"Republic fleet?! Two hundred ships?!" Sefrans Tann was shocked. Even she could no longer remain composed. "Damn it! Did we randomly jump into a Galactic Republic Navy base?"
"Probably... not. This is an empty region of space. The nearest star system is 11.7 light-years away," the navigator said.
"Run a diagnostic immediately! Tell me Plague's current condition!" Sefrans Tann slammed her fist into the console. She put real fury behind the blow, and the console, already structurally unstable from the impact, was actually punched open.
In truth, even without a diagnostic, Sefrans Tann knew that Plague was essentially crippled. Forget combat—even flying was difficult.
After the warship emerged from hyperspace, the random jump and the incompletely charged hyperdrive had made the transition extremely unstable. The physical backlash from dropping out of hyperspace left the already battered hull even more damaged.
Moreover, Plague had entered hyperspace carrying a large amount of nearby debris with it. Once the jump ended, the fragments immediately scattered in every direction. One of the warship's four rear fins snapped off as well, taking Plague's last functional missile launcher array with it.
On the bridge, the operators completed the system diagnostic. Looking at the red warning lights covering nearly four-fifths of the hull display, one of them sighed before turning back to report, "Engine output is down to 14%. The fire in Energy Compartment Three still hasn't been extinguished, but a squad of Fourth Civilization Marines just went over and manually lowered the firebreak bulkheads. It shouldn't affect other areas for the time being. The outer armor belt has been penetrated in 1,211 places. Less than one-third of the armor belt still has any defensive capability, and then..."
He sighed again. "We still have 110 point-defense systems and four twin heavy turbolaser turrets capable of firing. The