Note:  I've been playing with a topic about the experience of getting in and out of a pod, thinking it might be interesting.  But too bad for those reading, I'm currently watching 'Master and Commander', and a navy fight is just the kind of thing I'm in the mood for.  So here goes ...

"Man your positions."

By rote, the crew of the Bromios readied themselves, moving to their assigned posts and taking stock of their individual situations.  That nervous tension was floating across the Harbinger-class battlecruiser, a mixture of excitement and fear.  But as a good crew does, they worked through it.

Ruze subvocalized commands to various sections, calling for changes in crystal types, readying several drones, checking on each command.  In his liquid tomb, his mind projected the image of his ship flying through warp, while simultaneously feeling the rhythm of activity across the decks.  Guns readying position, crew and computer inputs on hull integrity, warp stabilization, ammo loads.

With over a dozen years of experience as a capsuleer, Ruze felt the rhythm like a living thing, and thrived off of it. The ship lived and breathed, with a pulse and an intent.

While with the forefront of his mind he prepared for the upcoming fight, he was already running through contingencies and backup plans.  Every plan is doomed to fail, as the saying goes, and there was always the unexpected.  The agent's details of the site were few, as always, handovers from a CONCORD scan that left out a lot of important information.  So while he was aware of who the enemy worked for, he had no idea of what kind of firepower they could bring.

The massive battlecruiser came out of warp well 'south' of the systems elliptical rotation, south being relative to the axis of the individual systems themselves.  Immediately the computer ran scans of local surroundings, searching for hostile ships. Ruze paged through data readouts of asteroids, space particles, area radiation fields, etc. The area seemed empty, nothing but a random drift of interstellar asteroids and particles, but in another moment the scanner caught a faint dispersion signal coming from a nearby asteroid, telltale signs of a manmade structure. The Amarrian sent a camera drone to investigate.

"Under Ministry Code 1231 alpha," his voice broadcasting the prerecorded message over several comm channels as soon as the drone verified the structures existence, "I have been given permission to remove this illegal structure from Amarr space.  All inhabitants have exactly one minute to egress, after which all lives aboard are forfeit.  Resistance will be ..."

Warning chimes sounded throughout the decks as several ships de-cloaked directly between the Bromios and the structure.  His comp signaled incoming target locks, and Ruze immediately cutoff the outgoing message and returned the locks.

"You are in the wrong neighborhood, fool.  Might be time we sent you home."

The first salvo struck him on the port side, taking a fair chunk of his shielding.  With guns trained and the lock almost complete, the battlecruiser was already pulling evasive maneuvers, making constant minute adjustments to flight pattern in order to throw off tracking. Being the larger ship made such tactics almost useless, but Ruze was taking no chances.

The first lock struck on the smaller ship, an aggressive-looking Daredevil-class frigate, which was incoming at a fast clip.  It was already veering to starboard and breaking the plane above his ship, pulling itself into a quick orbit that would make it hard to track.  With a simple mental gesture, Ruze lowered it's priority for gunnery crews, raising the priority on the second and third locks, two cruisers splitting off to draw fire in different directions.

One target against three, but Ruze remained confident and set his attack plan in motion.  The order to deploy drones was already out, and crystals were being shifted for close range combat.  The massive focusing lenses took a few moments to be changed, requiring a combined effort of human knowhow and automated brute strength.  His gunnery crews were some of the best in several regions, though, and he knew his weapons would be online in a matter of seconds.

The battlecruiser adjusted its' course, cutting across the bow of the cruiser to his port, effectively putting all the ships on his starboard side.  The Cynabal cruiser was moving much faster, and would be back in the split position well before the Bromios could get past it, but it wasn't exactly the point of the maneuver. It did, however, put the frigate close up on his starboard side, and the two cruisers in the same relative area of space, nullifying the furthermost cruisers target area while the nearest cruiser blocked it's firing archs. And it brought the BC in line with a jump path, for all intents and purposes giving the impression of a fleeing vessel.

Instead, five nimble machines were released from his port dronebay, effectively hidden from the prying eyes of his opponents.  Their AI was simple and easily managed, and just as the frigate broke over the top of the Bromios, they struck, taking it completely by surprise.

At the same time, seven medium beam lasers struck the closest cruiser,  wrecking shielding and pealing back massive armor plates.  The frigate blew up just as the cruiser entered hull, chaos breaking over comm frequencies and the second cruiser pushing it's engines to the max in order to get a proper line of sight.

Ruze monitored his gages.  The second cruiser was taking a very aggressive approach, almost a ramming run, deploying it's own drones while it's turrets shot round after round into the battlecruiser's thickly reinforced armor.

"There's no way you can win this," the Amarrian says to himself, as his lasers finally shred the first cruisers hull and rip through, causing a series of massive secondary explosions which further mangle the wrecked ship, taking out a few of the incoming drones with it.  The second Cynabal drove forward, though, coming out of the remains of the explosion with all weapons firing. Sensing something amiss, Ruze called up for a readout of any incoming ships.

His instincts were a moment late, however, as three battleships and a half-dozen frigates come in on his stern.  Three Daredevil and three Dramiel frigates quickly tore through one of his drones, and Ruze sent the order for them to return to his bay.  Another was gone before the last three made it back.

Meanwhile, the battlecruiser pulled a high-g maneuver to face the opposition, putting the remaining cruiser on his port and the larger ships to his bow.

With the Cynabal already locked, Ruze let his gunnery crews have at it.  Two of the massive Machriel-class battleships swung about, attempting to quickly put range between themselves and the Bromios in an attempt to bring their larger and further-firing turrets to bear.  The third Machriel launched several salvos of missiles, which rocked the BC with each impact, while the turret fire from the six frigates wrecked minor systems across the board.

Ruze activated reinforced plating, hardening his armor while simultaneously putting system repair drones to work.  He closed off bulkheads and dropped airtight seals across several decks.  One particularly vicious missile strike pierced a turret chamber on his starboard side, and the entire weapons system on that end is lost, with air and crew being ejected through massive holes in the hull.

But the battle hasn't been lost.  The cruiser goes supernova at the periphery of his vision, and crewmen reports come in of damage being mitigated across the ship.  The three remaining drones are launched, ripping into a nearby frigate with frightening speed, while the lasers batteries focus on several weak spots on the missile-launching battleship, doing incredible damage and surgically burning into launcher bays.

All the while, Ruze monitored intenrnal comms, calling signals to various sections of the ship, reading damage reports and making adjustments to ship velocity in order to reach optimal targeting range.  The hunt is on.

Two more frigates are gone before the drones are decimated, and one battleship floats dead.  While the impact from the large guns of the remaining two battleships rocked the ship back and forth, their damage output was almost nil against the reinforced plating. Ruze switched the gunnery crews to the three frigates, one of which was using a web to keep the BC from outmaneuvering the Machariels' projectiles.

The gunnery masters were given their targets and opened fire, coordinating with the webifier crew for optimal damage. Striking a very fast moving frigate, even one with a webifier embracing him, takes considerable skill on the part of the human crews. But trained gunnery masters can do amazing things with a weapon they know, and his crew were priceless in that regard. One, two, three ... in quick succession, the frigates are destroyed. Ruze called for a turnover in crystal types, and picks up the comm coming from the furthest battleship.

“It's time for you to leave, Amarrian. We've got the range, and you don't. If you make any aggressive moves, we're going to blow you out of the water.”

Ruze realized that his enemies were equipped with artillery rounds, and if the ammo they were carrying was just right, his little BC was going to be in a world of hurt. But then again ...

“You should have just opened fire. That's what I would have done.” With that, all seven laser batteries opened up on the nearest ship, while the BC rockets at an accelerated rate towards the furthest. The BC's lasers weren't as heavy-hitting as the battleships', but Ruze and his crew were skilled enough to pull 60km optimals, something most opposing pilots weren't prepared to come from a ship of Bromios' class.

The first battleship was entering hull when it left the BC's range, and a quick adjustment put the second Machariel as primary. It received it's own salvo, and fired back with a heavy strike, tearing a huge chunk out of the Harbingers forward hull. Unluckily for the Machariel's gunners, the Harbinger's forward hull is tremendously reinforced and armored, making it one of the worst points to target.

It quickly lost its optimal to the incoming battlecruiser, and his partner fell out of range just moments after the comm message. One laser broadside after another tore into the second battleship, which was already trying to align itself for a jump. But it wasn't fast enough, and both Ruze and the opposing ship captain knew it. Even as the last turret fire struck through and ruptured the internal compartments and ripped the capacitor in half, the Bromios was twisting in flight, approaching the second.

The trade-off was far from fair. The enemy battleship's crew wer no match, having a difficult time tracking the twisting BC's flight path. Meanwhile, Ruze's gunnery stations ripped through armor and hulling, puncturing engine rooms and other critical stations. The fight lasted only a few more moments, and as the ship entered hull, the incoming comm frequency sounded again.

“Call off, call off!” Static floats through the line, but the words are understandable. “We turn ourselves in. Half the crew is jettisoned already. Our engines are collapsing, and if you keep firing, the explosions will take out the lifeboats.”

With a simple gesture, Ruze cut the channel. He doesn't stop the gunnery crews, however, and with a few more strikes, the enemy battleship disintegrated in a massive light display, a concussion wave ripping apart the small escape pods trying desperately to get away.

But the fight wasn't over yet. He turned his attention back to the structure, keyed it as priority target, and let loose. It takes only a few volleys before it exploded from within.

“Status report.”

Mareek stepped onto the line, looking a little banged up, but otherwise hale.

“Starboard Turret 5 lost it's whole crew, and initial reports say the entire section is mangled, bulkheads destroyed, seals lost. Ten crewmen loss. Deck D and C had ruptures on the port side, near the crew quarters, with one life lost. A lot of other minor injuries should be scrolling up the line, but no more loss of lives.”

Ruze shook his head. “Eleven is too many, but we'll manage. How are the hull injuries?”

“The shields are recharging, a small leak in the capacitor is patched and should be refilling, and the bots are already at work fixing the plating. Our internals, though, are going to need a dock. We'll manage, as we don't have any serious oxygen leaks or radiation outputs in most sectors, and I'll just put the crew in forward positions until the repairs are made.”

“Good. We'll be turning back shortly, don't worry. We're going to go through the wrecks first, however, and I want you to turn over the gunnery crews to destroying the lifeboats we find. The agent just called, and he wants to make sure the area is clean. Apparently, this was the location of a DED agent working with the Cartel, and he was about to be on his way to report some shortcomings in the Theology Council's employ. Apparently the Ministry doesn't want this kind of information to be known outside of the Empire, so they sent us to do this routine eviction.”

Mareek looked real hard at the screen a moment. “Your orders will be followed, Captain. But may I speak openly, sir?”

“As long as none of the crew are near you, feel free.”

“Wouldn't it be better if we went after those shortcomings ourselves? And what's wrong about leaving the survivors to their fate?”

“I know what you mean,” Ruze said. “Which is why the comp is already scouring the structures memory banks, gleaning every bit of info it can. We'll leave it up to the Ministry to take care of, obviously, but don't doubt it will be.”

“And the survivors?”

“We're being paid to make sure there are none. And as enemies of the Empire, their lives are forfeit. Carry out your orders, Mr. Sarijuah.”

“Aye, Captain.”