Coto didn’t have the heavy ship-to-ship particle cannons the Enterprise did, but they didn’t need to be for this.”

“Tactical, target their engines and weapons.”

“Weapons locked sir!”

“Fire!”

His beam and particle cannon ports lit up. Hurling hundreds of bright blue particles bolts right into the old wreck, along with a sustained energy pulse. They ripped through it like tissue paper before slamming into the shields of the alien cruiser. He blinked, those had been down a moment ago. 

The shields flickered and strained under the barrage as the cruiser picked up speed. Making maneuvers to throw them off or place new bits of debris between them. They didn’t help much, but they did weaken the bolts a little. 

The ship then weaved behind another large wreck as he pursued. A pair of fighters moving ahead of them fired torpedoes. Striking several shield emitters before strafing the hull with particle bolts. The shields largely absorbed it, but not all of it. They were clearly strained already. It was only a matter of time before they failed.

Turning to operations, he ordered, “Prep assault shuttles, I want boarding parties on standby.”

As he spoke the other vessel gained a bit of distance and then darted around a smaller wreck, but one that was still somewhat active. With an intact and active shield grid no less. Something onboard energized it just as his shots were tearing into the hull. Buying the cruiser a moment's reprieve, but only a moment. As his fighter escort came in for another pass. Four ships unleashed torpedoes and particle fire against the cruiser. Scoring several hits. None of which proved substantial and the chase continued.

Several minutes later several ships suddenly dropped to sublight dead ahead. The stealth cruiser zipped past them, as his crew identified them as Valorian cruisers. The markings on them weren’t for Confederation ships however. These were mercenary ships, who didn’t hesitate to open fire on his ships. Several low-yield plasma pulses raked the hull for no effect. Reynolds responded in kind and while none of them were a threat dealing with them took just long enough for the cruiser to disappear. A particle sweep failed to reveal their position, with a sigh he turned to the disabled Valorian cruisers. “Deploy boarding parties.I want to know why they helped that cruiser escape.”

“Aye, sir!”