"Time."

"Drive core is in purge cycle, prior to restart", reports Myromar. "Time to completion, two point five minutes. Restart in fifteen seconds after that..."

Nearly three minutes - but the MDI dreadnoughts will be here in two. Already I have them on visual, great rusty red shark-like ships, each at least a mile long, "eyes" and "mouth" clusters of heavy cannon and torpedo launchers, and the bird-of-prey markings suggest that the "Hunting Hawks" hold the leashes for these monsters. As there's nothing on file about these ships, it's logical to assume there's a good chance the "Vaggtshaersken" are entirely responsible for the existence of these behemoths, a "secret weapon" ideally suited for the task of standing up against Darkhawk...

"Standing up to" and "defeating" are not the same thing, as I will very shortly be proving.

"Incoming communication", announces Myromar. "Someone on one of those ships wants to talk..."

"Distract me, more like", I tell her. "Open the channel. Let them waste their time."

A Narthani warrior, his beard tightly plaited, appears on my screen, with the insignia of the Vaggtshaersken dominating the wall behind him. "Attention, intruder - your invasion of Mutual Defence Imperative space is a declaration of..."

"Bullshit", I spit back at him, relishing the opportunity to employ a juicy Earth profanity. "This region stopped being MDI space the moment you surrendered it to The Pandemonicum, and allowed them to use this area as a launch site for an attack on Mystalorn. As far as I can see, the opening of hostilities came in the form of your repeated attempts to impede my entirely legal progress, even to the extent of almost causing a highly dangerous spatial rift - you are the aggressors here."

The Narthani captain seems unimpressed. "One of our attack cruisers was destroyed when it crossed your path - a diplomatic courier, carrying two of our Emissaries", he growls. "Explain."

"You tell me", I snap back at him. "If you want to make a formal complaint, my diplomatic staff will be willing to discuss the matter, even arrange reparations, if Dominion is found to be at fault..." Stay away, and I won't kill you all. Stay away... stay away...

"These sectors are subject to special security measures", mutters the Narthani. "Nothing 'diplomatic' about it. Surrender, and you will be allowed to leave, unharmed - your vessel will, of course, have to be impounded..."

Oh, that was the worst possible choice of words... "Kill me, if you can", I demand, feeling The Spark flicker. "Try your hardest, and see just how likely I am to... surrender."

"As you wish", says the Narthani coldly, and the screen goes blank. So that's it decided then, I say to myself. We fight.

The first of the huge warships drops back into normal space, my sensors picking up numerous energy-spikes from her weapons ports. In response, I direct power to my shields, extend my ship's lower "Talons", and prime the big "main guns", readying Dominion One for combat I'd been eager to avoid, but from which I'm not going to shirk.

A second dreadnought emerges from "warp space" close behind the first, again lighting up my sensor display. Cowards - here I am, becalmed, and they're sending two massive warships against me. Not exactly conduct one would expect of a race whose belief system is founded on earning your place in the Grand Lodge of The Great Sky-Chief by living a brave and honourable life...

"You're gonna find the doors to The Grand Lodge closed to you", I mutter as power levels peak on both approaching ships. "Say 'hi' to the Najestkaeragya for me..."

Showing no fear of their "Queen Of The Night", the gatherer of fallen souls, the warships move into visual range - I don't need any help to see the flashes from their weapons ports. Torpedoes are running, and soon after, energy cannons lash against my shield-walls. That was their only chance; take me down on the first pass, and they didn't even come close.

I launch a spread of interceptors to stop the torpedoes, then it's my turn. I bring my main guns, the "eyes" of Dominion One, to bear on the lead ship - and once more, Dominion is required to defend itself, in my name...

Data feeds back along the beams of the main guns as they strike their target, or rather the multi-layered shields of the lead warship. They're putting a big slice of their power output into their energised defences, which are being thoroughly tested by my main guns, and a tight pattern of torpedoes should be enough to punch through.

Talons - two second burst, shared target, one per cent dispersal angle...

It's not common practice to direct an extended burst of torpedoes from the "Talons", as a rapid-fire stream can suffer from "backwash" - torpedoes exploding in the wake of those detonating ahead of them - but that works to my advantage, producing a persistent distortion pattern that prevents the enemy's shields from regenerating too quickly, and the last few torpedoes, shielded against premature detonation, and masked by the explosions around them, manage to get through.

"Not just a - a pretty face", I spit, as torpedoes burst into full bloom against the nose and forward flank of the lead ship. I've fought my share of wars, and I’m still keen enough of mind to dip into the bag of tricks I've accumulated, even though The Spark flatly refuses to be ignored. I - it may have exceeded the ship's capability to absorb my excess energy...

My time is definitely running short, and I haven't even reached "proper" MDI space yet. I have to get out of here, and back on course. "How long 'til we have main drives again?", I ask Myromar. "This is a fight I'd happily leave behind."

"Their forward guns are causing a resonance effect in our shields that's interfering with our start-up sequence", comes her reply. "Still several more minutes, at best, unless you can shut down those guns..."

"That sounds like a plan..." Access forward launchers - prepare planetary denial munitions...

Myromar may be hard at work on the engines, but she's still in control of the ship, and she soon sees what I'm about to do. "Darkhawk, no!", she exclaims. "Interstellar accords expressly prohibit the use of planet-killers against manned space vessels...!"

"I'm dying!", I snap back at her. "If they want to arrest me for war crimes, I'd like to see them try and take a damned super-nova into custody!"

The air lights up as I cry out - did... did I just breathe fire...?

There's no time to explore what did or didn’t happen, for our adversaries are still full of surprises. The warship that knocked us back into normal space is less than a minute away from the combat zone, and the two that are already here are showing some quite unexpected attributes - structures ringing the hull near each end are separating from the main ship, each ringing dividing into four discrete unmanned craft. Instead of being outnumbered two to one, I'm now facing an eighteen-to-one deficit, soon to be twenty-seven to one...

Load planetary denial munitions- stand by to fire... I know it's illegal, but what choice do I have? I extend the upper Talons to deal with the "drones", but otherwise I stuck to my current tactics, giving my opponents no indication of what's to come - as far as they can tell, this is all I have...

...but let no-one say I am without mercy. "Myromar, tell me you got my fire back."

"Negative", sighs my companion. "Those... drones are bouncing sub-phasing pulses off our shields, and we can't form a stable drive-field. I can drop us into IntDim..."

Her words tail off, as she realises that escape into interdimensional space will only put us further away from my final objective. The time for mercy, I regret to inform the universe, is over.

Forward launchers to launch-ready... fire on my mark...

"The drones are wearing down our dorsal shields", reports Myromar. "We can't hold them off much longer..."

I'm ready to give the "fire" order, but something I can't quite identify, tugging ever so gently at the hem of my consciousness, makes me hold back a moment - and before I can marshal my thoughts once more, everything changes. the second warship suddenly tears itself apart, from the tail forward, hull plating peeling from the underlying structure like the opening of a delicate jungle flower. Two pairs of energy beams flash through the fiery bloom of wreckage - beams with which the enemy are already well acquainted...

Sailing through the fading fire come two of the most welcome sights I've ever witnessed; two Phoenix Class starships - the only two currently operational...

...the Phoenix, and Dominion Two.

"Receiving transmission from Dominion Two", announces Myromar. "It's Brighthawk."

That's what I sensed, just a second or two ago. We didn't even need to make contact for me to sense her approach...

"Sorry to interrupt", says my Soul-Sister, "but we just received a priority message from The Central Authority of The Mutual Defence Imperative: your little friends here have just been cut loose. Them and their organisation, the Vaggtshaersken - they're outlaws, guilty of treason, as of just a few minutes ago."

Six energy cannons skewer the remaining warship as it's their turn to be surrounded, and the mighty vessel starts to melt before it comes apart. The third ship never arrives, turning around and fleeing before the three of us come after them, and all that's left are the surviving drone-craft, powered down and inactive now their mother ships have been destroyed - but I take no chances, and have them destroyed before they can even threaten to slow me up any more.

"I'm in contact with one of the commanders of the MDI fleet", reports Mane-of-Night - I wonder how she managed to get away from Sentinel. "They're offering us their most sincere apologies..."

"I don't need apologies", I tell her. "I need a clear path through to the Axxillae system, and full authority to act as I see fit when I get there. I need them to give me Tsadis Haaren."

"Understood", says my dearest friend - I'm glad she's here, too. "I don't know how much of that they'll give you - don't shout at me if you don't get it all..."

There's a pause, then when Mane-of-Night speaks again, she sounds genuinely surprised. "You're cleared to cross into MDI space, with a full diplomatic escort", she announces, amazed. "As far as 'Tsadis Haaren' is concerned, they can't guarantee anything - they can confirm she's sequestered on the third planet of the Axxillae system, but..."

"...that system is under Vaggtshaersken control", I finish for her. "I know..."

Not that a whole sky full of "Hunting Hawks" is going to stand even the slightest hope of stopping me, now that the Hawks of Dominion are three in number. If I'm still alive by then, I may even relish watching them these traitors try.

Asset 15 reporting...

Intruder vessel identified - DOMINION ONE. Course projection completed - no course changes registered since vessel's initial detection; scanning for potential termination points...

Scan of adjacent sectors complete - planets on approximate trajectory: Nazus 2, Dor-Aronda, Trayseer Axxillae, 39-Lothmir, Sador 4... ADVISORY: Trayseer Axxillae is currently under Vaggtshaersken jurisdiction, pending assessment of project development on that planet...

Initiating course change, diverting to Trayseer Axxillae. Message received from Asset 15 Commander: "Whatever Darkhawk wants, I want it first. To The Shades with your orders..."

...to be continued...