The pilot of the shuttle waited for final confirmation that everyone had boarded before closing the door and taking off through the hull breach. Their destination was the Turian cruiser [i]Intrepid[/i], which was serving as the flagship of the allied fleet. As the shuttle set off from the station, Avatar and RK’s interceptors flew in formation alongside it for protection. If they were engaged by hostile fighters, then  the interceptors would be able to defend the shuttle without regard for their own safety, as it was ultimately expendable hardware.  Both Avatar and RK would be able to reupload quickly to the shuttle if their new hardware suffered serious damage. 

The trio of ships circled around to the other side of the station in order to set themselves on a course for the allied fleet, but as it came into view, the team learned all at once about the battle that had been raging outside of the station. The allied fleet, which had consisted mostly of unarmed or lightly armed transport ships escorted by the cruiser and a few frigates, had been all but destroyed. In its place was a fleet of nonuniform, but organized ships of varying classes up to frigates. An initial visual scan of the debris, crossed referenced with the stored catalog Avatar possessed of the vessels taking part in this mission, revealed that the allied fleet had been greatly outnumbered. At minimum, the enemy possessed triple the number of ships, though based on the distribution of the debris, the enemy fleet had suffered severe casualties. Over 66% of the enemy fleet had been destroyed. However, all of the allied fleet was either destroyed, or missing in action. Most notably, Avatar could not detect the cruiser itself, nor its wreckage. 

“I recommend diverting to the allied settlement on the planet.” Avatar messaged to the shuttle pilot. Despite the shock of seeing their fleet in ruins, the pilot quickly complied. It would take a few minutes to reach the planet’s surface, and for the moment, those aboard the shuttle could see through the windows the terrible carnage that remained after the battle. Most of the ships destroyed had been unarmed transport vessels.