The ship shuddered as an energy blast raked the hull. Her deflector shields had been knocked out by a previous impact. The only thing protecting the crew now was a thin layer of hull plating. That wasn’t intended to absorb energy blasts. Hell the ship wasn’t even designed with combat in mind in the first place. They were a tanker, designed to transport large quantities of deuterium. The captain felt like panicking, and his crew were already panicked.

He didn’t blame them, tankers were not known for their integrity under fire. Glancing at the indicator, it seemed the hyperdrive was taking an eternity to charge. It would be another five minutes before they could make the jump to hyperspace and escape, but he doubted they had the time. The cruiser firing on them was targeting their engines. Another blast shook the fragile ship, and one of the engines cut out. Along with that engine, several power conduits were severed and the jump out time was increased from five to eight minutes. He silently cursed his luck as he saw that on the indicator. He had no idea what to do about the ship firing on them. He had never been in a battle before, and his training for combat was very simple. If attacked while on a run, you are to jump out. The ship shuddered again, and someone at the sensor panel shouted, “Sir! I’m picking up hundreds of incoming warp signatures.”

Before he had time to register what that meant, the impacts against the hull stopped. An alien ship filled his view screen, her hull absorbing the impacts. The ship had a saucer like forward section that angled out and blossomed into swooping angled wings. At the end of each wing as a nacelle that had what looked suspiciously like massive cannons mounted on the fore of the nacelles. Well it was more like they were integrated into the nacelle. Every inch of the alien hull was covered with sturdy hull plating, and the ship was painted black and grey. Alien calligraphy could be seen printed on the hull in light grey text.

The alien ship, seemingly unaffected by the barrage of Rykoni weapon’s fire rotated slowly. Its fore section slowly shifted into position, and when its fore was finally lined up with Rykoni cruiser she opened fire. A volley of blue energy bolts leapt across space and in an instant slammed into the cruiser. It shields held barely a fraction of a second, and then the bolts tore the hull apart. The cruiser reduced to an expanding cloud of dust in a fraction of a second.

The bridge of the tanker fell silent, and the crew stared at the screens, stunned. It was nearly a minute before someone broke the silence. “Those were battleship guns on that frigate,” said someone in a shocked voice.

“Someone get a damage control team dispatched, and get us out of here. Now!” ordered the captain shaken the stupor off. He quickly had the crew under control and working to get the ship moving. Silently he had to concur with the assessment of what the alien frigate was carrying.

The base commander stared at his screens. Keeping his fleet in the fight against so many pirate ships was proving difficult. He had already received confirmation from fleet headquarters that a relief force had been dispatched from the homeworld. Unfortunately it would be nearly an hour before they arrive to relive the defense forces here at Yugal.

“Focus fire on the cruisers attacking the Saarni,” said the base commander. The Saarni was outnumbered and taking heavy fire, he was hoping to take some of that pressure of the ship, by focusing fire on her attackers. As the station gunners followed his orders one of his officers reported.

“Sir, long range tracking is picking up unusual activity from the Refuge fleet,” said his officer.

“Define unusual,” ordered the commander seeing he had time to figure out why his officer deemed this important.

“Their frigates have left their anchor points, and we are picking up fighter launches from four of the larger ships in the fleet. Sir, they are going to warp!” said the officer. He walked over and saw that all one hundred and four of the alien combat frigates had jumped into high warp. None of them were even bothering to hide their movements. Shortly after the frigates, he noticed more warp signatures as small craft accelerated to a lower warp velocity. In just under a minute eight thousand small craft warp signatures registered on his screen.

The frigates were the first to arrive and warped in near the civilian transports and tankers in the area first. Many of them warping in right in the line of Rykoni weapons fire. Their hull plating absorbing weapons fire intended for the civilian craft behind them.

“Looks like the Refuge decided to answer our distress call. Go get something together to thank them for their trouble,” said the base commander.

“Wouldn’t the standard discount on a fuel purchase be fine?” said the officer.

“If we knew they would be doing business with us yes. In this case a gift of deuterium would be better,” said the base commander. The commander then turned his attention away from common courtesy, and towards the battle at hand.

The addition of one hundred and four ships to the line of battle helped things greatly. He walked over to the comm console and spoke with the communications officer. It would be best to synchronize operations with the newcomers. The ships they had brought while smaller than a patrol cruiser were clearly far more powerful. Their armor was easily capable of absorbing Rykoni weapons fire, and their own weapons were powerful enough to rip through Rykoni hulls and shielding with ease. The ships had already deployed themselves along the four main civilian traffic lanes. There were nearly seventy transport, tanker and freighter groups along the lanes. Some had as many as seven ships to a group, while others were on their own. The Refuge had given each group at least one ship to guard them. Some of the larger groups had two.

This shouldn’t be too much of a problem, given the fact that the Rykoni Pirates had split up into distinct packs. Engaging ships and targets at their own discretion. Most of the larger packs were engaging his own Patrol Cruisers and fighter craft. While the smaller ship groups had split off to hunt down the civilian ships in the area. A couple had stayed near the edge of the combat area, and were guarding the Rykoni Pocket Carriers.

It didn’t take long for his comm officer to establish contact with the Refuge Commander. A young alien female appeared on his screen. He found the appearance of the refuge aliens to be strange. “I’m Commander Yuto, in charge of this task force,” said Yuto introducing herself.

The commander introduced himself, and then said, “I was hoping to coordinate our efforts,” said the base commander.

“I’m going to keep my ships out here, and protect the civilians. I’ll send some Firebirds your way as soon as some of these transports make the jump to hyperspace. You should have some extra fighter support in a few minutes when the first wave of fighters arrives,” said Yuto.

“Speaking of fighters, the Rykoni brought several pocket carriers that they are using to resupply their fighters. Anything you can do to take care of them?” asked the base commander.

“Not right away. I would risk putting civilians at risk. I’ll have a few Eagles and Sparrows on the way, so I’ll have them take care of the carrier group, when they arrive,” answered Yuto.

“I’m not familiar with your designations. I’m certain from context that Firebird refers to your frigates, so the other two must be fighter configurations,” said the base commander.

“The Eagle is a heavy fighter, and the Sparrow is a bomber. They are well suited for the task. I’m going to let you redistribute your forces for protecting the base,” said Yuto as she signed off. He went about ordering a repositioning of several ships, to reinforce the line, and he took the opportunity to pull back a few of the more badly damaged patrol cruisers.

The Patrol Cruisers were the backbone of his force, and he was hoping that his engineers would be able to quick patch some of the damage and get them back into the fight. The Mydorian Patrol Cruiser was a small ship of around 300 meters in length with twenty three decks. Outfitted with medium deflectors, and a balanced array of maser weapons and missile launchers they were well suited for engaging most pirate ships. Speaking of missiles he had missiles transferred to the docking ports, so that they could quickly supply these damaged ships, and use the launchers to help keep pirates off the base. The base deflectors could keep the ships safe from enemy fire.

She flipped a switch and the docking clamps holding her ship to the underside of the combat shuttle above her released. Slipping into space she joined up with her squadron. She had already received an in flight briefing on her mission. She and her fellow pilots were to engage the Rykoni Carrier group, and keep hostile fighters off the bombers so that they can sink the pocket carriers.

As she accelerated her Eagle Fighter, the 1205-Bs that had carried them here made the jump back to the fleet. She double checked her missile banks. The Eagle had her missile launchers mounted on the side of the hull instead of on the wings. A quick check confirmed she had sixteen missiles ready for engaging enemy ships. A quick look back confirmed her gunner was ready for action, and she joined up with her squadron. Moments before several crappy pirate fighters engaged their group.

The fighters looked like they were built from spare parts, and rusty metal. Still they were more consistent than the ships they were supporting. A quick scan showed they were all armed with rapidfire low energy lasers, and some of them carried missiles. Others carried an ion cannon instead of missiles. While a few had a pair of torpedo launchers slapped onto them. She broke formation with a wingman, and engaged on of the fighters. A quick burst of particle fire raked over her target, and scored a few grazing hits. The Pirate fighter attempted to shake her, but she was able to stick to it easily and adjust her aim. A second volley from her eight forward guns tore it apart in short order. She could hear the distinct sound of her aft turret firing as her gunner locked on to another fighter.

A series of bolts flew across her view and slammed into another alien fighter, as she maneuvered for an angle on a second fighter. A few red bolts flew past her, as a fighter opened up on her tail. A good number of bolts missed, and those that hit were easily absorbed by her sturdy armor. She rolled the ship a bit to give her gunner a better angle. Her gunner took full advantage of the opening and fired a short burst into the attacker. The fighter exploded in a small fireball. Just seconds before she got an angle on another fighter. A quick burst and the target was reduced to a cloud of dust. A quick check of the scanners showed that the remaining Rykoni fighters were breaking off.

The Eagle was heavily armed and had good armor, but she was not an interceptor. So she let the 1204’s take care of them, and joined up with the rest of her squadron instead. As the squadron set course for the carrier group. Being decently fast on sublight, her fellow Eagles, and the Sparrows they were escorting did not take long to reach the carrier group.

Moving to block their path was a pirate gunship. She was of a decent size, and bristling with light guns and missiles. Clearly designed for engaging light ships and fighters. Her fighter was the first to get in the range of the craft. Dozens of missiles were targeted towards her, but a quick burst of countermeasures and an evasive roll of the ship allowed her to evade them. Then she lined up the fighter, and launched one of the four Photons her fighter was designed to carry. A blue burst ripped across space and a few seconds later slammed into the gunship. Her shields proved unable to block the torpedo. The resulting explosion claimed the shoddily built gunship.

Several more gunships, moved to engage them, as the carriers launched what fighters were ready to intercept their attack group. She and a wingman broke of to engage an enemy squadron while the bombers focused on engaging enemy ships. There were only around fifty ships to target, so she decided to allow the bombers to worry about the ships while she and her wingman focused on the fighters.

The base commander watched as the signatures of the carrier group rapidly blinked out. It was quite clear that the alien fighters were indeed well suited to the task. The shoddy construction of most Rykoni craft was clearly working against them. The other fighters had spread out across the field and were engaging fighters, and ships harassing the base. While also helping alleviate the pressure on the ships defending the civilians still on the field.

On the screen several freighters and transports made the jump to hyperspace, and the ships guarding them made a quick warp hop towards the base. That was something he was glad for. They were barely keeping the Rykoni off the base. As if to highlight his concerns, he watched the deflector shields of one of his patrol cruisers fail. Then several beams penetrated the hull near engineering. An instant later the ship went up in a large fireball. The Rykoni took full advantage of the opening, and a full raid party started barreling down on the base.

The Refuge Firebirds came out of warp not far from the position of the raid party. “Tell those Firebirds to engage that raiding party,” said the base commander to his comm officer. Who dutifully went about her duty.

“They said they will take care of it,” said the comm officer. A quick check of the field, and he didn’t see anything else that required his immediate concerns. So he turned to one of his engineers. Who he found chatting with his buddy about the alien fighters.

“No, that wouldn’t explain their maneuvering. I’m telling you they clearly must be using some kind of antigravity engine,” said one engineer. The other countered, “They are clearly not antigravity engines. If they were we would be picking up the distinct emissions of said engine type. I’m telling you they must be using some kind of pulsed energy wave.”

“Look, they clearly move as if they weigh less than half what they should. Only antigravity can explain that,” said the first engineer.

“What is the status on the damaged patrol cruisers?” asked the base commander. Ignoring the interruption the second engineer responded, “No it doesn’t. That is clearly some kind of mass nullification effect. They aren’t moving like they weigh less than they should, they are moving as if they have less mass than they should, antigravity can’t do that.”

The base commander repeated his question with more force this time.

“Oh yes the damaged ships? We have already patched what we can, but I would not recommend sending them into battle,” said the second engineer. The base commander turned back to his screens, and decided to leave the ships docked while making a mental note to fire those engineers.

He was just in time, to see the firebirds moving like graceful Birds of Prey swoop down on the raiding party. Their forward guns firing full force at the ships. The raiding party was composed of several cruisers, but the bulk were raiders. A light hull type about the size of a destroyer that is popular with pirates. The speed that raider hulls were renowned for meant little as the Firebirds were faster.

Blue bolts reliably slammed into ships from behind. Their weak shields were unable to protect their hulls. The bolts would then tear through the fragile hulls of the shoddily built vessels. Leaving fields of expanding debris in their wake. In a matter of minutes, all but one of the ships in the party had been destroyed. The only ship still holding out was one of the famous Rykoni ships that he recognized. The infamous Bloodbeak, a powerful Rykoni cruiser whose captain had a bounty of eight hundred million credits. He knew the ship was responsible for sinking and plundering millions of tonnes of commercial shipping on its own.

The Bloodbeak’s decent shields absorbed a volley from the Firebird squadron as they shot past her. Her engines fired full force, and she brought herself about. As soon as she was angled for a broadside she opened fire with her starboard focused weapons array. 43 batteries of ion flak opened up. The ion bolts slamming into a few of the Firebirds with no apparent effect as they came about. At the same instant beam cannons raked the hull of the lead Firebird, her armor absorbing the energy.

The Firebirds opened up again as soon as they had an angle. This time the Rykoni shields couldn’t take the barrage, and collapsed. Bolts slammed into the famous ship, ripping massive holes into her frame. The star frame shattered under the force of the impacts and the ship started drifting apart as she fell silent.

He turned back to his screens and found that the battle had decided to finish itself while he was distracted. There was still fighting going on, but the carrier group was sunk, and most of the civilians had already made the jump out of the area. Most of the Rykoni were in full retreat, and he was pleased to find that the Refuge ships were chasing them down. It was never a good idea to let the Rykoni return to wherever they came from. They loved a challenging fight, and would often come back in larger numbers. Wiping out the force would have the same effect, but at least it would take longer before the next force arrives. He had no doubt that fleet command would be dispatching ships to locate the base they launched from.