Captain Jonathan Green got up from his chair in the captain's ready room and headed for the lift chute. He had captained cruisers for three years, and had just been given command of a carrier. Her name was Marauder, and for good reason. In the three years since the Human/Cantharan war had been won, the U.N.S.N. had been very busy with mop-up of former U.N.S. space which had been taken over by Cantharans. This carrier had destroyed three carriers, fifteen cruisers, twelve gunships, and two heavy destroyers in its life so far. he thought. He entered the lift. "Bridge." He was whisked up on a cushion of air to the bridge, and the doors glided open. He walked onto the bridge's main level. Grant Jameson, the first officer, stood up. "Captain on the bridge!" He bellowed, and the bridge crew snapped to attention.
"As you were," Green said, as he made his way to the main viweport where Lieutenant Jameson was standing. "Are the escorts moving into position?"
"They should be here any-there they are now, sir!" He pointed to the four gunships taking positions at the carrier's corners. "We are ready to proceed. The jumpgate is straight ahead."
"Let's go," ordered Green, and a blue-green energy shroud formed between the jumpgate's three generators. The carrier and escorts plunged into the swirling, undulating energy storm, and came out seconds later in a system several light-years away. The sensor officer looked up.
"Captain, small object on the scope, fighter size. Wait-it is a fighter, sir. Cantharan. Must be a survivor from a battle near here."
"Deploy two fighters to disable it, Ensign."
"Aye, sir." The ship vibrated as two fighters shot from its launch bay, and headed straight for the lone Cantharan ship. In a bold maneuver, the fighter spun around to face them. The Human fighters each made two hits on it, knocking it around. It ignored them and made straight for the carrier, slipping past its escorts.
"Turret gunner, fire at will." Rapid fire laser bolts spat from the carrier's turret, all impacting on the fighter's fore shields as it made for the side of the ship. Then its shields collapsed and a laser bolt sheared off its engines, one after the other. The fighter drifted helplessly in space. "Recover that figher, and throw the pilot in the brig, then search it for any recoverable data." The ship's tractor beam drew the fighter into the docking bay. Several minutes later, Lieutenant Jameson put his hand to his comm set.
"What? I see. I see." He turned to Captain Green. "Sir, there was no pilot. The fighter was somehow controlled entirely by computer."
"Pretty slick maneuvers for a computer."
"Exactly what I was thinking, but there's more. Right after our techs scanned it and determined that it was robotically controlled, it self-destructed. Noone was hurt, and nothing was damaged, but any more information which we could have gotten out of it was lost completely." Green frowned. Suddenly, alarm klaxons started blaring. The sensor officer looked up.
"Sir! Three Cantharan cruisers and an HVD just decloaked! They're headed right for us!"
"Sound red alert! All hands to battle stations! All hands, to battle stations!"

End of part I

This is a tad unrealistic; no human carrier could ever on its own kill one Cantharan HVD. 12 gunships? Give me a break, gunships and HVDs are designed to be anti-carrier ships.

------------------
Lewis,
save yourself the pain,
you'll never get there.
-Radiohead, "Lewis (Mistreated.)"

Come on, Newt; cut this guy a break.
I have destroyed a cantharan HVD using a carrier during a game of scratching post.

Launch all your fighters and look like you're trying to run away to lull him into a false sense of security (the best way to avoid being hit by an enemy when you're piloting a carrier is to face him head-on or behind-on. NEVER sideways.)
then when he gets too close, pop around and pump him full of laserfire and, err, those red things like fullerene pulses.

I think it was kinda a cool story. I look forward to part two.

------------------
In accepting the inevitable, one finds peace.
In denying it, one finds hope.
-Last words of Admiral Williams before the fall of Earth.

You're forgetting about the gunship escorts. A carrier and four gunships could take down a Cantharan HVD easily, and a carrier alone could do it with a little difficulty, provided it had a good pilot.

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Commander Cicion, commander of Phylydion Primary Armada

"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo

Oh, now I see what you mean. I didn't understand what you meant before. The carrier didin't destroy all of those ships in a SINGLE BATTLE, Newt. Sheesh. That was the carrier's TOTAL KILL RECORD for AS LONG AS IT HAD EXISTED.

------------------
Commander Cicion, commander of Phylydion Primary Armada

"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo

Ok, yes, you're right on the first part, I did forget about the gunship escorts, they really even things up. But if a human carrier jumps out right in front of a Cantharan HVD, odds of survival are really low.

This isn't a bad story, but I just personally think that dropping a bunch of numbers trivializes things. Oh well.

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One afternoon,
4000 men
died in the water here.
And 500 more were thrashing,
madly,
As parasites might,
in your blood.
-The Tragically Hip, "Nautical Disaster".