Miraculous Ladybug - Starfighter/Sci-Fi/Star Wars-ish AU

Chapter 3

The ensuing fight was fairly one sided. Before the defence force ships could get into weapons range, they were already being pounded by Alliance flak cannons and being engaged with enemy fighters. Several callsigns called out in the sea of radio traffic; reporting shield failures then a short scream as their craft exploded.

Most of Green Squad was still in a loose formation, guiding what remained of Red Squad into position for an attack run on the closest destroyer, while fending off incoming fighters. Mari primed her ordinance and switched on her targeting screen. A volley of explosive warheads ejected from the Red Squad fighters. Most of them impacted the Alliance destroyers heavy shielding before it failed under the strain from the constant detonations. The final few, including Mari's, crashed into the thick plating next to the large railgun and detonated causing a cascade effect which took out the main reactor with another small explosion, visible as Mari and the rest of the flight group pulled up from the midpoint of the ship.

"Woooooh! That's how it's done!" An unknown voice squealed over the COMM.

"It's not over yet!" The strained voice of Ren replied.

That was only one ship out of commission, out of the at least two dozen more frigates, cruisers, destroyers and the dreadnaught. Some of the defence force fleet had taken down other ships and most of the first wave of fighters. The Blue Squad gunships were mopping up the rest of the fighters and escorting a Federation carrier into position to try and stall the enemy fleet.

"This is Captain Damocles of the Genesis. All Federation ships prepare to evade a core explosion at these coordinates." As soon as the man's voice ceased, an icon appeared on Mari's three-dimensional navigational interface. The captain of the Genesis was going to try and stall the incoming fleet by detonating his reactor in the middle of the enemy to try and take as many out as he can.

Ren led the attack group away from the designated position to attack another ship. Moments later Mari's cockpit rocked and she looked over to glimpse the Genesis scattered into millions of irradiated shards of deck plating, components and the twenty souls that would have been onboard. It had thrown itself in front of the most advanced ships in the grouping, ripping another destroyer's front off, throwing nuclear shrapnel through a blast door into the hanger of a nearby carrier, taking out 3 frigates and stopping the dreadnaught in its tracks.

Weapons fire was still being exchanged by the other remaining Federation ships, but their numbers were dwindling. For every Alliance ship the Red/Green Squad attachment disabled or destroyed, the Alliance hit back harder. The word came through on the COMM that the remains of the base personnel were being evacuated and the citizens were either being transported off world to nearby colonies or being placed in bunkers. The higher ups mustn't think the battle is going well Mari thought, just as she saw the Alliance ships that had maneuvered in front of the titanic dreadnought peel off again. Before she could announce it over the COMM, Ren's voice broke the ever decreasing radio chatter.

"FDF Intervention! Evade!" The young man commanded. However it was already too late. As the ship banked hard, firing all of its side thrusters at maximum output, the beam projector glowed for a second before spitting out a laser burst that lit up the battlefield. Mari reflexively shielded her eyes from the illumination, when she lowered her arm, the Intervention and the corvette that had been nearby, were nothing but glowing metal fragments.

"All units, retreat." The admiral's defeated tone conveyed his trepidation.

Several more Green and Red Squad ships had been lost in the five minutes since the start of the engagement. Only a few gunships remained and they were returning to the small collection of what larger ships remained, while they started to turn away and calculate jumps.

The attack group continued pummeling the enemy fleet.

"Sir, shouldn't we be regrouping with the others? The admiral said-" One of the other members of Green Squad piped up.

"We need to give our forces time to escape. Those are my orders." Ren ordered firmly. "Once we get the message that everyone is either in a bunker or evacuated, we will rendezvous with what ships are left."

A few more fighters exploded with screams of agony as the group attacked another destroyer's railgun. There were only a few of them remaining now; Green Leader Ren, Green 2 Nino, 4 Alix, 9 Juleka, Red 2, 5 Mari, 7 Nath, 11 Alya and 6.

"That should be everyone jumped away. Let's get out of here." Ren stated over the COMM. What remained of their little pack formed up and made for an exit. As they broke through the collection of frigates an alarm indicating an inbound FTL jump sounded in all the pilots cockpits.

"Alright, backup had arrived!" Green 2 excitedly announced.

With the typical multi-dimensional ripple of a ship arriving from FTL travel a ship larger than any of the pilots had ever seen came to a physics defying halt right in front of the red/green squad pack.

"That's not one of ours." Mari spoke worryingly over the COMM.

Turrets on the gigantic vessel spun round to target the incoming ships.

"Get out of here! Now!" Ren blasted to all remaining pilots. "Set your jump co-ords here!"

As the remaining ships split off to avoid hitting the new warship, the turrets fired a round of fighter tracking missiles. Mari had instinctively followed behind Ren when they split, her bomber found it difficult to keep up with his speed and graceful evasion of weapons fire. The other fighters and bombers had gone the shorter route, but Mari and Ren navigated around the large vessel, Ren most likely taking as detailed scans as he could as they barreled along just meters from the hull. The other ships announced their jumps in succession once they had cleared the range of the enemy fleet, the missiles that were seeking them detonated due to the lost targets. Ren continued his risky plan with Mari along with it, one of the missiles keeping up with their erratic piloting.

"Mari! You need to jump out of here!" He must have finally noticed she was tailing him.

"Not without you!" She replied, having to force the words to come out while she struggled to match his maneuvers. "Those scans will be no use if you are dead."

Ren realised that Mari was right and jammed on the throttle before sharply turning over 90 degrees away from the hull of the large vessel. Mari followed behind as well she could, but lost a large amount of her velocity in the turn. It was enough time for the missile to gain ground and impact Mari's shields. The explosion shook the ship but the shields held barely. However the warship had launched another missile at them and it was closing fast. Ren and Mari primed their small FTL drives, ready to make their escape.

The missle impacted Mari's shields but they failed instantly, allowing some of the blast to catch the back of her port wing. The missile was a flechette weapon, containing thousands of small alloy rods that once the missile detonated would propel themselves into the ship, and most likely out the other side, to either cripple systems or destroy it all together. The last remaining power on her shields had protected her from the full brunt of the weapon. But some of the barbed flechette rods had penetrated her engine bay, showing multiple alerts on her display. Life support, thruster controller, shield projectors (not that they were on anymore anyway) were all critically damaged. Everything required to jump was still at least operational; deflector, jump drive and main computer.

"Shit!" Mari could only find one word to sum up her situation.

"You okay back there?!" Ren asked.

"I'm fine! Let's jump!" Mari replied flustered.

The pair engaged their jump drives near simultaneously, and their ships flashed away, leaving the still capable and menacing fleet looming above Paris.

____________

"Sir. The last two fighters have jumped away. Their vector indicates somewhere different to the escaping transports."

"Track them. However, I assure you, they won't be going anywhere of note, Captain. Keep me informed. I'll be in my quarters."