[b]J. Tolliver[/b][hr]
The sky lit up orange when the ship's reactor blew up, Tolliver got up from his seat to view the hellish carnage that ensared the skies before him. "Shit." was the simple word that fell from his mouth, he quickly keyed to speak to the young ensign he entrusted duties in just moments again. "Slater, manually check all systems and have weapons primed and ready to fire if the order comes down." A quick "Yessir!" returned itself moments after over the radio. Quickly after that Captain Sarrett spoke on an open channel to his office. “Commander Tolliver, I need you to order the 12th to a defensive position around Artemis,” Sarett said into the comm, “They are to maintain positioning where they have easy lines of acceleration and fire to the Coalition fleet, but they are not to arm weapons or fire until I give the order to do so. If they are on the receiving end of incoming that is anything less than obvious and coordinated assault, I want them to put Artemis between themselves and that incoming. Under no circumstances are we to fire first.”

Sarrett cut him off before he could reply with "Yes Ma'am." Cracking his hands he looked back out to the falling debris of the coalition ship, what a shame the first shot wasen't theirs. To his knowledge, their ship had not fired upon the Coalition as heads would of rolled in that case. Perhaps there was a third party, but the time to reflect on what just happended was running out. The Captain did not want him to dawdle, as it was not his job to do so. He sat down at his desk and opended communications to the 12th MAS who were currently on patrol. "Attention, 12th. This is Commander Tolliver speaking, new general orders coming from the Captain herself.  You all are to return to the Artemis's perimeter to take up defensive positions.  Those positions should be viable to allow your squad to engage and advance onto the Coalition fleet if the situation is dictated by the Captain. Weapons are not to be armed or fired unless ordered by the Captain herself, take any stray fire and protect the Artemis. You  are not to fire first unless told otherwise by the Captain or by proxy through me. " He finishes speaking, leaving the channel open as he keys over to the security forces channel.

"Lieutenant Weyland, mobilize the security forces in full gear. Should the Coalition attempt to board I want your unit to be able to defend key logistical points aswell as the Captain." The response comes rather quickly. "Yes sir." The asian Lieutenant as he sat up from his desk. The security department was buzzing with excitment as security forces personell who appeared from various posts. With the general alarm going off they came to the briefing room where Lieutenant Weyland stepped out. "Guardsmen, this is what we've been training for. The possibility of Coalition boarding is probable. The details are not all there, but we are deploying to key points and to the Captain incase anything were to happen. We'll be the first and last line to them. Now gear up." Weyland orders the group. Everyone went to work, heading to the armoury  to gear up. Two security corporals were less than thrilled though.[hr]
[b]Ingram Shaw[/b][hr]
"Hold fire, hold fire." Ingram called into the mic as his eyes rapidly scanned the enemy MAS. Weapon systems lit up like fireworks, and though their numbers were even, if a fight broke out Ingram was wary of the amount of damage Tigres could do- he was already this close. Ingram grimaced a bit as Nix started giving out commands- old habits died hard for old timers, but it [i]was[/i] the best course of action. His eyes strayed to his radar, and saw both the rookie and one of the Coalition MAS getting antsy. That was bad. The coalition pilot was moving closer, and though it was almost certainly just a trick of the eyes, Ingram could've sworn he saw the Fafnir's trigger finger twitching. He keyed his comm and opened his mouth to speak- cut things off before they got too hot. He never got the chance to say anything.

"I've been fired on!" screamed Chloe into the squad channel, her own autocannon opening up as well. "The rookie is shooting! He freaked out and he's shooting!"

Several more streaks of white-hot autocannon rounds flew through the space before Irish shot the Coalition pilot's autocannon out of his hand. He'd have to commend Irish on that shot later, it was a damn good one- even if it was technically disobeying orders. Shaw flew towards Chloe, and out of the corner of his eye saw the Bloody Valkyrie doing the same to his own rookie. Of course the rookies would be the ones to fire their weapons. The rest of the pilots- UEE and Coalition included all seemed jumpy, ready and more than willing to fight if it came down to it, but no one seemed ready to break the potential ceasefire just yet. The short-range comms stayed silent, but Ingram had the feeling Tigres was doing the same thing he was about to do. Ingram clamped his jaw shut and gritted his teeth, flying his Sparrowhawk in front of their rookie, and taking a autocannon round to his shields for his efforts.

Ingram ignored his cockpit as it rattled slightly from the impact, the red light in the corner of his vision flashing and notifying him that his shields had depleted by roughly 40%. Deftly flicking at his controls, he expertly operated his Sparrowhawk's offhand manipulator, roughly slamming it onto the Shrike's autocannon and almost ripping it out of its hand- though the magnetized grips of the Shrike meant that it was merely pulled closer to Ingram's MAS.

"[i]Hold your fire.[/i]" Ingram growled in a withering tone. "I don't recall ever giving you permission to fire. Pull another stunt like that and you'll spend the rest of the war behind a maintenance console." Letting go of the Shrike's autocannon, Ingram returned to the center of their formation. Perhaps harsher than he normally would've been- much harsher. But Ingram refused to be the man responsible for reigniting war between the UEE and Coalition. The Coalition MAS looked itchy, the space between them was tense, and he knew they wanted to open up on the 12th. To be fair, every nerve in his body was screaming at him to start shooting at the Bloody Valkyrie while he had the chance. Though for the time being, Tigres seemed to be able to keep the rest of his squadron in check. 

"Iggy, control your team!" came the scolding voice of Nikita. If he wasn't in a MAS in the middle of space in the middle of a potential shootout in a battle, he would have whirled on her instantly. He clenched his fists- he wanted to hit something, but he was surrounded by a cockpit full of electronics and controls. 

"You don't get to call me that!" Ingram hissed, the proverbial venom dripping from his voice. "I've got my team under control, [i]Commander Shaw[/i]."

His screen blinked, and a closed transmission came through the command channels- Tolliver was ordering the 12th to defensive positions around the Artemis. He grimaced. This was going to look bad no matter which way they tried to spin it.

"All units fall back to defensive positions. Form up on the Artemis, and [i]maintain[/i] trigger discipline." Ingram called into the squad comms, as he activated his retrothrusters and began slowly backing away from the station. He wouldn't turn his back on the Coalition forces, not while they were so close anyway. As the squad began to fall back, a few of the Coalition MAS began to move forward- not enough to be chasing them, but definitely not backing off either.

"Hey! Where the fuck are you going huh?!" demanded the Coalition rookie, his voice cracking over the short-range transmissions. "Think you can just blow up our ship and walk away?! I had family on that ship you tyrant fucks! Hey!" The kid must have been no older than 20. Young, and angry, a bad combination for a pilot. The rookie Fafnir threw something in futility at the retreating 12th Squadron- the shattered remains of his autocannon. It bounced harmlessly off of one of the Aegis' shield arms.

Ingram didn't respond, instead he was distracted by a notification from the Terracotta- Duke Lupus' personal ship. "What the hell?" Ingram murmured more to himself than anyone else, though his voice was still picked up through the squadron channels. "Anyone got eyes on the Terracotta?"

Comm channels and distress signals from the Terracotta were dark, but you didn't need to look at the comm channels to see the Terracotta. Out of nowhere, one of the Terracotta's life boats ejected from the side of its hull. Then another, then a third, and then another five. Ingram pressed a button, automatically hailing the Terracotta, but there was no response. Instead another dozen life boats launched from the hull of the ship. Lifeboats launched out of the ship like slowmotion fragmentation coming out of a frag grenade. 

"Hello? Terracotta? Attica Station? What's going on? I'm seeing 50 plus lifeboats leaving the Terracotta." Ingram demanded over Fleetcom, using any frequency available to him to contact the Terracotta.

Ingram received nothing but static.