Gabatrix: The Shira Maneuver

However, for a split second, Javier could see that the railgun turret of the scout ship had adjusted its aim at the small bogey that was homing in. The Itrean ship was expecting this. They had learned their lessons from the first one. This was what he felt was surmising in his head. The Lesser Adjunct was anticipating that the Jian Seng was going to drop another magnetic mine into her ship. The reaction time was quicker, and there would be little time to evaluate it further.

"Marcelle," Shira commanded. "180-degree turn. Point the bow at her."

"Aye," she said as she pulled her flight control yoke hard. "Hold on!"

The rear engines had cut off. The military transport was coasting on its forward inertia as the forward side-mounted thrusters, pointed downward, burned hot. The rear side-mounted thrusters burned in the opposite direction. This caused the Jian Seng to start turning rapidly in an upward spin.

The scout ship at the same time had fired its railgun. The first shot flew out and grazed the incoming boulder. The second shot echoed as the next round hit the rock directly, blowing the magnet into tiny fragments before it harmlessly splashed against the hull. The dazzling colors of blue and purple quickly dissipated in space.

It was a hard turn to make. The interior of the vessel felt heavy as the g-forces were enormous. The Jian Seng was committed to her action as it was almost aimed directly upward in a ninety-degree angle. The scout ship was now at a close enough range that the autocannon turrets had fired short bursts at it. The tracer rounds flew for some time, but the Itrean vessel's railgun was doing a quick readjustment to aim at the military transport in turn.

This was the part where nothing could be done as the Jian Seng had completed sixty-five percent of its turn. The scout ship had one last round in its salvo for its triple gun turret. Fired almost in reckless haste, the scout ship's railgun fired. The hypervelocity round flew true at the transport, but the turning ship did offer a moving target. The shell flew before it smashed on the dorsal aft section of the vessel. It pierced the armor and struck a room near the mid-rear. In the interior, the round splintered and ricocheted for a few seconds.

It took less than a couple more seconds as the Jian Seng completed its full turn. Now moving backward, the vessel was pointed upside down at the scout ship before the thrusters helped push the vessel to a halt on its turn.

Javier watched as the viewscreen showed the upside-down scout ship come into view. Just feeling the side effects of the turn, his eyes quickly adjusted as the Itrean ship was directly in front of him. The tracer rounds were harmlessly splashing against the armor of the Itrean ship, doing no damage to it. The bridge's forward bottom-mounted autocannon (now pointed up) tried to shoot at the Itrean ship.

"Ramirez, fire at will," Shira told him.

Each second was absolutely precious. Even the scout ship's engines had ceased knowing that it was close enough that her shots would never miss. It was going to become a railgun slugfest that was seemingly not in favor of the transport. The autocannons were absolutely useless. The 30mm rounds were simply creating occasional tiny sparks as they bounced off the frontal armor. What made things harder was that the scout ship was upside down as well. Ramirez only had a few seconds to make this shot count. If he waited too long, the next salvo on the scout ship would be unleashed into the transport with lethal results.

Suddenly, the starboard claw arm of the scout ship spun up a little bit. There was a bottom-mounted autocannon mounted on the ligament that was quickly spooled to activation. It made slight adjustments to the Jian Seng's direction as the first non-hypervelocity round was fired from it. This round was not as deadly as the railgun, but something was expelled.

A shot rang out in the interior of the Jian Seng. The frontal port side mounted railgun fired, expelling a small tungsten round directly at the scout ship. The shot traveled for less than a second as it slammed straight into the triple-barreled railgun. The turret made a bright red color as the round pierced into the thin armor. All power ceased as the Itrean gun had gone dead.

At the same time, the claw-fired round from the scout ship pierced into the front armor of the Jian Seng's cargo bay. This was an explosive round that tore through the interior, even causing a small fire to break out. The flames rushed ahead and out into space as it began to vent atmosphere.

"Yeah!" Ramirez yelled out in victory. "One shot, one kill! Fuck you!"

"Marcelle, make your turn and resume course," Shira replied.

"Aye!" she replied as she was less harsh on the turn this time. Javier watched as the scout ship used its vectoring thrusters to begin making a slight course adjustment away. The claw lost its aim on the transport as the dorsal mounted turret was clearly knocked out of commission.

Javier once again felt the g-forces press against his body, but it wasn't as rough as last time. The Jian Seng was trying to resume its course by turning ahead. He felt the lingering fear that the ship was going to collide with the giant asteroid it was heading towards to. It might have been another reason that the scout ship altered course as well, but he wasn't able to focus on that.

Instead, the ship did a slow turn. It didn't take long before it was pointing directly towards the asteroid. Marcelle reactivated the rear engines as she made a new course adjustment. The ship veered up and away from the giant-sized rock. From Javier's view, he could feel the g-forces press against him. The camera was trying to remain focused, but it was apparent that the scout ship was heading to the portside and not in the direction of the Jian Seng.

"Amelia, load the next magnet into the airlock," Shira said.

"Understood," Amelia replied. "Get on it!" she called out to her team on the comms. "Bridge, we have a problem. One of those shots from the Shal'rein hit the fusion drive core's coolant unit. It will not hold, and I will have to disable the core."

"Roger. How long will we be able to run on emergency batteries?"

"We're drawing a lot of power pushing our engines like this. I would recommend withholding on anything that can deplete it quicker. We should be able to escape the asteroid belt with the power we have, assuming nothing else draws on it."

"I am also picking up a new problem, too," Ramirez said. "The last shot we just took from that scout hit the forward cargo bay. The fire burned itself out as the atmosphere vented into space and the emergency bulkheads engaged, but that wasn't helping our situation with the forward armor. It's down to 51% and falling, and the area that was struck is registering a fracture developing along the door."

"We have the doors sealed and monitoring it," Amelia said. We will be as quick as we can moving and rigging the magnet, but I would recommend that all compartments keep their doors sealed to prevent a cascade environmental breach. We will start losing atmosphere throughout the ship since we have a hole in the rear compartment of the cargo bay. If it breaches, we will have no choice but to abandon the ship once rescue comes."

"I understand," Shira said. She tapped the console on her chair as the overhead speakers turned on. "Attention all stations. We are looking at a hull breach soon. All compartment doors are to remain closed to prevent further loss of life support."

The overhead communications were shut down as Javier undid his restraints. He quickly got out of his seat as he walked up to the panel and tapped the close button. The door sealed shut as he struggled to get back on his chair and put his straps back on. It was challenging as the g-forces were hard to take. Marcelle was doing a prolonged turn as the rocks continued to pummel the forward armor nonstop.

"That was a good maneuver," Javier told Shira. "Good job to all the stations."

"We have not finished our escape," Shira replied. "You are celebrating too soon."

"The scout ship has altered course, though. They're not in pursuit."

"We have wounded her greatly, but she is left with little choice on the matter. Currently, the crew is evaluating the damage, but the scout ship still has one last weapon that can destroy us. The claw carries a powerful autocannon. She can close in and still destroy us with it."

"Are you telling me that they won't give up?"

"It is possible they have had enough, but I doubt that. The last attack showed their determination to destroy us. She is encircling around the asteroid and going to reengage in pursuit with us. We have one last magnet left. Knowing this Lesser Adjunct, she wants to destroy us. Even if we managed to damage their railgun, we can't maintain our defense indefinitely. She is also well aware of this. The shot that she made was to purposely hit the power core of this ship, and she scored an almost near-perfect hit. We are currently on batteries and cannot maintain our escape forever. She is committed and will not stop. Our only last act is to escape and continue heading to the emergency beacon."

Javier felt the sinking feeling knowing that Shira was pretty much correct. This scout ship and her commander had taken some hits, but even then, the damage the scout ship had taken was only so much. The Jian Seng was in even worse shape. The idea that they would have to remain in the bridge and wait for rescue was not exactly appealing. There were no emergency bulkheads to seal the breach in the cargo bay once it gave way. The transport could not take any more hits and was falling apart in the seams.

As the Jian Seng flew over the top of the asteroid, the camera angle showed the last vestiges of the asteroid belt ahead of them. Javier could even swear that he recognized the same rock where the Chacal Naranja was located. Ahead was a wall of medium-sized rocks. The sun was almost directly in front of them, and the emergency beacon was in greater highlight. He even saw Shira look at her stopwatch. Two minutes were remaining until help arrived.

"Marcelle, take us into the thickest area of the exit point of the asteroid belt," Shira said. "Maintain our course and speed."

"Aye....." Marsell replied.

"The densest portion?" Javier questioned her. "Those large asteroids ahead are very tightly packed."

"Captain," Ramirez said. "Armor is down to 42% and falling rapidly. The fractures are causing new micro-fractures to appear and are spreading. We are looking at a hull breach any minute now."

"We have the last magnet in place," Amelia said. "Ramirez, it is ready to be activated on your console."

"Get all your teams out of there," Shira told her. "Hull breach is expected soon."

"You heard her! Move it now!"

"Captain," Ramirez called out. "I am picking up the scout ship. She is heading straight towards us."

The camera turned and switched over to the scout ship that just appeared on the other side of the asteroid they passed. Shira was correct. The Itrean warship had not given up and was in a pursuit course again. The engines were glowing brightly.

"Interesting," Shira said. "They are attempting to sling shot around the asteroid to give them an extra speed boost. This Lesser Adjunct really wishes to eliminate us."

"Estimated time of them to reach firing range is within a minute thirty seconds," Ramirez added.

"Ramirez, focus your scan on the asteroids coming up. This is the last opportunity we will get for this before we are out of the field. Search for any iron and titanium concentration deposits."

"I hear you, Ma'am. Scanning......Ummm......I am picking up a mix of it ahead between two of the asteroids, but......"

"What is the issue?" she asked him.

"These asteroids are very packed together, with one being almost having a width of forty-meter spacing. This requires some tricky maneuvering."

"What?" Marcelle reacted.

"Then maintain course," Shira said. "Take us between those asteroids."

"Ummm...." Javier noted. "Even the height of this ship is barely enough to fly through that."

"I am well aware of that. The scout ship is also aware of this. If we deploy our magnet now, the enemy will try to destroy it. Instead, she will maneuver away from the rocks and not be watching it when we launch it. Marcelle, when you fly between the spacing, you will steer the ship up so that our aft is pointed away from the entry point."

Javier had no idea what she was talking about at first. The concentration of asteroids was getting closer and closer, but the exit was in sight. Marcelle already began to roll the ship looking at the tight fit coming up. She was breathing hard as everyone's attention was allocated to the scene.

It was worse than it pictured. The four large asteroids were moving together in unison. Even with this maneuver, there was a profound risk of colliding into one of them, even with the turn. There was also a litter of smaller boulder-sized rocks as well. It was beyond dangerous at their current speed, but little could be done about it. The scout ship was gaining and watching everything ahead. He could now surmise what was going on in that Lesser Adjunct's mind. Shira was quick with her thinking. This was going to be a risky maneuver that would leave any pilot sweating. Even the scout ship's vectoring thrusters were pushing the vessel in a slight downward starboard angle. This would put her in an approach of moving around from the starboard angle in order to keep up with the Jian Seng.

"I can do this......I can do this," Marcelle said as she breathed hard.

"Be ready to do a hard turn up after you fly between the two asteroids," Shira told her. "Amelia, when I give the command, deploy the magnet. Ramirez, stand by."

"Ready," Amelia said.

The Jian Seng's starboard side-mounted thrusters were making its precision turn. The ship almost flew on its side in a forward direction. The number of rock collisions against the armor was increasing. Javier felt like he had to hold his breath as he knew that this would be insanely close. Any slight deviation and the transport would slam head first into the rocks.

Thirty seconds, twenty seconds, the scout ship was doing its short makeshift turn that would lead it around the heavy density. Javier could see the tight squeeze ahead. Most pilots would have fainted with such a move as this. He took a deep breath and almost squinted his eyes.

"Hang on!" Marcelle called out as the Jian Seng flew directly into the small spacing. She yelped a little bit as she could feel that the transport barely had any room to move. It was moving so fast that there was nothing else that could be done.

While the ship gracefully flew between the two spacing, there was a problem. The transport was able to fit between narrowly missing the two asteroids by about a couple meters. Something was sticking out of the transport that fell, victim. The starboard wing, unfortunately, slammed directly into the asteroid. Like a dull knife, it bashed the rock with a destructive force. The harder asteroid won out in the collision as the wing practically sheared off and snapped like a twig.

The impact inside the ship was minor, but metal impacting something hard could be heard that reverberated in the interior. Marcelle barely had any time to react as Shira was onto her.

"Hard turn," Shira called out.

With that, Marcelle yanked the flight controls hard, causing a jolting force of g-forces in the interior. The thrusters were working overtime as the rear section was painted away from two of the large asteroids. The maneuver was challenging as the Jian Seng was nearing one of the other larger rocks. The scout ship flew underneath and from the side of the asteroids.

"Amelia, deploy," Shira said.

"Deploying," she replied.

With that, Amelia did her part as the last magnetic sphere was deployed. The escaping air jettisoned from the rear section of the vessel. The sphere was sent hurdling into the vacuum of space and directly into the cloud of iron and titanium.

"Now, Ramirez. Activate it," Shira commanded.

"Got it!" Ramirez said.

The last magnet emitted a massive amount of energy. All the iron and titanium were being drawn toward it. The tricky maneuver could be foiled very easily. If it was too close to the asteroids, it risked drawing the magnet straight into it, but there was still enough distance to prevent that from happening. Regardless, the magnet was at a fair enough distance to avoid it.

The scout ship was doing a hard turn but was failing to get in-between the cluster of asteroids. It was trying to make an entire loop to meet up on the other side. The magnet was sent directly towards it, however. Heading towards the dorsal section, there was little that the Itrean vessel could do about it. More and more iron and titanium were gathering into the magnet as it started to home in on the enemy ship.

In the Jian Seng, it was a different story altogether. The starboard wing had been ripped off, and the thrusters were having to work extra hard in doing a ninety-degree turn to port. There was another pair of large asteroids ahead if the transport failed to adjust to its new heading, but there was enough room to make the appropriate course change. Regardless, Marcelle was doing her best as the downward g-forces ceased. It was heading out of the cluster and into open space with a flurry of small mid-sized rocks in the way.

Javier watched as the homing magnet was almost drawn to the asteroids behind the transport. The scout ship, however, was about to get bombed from above. With almost perfect precision, the Shal'rein warship could only watch with utter surprise that the cloud of small iron and titanium had turned into a large boulder. Free from the large asteroids, the magnet started to home in the nearest target. The scout ship's magnetic signature proved viable enough to draw it towards it. Within ten seconds, it slammed directly on top of the vessel. The iron and titanium splintered and showered the hull portion just past the centripetal ring of the scout ship and hitting the rear portion.

The impact sent the scout ship sputtering a little bit while it was trying to commit to its long turn. The magnet was clearly obliterated, but its damage was reflected onto what it hit as well. The rear compartment module of the Itrean vessel consisted of both the power and rear thrusters cobbled together. The two linked power generators took the brunt of the impact, and there were power fluctuations all throughout the ship. The effect was not enough to destroy the vessel in any way, but it didn't help it either. A sizeable dent and minor hull breach could be seen for a few seconds.

The victory could be barely seen as the Jian Seng was not out of the field yet. The corridor of asteroids had come to an end as the transport flung forward. The maneuver was a costly one in that Marcelle was barely able to recognize the incoming small boulders that were hurdling towards her. The speed, velocity, and new heading were taking their toll, and little could be done about it.

"No!" Marcelle hurdled out a cry as she was doing a series of rapid maneuvers. In her haste, she jinxed herself into the direction of a large boulder-sized rock. This one was the size of a small house. Heading at it with incredible velocity, there was little that she could do. There were simply too many smaller obstructions that were in the way.

Javier could see the boulder almost too late as he was still trying to look at the damaged Itrean scout ship. He could see that Marcelle was in a mild panic, trying to keep the Jian Seng from crashing into the large rocks. Unfortunately, little could be done about where she was heading. It started off small but got bigger and bigger. She hesitated for a tiny split second, realizing that she had just doomed her own ship. For one second, Javier knew that this collision would have been rough, possibly lethal.