- Move Colonial One in battlestars line of fire. Shield battlecruiser until Mori's shuttle is safely docked on Phoenixstorm. Come on people. Move it.
Colonial One although liner class was heavily armored ship. Slowly it moved to line of fire between two hostile vessels. For few moments it took fire from both vessels. Shields were dropping fast but Abelard ordered to stay in position. Two Vipers that were patrolling area managed to dock under heavy fire.
Battaglia, saw that strange maneuver from Colonial One, and he didn't stop shooting immediately. Colonial One lost it shields and small explosions were seen all over the ship while it was taking hits from full spread of battlestars guns.
Time has passed. Abelard was on command bridge on C1 looking at never ending damage reports. Phoenixstorm ceased fire when Mori saw that C1 is in the way.
Battaglia tried to move Warhammer but Colonial One followed it moves always keeping in line of fire. Battaglia didn't want to fire on his fellow Colonials so he turned the ship and cruised away. Black outline of the ship slowly vanished in the distance.
- Ok...i want final damage reports, i want to know how the hell that ship got here without any of our vessel detecting it. And i want it ASAP. Open coms with battlecruiser.
- Coms are open sir.
- Commander Mori, is everything ok there. Is ship holding on? Any casualties?
Commander Mori responded quickly. "Roger, we are getting damage reports from all over the Phoenixstorm. We have suffered heavy casualties. Your protection most likely saved us. Thank you."
He sighed. "However... there were adverse effects. The Warhammer has escaped. Meanwhile how are you holding up? You are not a war ship, and I am surprised you survived such a barrage of fire."
Another pause, and the sound of voices in the background. Then the Commander spoke. "We have just received a report that a wing of our interceptors has discovered and halted the retreat of the Warhammer. We will... handle it. Meanwhile, I believe our neutrality, on the terms we had agreed upon, is now considered in effect?"
BSG-66's commander, BlindBat, pealed his eyes to the battle scared, dark hull of Warhammer. For a moment, his thoughts wondered off from the battle ahead, to the days of him, being ensign, stationed aboard that legendary battlestar. Those were the closest thing to him. to memories of home...
In the next moment, he got re-focused on the fight ahead. BlindBat's muscles tighten throughout his body, and the shiver through the spine came, as he felt adrenalin being pumped into his bloodstream. He put his best effort to control his voice, so the rest of BSG-66 pilots wouldn't sense the tensions and emotions within him, and spoke over communicator:
-Viper lead to all vipers: Combat spread GO! Accelerate to attack speed. Weapons hot. Target priority: bombers. ENGAGE!
Like poisonous darts, vipers from 166th and 616th squadron, thrust into the tissue of Hellfire's crafts. Taking one hostile into his sights, commander BlindBat squeezed the trigger so violently, his finger hurt. Shots found their mark, knocking out shields of the hostile craft. BlindBat held his vector, overshooting surprised hellfire's pilot, leaving Viper2 and 3 to finish him off. His viper zoomed just under the belly of the battlestar, and exited on the other side in a half loop, coming over the top. From there he could clearly see Warhammer's symbol and symbol of all BSG-66: A black Hammer on a field of red...He than adjusted his comm channel to old BSG-66 coded frequency:
-Viper lead to Warhammer CIC: you are cleared to enter FTL. Decoy transmitter is in place, to lure hostile reinforcements. Just make sure we're out of blast range when detonating. We'll mop up here, so no one remains to warn them about it...
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As soon as the Faster than Light jump had finished preparing, however, it ended. The Warhammer had not moved. A transmission came from one of the Arrows remaining.
"Hah, you'll have to do better than that! You think that we were sent after a Battlestar without interdiction fields?"
Within moments, another titanic ship had appeared on the battlefield. A Liberty Carrier approached the Warhammer and opened fire as fighters and gunboats spilled out of it's bays, and it's two cruiser escorts joined it in the assault.
"This is the Hellfire Legion flagship GRCS Goldenflame, to all units. Engage the hostiles. HFC Storm, fire on the Warhammer. HFD Prometheus, defend the Goldenflame from bombers. Fighters, help the interdictors. Gunboat wings, take out the Vipers."
Aboard Colonial One president didn't believed his eyes. In one moment what seemed to be over escalated to completely new and large fight. Being a pilot himself, once a commander, in cooperation with C1's captain he took control over the ship. Fight of that magnitude near Freeport was unimaginable. Terrible thing.
- Try to contact Warhammer.
- No response.
Dealing with moral doubt Abelard tried to find the way to stop this fight. Colonial One was fully battle ready, it suffered damage only to deck 3 and 6, minor systems were damaged. Shields were back up and fully operational. But entering the fight was not a option.
- Ok...save any survives from both sides. Tractor their escape pods into cargo bay. Injured move to the closed section of the sick bay. All other move to the brig.
- Colonials and Helfire legionaries?
- Yes, put them all to brig. Keep them separated from one another and keep them closed. I don't want a fight in here to. Also, call Sharon and order her to bring our whole fleet here. If they wont resolve this in peaceful way, we will solve it for them.
Commander Mori glared out at the wreckage of the few fighters that had been hit by the blast. The Warhammer had escaped, and an entire interception wing had been destroyed. The Phoenixflame had been damaged, and the peace talks had been interrupted rather violently. However, they had one a single victory.
The Warhammer's identification had been recorded in Legion logs. It could now be tracked... and destroyed.
"This is the Hellfire Legion Supreme Commander Mori, to the Colonial One. We noticed you picked up our surviving men. Thank you. We are sending a team of medical officers over to assist you now. I am coming with them so we can finish these talks."
Abelard went to docking bay to meet with Mori. In the mean time he ordered for all Hellfire leagionares to be released from brig and escorted to docking bay.
First medical personnel arrived and C1's XO led them to sock bay to help with injured people.
Abelard was behind strong, thick glass looking Mori's shuttle docking. Powerful engines created loud noise, and not even thick glass could deflect it all.
Outter doors closed and docking bay was repressurized. Doors opened on small shuttle.
- Welcome again commander. - with grim voice said Abelard
- Thank you sir.
- Please lets go here, to dock command room we have prepared short contract.
Both leaders went to the command room. On small table in the middle of the room there was one page written on paper with corners cut off.
Mori picked it up and started to read.
Quote:From this day and with this contract, Hellfire Legion and Colonial Remnant will maintain NEUTRAL status.
1. Both parties agree that they will not enter each other's home systems (Vespucci and Tau 44) without permission.
2. Both parties agree that they will not fire on each other unless any of the agreed terms is broken.
3. Both factions will help their allies in fights, and if there are cases where they find themselves on opposite sides, it will not have any effect on their status and each participant will be considered as part of allied faction and not as HF/CR.
4. Both parties agree that will maintain polite and civil relations in space between passing ships.
5. Pirating is not allowed.
6. Carrying contraband with in ZOI of the parties will be dealt with with standard protocol for each faction.
Mori finished reading.
Abelard looked at him and asked: Do you wish something to add, maybe?
The Supreme Commander smiled. "Yes, one thing only. That we keep our wars out of your systems, with the only exception being our pursuit of the Warhammer. Is that acceptable?"
- No...I cant think only of Colonials, i also need to think of Independent miners too. They, and us too, consider our home system to be open. Minato Harbor serves freeport for all people. So pursuing Warhammer into Tau 44 isn't acceptable. But somehow i have the feeling that he wouldn't go there anyway. Not after this last attack. And even if he enters, he will be escorted out of it. Warships besides our own are not welcome there.
![[Image: warhammer%20sig.jpg]](http://free-sk.t-com.hr/Freelancer/sigs/warhammer%20sig.jpg)