[b] Near Alpha Centauri, roughly 10 light-years away from Sol[/b]

Spherical, lustrous pangs of radiance rang out amongst the collection of hostile starcraft as the survivors of the vul'kruun's nuclear missile swarms detonated their payloads, completely vaporizing an ill-fated few while instantly depressurizing, buckling and deforming the internal and external forms of others. The warped and white-hot hulks of a scarce assemblage of the enemy's enduring spacecraft involuntary vented their atmospheres, great jets of diffused plasma seeping from cracks and fissures sprinkled along their outer hulls, while secondary explosions spontaneously fired off in rapid succession, ripping great slabs and fragments of alloy from their main masses and sending them perpetually surging into the expanse of the void. 

Their magazines empty, a number of vul'kruun vessels departed the fray, activating their faster-than-light engines and vanishing with blinding flashes of light, while the remaining elements of the squadron were subjected to a daunting volume of high-powered gamma ray laser return fire distributed by some of the enemy's larger and more heavily-armored starcraft. Sheer mass and the rolling of their cigarette-shaped bodies were the saving grace of an exclusive few, while others were unable to generate enough centrifugal force to spin their bulks quickly enough--an unfortunate byproduct from the resulting damaging of a few of their reaction control systems. Some of the compartments of these vessel ruptured; the reactor of one vessel sustained sever damage from a penetrating beam of radiation, forcing its parent ship to quickly eject it into space. Six vul'kruun star crawlers died while four others, battered and wounded, fled the scene. 

A second and third salvo of missiles sped from the location of the sparse few remaining Retribution starcraft before they too departed. Beam-based point-defense turrets ensured that few of the deadly projectiles made contact, but several missile buses saw their taxi work result in the obliteration of one of the enemy's larger vessels: a final act of vengeance enacted upon the oppressor, the aggressor and the tyrant. With the vul'kruun driven off, the enemy ships collected themselves and opened wormhole pathways to their predetermined destinations of choice.