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Stardate 2293. Bridge, 0804 hours. The very small type 6 planet Hyginus-3 glows brightly in the perpetual (but artificial) dawn created by Aurora's movement. Chief Otophryne looks up briefly, "A pair of sentry drones at 345+67, closing rapidly." Otophryne's voice betrayed no emotion, but Rana's did, as he ordered, "All stop." Most of the bridge crew experienced a brief flashback of memories to the last time they had encountered sentry drones - on Serpens-1. For a split second, facial images of the five dead crewmen hung like ghosts in front of Rana's eyes before he could blink them away. In the numerous drills since then, all members of the bridge crew had practiced against space drones. Rana had studied them well, and they were formitable indeed, primarily because Aurora lacked sufficient firepower to penetrate their armor. The last encounter had demonstrated that it could take up to four missiles to bring down a drone. It had also made the point that drones were highly mobile, packed a punch, and fired often. In Aurora's many voyages, they had encountered quite an assortment of sentries, some very odd indeed. In his gut, Rana knew that if they had all been space drones, Aurora would likely be a piece of space scrap floating in orbit about some distant planet. "Drones still closing." Otophryne's voice snapped Rana out of his momentary reverie. "Set evasive course Delta-2," he ordered. "Aye aye, Sir." Rana spoke to Babina. "By bearing to port, perhaps in their eagerness to get to us, we can get them to split up and allow us to focus on one at a time. We'll call the portside one "drone-1' for convenience. Chief, as soon as you can get off a good shot, go ahead and fire." "Yes, Sir. The outer doors are open. Fire one." "Execute Delta-2" Both the starship and drone fired near simultaneously, but both executed course changes that caused their respective weapons to miss. Trailing behind, and initially partially hidden by drone-1 was drone-2, now fully exposed by the couse changes. "Firing at drone-2." The range was now rapidly reducing, and drone-2 never responded to the rocket, which hit a glancing blow to its lower decks. "Eight percent damage," reported Babina, looking up from his sensor panel. As Aurora swung around behind drone-2, Otophryne got off another quick shot, but the rocket missed. Drone-2 fired, hitting Aurora forward of the bridge. "No damage, screen at 97%," reported Babina. "Look out for drone-1," noted Alytes. Indeed, this drone had recovered from its evasive maneuver, and was swinging about in Aurora's direction. "Down 60 degrees," ordered Rana. The helm punched in the change, but before he could verbally acknowledge the order, a bolt from drone-1 passed through empty space over Aurora. Unfortunately, the drop maneuver had left Aurora with inadequate operating space between the planet's surface and hard charging drone-1. In order to swing around and gain altitude, Aurora had to turn away from drone-1, which immediately fired two bolts into Aurora's undefended rear end. Aurora bucked, the lights blinked three times in rapid succession, and a whiff of something burning entered the air circulation system. "Laser screen 90%, nuclear generator 61%, optical computer-1 62%, optical computer-2 88%, rocket drive-1 95%, rocket drive-2 95%, weapons 90%." As Babina's voice continued on and on, Rana instantly knew that they were not going to win this battle. The damage to the nuclear generator alone was serious. He looked up at the weapons screen. Eight rockets left. "Break off. Break off. Steer right at drone-2 to use it as a shield against drone-1. Maximum impulse. This will really test the forward laser screen." As Aurora raced towards drone-2 both shpis fired at point blank range. Both shots hit home, forcing Aurora to plow through a patch of debris created in part from both ships. Another shot from the drone exploded a huge chunk of partially molten metal to the starboard side of Aurora, as the spaceship flashed away in retreat. On board Aurora, alarms were everywhere. Someone on the bridge was putting out a small fire, and damage reports were flooding in from throughout the ship. First and foremost, however, was the view of Hyginus-3 and its two drones gradually becoming smaller and smaller on the screen. "Damage reports, Babina" "Yes Sir. Laser screen at 40% and charging. Nuclear generator 22%, optical computer-1 42%, optical computer-2 88%, rocket drive-1 95%, rocket drive-2 70%, weapons 90%," responded Babina. "There are casualties on decks 1 and 3." Otophryne added, "The rocket hit to drone-2 knocked out about 30% of its systems, although the drone is still functioning." Rana responded with, "Babina, you have the bridge. Otophryne see about those casualties. I'm going to take a look at the nuclear generator." Still operating under an enormous surge of adrenaline, and still feeling the effects of one that is lucky to be alive, Rana headed for the turbolift.
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