"Shield is down!" you can hear Sarah's voice as another plasma bolt rocks your vessel. The twenty-six year old blonde yanks the steer wheel for a sharp turn, and from the cockpit's window, you can see another shot blazing past you.
"Damned thing just can't graze them!" you can hear Becca yell from the comm. The twin lasers on top of the ship under her jurisdiction. But the ship after you is a cruiser that belongs to the Harlan Star Empire. And a small frigate like your Artemis can't win a fight against it.
"Can we fucking jump now?!" Becca asks from the comm.
"Bots are still repairing the jump drive!" Sarah yells back. And after a quick turn you can see another shot going past you.
The worst thing in all of this is that you just stand here. In the beginning, when the harlan cruiser dropped out of hyperspace, it was easy for you to order a jump to a different location. Like drinking a cup coffee in the morning. But after the first shot hit you, and Sarah said that the hyperdrive is offline, you froze: as you realized that it's game over.
You are in the middle of wild space. Your ship intentionally left here so you could get some shuteye. Earth might be at war with the harlans, but in here nobody is going to help you. What's worse is that the harlans are ruthless slavers. Their subjects minds' broken to the point that their only conscious thought is to serve their owner. And if you give up now, the same is going to happen to you.
However you either surrender now, or the harlans are going to blow your ship to pieces.
At first, you don't think you can give out an order like this. But your mouth starts to move seemingly on its own, and one by one the words come out of your mouth.
"We have to surrender," you tell them.
"What?!" Sarah and Becca asks in unison.
"We have no shields. And we don't have the armor to handle those shots," you answer. Your tone cold as ice.
"What the hell are you saying, Mel?! Those bots could repair the FTL drive any minute!" Becca snaps at you, and you can hear her actual voice too, loud enough to get through the layer of metal between the two levels.
But that is the problem with these kind of decisions: The grass is always greener on the other side. But if you look at the situation logically, you can see that the cruiser was able to hit you four times since the start of the chase, and the repair bots made no indication that they are about to finish the job. This means that if you continue to fight, your ship getting destroyed is the only logical outcome.
"No they won't, Becca," you say. "No they won't."
"Fuck!" Becca yells. Sarah however remains silent. "Just fucking fuck!" you can hear Becca again.
And you get Becca. You really do. You don't like this either. But as the captain of this vessel, you have responsibility over the lives of your crew. And you are not going to let them die. No matter the horrors that might await you.
"Open a channel, Sarah," you say, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Channel open," Sarah nods.
"This is captain Amelia Lionheart to the vessel of the Harlan Star Empire. On the behalf of the crew, I hereby tell you that we are ready to surrender. I repeat: we are ready to surrender."
For a few seconds, you can feel the tension gripping your stomach. But then the cruiser stops shooting, and they tell you to prepare to be boarded.
You turn off all essential systems with the exception of life support, lighting and artificial gravity. As the repair bots' console shuts down, you take a final glance on their progress. But the screen turns black before you could get your answer.
The cruiser extends an airlock to your vessel, and a group of warriors enter the hull. By that time all three of you are in the middle of the conference room located underneath the airlock, on your knees, your hands at the back of your necks. You didn't remove your clothes. You chose to have at least this much dignity. But as it turns out the decision was for the worse, as the blue, humanoid men stand you up right away, and they get daggers in their hands so they could cut them off from your bodies.