Striking at the Source

The supplier, Mr. Troucan, had set up a small fortress in a pocket of deadspace in the Balle system. There were a scattered set of habitation modules outlying a warehouse, a bunker, and a series of sentry guns when the HSG fleet and a squadron of a few other mercenary companies as well. Titus was commanding a fleet of 3 battleships, 4 battlecruisers, and about twenty cruisers and frigates. The sentries opened fire, raking the shields of 3 of the battlecruisers, but without focused fire, the shields held, and the other ships were able to silence them. The battleships opened fire on the habitation modules, which fell quickly. The warehouse's hull was nearly breached when the smugglers' defense fleet showed up. Ryven commanded a Merlin class frigate, which he banked toward the closest enemy, an Incursus. The two ships orbited each other at 10 km, trading fire. The Incursus' drone was eating away at Ryven's shields, but he was rescued by a fellow pilot helping to blow the Incursus apart. It exploded in a flash of white, and the drone, without orders, sat idle in space.
One by one, the smugglers were defeated, until only a Dominix-class battleship remained, it's ugly bulk silhouetted against the system's star. Titus's fleet was down to ten ships, having lost half it's battlecruisers during the opening stages, and about fifteen frigates in the last ten minutes. Titus ordered the fleet to fire everything at the defiant battleship, which had ordered it's heavy drones to attack the nearby Raven class battleship piloted by HSG's rival, Matthias Tijoli. The Raven's shields dissipated the same time the Dominix's did, but with little armor, the Raven was in it's death throes.
"Titus, I think we both know I'm not getting out of this alive." Matthias's voice was strained. "I just wanna say, you're a rotten bastard, and I always hated you."
The Raven exploded in a white flash just before the Dominix did. The fleet swung to face the bunker where Mr. Troucan waited for his death, hope lost with the destruction of the smuggler fleet.
"Rot in hell Matthias." Titus laughed to himself. Then he keyed the fleet comms channel. "Direct all fire onto the bunker, fire at will."
Ryven's merlin swooped toward the bunker, guns blazing.