Since their arrival at the assigned patrol sector, the crew of the Flame had been running through a list of drills to test both theirs and the ship's performance. So far, according to the reports in front of the Admiral, they had been setting record times.

"Coffee sir?" Asked Commander Bradich as she approached with two mugs of the hot brew and held one out to her superior.

"Yes, thank you Commander." He replied as he stretched his neck and took the cup from her hand. After taking a small sip, Artemis sat the cup down and gave the rest of the reports a quick look over before signing them.

"So how's it looking Admiral?" Melissa asked as she took her seat nearby, sipping her own coffee before sitting it down.

"Quite well, the only way the crew could be working faster would be if they were all robots." He said with a small chuckle.
Picking his coffee up and taking another sip, Artemis looked over at Melissa. "Did you by chance make this coffee yourself Commander?" He asked.

"Yes sir, why? Is there something wrong with it?" Commander Bradich asked.

"Quite the opposite in fact, this is by far the best coffee I've had the pleasure of being served aboard all of the vessel's I've commanded." Admiral Lindrake complimented, then took a larger sip.

"Oh, well thank you sir." Melissa said with a smile.

"Sir, I think I'm getting something." Reported the communications officer.

"Report." The admiral ordered as he fixed his attention on him.

"Picking up a distress signal sir, sounds like it's not too far away." He informed him.

"Let me hear it." Artemis instructed.

"Aye aye, patching it through now." The officer worked his terminal until the signal was being played throughout the bridge.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the King's Maiden of convoy A7352, we are under attack! Raider warships have destroyed our escort and disabled one cargo ship, requesting immediate assistance from any UCF forces! Oh god, they're coming back around! EVADE! EVA------"

There was nothing but static after that.

"Get a fix on that beacon's last known location and order all hands to general quarters!" Admiral Lindrake ordered.

"Aye sir!" Responded the comms officer as he worked the controls of his terminal. "All hands, general quarters, general quarters, this is not a drill!" With the push of another button on the officer's panel, alarms began to play throughout the ship.

"All hands, general quarters, general quarters, this is not a drill!" Everyone heard the officer announce over the ship's PA system, quickly followed by the general quarters alarm.

"Move move move! Get your flight suits on!" Shouted Zack as he and his flight abandoned their card game and quickly started getting into their combat flight suits as further orders were relayed over the PA.

"All combat and flight personnel are to report to briefing rooms immediately, all gunners are to report to your stations and prepare for combat."

"Alright, everybody ready?" Alzack asked as he grabbed his suit helmet.

"Good to go sir!" The others responded as the all quickly made their way out of the room and to the briefing room down the hall.

"Attention! officer on deck!" Shouted the marine guard posted by the door as Marcus and is Sargent, Adrian Williams, entered the room.
The hushed conversations quickly ended, every marine in the room snapped to attention and saluted the Major faster than anyone could blink.

"At ease, all of you." Marcus ordered as he stood in front of them. All of them quietly sat back down and focused their attention on their commanding officer. "Here's what's going on, we've got a convoy under attack by raiders, their escort's down and a cargo ship's disabled, presumable they've already been boarded. So we get to go play hero." Major Reid informed them, many of the marines cheered at the promise of getting to see some action.

"Alright, settle down." He instructed them. "Now, we're sending three teams in, two marine squads and a team of engineers to get the ship running again. But, there's going to be no time to mess around, the navigation boys have informed us that there's a decaying star in the area, so we have to get in, get it done, and get out fast, or else we're all dust." Looking over the faces in the room, Marcus let that fact sink in.

"Bradley, Kennith, since your two squads have the fastest boarding times, you've both been selected to escort the engineers and retake the ship, get prepped and report to the drop ships, we FTL in five minutes. Good luck." Major Reid and Sargent Williams saluted everyone in the room as they all stood up and made their way out.

"Anything good?" Asked one of the masked men.

"Oh yeah, got food, water, shit, even got some mining equipment that we can sell for a damn fine price, along with the ransom we can get for the crew." Answered the other

"Fuck yeah! I knew this was gonna make us rich!" The first cheered.

From down one of the halls came the sound of boots running on metal grates as a third masked gunman entered the cargo hold.
"Boss! We got trouble, scanner's picking up a jump signature, and it's big!" He informed the others.

"Shit, nobody was supposed to get here this fast!" Shouted the first.

(optional battle music - cry thunder by dragonforce)

"Exiting jump in, three, two, one, jump cleared." Informed the Head Navigator as the Flame exited FTL near the beacon's last known location.

"Scramble fighters and have the drop ships prepared for launch." Ordered Commander Bradich.

"Aye ma'am." The flight control officer acknowledged as she worked. "All Dagger flights, scramble now, drop ships prepare for launch as soon as all clear is given." She ordered.

"Roger, all flights, ready for launch in five." Ordered Captain Sheather as the engines of every Mark three Dagger fighter on the platform roared to life. Quickly the launch elevators brought the fighters to one of the two internal runways.

"Launch!" He ordered as multiple fighter craft raced along the runways on the left and right of the ship, launching into space to engage the enemy.

"Alright ladies and gents, form up into your flights and focus on the little guys, the Flame can handle the bigger ones. Engage at will!" Blake ordered as he locked onto a raider fighter and launched a missile, opening the swirling dogfight as both sides mixed in and picked their targets.

"All Dagger flights have been engaged sir!" Reported the flight controller.

"Very well, what are we looking at for the enemy main force?" Artemis asked as he looked over the monitoring screen for the battle that displayed the various friendly and enemy flights, along with the larger ships.

"Readouts show one light carrier escorted by one destroyer class and one light cruiser class to our starboard bow." Reported Melissa as she highlighted the targets.

"Lock onto the cruiser and prep missile tubes five to eight, load standard anti-ship ordinance, tell the gunners to focus the starboard one hundred millimeter guns on the destroyer, load armor piercing ammunition and fire at will." Admiral Lindrake ordered the weapons directors.

"Aye sir!" They responded as the Admirals orders were hastily conveyed.

Soon, the right side of the Flame of Hope lit up as the one hundred millimeter batteries concentrated their fire on the small vessel before them.

Their fire was soon followed by four ports opening, revealing four quad-tube missile launchers. The tubes soon lit up as well, as a salvo of sixteen harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles left the tubes, and arced their way towards the light cruiser. It's point defense guns were able to destroy half a dozen of them, but ten of the deadly warheads still managed to impact along it's hull, ripping the doomed ship apart.

Just like it's larger ally, the small destroyer couldn't hold out for long under the volume of fire from the carrier's heavy flak guns, and was soon reduced to a hole filled wreck. Detonations from the destroyer's ammunition magazine caused by fires from the barrage, ripped the raider ship in two, leaving only the light carrier undamaged.

"Watch your six Hammer, you've got one trying to line you up." Alzack informed Daniel when he spotted the enemy as he engaged a target of his own.

"I see him Backlash" Dan answered as he jinked left and right to keep the raider from getting a lock on. "you going to do something about this guy Bulldog?" Daniel radioed to Nathan.

"Roger, I got him, dive hard on my mark Hammer." Nathan confirmed as he lined up behind the enemy fighter while his attention was fixed on Daniel. "Hammer, mark!" Nathaniel called. Dan quickly rolled his Dagger inverted and pulled as hard as he could on the control stick, leaving Nathan with a clear shot, and a strong lock on tone.

"Blue four, fox two!" Nathan called his shot as his missile bay opened and the telltale white streak shot towards the raider craft quickly, leaving only a quickly extinguished fireball and wreckage as it impacted.
"Hammer, your six is clear."

"Nice shot Bulldog, I owe you a beer when we get back aboard. Dan said cheerfully as the pair formed back up and looked for their next target.

"All flights, looks like they're pulling back to the carrier, make sure the airspace is clear for the drop ship." Captain Blake ordered and waited as the flight leaders confirmed. "Flame actual, this is Deuce, airspace is clear, send the troopers, over."

"Roger that, drop ship is on the way." The flight control officer responded. "Headhunter, prepare for launch."

"Headhunter here, all troopers and crew secure, ready for drop." Responded the drop ship pilot.

"Opening lower launch bay one, releasing in three, two, one, mark!" The controller counted down as a hatch opened on the bottom of the flame and the drop ship fell into the void of space, then made it's way to the disabled merchant ship.

"Umm sir? I'm getting some weird readings from the drive core." Reported a technician as the ship's Head Engineer, Roman Landon made his way over and studied the screen.

"Hmm, strange." He thought out loud as he worked the terminal to bring up more information on the strange energy fluctuations that the core was emitting. "I don't like this, these fluctuations are within the safety limit for a drive core, but I'm not quite sure what could be causing them... I need to inform the Admiral, report to me immediately if anything changes." Roman ordered as he made his way to the comms terminal.

"Docking in five seconds. Three, two, one, contact! Magnetic clamps secured, hard seal established with hatch." Reported the pilot to the marines and engineers in the drop ship's hold.

"Copy, overriding door controls.... We're in!" Reported one of the engineers as he hacked the merchant's outer airlock.

"Breach and clear, go go go!" Bradley ordered as the two marine squads entered the ship.

"Clear!"
"Clear!"
"Alright, Kennith, I want you to take your squad to secure the bridge and the crew, we'll escort the engineers to the engine room and see about getting the FTL online." Bradley ordered.

"Roger that sir, Bravo squad, move out, eyes open." Ken replied as he and his squad moved towards the front of the ship, meanwhile Bradley's squad, along with the engineers moved towards the rear.

As Kennith and Bravo squad cautiously moved towards the front of the ship, they encountered very little resistance and were able to take out the few raiders left behind to guard the crew easily and escort them to the bridge.

Meanwhile, Bradley and Alpha squad were able to quickly reach the engine room without too much trouble, though when they arrived, the engineers discovered that repairs on the FTL drive would take a little time.

As the last of the enemy's fighters landed aboard the light carrier, Admiral Lindrake ordered them to be allowed to flee.
"We can't pursue them and protect the convoy at the same time, let them go." He ordered as the smaller ship jumped away.
"Recall the fighters and get me a status report on the boarding party."

"Sir, Head Engineer Roman Landon has requested to speak with you." The communications officer informed him.

"Patch him through." Artemis requested as he took his place in his command chair.

"Putting him through to you now sir." Replied the officer.

"Admiral sir, I need to speak to you about the Tachyon drive." Roman informed Lindrake as his face appeared on the monitor in front of the Admiral.

"What seems to be the problem Landon?" He inquired.

"We're getting energy fluctuations sir, they're still inside the safety parameters, but they seem to be increasing." Roman reported as he displayed the data for Artemis to see as well.

"I see, any idea what might be causing it?" Artemis asked.

"We're not sure yet sir, but we're looking into it right this moment." Landon answered.

"Good, let me know as soon as you find something." Lindrake ordered.

"Aye sir!" Roman confirmed before cutting off the communication line.

"Hey guys, not to rush you, but the Admiral wants a report on how long it's going to be before the drive is operational." Bradley asked the engineers.

"Hmm.... Ten, maybe fifteen minutes? A few of the circuits need to be bypassed and she'll be good for at least one more jump, that's the best we can do for these guys without tearing this old thing out and dropping in a new one." Replied the engineer in charge.

"Alright I'll let him know." Bradley replied as he hailed the Flame of Hope.

"Oh that's not good. Sir! You're going to want to see this!" Called the technician monitoring the FTL drive aboard the Flame.

"What have you got?" Roman asked as he moved up next to him.

"I did a complete diagnostic scan and managed to trace the origin of the energy fluctuations, it's the star sir. The drive is collecting energy runoff from it as it decays, and it's starting to build up more rapidly. If this keeps up, the drive core's going to overload!" The tech informed his superior while displaying a readout that matched the slowly climbing energy fluctuations in the drive next to a readout of the energy being released by the star.

"By the lords above..." Roman stared at the readings, then as quick as he could, sprinted back to the communications terminal.

"Done, this old girl's ready to go." Informed the engineer as they and the marines began leaving the engine room.

"Alright, good work boys." Bradley congratulated them, then keyed into Bravo squad's frequency.
"Bravo, this is Alpha, we're done back here, meet back at the drop ship and lets get out of here." Bradley ordered the other squad.

"Roger that Alpha, Bravo is on route, over." Ken replied.

"Sir, we have a serious problem!" Roman nearly shouted at the Admiral.

"What's going on Landon?" Artemis asked.

"It's the star sir! It's basically force feeding the Tachyon drive energy, and it's building up more rapidly than we can drain it away. If this keeps up, the drive core's going to overload. We need to get out of here immediately!" Roman explained to Admiral Lindrake.

"Sir! It's accelerating! The star's going to blow any minute!" Artemis could hear the technician shout from off screen.

"GET THE BOARDING PARTY BACK HERE NOW! AND GET THAT CONVOY OUT OF HERE!" Artemis shouted as alarms began to sound.

"Aye sir! Boarding party, this is Flame actual, we have an emergency, RTB immediately! The star's going to blow! Convoy A7352, commence immediate jump!" The comms officer frantically gave the Admiral's orders.

"This is Headhunter, we're away, returning at full speed!" The drop ship answered.

As soon as they were at the minimum safe distance from the boarding party, every ship in the convoy initiated an immediate emergency jump, the last one disappearing in a flash of light just as the drop ship entered the Flame of Hope's runway.

"We're aboard! Everyone hold onto something!" The pilot quickly reported.

"Emergency jump now!" Ordered the Admiral.

"Sir, We don't have a destination programmed into the nav computer! And with this much energy build up in the drive, we could end up anywhere!" Head Navigator Martin Webley reported.

"Anywhere's better than here! JUMP!" Artemis shouted his orders.

"Aye sir! Jumping!" He replied as an override was entered into the computer.

"All hands! Brace for emergency jump!" The comms officer relayed throughout the ship.

Seconds later, there were two bright flashes of light, one was the Flame of Hope, the other was the supernova letting loose it's fury.

Author's Note

Chapter two finished, with over 3000 words! Making this the longest chapter I've written for any of my published stories!
I hope you like it so far, and as always,
I'll see you among the stars!