An increasingly loud beep noise woke Hermann from his sleep.
Still half asleep his hand rummaged through the belongings on his sideboard, looking for the button to accept the incoming call.
Finally, he found the damn thing and the sickening sound stopped. "Meier, what's going on?"
A shy female voice answered his question. "Sir we got a situation up here that requires your urgent attention."
"I will be right with you."
"Please hurry sir!"
Hermann got up as quickly as he could. Quickly slipping into his shoes he grabbed his jacket on the way to the elevator.
04:03:03 Bridge
Hermann stepped out of the elevator to find his subordinates in turmoil. The young women greeted him and waved him over to the command deck.
More young men were busy checking data on their station panels and whispering with each other.
"So what's going on here?"
Hermann asked as he still rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"We got a Unioner raiding party, inbound sir. They are at 4k and closing."
"4k! How did they get so close without us noticing?"
One of the young men turned away from his panel and answered with a shaking voice. "The Alster radiation must have confused our long-range sensors. We only picked them up at 4,5K."
"Contact the Imperial police to send a patrol our way. Ready the automated defenses and get the shield ..."
"We can`t!" The young woman was shaking "The shield won`t work, we don`t have enough energy."
Hermann needed a moment to realize the situation. "What? Is it broken?"
"No sir. We are out of H-Fuel to power it."
04:05:00
"Sir they are at 3k now. Still closing in."
"How many of them?"
"4 contacts in the lead. Probably light fighters. Two follow behind, must be their heavy hitters."
"Let`s pray they don`t bring in bombers. An answer from the Police yet?"
"Patrol has been redirected but eta is unknown."
"Message the Kolleda. We need help asap."
"Essen relayed our distress call to them. They sort a wing to assist us, ETA 15 minutes."
"Scheiße! Give me engineering. Let us see what Kreuzer can do."
The young women quickly patched the call to the engineering department.
"Kreuzer? I need this shield active. As in now!"
"I may be good, but that is insane. We barely got enough fuel left for lights, electronics, and the damn turrets!"
"See what you can do about it."
04:07:30
"Sir they are at 2k now. Orders?"
"Set perimeter defense to 900m, ready warhead interception missiles. Evacuation protocol red. Get all workers to the safety zones"
"Yes sir."
A few button clicks later an alarm sound was heard throughout the entire station. Personel stopped dead in its tracks and turned to run towards the nearest safety zone.
04:08:00
"1,5k, sir."
"Any news from the Kolleda?"
"Still 13 Minutes till help arrives."
"Verdammt!"
The first band of bogeys appeared in front of the bridge window. 4 Tigershark class fighters, rapidly cruising towards the station.
They split up into 2 groups and prepared for their attack run.
04:10:45
At 900m the automated turrets started the fireworks. One group broke their attack and turned to evade.
The other kept closing towards the depot.
They unleashed their protector guns in return and fired on Docking bay 1 of the depot. One barrage after another hit the armored depot.
The bridge began to shake a little, some minor electric circuits were overloaded. Some lights went out and a control panel stopped working.
04:13:01
The second group now began their run as the turrets focused their fire on the slower of the 2 fighters.
The first hits made his shield light up.
Quickly he tried to evade the fire but was caught another time.
Damaged he fled the scene towards the Alster field.
The other fighter fired his guns at the depot, quickly passing over the bridge section. The automated turrets turning to fire at him.
04:14:05
With the turrets focused on the smaller targets. The two heavy Arbeiter fighters moved in.
Suddenly another alarm sound was heard on the bridge.
"Warheads incoming! Prepare for impact!"
Everyone tried to hold on to either their seat or something in front of them.
The anti-warhead missiles launched from the depot were able to intercept 2 cannonballs. The other two kept closing in.
"Switch targets to these fighters! Quickly!"
It wasn't long before the cannonball missiles impacted the small depot. Shaking it in the wake of the explosion.
04:15:10
"Sir I got 3 more contacts inbound!"
"Where from?"
"Direction Essen station."
04:15:35
The silence was broken by a friendly Rheinland voice on the comms.
"Bochum come in. This is Kruger Convoy Delta 12, we heard you got some trouble out here. What is your status? Over!"
"Kruger? How did you know? We got Unioner fighters bombarding the station with missiles and gunfire. Help would be much appreciated. Station shield is offline and our automated defense is no match for that many fighters."
"Understood Bochum. We will take care of them. You can thank Essen. They relayed your message over comms to us while we were passing by. We quickly changed course to see what we can do."
"You are heaven-sent Delta 12."
"Ok boys. Let us mop up these Unioners. Break formation and engage, weapons free!"
04:15:52
The flight of falcon class fighters quickly diverted and rushed in to meet the Unioners head-on. Suprised the first Arbeiter fighter was destroyed in a volley of missiles and gunfire.
The light fighters scattered, trying to get behind the Kruger fighter. Meanwhile, the automated turrets tried to get a clear lock on the Unioners.
All Hermann could do was wait. How he hated to be doomed to do nothing in this kind of situation.
04:16:03
"Klaus, break! break! break! You got one on your 6!" "I see him, gonna go in now!" "Missile incoming, evade! Evade!" "Got him in my sights. Missile away!"
04:18:15
The last Unioner Arbeiter fighter was hit and quickly exploded in a fireball. Two of the remaining Tigersharks tried to flee back into the Alster field, followed by the Kruger fighters.
One however turned and cruised towards the depot.
Automated turrets hitting him hard and the fighter was covered in flames. However, he kept his vector and velocity.
"Prepare for impact, he is gonna hit us!"
The ship crashed into docking bay 3. A large explosion was followed by the sound of metal bending and cracking.
"Structural integrity compromised. The hangar section is leaking air. Fires inside the docking bay!"
"Activate escape protocols for Section 3. Then open the emergency valves for the fire extinguishers."
"Escape pods are launching. Fire Extinguishers do not respond sir!"
"Close Gates 5 and 6. Prepare to depressurize the entire section!"
"Sir we gonna lose 1/3 of our station."
"I rather lose one docking bay than the entire station. If the fire spreads to the next section we are in more trouble. Now do it!"
The large hangar doors of the docking bay opened and the vacuum of space sucked out everything that was not welded into the station, crates, and carts as well as the fire itself.
04:19:52
"Bochum this is Delta 12 leader. We chased off the last Unioners. What is your status over?"
"Damaged but still in one piece thanks to you guys. I own you one."
"Keep that in mind, I'm sure we will meet again. Anything else we can do?"
"Not much but Im curios. Where is the rest of your convoy?"
"Sitting tight at Essen station. We heard you are in trouble and our captain ordered us to assist while waiting off with the transports near Essen station."
"Please give your Captain my warmest thanks and my regards then. Godspeed!"
A few moments later the military fighter wing arrived to secure the area alongside a hastily launched repair ship from Essen station.
While s&r was picking up the escape pods from section 3, Hermann turned to focus on the tasks ahead. He had to get the station back into shape but right now he was still shaking from that experience.
![[Image: uSjQF5S.png]](https://i.imgur.com/uSjQF5S.png)