This week with Arlene and Jeff:
...After a series of jumps so close together that they were barely distinguishable as separate, five she thought, but it may have been more, the shipyard ballooned in her screen. Knowing that the Admiral had decided to ram the enemy dreadnought, she sucked in a breath and prepared to die.
What she didn't know was that the cruiser had launched a massive nuclear device between the last two jumps, planting it, more or less, literally in the shipyards beside the dreadnought.
There was another microjump, this one lasting a fraction of a second longer. When her abused mind could again focus on her screen, there was a brilliant ball of blue-white where the shipyards used to be. Nuclear, she thought. The cruiser made another jump to stay clear of the debris field but as everything steadied, something seemed wrong. According to her screens, none of the spider ships were attacking - they almost seemed to be only… drifting.
Diana remembered there was speculation about the spiders having a hive mind, but if true, the bomb must have killed the queen or whatever the mind that controlled the spiders was called.
There was a pause as the Captain of the cruiser cleared his throat on the command channel. "I have just verified that the Admiral has bought the farm. He died from flying shrapnel while manning his post. I have assumed command of our fleet until relieved of that duty.
"All vessels, see to your wounded and dead, of course. While that is going on, every functioning ship will destroy every spider vessel in the system. When I say destroy, I mean that no hull plate on any spider vessel will remain attached to another hull plate. Let them know what it means to attack Federation planets. Any vessel not able to go to warp, signal me and I will assign a vessel to tow you home. Now, let's get to it."...
Have a goodun;
Roust