“Captain, there's something you need to see here.”
Henry looked up from the map he was studying; the sensor readings and radar signals that controlled the battle were voluminous; thankfully, Exedore used his superior processing skills to assist him in plotting new points of resistance. “What is it, Kim?”
She passed him a headset. “You may want to take this privately, sir.”
He nodded absently and adjusted the set. “This is Captain Gloval.”
“Captain Gloval, Rick is dead,” Max said.
Henry staggered as if he took a punch to the stomach. The bridge crew looked at him in an odd manner. He stammered out. “What coordinates?”
Max replied, “Aleph Romeo Tango three, three, two, one.”
Henry shouted the coordinates to Vanessa, adding, “Scan that area for wreckage and possible survivors. We can't do anything to help now, if he is still there…but we want to make sure one way or another.”
Vanessa bent furiously over her station, scanning away. Henry took the headset off and said, “Commander Sterling.”
“Aye, sir?”
“Take the remnants of the air wing and try to make it through the gap where Commander Hunter went to. Hammer it home. Exedore tells me that if we concentrate enough firepower there, the shield will collapse and we can take the fortress out from within.”
“Agreed Captain. Can we call on the Alaska Base Air Wing for support?”
“They're tied up keeping the battlepods off your six. Throw everything you have remaining against that shield. We'll follow you in to exploit the gap.”
“Understood, Captain.”
Henry watched as the fighters formed up; he saw electrical discharges cascading across their hulls, and the sun's distant rays glinting off the metallic finishes. They engaged the shield, just as incoming fire sent the bridge crew hurtling toward the deck. Henry grabbed at a railing to stay upright, but the rest of the crew was not that fortunate. Kim's chair rolled towards the port side of her console and ran into the doorframe; Sammie flew halfway across the deck and into the far wall, Claudia tried ducking and trying to avoid the sparks from her console, and Vanessa fell to the floor and rolled into the captain's chair. The SDF-1 started to list to port, drifting down and away from the line of battle.
Henry raced to the helm, but the controls were unresponsive. He shouted, “Engineering, I want a full thrust from port afterburners for thirty seconds to stabilize us. Beginning on my mark. Mark!”
The huge ship began to come back into the assault line, and just as they swung back into place, Azonia's flagship took a huge barrage of laser fire. The girls scrambled back to their posts and were totally speechless. “Captain…”
“No need to tell me, Claudia,” he replied grimly. “She's dead.”
“And Khyron has joined the battle, sir.”
“Good. Tell him to…”
“Not good, sir. He's striking hard at our rear flank.”
Henry sighed, resignedly. Battlepods were swarming the decks, overrunning the Destroids on the main deck, the helm controls were shot to hell, and their flanks were being overrun. The main cannon was almost charged, but still had a few minutes left to get fully ready. Max's fighters were pinging away at the shield, but the holes weren't growing fast enough for them to take advantage of them. “Full acceleration towards Sterling's fighters.”
The big ship began to move forward, and the fortress ahead began to loom large. The weapons console indicated that the main cannon was ready to fire. “All hands, brace for impact. Fire the main gun.”
The main cannon fired, eliminating the shield around Dolza's fortress, and all the ships moved forward to concentrate their forward batteries. The incoming enemy fire was getting intense, and the ship was starting to break apart at the bulkheads. Henry looked up and saw that the fighting was getting more intense than he realized. The damage reports from all squadrons indicated that defeat was imminent. He resigned himself to death a long time ago, but hated the thought that all of his crew would perish alongside him. “Intensify the forward batteries; I don't want anything getting through.”
“Aye, captain.”
Suddenly, a spinning battlepod came whirling its way towards the bridge. Henry glanced and saw that the forward firepower was not concentrated and screamed, “Intensify forward firepower!”
“Too late,” Claudia screamed.
The bridge crew leaped for the door, to get to the auxiliary bridge or the escape pods, but a grinding noise and sudden vacuum stopped them in their tracks, while the pod crushed them to the floor. Shortly thereafter, the SDF-1 exploded against the Omni Directional Barrier of Dolza's ship and ceased to be.