Toronaga - A Little Late (A Sunderbans Short) Complete!

Toronaga - V

Bridge

Tierrak was steering the ship and firing when the opportunity presented itself. A damage report from the emergency bridge came in showing some damage, but the team of boarding parties had been eliminated.

Kartarac helped Caralsov stand up with the help of Razva. "Get him down to the infirmary." Razva nodded and the two left the bridge.

He looked around, smoke hung low in the air and there were several damaged display and control panels about. He motioned for Tierrak to move. Then he sat down to look over the damage, few of the major systems were destroyed, but performance was degraded. He sighed when he saw the hangar bays in the listing. One had taken damage, though it was still usable.

A beep and a note indicated shuttles were launching as the ship bucked from a cannon bolt.

"Hangar doors jammed, aft shield down, again!" Tierrak announced. "We're wide op - " He stopped. "One of the shuttles was hit."

Kartarac looked at the tactical display. "He flew into its path." He paused for a moment. Then he maneuvered the Toronaga closer to an asteroid, using it to block fire from the cruiser and gain a moment to recover.

"Keep patching those shields, charge two cannons and one ram shield at a time, and increase ECM to level four." He watched the Mostrel ship as it continued its turn, it was keeping distant while at the same time keep a majority of its weapons locked on the Toronaga. He grumbled as he monitored the situation, "We need to close with him again after both ram shields are fully charged and those shields are repaired."

Tierrak nodded.

The captain drummed his fingers on the console as he adjusted the ship's course, he wanted to tease his enemy. He turned giving them an open shot and they took the bait. Two missiles slipped out of their racks and sped towards the Ky ship. Right behind the first came another pair. Kartarac glanced at the tactical display, seeing the shuttles had gotten close enough to fire upon the incoming missiles and destroyed the first pair. Fire erupted from the cruiser again as four cannon bolts raced towards then. Two shots hit, tearing the Toronaga's portside shield. Kartarac turned the ship away, just as two more bolts followed, striking a stronger shield. Then the cruiser turned to close on them.

He watched the panel light display a few damage reports. Grumbling, he brought the ship about to face the cruiser. "Tierrak, power up one sphere." Then he cursed upon seeing a Mostrel scatter pack emerge as the Toronaga finished its turn towards their enemy, but the cruiser now turned away, rather than take another dose of medicine. "Fire everything!" he ordered, just before the cruiser was eclipsed by another asteroid.

Below decks, the Toronaga's troublesome pulse cannon exploded, causing damage and starting a fire. Kartarac felt the explosion and soon realized what had happened. He reassigned a damage control team to control the fire caused. Tierrak started breathing again after the four missiles struck the ram shield field and were destroyed. Kartarac began to look over his remaining resources. All that they had not used were two shuttles and one mine. He was about to call the shuttle deck officer again, but he saw there was no need as two fighters appeared on the tactical display. He ordered them to close on the cruiser and coordinate the shuttle group's attacks.

A moment later the ship shook as bolts ripped through and peppered the Toronaga's port side. Tierrak quickly brought up a view of the engines as power dropped significantly and the ship slowed. Side console view showed Plasma pouring from the engine nacelle. Tierrak cursed as the cruiser began approaching again. Thought it was harried by the fighters and shuttles, it ignored them and continued on its way, firing two more missiles while closing on the stricken freighter.

Karatarac looked over the consoles displaying the ship's status. The Toronaga was in rough shape, hardly hardly ready for the coming face off with the cruiser. He called down to engineering, "Keep power levels as they are, Chief. Tierrak, put any spare power on the facing shields." Then slowed the ship to a halt and boosted the countermeasures. "Drop a mine."

Moments passed, the cruiser drew closer and fired her cannons again. Some hit, tearing the ship's starboard shielding. And still did not return fire. Just as the missiles were about to hit, a mine exploded under the target. A wave of energy expanded and destroyed all the missiles.

"Now Chief!" Karatarac yelled. The Toronaga's energy level doubled and she leapt forward with both of her ram shield fields igniting at close range. There was little room for the cruiser to go, to port, asteroids, to starboard, fighters and shuttles, and before her was a wounded, but raging tiger. The cruiser fired at the prey turned predator, but did little damage. The Toronaga's RSGs touched the cruiser's port side, burning and wrecking the weapons pod and shearing off one of her engines. As the Toronaga passed under, the cruiser fired her pulse cannons, destroying the freighter's shield again and her last bolt cannon. The Toronaga fired her aft guns and burned another of the cruiser's engines.

The cruiser slowed to a crawl as her own power levels plummeted. As the freighter slipped away a single missile flew up and struck her. It would be the last response from the cruiser.

The Toronaga's shuttle's loosed their vengeance, further wrecking the ship, ending its escape. Finally, the fighters applied the Coup De Grace, and a moment later, her power core destabilized and she exploded.

Kartarac sighed as he watched the pyre's glow fade. He had no sorrow for his enemy, he gave them an honorable end.
He looked around. The smoke had gotten slightly denser before the end of the battle. Now the ship needed to pour into healing itself. He stood up and looked about. One of the guards at the back of the bridge was starting to move. He stood to go help him when a sensor alarmed. "Great," he grumbled and then checked to see what it was. He snorted.

"What?" Tierrak asked.

"Help has finally come."

"A little late."

THE END