Firestorm
by Vikinga Rainbowdóttir
Chapter 1, A Leap Of Desperation
"Set the meeds to canister! Get these damn Mosquitos away from the fucking ship!" A rough but feminine voice bellows over the screech of sirens and the deep rumbling of incessant cannon fire. It takes me a second to register it, but I realize the voice was mine. My lungs are burning as I immediately gasp in for breath.
The ship shudders, and the flickering of power brings my attention to the holo in front of me. As far as I can tell, all of the surviving escorts are already in front with the civilian ships. Two escorts are down the HIS Inferno and HKS Skjold. The HUD tells me that our fighter and shuttle wing has returned with heavy damage but no casualties, the ship's jump ring is charged, and that all of the corvettes and pinnaces are tethered. Everything is ready to jump except one thing.
"Astrometrics reports that all attempts to salvage our navcomputer have failed! They say that they will need a day to reconstruct it at the minimum!" Ensign Kobyashi calls out. More quills rip through our now threadbare shields and puncture the hull just as she reports, and every second we stay here is another second less before the psychic interdictor is in range.
"Ensign Kobyashi, ready ship for protocol D. Brace for impact." We leave blind or not at all.
The jittery ensign is visibly shaking as she turns the key. I feel a jealous pang at her ability to just take orders and not think about all of our probable deaths, that she can just let herself shake.
"Ma-ma'am, All decks report in ready for impact!" I look down at her and nod.
It's all or nothing now, with just a roll of the dice to decide.
"Freyja preserve us." A unknown sailor calls out.
She taps the key.
Immediately dozen of scared voices are shouting across the line. Demanding that I give the astrometric a team more time, telling me that this is suicide. A few are silenced as each ship in the Squadron is pulled into the randomly generated tear in reality.
Eventually there is silence.
Then we enter.
