Fragmenting Courage (Otherwise Untitled)
#182 of Short Stories
A fighter pilot catches up to her fleet.
~ In a moment of glittering courage, the lynx managed to catch up with the fleet in her light strike fighter, now that it was slowed by battle. The stars were a linear sprawl of rainbow for the moment of coming out of FTL, before the sight of this was replaced with the bright beams of weapons fire, the shimmering explosions of gases and atmosphere in zero g, and twisted masses of what were once ships writhing across what should be sky.
~ Whatever valor was left in her heart diminished to a flicker at the sight of a bismuth cannon's beam finding purchase and cutting its way out from the far side of the cruiser that had been her home for so many months. A blind terror began to overtake her emotions, dragging everything down into a puddle of flat logic. She could hear the spattering of debris beginning to erode through one of her ship's wings, while an unfeeling hand pulled back on the lever to spin up the diminutive FTL engine before it had even fully settled.
~ Numb fingers splayed out across the navigational terminal, punching in the rendevous coordinates for the now commanded retreat. Several portions of her craft's armor lingered in the fight as the hulk of it stepped up into FTL, and the universe was beautiful to her eyes again. Albeit the colors more muted than before.