Quoted By:
“There's no way I'm leaving Jale to die out there- Ships! Give me an opening to pick him up. This frigate is fast enough for it.”
“Sire, they would have to break formation, our shield wall will be cast aside...”
“Do it. Order them to cover me. Threes, move this ship into position and get Jale inside now!”
At your command, the ship's pilot begins the task while your orders are transmitted all over the entire Hegemony fleet. The new formation is simulated and checked for efficacy, before the entire fleet adopts it and begins the push into the Consortium main line. Seizing the opportunity, the enemy ships begin to move in and gang up on the Hegemony cruisers despite your numbers advantage.
It only takes a few precious seconds to get to Jale, the ship turning in 3d space to swallow him up in an airlock, before your frigate pulls back into safety. At the same time, the Hegemony cruisers took the brunt of the enemy fire with their shields, pulling up to provide cover for your most vulnerable command craft.
With Jale safe and sound, the Hegemony's brave defenders can no longer hide behind the wall of energy-absorbing lattices and are forced to fight the enemy head on. At least, what remains of them...
“Jale, you moron! What were you doing jumping out of that ship into open space?! Without even a space suit?!”
“M-My liege! I told Threes to throw me with the enemy ship's tractor beam back towards our own fleet, and any of my squadmates if they survived and were thrown into space. I can survive a lot longer without oxygen then the average Jaxtian. I... also had a plan to use a makeshift atmospheric suit but... uhh... it didn't work.”
He looks a bit embarrassed. It seems he was injured during the boarding by an unknown alien threat aboard the Consortium ship. With only one arm and little preparation, there was no way he was going to jury rig up a way to survive in space. Cute idea, but you guess even old-generation Alphas aren't exactly known for being bright. Even if he could survive in space by just holding his breath with his modified and improved biology, all it would have taken was a nearby explosion or a single ship energy blast to strike him and he would be a goner. Even his battlesuit with its Azurium plating and absorption can't survive a ship-class weapon system- it was only designed with small arms in mind.
“Well... Glad to see you back, Jal-”
You are interrupted by the ship being rocked- a shockwave of microspace debris pushes you back. Your electronic systems flicker ominously for half a second.
“That's an Electromagnetic pulse, Fission weapons!” Maktana says in surprise.
