[Naked Crook]

Nighthawk reached to his side and grabbed his SMG and his Deserthawk. Nighthawk: Agreed. Nighthawk nodded. Nighthawk: We have point. Nighthawk turned and moved further into the research labs, heading towards the deep freeze. Nighthawk's walk turned into a brisk pace as he approached the corridor leading down to the deep freeze, where Black Team was held up and fortified. Nighthawk turned the corner and looked down the long, yet wide, corrdidor and saw Black Team had taken up position, ready to fire on any ONI Marines or ODSTs that got close. The corridor itself was about 30 yards in length, with no cover between where Nighthawk was standing, and deep freeze vault. It was one long narrow corrdidor. There was one way in, and out...and Black Team was cornered. Nighthawk glared at Black 1. Black 1 stared back at Nighthawk. The two exchanged a look, and they both raised their weapons. Black 1 could be heard shouting to the other members of Black Team. Black 1: Heads up...ONI is breaking their own rules again! Black Team immediately got into cover and readied their weapons, waiting for ONI to make the first move. Meanwhile: The King Raven had once again disengaged its active camo as it began to fire on The Ulterior Motive. Trust Officer: Sir...The King Raven is off the starboard-bow. Kolya: Hard to starboard...bring all weapons to full and commence firing! The Ulterior Motive shook again, this time, very violently, as the impacts from The King Raven's Archer missiles had destroyed a large segment of armor, and had started to damage the hull of The Ulterior Motive. Trust Officer: Sir...we have lost the starboard-bow armor...we have multiple breaches on Decks 4, 5, 10, and 11. We are venting atmosphere...and the bulkheads are not responding in that area. The primary power conduit to our starboard Archer pods has been destroyed, and I am unable to bypass. Kolya: What about our port Archer pods? Trust Officer: Still online, but the power disruption caused an interrupt in their cycle. We are restarting their cycle. The Ulterior Motive shook again, as it was hit by another barrage. Trust officer: Sir...your orders? Kolya: Get a lock on with our port Archer pods, and fire! Trust Officer: Target locked...firing.... Kolya waited for a moment to hear the result of his order. Trust Officer: SIr...The King Raven has once again dropped from our sensors...our Archer's have lost their lock. Kolya pounded his fist on his arm rest. Kolya: Damn it! Kolya got up from his seat and ran over to the holo map. Damien: Sir...we cannot take much more of this. We cannot even see The King Raven long enough to hit it...and it is just popping up at random intervals. We have to retreat! Kolya: Not yet...not until we have no other choice. We are still in this... Trust Officer: Sir...The King Raven is back...this time on our six. They are firing... Kolya: Bring us about and load asll point defense-- The Ulterior Motive shook once again. The lights on the bridge began to blow out as one of the computer terminals caught fire. Smoke began to fill the bridge. Kolya sighed. Kolya: Damn it... Trust officer: Sir...we have a transmission coming through...it's Captain Hayes...audio only. The Officer opened a channel. Hayes: Admiral Agustus Kolya...this is Captain Rodney Hayes. Typially, at this point, I would demand that you power down your weapons and engines, and for you to invoke a plea of surrender. However, I will do no such thing, as I have no interest in you surrendering yourself, or your ship, or your crew. I have no interest in bringing you to trial to face a jury of your peers. On the contrary, my only interest is destroying your ship, and displaying its broken hull to the Office of Naval Intelligence, and to the rest of the galaxy as an example of what we do to dissidents, traitors, and our enemies. You may continue this fight, or beg for mercy...but the end result will be the same no matter what you do. Unless I deem it necessary to humor myself, there will be no further communication between us. The comm line then went dead. After a moment, the Ulterior Motive shook again. Trust officer: Sir...we have lost our ablative armor...they are tearing us apart! Kolya winced. He placed his hands down on the edge of the holomap, and bagan to grip the edges of the table, sqeezing the edge as hard as he could. the edges of the holotable began to bend, and several large cracks shot up the hootable, as the entire device shutdown from the damage that Kolya had done to it. Kolya: Signal The Nightingale...we are withdrawing from the system. Inform Black Team that the situation has become unobtainable...and we must evac immediately. Tell them...they are going to have to find their own way off Midnight. Trust Officer: Aye... Kolya sighed. Kolya: Get us the hell out of here before we lose our slip space engines. The Ulterior Motive came about, and and regrouped with The Nightingale, which had received the orders to withdraw. The two ships were flying side by side, on a vector that took them away from Midnight. Trust Officer: Sir...one of destroyers has been disabled in this system. They are unable to fall back with us. The ship is still active, but they are too damaged to engage their engines.Their current position is on our present course and heading. Kolya: We are not leaving them behind for ONI to get their hands on more information...not this time. Kolya paused. Kolya: Order the Nightingale to destroy that ship. ONI won't be getting any more from us, not this time. The Ulterior Motive and The Nightingale flew towards the damaged Trust Destroyer. The Nightingale readied its Archer missiles and locked on to the Trust Destroyer, and fired a full barrage, destroying the Destroyer, leaving nothing behind for ONI to salvage. Trust Officer: Target destroyed. Kolya: Prepare to slip us out of here, random destination solution. Trust Officer: Aye sir!