Douglas Walker

[Toaster]

A klaxon blared into Douglas' ears as his ship's shields overloaded under the intense energy. Shrapnel pinged against the Rhino's hull, denting it in places and causing the freighter to spin around.

"Shat, shat, shat," Douglas muttered through clenched teeth as he fought for control over his vessel.

Particle bolts and lasers flashed by the cockpit, making the reinforced viewport ring like a gong from the energy scatter. Around the Rhino, chaos ruled.

A Defender fighter rocketed by, closely followed by two Daggers. Banking hard to port, the Navy craft dodged the deadly bolts of energy that its pursuers had fired after him. Killing its engines, the fighter then spun around to face its enemies while momentum carried it on away from them. Blue streams of light shot toward the Outcasts, followed closely by bolts of plasma. The first Dagger lost its starboard wing to the barrage and rolled to the right, out of control. Its wingman barely escaped the near collision, but instead crashed nose-on into the burning wreck of a Gull transport.

Douglas slammed the accelerator hard when the Rhino's computer called "incoming missile" several time. Almost panicking, he launched five countermeasure, hoping that the antiquated piece of equipment would disrupt the missiles flight path.

It didn't.

With the force of a freight train hitting a car, the missile impacted in the freighter's aft section, tearing a hole into the reinforced hull, before exploding directly inside the cargo bay. The shockwave threw Douglas against the cockpit window, dazing him. Several hull plates exploded outwards from the blast, shooting off into space. A dozen alarms went off. The ship's computer automatically sealed the hatch connecting the cockpit to the rest of the ship as the atmosphere within was sucked out into the vacuum through the newly-made breach.

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Olivia Sable