text: "What do you mean 'no damage'?" Barked the Captain of the ASF Fragile is a State of Mind. His crusier was in pursuit of a stolen experimental ship. Orders were to not allow it to escape under any condition. "The warheads impacted but other than knocking the ship off course it did negligible damage." - The never named ASF ship rung like a bell as hundreds of rounds of ammunition impacted on her hull. "Holy shit! It actually works!" Shouted the woman sitting in a makeshift captain's chair in the centre of the bridge. Though shaking and vibrating furiously the little craft was holding together. "I can't believe they actually got 'shields' working." A small man wrapped in a web of cables turned and gave a wicked grin, "Totally impenetrable. They could fire everything including the mess sink at us and the shield will never break. Told ya the intel was good!" "Ya, ya, brag when we're at the bar later with 40 mil' in each of our accounts. Just get us to the jump point." "Sure thing boss." He turned back to his nest of wiring and dug around for a tablet. Finding it he quickly pulled up the engine diagnostics and began calculations for the jump. "How's the kid doing?" - Twenty metres aft of the bridge was the only other finished room on the ship, the engine room. Clutching a power conduit a youngish man firmly held his eyes closed. Repeating his new mantra of "40 million, 40 million, 40 million..." he began to regret signing on to this job with the two other Mercs. He was the muscle, or the gun more aptly. The job was supposed to be a simple one. Small facility, small staff. Stealth infiltration, cut communication, steal something, get the fuck out. Simple. Except when the something turned out to be an experimental ship and an ASF crusier shows up to perform a staff rotation. So now, in a less than half finished ship, they were running as fast as they could to the nearest jump point. - One of the scientists who had accompanied the ASF Fragile is a State of Mind stood on the bridge watching salvo after salvo of missiles impact on the little ship which had been his focus for the past 2 years. In a sense he was incredibly proud that it was performing exactly as the simulations predicted. "That's it Captain. We're spent. All that's left is the nukes." Reported the gunnery officer. "Major damage to both of our rotary launchers. They weren't meant to launch the entire payload in such a short time period." "Motherfucker!" exclaimed the Captain pounding the arm of station. "You," pointing at the scientists, "will a class 2 nuclear warhead destroy that thing?" The scientist gave a shrug. "Maybe? At this point I don't know how the shield will perform. It's held up incredibly well." The Captain let out a long exhale. "Bring up the launch codes for the fusion warheads." "Yes sir!" Replied the gunnery officer, tapping instructions into his console. A few seconds later a dozen warnings appeared on the Captain's screen. With a grunt of frustration the Captain began filling out the required forms. "Sign here, and there, and here. Oh and initial there, great. Can't imagine what we'd do if we actually had to use these things in a real combat." Finally the red warnings were dismissed and he was left with a single green button which read 'Confirm.' Quickly pressing it he turned to the gunnery officer "Fire when ready. Both of them." - "Aaaaaand here come the nukes!" Shouted the man lost in cables. Looking around, he quickly began tying himself down with whatever was available. The woman seeing this followed suit and shouted aft through the uncovered structure of the ship. "Hang on baby face, it's about to get bumpy!" Turning back to the small man, "this is gonna work right?" He gave a shrug "Grea..." Was all she managed to get out before the ship shook with a force that warped and bent the bulkheads far from their intended positions. But the ship held and kept burning furiously towards the jump point. "Woooooo! That's what I'm talking about!" Yelled the woman returning to a sitting position. Her arm was dangling useless at her side as it had been pulled from its socket. The small man's head popped up out of the cables. He has a gash in his forehead but seemed otherwise unscathed. She then noticed the pile of flesh mashed into the wall to her left. Confused for a second she then realized that the kid had failed to strap himself down in time and was thrown about the ship by the blast. She considered the sight for a second, honestly remorseful that he had died. He was a good shot and took orders well. She turned to the small man and gestured to the pile. "Make that 60 mil, we'll pour out some of the good stuff for him." The small man gave a solemn nod and glanced at his tablet. "20 mins to jump point, and I don't think they have anything left to shoot at is, we're in the clear." - "Her superstructure is bent to hell, any normal ship would dust. She's still flying though." "What do we have left?" Asked the Captain. "There's got to be something else." "We've fired everything we had at them. All that's left is the point defense turrets and they wouldn't even damage a normal ship let alone whatever is going on over there." Said the gunnery officer pointing at the ship on the forward monitor. Getting the Captain's attention with a sight cough, "I think I have a suggestion. The shield was meant to repel high velocity projectiles with the intention that PDTs would take care of slower threats." The scientist explained. "We did that so resupply craft, fighters and shuttles could come and go without lowering the shield. With a quizzical look the Captain asked "So we need to hit it slower? Well that's great, I'll just go out and give it a kick then, shall I?" "Well actually, I worked on designs similar to our current ship and I know that a lot of the reinforced areas are towards the bow of the ship where the ammunition is held. While the shield ship is smaller we have the advantage in speed as our engine is more powerful." Giving a long sigh. "So what do you propose I do then, huh?" Asked the Captain. "Ram it." - "Five minutes till jump, calculations done. We'll follow the backup plan jump to the fallback system, sit in an asteroid field for a few days then jump to the client and do the sale." "Sounds good. Still can't believe we pulled this off." Said the woman who let out a long breath she didn't notice she was holding. The calming hum of the engine was a nice replacement to the stacato rhythm of the bullet impacts. "What are they doing?" Said the man as he squinted at his tablet. "What?" "They've blown by us and are going wide. I don't know what their plan is." Glancing at his console. "Well whatever it is they don't have any time or ammo left. We good?" Asked the woman shutting her eyes and laying her head back. It had been a long day. "They've come about. Heading straight for us on intercept! They'll reach us before we get to the jump! The fuck are they doing!?" He yelled as he once again began strapping down. - "All hands, clear the foreward sections." Reported a member of the bridge crew. "One minute till impact. All hands brace!" Came the call over the ships intercom The Captain liked his ship, but he knew she wasn't built for this. It would be unlikely she would fly again. Fuck it. Next time he'll have the egg heads put one of their fancy 'shields' on his ship. - The two mercenaries left on the ship, braced as best they could but there was little they could do as the bow of the ASF Fragile is a State of Mind pierced through the side of the little ship. The sound of tearing metal was quickly overpowered by the detonation of the power core and the rush of air as the atmosphere quickly left the ship. The man and woman, and the remains of the kid were torn apart and sent spiralling of into the black. The ASF Fragile is a State of Mind did not escape without damage. The forward 15 metres of her length were crushed and destroyed by the impact. The shockwave spread through the ship and warped her to the point where many of the main power conduits were severed. She was adrift, but had fulfilled her orders.