"I take it that's bad then?" Sparks asked, startled by John and Calara's shocked reaction to the mystery ship. "Who are the Kirrix exactly?"
"They are kill on sight to all species in the Galactic League" John explained briefly. "They're a parasitic insectoid species that use other life forms to incubate their young. When their larvae hatch, they eat their way out of their victims!" he said, his mouth twisting with disgust.
"I can't believe these pirates would capture slaves for them. That's diabolic, even for pirates!" Calara exclaimed, looking sickened.
"They must have been getting paid huge sums of money. At least we know how the pirates were able to afford to buy all these ships" John reasoned.
"It looks like they're making a run for it!" Alyssa said, pointing at the tactical map.
The Kirrix hive ship had undocked from the Heavy Cruiser and was pulling away from the Gas Mining facility. Similarly, the Heavy Cruiser had also disembarked from their base and was turning to run in another direction, the Destroyer and two Corvettes moving to flank it as it fled the Chendar system and the rampaging Invictus.
"We can't let the Kirrix escape!" Calara pleaded, "There's over four hundred captives on board that ship!"
"Move to engage the Kirrix please Alyssa" John said resolutely. "It can't be helped, we're going to have to let the rest of the Pirates escape" he said sadly.
Sparks turned to her console and hit a series of buttons and then focused intently on a series of reports in front of her.
Alyssa changed course to intercept the Kirrix hive ship and the Invictus surged ahead, beginning their frantic pursuit.
"Three minutes until we're in range" She said confidently.
"How long until they're far enough away from the planet to go to Hyper-warp?" John asked.
Alyssa did a few quick calculations "Five minutes" she said, looking worried.
"Diverting weapon and shield power to engines" Sparks said distractedly, swiping her hand across the subsystem distribution hologram floating above her console.
The Invictus shuddered as the massive engines throbbed with power and propelled the assault cruiser forward at a speed remarkable for a vessel that large.
"Two minutes until interception!" Alyssa exclaimed. "How did you do that Sparks?" she asked amazed.
"I disengaged the safeties. We'll be perfectly fine for a few minutes, do it for too long though and we risk rupturing the power core". Sparks replied unperturbed.
John, Calara and Alyssa exchanged worried glances.
"We'll be fine" the redhead grinned, "trust me".
Calara returned her focus to the Tactical readout of the Kirrix hive ship. She counted at least 24 turreted weapons on the top deck, each weapon barrel over 20 metres in length.
"Those are neutron beams" John warned her, "We can't go toe to toe with that kind of firepower"
"Ok we'll attack them from below" Calara said "if they change course to try and bring those guns to bear, it'll stop them jumping out of the system".
John nodded his agreement and the Invictus charged after the departing alien ship, closing the gap between them rapidly.
"One minute until we're in range" Alyssa advised everyone.
On the tactical map overhead, the icons depicting the Heavy Cruiser and its escorts blinked and disappeared as the pirates jumped out of the system.
"They got away" Calara said, disappointed.
"Maybe not!" Sparks said eagerly, as her hands glided in a blur over the console.
"What do you mean Sparks?" John asked curiously.
"Take a look at this!" The redhead exclaimed proudly.
A map of the sector appeared above the Engineering station, large enough for the rest of the bridge crew to see. The Chendar system was clearly marked and a glowing green path left the system and headed outbound, extremely complex calculations flashing alongside the route.
"I used the ship's sensors to track them and when the pirate ships jumped out, I was able to calculate their flight path. As long as we don't delay too long, we can chase them and use the ship's Interdictor to pull them out of hyper-warp" the redhead said confidently.
"Wow! That's amazing honey, great job!" John grinned at her, delighted.
"Thanks John" Sparks said thrilled that her plan had worked.
"Ten seconds until we're in range" Alyssa warned them.
Sparks made some more manipulations to the power distribution hologram that was hovering above her console.
"All systems back to normal operating levels" She said with satisfaction.
Alyssa pushed the nose down on the Invictus so that they were heading on a trajectory below the Kirrix vessel. The alien ship maintained their current heading, so the assault cruiser was able to slip out of the fire arcs of all but the two rearmost neutron beams. As they closed to their own beam laser range, the Kirrix ship opened fire, sickly green energy streams lancing out at the Invictus. Somehow Alyssa was able to dodge one of the beams with a slight course correction, but the other hit the shields with a throbbing green glow.
"Shields down to 90% John!" Sparks warned him. "We won't last long if we get hit by too many of those!"
Alyssa brought the nose of the Invictus up slightly, bringing their beam lasers to bear. Calara pulled the trigger and the six beams slashed across the shielding on the alien ship, causing blinding spirals of light as the surging energy was dissipated.
"Enemy shields still holding" Sparks called out as she began active scans of the huge alien behemoth.
Alyssa dipped the nose of the Invictus again, so that they continued on their downward course. They were no longer burning out the engines with the extra burst of speed from before, but their ship was still considerably faster than the lumbering Kirrix craft. The enemy ship fired again, hitting with both beams this time.
