Most soldiers immediately funnel into the two boarding ships, but a few trickle towards Captain Phillips. You have flown the window washing ship, nearly every week, so how hard could a military-grade fighter be? You and a few others form a semi-circle around captain Phillips, and he tells everybody the plan. "You only job is to escort the two boarding ships. You have not been trained in dog fighting, so just fly close to the boarding ships and look imposing. If someone gets too close, just fly towards him as a group until he retreats. Your ships are the older models, and they won't last a second in real combat, so stay in formation. Good luck." Everybody funnels towards the remaining ships, with the soldiers selecting the newer models first, leaving you with the oldest ship. It was still better than the window-washer, so you were quite content. You wedge your long rifle and pistol into some grooves, and tie a string to the triggers and into the cockpit, so you could trigger them from inside. You also "borrow" a staple gun and a hot glue gun from a mechanic and attach them similarly. You also find a resupply of duct tape and take it with you. You then close the canopy and start the ship.
Some actual pilots fly out first, followed by the boarding ships, followed by your group of rag-tag fighters. You leave the hangar through the bottom of the ship (or what was the bottom while artificial gravity was turned on) the machine turrets around the hangar door keep away any fighters from attacking the exiting ships, but after you leave their effective range, the enemy start harassing the boarding ships. Individual fighters come into range, fire a few shots, then retreat again after the escorts turn to face them, before returning again. Most shots miss, and most that hit do trivial damage, but a few ships get disabled or destroyed, slowly whittling down the boarding ship's defenders. You look for the RFSS Sinop, and are surprised to see how far away it is. The USSS Lexington was firing massive projectiles at the Sinop, but you could see it was taking many shots as well. There were creaters all along the length of the Lexington where shots were landing. It didn't look like any shots had pierced the external armor yet, but it was only a matter of time until a few shots land in the same place and punch a hole straight through.
The boarding ships and your escort ships were still accelerating towards the Sinop, but so were the enemy fighters. And your scanners show that a group of a dozen fighters were forming up on your starboard site to prepare a strike on the boarding craft you are supposed to be defending. Your ship is only armed with 2 Gauss blasters and the weapons you jury-rigged on it. Unless you got a lucky hit, your shots would only cause a distraction. You need a full disruption.