Rogue Huntress

[Tenacity]

<... Location: Stuttgart System, Sector 2A, 0700 Hours ...>

Aki entered the Bastet's briefing room from the bridge, several of her command crew were gathered and all snapped to attention to salute when they saw her.

"At ease, give me the report." Aki said as she hastily sat down at the end of the holotable.

Mathews, her XO, spoke first, "Admiral, the target is stationed on the far side of this nebula," He pointed to a rusty orange nebula on the holographic presentation of the system, "Our K'vosh scanner has given us full details on the RMS Messerschmidt; it's been modified heavily with nomad technology, including a full array of cruiser-grade nomad energy turrets. It appears the shield is still down, they're swapping out the original Cruiser's shield generators for nomad shield generators. If we strike now, we should be able to take the Messerschmidt out without trouble, but there's no telling how long it is before that shield is active."

Aki nodded and stared at the system map, thinking to herself. After a pause, she turned to Mathews, "Is our cloaking device working yet?"

Mathews shook his head, "We're still having trouble with the power network, we can cloak for a few seconds, but after that it shorts out and takes hours to repair."

Aki stood up, "Use the jump drive to get us inside that nebula, their scanners shouldnt be able to breach it if they're still using the standard equipment Rheinland installed on that ship. Activate the cloak just as we exit the nebula, with any luck it will last long enough to get us into firing range. Find any weak points you can on that Cruiser, she's going to be tough to take down even without her shields." Aki moved for the bridge door.

---

Kommandant Rheinhardt leaned back in his command chair aboard the RMS Messerschmidt, looking over a datapad detailing the progress of the nomad shield's installation. He looked up at the chief engineer standing nervously before him, "Why is it taking this long, the shield should have been functional days ago!"

The engineer stuttered in response, "Sir, our systems werent designed to interface with nomad technology, our power core can hardly handle the new turrets, the shield is putting too much strain on the ship's systems..."

Rheinhardt sighed as he picked up the plasma pistol from the armrest of his chair and fired a shot into the engineer's chest. "Get me a new engineer, and get that damn shield operational!"

He tossed the datapad across the bridge, shattering it against the wall, "Why are humans so damned useless..."

Rheinhardt stood as one of the sensor consoles on the bridge flashed red, he pointed at the screen and glared at his control officer, "What was that?"

The officer rushed to the sensor panel and tapped a few buttons, bringing up short range scanners, "Mein-Kommandant, a glitch perhaps? Nothing is showing on scanners, but there was something towards the nebula a moment ago..."

Rheinhardt growled under his breath and turned towards the helmsman, "Bring us about, fire all cannons into that nebula, whatever it is I want it destroyed!"

The Messerschmidt groaned as it made the turn, lightning up with blue flashes as the organic nomad turrets attached to it's hull fired bursts into the field. Each shot dissipated in a small explosion as it reacted with the volatile gas pockets inside the nebula, but there were no solid hits, no ship or object to fire at.

"Nothing's there sir..." the control officer proclaimed in feigned surprise.

The sensor console began to flash red again, indicating another unknown contact. The con officer rushed back to his station, "Kommandant, behind us! Multiple unknown contacts!"

The massive Cruiser shook violently as hostile fire began to rain down on it's hull. Rheinhardt slammed his fist on the armrest in anger, "Bring us around, open fire!"

The Cruiser slowly began to make it's turn, but it was not built for manuverability, nor a rear assault. Only a few turret arcs could fire at the attackers, and despite it's somewhat larger size, the Bastet was faster and more manuverable.

A massive explosion jarred the ship, and it's turn halted almost instantly, leaving the Messerschmidt drifting sideways towards the nebula. The control officer turned to Rheinhardt, "Sir, our engine... the entire rear of the ship has been destroyed!"

---

Mathews sat next to Aki in the first officer's chair on the bridge of the Bastet watching the destruction alongside her. "I guess the weak point in our database records was spot on, I've never seen a ship torn in half like that..."

Aki smiled and glanced sideways at him, "Rheinland had more infected craft in the war than any other House, we lost a lot of pilots to these cruisers until we discovered that defect... the engine compartment is weakly armored and not well defended, Rheinland craft are built for a frontal assault, not flanking manuevers."

A bright, supernova-esque flash caused the bridge crew to turn their eyes away from the viewport as the reactor of the Messerschmidt exploded, unleashing a shockwave that pushed the rest of the Cruiser into the nebula.

Aki directed her attention at the con officer in front of her, "Recall all squadrons, fire the mortars into that nebula, the chain reaction should destroy the rest of the craft."

"Aye-Aye Ma'am" the Con officer chimed as he turned back to his console, "All fighters return to dock, mission accomplished." He touched a button on the console and the Bastet's twin mortars fired off into the nebula, igniting a blaze that engulfed the Rheinland Cruiser completely. The burn only lasted a few short seconds, but when it subsided all that was left of the Messerschmidt were bits and pieces of debris.

"Target destroyed, Admiral, where should we set course for next?" The con officer said, looking back at her.

"Take us back to base for resupply, it's been a long day." Aki stood and headed back to her quarters. Another nomad dead, a million more to go...

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