Bridge, Orion LR Dearth of Dreams
       Kina grimaced, and cradled her injured arm from impact as the Romulan returned fire. Thanks to the cumulative measures taken, the facing shield had held, barely, although she had drained two thirds of her batteries to keep it that way. This Romulan has guts, I'll give him that, she thought, doing a High Energy Turn in a K5B could have cost him the battle - and his ship.
       "On the cycle, double the engines! Give me everything! Full speed out of the asteroids, then maximum acceleration! Re-charge the phasers!"
      The engines roared to greater heights, driving the ship faster out of danger. Behind her, the Romulan snapped around, now facing the rear shield of the Orion Light Raider. Twin balls of green plasma erupted from the weapon mounts on the engines, seeking the stern of the fleeing ship.

       Kina watched through the sensors as the weapons got closer. At this range, there was little chance of evading the weapons, but she hoped the massive jamming from her sensors, as well as the asteroids themselves would protect her.
       True enough, in their mad, mindless dash to catch her ship, the twin balls of plasma ripped into and past rocks of all shapes and sizes. One torpedo lost half of its power from the force of its impact against a hunk of rock the size of a dreadnought.
      At the last moment, a single shaft of blue leaped from one of the wings, as the only unfired phaser punctured the nearer of the two torpedoes. Kina swung to look at the weapons officer, who was busy, hunched over his console.
      Realizing the danger her ship was in, she flipped open the intercom, and switched to the all hands channel. "Brace for impact!" she yelled just at the weakened torpedoes hit the rear shield.
       She was thrown forward by an explosion that was much too close, and an alarm began to ring in her ear, signaling fresh damage to the ship.

Bridge, Romulan K5B Rapier
       "Report!" Ramelius called. His firepower was wasted, and the Orion was already leaving the debris field behind. His only hope was that they had scored enough engine damage to give them time to rearm the plasma torpedoes.
       His hopes were dashed when the analysis came back. "Superficial damage to the Orion. Their impulse drive is burning out ... maybe due to the doubled output ... but their warp drive is still at full! The torpedoes lost too much power to the asteroids!"
       Ramelius cursed, slamming his fist against the side of his chair. "Track their bearing, and alert the nearest units! I want that pirate tracked!" In his mind, he had given up any attempt to bring it back to battle. It had already skidded to pass in front of him, bringing an undamaged shield to face Rapier, and was pressing hard to leave the system behind. "Bring us up to best speed, and plot a pursuit course. I don't want ..."
       He was interrupted by a singular sound that he wasn't expecting, yet should have been prepared for. Out of the corner of his screen, a flash dissipated, and his ship was rocked by the subspace pulse of the exploding bomb.

Bridge, Orion LR Dearth of Dreams
       "Gotcha!" Kina yelled. The Romulan ship had run directly over her only transporter bomb, which her crew had dropped out of the hatch. The bomb had detonated against the barely-repaired flank shield of the Romulan destroyer. "Who ordered that?" There was no anger in her voice, but it left no room to hide what she wanted.
       The weapons officer gulped, then looked near her, but not at her. "Sir, Jared dropped the T-bomb from engineering after the Romulan completed its turn."
        "And he didn't bother telling me?" she asked, not sure whether to be thankful or furious. I'll see him later. "What's the status of the Romulan?"
       "His engines have maybe 25% damage. One of the torpedo launchers is off-line, as well as one of the phasers. She can't pursue us in that condition." The science officer breathed a sigh of relief, but tensed as a new data poured in. "Sir! The Romulan is transmitting!"
       "To us?" Kina asked.
       "No," the science officer said. "It's a Romulan code, broadcast, not tight beam."
       A moment of silence went across the Bridge as they waited for more information. The engines throbbed down to a more reasonable level of power, and various systems that were no longer being fed power died down, including the electronic warfare suite. "Well? Can we break it?"
      The science officer shook her head. "No, Skipper. But it was in all directions, so it was probably a call for help or a contact report."
        Kina nodded. "Steady on course, full speed. Stand down from combat alert. Set the sensors to passive, see if Jared can fix the damage, and send a tight beam message to the nearest outpost. Tell them we're coming in for supplies, and may need a helping hand." She rubbed her shoulder as the sound of the engines changed, indicating their transition to higher warp velocities. The Dearth of Dreams had lived to fight another day.