The battle had intensified, as did the determination of every Spacecom officer aboard the Lodestar to stand strongly in defense
of the Unified Confederacy of Interstellar Authority against the Akotarsan aggression. Malarek and his officers transported
immediately from the freighter over to the flagship, soon followed by Kuuvlos, the Chancellor, Grundi, and Zar-Crombi. They
hastily ran down the halls out of the transporter room, and took the nearest turbolift to the bridge.
“ Captain on the bridge!” proclaimed an ensign at the helm upon his arrival. Hassick and MacKenzie took their battle
positions, alongside Lt. Smith. Malarek went for his command chair.
“ Any reinforcement in the area?” inquired Malarek.
“ None to speak of, sir.” replied Brius at the comm. station. “ The nearest starship is the Voyager-Titan, and she’s
still ten hours away.”
“ Well,” concluded Malarek firmly, “ Looks like we’ll be on our own for this one.”
A laser blast hit the stern of Lodestar, as the Sevran class battleship pushed its way further into Confederacy space,
determined and ready to destroy the Spacecom flagship and conquer in the way it had been designed and destined to do.
“ RED ALERT! RAISE SHIELDS!” exclaimed Malarek, as he was shook violently about his chair. “ Conelly! You finished with
those upgrades yet?”
“ Aye, sir! Was done two hours ago!” replied Conelly in Engineering. In immediate response, Malarek ordered to engage the
new systems. The back-ups and the supplemental energy reserve Conelly had promised earlier were shoved from stand-by readiness
to effective duty within seconds, throwing the main power grid temporarily off-line.
Another hit rocked the Lodestar with enormous force.
“ Ready all three Grand Laser Cannons on the forward hull, and FIRE!” ordered Malarek. The three laser blasts
converged at the tip of the bow, then dashed across the dark expanse of space as one, brutally crushing through the port side
hull of the enemy vessel. Their shields had little or no apparent affect.
“ Ready both forward Destroyer Torpedo Launchers, Mr. Hassick, and FIRE!”
Two firing balls of green energy were ejected from the forward launchers, both meeting their target, and exploding on
contact with the enemy ship. An entire section of the port side hull of the Sevran class battleship ripped apart from the
blasting force of the explosion. The ship began to lose control, bowing down into a shameful plunge.
It was a victory, however short-lived. The other twenty battleships closed in on the former position of the Sevran class
vessel, and commenced their own attack.
“ Release the supplemental fleet!” ordered Malarek.
On both the port and starboard sides of the Lodestar, two massive gates opened, revealing the armed and readied
supplemental fleet. Malarek knew his chances of survival were increasingly based on the success of the starfighter fleet, as
the approaching Tars fleet by its sheer magnitude would prove an overwhelming force to contend with if only the Lodestar’s own
weapons were used.
The first row of starfighters on both sides of the ship made their exit from their hiding place. Soon, another row
followed, swarming about the enemy vessels, firing wildly and providing a formidable challenge to the Tars aggressors.
In less than a half minute, the entire fleet, all eight hundred starfighters, was launched. This, with Lodestar in the
rear ready and still quite able to pack a mean punch, proved to be more than the Tars had bargained for.
The starfighters began to overwhelm the enemy fleet, now showing signs of difficulty in attempting to deal with the
onslaught. The starfighters would wreak havoc, and Malarek knew this well - they would peck away at the Tars vessels and
destroy in time - if not by the horrendous array of small weapons fire than by the mere fact a swarm of nearly one thousand
one-man craft had swooped down upon them with the ferocity of a harassed hornet’s nest. Hundreds dashed about, in and between
the starships, firing at all the vital locations, reaching places no other vessel could hope to. While the Tars battleships,
like most large starships, could fire only once every half-minute, and only strikes of great power, the starfighters
surged forward with thousands of hits, of lesser strength but of such great numbers their effectiveness was far from
negligible. The push to send the Tars back into their own home territory was, for now, in progress. But Malarek was well
aware of one fact in particular, and that was that he would undoubtedly have to send them further than just across the
border. He would have to send them running.
Now only one thing prevented that. And for those who did not see death staring them in the face when at first it appeared,
their perhaps premature sense of victory was quelled like dirt thrown on an open fire when alas it all became clear.
Something was coming... something far greater than a fleet of standard warships... something of incredible strength and
magnitude - of indestructible hulls and hellish weapons fire of such speed and power - that it could bear no other title than
that which it was given.
“ We’ve had it easy ‘til now.” remarked Hassick, looking on to the battle zone which, except for one lone ship, gradually
edged further away from Lodestar.
Indeed, it was coming. A colossal ship, of overbearing magnitude, began to tear its way through the battle, headed
towards the Lodestar-Crusader with a destructive will and force that emanated from its mere appearance. It forced its every
advancement, crushing through other Tars ships which had lost their ability to combat, blasting away at starfighters, and
repelling debris and starship remnants with its mighty hull. This too was a galaxy class ship. But it was no starship, it was
a warship.
“ The flagship of the Tars Empire, I presume.” stated Malarek, grimly. He leaned forward in his chair, and put his chin
in the support of his hands. Thoughts raced through his mind - of ideas, strategies, some way to get out of this. The Lodestar
was no warship, she was now consolidated and made to do so many things except combat the Tars flagship. Unless Conelly had
completed the upgrades while they were gone on Tarsus-Ako, Malarek cringed at what would inevitably happen.
The flagship of the Confederacy, leading the only government powerful enough to defend Saladium from the wrath of
Tars aggression, would be destroyed. Again. And what more could Malarek think of, he would once again be responsible. He
could be the cause of the downfall of the Confederacy, an historical event he did not want to be associated with, let alone
be responsible for. Malarek raced through his mind searching desperately for a solution.
“ Captain!” exclaimed a voice out of the comm. unit at Malarek’s side.
“ Yes, Conelly. What is it?”
“ Sir. I have an idea.”
“ Go for it!” returned MacKenzie, equally aware of the stakes at hand, and who indeed had the upper hand in the battle.
“ Well, sir. I did some work on the Main Sensor Array last night, and I think there may be a way to re-route power from
all the other ship systems into the sensor array, and use it like an energy cannon of sorts.”
“ Will it work?” asked Malarek impatiently. The Tars flagship was closing and would be in firing range within the
minute.
“ Maybe. Maybe not. If it does, we fare a damn better chance against the Tars then if we don’t try at all.”
“ If it fails?” returned MacKenzie.
“ Then this will all be over very much sooner than expected.”
“ On your way, Hobart.” ordered Malarek, bracing himself for the approaching ship. “ Hassick, in the meantime, top off all
laser energy banks, and be prepared to divert power down to Engineering on my command.”
Hassick turned to continue his work at the weapons console, while MacKenzie tried to enhance the shielding systems
to maximum output, from his chair beside the Captain.
A slight calm swept across the bridge, a calm not of ease or pleasure but of unpronounced fear and anxiety. No one dared to
suggest retreat, not even MacKenzie, despite the fact that their lives depended almost entirely on their escape... or on a
miracle. As anticipated, the silence was broken when alas the final battle had begun.
“ Order the starfighters to break off their attack on those other Tars ships, and to return to defend the flagship!”
ordered Malarek. Brius immediately sent out the orders. “ Conelly, how’s it coming?”
“ Sir, I have fifty of my staff working at the task. Should be done in ten minutes!” replied Conelly from the Sensor
control room on Deck thirty-eight.
“ We don’t HAVE ten minutes!” blasted Malarek, before the first torpedo was fired. It came rushing in, striking the
Lodestar hull on the bow.
“ Divert all shield power to the forward hull!” exclaimed Malarek. “ Mr. Hassick! Fire those torpedoes!”
And with that, a volley of ten Destroyer Torpedoes were launched from the Lodestar, and almost instantaneously met their
designated targets.
“ Nice shooting, Mr. Hassick!”
In return, the Tars flagship, only moderately bothered by the attack, swung about to show its starboard hull, where it
released an ion surge headed for the Lodestar.
“ Brace yourselves!” yelled Malarek, grabbing hold of his armrests. The hit was tremendous in strength. MacKenzie was
thrown from his chair, and cast across the bridge to the opposite end. Hassick similarly crashed up against a wall, while
Smith held on to the foundation of his console as best he could. Brius was the only one able to maintain position. Truly,
the shock was bone-shatteringly powerful, and the Lodestar bore it all.
“ Shields down forty-five percent!” informed MacKenzie, crawling back into his chair. “Attempting to compensate!”
But his actions were futile.
“ Conelly, tell me you’re ready!”
Another barrage of torpedoes came diving into the lower bow of the Lodestar, taking out all shield effectiveness, and
virtually destroying the furthest forward Grand Laser Cannon, and a significant section of the outer hull.
“ Mr. Smith, get us out of here!” ordered Malarek. “ We need more time!”
And yet another assault of torpedoes battered against the port side hull, as Lodestar began to pull up and away from the
battle. The Destroyer Torpedo Launcher was crushed in the utter collapse of the port side half of the bow, decimating not
only a sizable piece of the cargo holds but also the starfighter carrier bay.
“ Get those shields up!” blasted Malarek, as several computer consoles around him gave way to sparks and flames. The
lighting flickered, as the general life-support systems throughout the ship began to deteriorate.
“ Sir!” shouted Hassick over the chaos of the moment. “ We’re losing partial main power! Another hit and we might lose
any chance of -”
A blast of laser energy came slicing through the hull just barely above the sensor array section.
“ Yes, I know, Hassick!” returned Malarek as he rose from his chair and ran off the bridge. Within moments, he was on deck
thirty-eight, at the very bottom of the ship. Pulling his way through a corridor full of heated wreckage and bearing the almost
lethal stench of melted alloys and leaked gases emanating from the damage, Malarek headed further towards Conelly’s last
known position, in hopes of finding him and his team of fifty Engineers.
“ Anyone down there?” he roared at the top of his lungs down the hall to a section in the corridor which was once
pristine and orderly, but was now burnt and demolished into panel fragments and bulkhead debris. “ CONELLY?”
A blackened figure emerged from the mess, covered in soot and arched slightly forward with an obvious ache in his back.
Following him was a group of about fifty personnel.
“ Nearly had us there!” proclaimed Conelly, wiping clear his face, and rubbing the mess off his uniform as best he could.
“ But for only a minute. She’s ready, sir. Fire away!”
Malarek nearly jumped on Conelly in absolute rejoicing from hearing, at last, a morsel of reassuring good news, but
instead ran back down the hall and up the nearest turbolift headed for the bridge.
A gut-wrenching jolt shoved the Lodestar off its evasive course, and into an uncontrollable swing back towards the Tars
warship. It was yet another ion energy surge, this time directed at the Hyperspace engines.
“ Captain! What have they done to my ENGINES?” blasted Conelly into the comm. unit from the Engine room. “ By God,
they’ll get it NOW!” Thoroughly enraged, he threw his fists down on to the hand rail which encircled the Hyperspace Reactor
Core, then re-contacted the bridge. “ Sir. I need all main, emergency, laser bank, engine and non-essential power diverted to
the Engine room immediately! We’re not finished yet, I tell you!”
And with that, Hassick did as Conelly ordered, and switched all power controls to the Engine room. “ I hope this
works.”
A silence swept the bridge, but unlike the silence of moments earlier, this silence was of an anxiety of eagerness -
awaiting the finale that would end in a blaze of glory, a glorious victory... or a grisly, bitter death. The lights
disappeared and were replaced by tiny red back-up lights as the whining sigh of all the power being diverted indicated the
impending final act. The power shifted from the bridge controls, funneled out of the Reactor core, and poured into the
energy banks of their last remaining hope. The bridge intently listened to the events down in Engineering, while
Conelly took the fate of the entire ship, and whatever would come of its possible destruction, into his hands.
“ Ready, sir!” stated Conelly.
“ Then Fire!” exclaimed Malarek, standing away from his chair, “ FIRE!” Looking on to the visual with unshakable
attention, Malarek observed as a massive green stream of Lodestar power erupted from the sensor array, shot across the
blackness of space, and landed itself into the hull of the Tars flagship. Gradually moving upwards and across, the blast
continued to slice through the enemy hull, tearing and ripping apart hull sections and destroying exterior ship
components... and with it, destroying any hope the Tars Empire had of conquering the Confederacy. This was the flagship
of the Akotarsan United Imperialist Forces, the leader of the Imperial fleet, the very foundation of the Tars offensive
strength.
The Tars vessel broke off its attack, and slowly swung about to retreat. But it was far too late for that. With a
thundering explosion, throwing the entire structure of the Lodestar-Crusader to one side with its bow raised, the warship
gave out a roaring blast. Once the flaming fury of the explosion subsided, it became clear what had been the result of
their final, desperate effort. The ship was reduced to nothing more than space debris, with pieces of its hull and
internal fragments tossed into deep space, forever to be a sign of the many failures of the Empire. A sign of glory for
Spacecom. A cause for relief for the Confederacy. An opportunity to live on for Malarek, and his crew.