Rogue Huntress

[Tenacity]

<... Location: Okinawa System, 2330 Hours ...>

The Bastet drifted quietly through the dense nebulas of northern Okinawa as it made it's way towards the Sendai Research Complex. Several pilots of the Farmer's Alliance had been on Aki's tail ever since she re-entered Kusari space, and it was not easy losing them... they knew their home well.

The Tactical Officer's voice broke the silence, "Admiral, three ships inbound, scans show them as a Farmer's Alliance Bomber squadron, their weapons are hot!"

Aki started barking orders across the bridge, "Raise shields, power turrets, all ahead flank, we've got to be close to Sendai by now, open a channel to the FA ships!"

The screen flickered on, showing one of the alliance pilots, who promptly began throwing taunts and insults her way. She responded in kind, "You're bold to chase us here, farmer. It would seem the Alliance has become no less arrogant with the death of that cheauvenistic pig, Barak."

The pilot was no less gentle with his words, "You havent lost any of it yourself, rebel scum!"

Aki turned to the tactical officer, "Fire all turrets, send them back to the pit they came from!"

The Bastet shook in a rage as it's cannons opened fire, but the small and agile Kusari Bombers were too quick for them. Few shots came into contact with the enemy, and those few that did caused little to no damage.

"Admiral, they're just too fast, we cant hit them..." The tac officer grumbled in frustration.

Aki sighed, the Bastet was meant to take on gunships, cruisers, and battleships... it wasnt a match for smaller craft on it's own firepower. "Launch squadrons one and two, have them intercept the bombers and harass them, maybe it will ease up the hostile fire on us."

She gazed out the bridge viewport as eight Nephthys-Class fighters shot out of the launch tubes on the front of the Carrier. They quickly banked right, coming about to attack the bombers pursuing their mothership, though like the Bastet, the Order fighters were slow compared to even Bombers built in Kusari, and were unable to do much damage to the assailants.

The tactical officer spoke again, "Ma'am, the fighters are keeping some of the fire off of us but they arent going to be able to take out those bombers alone."

Aki slammed a fist down on her command chair's armrest, "How close are we to Sendai?"

"I'm not sure admiral, this nebula is playing havoc on our sensors," He braced himself as another supernova hit the ship, causing it to jar violently, "it should be within five kilometers now."

"Fire thrusters, get as much speed as you can, and tell our fighters to hold them off until we can close distance with Sendai." Aki was losing patience with the alliance attackers, her ship had already been damaged and had multiple systems disabled before the attack, the Bastet wasnt as able to defend itself as it normally would be.

"Admiral, Sendai is coming into view!" shouted the control officer as a massive shadow appeared in front of them, becoming clear as the carrier approached.

"Take us to the far side, open a comm link to the station," Aki paused for a moment until the holographic interface brought the face of the ops officer of the station into view, "Sendai, this is the Carrier Bastet, we're being pursued by three Farmer's Alliance Bombers and are taking heavy damage, requesting fighter assistance!"

"Roger that, Admiral Kimura, we're sending three fighter wings to escort you in"

Aki smiled gratefully for the assistance of the Dragons, within seconds there were twelve Katana-Class fighters screaming towards them at full speed. They unleashed a flurry of laser fire at the Bastet's pursuers, and unlike the Order Nephthys-Type fighters, these were able to keep up with the alliance bomber manuevers rather easily.

The Bastet pulled sharply to the right as it came to the far side of Sendai, bringing the bridge around to view the alliance bombers bearing down on it. Aki stepped forward out of her command chair, staring intently at the bombers as they closed distance, "Tac, ready mortars."

"Mortars, admiral? We cant even hit them with our primaries, how are the slower mortars going to make any difference?"

Aki glared at him with a look that could burn the hair off a Gaian Swampcat, "Do it!"

The Tactical Officer quickly turned back to his station, "Mortars armed, Admiral!"

Aki's voice went cold as she gave the command, "Fire."

Two bright blue balls of light erupted from the turrets in front of the Bridge viewport, flying towards the Bomber formation. The two bombers on the outside of the wedge broke away from the attack, but the middle pilot was not as quick. One of the mortar projectiles ripped through his craft, exploding in a miniature supernova.

One after the other, two new ships appeared on scanners, an outcast destroyer run by the Consortium, and a Blood Dragon Gunship. After a brief introduction they engaged the alliance bombers, who were now outnumbered nearly a dozen to one.

The two remaining bombers made a run for it, one was torn apart by the Dragon Gunship but the other managed to activate it's cruise engines and dropped off scanners. The ops officer onboard Sendai came back onto the communications screen, "Carrier Bastet, you're cleared for mooring, shut down primary systems and repair teams will be dispatched to patch you up."

Aki looked to the helm, "You heard her, get us moored, we've got a lot of damage that needs tending."

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