Capture

[Xing]

"You idiot what have you done!!"
Isabelle was on fury, still in her torn clothes, one arm fully bandaged. A medic behind her was trying to calm her down. But mostly, everyone was silent, gloomly silent.
The triangles representing the 45th group, was now completely gone. Instead, it was filled with numbers of escape pods that survived the blast.
Alban was demoralised as well. He was looking at the viewport, unable to understand.
Isabelle was raging, and finally pushed the man off from the pedesdal of the holo projector.
"Wake up men, I am in command now! Comm, open a channel to our ships, new orders!"

--
Trinity was in a maximum security cell, held by two guards, her arms and legs restrained on a strange machine, basically a circular steel ring with manacles at each extremity in order to bind a prisonner in a cross position.
Even from there, they could feel the loud shockwave of the explosion...

She wondered what hapenned to cause this...

--
Outside, it was confusion and panick. The loud rumble of the artillery laser could be heard anywhere there were atmosphere: they came from the cruisers, from the station... but they were shooting blindly through the smoke of the wreckages of the 45th.

Captain Lavoie was, however, behind the Tenebras, and incoming at full speed.
"Fighter squads, fire at will on these f--ers! We'll show 'em the retribution of the Liberty Navy!!"
Over the comm channel, a nearly savage roar of combat was avived as the three dozens of pilot in their fighter cockpits boosted toward the deadly order ships, all weapons blazing.

They were soon joined by multiple squadrons of surviving bombers, unleashing their furry through storms of bomb shells and antimatter blasts. The battleship's shield collapsed and came back online constantly, as it changed it's energy field in order to gain energy from the laser hit. But the trick wasnt effective, as the navy ships automatically changed the polarity of their own weapons to adapt.
And antimatter blasts made no difference: large blasts of white lightning appeared everywhere where once a hull part were, and then disappeared from existence.

--
"To all liberty ships, RETREAT immediately within 2.5 klick of St-Mitchell, this is a direct order from general Kaitlynn!"
No one began arguing. After this booby trap of the Order, the men weren't going strong head against this young girl out of nowhere, she seemed in control of the situation and had an aura of authority around her, something admiral Alban never managed to have. Just at her sight on the holo projection aboard a capital vessel or at the sound of her voice in the noisy channel in a fighter cockpit, men took her with seriousness, and knew she meant business.
A serie of aknoledgement, for the most tired, came back. The fight hadnt lasted that long, it wasnt over yet, but the loss of all ships of a whole battlegroup was bad for the moral.

--
Kaitlynn was now a bit more in control of herself, and ordered men and material around. REports flew around, casualities were immense. It was going very bad.
But her mind was now focused on admiral Alban, who was now sitting on a chair, looking completely numb.
"You... you bastard. Because of your reckless orders, the 45th is gone. How many men have you killed AGAIN? Was the "accident" 4 years back not enough for you?!"
"I didn't w..."
"You say so!" She went forward furiously, a terrifying sight indeed. "All you care of, are these stupid medals! You think men life are expendable, they are like credits you spend to buy glory! That's how nearly a third of my men died, 4 years ago! And now you just killed thousands of the kids outside, how are you going to explain that to high command?!"
Alban was now flushing red, angered as well,
"If it wasn't to save you, this would never have ha-!!"
Isabelle slapped the man in the face, despite her injured arm. There was a bright red mark on the man's face.
"You knew by sending all your ships within the security zone no one would have died! The only risk you would have run, would be the battleships running away from your grasp! But no, you wanted to show the whole world just how awesome you are, you NEEDED to try to trap the-"

A loud alarm interrupted her, as the radar officer (obviously all over his nerves tonight) ran to them,
"Ma'am, reports of a corsair battlegroup coming from the north! They seems to be back up for the order vessels!"
Isabelle took a deep breath. She needed to be calm in order to command. Calm. Coldness, reflection, accuracy.
"We need to give back some order to our ships. Tell to all our vessels to form up in a security line around the north and south of the station. Once they will be in, tell them to hold position."
She sighed, and went over the command chair, punched a code as the lock mecanism for a red button was openned, hissing smoke.
"If the corsair fleet fire, I'm afraid we are going to show up already one of our best cards yet."

---