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The Aeris thrust ahead at full speed, heading for the destroyer. Beyond the destroyer was the Crusader, a vertigo that lay motionless, disabled by the Empire vessel. "Torpedo launcher online. Pulse turrets online. Plasma driver online. Shield grid online. Targeting and weapons grid online." The computer gave off the report as Liam thrusted his ship towards the destroyer. "Captain, this is insane. Please reconsider this. You're trying to commit suicide, you know this, don't you." Lynn pleaded, her eyes welled up with tears. She was afraid of this; many people would be. A Purification ship often shot first and asked questions later. And the price for assaulting a Terran warship usually resulted in the death of the crew. "Ms. Harding, please trust me. If my ship is damage to the point where the shields drop, I will see to our safety and jump. But my first priority is to help those people. Stay here on the bridge or go back to your quarters if you wish. When it's over, I will tell you." Lynn felt the urge to seek the shelter of her cabin, but for some reason she stayed put on the bridge. She took a seat a chair next to the helm console. Her vision was fixed on the view screen as the destroyer fired a rocket. The ship listed to one side as the rocket hit the starboard side, lowering the shields. Liam didn't care. He knew his ship was built to withstand many things. "Computer, attack pattern Omega five. Target forward shield generator." "Targeting complete." Liam fired. Blue bolts of pulse ordinance from the pulse turret banks hit the shields of the destroyer, and three torpedoes fired from the launcher, further stripping away layers from the shields. The destroyer's turrets came to bore and fired on the Aeris. The Aeris' shields came down to sixty-four percent and Liam reversed thrusters, backing off by twenty kilometers. "Computer, attack pattern Linsi three. Target the bridge." The computer completed the order. As Liam fired, four bolts of plasma hurled forth from the driver, hitting the destroyer's forward shields. They fell to thirty percent. The destroyer released a salvo of rockets and pulse fire, knocking the ship back and dropping the Aeris' shields to forty-two. At that, Liam accelerated forward at full speed. Lynn watched in both terror and excitement. Then a beep emitted from the console she was sitting in front of; looking down, she saw the cause of it. "Um, Captain. There's a slight problem. This console is telling me that there's a build-up of particle emissions. I don't suppose you have a plan for that one?" Glancing over at the other console, Liam cursed. The Crusader was powering up its particle beam. They wouldn't last but several seconds at most. "Computer, scan and analyze the Crusader's systems and hull. I want it in ten seconds. Now!" The computer complied and started scanning the ship. While doing that, Liam did a nose dive and then thrusted on towards the destroyer again, shaking off some more rockets. When the Aeris had been installed with the enhanced AI systems, the ship's sensors had also been updated as well. The sensor grid had the feature of scanning a ship's systems and hull, detecting any flaws and such. It had proven useful many times over. "Scan complete. One option available at this time. Do you wish to read?" "Yes, I wish to read it." The information came up on a small screen. Liam viewed and grimaced. This was going to be a close call. Turning to Lynn he said, "Ms. Harding, I suggest you hold onto to something. The next few seconds are going to be rough." Lynn braced against her chair and asked, "What are you planning, Captain?" Liam looked at her, then hit a few keys, transferring data to Lynn's console. As the diplomat looked at it, she gasped. According to the data, there was a flaw in the particle beam. When it was fired, the particles caused a brief shield disturbance, lasting for one minute, just long enough for something to get through; like a torpedo, and when a torpedo hit a just-fired particle beam, the antimatter weapon would cause it to explode, disabling the ship and destroying the beam emitter. Turning back to Liam, she said, "You're insane, you know. I hope you're as good a pilot as GrifTech says you are." "Ms. Harding, I hope you're right. This manuver will be tricky at best. We only have a one minute count before the shield laspe closes. If this doesn't work, we'll be knocking on Heaven's gates." Liam accelarted up towards the nose of the destroyer, just close enough to be at the near edge of the particle beam's range. Three seconds later, the Aeris rocked as the beam hit the shields of the blockade runner. Sparks flew all over the place on the bridge as the shields dropped and thrusters went offline. Then the beam stopped, recharging before its next hit. Suddenly a hail came through, audio only. "Aeris, this is the Crusader. You have taken heavy damage and are in no conditon to continue fighting. I am feeling rather forgiving today. Break off and I will spare you. Ignore me and be destroyed. This is your only warining. I await your response." Liam frowned. Opening a link, he replied, "Commander, I have only one response to your offer: See you in Hell." With that, he launched three torpedoes at the ship. All three passed through the shields, two hitting the particle beam emitter, while the third hit the engineering section. Liam's console lit up with readings of massive plasma build up. The Crusader's core had been breached. Liam paled. With shields down, the Aeris might be severely damaged. Bracing against a console wouldn't work. The vertigo was far away enough to take only minor damage Looking behind him, he saw the door leading to his office. It would offer the closest protection possible. He looked to Lynn and said, "Listen to me, Ms. Harding. I want you to get to my office and hold onto something very tightly. The destroyer's core will blow in less then sixty seconds." Lynn nodded and got up, expecting Liam to follow. When he didn't move, she stopped and said, "What are you waiting for? That ship will explode!" "I'l be trying to bring shields and thrusters back online. I don't have much time so you'd better hurry." He started hitting keys when he felt his chair turn around. It swiveled around and Liam came to face Lynn. "Listen up, Liam Ares. Chances are you won't get them back online in time. There's also a good chance that when that ship explodes, bracing against a console won't be enough protection. So that leaves two choices, either you come or I'll have...," She didn't have time finish. There was a brilliant flash of light as the ship exploded into flames. Lynn was tossed against Liam as the blockade runner was tossed like a toy across space. Then all went black.
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