EXTRACT FOR
Harvester 7
(Andy Lang)

His thoughts were shattered by an urgent and shrill alarm.

"Report;" he signalled to the bridge.

"Weapons lock." replied the duty officer, "Multiple unknowns."

"Shields up." he declared and raced ahead of the rest of the off-duty bridge crew, many of them running clutching the remains of their meal.

"Have you identified them yet?" he called as he stepped onto the bridge and felt the shudder of an impact on the port ventral shields.

"Negative, the computer can't identify them." suddenly a thought entered his mind, "Feed the data down to Kressa" and without another word he raced to the grav-lift.

"Relik," he called as he reached the lowest deck, "Maintain shields and increase speed."

"I know them," Kressa confirmed the second he placed his finger on the touch pad, "They are called the Su'al."

"Are they a serious threat?" he asked quickly.

"On their own, no, but they are pack hunters, usually they scout in threes, when they discover a target two will pursue and the other will signal the rest of the fleet, a fleet can number in the hundreds... then they become a very serious threat, they will bombard your shields and drain your energy until you are powerless to resist."

"We can out run them." replied Maulik with confidence.

Kressa disagreed, "They are a primitive race, but their ships are fast... much faster than 7... let me out Maulik," she pleaded, "We have to neutralise the scout that has gone to signal the fleet, facing that many combined, I'm not sure even I can handle them all."

"Relik... assemble the gunnery crews and drop out of FTL, all available power to be diverted to the shields, Kressa and I will handle this. She will send you all the tactical data on the Su'al she has now, prepare a defence strategy in case we don't make it back."

"Understood," replied Relik, "And may the Gods be with you... both of you." he added privately making Maulik smile, he was beginning to accept Kressa for what she actually was, rather than what he perceived her to be.

"FTL disengaged," she growled, "Get the hold doors open Maulik," he felt her tension and for the first time he felt raw primal aggression, "Quickly." she urged.

The ship rocked violently as a missile jinked through the gunnery fire and was absorbed by the shields extracting a heavy price on the reserves, Kressa growled again and Maulik heard her reactor straining under her impatience for the slowly sliding Hold doors, "That's enough." she cried and shot through the opening with just microns to spare on either side.

"Hunt down the ship heading for the fleet." Maulik ordered.

"Leave me alone," she growled assertively in reply, "I know what I'm doing."

Maulik sat in stunned silence for a moment before attempting to reply, "Do not interfere." she warned him as she bore down on the lead fighter firing a rapid pulse before sliding sideways to avoid the debris of her first kill.

"Yesssssss." she roared and scorched onto the tail of the remaining fighter as it tried to run.

"Fight me coward." she screamed, and with a gut-wrenching swoop she unloaded another pulse of energy at point blank range, accelerating through the explosion before it could reach her unshielded hull. "Now I feel alive," she purred with satisfaction as she plotted an intercept course with the remaining fighter, "Hang on Maulik," she chuckled before lurching forward in pursuit, "Thirty seconds." she forecast and rapidly scanned ahead. "Oh my," she chuckled, "He has found some friends."

"What?" cried Maulik who felt like nothing more than a passenger.

"Six," she growled, "With three more on the way, only a small pack... such a pity. Now watch what I can really do." she laughed as Maulik felt her building power.

For less than a minute Maulik clung to his seat in awe at Kressa's combat prowess, hitting the two lead fighters with a stunning blast of energy she tore past and turned 180� before the Su'al pilots knew what was happening to them, Maulik could only sense from her elation that two more had been vaporised as she dropped onto their tail, his vision blurred by the G forces he fought to keep his meal down, the remaining two fighters streaked apart obviously hoping that she would chase the other allowing a small window for escape, but she was too fast, she pounced on the first with a ferocious turn of speed and with a gentle and carefully aimed pulse she disabled the craft leaving its reactor venting plasma into space before instantly turning to destroy his partner who was tearing away at three times the speed of light.

With fascination Maulik witnessed her toy with the disabled fighter, its weapons fully functional but its engines dead she played offering him a clear shot before leaping away from the energy pulses. Maulik recalled a documentary he had watched many years before when he had been little more than a hatchling, he pictured now how the savage feline from a distant planet had teased and tormented a small rodent type creature. Attack and retreat, the cat permitted a small escape before catching the terrified creature again to repeat the process. 

"Yessss." she growled as she finished her sport in a ball of flames before turning to face the three late arrivals.

"This is what I was born to do," she purred as she casually destroyed the lead craft before hovering static inviting attack, "Come and get me boys," she purred before dodging a missile and sending the second craft to oblivion, "Only one left." she complained and Maulik sensed her disappointment.

"These creatures are no challenge," she sulked before screaming down on the fighter that was urgently attempting to escape her fury, "Goodbye." she whispered and a split-second later flames erupted and debris flew.