Casualties

The impact of the missile took almost half her shield out in one leisurely hit.
Cha startled out of her dozing salvaging. She had been totally oblivious of the clearly once more proven to be dangerous universe around her.
Before it dimly started dawning on her what was happening, the ship already was fraught with recurring alarms. "'I wasn't asleep," she said in a hoarse, feeble voice, apologizing to the ship, but it ignored her and spit out the battle data.
She cringed. Gah! An Angel! They were everywhere, as if they owned the damned place. And not just any Angel - good heavens - a battleship! She had never seen battleships roaming this part of the solar system; there simply wasnt any fun to be had here for battleships. Just small bait and relatively worthless stuff, like Cha in her rupture. Hmmm. Not that she was worthless - in fact Cha valued her own life pretty much, thank you.
"Go away!" she yelled into the communication channel.
It stayed silent for a while, and then she heard him laugh loudly.
"Oh, come on, it was just a little missile" he chuckled, and immediately another little missile took the other half of her shield out. Cha did not at all like the casual tone of this remark, and thought it would be as well to introduce some other subject of conversation.
"What in heaven's name are you doing here? This part of the universe is for the little people!"
"You sound real cute when you're angry, you know", the voice came back, unperturbed. Cha found him decidedly uncivil.
The targetlock alarm started bleeping again. "Dont you know your people know my people!", she insisted, "we are supposed to be working together!" but the lock stayed on. She braced for the impact, but the blow didn't come.
"What does he think he is doing", she mumbled, and frantically started giving defense commands. She wouldnt go without any slashing back, no sir!, even if it would only scrape his surface. She would get close to him and do her utmost best to be at least annoying. She locked him and turned the ship, pushing the microwarpdrive to its limits.
"You're in trouble now!", she warned him, praying the capacitor would hold.
He answered with a rattling salvo, but to her great delight it was miles off. "Awww," he said, "i missed you."
The missile she sent to him as a reply fluttered off in space, hitting nothing but stardust. "Splendid!", she sighed displeased.
"Come on babe," he said, "let me take your shiny shields down, and then that sexy armor, so i can reach your sweet little hull."
She was genuinely shocked. "That's not at all a proper way of expressing yourself," she answered with some severity, "it's very rude even."
A strain of unbridled laserbeams broke out from his ship, eating her armor away in a really alarming fashion. Truely exasperating behavior.
"You really expect me to roll over and play dead?", she hissed haughtily. He bursted in laughter. "No," he said, "that wasn't exactly what i had in mind. At least not the dead part."
Well, at least he wouldn't pod her. She came to her senses. It didn't matter much which way she put it: no way she would be able to hurt him before she would be hurt a lot worse. She could still try warping out. Probably the only sensible thing to do, since it looked like he was toying with her, that impetuous sadist. He would slowly, teasingly, mockingly take her hull and then wham, there would Cha go.
She resolutely gave the warp command. The crippled rupture gave all it could, but she didnt get anywhere. On the contrary - he was reeling her in, like a fish on a hook.
"Doooon't! C'mon! C'mon!", she yelled again, "i'm trying to get some space between us here!"
He basked in amusement: "It must be fatal attraction."
Hmm. She noticed the numbers. Within autocannon reach. She acted quickly. The sputtering rupture shook around and her four autocannons blasted right into his shield.
"Nice thinking," he sounded appreciative. She checked the damage stats. Dang! He barely had a scratch.
The rupture shook again and Cha felt queasy for a moment. His guns had cut through her armor like a knife through butter, setting off a multitude of other alarms.
"Still alive, baby?" he actually sounded a little worried.
"That hurt," she gasped, and then, "You'd better not do that again!"
She calculated. His turrets wouldnt be able to find her fast enough if she now moved into orbit. Ha!
She gave it all she had, and saw with great satisfaction how his shield finally started to show some red. It was uncannily slow, but he couldn't hit her.
His voice sounded unscathed and unshaken. "Come on," he said, "at this rate you will never have enough ammo before you have to give up anyway." She generally gave herself very good advice, though she very seldom followed it, but yes, she might get out of ammo and patience. True that.
"And you know i can push the button any time i like", he added soothingly. She sighed. That, she knew all too well.
"Okay," she gave in. "What do you want?"


"Sweety," she said much later, stretching lazily right before she fell asleep in his arms that she knew so well, "i wish you wouldn't keep vanishing and appearing that way. You make one quite giddy."