Ravens of Eternity

382 Devastation, Pt Rhylen Terra, Vencal System, Imperial Occupied Front

The Imperial capital ships’ bow chitin was shattered to pieces by the Erinyes’ relentless barrage. They splintered and cracked and split into shards, even as numerous mines exploded all around them. But none of the damage slowed them down, not even in the slightest.

They barreled their way towards the Erinyes’ capital ships completely undeterred, even though their chitin crumbled around them.

“Damage report,” demanded swarmchief Alethii. The screen surrounding him was filled with all manner of destruction and violence. It showed their ships being ferociously torn apart.

But even amidst all of that, the drogar was hardly afraid.

“The fleet has sustained nearly 40% armor damage on average,” replied a technician somewhere in the floor below. “Exoframe damage is averaging 8%. Two battleships have been breached, and have experienced a few dozen casualties.”

Alethii simply nodded at the news. As though it was all going accordingly to some brilliant plan he had devised.

“Maneuver us right up to their line,” he replied. “Doubletime.”

“Yes, swarmchief.”

.....

Behind the swarmchief, Konleth’s projection appeared incredibly dubious and doubtful. To him, Alethii was committing some major blunders. The senator might not have been very well versed in military strategy or tactics, but he felt that whatever play the swarmchief was making wasn’t the right one.

He began to speak in protest, but his projection blinked on and off all the while.

“You must be...” he stuttered. “Why would... clearly goading you into... be issuing reinforcements...”

Then, the projection winked out completely.

“Swarmchief,” said another technician. “Intergalactic and long-range communications just shut down. Possibly some Hegemony interference at play.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ve much bigger problems to deal with,” replied Alethii. “Activate antigrav wells, and deploy the rest of the skirmishers. I want every hangar empty, and I want those Hegemony cap ships in tatters.”

“Yes, swarmchief.”

Outside, the Imperial fleet made their way right up to the Erinyes. They angled their rear ends outward, and swung their port sides towards their enemies, only a few hundred meters away.

At the same time, they activated their broadside antigravity fields. Waves of potent red energy swept out, then pulled back in, and captured whatever shattered chitin and debris that was floating nearby.

Not only that, but any rail slugs that the Erinyes ships fired were caught in the antigrav fields as well. They slowly spun down, even as their electromagnetic charge dissipated into the field itself, through the various debris caught up in them.

And while the battleships lined up against the Erinyes, the carriers behind them opened up the remainder of their hangar bays and released the rest of their skirmish vessels. Mecha and fighters and drones swarmed out of them, and immediately charged the Hegemony ships.

Only this time, none were accompanied by frigates, and it was the mecha who led the charge.

Since the Erinyes’ destroyers and frigates were already engaged with the first half of the skirmish vessels, the second half of Imperial skirmishers were practically unopposed.

They charged up to the Hegemony capital ships and cruisers with hardly a worry – whatever defensive guns they had were simply too large and cumbersome against the skirmishers. The Imperial squadrons easily evaded their clumsy shots and pierced through any defensive screens

Streams of defensive chaingun fire and standard plasma beams filled the space between the two fleets, but the vast majority missed completely. The few that hit certainly wrecked whatever vessels they hit, but it wasn’t enough to dent their numbers.

The guns were so ineffective that most of the pilots simply ignored them.

Instead, the only thing that threatened them were the hundreds of drones that patrolled the Hegemony ships themselves. The moment they neared, the drones swarmed all around them, and pelted their ships with whatever weapons they had

Their chitin was shattered by their potent rail cannons, and was scored by their robust plasma lances. Some were punctured by charged needle bolts, and others were hammered by cluster bomblets.

One was hit by so many weapon types that their fighter was literally torn to pieces. Its chitin shattered into tiny shards as its weapons were blasted off, all before it spun uncontrollably and crashed into the side of a battleship.

It broke into so many pieces that its pilot was flung out into the void.

Despite the damage and devastation they took, the Imperial pilots kept on with their attack. Instead of engaging with the drones, they formed up numerous attack squadrons and swarmed the battleships, carriers, and cruisers.

They flew in waves across their surfaces, and pelted the Erinyes with heedless fervor.

It was the mecha who fired first – their back-mounted missile racks slid open and fired countless dozens of corrosive missiles all around them. Streams of them flew straight towards the capital ships’ plating and burst open violently.

Dark caustic clouds spilled out from the shattered missiles and spread out wherever they struck.

Corrosives laced with destructive nanites chewed through the mostly metal ores of the Hegemony plating, and dissolved them rapidly. They broke down the various ores, from the titanium to the vanadium to the niobium, and left the base carbide lattices behind.

Which were subsequently annihilated by the fighters and drones that came in behind. Their thin bright orange disintegration beams ripped through whatever was left, and splintered the fragile remains into pieces.

Waves of them swept across the surface of the Hegemony ships and stripped them bit by bit, missile by missile, beam by beam. They tore them open with precision and viciousness to the point where they dug down into the structure below the armor.

Some were able to outright breach the capital ships’ decks, and sucked dozens of crewmembers out into space. If they weren’t cut to pieces in the attacks themselves.

“I need a full count on every Imperial skirmisher on the field,” said the Star Dragon.

New reports immediately came up on the tacmap in front of him, and gave him multiple full breakdowns of every Imperial vessel in the battle.

All around them were hundreds of Imperial drones, fighters, and mecha, but split into two separate forces. One group clashed with the capital ships, while the other group fought against their destroyers and frigates.

The current count of active units numbered close to 900, and the estimated count of neutralized units numbered close to 300.

Despite being exactly what he needed, the Star Dragon couldn’t help but frown at their situation. He was glad that his makeshift fleet was doing its best and held the line, but the Imperials certainly did their best to break it.

They were clearly relentless and determined, both potent ingredients in any fight.

“Move into the next phase,” he commanded. “Activate the skirmish squadrons.”

The space above and below the Imperial fleet lit up as hundreds of Hegemony fighters, mecha, and corvettes powered on. Their forces practically sandwiched the Imperial capital ships on their topside and bottom flanks, and charged in without hesitation.

Most concentrated their fire on any destroyers along their path, and cut through their powerful chitin with constant fire. They ripped into them with overcharged plasma lances until they bore into the exoframe beneath.

Then they followed up with anything else they had – missiles and rail slugs and even regular AA or chaingun fire.

More than a third of the Imperial destroyers were utterly annihilated in the Erinyes skirmishers’ initial push. Some exploded from the inside, as their munitions were ignited and destroyed. Their hard chitinous exteriors broke apart from the internal stresses, and flung out in every direction.

Not that they stopped there. The Erinyes skirmish squadrons kept on pushing past the Imperial defensive ships and headed straight towards the nine capital ships as fast as they could.

They wove through space and evaded as much fire as they could as they sped to their targets. It didn’t even matter if they were shot down on their way – they simply kept on going with resolute grit and determination.

Among the various skirmish vessels, Freya and her Valkyrie squadron led the way. All 48 of them were in their usual Varulv mecha, but updated with the best equipment possible. Or, at least, best at combating Imperial armaments.

–

Squadron: Valkyrie

Squad Leader: Freya

Loadout:

– Hrothgar Tyr “Varulv” Light Assault Suit [A]

– Myrmidon Technology “Gungnir” CoilSpear [A]

– NeutroDrive Galactic “Stronghold” Tower Shield [A]

– Primal Machinations “Flametongue” Heavy Plasma Lance (SM) [A]

–

Next to her squadron was Maharathi, led by Kali. And all 48 of them were in their Rakshasa chassis, also with hyper specialized anti-Imperial loadouts.

–

Squadron: Maharathi

Squad Leader: Kali

Loadout:

– Mechanica Dharma “Rakshasa” Warmonger Chassis Type 13 [A]

– Primal Machinations “Planetcracker” Omniresonant Greathammer [S]

– Primal Machinations “Primdahl” Round Shield [A]

– Mechanica Dharma “Retribution” Mass Driver Pistol [A]

–

Each of them were installed with the hyperionization submodules that Raijin had put together, which helped protect their armor and shields from Imperial disintegrators. And so they easily raised their shields in front of them, and happily shrugged off any incoming fire from the ships they charged towards.

But they were far from the only Republic forces on the field.

Behind them was the Accursed Bootlegger. Which, in the last few weeks and months had also been completely retrofitted with the best equipment possible. Even more so after the start of the war.

Of course, it still retained its heavy sensor cluster and didn’t install any weapons, and so had no capacity to fight directly. At the same time, its signals and emissions were so low that it was practically invisible compared to the mecha in front of it.

And it too had a hyperionization submodule installed, though they hardly needed it. They practically flew through the battlefield unscathed.

Inside, Lucifer and a dozen of hir analysts and tacticians huddled around portable tacmaps and kept watch over the battle itself.

Each of them was lightly armed and armored, and seemingly ready to fight. Not that they planned to.

In the ship’s hold along with them were 48 power armored commandos, led by Xylo. All of them were heavily armed and armored, and were champing at the bit to get into the action.

“This one,” said Lucifer. “It looks ripe for the picking.”

Ze traced their path towards one of the Imperial battleships on the field, and pinpointed one of its two open hangar bays.

“We hit it hard,” ze continued. “And we hit it fast.”

.....

“Acknowledged,” Freya replied over comms. “Valkyrie – we’re going in first. Weapons free!”

Freya and her Valkyrie squadron immediately pushed their throttles forward to the maximum and charged towards their prey with ferocity. Each of them primed their shoulder-mounted plasma lances until the barrels glowed and the circuitry sang.

They focused their attention on the defensive turrets that were outside the hangar bay itself, even despite any incoming fire they themselves suffered. Their concentrated beams tore through the turrets’ thick chitin, and ripped into the soft systems below, and annihilated any operators inside.

Some exploded as their more volatile systems ruptured violently, and flung their shattered chitin in every direction.

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