The hangar cleared and the doors slid open. Nate activated the stealth systems and eased the shuttle out into the void. He glanced around nervously, seeing nothing on the visual feed he switched to thermal. A small heat signature floated a few thousand kilometers away. Double checking the stealth systems he pushed the throttle forwards, gently accelerating towards the signature. He carefully aligned the communications laser with the Dauntless sharing his targeting data with the larger ship. Next he painted the heat signature with the targeting laser. A white hot streak screamed across the thermal display as the Dauntless fired a single gauss round. The cannon round crossed the empty space in a matter of seconds, slamming through the small heat signature and obliterating it. Another heat signature blossomed on the main display. A laser scythed towards the Dauntless, cleaving through the space it had occupied moments before.

He traced the laser beam towards its point of origin and adjusted his course. Firing the engines, he accelerated briefly towards the enemy ship and turned the engine off, coasting. He risked a short scan from the shuttles sensor array, sending a pulse of radar searching for the enemy ship. As soon as the sensor ping returned he nudged the ship downwards, altering his course ever so slightly to avoid any potential return fire. Another laser pierced the void, blowing through space he had occupied a second before. He traced the laser back to its source and fired the targeting laser. The laser reported a solid object floating ten thousand kilometers ahead of him. He lined up the communication laser again and beamed the targeting data to the Dauntless. A heavy tungsten shell flew past the shuttle, sailing off into the darkness. An alarm screamed on the control panel, something had fired a missile at him. He opened up throttle, acceleration pushing him back into his seat. His restraints bit into his shoulders as he threw the ship into a tight turn, the missiles overhot him and pulled a wide turn, closing in on his tail. Sweating, he threw the shuttle into a sharp dive followed by a quick climb, sending the missiles screaming past the belly of the shuttle. The temperature in the shuttle rose as the engines continued to fire, soon the improvised stealth systems wouldn’t be able to absorb the heat and Nate would be forced to vent the waste heat into space. He threw the shuttle into a roll as the missiles angled back towards him. A red light blinked on the control panel, the coolant systems needed to be vented. He slapped the override, preventing the ship from flushing the hot coolant and causing the temperature to spike inside the ship.

The missiles ran out of fuel and detonated above the shuttle, raining hot shrapnel down on the hull. An alarm wailed. The hull was breached. Nate sealed off the cockpit from the rest of the ship and vented the atmosphere from the crew compartment. A diagram of the shuttle appeared on the heads up display, showing a panel on the top of the ship flashing red. One of the stealth panels tore loose as he maneuvered. A guass round narrowly missed the shuttle, coming from an unexpected direction. There was more than one enemy ship out here with him.

Another radar panel spun off into space, and a sensor ping skated over the ship. A thin curl of smoke rose from the control panel. He slipped out of his restraints and hunched under the controls, prying an access panel loose. He ripped a wire harness free, tore a fuse out and spliced the wiring back together. The loose fuse drifted through the air, bouncing off his helmet as he buckled himself back into the seat. The control panel would stay functional now in spite of any power surges but there was a huge chance of it catching fire. It was a risk he was willing to take. The exo-suit would offer some protection from fire and he would rather work with flaming controls than no controls at all. He rolled away from a thick laser beam and fired the targeting laser again, grinning as a three round burst came from the Dauntless’ gauss cannon. The first two rounds missed but the third hit something solid, glancing off armour and careening off into space.

Nate kept the targeting laser steady, watching as the Dauntless launched a stream of missiles. He weaved through space, dancing around a stream of short laser pulses, doing his best to keep the laser on target. The enemy ship wasn’t nimble enough to doge the incoming missiles, the warheads detonated across its hull, tearing long strips of plating free. He swept the area with another radar pulse, lighting up the enemy ship on his targeting display. The Dauntless cut loose, pounding the enemy with a stream of guass shells and another volley of missiles. The enemy ship fired wildly, filling the space between the ships with lasers and missiles. Nate rolled the shuttle up and slammed the throttle forwards sailing away from the arc of deadly lasers. More smoke rose from the control panel, filling the cockpit with a harsh acrid smell. Something hot dripped down from the hanging wires and bubbled into his lap. The heat was too much, the shuttle wouldn’t take much more. Nate flushed the coolant, and deployed the radiator fins, dumping the excess heat. The shuttle glowed like a beacon, sending waves of heat roiling outwards from the hull. 

With the ship revealed Nate switched on all the active sensors, with the stealth systems disabled there was nothing he could do to make the ship more visible. He threw the shuttle into wild series of evasive maneuvers at full thrust. As he flew, a staccato burst of rapid fire lasers filled the space around him. He weaved, dancing elegantly through the storm, lasers passing within inches of the hull. He turned, trying to move away from the enemy ship as a gauss round shattered the rear of the shuttle. Hull plating turned to shrapnel as the round blew through the tiny ship, severing electrical conduits and leaving the ship bleeding hydraulic fluid and coolant. Warning lights and alarms blared in the cockpit. Frustrated, he reached under the control panel, wrapping alloy fingers around the alarm’s speaker and pulling with all his augmented strength. The speaker came free with a crack and a shower of sparks. He tossed the ruined speaker over his shoulder, sending it bouncing off the rear wall of the cockpit.

The lasers stopped for a moment giving Nate a moment to try and trace the lasers back to their source. He fired a long burst from the rail gun watching as the string of rounds sailed harmlessly into space. He adjusted the angle of the ship, wincing as the structure groaned and fired again, shouting in triumph as the rounds bounced off an area of apparently empty space. He held in the trigger and flicked on the targeting laser, firing until the ammunition ran out. The Dauntless added its own railgun to the fray, sending a massive tungsten slug screaming through the void. The massive piece of metal smashed into the hostile ship sending sheets of plating flying. The Dauntless’ shot blew a hole in the stealth plating, leaving a small blip on Nate's radar screen.

The hostile craft spat a swarm of missiles. Nate flew straight, throwing the throttle wide open. At the last possible second he rolled the ship, narrowly dodging the missiles. The missiles over shot the shuttle and were picked off by short blast of point defence fire from the Dauntless. Something in the little ship groaned as Nate leveled out from his roll. With a terrible shudder the main drive cone blew free. The shuttle stopped accelerating. Another warning light clicked on. The maneuvering thrusters were out of fuel.

“Oh that’s just fucking great!” Nate shouted. The shuttle was stuck on its current course, streaming headlong towards the enemy ship.

He slapped the emergency beacon on his suit and patted down the pockets looking for anything useful. He laughed as he pulled one of Izzy’s homemade bombs from a long pocket on the thigh. Floating towards the rear of the ship, he strapped the bomb over the auxiliary fuel tank and set the timer. Moving frantically he tore open the emergency locker, his augmented strength sending the door flying off its hinges and tumbling out a gaping hole in the back of the shuttle. He shrugged into the emergency jet pack and kicked away from the ship, drifting out into space.

A stream of point defence fire cut across the shuttles path, punching holes through the thinly armoured hull. The point defence cannons couldn't stop the shuttle in time. The small ship crashed into the larger vessel. Armour plates crumpled, shearing off into space in all directions. Izzy’s bomb exploded, turning the shattering ship into a ball of white hot flame that flared and vanished in the cold emptiness of space.

A voice came over the exo-suit’s radio. “Nathan, we're detecting an emergency beacon. The dropship has been deployed for retrieval. Sensors are showing you're EVA please confirm.”

“Confirmed” said Nate, breathlessly. “The shuttle is destroyed.”

Izzy's voice came over the radio next. “Nate, we're aweigh. Heading for you now.”

Nate fired the jetpack, flying up away from the battle. Lasers fired below him, filling the void with a criss crossing pattern of eye searing red beams. A dark shape flew up to meet him firing long jets of steam, slowing to match his speed. The dropship rotated, opening the rear doors and sending a tether flying towards him. He clipped the tether to the belt of his Exo-Suit and began hauling himself into the ship hand over hand. The dropship veered suddenly to the right, pulling the line taught. Nate grabbed the line in his right arm, pulling himself closer to the ship. Looking behind him, he saw a trio of sputtering rocket engines closing on the gunship.

“Guys you know there’s missiles incoming right?!” he shouted.

“What? No,” said Rowan, shouting over a screaming alarm. “We had no fucking idea about missiles!”

The ship pulled to the left, whipping Nate through space. The dropship rolled, twisting the line and sending an ominous vibration through the cable and into his suit. A cloud of debris washed over him, draining his barriers and biting into the cable. The line started to fray. The gunship stopped accelerating for a moment and he scrambled to pull himself towards the open crew compartment. The missiles over shot the ship, passing within meters of him. As the dropship accelerated again, diving away from the missiles Nate clamped his right hand on the cable, holding on with all his strength. The missiles turned and closed in on the gunship. They ran out fuel halfway to the ship and detonated, sending a cloud of shrapnel raining over the hull. Nate winced as something hot and sharp bit into his right leg. His exo-suit screamed a pressure warning and the escaping air sent him tumbling end over end. He struggled to control his spin, cable tangling around his right arm. Reaching down to the belt of the exo-suit, he found a large knife tucked into a sheath. He drew the knife and starting sawing frantically through the thick fabric tether. The tether broke, sending him flipping through space towards the dropship. He bent his leg, changing the angle of the escaping air and canceling some of his rotational momentum. Carefully, he fired the jetpack, launching him into the open cargo bay, and sending him smashing into the wall.

“Nate? I assume that clang was you making it in?” said Izzy.

“Yeah,” said Nate, throwing off the jetpack. The rear door rose and sealed. Atmosphere was gradually pumped into the cargo bay. He pulled off his helmet and clipped it to a magnetic strip on the suit’s leg. He opened the door to the cockpit and saw Rowan in the pilot's seat and Izzy at the co-pilot’s station, he strapped himself into the engineering console.

“What’s the situation?” he asked.

Izzy looked over her shoulder at him. “The shuttle looks like it did some real damage we’ve got a great big spot reflecting radar and the Dauntless is really giving them shit but the enemy ship just isn’t going down.”

“Okay,” said Nate. “Let’s fly in and see if we can open another chink in their armour.”

Rowan shook his head. “Are you crazy?! We don’t have any stealth on this thing, we won’t last two seconds against that ship!”

“You’d be surprised” said Nate. “Switch seats with me.”

He unbuckled himself and floated free, bumping past Rowan and pulling himself down into the pilot’s chair. Izzy and Rowan did a similar swap and when everyone was strapped into their usual stations he eased the throttle forwards, accelerating gently. The main display was a mess of heat signatures, white dots sped through space, punctuated by long lines of energy from laser weapons. Nate turned the ship to the left, approaching the huge enemy vessel at an angle. An amber warning light blinked on, something had painted them with a targeting laser. He sent the ship rolling through a series of evasive maneuvers a fraction of a second before long trails of point defence fire rose from the enemy ship. The string of light gauss rounds screamed through space, trying and failing to catch the dropship. Nate rolled up and over a heavy cannon shell, danced under a long burst of gauss rounds, and spun deftly away from a laser. Nothing could touch them.

“What are our barriers like?” he shouted.

Izzy laughed. “Still full!”

Nate dove, slaloming between white hot bolts of energy. The point defence fire stopped for a brief moment, and Nate cut loose with everything the gunship had, sending a dozen railgun rounds and a long laser blast hammering into the other ship. The active sensors showed another small hole in the stealth plating. His triumph was short lived as a beam skewered the ship from behind. He threw the ship into a rolling climb. Weaving between laser blasts, he looked down at the threat display, there was no way these lasers were coming from the ship they were targeting. There was a third vessel in the battlespace.