OPERATION PHOENIX: DEFIANCE (PART II!) The Battle of Terra was well underway. The Jihaddi starfleet defending Earth was fully engaged, with at least a thousand fighters ferried up from planetary defense to join in the battle. The battle was still pressing hard against the Jihaddi forces, who had suffered heavy losses - most notably the _Nemisis_, which was reduced to flaming debris shortly before the _Defiance_ fired her IPCs. The _Pasiphae_ had passed through on a strafing run of the fleet, destroying two destroyers and riddling a cruiser before coming around to return to Jupiter and the Blood Jihad Space Fleet attack group. The three-hundred fifty hull-mounted turrets on the _Defiance_ were all firing, laying down a deadly barrage of energy for several kilometers around the ship. Anything unshielded was wiped out, and most of the boarding shuttles the X'hirjq enjoyed to use were taken out. However, some had gotten through. An explosion rocked the passageway leading towards the bridge deck of the _Defiance_, and thirty X'hirjq soldiers charged through a gap in the hull. The Jihaddi crew in the vicinity immediatly whipped out thier sidearms and in about a second a full-scale fire fight was underway. Unfortunatly, the crew in the area was somewhat outnumbered, and in twenty seconds fourteen crew were cut down by energy guns. * * * * * * "Sir! Sir!" The tactical officer was near incoherent. "X'hirjq invaders have boarded the aft bridge passage; they met little resistance and are moving up!" "Damn," Stewart said to himself. "Get some soldiers up here; we're going to have a party if we aren't lucky. If things look like they're going to get bad, we're ejecting and destroying the bridge." The crew was fairly silent, but nodded thier agreement. "We aren't quite licked yet, though," he said as he opened up the armory and began passing XRifles and flechette guns to the twenty-seven bridge crew. * * * * * * Outside the _Defiance_ things weren't that much different. Every battery on the ship was engaged, and the three IPCs were recharging. About two thousand X'hirjq fighters milled around the ship, being engaged by an outnumbered Jihaddi force. Novas, Phantasms, Arrows, Stingrays, Stardusters and the various other fighter types whipped through space filled for a thousand cubic kilometers with lasers, mass drivers, plasma blasts, missiles and pieces of ships once fighting. A pair of X'hirjq destroyers, backed by a Lyran Imperial light cruiser, approached the _Defiance_ with all guns firing. The larger battlecarrier had the advantage of a full broadside to the three enemy craft, getting about half its weapons engaged on the three smaller craft. Within seconds all four ships were rocking under plasma and laser blasts, with atmosphere already leaking from both destroyers. * * * * * * The bridge of the _Defiance_ rocked as a bulkhead near one edge blew away. All the bridge crew immediatly raised thier weapons and began firing as twenty-four black, reptillian creatures began firing blasts through the doorway. The tactical officer was one of the nearest officers to the bulkhead, and he immediatly pulled up his flechette gun. Aiming it at the X'hirjq boarders, he pressed the trigger and fired twenty thousand nail-sized pieces of white-hot metal into the aliens, ripping down six of them immediatly. * * * * * * The X'hirjq fightmaster ducked back into the doorway as the Human officer raised what appeared to be a wide-muzzled rifle. Before the rest of his warriors could duck in, the Human pressed a button on the side. A hissing sound, followed by a "fwoomp" sound, and six of his comrades were completely shredded by what appeared to be the Human version of a X'hirjq toothgun. Ironic that a weapon that so easily sent six X'hirjq to the arms of the Creator made the same sound as a well-known X'hirjq obscenity. "Two can join in this hunt," he said to himself as he primed a grenade and threw it into the Human command center. * * * * * * "Grenade!" someone yelled. Captain Stewart looked up to see a black-and-green object fly into the room. Holding fire for a moment, he swung his rifle as hard as he could. Connecting with the grenade, the XRifle sent the explosive hurtling back into the passageway where the X'hirjq were backed up. * * * * * * The X'hirjq fightmaster watched the Human commander _hit_ the grenade back into the room his warriors were cornered in. The reports were correct; these Humans _were_ predators in a sense. No matter the outcome of the battle itself, he would have plenty of time to think about the Humans; he realized he would be in the company of X'hiuuluq'x herself. * * * * * * "The boarding parties throughout the _Defiance_ have been secured, Captain," the ship's security officer reported as the ship continued the battle. "The three ships we engaged are all disabled; we are boarding the Lyran cruiser now." * * * * * * On-board the massive X'hirjq command cruiser, _X'halt'nara_ Yeeth'ssa sat on the command bench and watched this Terran warship battle his warriors. The Terrans, those of this warrior-group called the "Jee'hd", were fighting more ferociously than he had expected. Truely, warriors one and all. Fortunatly, two sixes of boarding parties were occupying certain areas of the battlecarrier called "_Defiance_". In those areas, his attackcraft could get through to take clawswipes at areas undefended. Defense. The Jee'hd fleet was too well defended; they had shells and scales, but few claws. One of the vessels with claws and fangs now orbitted the planet in six-thousand-cubed pieces, and others were too occupied defending themselves. Yeeth'ssa checked a lookpanel and regarded the defense statistics for _Defiance_. Just short of six-sixties of quad-barreled laser turrets, covering the entire hull of the vessel. Certain areas.. here.. and here.. were occupied with boarding parties. While looking at the ship, he discovered its weakness and his mistake. His attackcraft lunged from all sides, just like a hunter should; exposing themselves to the full fury of the defensive batteries. He struck his forehead and groaned. On Xxishjix, his homeworld, when hunting the spined _Vtthlissa_ beast, one did not strike from all sides. He struck from one. "New orders for all attackcraft," Yeeth'ssa said... To Be Continued -HSPSo'N -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Patrick Stewart - abm1@fox.nstn.ns.ca [coincidential name, okay?] [ T h i s S p a c e I s F o r R e n t . I d e a s ? ] "Imagination is more important then knowledge." - Albert Einstein -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=