A Minor Space Battle

Mirkheim, X.

As the massively superior Baburite fleet approaches, the Hermetian flotilla under Admiral Michael Falkayn in the battleship, Alpha Cygni, flees from the Maian System. Eric Tamarin overhauls the flotilla in his personal spaceship. Falkayn assigns him to the destroyer North Atlantis. (Heir apparent and Admiral should not be in the same ship.) Some Baburite craft intercept the Hermetians while they are still too deep in the gravity well to go hyper. Falkayn orders his men to hold course and to fire at will. A missile from Caduceus stops a Baburite missile. The two groups pass through each other, exchanging fire. Most explosions are remote from North Atlantis. The Baburites concentrate their fire on Alpha Cygni. Obeying orders, the captain of North Atlantis does not go to assist but maintains his course. A warhead destroys Alpha Cygni's screens and interceptors and the Baburites pound what is left. Eric Tamarin becomes the new commander. The Hermetians go hyper and are not pursued. Attacking the battleship, the Baburites took losses and are now an inferior force with the rest of their armada too far away to catch up. Fighting FTL involves drawing alongside and trying to match phase, too much trouble to be worth trying with Hermes still to be conquered.