The picket groups each consisted of a frigate with two corvettes and the outbound ships were a destroyer , two frigates and four corvettes. The final group docked at the Gas mining facility was the heavy cruiser, a destroyer and two corvettes.

“I thought there were only supposed to be twenty ships? What's that?" Alyssa asked, pointing at a mystery vessel that was docked alongside the Heavy Cruiser.

“I can't hack that code," Sparks admitted.

“It's big, whatever it is," Calara replied, looking at the mass readings for the unknown craft.

“OK, same plan as before," John said.

“We hit that leaving group and smash them as quickly as possible. Once they're all destroyed, we move on to the picket ships. When we Lose the element of surprise, I want an active scan of the ships near the pirates base."

"Yes, Commander,” the girl's all chorused together, no-one joking now, the stakes too high.

“Life sign readings from the Passive scans?" he asked Calara.

“Low on all vessels, except the Heavy Cruiser, and the mystery ship. the brunette responded immediately.

“It's clean up time," John said, glad to not have to worry about innocent victims on the outlying ships.

“Weapons hot and shields up, let's eliminate that first group," he ordered.

The destroyer was the biggest ship, blocky and menacing, just over two hundred metres in length, and sat in the middle of the formation. The frigates were smaller, coming in at approximately half the size and they flanked each side of the command ship. Finally the four much smaller corvettes ranged out in front of the formation.

The Invictus leapt out from the cover of the asteroid, and pounced on the departing ships as they cruised by, oblivious to the danger they were in. Alyssa had waited until the pirate craft had travelled past their position, so when the Invictus surged out, they were directly behind the enemy ships.

Calara's right hand triggered the powerful beam Lasers, and all six hit their targets in the rear. The two frigates didn't have shields active, so the beam Lasers cored through their engines, slicing them in half, and punched into the central hulls of the pirate ships. One of the beams penetrated through the entire length of one frigate, vaporising the bridge. The other was hit at a slight angle and two of the beams blasted out of the side, depressurising the ship. Crippled, both frigates began to spin lazily, all engine power destroyed as they continued their forward momentum.

“Firing main guns!" Calara called a second later, as her left hand cycled through the weapons.

The Invictus trembled with the recoil, and the four heavy shells blasted out from the enormous weapons, slamming into the rear of the shieldless destroyer. There was very light armour over the engines, and the shells penetrated deep into the hull, before a chain of explosive detonations obliterated the command ship, scattering thousands of chunks of debris in a wide radius.

"Nice shooting Calara Sparks was amazed at the sheer destructive capability they had at their command. Hitting unshielded vessels magnified the effectiveness of their weapons substantially.

John said, impressed by her accuracy.

The four remaining Corvettes did not react immediately, as they were caught completely by surprise. By the time two of the Corvettes had begun to take evasive manoeuvres the beam weapons had cooled and were ready to fire again. Calara caressed the trigger and the six beams blasted out, three per Corvette. The Corvettes had managed to raise their shields, but it did Little good and the brilliant beams of energy instantly overloaded them before punching straight through the lightly armoured hulls. One Corvette exploded a second later, the other had been skewered through the power plant, instantly taking out all power.

By the time the last two Corvettes had powered up shields and begun to react, the Invictus was upon them, the laser cannon batteries now in range. Alyssa pushed the nose of their Assault Cruiser down so that they would eventually fly under the fleeing Corvettes and Calara was able to open up with the sixteen top deck Laser cannon turrets. Each of the Corvettes was bombarded by an unrelenting hail of Laser fire and both exploded seconds after their shields were overwhelmed.

“Outstanding!" John exclaimed, the first contact going better than he could have ever imagined.

The girls all grinned up at him, delighted at the one sided fight.