Red beams of light streaked across the Dauntless' viewscreen towards the swarm of glowing orange spheres flying at them.
'One, two, three, four, five, six.'
Avery counted the number of blasts from his heavy laser cannons it took to bring down a single energy lifeform.
The total ranged from three to six so far, with the ones that the sensors showed had greater power being able to take more hits.
"Deploying chaffs."
As Avery was about to be overrun, Kasandra pressed a button on her console and several small devices ejected from compartnts on both sides of the Dauntless.
Normally these chaffs were ant to disrupt enemy targeting systems, but in this instance, they were being used as a lure to break up the energy lifeform's formation.
They were naturally attracted to any electrical signals, and the chaffs made for an enticing al.
Of course, the Dauntless was putting out far more power, so the majority of the energy lifeforms continued after it, but at least a couple dozen broke off montarily and gave Avery the room he needed to maneuver away.
When he had made enough distance between them again, he swiftly spun his ship around again and opened fire.
Several tis they repeated this process until the flood of energy lifeforms began to diminish.
During this entire battle, Avery felt truly grateful to have Kasandra around to support him. Without her assistance, his entire focus would have been taken up just trying to keep alive. He never would have been able to fight back.
While he was keeping an eye on the shortrange sensors to keep ahead of the energy lifeforms and piloting the ship with everything he had, Kasarda was keeping an eye on their surroundings and plotting the path he needed to take to avoid being encircled.
Then there was her excerpt timing in providing assistance by deploying chaffs and other items to distract their attackers. Everything she was doing allowed Avery to wholly contrate on flying and firing without needing to worry about anything else.
After nearly twenty minutes of this ga of deadly tag, there were only a few of the energy lifeforms left.
Despite the imnse burden that had been placed on both of them, Avery and Kasandra's intense concertation had held up, and they were nearly out of their predicant.
Yet, the relief that they felt was short lived. An even greater threat was fast approaching.
"I've got four more signals incoming. And they're a lot bigger." Kasandra said, a grimace on her face.
Once Avery had a mont to pull up a rear view on the console in front of him, he went pale from what he saw.
Four more energy lifeforms that were well over a hundred tis larger than the small ones that had been chasing them were speeding across the system towards the Dauntless.
Feeling panic setting in, Avery sowhat recklessly attacked the few remaining small energy lifeforms to finish them off. Hoping that he would have enough ti to plot a course into hyperspace and escape.
Unfortunately, the dium sized energy lifeforms were not going to let him get away so easily.
Unlike their smaller brethren that could only attack by ramming into things, they were capable of firing off pieces of their bodies as projectiles.
Balls of orange light ca flying towards him, and Avery was forced to interrupt the jump into hyperspace to dodge the attacks.
"Great, and they've brought more little friends." Avery grumbled.
Behind the four dium energy lifeforms, was another swarm of smaller ones. There were not quite as many as the first batch, but still plenty to be a sizable threat.
As the smaller energy lifeforms chased Avery around and tried to bash into his shields, the dium sized ones unleashed a never-ending stream of fire towards him.
At this point, avoiding every hit beca impossible, and the Dauntless' shields were slowly being whittled away.
Still, Avery and Kasandra had not given up yet. Between the two of them, they were pulling out every trick that they had and firing off all of weapons the Dauntless possessed.
Around ten minutes in, they were forced to use the first of their three shield cells to replenish their protection. That ant at the current rate, they had around another half hour before being destroyed.
"The path's open, go!"
Naturally, Avery and Kasandra had not been flying around without a plan in mind. They had needed to thin out and lure the smaller ones away before making a charge towards the true threats.
Diverting full power to the thrusters, Avery flipped the ship around and barreled towards the four dium sized energy lifeforms that had been one-sidedly bombarding them.
To keep his montum up, he was forced to hardly change his path, and several tis took direct hits from energy blasts.
The Dauntless' shields depleted at an alarming rate, but this was all necessary to strike back against the oppressive monsters trying to tear them apart.
"Here, you can eat this instead."
With the torpedo launcher prid and ready, Avery fired off one of his three remaining phasic torpedoes.
After it was launched, he imdiately banked to the right and flew away as fast as possible to create so distance.
An enormous explosion erupted from behind him just a couple monts later, and the four dium energy lifeforms, as well as most of the smaller ones that had been chasing the Dauntless, were engulfed.
"Explosions really are effective against them." Avery marveled.
It had taken a great deal of effort to bring the energy lifeforms down with the other weapon systems onboard, but just a single phasic torpedo had been enough to practically eliminate all of them.
In less than a minute, Avery cleaned up the remaining smaller ones with his laser cannons, and for the mont, everything was still in the Prazan system again.
"So, how mad do you think the Alliance Police are going to be when I ask them to reimburse for that torpedo?"
"Well, I imagine that soone in their accounting departnt is definitely going to end up hating you." Kasandra said with a slight laugh.
This bit of levity helped to ease the stress that had built up from the intense life or death battle they had just survived.
Except, their reprieve did not last for long.
The Dauntless' long-range sensors soon picked up a massive energy signature coming their way.
Previously, it had been undetected due to having been positioned near the system's neutron star, but now, the truly monstrous energy lifeform that had been controlling the others was making an appearance now that its minions had been destroyed.
If there was any solace, it was the fact that this gigantic monster was still too far away to reach them.
Not waiting another mont, Avery prepared the ship to enter hyperspace, and this ti, they were able to get away before the true threat in the Prazan System could stop them.
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