Charlie – Captain – Kinsley

  “Sir, all of our fighters are out of ammo and nearly out of propellant. They are requesting resupply.” Came the chiefs voice over the AI net.

  I took one glace over the battlefield projected in front of me. Moving it around and looking for valuable targets. None presented themselves. Not only that, but the enemy also nearly surrounded us. The moment they finished such a maneuver, our fleet was as good as dead.

  Not that we were far off from that now. Half our launchers were down. The entire landing system was shot to hell. Oh, and our point defense system was barely functioning at all. Each of the fighters would have to land manually, on a ship that was jerking in every direction and under fire. It wasn’t going to happen.

  “You know as well as I do that there is no way any of the pilots can do that. It would make both this ship and theirs a target. Request denied.” I called back. I knew I was going to regret that decision. It was tantamount to telling each of the fighter pilots to die.

  Another wave of small ships dove at the Kinsley. Every thruster fired to try and get out of the way while every gun fired as fast as they could. The enemies died by the dozens and hundreds, but that meant nothing in waves of tens of thousands. Their ships crashed against the hull. Vaporizing and turning into plasma that ate through the ships armor.

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  “Armor severely compromised.” Came the ships AI. It was good at stating the obvious in situations like these. No matter what I tried to teach it, it refused to change. “Alert! Massive rift formation detected. Location: One hundred twenty degrees by one seventy degrees. Distance: sixty-three light seconds”

  “FUCK!” I yelled out. That was nearly directly behind us. That had been the only section that was not covered by the alien swarm yet. Since the swarm had hit our rift generators, that had been our only possible escape route.

  “Fleet of twenty-seven ships emerging.” Called the officer monitoring that sector of space. “Identified as similar make and design as the first alien ship.”

  Now, not only did we have to deal with the swarm of enemies, but we also now had to deal with the creatures who had dealt significant damage to our fleet with just one ship. “Any response to our hails?” I asked, not expecting anything.

  “No,” came another voice. “They are, however, accelerating forward at a high rate of speed.”

  “Alert! Detected multiple high powered weapon systems activating.” Came the ships AI. My body slumped back into the chair as I mentally tried to figure out what had happened to lead to this. Trying to figure out what I could have done differently.

  Hundreds of bright beam weapons lanced across the holographic screen. Sweeping out from one side to another. Explosions filled the skies as the swarm ships vaporized by the thousands. Seconds later, a series of miniature stars flashed into being from within the swarm. Each swallowed up clusters of ships.

  Within seconds of entering the fight, the aliens had managed to wipe out half the enemy swarm. I didn’t feel like sticking around longer than I had to lest they turn and attack us after finishing. “Get our rift generators back online. Also, get those fighters back into the ship. Helmsman, turn this ship to the nearest jump location and get us there.”