It fires. You board it.

"Sir, its closing on us fast. Nine hundred thousand miles away and dropping."

"Prepare all weapons, sound all alerts, I want to be prepared just in case."

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir."

The distance between your escort and the unidentified supercarrier closes quickly. You are always awed by the size of a supercarrier-class starship - easily double the size of your flagship carrier.

"Any successful contact yet?"

"None sir."

"Fine, prepare to fire warning shot."

Suddenly, alarms blaze, flashing red. You watch through the glass as the supercarrier opens fire. Hundreds of missiles arc through space, towards the leading frigate. Blooms of fire appear as the first missiles in the salvo break against the frigate's shields. The shields shimmer, rippling as they attempt to contain the hostile energy. Another wave of missiles breaks against the shields, and they fail. The frigate's armor explodes as the missiles impact. A cannon shot rips through the space between the two ships. The round punches straight through your frigate crippling its engines. In the space of less than 10 seconds, your frigate has been taken out.

You order your ships to fire. Missiles batter the enemy's shields. Cannons flash as they blast magnetically accelerated projectiles. The enemy ship returns fire, ripping part another frigate.

By the time you are able to disable the supercarrier's engines and weapons, you count all of your light cruisers and frigates, and two destroyers among the casualties.

You order a simultaneous boarding operation on the supercarrier, and rescue operation for your crippled ships - beaming an assistance request back to Lore. You fly with the boarding operation, watching through the front window as a hundred boarding craft propel from your remaining ships towards the supercarrier. The first craft latch onto the enemy, and you radio in for a report.

"Sergeant Ridley reporting. No contact yet sir, this ship looks abandoned so far."