Ravens of Eternity

380 Pulled to the Front, Pt The Star Dragon watched as his opening move dismantled the Imperial line. His fleet’s barrage easily ripped into their armor and blasted entire chunks apart with ease. And they seemingly did so with absolute impunity – the Imperials didn’t even fire back.

“Sir, incoming Imperial skirmish vessels,” said a technician nearby. “Hundreds, and in numerous waves. They seem to be headed towards the capital ships and cruisers, mostly.”

“That’s their M.O.” replied the Star Dragon. “Pull the fleet back further into the debris field, closer towards the center. Have the support ships keep those skirmishers off us as long as possible.”

“What about the Imperial fleet, sir?”

“Oh, they’ll come after us soon enough. For now, let’s lay down a little bait.”

The Erinyes fleet stopped firing their rail cannons and pulled back again. They wove between the wrecks and detritus and went a bit deeper into the debris field, even as the Imperial skirmish vessels poured into it.

The first wave led the charge straight towards the closest carrier, and opened fire the moment they were able. Drones and fighters let loose with their thin bright orange beams and scarred whatever armor plating they hit.

However, unlike most other Hegemony ships they had hit, instead of cutting deep into the plating itself, their beams fizzled out near the surface. Their charged particles were easily countered by the hyperionized plating, and their damage was drastically minimized.

Instead of deep, thin cuts, the armor only suffered shallow scars that were far from penetrating, and barely etched the surface.

.....

And then came the Imperial mecha. Though they were best used during planetary assaults, they still had some utility in zero-g combat. In fact, they increased a great deal simply because their thrust was unimpeded by gravity or atmospheric pressure.

So they could accelerate and cruise as fast as the fighters.

Inside, each of the pilots adjusted their systems and aimed their weapons at their targeted carrier. Numerous targeting datapoints flashed on their screens, which they locked in on quickly.

Then, activated their weapon systems.

What was normally a particle cannon on their backs was instead a sleek missile rack. A half dozen circular slats slid open in an instant, and revealed the dark-green missiles underneath.

But before they got a chance to fire, the Erinyes’ defensive screen filled the space between them.

As their capital ships lumbered away to reposition, their destroyers and frigates lagged behind somewhat in order to cover their maneuver. And they weren’t shy about emptying their guns into the sea of drones and fighters and mecha.

Streams of electrified repeater fire struck the numerous drones first. The rounds struck their relatively thin chitin and shattered them to pieces on impact. They then embedded themselves deep in the drones and annihilated many systems and circuits within.

Most that were hit simply shut down, but kept on going albeit uselessly. Some exploded outright, or were consumed by their demimatter batteries.

The fighters and mecha were able to mostly shrug off the repeater fire, which only mildly chipped or cracked their more robust chitin. But then again, that wasn’t all they had to contend with.

They were also met with streams of antiarmor flak. Countless shells streaked towards the Imperial pilots, and exploded right in their paths, which tossed them aside from the force. Some even smashed into each other, which caused a middling damage on their chitin.

But that wasn’t all.

Instead of firing out superheated spheres in every direction, each of the shells instead released a powerful wave of electrophotonic energy that passed mostly through the ships themselves. They swept through the semi-organic systems and modules, and caused them to seize up or stop.

Even the pilots inside were affected – the muscles in their bodies tensed up uncontrollably as the sheer energies passed through them. Though the wave itself flashed by in a fraction of a second, it felt like an eternity to those who were hit.

For the Erinyes, it was long enough for them to strike them down.

After the frigates blasted them with AA turrets, the destroyers followed up with their rail cannons. They aimed them straight into the stunned fighters and mecha, and fired without hesitation. They smashed squarely into many of them, and utterly obliterated them.

The first round often pulverized their chitin, while the second one punched through and eliminated the pilot, or whatever else, inside.

In the midst of this all were the few Imperial frigates, who were also under heavy fire. Though the AA blasts certainly had an effect, they were mostly unaffected. Their critical personnel and modules were simply too deep behind armor and insulation to be greatly affected.

They could also safely ignore any chaingun armor, charged or not. Their chitin was simply too robust.

What they couldn’t handle were the destroyers and frigates’ heavy plasma lances, which were all concentrated on them. The beams ripped into their chitin, hard. Massive flakes of blackened armor were blasted off violently and flung into space.

Many concentrated their beams on the same spot, and tore through the armor and down to the exoframe with painful ease. And from there, they annihilated everything they touched.

“Swarmchief! The first assault wave has been routed!” reported a tactician. “They’re requesting permission to dock for repairs.”

“Absolutely not,” replied the swarmchief. “This is a war, not a pleasure cruise. They haven’t even lost half their numbers! Have them take up the rear. Any remnants from future waves can reinforce them.”

“Yes, swarmchief.”

“Did I mention how interesting all of this is?” said Konleth. “Yes? Well, I’ll simply mention it again.”

“If you’ve something to say,” snarled Alethii, “then please say it.”

“Well, if you must insist... Don’t you find it curious that they’re technologically matched, and yet they’re still fleeing? Doesn’t it seem like they’re leading you where they want to, swarmchief.”

“Yes, of course I’ve realized that! But what do you want me do to? Should the fleet stand idly by while a Hegemony fleet threatens us?”

“Oh, I’m not saying you don’t have difficult decisions in front of you, swarmchief. Only that the ones you do make are interesting.”

“Swarmchief, apologies for interrupting,” said an analyst, “but we’ve detected a pattern in the enemy ships’ energy signatures.”

Alethii, who was on the verge of snapping back at the senator, quickly turned back around to read his reports.

“Continue,” he said.

“It appears their energy capacitors are unable to provide their total demand,” began the analyst. “To counteract that, they seem to be adjusting power demand on the fly, as needed. Which suggests that their hyperionized plating isn’t active while they fire their guns.”

Alethii turned towards Konleth with a grin.

“I don’t know how you all do it in the senate,” he said, “but on the battlefield, we use rigorous, real life testing. We act only after having data to act upon.”

“And it certainly seems you’ve found the data you want,” replied Konleth. “Congratulations are, perhaps, in order.”

The sarcasm in his voice was so thin that it was practically undetectable. At least, not by the swarmchief.

Instead Alethii took it as a compliment, and grinned in satisfaction.

“The fleet may advance,” he said.

The Imperial fleet began to move towards the debris field, even as the main Erinyes fleet settled into position close to the center of the detritus.

While the Erinyes’ destroyers and frigates tangled with the Imperial drones, fighters, and mecha, the carriers, battleships, and cruisers opened up their myriad drone bays. Hundreds of them poured out, and quite literally created clouds surrounding them.

Then, they began to defend their ships. Some flew closely around their ships’ hulls, in search of enemies to shoot, or damage to repair, or things to report. Others flew in rings around their parent ship, like fighters on patrol.

A few, like the Corvus Republic’s unnamed cruiser, had deployed antigravity drones for their defense. And they formed up into clusters along their broadsides.

All of the Temple of Discord’s drones were sent straight to reinforce the fight against the skirmish assault force. None of theirs were designed as a defensive measure, and would have been useless in that role.

Despite being mere drones, they were well armed and armored. Their light plasma lances were still powerful enough to cut through enemy drone armor, and also damage fighter and mecha armor as well.

They swarmed through their numbers, and bit deep into their chitin with every pass.

Not that they fared very well against counterattacks, of course. Though their armor was thicker than usual, they were still fairly standard and cheap. They practically withered under Imperial beams.

“Fleet in position, sir,” reported an officer.

The Star Dragon nodded at him, then turned back towards the center screen. There, multiple live feeds focused solely on the advancing Imperial capital ships. He watched patiently, as the last of them crossed into the debris field itself.

“Arm the mines,” he said flatly.

“Yessir.”

Ever since the Erinyes fleet had entered the vast debris field, they had been laying down numerous large mines. More than that, they distributed them among the wrecks and detritus, which easily hid them from Imperial view.

And since they weren’t armed, they were never on the enemy’s sensors. At least, until they suddenly were.

The Imperial fleet found itself in the middle of a vast, active minefield. Which seemed to detonate all at the same time, all around them. The blasts caused shockwaves to ripple through the Imperial ships, which were strong enough that they knocked every Drogar in them to the floor or into walls.

Those who were closest to the blasts were sent flying with such force that their bones shattered on impact.

And the exterior of the ships fared equally terribly. The mines had enough explosive power to cause the chitin to ripple and flex at the moment of detonation. The areas most stressed by it chipped and shattered and fragmented in the moments following.

Worse, any other mines in the debris field immediately moved towards all of the explosions – they had various forms of heat and signature tracking, as well as rudimentary targeting and vector thrust systems.

In other words, they moved towards the Imperial ships, attracted by all the activity.

And they too joined in on the explosive fun.

The Star Dragon marveled at what he was seeing on his screens, and with a grin issued his next order.

“Weapons free,” he said.

And the Erinyes certainly opened up everything they had. Every capital ship fired their rail cannons with full charge, and slammed sabot rounds right into the Imperial fleet, right where they had been softened up by the mines.

They ripped through the weakened chitin, and tore off massive chunks of armor one blast at a time.

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