The surviving crew and pilots of the Hegemony point defense fleet cheered on open comms as the Republic’s destroyers peeled away from the fight. Floating in the space surrounding the cruiser were the remnants of most of the enemy destroyers.
The only remaining Federation destroyer fought back to the bitter end. Its crippled body limped in space near the cruiser in a feeble attempt to escape. They had no such luck, as the cruiser easily pointed its largest guns at it, and fired with impunity.
Massive shells tore into it, and shredded it to pieces.
Even as its wreckage fell down towards the planet, the two Republic destroyers angled further down and broke through the atmosphere. Their noses glowed a bright orange from the extreme friction while ionized gasses burned in a layer in front of them.
They flew ahead with their thrusters pushed to the maximum - they needed to catch up to the rest of the fleet that was ahead of them.