[h3]ISD-Blackstar (Bridge)[/h3]

Although Merril had only a few space battles under her belt, she really lamented the fact that the captain didn’t have his/her own seat or display; without looking down at her officer’s stations, she had only the view port to look out through. Right now, there was nothing tactical to see, they were on the night side of Arbya, its moon a few dozen kilometers ‘underneath’ them, and nothing but stars everywhere else. Aside from the trailing teal cloud of drive plasma behind them.

She stepped into the datapit, leaned over her helmsman, looked at his screen, and mentally counted the seconds as the symbols representing her ship and the Warhead circled around Arbya.

“Release the trionomic gas and close drive vents. Gunnery station, charge weapons!” Merril ordered and several officers began to go to work. Watching the screen carefully, she could see the Warhead would be within firing range in only a few seconds, but they had lost too much speed, they wouldn’t be able to totally escape the explosion. 

“Bring us around, prepare for starboard broadside, rotate deflectors! All, hands, brace for impact!”

“Aye rotate ship, starboard broadside.” Her helmsman acknowledged.

 “Aye!” The commsman had switched on the intercom, and the captain heard her order repeated out loud.

“All hands, brace for impact! Secure all equipment, all hands brace!” 

Another alarm started blaring, the bridge crew had placed their arms on wall mounts or around their consoles. Merril had attached herself to the navigation computer and awaited the next few moments, while a wave of anxiety washed over her. She felt her heart pounding a hole through her chest and desperately wanted to shut her eyes. But the ship needed her, and that anxiety might just get worse if she did that.
 
[i]Did I do this right? Will we weather the explosion and the Warhead? Should I have just waited for the fighters? [/i]

“Engines losing power, shunting reserves.” The helmsman had said, for a moment, Merril thought she could feel the complicated hydraulics of her engines going to work. The Blackstar’s engines flickered on and off before they finally darkened, leaving the ship to drift port, like it was ‘sliding’ through space. 

The Warhead eagerly approached and fired as soon as they were able. Streams of giant green bolts flashed across kilometers of empty space and disappeared into the giant teal cloud. Branches of energy raced excitedly through the plasma and the gas, working with each other and pulsing through it all, sparking a giant incandescent explosion that splashed the front of the Warhead.

A translucent blue barrier shielded it for a moment, but thanks to their earlier battle, it wasn’t enough. The Warhead dipped from the force of the explosion, their hull blackened, and several smaller explosions painted the top side as it was pushed away.

The Blackstar’s own shields appeared for a moment but were blown away, as if scrubbed away by an invisible arm. The entire crew had propped themselves up on whatever they could, and then it came. The raging arm of the explosion, while mitigated by distance and their shields, was enough to make the ship violently shake. 

Several stormtroopers were glad to have been donning their armor, having been tossed to the other side of their room or a hallway, dozens of officers had been thrown from their stations, or stumbled while resisting the quaking. Throughout the ship power several power relays close to the shield power conduits spat out sparks as the barrier collapsed, sending jolts all the way up to the generators.

But neither ship was crippled, just dazed, and this time the Blackstar had the advantage. 

“Target weapons emplacements, fire!”

[h3]Battle under Arbya[/h3]

“While the Blackstar draws off the Warhead, we are to reunite behind Arbya at point five-five and flank the Warhead. Form up on us, we’re to lead the way for the bombers.” The leader of the reinforcing squads had said.

“Roger, Obsidian, forming up.” O1 said, without further words the rest of the squad had jumped into an arrow like formation, with Liam slightly further in the back.

“O7, that’s not your position, what’s going on?”

Liam started flipping switches on his right side, trying to manage the technical side of his engines, some were either not responding or spat sparks at him for his efforts.

“That weird fighter clipped me earlier, it’s messing with my engines. I can still keep up.”

“Understood, just don’t push it.”

Strike led the way, with Obsidian, the remnants of Eson, and the bombers; all forming ‘waves’ of arrows. Even though fighters were fast and agile, they weren’t that fast compared to capital ship engines, meeting up with the Blackstar was going to take a minute or so. With the empty backdrop of space, this was the perfect time to reflect on the recent encounter, whether he wanted to or not.

[i]That fighter left almost as soon as the Warhead did, if the Blackstar hadn’t drawn it off….[/i]

Liam slammed his fist down onto the edge of his console, eliciting a dull thud, and a jolt of pain rushed through his hand. He tried to stop himself from thinking, hoping that venting even a little would help, but it didn’t.

“…We would have died...” His voice said shakily, a soldier must always be prepared for death, he knew that much. But he couldn’t accept how one sided that had been.

Another silent minute passed with just the muffled screeching of his engines to accompany him, before his computer started beeping, new contacts. The Blackstar and Warhead were within sensor range again, and he was surprised at what he was seeing.

The Warhead was drifting slightly, with a cloud of teal mist surrounding it, like it had just tried to fly through a giant cloud of cotton candy. The Blackstar was firing on it, dealing back everything it had suffered double fold, which breathed new life into him. His squad, his friends, his ship were still alive, and he was going to keep it like that.

“Time to do what we were supposed to, target their engines!” O1 ordered the rest of Obsidian, and they all replied with acknowledgement. 

“Finally, I can cut lose!” Blanche said with a snarl, obviously thrilled.

“If you got’em, use’em, don’t let those missiles go to waste!” O2 added on excitedly, with even Eson squad joining with incoherent yelling.

Warhead started up again, focusing their guns back onto the Blackstar, but with no more shields between the two, they burned and blasted darkened holes into each other, coating the others’ hull in hundreds of particle explosions. But a few seconds in it was clear they had already lost most of their armament.

The fighters dived down, avoiding the slowly vanishing cloud of plasma, and laid waste to the Warhead’s engines. Missiles, lasers, and proton torpedoes flew from their underbellies, crashing into the engines. As one squad flew back up to make another run, another would come in on their tails hitting the engines in their place, until the bombers came. Their last volley had proven too much for the armored thrusters, causing them to explode, warping and shattering the thrust nozzles like so much space dust.

The Warhead’s return fire was gradually weakening, before gradually ceasing, either on their own, or forced by the Blackstar’s own remaining weaponry.

 “All fighters return to the Blackstar. Just watch your step when you come back.” The commsman spoke into the allied radio, giving a sigh of relief before ending the call.

“Wooo! How about that, our first time crippling a Star Destroyer, how about that.” Maran said, relieved.

“Best not to put this one up for an accolade.” Ben replied with a teasing tone.

Liam let his head fall back into his seat as he twisted his TIE around, towards the Blackstar.

“We’ll at least get some shore leave for that right?” Maran continued, sounding like he didn’t have a single worry.

“Constant combat suits me just fine.” Blanche flatly stated.

“You sound like you don’t have work after this, I know I’ll be working on this TIE for ages.” Liam gave a fake sigh as he said that.