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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tun Kai Poh" data-source="post: 8475625" data-attributes="member: 6761960">This Will Be Rough, Part 4"Captain, I highly doubt your ship is going to survive the next series of shots from either side. I'd strongly advise that you prepare for that eventuality. I'd order you to strike your colors right now but I don't want to give up on the slim chance that the Purview forces will power down first.""That's a very, very slim chance," Captain Evans observes sourly as Lutjens subsides into unintelligible muttering. "Everytime it seems like we might establish superiority, they bring more firepower to the field. Are you really going to ignore the Ching Shih?""I don't have a choice, Jac. The point still stands - we must reduces the number of ships able to coordinate against us and the Arminius is the easiest kill. Its a chancy shot against the Ching Shih at this point, anyway. I would rather wait until we are closer in to guarantee a kill if it comes to that.""Assuming you survive that long," Meade observes quietly."Assuming we survive that long." Tabitha nods grimly. "Helm, take us in close! All stations fire at will!"Then, like an avenging angel wreathed in fire and smoke, the Nikolai Bukharin and her escorts storm forward through the deadly void once blocked by the pulse-pack barrage from the Titania, their guns barking defiance at the enemy fleet.First to fall is the Roy, torn asunder like its brother the Siegfried by the hail of fire from the advancing Union battlegroup. Then the Unicorn and Undine advance rapidly, their guns still firing as the Nikolai Bukharin swings around behind them, her fully charged main guns pointing menacingly at the Ching Shih.The two escort flights scream towards each other, their plasma trails bright in the frigid darkness. The Daggerflights open fire first, rounds searing towards the two Custodio-class sublines. In response, in a planned maneuver, the Undine arcs downward below the Unicorn as she swerves across her inital trajectory and lobs a wide spread of Snapflights at the surprised Daggerflights. Neither Destroyer slows down and they both streak past the wildly evading Daggerflights towards their quarry. A series of explosions behind them, followed by the blinding flash of a reactor core detonating signifies the death of one of the Daggerflights.The surviving Corvettes swarm after the two destroyers like angry hornets. The Unicorn is weaving wildly behind firing off Snapflights at their pursuers, forcing them to repeatedly shift their angle of attack and, in doing so, fall further and further behind. The Undine on the other hand, just keeps accelerating altering course only to avoid the massive chunks of space rock - some the size of a suburban neighborhood - still drifting around in the area.On board the Arminius, the little point of light begins to grow. Smaller pinpricks streak towards it. Captain Ki, however, is thoroughly enjoying herself as her diminutive escort screams towards the stricken carrier, swerving only to blindside an unfortunate Purview fighter into an asteroid as she streaks past them, their tiny pulse cannons desperately seeking her.Flak guns open up, streams of fire steaking past. A wolfish grin crosses the little Asian captain's face as the Arminius looms in her screen. With a look of triumph she yells at her bridge crew - "Present broadside! Give her everything we've got!"The little destroyer swings broadside on to the titanic carrier and her guns blaze sending a barrage of shells into the hangar bay and strike craft elevators of the Purview carrier exposed through the gaping hole punched by the Wagner's final defiant strike. The tiny shells, normally of little concern to a fully operational capital ship now find soft innards to feast upon.Detonation follows detonation as the Undine completes its gun pass and swoops off to rejoin her sister, plowing through what's left of the Diluvia swarm on her way out splattering drones across her bow like bugs on a windshield. The two destroyers retreat back to the safety of the Bukharin as, behind them, the lights wink out on the Arminius. Her core fatally breached and emergency generators completely destroyed, the Purview carrier fades quietly as her crew are left to contend with increasingly uncontrolled fires aboard a dead ship drifting in the void.Battlegroup Eland:Maneuver - All Ahead Full! Move to range 3. Fire on the Brothers in Arms - Roll: 18, Damage 9, destroying it.Tactics: Destroyer Command - Cannonade, Target the Arminius, Damage 3, reducing it to 0. Diluvia is destroyed as a bonus escort kill.Wolfpack Tactics: Destroyer Command  - Snapflight Torpedoes, Target full HP Daggerflight, Damage 6, destroying it.</blockquote>

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