This week with Arlene and Jeff:
...With the laser/particle beams from three arrays slamming into the virtually trapped pirate vessel, its commander knew that his life expectancy was now counted in minutes unless he could break his ship free of the towering walls surrounding and trapping him virtually in one place.
But his savage energy impulses were slamming into the Hunter's shields as well, and they were taking a toll. Alarms were screaming as the frigate bucked and shuddered as laser/particle beams poured into her shields as well as an occasional missile, some of the energy overriding the shields to sluff off chunks of armored hull.
The Captain, seeing the pirate vessel stagger under the onslaught of laser fire from near point-blank range (5 kilometers), brought an additional missile array on line and fired two large missiles, then two more, then two more at the semi-trapped pirate vessel. One missile seemed to get through the pirate ship's shields, caused the big ship to stagger as it tried to extract itself from the confines of the deep-walled valley.
But the big vessel continued to shake off their fire and was now powering toward free space despite what the Hunter could do.
"Shields down to fifteen percent and dropping rapidly," Helm called out, his voice tense as the frigate wallowed from the pounding it was receiving.
"Ah, shit," the First Officer muttered, then, "Helm, initiate your maneuvering program. Get us away from those weapons while we can still function. Shut down any non-essential power drain and shunt all possible power into charging the shields."...
Have a goodun;
Roust