Homsar Delgana and the Dogs of Sirius-06

"You called it, Homsar." Captain Simms said as he watched the Dragonsworn ships close in on the Kinneson.

"They're standing between us and the Fleet." Homsar said, "Their boss is very, very good."

"One on twenty. Not be good, man." General Zuzu said.

Simms looked at Homsar, Homsar looked at Zuzu, and then Zuzu nodded.

"Battle stations." Simms said, and then Zuzu took up the comlink. "Marines, get ready to board!"

Klaxons sounded, rustling resting crewmen to their stations while Zuzu's marines clamored for the armory. As fire teams, gunnery crews, medical teams, and marines rushed about Homsar and Zuzu hurried to join the marines in the armory. Simms called out to Fire Control to track the hostiles and plot out their trajectories, because he knew what Homsar had in mind.

The Dragonsworn ships launched auxiliaries--assault craft, missile boats--and the Kinneson now found itself in a target-rich environment. Simms loved these situations, and the Kinneson excelled in dealing with them. The gunners, coordinated through Fire Control, took aim at the enemy's array of vessels and on Simms command they opened fire. The Dragonsworn fells launched their missiles in one massive volley, all of which got shot down by the counter-volley fire from the Kinneson. The gunners, taking their orders from Fire Control, did not miss one inbound warhead and fired for effect to maximize their effectiveness. The sea of stars lit up with moments of explosive glory, flashes of powerful warheads that would vaporize what it hit, lanced by coruscating beams of matching power and intensity as the Kinneson maneuvered out of the line of fire and into a better position to counter-attack.

However, behind that volley came the Dragonsworn assault craft and they came inbound looking to ram and board. Again the batteries of ordinance aboard the Kinneson lit up the eternal night of space. Fire Control coordinated the gunners' aim, sending their flashes of brilliant death lancing right through the cores of those assault craft, outright blowing them away in a single shot- and sometimes more than one craft in a single blow. Some of them discharged their marines before being blown away, going free and jetting at speed for the Kinneson, to which General Zuzu and the Darkspears took their challenge and met it with semi-portable blaster fire coming from their positions on the hull- held in place by electro-magnets in their boots.

Naval ordinance and personal weaponry lit up space about them, and the surviving Dragonsworn marines cut their way through to make contact and engage in close-combat. General Zuzu, with a space axe in each hand, leapt about from unit to unit to cackling with glee as he charged one Dragonsworn after the next. He cut them down, hacked them into pieces, sliced off heads and limbs, and took great joy in bringing the pain to them. Not that his men were any less a warrior, but they had their hands full and that left Zuzu to do this work so his men could do theirs- and in short order the enemy's attempt to board the Kinneson collapsed.

The Dragonsworn, seeing their initial attack fail, moved in with their capital ships and bombarded the Kinneson. Captain Simms kept the con and Fire Control busy as he sought to force a brawl, but the Dragonsworn kept good discipline and did not permit Simms' plan to proceed. The screens on the Kinneson exploded as they resisted the enemy's bombardment, but they held- for now.

"Simms," Homsar said, "I'm in my boat. Ready to go when you are."

"Go." Simms said.

Homsar exited the Kinneson, and made as if he attempted to breakthrough to flee. The Dragonsworn ships made a half-hearted attempted to stop him, and that's when Homsar turned and pounced on them. Being just as manueverable, and just as fast, as the Kinneson while being much smaller made their gunners' shots at him miss well off the mark. Homsar darted in and out of their formation, using his position to his advantage and forcing them to turn their attention to him. This meant that the Kinneson could get a clear shot, and one good volley would take that ship out of the fight. This happened a few more times, and that created holes in the enemy formation. Unable to reorganize in good order fast enough, the Dragonsworn ships soon fell into disarray and the formation fell apart.

"I've discerned their flagship." Homsar said telepathically to Simms and Zuzu, "Let's clear out the rest and then board them."

Despite being outnumbered, the two Patrol vessels overcame the Dragonsworn and soon indeed the flagship was isolated. It attempted to flee, but first Homsar and then Zuzu rammed it, breached it, and boarded it. The remaining crew and security personnel fought like the cornered rats that they were, but Homsar and Zuzu combined made it inevitable that they would seize the bridge. When they breached that door, they found the bridge crew dead- shot by the captain, who was about to shoot himself in the head. Homsar sliced off that hand with his axe in a swift leaping strike, and then took him out with the flat on the backstroke. Zuzu and his men took him back to the Kinneson, and once all Patrol personnel were gone they scuttled all of the now-helpless vessels by bombardment.

Back aboard the Kinneson, with a well-screened cell holding their prisoner, Homsar nodded at Simms. Simms ordered for an intercept course with the Fleet.

"Homsar to Fleet." Homsar said telepathically, "We've reason to believe that the enemy's drawing you into a trap. Don't let them bait you into a head-long pursuit. We're coming to meet with you."

There was no reply. Elsewhere, The Master--seeing the results go as planned--cackled. He pressed a button, and elsewhere in space a massive fleet of Algolian minions appeared out of nowhere to meet the Patrol Fleet.