VC Chapter 38-Death at the Doorsteps

Sector 1600

Planet 1602

January 26, 2052

“You have got to be shitting me.” Tarbuck watched as hundreds of fleets headed towards them in a straight line.

“No fair.” Chase complained at the enemy reinforcements.

“You think MoB likes to play fair? They know no honour in fights.” Dimitris watched as one of his cruisers blew up.

“Charlie, I highly recommend that we fall back. Get the bases relocated off this sector.” Vorzer noticed his ships dropping out of formation as they exploded.

“What about our homes and everything that we worked on?” Owens interrupted.

“There is no more home if they are like this everyday.” Tarbuck eyed his smoking base and then at his ship.

“Fall back. Get the lower level bases ported out of here!” Charlie concluded after some thought.

The line of SIN ships smashed into the testudo formation splitting it in half. Tens of ships went down in the initial ram followed by a couple more in the centre. The centre was exposed and the weaker ships were quickly disposed of by an array of projectiles.

“This is Tarbuck, I'm abandoning ship. Repeat, abandoning ship.” Tarbuck broadcasted as his cruiser went into a blaze of fire.

Wicker piloted his Nighthawk beside Tarbuck's cruiser and watched a small escape pod launched out right before the ship exploded into oblivion. He manoeuvred the frigate and latched onto the escape pod and made a daring escape from the ships firing at him.

“This is Wicker, I got Tarbuck. We're getting the hell out of dodge.” Wicker replied on comms as his ship took a minor hit from an explosive shell.

Charlie watched as the other Destiny corvettes got shot down by a fleet of SIN Revelation cruisers. His ship turned to retreat when Dimitris' fleet passed him leaving a trail of smoke.

“Use the smoke to cover us.” Charlie pointed at the smoke beside his corvette.

“Aye sir.” the officer replied.

The Destiny cleverly flew right into the smoke coming out of Dimitris' ship and was disguised from the enemies' visual. One by one, the retreating ships were shot down as the enemy ships pursued.

“Admiral, all low level bases have already ported out. Waiting on orders.” Krawiec sent a transmission.

“We need some cover!” Charlie replied as he looked at cruiser in front of him smoking heavily.

“We're in position with what we have sir.” Moxness moved his ships alongside a row of Venoms marked “NB Remali”.

“I got some ships to spare.” Paul strafed his fleet of Revelation cruisers in front of Moxness.

As soon as the retreating fleets passed the final defensive line, the weapons on the ships roared to life as it began to lay down a heavy suppressive fire.

“Won't last long. Make it quick.” Moxness looked at the shields draining from his ships.

One by one, the NB bases began to warp out when suddenly the space behind the defensive line began to warp as ships began to pour in. Tons of Rancors, Exoduses, and some Apocryphas warped out of the space.

“Who the hell are they?” Tarbuck watched from his escape pod as ships warped beside Wicker's frigate.

 “The VEGA corporation.” Vorzer replied with a devilish smile.