@RedAndCosmoteer meanwhile, in an outer region
Captain: It's a space bourne life for me, sailing across stellar seas, taking in the views, all these sights are but joys for meeeeeee!
Captain Jacob IV of the "Unnamed Ship" chanted a space shanty to himself as he manned the helm of a medium freighter. His voice broke on a few notes, but that was fine, since all the other crew members had occupied themselves with the latest episode of "Commander Johnstone" season 14. The galaxy map then faintly beeped and a dot appeared on the display. It flashed grey and red repeatedly. This was a distress signal, and by regional law he had to go and intercept it. He pressed the dot to notify the system that he had acknowledged the distress call, before changinf course to intercept the distress.
The freighter's lifeless exterior suddenly changed as manoeuvring thrusters sparked to life, and reorientated the freighter on a new course. A few more minor corrections and the ship locked on the new trajectory.
Captain Jacob We gotta an SOS at 12 O' clock.
Crew Member No can do, "Celebrities get trapped on alien planets and forced to survive without internet" is on at 12:30.
Captain Jacob Ok, we'll do it at 11.
A half hour latter the "Unnamed Ship" arrived at the location of the distress signal. Short range sensors picked up the distress signal's source, a black box device was deployed, out in the open. But there was not a ship in sight.
Captain Jacob Strange. What is a black box device doing out in the open? Is this some kind of joke?
There was an eerie silence however. The "Unnamed Ship" was a long way from any major ship hubs, and it was not exactly the safest to be out here.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Crew A Captain, We have 4 FTL signatures arriving at our location.
Captain Jacob It's a trap!
Captain Jacob had sudden déjà vo
Captain Jacob All power to the FTL drive
Crew A Too late...
Several pulses of energy flashed a few hundred meters ahead of the ship. Once they died, they left an unmarked ship in their wake. Scans suggested they were Lightning MK 2s, a highly versatile fighter and hauler, designed by the now vanished Scavangers. However, it was clear to see these ships looked nothing like a Lightning. Where electro bolts once where, massive laser appatures bulged out of the hull. Lasers were covered in modified instruments. The whole ship was a porcupine of modules and addons.
Crew B We're getting interference! The FTL drive has died!
A string of errors appeared on Captain Jacob's monitors. The FTL systems had straight given up. Calculations returned infinity, divisions by 0, computers made no sense of the current situation.
Captain Jacob Then we're here to stay and fight! Man the lasers! Power the sheilds!
Power routing was diverted from the confused FTL drives to the offensive systems.
Captain Jacob FIRE AT WILL!
A shower of lasers was launched by both parties. The Lightnings darted around, launching barrages of extremely heavy lasers. The ships sheilds strained under such heavy fire. Meanwhile, whatever damage was returned seemed to be completely negated by whatever souped up sheilds the Lightnings were using.
Crew B We won't survive this captain! They're too strong!
Captain Jacob We need reinforcements
Captain Jacob pulled out a radio mic, and held down the trigger
Captain Jacob This is Captain Jacob of the Unnamed Ship. We are under attack by an unknown entity, requesting immedia...
Then the ships power died. Lights went dark. Screens went black. Everything went silent. The air was still. It felt like the longest second of Captain Jacobs life. Everything was slow. Not even a breath of air disturbed the silence.
Then the emergancy power kicked in. Dim emergancy lighting shone down. A few essential systems booted up to reveal vital information about the ship, and emergancy oxygen genorators allowed a minimal amount of oxygen to be pumped into the cockpit.
The enemy ships began changing formation, one of them was flying to the underside of the ship, while the other two went to each side of the ship. Captain Jacob knew what was happening. The Unnamed Ship had one airlock door at the underside of the ship. These ships intend to board.
Captain Jacob Arm yourselves, they're going to board!
*Crew members suddenly sprung to life and went to the weapon rack to arm themselves with a laser rifle, before marching to below deck. Crew took up position around the airlock's bulk head. Captain Jacob turned the bulkheads lock. A clunk was heard, followed by some clicks. The vessel had docked. Hearts raced. Then a hiss was heard. A flaming hiss.
Captain Jacob What the fu...
Then a bright white flame began burning through the bulkheads door. It circled around, slowly. Once it met it's own train, the flame stopped. Then the cut fell off. Several inches of titanium alloy bulkhead, had just been beaten.
Captain Jacob FIRE!
Lasers rained out. Men from both sides fell. Various smoke grenades were deployed, to confuse both parties. But the opposition was too much.
Captain Jacob RETREAT!
The men began backing up, while maintaing a rain of fire. The enemies pushed in. An enemy commander cried out.
Move in men! Take whatever ye can carry!
The enemies pushed in, some made a beeline for the main hold, others continued to hold the ground. Others came back from the main hold, carrying trinkets and technology, most of it illegal to be held without a license.
Fall back! We're loaded!
The enemies retreated back to the bulkhead, and prepared to depart. Jacob pushed up.
Jacob Wait! The door!
Jacob just realised that their bulkhead was wide open. Once they depart, their ship's oxygen supply will rush out into space.
Jacob Everyone out of the airlock!
People began suffling out of the lower airlock. Jacob began shutting off every seal he could, making sure they were air tight. Jacob locked the final door, and a clunk was heard. The enemy vessel undocked and released itself. The airlocks atmosphere rushed out, and the corpses of crew members went with it. Just in time. Jacob had saved whatever was left of his crew and the dwindling oxygen they would have to survive on. The enemies didn't wait any longer either. As soon as they were clear of the "Unammed Ship" they wound up their FTL drives and left the sector.
No sooner than they did, the ships power system booted up. Lights came on. The vents began pumping fresh air in. Everything was normal again. Well, everything aside a gaping hole in the airlock bulkhead and a ship of shocked crew carrying live firearms.