Gabatrix: The Shira Maneuver

"They're hesitating......," Javier said.

"Exactly," Shira said. "On many Shal'rein clan vessels, it is the commander that operates the railgun. Like a part of their arm, they are the ones that feel the glory course through their veins as they pull the trigger to kill their sworn enemies. This Lesser Adjunct is unsatisfied with her kill of the Chacal Naranja. It was just an unarmed freighter that couldn't fight back. The moment that they attacked us, that commander felt that surge go through her. The Jian Seng to her is a more worthy opponent. She has almost slain her, and now it is getting away. What does that tell you?"

"That she is frustrated," he answered.

"Yes. All she has to do is give up and leave. She has done enough damage on her voyage. Even the crew is telling her this. She should listen to them. Not only would it more likely spare us, but it would spare hers as well, but she can't. Her prey is escaping. She must have the glory of the kill. Like the predator, she swam and sank her fangs into us, but we got away. She smells blood and is infuriated. She can't retreat.......not now and not ever. She is ready. She realizes that we are serious, that we are the fools for making such a daring move as this. Then she realizes that she is the fool for calling our bluff that she wouldn't do such a thing as this."

The scout ship's vectoring thrusters began to activate as it turned directly towards the Jian Seng. Its rear thrusters started to glow blue again as it reengaged its pursuit course. The hope that the Shal'rein warship would give up had been dashed. Javier had wished that wasn't the case. Now a warship would try to blow him and everybody into atoms while Marcelle was playing a game of dodging asteroids.

"Such a shame....." Shira coldly said as she put her headset back on. "The Lesser Adjunct is a fool. She has let her target gain distance from her act of hesitation. She is unwise in her attempt to destroy us. I can pity her crew. What a waste......."

It was said so ominously that it almost surprised Javier. There was even a very slight hint of anger in her voice as well, possibly annoyance. Even Marcelle very briefly turned her head to Shira before resuming her eye on her console. On the one hand, it gave everyone a slight sense of confidence at the same time.

There was no turning back now. The asteroid field was there as Javier put his headset back on. Both he and Shira turned them back on as they resumed being part of the ship's command structure. He could look into the vast wilderness of rocks. Top, bottom, sides, forward and back, it was a mess to be inside of. The shower of stones had become background noise now that even Javier had turned off in his head. Ignoring it was a partial dilemma, though. Sometimes, there would be occasional heavy thumps that reverberated in the front interior.

Shira looked at her digital stopwatch before she looked at the viewscreen. There were six minutes and ten seconds remaining on it before help would arrive.

"Status on the hull?" Javier asked.

"Front armor plating is down to 90%," Ramirez answered.

"How long before we clear the asteroid belt on our present course?"

"If we maintain this course......about seven to eight minutes."

"Time before the scout ship reaches firing range?" Shira asked.

"Two minutes."

Six minutes. It was a simple difference between life and death that Javier was all too aware of. If it weren't for Shira's plan, six minutes might as well been a death sentence. Less than six minutes was all that was needed to turn the Jian Seng into a burning hulk. The amount of damage it received earlier was in far less of a time period. The asteroids were not helping either. Even if the armor could handle some of the beatings, it was proving to be too much. Second, by second, it was being eroded. He could only hope that some areas of the Picaro debris field were less dense to slow down this degradation. It was quite possible that they wouldn't make it anyway, but they couldn't slow down either.

"Marcelle!" Ramirez called out on the comms. "Big one heading our way!"

"I see it!" Marcelle yelled out in response. "Hang on!"

With that, the Jian Seng's four side-mounted thrusters activated. It momentarily jarred the ship up before it twisted and fired down. Within ten seconds, a large boulder bigger than a house flew by, missing the military transport. A massive shift of g-forces in the interior could have quickly sent somebody careening into the floor or the ceiling. If Marcelle hadn't done her maneuver, they would have clearly collided into it.

"Maintain your course," Shira ordered her. "Ramirez, search for the highest density of iron or titanium deposits along our current flight path."

"Checking....." he replied.

The scout ship was closing second by second. Javier could see the serrated claws on the front side of the ship. It looked like it was ready to rip the vessel apart just by its ligaments alone.

"Increase speed and engage beyond maximum cruise limits," Shira ordered. "This will increase their time to intercept us."

"Aye," Marcelle said.

"That's not going to help us," Ramirez commented. "Forward armor is down to 88% and falling."

The Jian Seng's rear engines became even brighter. The g-forces in the interior were becoming heavy. With the exception of Shira that was using her strength to hold her stopwatch, many of the personnel were feeling the pressures being exerted on their bodies. It was uncomfortable but still viable to operate effectively.

"Found it," Ramirez said. "Marcelle, alter your course one degree up and 0.5 degrees starboard. Picking up huge concentrations of titanium in a debris cluster ahead. We should reach it in thirty seconds."

"Alright," Marcelle replied as she once again turned the flight yoke. Javier once again felt the cabin shift around from the turn. He could see where he was talking about. This area seemed like a gray cloud of dirt at first. It was in a partially open area in space.

The scout ship was making tiny adjustments in its own flight plan. Vectoring thrusters were firing a little bit as it was making alterations to stay on the rear of the Jian Seng. Its rear thrusters grew even brighter as they increased their own speed. It was evident that these Shal'rein were determined to reach the beleaguered transport.

Javier was counting down each second as the transport was getting closer and closer to it. The gray cloud started to disperse in color as they were getting close enough to see through onto the other side.

"Now listen....." Shira said. "When I give the order, Amelia, deploy the magnet. After that, Ramirez, I will give the order for you to activate it."

"Roger, Aye," both of them replied almost at the same time.

"Scout ship is going to reach us in one minute."

"Can't we launch now?" Javier asked.

"If we do, then it might give a hint for the scout ship. If the magnet powers up too soon, then they might track it and destroy it before it reaches them. This must be timed correctly."

"Thirty-five seconds," Ramirez said.

The Jian Seng entered through the center of the titanium deposit cloud. A different sound could be heard as the rocks continued to splash against the hull, but it was marginal. The scout ship was zeroing in.

"Deploy!" Shira called out.

"Launching!" Amelia announced.

Suddenly a sound from the rear of the vessel could be heard. Away from the vicinity, the strapped-in engineers pressed the button as the rear airlock hatch opened. The explosive decompression was immediate as the first magnet was sent hurdling into space. Air rushed out, taking the metallic sphere with it. It gave a small red light but nothing else to give a hint of its deployment. Like a floating mine, it lurked, ready to be activated. It would take less than ten seconds before it was completely clear of the Jian Seng's magnetic profile. The scout ship was just about to enter the gray cloud.

"Activate it, Ramirez!" Shira called out.

Ramirez pressed the blue button on his console as Javier watched what happened next. The tiny sphere in space emitted a massive amount of energy. A sizeable magnetic eruption occurred as titanium, and small amounts of iron began to rush forward to it. Within the first second, the sphere was the size of a large table, but each speck of dirt added more and more to it. The titanium deposits gathered in greater and greater strength. In less than two seconds, the table-sized object was gaining in mass. It was the size of a shed, and within another few seconds, it was almost the size of a small house. It had become an oversized boulder, and the nearby closing scout ship was next along the line.

There so little time to react that even the scout ship barely saw it. The cloud had dissipated and became one solid object of titanium. The magnet went hurdling towards the Itrean warship. Amazingly, the railgun started to rotate to the amassing boulder that tumbled to it, but little could be done.

The magnet mine had homed in on its target as it slammed into the port bow of the ship. Even with a powerful magnet holding it together, the sheer impact was enough to rip the innards of the magnet sphere into tiny pieces. Even with that said, the damage was done. The titanium boulder ripped into the mechanical arm. Red hot metal glowed briefly as it practically tore the claw clean off. It snapped and floated harmlessly into space. The remaining small pieces of titanium riddled the frame of the warship. The remaining mini impacts did little harm to the vessel, but it must have been disorienting nonetheless.

"Whoa," Javier said.

"Yeah! Suck on it!" Ramirez remarked.

The impact was so much that the scout ship's rear engines momentarily ceased. It had stopped accelerating, but the railguns tried to adjust and aim directly at the Jian Seng again. The military transport was once again regaining vital distance against the scout ship.

"It bleeds," Shira commented through her microphone. "Marcelle, slow down to maximum cruise speed but adjust your course to the beacon to the best of your abilities. Amelia, close up the rear hatch and load up the next magnet into the pressurization chamber. Make the same modifications as you have done before. Make sure that it is the.....damaged magnet."

"Aye, Ma'am," both of the women replied. Javier nodded his head in agreement as he was impressed with everything that had happened. It worked incredibly well but only to a point. The port crane and claw of the scout ship were torn off. Besides that, the ship was mostly intact and still quite functional.

"I wondered if that was going to work or not," Javier said as he felt the g-forces lighten down in the interior. He knew that the engines momentary let up a little bit to allow the engineers the opportunity to move the next magnet in place.

"We are not victorious yet," Shira explained. "We have tossed the first stone at our enemy. It is also the first time our opponent has felt pain after the great hunt that they have made to us."

"You think they will back off?"

"No. She is more invigorated to go after us now than ever. She is committed to the kill, but now she has experienced a sense of great humiliation. She will learn her lesson, adapt, and resume her attack, and we must be ready."

Shira looked at her digital stopwatch. It was down to four minutes and thirty-five seconds. She remained as composed as ever. The thicket of asteroids was apparent as the shower of rocks impacted the hull. Unlike the area that they were just in, the storm was gathering again. Ahead was a massive layer of heavy boulders and mountain-sized rocks. With space being vast, it was incredible to behold. The light of the star illuminated most of them easily, but there was a lingering fear of some lurking hidden asteroids. The enormous sizes of some were enough to block out the light making the asteroids behind them hard to spot. Only the sensor array had any hopes of picking them up.

Javier could momentarily see the edge of the rear portion of Picaro on the rear view screen. A planet-sized jagged piece of rock was something that no person could ever ignore. Ahead, he could see that they were in the heart of the debris field. This was the most dangerous portion of the asteroid field. It might have also desensitized the Shal'rein on the scout ship as well. The rear engines had not activated yet as it was still maintaining its forward momentum. Only the faint sight of vectoring thrusters was any hint that it was still alive and trying to keep a course towards the Jian Seng. Another thing that Javier had fully realized was that unlike the orbit around Picaro, which was primarily short in time, this was different. Because the Jian Seng was heading toward the beacon, it was forcing the ship to go through more of the asteroid belt in turn rather than one side and out the other. Perhaps it was the best that it did happen, even if it was not a viable choice. The asteroids were the only place the magnets could be used effectively.

"Ummm....." Marcelle said as she was looking at her console.

"Marcelle," Ramirez said. "I am picking up large concentrations of asteroids in our flight path. Alter course five degrees to port to avoid them."

"Doing it," she said as the ship started to make a slight adjustment. "The......controls are barely responding."

"The vectoring thruster is partially functional," Amelia told her. "There is nothing I can do about it from my end."

"I am trying......it's barely moving."

"Shit...." Ramirez replied. "Alter course to negative 1 degree of the z-axis."

"Trying," she said as she pulled the flight yoke to adjust course.

Within a second, the forward side-mounted thrusters spun up to push the ship down. It was altering its course as the cluster of rocks harmlessly flew by. The space between each rock was so close that even the Jian Seng could never fit between them.

"Good...." Ramirez said. "Captain, I hope we are going to slow down. Forward armor is reduced to 67%. I am picking up heavy denting developing along the forward cargo container armor section."

"Make adjustments when necessary but do not alter our speed unless I tell you," Shira reaffirmed.

Javier knew that they were on a countdown. The armor was eroding more and more as the shower of rocks was impaling the transport. Once the armor failed, then those rocks would become like tiny flechettes that could penetrate the hull. Being shot at by the Shal'rein was one thing, but the asteroid field might as well become a railgun in itself.

"The scout ship is speeding up again," Ramirez called out. "It will reach us in a minute and twenty seconds."

"I have the next magnet loaded up," Amelia called up. "It's all set on Ramirez's console again."

"Secure yourselves," Shira called out as she clasped her hands together. "Marcelle, once again, increase speed as you were before. This must be done in the correct order. Amelia, when I give you the command, you will jettison the magnet. Ramirez, when I tell you, you will activate it. Marcelle, when I give the order, you will disengage the rear engines and do a 180-degree turn so that our forward bow is pointed at the scout ship. Ramirez, when I give you the command after this, you will use our railgun against their railgun. Destroy it. Once this maneuver is complete, Marcelle, you will do a 180-degree turn, reengage the rear engines and resume our course to the emergency beacon. Do I need to repeat it?"

"Understood," Amelia said.

"Aye," Marcelle replied.

"I copy. Ready to blow shit up," Ramirez said.

Javier's eyes went wide upon hearing it. It was seemingly complex but one that was divided among the crew to perform. None of it sounded impossible to complete, but it did sound daunting to do it. Nonetheless, he could see that Shira had this perfectly mapped in her head. Right down to the last detail, all that mattered was that everyone followed it.

It was seemingly quiet for another ten or twenty seconds after Shira had said it. She was watching her stopwatch and, at times, watching the scout ship for any minor changes. There were slight course changes that Marcelle was making. Another issue that Javier could see was that the asteroid field was acting like a fence at times. The walls of rocks almost seemed to guide the ship in specific directions. Despite the vectoring thruster having a hard time operating, Marcelle had to very slowly turn the vessel to port. The wall that was being formed was more of an optical illusion that formed into an obstruction in the mind. This could actually cause the person flying to steer the ship as if someone was kayaking down a large current. Meanwhile, the white noise of rocks impacting the hull would shift. At times, the tiny pieces of debris would hit in large waves, while at other times, it would almost sound quiet. There was practically little that could be done to control this.

"Alright," Ramirez said. "I picked up a concentration of iron ahead of us, two degrees to starboard. There is a clear enough path where we can do our maneuver quickly."

"I copy," Marcelle replied.

With that, the ship started to make a starboard turn. Javier could feel the anxiety and tension. There was a giant asteroid the size of a mountain straight ahead, but the range was still far away enough that it could be interpreted as the space needed to conduct the maneuver. If Ramirez was wrong, then it was quite possible that the ship would slam head first into it or even ass first, depending on what was happening. Shira remained focused on her calculations and occasionally observing the scene. This was the first time that Javier truly felt powerless in his position. It was up to the others to perform their actions appropriately. The scout ship was zeroing in on the Jian Seng. It was getting closer and closer.

"Forty seconds before they reach firing range," Ramirez said.

Shira again was watching the time counting up. Her one eye would look up. The floating mountain could be seen as it was slowly getting closer and closer. Marcelle's hand began to stiffen a little bit. She was doing her best, but her knuckles and hands had turned white. She continued to take deep breaths to keep herself calm.

"Thirty seconds," Ramirez said.

A small cloud of iron could be seen in the distance. Unlike the titanium, this cloud was much smaller, but the smacking of rocks against the hull had decreased. It would be less than fifteen seconds before they reached the cloud. Javier could only watch as the scout ship was getting closer. He could remember gripping the edge of his seat. Once the Itrean ship had reached firing range, it would be impossible for the Jian Seng to dodge the hypervelocity rounds. He was going to say nothing to Shira, that was looking ahead.

The Jian Seng had entered into the edge of the cloud as the smacking against the hull picked up. It was now or never.

"Amelia, release the next magnet," Shira called out.

"Deploying!" Amelia replied.

Once again, the explosive decompression echoed behind the ship. Air rushed out of the hatch, producing the sound of escaping atmosphere. The magnetic sphere was expelled as it remained unpowered in the void of space. It was ejected almost directly into the path of the scout ship.

"Ramirez, activate the magnet," Shira ordered.

"Doing it!" He yelled out.

With a press of a button, the magnetic sphere activated, but there was a problem. The amount of energy that was expelled was far less than the previous magnet. Some of the iron flew straight into the sphere, clinging to it, but only a small portion of the cloud seemed to respond. This might have been the damage that it had received much earlier. It did try to home in on the scout ship, but it had less drive to do so. At the rate it was going, the thing was a small boulder of iron. It was no bigger than a shed, and some of the iron deposits were already falling off before it zeroed in.