"Just keep accelerating at full power!" I ordered Mei. Even if I hadn't, she hadn't got much to try anyway.
"Flaks, sir?" she asked.
"Try it."
Mei launched some flak missiles, which, after leaving the launch tubes, turned towards the target behind us and activated their engines. Their guidance systems commanded them to enter a formation to create a wall between us and the enemy. The missiles exploded, creating the high-velocity fragment stream typical to that type of ammunition.
The enemy swarm dispersed to evade the fragment stream. Most drones managed to get around it unharmed, but that maneuver earned us some extra time.
"Again." I said. Another salvo of missiles were launched, the results were similar. However, we could only keep doing that as long as we still had missiles, so conserving some of them would be wise.
"How long until the swarm catches up?" I asked Mei.
"Hard to guess, I think... a few minutes at this rate." she said.
"Try to shoot them with beams." I said.
"We don't have much armament on our rear side." she said.
"ECM?"
"Already tried, doesn't work well."
This time, we were way too far away from Ceres to try a clever trick, taking advantage of the terrain or gravity. Basically, Lodos was almost a sitting duck for the drone swarm.
I looked at Mei.
"Escape pods?"
"We have none." she replied.
"Is this it?" asked Frans.
Mei and I both turned to see his face.
"Perhaps not yet." I said. "Mr. Frans, go to the airlock and take a spacesuit. Then go and hide in the innermost decks of the ship. Once Lodos is destroyed, if you are not directly hit by a projectile, there is a good chance you will survive."
Mei nodded.
"But what then? I don't want to die staring blankly into the cold, dark..."
"Then sit here and die with us." Mei reprimanded.
"Prepare to rotate broadside." I said.
"Understood." Mei said. "Wait!"
"What?"
"Sir, the... The swarm has broken off. They are no longer chasing us."
"What!?" Frans and I said at the same time.
"They are... I think they are returning to their mothership." Mei said.
"How far away is the mothership?" I asked.
"Too far away, basically." Mei said. "It's acceleration rate is nowhere near ours, it can't chase us."
"I see." I said. "Weird behaviour, but I will not question it just yet. Alright, keep an eye out for any other ships or traps, and lower our acceleration rate so I can actually walk around the ship."
"Where are we headed?" she asked.
"Earth."
"Where are you headed?" she then asked.
"The medical bay."
She frowned a little, but let me go. I slowly, worriedly walked to the medical bay. In there, I found our doctor sweating. It looked like he was scared.
"Is everything okay here?" I asked him.
"More or less..." he said. "But please, before your pilot does high-g maneuvers, he should tell us. It could've killed my patient."
"Actually..." I said, but paused. He didn't have to know about how this ship was piloted, for it was none of his business. "Okay, I will tell the pilot. But please expect any maneuver at any time, doctor, you are no longer in a peacetime duty."
"Hah." he laughed with bittersweet emotions. "Hahaha! Peacetime, huh?"
I sighed, and then he did.
"Never had peacetime in a long while, commander." he said. Apparently, my whole president image had disappeared already. "All I remember about my recent years is countless people passing in front of me in a rush, and most of them dying silently in a corner. I remember piling corpses up in storage rooms and freezing them so they wouldn't bother o-"
"Okay, doctor, just carry on please." I said and left the medical bay. I had no time or will to listen to wartime stories, especially of those who had seen people die in the worst ways possible.
Tachibana found me in the corridor to the medical bay.
"Admiral."
"Mr. President." we saluted each other shortly. "The data banks are still attached to Lodos' hull from outside. Someone needs to get them inside, but going out there is too risky when there is acceleration."
"Okay, I will tell Mei to stop the engines for a while. Send your people out and get those data banks."
"Yes, sir." Tachibana said and left. I went back to the bridge, and informed Mei. The engines stopped.
Two crew members got out from the airlock, located the data banks and brought them inside. Mei then started the engines again, and we were on our way to Earth.
"How long?" I asked.
"Earth? Let's see..." Mei said. "If I am clever, I can make it in just a few days actually."
"Then be clever and make it in just a few days." I said. "Meanwhile, I should take a look at those data banks. Hopefully, we will find useful information inside."
"Please do." said Mei. "Little buggers... I hate them all."
"Oh." I said, while just getting out of the bridge. "Mr. Frans, you've been sitting here for quite a while. Why don't you take a tour around, you may find something that interests you. We have observation rooms, nice food, comfortable beds, a gym... whatever you can ask for."
He unfastened his seat belts for the first time and walked around.
"I might want to eat." he said. We got out of the bridge together. I turned towards Lodos' electronics and automation center, Frans went towards the crew quarters.
When I got there, I saw that a bunch of people were already working on the data banks, including Tachibana himself.
"How is it going?" I asked.
"We were just starting." Tachibana said. "If the data is intact, and the parsing system and all that operating system junk still works, we should have no problem reading and copying the data."
"Powering up now." someone reported. "Booting up the system, parsing data sectors..."
"As you can see, or rather hear, seems to be working nicely so far..." said Tachibana.
Suddenly, the lights went off. The ambient noise of all the machinery disappeared. The engines stopped, and our acceleration went down to zero in an instant. Artificial gravity was disengaged.
Lodos had lost power.