Reaper of Rishiri

[Annis]

A pained sigh came before he could voice any actual response or orders to his crew, this clearly wasn't an easy decision to make given the potential ramifications it could have for the entire ship and its crew. But it seemed as if he'd made up his mind despite the situation being overwhelmingly tense. "Helmsman, turn us about and maintain full burn towards the distress signal. Communications officer, try to reconnect with the cargo ship and inform it of our intentions." After issuing these orders rapidly and with all the confidence necessary of his station, he looked at Claire nervously, but with the smallest amount of appreciation and respect for her urging him to make the right decision.

The destroyer's approach back through the field was rapid, necessarily so given the situation at hand. Having already expressed that protracted combat would doom the ship, it was unclear how exactly the Captain intended to bypass such a severe hurdle without crippling the vessel or sending the crew to early graves. "Helmsman, kill engines at six points and start dumping power into shields and weapons. Gunnery, prime main cannon and await my order." It was only a matter of seconds before these orders came to pass, the engines protested violently as they were killed so that the ship could drift in with a minimal heat signature. Even for an individual ignorant to the finer points of warship protocol, this approach vector would begin to seem extremely aggressive, even to Claire.

The Captain took a breath and did some much needed split second thinking as they rapidly approached gun range, still undetected by the assailants and the shipping vessel. "Helmsman, fire retro, slow us down by half. Bring the gun to bear, roll and then brace for impact. Gunnery prepare to fire." A strange sensation whipped through the deck as the ship was rapidly rotated after cutting off half its speed. A low guttural sound came from the belly of the destroyer as the Captain tirelessly monitored all the screens at his disposal, before his eyes sharpened in focus and he shouted.

"Fire!"

From the perspective of the shipping vessel, this was perhaps the gambit of a madman, a weapon of planetary destruction fired at one of the Maquis gunships that had done well so far to chase it away from patrols and stations alike. It didn't matter to those panicked crewmen how inelegant the destroyer's maneuvers were or how brutal the absolute vaporizing of a gunship must have been, they had used the last of their shield batteries to put up one last barrier of defiance before the hull gave out. And just as they had done so, one of the hostile contacts simple disappeared from the radar, soon followed by the next.

The destroyer had lined up, and fired at one gunship, and then rolled back over to present its side while bracing for impact. There was no other way they could have eliminated both gunships, without exposing the ship and crew to dire consequences. The beam discharged once, for merely a second and then shut off to prevent critical heat levels, the howl of its firing mechanism soon replaced by a collision between the destroyer and the second gunship, which destroyed the latter outright but had torn away much of the former's left railing and nearly set off a chain reaction that might have resulted in ship-wide decompression if the Captain had not ordered the crew to brace. In doing so, they were ready for such an eventuality and acted immediately, practically overloading a reactor to reinforce the shield system prior to the collision. In doing so, much of the damage that might have been sustained was averted, but to say this had taken a minor toll on the ship would be a grave understatement.

The shipping vessel, though presently on fire was still holding together and its engines were intact, it would be able to extinguish the flames and limp to safety thanks to this daring intervention. Seconds before collision, the personnel aboard the destroyer's bridge would strap themselves in, Claire would watch them do this until finding herself somewhat rudely thrown into what was the Captain's seat and then forcibly strapped in by the man himself. In doing so, he would be thrown across the room instead of her. Given how violent the impact was, he was sent straight over the holographic display table and across the floor, rolling until his back thumped against a wall. It didn't look good, and the crew likely suspected that such a degree of physical trauma would be sufficient to kill him.

To their surprise, he scraped himself off the floor and returned to the table, the occasional droplet of blood on the pristine white surface suggesting he was not alright despite his resilience. Yet all the same, he resumed command. "Helmsman, put us back on course to leave the system." The officer nodded and did so, beginning the tedious process of coaxing the engines to accept having their cruise drives restarted. An action which would work, albeit with limited success, as the excess strain fried one of the main drives and cause the engine to blow out and die, while the other groaned to life properly, this would mean the ship, while able to continue the journey to Aquitaine, would be slowed down significantly and much more vulnerable.

A price they had to pay to protect their own people.