To kill a battleship

As she sat, she thought, her eyes looking out into the abyss of space and at the fleet around her. Maxine sat at the command of the Leviathan class ship, Unity,  of the Brotherhood of Nod.  Her green eyes drifted down to the control console, she pushed aside a bit of her long brown hair with her hand, then read the orders. There was a fleet in the galaxy that needed to be taken down, Her fleet was the one who got the orders, so she leaned back.Unsure of what to do, her face showed the uncertainty that was around her, as she looked a bit pale, not that she was that dark toned to begin with. She stood walking towards the front, “We have received orders to take down a fleet that our leader wants gone from this galaxy, we’re going to launch tomorrow at 0500 sharp, I expect everything to be ready by then” she said with a tone of strength and certainty. She walked over to the logistics officer and spoke to him in a calm tone, “the coordinates will be given to you shortly, i sent them to your console through the interface...” Her voice had wavered a bit. She walked from the bridge to her room, a short walk as it was not that far for her. She lay on her bed, and fell asleep. 

She awoke to silence and walked from her room the the bridge, everyone was already ready for this. She sat down at the chair to the main command console and sent the orders to prepare to launch and prepare for a large scale battle. It wasn’t going to take long to get there, the longer trip would be getting back. The recyclers had stayed behind as they weren’t combat units anyways. The jump gate activated, fighters were in the hangers. Maxine took a deep breathe, hating the fact she could be loosing a lot of good men and women here, then sent the orders to launch right that moment. She watched as thousands of units launched forward into the jump gate, then followed by the Unity, more jumping after her vessel. 

***

When they landed they were at a friendly planet, but they fleet they could see from where they were definitely was not. Maxine ordered her fleet to advance forward, to attack the enemy, to destroy them using a spread out formation. A red alert went out through the ship, alerting all personnel to the approaching battle. The fighters launched form the carriers, and any other ship that had any. The fighters zoomed forward, faster than any other ships that were in her fleet, corvettes and destroyers following. The cruisers soon advanced past the Unity, and she could already see the flashes of laser fire from the battle taking place before her. Fighters exploding and corvettes being hit by enemy fire. A quick scan of the enemy fleet revealed a battleship at the back of the main forces, and thousands of other units. “There you are...” she said softly, giving the orders to the Unity to head towards that ship. The battleship was the capital ship of the enemy ship, as there was nothing bigger here other than cruisers. She could see the battle waging on before her, as more explosions came from it, now a cruiser or two exploding on either side, fighters having dog fights and corvettes providing covering fire for strafing runs. She approached the edge of the battle, laser fire hitting the shields and bouncing off or being absorbed. Suddenly there was a large bang from a beam laser hitting the side of the ship. “Damage report!” Maxine called out, smaller laser blasts flying around the Unity. The officer at one of the consoles finally spoke up, “Damage minimal, shields took the hit!” She proceeded to send out orders to the fleet, they were loosing too many units, but so was the enemy, she needed to cut her loses. She covered her eyes, a blinding light coming from the left as a cruiser hit by laser fire exploded violently. The enemy battleship was off to their right, trying to escape. Maxine made the orders, turn to and fire at the enemy battleship. A fighter impacted the front of the ship and exploded, only hitting the shielding, though the shock wave went through the ship. 

They had finally reached an intercept with the battleship after a short amount of time, and the Brotherhood fleet along with the Unity were nearly victorious. Maxine ordered the Unity and the fighters that she had left to fire on the enemy battleship. She wanted it gone. Laser fire erupted form the leviathan class Unity towards the battleship, fighters zooming towards the battleship as well. Small explosions could be seen from the battleship as the photon batteries as well as the laser fire from the fighters. The fighters came back towards the Unity as the battleship started to break in two, then larger explosions were seen as it erupted into an explosion that lit the sky of the planet below. Maxine let out a sigh of relief as she had reports coming in of the enemy being completely destroyed. She walked to the window and watched as the destroyed battleship fell downwards slowly as it exploded more and more. The remaining fleet formed around her, the fighters returning to their hangers. 

“Total damage report” Maxine called out as she stood there watching the wreck of the enemy float in space, some explosions still erupting now and then. An officer looked over a report, then called out, “Only a twenty five percent loss, enemy suffered a complete and total loss greater than ours!” Maxine was silent, thinking, the recyclers from their launch point had just started to arrive. “A victory is never worth the cost of lives” she said softly to herself and walked towards the door to the bridge. She headed towards her room, a tear falling from her eye as she remembered her wittered past, and the loss that came from the wars that had happened and the loss that was inevitably going to happen. The galaxy was a cruel mistress, and it is something Maxine had yet to come to terms with...