To say the ensuing battle was pure chaos would be a sad understatement. Lenny stepped up his game and highlighted hostile vessels in my HUD so I'd know who to tail after. He apparently hopped into Alannah's helm, as her surprised squeak could attest to.

"Everything okay?" I prompted her.

"Yeah. Some of the ships around us are...highlighted in red."

"Red means bad, Mrs. Haze," Leonard chimed in, "I know how you behave behind the controls of the Ravager's weaponry, so I took the liberty of highlighting nearby hostiles so you will know who to shoot at."

"Do you really think I would shoot an ally?"

"Given the frenzied environment around us, yes."

"Well...fuck. I can't argue with the bastard," Alannah grumbled, "Alright...let's see...Great, we have about ten homing missiles left and–what are tempest missiles?"

"Deploy one and see for yourself."

A sleek, dark blue missile zipped away from us, and I watched as it slammed into the side of a Dreadknight. The ship spiraled away from us as blue electricity could be seen arcing throughout the vessel.

"Holy shit...was that just one massive EMP?" Alannah inquired.

"Tempest missiles act a lot like EMPs, but they deliver a powerful burst of energy that usually kills both the ship and the pilot."

"That's awesome!"

Even though we were both making quite a racket swearing and cheering, the battle around us was eerily quiet: from ships flying above us to avoiding a nearby explosion, I didn't hear a single thing. Well, other than the deaths of fellow pilots through comms.

"Yep...this is definitely off-putting," Alannah mused, "It's unfortunate everyone is linked together through comms..."

"Agreed...we need to focus, mijn sintel. Hopefully, an opening will make itself known soon."

And so we got back into the dogfights: Spitfires, Dreadknights, and Paladins attempted to get the upper hand on us, but they were reduced to scrap metal all the same.

"Explain to me what a Federation Paladin is?" Ali prompted me as one of the bulky ships was torn apart in front of us by a swarm of drones.

"They're a rather troublesome bomber. While Dreadknights are a great combination of fighter and bomber, Paladins were designed to hit larger cruisers and flagships where it hurts."

"Ah, so that's why Vlahos directed the drone carriers to sick all of their remaining drones on them?"

"Yep. It'd probably take only a few seismic bombs to cripple the cruisers."

"Yikes..." she breathed, only to hum to herself, "Well then, looks like someone wants to send us a message."

A few moments later, the message patched through. "To all who dare oppose me, stand down now. Your efforts have proven to be fruitless, so stop before you all are destroyed."

"Boreas, you getting this?" I prompted him.

"Tracing the broadcast now. Give me a moment."

Ignoring the rest of the message, I waited for Boreas to get back to me. 

"Alright...Gotcha, bitch. Sending you the coordinates of our friend now."

Since we were in a system with a foreign coordinates grid, it took me a few moments to understand just where I was going to.

"Okay...looks like Silva's flagship is charging ahead," I mused, "What the hell is this bastard trying to do?"

After Baroness Vlahos gave the order to send out her swarms of drones and destroyed one of the flagships, our enemies fell out of the spearhead formation and assumed a more defensive form. However, the flagship I believed to be Silva's was attempting to forge ahead of its remaining brethren.

"How many flagships remain, Jack?" I prompted my friend and guildmaster.

"Five remain. However, one of our cruisers has been seriously damaged. It's been ordered to fall back, but a squadron of Paladins won't leave it alone."

"Alright–damn it. Can you send another squadron over to deal with this problem?"

"Trying to...what are you planning on doing, Cylus?"

"Silva's trying to press the advantage–Boreas traced his broadcast and found out as much. I'm going to send him the party favor."

"Are you sure...?"

"Yes. If we don't destroy his ship, we're all done for. Start calling back our forces–send them to help the floundering cruiser."

"Got it. Just...be careful Cylus."

"I will be."

And with that, I started hauling ass toward my target.

"Cylus, are you sure about using a God-Breaker on Silva's ship?"

"I already answered this question, Boreas," I replied, "We may be holding his fleet back, but we can't keep this up. Something has to give, so I'd rather play dirty to ensure we're not the side to concede."

I heard my partner sigh, "Alright...my drone's taken some serious damage, so I'm going to land it on top of your ship–don't worry, I'll be careful."

"Alright. Hopefully, this battle will be over with soon after we blow up Silva's ship."

"One can hope..."

We forged onward and made more progress toward Silva's flagship: several of his fighters attempted to engage us, but Alannah was thankfully quick on the trigger. At this point, I had the engines at full-power, and I zipped pasted enemy fighters. Before I knew it, our target loomed in front of us.

"We're getting close," I breathed, tilting my ship up as I began our ascent, "Ali, get the God-Breaker primed."

"Got it love."

"Um...are you sure we should be doing this?" Boreas prompted me, his voice steadily growing louder as he walked into the cockpit.

"There's no going back now, Boreas," I replied, tightening my grip on the Ravager's controls, "It's now or nothing."

"Shouldn't we try to aim for, I dunno, somewhere that'll guarantee death for Silva?" my old friend inquired.

"Yep. I'm aiming for the bridge," I replied, "Should be near the top of the vessel. The God-Breaker just has to hit close to the bridge to destroy Silva."

"Well, I suppose I can't argue with tha–," Boreas began, only to yelp when my ship shook violently. At this point he had entered the cockpit, so I felt him stumble and bump into me.

"Fuck!" I snapped, "Boreas! Watch where you're–!"

I cut off when I realized where my hand had gone. Since a God-Breaker is an extremely dangerous missile, launching it required both me and Alannah to hit a very specific button. Not only was my hand on said button, the munitions readout in front of me made my testicles ascend into my abdomen.

"God-Breaker: 0/2"

"Both were launched?" I breathed, watching as two ginormous missiles shot out in front of us toward the unassuming flagship.

"Yep," Alannah confirmed, sighing to herself, "Fuck..."

And so...I did the only logical thing.

"To any fighters still attempting to engage the Federation fleet, fall the fuck back NOW!" I roared, spinning my ship around and gunning it, "Engage your warp drives if necessary, but clear the area! The God-Breakers have been deployed."

"Wait, God-Breakers?" Jackson demanded, "There was more than one?"

"Not now, Jack!" I snapped, dodging the fighters that attempted to engage me.

When I was sure I was clear, I wheeled my ship around to be faced with a grisly sight. In a daze, I shut off my engines and just...watched.

"What the hell is–hooooly shit..." Alex breathed.

"Holy shit indeed," I murmured, watching as Silva's flagship was torn apart. Two other vessels were near the detonation sight, so they were eradicated as well. It wasn't like they were being blown apart. Rather, it looked as if they were being warped and simply...obliterated. One God-Breaker managed to reduce a single flagship to shrapnel. And an additional God-Breaker seems to expand the area of effect...

"Please tell me I'm not the only one horrified by this..." Alannah breathed.

"Trust me, the lack of audio in this whole endeavor has been jarring, to say the least," Boreas replied, "Sorry about bumping you..."

"Wasn't your fault," I began before addressing my commset, "Did everyone get clear of the blast radius?"

"Yep," one of Jackson's pilots said, "Some of my ladies and gents had to engage their warp drives to get away, but no one got caught up in the carnage."

"Good," I breathed, "Baroness Vlahos, are your vessels still operational?"

"Yes. The damaged cruiser was able to get away and is now being serviced. The drone carriers have lost over half of their swarms, but they are still operational."

"Excellent," I began, only to frown when I took in the sight before me, "Um...can someone else confirm they see what's happening in front of us?"

"Yep..." Jackson mused, "Looks like everyone in Silva's fleet only swore loyalty to him and no one else."

Even if we were expecting it to happen, the fact that the remaining three flagships fired at each other was more than a little surreal. First, they destroyed the ship that had been severely crippled by the remainder of Vlahos' drone swarm. After that, the two remaining flagships took turns hammering away at each other.

"Something tells me there's a bitter feud between our remaining admirals," Boreas mused,  "Now that Silva isn't around to keep them in line, they can now duke it out."

"Makes things easier for us," Jackson replied, "All ships, return to the cruisers. There, we'll clean our wounds and assess our losses."

"What about the other two UTF flagships?" someone demanded.

"They will be dealt with," Andromeda answered, "For now, allow them to destroy each other. We have emerged the victors, so please come back and rest."

With grumbles and sighs abound, I watched several crafts head back to the waiting line of golden and white cruisers.

"That means you too, Cylus," Jackson chimed in, humor saturating his voice.

"There are a few stragglers," I answered, "I'm going to hunt them down before heading back."

"Cylus..."

"I'll be quick," was all I said before gunning my engines and speeding toward the closest Federation vessel.

"You really don't listen to orders, do you?"

A grim smirk appeared on my face. "Sorry Jack. It's nothing personal–just business."

"With you, everything's business."

"Right you are," I breathed, tightening my grip on the control yoke of my ship

I heard Alannah groan. "Y'know, not everyone gets off to gunning down enemy fighters."

"I'm doing this to make our job less messy, mijn sintel. I'm sure you don't want any Paladins hanging around to bomb us when we try to go back to Ivoralis."

"...Damn, you're right."

"Exactly. Boreas, Alex: make sure you're seated. We're not done yet."

"How lovely!" Boreas snapped, "For your information, my ass is asleep because of you!"

"No one cares!"

After everyone was settled down, I huffed.

"Some days, I wonder why I even bother..." I grumbled, shaking my head in disbelief.

Alannah laughed and patted me on the shoulder. "It's just business, my love."

Can't argue with that...