Going for a second course...

[Kim]

In a matter of hours, the Onslaught ship, Heion entered the Bard Cluster system within 5 Light years of Tsuyosa.

Ayana yawned as she went up to the bridge and started trying to contact Melisson again; having the comm officer send out a hailing transmission and hoped for the best. She tried to put from her mind anything that was unrelated to the situation at hand but her thoughts kept drifting back to the warmth of the Crown Prince's breath on her cheek and the heat of their kiss.

The senator shook her head as she tried to focus. This was a dangerous territory to be daydreaming in. Time was running out and they needed to get to the Summit.

 

[Fred]

Mishhuvurthyar ship contact eventually popped up on the Heion's sensors. Again, the faster gunship-type SMX warships closed in toward the intruder.

 

[Kim]

Ayana sent out a hail to the approaching ships, "This is Senator Tange-Katsura Ayana looking for audience with Eyfrlurpjakar Melisson. I'm here on here invitation as a guest." She hoped she pronounced Melisson's title correctly, it was a bigger mouthful than her own name but she wanted to at least try to say it once. She waited for the ships to either respond with threats or Melisson but, she tried to remain calm so she wouldn't lose her resolve to be here.

 

[Fred]

The Mishhuvurthar warships - numbering twenty-two - closed in until they were 1 AU distant from the Onslaught. The SMX, from that point, refrained from giving out a reply and remained put.

The silence was eerie, but at least they weren't hostile for the moment.

 

[Kim]

Ayana looked puzzled but she waited at the comm for a few moments and sent out another hail. "Again, this is Senator Tange-Katsura Ayana looking for audience with Eyfrlurpjakar Melisson."

She seemed perplexed as she waited for some sort of response. Not attacking is a good thing. Maybe Melisson received the message from Motoyoshi-sama about a cease fire, she thought wistfully.

 

[Fred]

They again offered no immediate reply, but soon after 50 contacts emerged from hyperspace, including one SMX flagship, and closed in to ten lightseconds before coming to a stop. Sensor operators quickly reported - thanks to them coming so close - that this flagship model wasn't the same as Melisson, but rather one whom had much less of the quill weapons which covered most of that ship type's hull.

The flagship present answered her hail, revealing not Melisson, but another pink-and-green shelled Mishhuvurthyar on her visual displays.

"The Eyfrlurpjakar is indisposed, indefinitely," the creature said, the thoughts thick with malice. "Fear not, for we will help you - and the rest of your race - join her in that unending slumber!"

The communication cut itself off as the Mishhuvurthyar flagship-type deployed its Anti-FTL field to strand the Heion to only using its sublight propulsion drive; a tactic quickly picked up by the rest of the Mishhuvurthyar warships to insure that not even counter-interdiction measures could counter that.

With communication jamming topping it up, the SMX warships moved to attack.

 

[Kim]

Ayana slammed her hand down on the communications console as the screen went to static. "No way, there's not way that Melisson is actually dead!" She protested into the channel before she turned closed the channel in disgust.

She looked at the rest of the crew with pleading eyes. "I'm not a military officer, so I'm not going to pretend to be one. How the hell might we be able to get out of here without fucking out our cease fire agreement? If she's lying and I think she is, and we try to take as many of them down before they get us- we'll ruin our chance to actually end this war peacefully!"

Tio was paged to the bridge as the ship crew activated the Heion's Gravitic shields...

 

[Fred]

The Heion still had twenty-five seconds before the faster amongst the 50 ship battlegroup - the Xianthrafruglu gunships - got into effective weapon range.

 

[Kim]

The pilot of the Heion activated the ship's CDD and reversed as fast as they could in the direction opposite of the advancing SMX ships, she was hoping to get out range of the interdiction fields and then wormhole out.

Ayana tapped the comm console uncertain of what she could really do. Her experience was definately lacking in this area of diplomacy... dealing with a faction that wasn't wholly behind the notion of making peace. She wondered if this is what Uesu was really doing on his own end. I don't think I can risk this again if we make it out of here alive. Maybe the Nepleslians know of a better way to contact Melisson then coming out into her territory? She thought bitterly. It hadn't occurred to her to even ask the Nepleslians if they had a better way of reaching Melisson either time she had left, she was so focused on just getting it done quickly that she overlooked the fact that the interpreter might have just informed them of a way to reach her.

 

[Fred]

The Heion jumping to low superluminal speed effectively put a large part of the 50 ship battlegroup unable to catch up with it: many of the better armed SMX warships were still unable to use any means of FTL propulsion other than fold, which left them unable to pursue - the Mishhu flagship anti-FTL field was a double edged sword in this and made it so that they only faced about two-dozen hostiles instead of sixty.

The bad news was that the Mishhuvurthyar gunships and the flagship were also quite able to jump to low superluminal speeds as well in order to pursue, with the gunships ending up slightly faster than the Onslaught battleship and so still able to catch up while the flagship kept pace. To the dismay of the Heion's navigator, the SMX flagship's Anti-FTL field had expanded to a full light-year range (far, far more effective than their own interdiction technology) which made it extremely unlikely that - with it in pursuit - that they would never escape in time before the gunships caught up and forced the larger battleship back to sublight speeds.

That same field also guaranteed that reinforcements would never be able to help the Heion in a timely enough manner. To make matters even worse, another even larger battlegroup of 110 warships or so folded out in the direction the Heion was retreating to, just outside the anti-FTL zone before ships amongst them also used their superluminal drives to plunge into the field and head toward the Heion as well.

 

[Magnus]

The fast and quick shift of the ship disrupted Creighton's thoughts as he was working in his room. He furrowed his brow and continued tapping his datapad to new screens. The quick shift like this was not a safe maneuver to perform so quick. With his curiosity, Creighton inquired with the ship's AI. "May I ask what the purpose was of that maneuver. Our cargo is very precious and to try such-"

This ship is currently engaged with SMX forces. All personnel should report to their assigned stations in accordance with regulation.

Creighton's eyes widen and he bolted from his room. He sprinted towards the place he knew best, the bridge. "AI feed me the current tactical data. I want everything. Also give me the locations of Senator Ayana and Crown Prince Tio." His voice strained with urgency. Shit, not now. Not here.

Feeding Sitrep now. Some data is unavailable.

"Inform the bridge I am on my way." Creighton tried to multi-task with the information being feed to him. He touched his temple trying to comprehend it all. "Shi-, AI have them prepare the pilot's pit for me." The Yamataian commanded. Getting out of here without firing a shot. What are we thinking!

As you wish, Mr. Marks.

 

[Kim]

Ayana tried hailing the advancing SMX ships. "SMX ships, please stand down and let us pass. I sincerely doubt that whatever is detaining the Eyfrlurpjakar is permanent and she will not be pleased with your incompetence in following her orders to a ceasefire while she is indisposed," the senator implored in as calm and commanding of a voice as she could muster. "We were invited here by the Eyfrlurpjakar and offered safe passage as Melisson's guests. I doubt she'd be pleased to find out you tried to destroy her attempts at getting you a better life than this war. For your sake, please stand down and let us pass."

I really hope that they are just trying to get us to fire first. Otherwise, this just doesn't make any sense why they aren't firing at all! We're one ship to their 160! She thought hurriedly to herself. When the bridge informed her that Mr. Marks was coming up to the bridge she smiled hopefully. Maybe he can help us get out of here.

She waited to see if her hail to the SMX ships had gone through. If it had... she had a chance to inform Pisces station that there was going to be a slight delay in their arrival...

 

[Magnus]

Within seconds Creighton was arriving in the bridge, his quarters being mercifully close. Panting slightly, he wasted no time moving to the pilot's pit. "Get me readouts on structural stress across the ship." The Yamataian gasped as he used a console to steady himself on his way to the pit. "Inform the crew to be ready for high g-force maneuvers."

Upon reaching the pilot pit, Creighton hastily lower himself in and began settling. A brief memory of his first time ever in the pilot pit flashed before him. "Alright people strap yourselves in. Senator make sure the Crown Prince is safe." Swallowing a lump of saliva the young man focused his vision and locked in. "Give me full readouts and control."

Creighton said no more, his focus was now entirely on flying the Heion. Maneuvering at this time was going to be rough on both the crew and ship, but to Creighton the only way out was with slippery flying. With his mind steadied, he eased off on the ship's forward speed, just enough to begin the highest and fastest possible vertical ascent he could attain.

 

[Fred]

The fourteen Xianthrafruglu gunships finally caught up with the Heion as Creighton reached the bridge and matched speed with the Novacorp-built battleship before using their graviton beams to collectively yank the massive vessel back to sublight speed. Ten of them maintained their hold on the vessel while the four others - along with 12 much smaller SMX scoutships which quickly caught up now that the Heion was no longer having its superluminal drives active, opened fire.

The Heion shields proved somewhat lacking in their ability to mitigate the damage done by the SMX positron beams, whom coaxed the armor serving as the battleship's skin to be wreathed in gassy, almost liquid explosions. Fortunately, Heion was thickly armored and it endured the first raking attacks without suffering any severe internal damage, yet.

Inside, the lighting flickered erratically from the excesses of positive energy caused by the positron attacks. Monitor screens frizzled with static momentarily to accompany the hits that rocked their ship.

Creighton's maneuver hadn't saved the ship from being caught in the first place, but it had at least allowed him to spread the attacks done on the Heion. The mishhu were just throwing a lot of graviton particles their way so to keep them grounded in sublight - thanks to the Heion's shields still being active they still could move at sublight speed instead of being solidly anchored. If he could find some way of shaking them off, they'd might be able to regain FTL speed and make another attempt to escape.

 

[Kim]

The crew had to think fast. It took a moment for the thought to strike one of them as they vocalized it. "They are using graviton beams. We have gravitic shielding! Heion, turn the shields to full anti-grav! That might let us slip loose enough so that Mr. Marks can get us out of here!"

The ship complied, adjusting the gravitic shields as instructed. "Mr. Marks, get ready for the acceleration and try to use the CDD again!"

Ayana, meanwhile, had strapped herself into the seat at the communication console. She tried to use her previous hail again hoping it might be through the jamming somehow to do something.

 

[Fred]

With the Heion's shields being of a gravimetric configuration, it emitted gravitons of its own which somewhat blunted and repelled those already pushed toward it. The Novacorp battleship sustained a few more positron discharges over its ventral side before a burst of the battleship's sublight engines got it clear from the sweeping graviton beams.

The moment that happened, the CDD stabilized as much as it could within the SMx flagship's anti-FTL field to allow low superluminal speeds once again. The battleship quickly blurred away from where it had been, avoiding a withering volley of positron bolts along with graviton beams whom sought to restrain it.

The pursuit was one again, with the SMX vessels darting after it moments later.

 

[Kim]

Ayana inwardly cheered as they did manage to break out away from the hold the SMX ships had on them.

Creighton on the other hand was trying to maintain his cool head as he maneuvered the Heion upwards at the low superluminal speeds before sharply turning hard to port by 10 degrees, causing the ship to change to a different path instead of the vertical ascent. The transition was awkward but he hoped it'd be enough to cause some sort of confusion in the pursuing ships.

 

[Fred]

...and that was about when their wormhole generator, wormhole-based weapons and CDD system came back to full operating power.

The second Mishhuvurthyar battlegroup which had apparently cut off their escape had their flagship generate an equivalent countermeasure for the Anti-FTL field the first attacking flagship had deployed. With any superluminal inhibition gone, the gunships and scoutships of both sides kicked in their FTL drives, both making a frenzied rush in the Heion's direction.

The first flagship began charging its transposition array. The second flagship for its part fired a volley of seventeen quintessent hyperspace torpedoes...

...on the first attacking flagship, which had its bubble shielding crackle an angry blue as it weathered the attack.

 

[Kim]

"The other flagship is attacking the other SMX!" Someone exclaimed in awe.

Ayana quickly sent out a Subspace communication to the flagship assisting in their escape, "Thank you for the help. I'd stay to talk more but that isn't an option right now. Please send Melisson my regards, and pass along this message to the Eyfrlurpjakar : We have complied with your terms. We have proof. Hope to see you at the Summit."

Creighton didn't pause for a moment as soon as the drivers came back online. His priority was the safety of the Crown Prince and the Senator. They had a chance to escape, and he activated the wormhole device to make it final. He was not going to chance the notion that the other SMX ships weren't going to open fire on them as well.

 

[Fred]

The Heion crossed the wormhole under the fire of several nearby scoutships. While their positron cannons scarred the hull armor of the massive battleship, they were unable to stop it from making its departure.

The last readings the Heion crew received from that particular region of space were that of Mishhuvurthyar fight opening up in each other, though the second group quite obviously outnumbered the first which had attacked the Novacorp warship. There was also an alarming spike in psionic activity - though by then the Heion had already gone into the wormhole and so likely had nothing to fear from that.