ambush above the ring

Chapter 4

Captain Scrin sat on the edge of her chair, wringing her knuckles as she awaited word from the ships navigator to signal their exit from slipspace. A screen to her right counted down until they reached their destination. She could sense the unease amongst her bridge crew as the clock got closer to zero. She thought it be best to address them all one last time of their mission to try and put the at ease.

"You all know the job we are here to do, our flotilla of frigates are the advance party that will arrive at the ring ahead of the infinity. As soon as we exit our jump, I want all scanners searching for anything that might tip off our presence. If your screens see anything out of the ordinary, report it to me immediately. This should go smoothly but its best to prepare for the worse." she finished her speech as she noticed the timer about to hit zero.

"We're exiting slipspace" a voice said, as the bright light caused by the portal faded and was replaced by darkness and a cylindrical object in the distance.

"All Frigates have arrived at the rendezvous location, drop out point seems clear Ma'am"

The bridge was once again filled with light, but this time it wasn't a bright blue, it was a pale red, as the ships proximity alarm triggered.

"Impossible" Faustina muttered as she was cut off by one of her crew.

"Slipspace rupture detected off our starboard bow Captain".

She moved herself to a viewport so she could get a better look of what was going on. As she glanced out into the dark, she could just make out one of the other frigates in her flotilla, she wanted to send warning to the vessel, but before she could even open her mouth, a large purple Ball appeared right beside her escort. There was a energy pulse that followed as the Sphere stabilised, its particles splashing against the frigates shields. Almost instantly after the portal had pulsed, an unknown vessel, much larger than her own, appeared and ploughed right through the frigate on her right. She looked on in horror as it tore the Mulsanne class frigate in two, and continued bearing down on the rest of the flotilla.

There wasn't suppose to be anyone here, she thought as she tried to wrap her head around what she had just witnessed. She could feel her crew all looking to her for support and she was unsure of everything.

"Ma'am, we've just lost the Orion, no survivors detected" her navigator said in a panic.

"Enemy vessel is still bearing down on us, its bringing its weapons online." another voice added.

"What's our orders captain, the flotilla is a sitting duck out here"

Before she had time to compose herself, she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Bishop and the rest of Valkyrie team had somehow made their way to the bridge.

"You need to take command of the situation Captain. Your crew need you, and there's still 2 more ships out there that need your input." Bishop said as quiet as his helmets speaker would allow.

"Right"she said as the Spartans words seemed to sober her up.

She clenched her fist and held it behind her back as a way to ground herself. She peered out the viewport at what was left of one of her frigates, she wasn't going to lose any more ships to what ever that vessel was.

"Connors, push our engines to their max, bring us around, lets get some distance between us and the enemy. Tell our escorts to fall in behind, that bastard may be bigger, but I sure as hell doubt it has our speed."

The three remaining frigates engines started burning brighter that usual, as sign that their crew were pushing them to their limits. They all turned sharply, banking away from the enemy vessel as it began launching an array of projectiles towards them.