Part 4

"Ma'am. We've got a secondary target headed toward the Leviathan." Ochanko waited patiently for Har to clarify his announcement in his usual efficient manner. "It's a transport pod."

"Can we intercept?" She inquired, glancing at the tactical screen to confirm the location of her patrol compared with the Leviathan and transport pod. Capturing the fugitives while they were aboard a transport pod was likely to be high risk, but infinitely less so than trying to capture the Leviathan itself.

"Negative, ma'am." Inaurus replied, having already calculated the trajectories and ranges. "The pod will be board the Leviathan five hundred microts before we can reach it."

Ochanko nodded her head slightly at the information. "Maintain original course and speed."

"Captain." Inaurus paused until Ochanko's dark eyes locked on him. Seeing an almost imperceptible nod of the head for him to continue he waved his hand over the holographic imager. A ghostly green and blue image of the Leviathan appeared, text scrolling off to the side along with a series of numbers and what appeared to be calculations of some sort.

Inaurus gestured to the scrolling numbers. "As you cans see, scanners have noted a build up in the Leviathan's propulsion systems."

"It is preparing to starburst." Ochanko stated flatly, refusing to allow her frustration take form in front of her subordinates.

"Yes, Captain. By our calculations we may reach the Leviathan before she can starburst." Inaurus replied, a slow smile creeping onto his face. "It will be close, but we should be well within weapons range before then. If we concentrate our fire on the primary vents here and here..." He magnified the image to focus on the Leviathan's three-pronged tail, pointing the specific locations as he spoke. "...we may force her to decompensate before she is ready."

"And thus nullify the starburst." Ochanko finished, carefully studying her second in commands proposed course of action. It certainly solved her internal dilemma of whether to call off the attack, something she had been seriously considering given the distance between her ships and the target. She was not one to waste her resources on a mission that would likely fail.

But Inaurus' plan did have merit, even if only likely to succeed by the slimmest of margins. It was preferable than having to explain to Command her failure in tracking and capturing the vessel without so much as a shot being fired. There was only one problem.

"If we do not do as you suggest carefully, the Leviathan could still muster enough energy to escape." Ochanko noted.

"I am aware of that, Captain." Inaurus replied slowly. "But I am more concerned with the possibility that we could cause a reaction that may destroy the Leviathan. If any of our shots hit at the wrong time we could have another Rentus incident."

Ochanko winced at that, noting Sergeant Phel's shoulders visibly shudder at his workstation and the pained, but deadly serious, expression on Inaurus' face. That alone told her the Lieutenant had mentioned one of their deadliest missions as a cautionary warning. She forcibly stilled the thread of fear that wheedled its way into her heart at the thought of that assignment.

Rentus had been a Leviathan assigned to undergo modification by New Tech Division. What the modifications were had been kept from her team, but it mattered little, as they were only to deliver the Leviathan to the research center and then depart. Two solar days later they were recalled to the station, only to find it in ruins and Rentus nowhere to be found.

What ensued was a cycle long hunt for a Leviathan and its Pilot, driven to insanity by an experimental neural control implanted directly into the Pilot's brain by New Tech scientists. By the time her team, along with the backing of an entire battle group, had trapped the Leviathan it had destroyed dozens of ships and hundreds of lives. For some inexplicable reason First Command directed that all efforts be made to save the Leviathan, but the Pilot was to be terminated immediately.

Her team and ten others had done as ordered and boarded the beaten and battered biomechanoid. Only three peacekeepers had made it out: herself, Sergeant Phel, and Lt. Inaurus, who had at that time served in a different team. Only then had the order been granted to destroy the Leviathan. Even then it had been too late for one of the light cruisers in the convoy.

Ochanko remembered well, the injured beast charging the ship, never slowing down as a hail of frag cannon fire struck it, shredding away its skin and frame. Suddenly at the last possible microt the great best had initiated a starburst to flee the system. A stray shot from light cruiser struck the port, rupturing the ion chamber and started a chain reaction that had engulfed the Leviathan in flames and caused it to careen out of control into the hapless vessel. The explosion of the dying cruiser was forever etched in her memories.

She absently rubbed her left arm, remembering well the scars she and others still carried from the day. Smiling grimly, she nodded her head. "Then we make sure our gunners do not miss, Lieutenant. Understood?"

"Understood, ma'am." Inaurus nodded slowly.