Reforging the Blade

[Heuschrecke]

"Captain, we got torpedoes locked on. Shields are faltering, we can't keep up like this!"

Fafnir had come under fire, the stalemate escalating quite quickly into the heat of battle. Jaegerin Two had been beaten up a fair bit too, but she was holding together well enough. Minor damage to the starboard engine had caused some temporary malfunctions in the afterburners but nothing the carrier couldn't handle. For now at least.

"Jaegerin, can you target their bombers? We can handle the Gunboat if you can keep them off of us."

A static-infested acknowledgement came through, and the bomber swapped targets. Now they could begin to unleash pain on their enemy.

"Target locked, firing!"

A short burst of the heavy arrays broadside battered the target vessel, stripping its shielding. It returned fire, but peeled away, adapting its strategy of engagement.

“Our shields are down, captain, and we got incoming torpedoes!”

"Shoot them down, then blast their bombers."

The order given was short-lived though, as the Gunboat moved in to distract the gunners. The torpedoes connected, the impact rocking the ship heavily. Heimirich glanced at the damage console, it blaring that starboard engine integrity was at seventy-two percent. Enough for the time being, but something to be weary of.

Something else had happened too, Jaegerin Two had stopped firing altogether. Concern for the pilot was high, especially when both the bombers had mirrored this. Nothing but static was coming from her comms either. He feared she had been killed, though a more pressing matter surfaced. More torpedoes. Engines forty percent. Hull integrity sixty-two percent. The situation was beginning to turn dire, what with the persistent weapons fire finding their marks.

The turrets locked onto one of the bombers, causing enough damage for it to break away and retreat far enough to no longer be a threat. The victory was short-lived, though. Jaegerin Two began to move again, an uncertainty in their flight path. It seemed they were struggling to control the vessel. Relief that she was alive brought him encouragement to keep trying.

"Divert all emergency power to shields, deploy the power cells for full reinforcement!"

The shields surged up, a bright green dome of remarkable strength absorbing everything thrown at it, allowing the carrier to focus on dealing heavy damage to the gunboat vessel and ward away the fighter. The boost couldn't last forever, though, and it faltered several minutes later. No sooner had that happened, the Jaegerin Two commenced an erratic bombing run on the starboard engine. They were stunned for long enough that they launched their torpedoes without being fired upon, the betrayal through forced action harming the crew’s resolve for the fight.

{ALERT! ENGINE CRITICAL!}

Another wave of torpedoes remained persistent enough to find their mark upon the hull of the carrier. Many more and there would be no choice but to abandon ship. These forces of evil were far too aware of the threat the weaponry posed to their ships that they moved enough out of weapons range to utilise their torpedoes for anti-capital warfare. There was just too much left to engage. The gunboat retreated out of range granting a small reprieve, only for a new threat to appear.

{ENGINE DESTROYED! HULL INTEGRITY, CRITICAL!}

Fafnir lost engine power, the critical loss of the engine causing an overload through the vessels power grid and entering a reboot phase of several minutes. To make matters worse, The new contact closed in. It was a 'Grouse'-class transport and scans revealed far too much. It was a boarding vessel; They intended to take the ship by force.