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engines or structural integrity. The singularity cores on his ships had suffered no damage. His fleet remained strong. It was just the frontal armor and a minor part of the frontal inner hull on board those ships that had been damaged.
    With the worst over, Hal-Dorat immediately gave the order, “Lance commanders, decentralize the fleet. The Pra’s main threat to us have been depleted. We can now spread out and chase the Pra’s fleeing warships individually. Let the hunt begin!”
    “With pleasure, Subjugator!”
    Hal-Dorat licked his lips at the idea that the greatest part of the killing was about to begin.
     
    Shuttlecraft A1-01a
    Cockpit…
     
    Vier Kleingelt’s body buckled against her seat straps as the evacuation shuttle pulled its highest G’s. The inertial compensators on the shuttle were working at maximum, but she had told the pilot next to her to accelerate as fast as the shuttle’s hull integrity could withstand. Unlike the standard typical space fighter, the evacuation shuttle had four gravitic emitters instead of one. Normally, these emitters could bask the shuttle in an even layer of gravity, thus giving the crews a sense that nothing was accelerating even if the shuttle was pulling over one thousand G’s. In this instance, all four gravitic emitters were operating in overdrive, which caused gravitic inequalities throughout the hull of the shuttle. The shuttle was pulling one thousand two hundred G’s of acceleration, as fast as possible without flattening the human crews into pulp.
    The evac shuttle had one extraordinary thing that a mark nine fighter did not. It had a hyperspace translator device. This device, operating by creating a shear in space-time, could open the portal to another smaller universe called hyperspace. However, it could only be used outside a star’s gravity well.
    Vier eyed the 3D minimap on her cockpit display. It told her that the distance between her shuttle and the hyper limit was approximately two astronomical units. At 1200 G’s, it would take approximately thirty minutes before her shuttle could enter hyperspace. The other dots on the minimap represented other escape shuttles as well as enemy warships. She had told her escape shuttles to follow different routes, because banding together would allow them to be more easily killed. As a result, the friendly escape craft veered in every direction.
    Already, the alien warships had altered course to intercept all the friendly targets trying to make it to the system’s gravity well.
    “Uh, admiral? We have a problem,” the pilot noted.
    “Tell me about it,” Vier sighed.
    “One of the alien warships have launched a missile at us.”
    “What type of missile?”
    “I don’t know, ma’am. Sensors couldn’t read the missile nor have the system ever encountered it before. It is simply a very fast moving small object similar to the ones that had silenced all the fighters.”
    Vier gulped. Was the same fate about to happen to her and Shenks as it had happened to the fighter pilots? “What is its exact trajectory, chief?”
    “It’s heading straight for us, ma’am. It’s adjusting course to whatever I adjust.”
    “Time to intercept?”
    “Sixteen minutes, ma’am.”
    Vier felt a clump in her throat. She knew that the VA-89 evacuation shuttle had some countermeasures for just this type of situation, but she didn’t know effective they would be against a missile with unknown technology. Her shuttle did not have any more advantages in terms of countermeasures compared to the mark nine fighters. “Fire countermeasures at optimum range, chief.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    She began unbuckling her seat straps. She wanted to talk to Shenks.
    “Admiral? I’m not sure if that’s wise,” the pilot remarked.
    Vier nodded, but ignored the warning. When she was free, she climbed to the back door. Despite the sudden G’s, she found she could navigate through the cockpit.
    She entered the passenger compartment. She saw dozens