The thing with combat in a three dimensional space is that if there is only two participants, the value if maneuvering is limited. Bringing your weapons to bare, turn different shields to face the enemy, trying to get a shot at a vulnerable section of the hostile target. All of these are valuable, but in the end...each ship forms an end point of a single line.
"Miss Tel'te, bring us closer, and keep the ventral side facing them if at all possible. We need to keep both guns arcs able to hit them if we are to stand a chance" I ordered and I tightened around the pillar. The ship shuddered from the fire hitting our shields "Drones, focus fire on their engines."
We had to meet them in empty space. If we tried to fight them in the asteroid belt, we could have used the rocks as cover and as we were the smaller ship, we could have had the advantage. But they would have known that and would not have gone in after us....and we needed to keep them from escaping. Which meant fighting a technically superior opponent in a fair fight; Highly dangerous.
The ship jerked beneath me and my second in command yelled "Direct hit to hydroponics. Deck four is leaking atmosphere, sealing it off."
I growled in annoyance "Miss Tel'te, try to get around the rear of their ship. Jedi, try to focus your fire on their engine section." Hydroponics contained my fruit bushes! Those bastards!
The tactical hologram showed the drones swarming the cruiser as we started to swing around. We were at ranges similar to those in the movies, the unrealistic 'knife fighting' between ships...but in a one on one fight, that was the smart thing to do, if you were the smaller and faster vessel. Allow you to move around them faster than they can turn. Try to keep away from the firing arcs of their heavier weapons.
"Ventral shields are failing." Swan reported "We can't take much more of this."
"Miss Tel'te, roll us around to face them with our dorsal side." I ordered as I watched the dance of death, our ship rolling on the hologram.
That Target Beta had been set up to fight smaller ships like fighters, freighters, and corvettes and as such had a multitude of smaller weapons. If it had been set up for heavy ship to ship combat, we would have been in much more trouble. As it was, it was hitting us hard.
"Their aft shields are weakening!" Jinn cried out as he worked the weapons controls to the port turbo laser battery.
"Keep firing." I said, half spreading my wings "Drones one to ten, accelerate to maximum speed and aim at the main engine cluster!"
A squadron of the drones broke up from the swam and swung out from the cruiser, accelerating into space before swooping around. 'Come on. If those got through to ram the engines, we might be able to stay in their mostly blind spot behind them.' While I hated throwing drones away, especially when we are down to less than forty now, it is better than to keep getting pounded.
As we traded shots with the larger ships the crows turned around and accelerated back, one by one slamming into the rear end of the pirate cruiser. The first six hit the weakened shield and disintegrated but the next four go through and hit hard. I blinked in surprise as there was a secondary explosion as the cruiser suddenly stopped firing and lost power.
"Keep firing." I ordered as the cruiser started to drift "I want that entire engine section turned to slag!" before I switched to contact the drones again "Drones, take out all weapon mounts and transmitters."
I let out a small breath, relaxing around my pillar as I watched the hologram in front of me. We did it. Closing the hologram down I looked around the bridge. Everyone looked exhausted from the twenty minutes of combat.
I didn't blame them. That was too close for comfort "Well done." I said before I opened the intercom to the entire ship "All crew, report in."
I closed my eyes and relaxed slowly as everyone reported in. Everyone was still alive. We had taken some structural damage, but nothing really dangerous.
"Engineering, damage report." I said as I opened a channel to engineering.
"A lot less damage than I expected, Captain, but more than I wanted. We have three decks open to space and hydroponics is gone. Our ventral shield generator might also need a complete refit. If these readings are right, it's on its last leg. We took a hit on the port cargo hatch as well...it held, but I don't think it will open. We also took some engine damage...I recommend we don't run them above fifty percent before we can shut them down and give them a work over. That's all I can say from here with the sensors, I need to do a full inventory manually to know exactly." Sarah soon answered "Did you have to get my ship all battered up, Captain?" she then asked in annoyance.
I snorted "I will try to avoid it in the future." before I closed the channel and turned my attention back to the bridge to notice that the Jedi had stopped shooting.
Bringing the hologram up I took another look before I nodded "Yes, I believe that is enough. No need to destroy her. Commander, get the security drones ready for boarding actions." I ordered before I turned to the Jedi "I believe your special skills will come in handy once more."
They were indeed quite helpful with pacifying the crews on the freighters.
Dooku sighed and stood up "We will do what we can, Captain Aterus."
"Captain, I'm not sure we have room for more prisoners." my second in command said quietly as she walked up to me "We ran out of room in the brig and have been putting them in containers in the hold...and that thing might have a crew of hundreds. I'm not even sure the security droids can clear a ship that large, even with Jedi support....not that everyone survived that fight."
"True." I said as I nodded, looking down at her "But I do not want to leave them to choke to death in the void. Besides, that ship likely has valuables on board. We have taken damage and lost quite a lot of money in drones and time for this entire affair. I would like to gain some back if possible. We still have plenty of stun grenades in the ships armory and we have plenty of cargo containers. We should be able to hold them all for the trip back to the closest Republic base."
Swan frowned, but then she finally sighed as she nodded "Yes...I suppose we cannot just leave them th..." she started to answer before Jack interrupted her from his bridge station.
"Contact! Coming out of the asteroid belt. It is target Alpha!"
I stared at him for a moment before I activated the intercom "All crew to battlestations! All crew to battlestations! We are not out of this yet!"
Damn.
Damn. Damn. Damn!
They were playing possum on us.