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"Contacts. Multiple. Closing in," Erinja reports in the same calm, precise voice. "Four corvettes leading."
This has been predicted, discussed, planned for, both when coordinating this deception with the Buujan and in tactical meetings with your veterans. The idea that this would be the moment the raiders would choose to strike - when, for the desperate crew of a heavily damaged exploration vessel, safety was literally within sight.
Truly, Taidan cruelty knows no bounds.
"Steady," you manage to force the word out though your mouth is dry as a Kharak desert as the four sensor blips representing the Taidan corvettes rapidly close with <span class="mu-i">Naqam</span>. "Let them pass."
This also came up during the tactical briefs. That the raiders would use the relatively sturdy corvettes as a lead element to feel your ship out - to confirm that you're easy prey, presenting no threat to the much more fragile bombers that would be trailing behind.
The corvettes enter combat range - and it begins. The rapid, metallic staccato of autocannon rounds impacting <span class="mu-i">Naqam's</span> hull, sending vibrations through the entire ship, growing in intensity and frequency until it becomes a solid, deafening, terrifying <span class="mu-i">wall</span> of noise there is no escape from.
The veterans remain calm. They've lived through such things before. But looking around the bridge, you see bulging eyes and bared teeth: stricken expressions of people convinced they're about to die. Even you - you realize - are gripping your chair's armrests with all your might, your whole body stiff as a rod, seemingly vibrating in rhythm with the impacts.
"Steady!" you manage to croak out. "That's anti-fighter weaponry. They can't pierce <span class="mu-i">Naqam's</span> armor. All they can do is make noise!"
It's a lie. With this volume of fire, there will be damage. Nothing critical: dents, cracks, weakened armor sections. But it will make the ship more vulnerable to follow-up attacks.
But sometimes a comforting lie is what people need to endure that which they can't avoid.
>Hull damage: 3
>Hull Points: 27/30
Then the noise tapers off and stops - and the corvettes are ahead of you, arranging themselves into a barrier formation to intercept the reinforcements already deploying from the Buujan base: swarm fighters brought along by their kiith's Kadeshi members along with combat drones. All, unfortunately, easy prey to the multi-gun corvettes' autocannons.
"Incoming. Bombers. Eight," Erinja reports - which, funnily enough, calms you down a bit. Because the plan worked. They've taken the bait. "Orders, kiith'sa?"
And now the conundrum your kiith brought up when discussing the tactics of this fight. Do you turn your guns on the corvettes ahead, to mitigate losses of Kiith Buujan?
Or do you prioritize the bombers, to minimize the damage to your ship?
