Confused comms traffic exploded into Eva’s ear moments after the sudden and unexpected destruction of the frigate. Voices called out for explanations with no responding voices being able to provide anything.

 

Eva swung her ship back towards Snowy’s beacon on her radar just as the second flash flared to her right, an enormous detonation against the thick shields at the far end of the carrier to her right beginning a chain of explosions running down the length of the mammoth ship towards her.

 

Turning hard away from the carrier Eva shoved her throttle to full afterburner just as the explosions reached her. A detonation went off against the shields of the carrier far too close and as the blast washed her her ship her rear shields evaporated and she was hurled through space, flipping end over end.

 

While fighting with the flight stick with one hand, the other danced across her consoles trying to equalise power to the rear of her ship but before the systems could re-direct power she was scattered with fire from a wing of Avengers. They came in fast, pounding her ship with concentrated fire. The shields around her cockpit held but the vulnerable main thruster took most of the fire.

 

Alarms sounded in Eva’s ears and sections of her hud went red before her eyes. Her main thruster was shredded, fuel tank venting fuel and the power plant damaged but still working. She turned her ship to face the fleeing Avengers, thankful that she still had maneuvering thrusters at least. She pushed her shield power to the front, linked all guns to her main trigger and waited.

 

The wing of three Avengers opened a wide gap before performing a wide turn to preserve speed and training back in on her. Eva locked her sensors onto the lead ship and hovered her finger over the trigger.

 

“I’m coming, Valkyrie.” a voice spoke into her ears. Dizzie’s voice. Moments before the enemy ships were in range a missile zipped through space and detonated against the shields of the lead ship, followed by a shower of turret fire that decimated its shields.

 

In range now, Eva held down her trigger and unloaded her guns into the prone ship peppering it with holes. Its thrusters stopped firing and it listed to one side as it drifted past, lifeless. Eva turned her head and centred the helmet reticle on a second ship as it flew past nearby. Her tracking turrets followed her look and when she held down her trigger again her fire flared against the shields of the enemy ship.

 

She turned her flightstick, using the maneuvering thrusters to turn her Hornet and keep the ship in her firing arc as it flew away. As it got to the edges of her gun range she fired a missile. It zipped through space trailing an arc towards the weakened ship before detonating against thin shields rendering the second Avenger disabled.

 

“Thanks Diz….” Eva began but she was cut off by Command and Control.

 

“All ships, general retreat. Carrier shields are down. Repeat. Carrier shields are down. All wings, cover the retreat. Engage any pursuing craft. Prepare to jump back through the node.”

 

“Command,” Eva heard Dizzie say, “Valkyrie is disabled. She can’t rejoin the fleet.” “Acknowledged Delta Two. We will regroup after the jump and return for survivors. Valkyrie, cover our escape.”

 

“Are you fucking kidding……”

 

“Diz,” Eva cut off what she was sure was going to be a tirade of abuse worthy of a court-martial, “I’ll cover your back. Go.”

 

“I’ll come back and get you Valks.” Dizzie said.

 

Eva closed the comms channel and swung her ship to the nearest enemy contact. “There won’t be anything left to get….” she muttered to herself.

 

Without a main thruster needing power Eva diverted almost all of her power to shields and guns leaving only just enough to turn her ship with her remaining thrusters. She started firing at anything that came into range, using her crippled Hornet as a massive turret.

 

Ships moved to pursue Dizzie as she turned to return to the fleet but were quickly scattered by a rain of fire brought down on them by the crippled Hornet nearby. With so much power diverted from the thrusters to the weapons Eva was able to maintain punishing arcs of fire without having to stop to let her weapons recharge.

 

As markers of her fleet began vanishing from her radar, missile lock alarms sounded in her ears. Turning her ship Eva spotted the source of the alarms. Four missiles snaked out from a wing of ships and trained on her. She knew that countermeasures were a waste of time without having any thrust to escape so she opened fire on them instead. Her turret fire caught one of them causing it to detonate early but she failed to hit the remaining three.

 

The first caught her left wing, having locked onto the heat of the gun there. Her shield flared brightly along with the flash of the explosion and then failed. The second missile followed the first, striking the wing and detonating. The wing turned into shrapnel and the force of the explosion tore apart the left side of the Hornet, ripping up the cockpit canopy.

 

Eva grabbed hold of her eject handle with both hands and yanked on it hard. The remaining twisted frame of her canopy separated violently from the chassis with a series of controlled explosions and a moment later she was launched free of the crippled Hornet, floating away from the wreck at a rapid pace.

 

The final missile struck her unprotected craft moments later. The chassis buckled under the force of the direct hit before the power plant finally went critical, unable to take any more abuse. With a blinding flash the ship exploded into shards.

 

Eva watched helplessly as a sheet of armor plating came towards her at frightening speed being pushed by the force of the explosion. It collided with her with a glancing blow, the force of the impact knocking her out.

 

NEXT ENTRY: Pain