"The Mölders is hit! Von Zeiten is hit! Looks like they concentrated all their fire on her."

"What? At this range? Damage report?" The Kra'Vak had opened fire at thirty thousand kilometers. The database estimated their railgun max effective range at 20,000. "Commence spoofing."

"Evasive pattern Y initiated."

"That will degrade firing solution Herr Kapitän," pointed out the weapons officer.

"Deal with it."

"No comms with Mölders. All systems off the air. She's tumbling out of control and streaming atmosphere. Looks like she's dead." Damn. Markmann leaned forward against his shock frame. The Kra'Vak's railgun systems made him sit up and take notice.

"Mölders hit by another salvo, she's broken in two."

"Firing….another hit against Delta 02."

"Concentrate against Delta 01."

"Enemy firing." This time the Kra'Vak battle line engaged with all ships, dispersing their fire amongst the two cruisers, ignoring the lighter destroyers. Markmann felt his ship shudder and he heard a loud bang.

"Bridge this is damage control. We took a number of hits on our starboard side; decks two and three breached near bulkheads five and eleven respectively. We're getting teams there now."

"Systems?"

"Nominal."

"Firing Kapitän. Target is delta 01."

The two groups of ships raced towards each other at a combined speed of 130,000 KPH. As they drew closer the Kra'vak railguns became deadlier as the penetrator shells found their mark with greater accuracy and velocity. The Humans continued to return fire but were unable to ascertain the extent of damage they were inflicting.

"Three minutes until zero barrrier, Kapitän." In the holotanks another blue dot went to gray. That was the von Zeiten on the formations right flank. The Moltke shuddered again from the impact of more penetrators.

"Kapitän, FTL drive off-line!" There was an edge of panic in the young engineer's voice. No faster than light drive meant no escape.

"Delta 01 is streaming atmosphere."

"Bridge, this is damage control. I've got two parties working on the FTL drive."

"Get it done," replied the XO. "Without it we're stuck. "

"Alien ships decelerating and turning."

Markman realized that the Kra'Vak were attempting to decelerate and change heading so they would be pointing into his ships blind rear aspect as they sped by.

"Helm maximum deceleration. Come about to bearing 090!" He knew that the Moltke's slower speed could be an advantage here as she screeched to a sliding turn in an attempt to avoid exposing her flank to the Kra'Vak. If he played things right, he'd be up their asses.

"Jawohl, Kapitän."

"Tactical, I want the Balck to decelerate but pass on the opposite side of delta 04. We'll sandwich her."

"Jawohl, Herr Hauptman, transmitting."

"Distress signal from the Altenstadt, engine room destroyed, have her batteries down and many crew killed. They're...another hit against them!" The Altenstadt exploded in an expanding ball of gas. Markman felt a pang of sadness in his heart as he thought of all the sorrow that would fall upon the families back at their home port, on Nue Salzburg, once the news of this engagement reached home. It was clear now that escape was their only option. The next few minutes would determine whether they lived or died.

Markmann studied the holotank carefully as he watched the approaching fleets meld together, skidding across space to stop and turn like some horrible auto accident on the autobahn. His heart was in his throat as he watched the range LEDs spin down until he realized that they were going to make it. The Alien commander had turned his entire fleet. All except one, which had turned in the opposite direction as a precaution and was going to end up facing directly towards the Moltke! The enemy commander found three of his four ships with their rears exposed towards his ship. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

"Weapons, I want half the batteries concentrating on delta 04, right up the ass. The other half on Delta 03. I want Balck concentrating on 03. Helm bring us to max acceleration."

"Bridge this is engineering, we've gotten the FTL drive back online." There was a chorus of excited shouts at the good news.

"Firing now." Three of Moltke's heavy beam batteries stabbed out at the near point blank range of 700 kilometers and hit the one Kra'Vak ship which was a threat to them, Delta 03. Markman watched in satisfaction as the beams all hit squarely and one of the rail booms, which formed one arm of the U, broke off from the alien ship. A second hit from the Balck finished her off and she erupted in flames as exploding gasses vented from the stricken vessel. The bridge crew was too intent on their jobs to cheer. Moltke's second salvo stabbed out into the rear drive field of Delta 04, scoring at least one solid hit.

All eyes were on Balck as she maneuvered past delta four raking the Kra'Vak's ship unprotected flank with beam fire. Suddenly a multitude of small explosions balnketed the space near Balck and her unarmored hull was riddled with penetrators, tearing through systems, bulkheads and flesh at close range. The ship's fusion core was penetrated and for a split second the rear end of the destroyer shot beams of energy out of the riddled hull until the weakened rear structure gave away and the entire ship was consumed in an expanding fusion explosion. All hands were lost.

"What kind of weapon was that?" Asked the XO.

"Unknown, Sir. It's not in our database. They definitely fired it out of their flank and it wasn't a railgun." It was almost like a huge shotgun.

"God."

"We're still dumping back to the colony?"

"Yes Sir."

"Helm roll us 180 degrees. Let's keep our undamaged side towards them."

Now it fell to a desperate race between the Moltke's straining engines and the turning ability of the Kra'Vak ships. Moltke's engines shuddered as they attempted to accelerate the battle cruiser out of harm's way. Hits punched into the battlecruiser's armored flank. Her batteries stabbing out at the unprotected rear and flanks of her adversaries. Perhaps they would escape. However the Kra'Vak frantically spun their ships around, much faster than Markman had suspected they could. Another series of hits shook his ship. Markmann was shaken violently yet held in place by his shockframe. He reached up and closed his visor.

"Main batteries two and four our down. Port PDS batteries destroyed. We've lost one damage control party."

"Keep firing!" Markman watched in horror as the aliens spun and brought their guns to bear. At this close range they couldn't miss. He watched as they belched another cloud of deadly short-ranged projectiles towards his ship. There was a series of explosion that wracked the bridge as the penetrators tore through. Markman stared in horror at his helmsman as he realized the boy was now missing his head. The arms twitched grotesquely as if the body was still trying to work the controls and get the ship out of harms way. Markmann felt a sickening lurch as the gravity damper fluctuated off line for a split second and violent acceleration from the dying Moltke attempted to crush him in his seat. Then the dampers kicked in again.

"Oh my god! Herr Kapitän!" Markmann stared at the communications chief who was looking at him and pointing in anguish. Markmann looked down a saw his boot hanging by a few tattered threads of flesh. That meant his Vacc suit's integrity was broken, which explained his groggy feeling…my foot…my foot …my ship. Markmann leaned his head back, as another salvo raked his ship and the bridge exploded into a bright glare.