The end of a story...

[Xing]

"Miserable..." Isabelle pushed away hastily the body of Kaito. She wasn't even sure he was indeed dead, but judging by the wound she could barely see in the dim red alarm lights that went on, no one could possibly survive this.

She wasn't intact herself. The taste of her own blood filled her mouth - she wasn't sure where was it coming from, nor did it matter. As long as she could think coherently and see clearly, they could live...
"Very well."
"Zan kan (All ships)! Retreat from this battlefield immediately, thruster maximal impulse. Prepare hard turn by starboard on my command!"

Another violent blast shook the ship as one of the destroyer' hull was ripped open. The shriek of the explosion sounded like the awful moan of a dying dragon as the final moment of the vessel came to be and its fusion engines disintegreated in an artifice of golden fire.
But Isabelle was focused on her display screen so much she couldn't afford to notice anything else. She wasn't even sure her tactic would work; it was something never seen used before.

Against an enemy at advantage and from which you can't retreat away easily, you needed to pull out trickeries from her sleeve... the Kaitlynns were good for that.

The red dots representing her fleet' crafts were now backing away, but soon as the movement was noticed, the blue dots representing the corsair crafts turned around to follow... yes, as expected they were closing in for melee combat, the speciality of the smaller ships. It made them hard to target since they could profit from the many blind spot of a capital ship...
As the blue dots approached, the Amaterasu began to shook heavily once again... but she smiled in triumph as she saw most of the enemies grouping around the flag, the largest vessel...

"Now! All ship, turn 180 degree, maximal output, transfer all gun energy to your helm! Once done, fire at will!"

Isabelle grapped at the nearest thing she could find, that was, her console, and braced herself as the ship violently manoeuvered a move it wasn't designed to do. She could hear the massive metallic structure of the battleship moan as it tried to held itself together, and she only realised how immense a kusari flagship was compared to the liberty dreadnaught, much smaller and aerodynamic...
And all the while, impacts could be felt and heard all over the ships, as the Amaterasu literally smashed the unsuspecting small corsair fighters on its hull, eliminating dozens of crafts like a large bulldozer steamrolling over an ant colony. Once this manoeuver completed, all ships began firing at the dazzled enemies, and everyone on the Amaterasu bridge sighed in relief as they realised the ship held together.
"Mistress Kaitlynn, the parasite freighter has been totally destroyed by the collision with a corsair combat craft during our rotation operation. We have eliminated or heavily damaged over 45% of the enemy group."
"Very well. Are we now aligned to get out of the cloud?"
"Yes, supervisor Kaitlynn."
"Very well. Retreat now at maximal speed."
The crew looked bewiledered as they turned around, looking at her impassive face.
"But, supervisor Kaitlynn, we are winning...!!"
"No. This fight was unecesary in the extreme and nearly ended in a bloody fight by attrition, in which we would have lost. The enemy is aware of this, and it is the reason why even now they pursue us at a safe distance. They hope for reinforcement."
Isabelle sighed slowly. The crew was disciplined, enthusiastic to battle and competent, but they had much to learn to be wise enough to fight...
"We are warriors, not savages. We do not fight because there is an opportunity to kill in front of us. We fight for an ideal, but dead we are nothing. And fighting every battle just because we can will lead us to nowhere but death."

They remained suspicious and confused until the ship captain rose up from his chair,
"Mistress Kaitlynn, your words are true. We are acting like the wild and goaless chrysanthemum. In our excitation to engage combat, we have left our logic behind our pride. Helm, all ahead, get us out of here!"
And with the voice of the ship' captain by her side, Isabelle' orders were heard and obeyed by the entire fleet as they left the nebula. She openned an internal frequency,
"Love, are you alright?" she whispered, although she fully knew anyone who was on this same channel could hear them. And judging by all the inter-ship comm going by, it was obvious a lot of soldiers could if they paid attention.
She heard a confirmation, and nodded satisfied, before turning her attention to the Amaterasu captain,
"Thank you captain. If I might ask for your name, sir?"
"Kaito. Captain Kaito. I'm the brother of the man slain there." The man pointed to the bloodied corpse on the ground in a totally unemotional fashion.
"Not much family love between the two of you?"
Captain Kaito smiled slightly. It wasn't something he was used to do it seems,
"You've seen what kind of man he was. None of us, not even his own brother, liked him much more than that."
"You, on the other hand, mistress Kaitlynn, seems to have saved this entire fleet for his dead soul. It is us, who should thank you."

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