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Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:21:17 GMT
The Devourer: Capitol Space, Crucible Location
The Union fleet had recieved the co-ordinates of the location of the Crucible from two seperate sources, once from Carnaith once from the Annolidan probe that had observed the energy flash from the raid. Once this information had been processed at record speed the assembled AGA fleet that had sat ready now propelled itself into the fray.
They had been sat watching the updates from Rubikon, hoping to recieve word of the Crucibles location and now the time had come. The Union fleet tore its way out of FTL in the system that contained the Devourer, the massive black hole filling all view screens and sensors as the 1200 blue triangular vessels formed up into anti nuclear formation, the 30km form of the Transcendant Angel in their midst. The Union fleet came out guns blazing, the nearest outer sensor stations and defense platforms in far orbits were destroyed by overwhelming barrages of Mass driver fire as the Union cleared the way for the rest of the AGA fleet. Sensor readings flooded in, painting a picture of the very weapon that had claimed so many lives.
The Crucible itself sat motionless, its imposing form by far the biggest thing before them, dwarfing even the various starbases and platforms around it. Repair work was obvious from the Carnaithian raid, and its gate had been throw out of syhncronous orbit, a new one was already on its way to replace it. It was also clear that the APP had mustered everything they had at their disposal to defend the Crucible. Thousands of ships from nearly every single APP nation sat ready in formation to fight the AGA and hurl their attack back into the void. Hundreds of defence platforms also floated passively as the incoming signals of the allied appearance now triggered a hive of activity from the APP forces.
Dewitt watched from the expansive bridge of the Union class super dreadnought, the forces arrayed against them were large, but he knew that as long as they destroyed that horrific weapon the battle would be as good as won. As the other allied fleets began translating in around the Union force the battleplans checked off the opening stage. Opening a coms broadcast he spoke to the allied fleet.
"This is Fleet Captain Dewitt of the Union of Worlds. You all know why we are here, the reason lies in front of us plain to see. The weapon that has inflicted so much terror and destruction on the galaxy now lays within the sights of our guns, I ask that every individual in this assault force pushes themselves to the limit. I will be frank this will likely be the bloodiest battle of the war so far, but a victory here means we have the APP on the back foot. This battle will almost certainly determine the path of the war. I merely ask you give it your all, any sacrifice here today will be hailed as heroes to the generations to come. Godspeed, for Creation"
The RSC answered without hesitation Dewitt's words as they dropped FTL, moving into an anti-nuclear formation much like the Union's, their heavy warships at the core around their superweapon. They had seen, and suffered this monstrosity of a machine. They had lost billions, and they had seen the destruction that this weapon could cause. And so they were prepared. If this took blood, so be it. If there was to be sacrifice, they expected it fully.
They were prepared to die to save their people, and to save the AGA. This would be their crowning moment of glory. "Attention all RSC forces," the fleet commander Rear Admiral Tulman stated. "As Fleet Captain Dewitt has stated, we must give all we are able to give. He expects this of us, but I expect more. I know what we lost, and I know what most of us here lost family in the fires of the Crucible. We all will give all that we possibly can, and if we must die, we will die with our hands around the enemy's throats! We will not retreat here, comrades! We do our jobs, we win this battle, we win this war! URA!"_
The fleet answered him, their roars echoing through the comm lines with blistering force as they readied themselves for battle. Not all the RSC ships were in this group, but this did not immediately matter. Those that were here were ready, and with weapons and shields hot they advanced alongside the Union.
Slightly behind and to one side of the Union formation, 960 warships came out of jump in the same quiet way typical of the Nuclean reality drive system. The fleet was divided into four armadas, each taking a quadrant around the central piece: the massive spheroid form of the Matterforge 2, a silver ball in a sea of dark blue ships. All accross the fleet, stabilization fields were powered up, shields were raised, and the group surged forward. Within the group's flagship, the supercruiser Radiant Eclipse, Fleetmaster Serrexx shouted orders as he watched the feed on his large CIC display. "Carry out primary plan, Matterforge target the Crucible, all others open fire on APP fleet and protect the station!" When the message from Admiral DeWitt came through, he played it over the bridge speakers and then answered with a response of his own "This is Fleetmaster Serrexx of the Nuclean Ecueme. We look forward to fighting alongside our friends in the AGA against the forces arrayed against us. Best of luck and may the universe favor us all." The warships in the fleet opened fire with their GM cannons, accelerating their superdense sand beams to near light speed toward the enemy vessels. These were joined by the particle beamer batteries and plasma torpedoes as well, which all raced towards the enemy stations and ships nearby, with the emphasis being on the heaviest targets in a storm of blue. On the bridge of the Matterforge 2, the maw control officer addressed Forcemaster Lakton "Sir, the Crucible is too spread out for the maw beam to be fully effective", to which Lakton replied "Use the maw torpedo then, let's see if we can't take some of the stuff around them too in the explosion" With that, the station began charging the maw, and within the large shielded opening, blue-white plasma could be seen gathering and compressing into a large spheroid. Meanwhile, the surface batteries of the station that bore on the Crucible fired upon it, while the others targetted whatever enemy ships and stations that they could point at.
In the aftermath of the primary fighting at Rubikon the Dominion marshalled it’s combat capable assets in the field and assessed its damages. Of the original one hundred and forty-four warships sent to Rubikon only seventy-two remained able to continue fighting while another twenty-six were disabled or crippled while another 46 were deemed a complete loss or were missing in action (obliterated). Second line forces were called in to salvage and recover the vessels deemed disabled, and recover what they could of vessels deemed destroyed while the surviving main force continued on to rendezvous with a second fleet tasked with the attack on the Crucible itself. This meant that a total of two hundred and sixteen vessels or a reinforced fleet would be available for the attack however fifty vessels of that number were held in reserve for a special mission while the rest flickered into existence with the main AGA force holding its left flank as it had at Rubikon. At the lead of the Dominion force was the RDNS Solai, a Gloucester Class vessel that had been in service longer than its captain had been alive. Despite this the vessel had taken its fair share of damage and was operating at roughly 72% good enough to retain the flag for the fleet and good enough to lead the Dominion towards the objective. Captain Nthanda watched the flickering primary holographic display as several repair teams moved about the command information center. The injured and dead had already been removed from the center and where possible new personnel were manning the operable stations while technicians worked feverishly to restore functionality to several salvageable positions. The fleet had arrived on position precisely on time with no navigation errors. Seconds after the fleet verified its assets were in proper formation the transmission from the Union came through encrypted communications. Captain Nthanda nodded to the communications officer who was working through a temporary station. “Inform Fleet Captain Dewitt that the Dominion is ready to engage the enemy.”
A telltale bending of light occurred to the galactic south of the Devourer, signifying the arrival of Annoliddan Inquisition warships. However, what appeared on sensors was not a battlefleet, but instead a massive, single mass. This was thanks to a massive particle cloud, created from the debris of a destroyed moon, enwreathing the entirety of the area around the ships. Each ship in turn, especially the support ships, had attuned both their gravitational and electromagnetic signatures to each other and the particle field. The Ceres class support ships performed admirably, keeping the particle field in a tight net around the fleet so that it moved with them, as well as attuning individual ship shields to create a supplementary shield around them. While an anti-nuclear formation was paramount, the fleet in total remained in synchronous movement to keep the guise going; in fact, three Eridanus class battleships flew backwards at the rear edge of the field, their particle weapons spewing what appear to be thrust exhaust behind the massive 'ship'. As they advanced, all missile-carrying ships dropped their collective payloads into the void behind them, the swarm protected by the large mass taking point.
Aboard the bridge of the foremost dreadnought, the acting commanding officer gave out a loud belch. In preparation for today, Most all of the livestock and crops aboard the fleet had been deposited safely in another system, but what remained the crew had feasted on, knowing that their ships were likely to perish in this coming fight. A sudden QEC transmission came through to the commander, and though it was only text, the undeniable words of Inquisitor Raanges wrung through the commander's head.
//You sneaky bastard, locking me in a storage bunker of all places, just so you could buy five minutes of time and take the fleet without me!? Your slyness is commendable. I trust you chose an equally conniving plan to attack with. Do not fail me, and I might spare you once we both reach the afterlife.//
The commander grinned, and responded to Fleet Captain Dewitt. "The Annoliddan Inquisition heeds your call. We are on approach to flank the target's position. Direct us how you wish, but left alone otherwise we will aim to distract as many of their guns as possible. Good fighting Dewitt. May the divines smile upon our sacrifice."
The fleet's massive signature surged forward, missiles drifting lazily behind it. Prayers rang out from across the bridge as each Annoliddan prepared to meet their Makers, and to share their fate with the defenders of the Crucible.
The IRS ships promptly warped out following the others, taking up positions near the Union flanks in an arrowhead position. The 940-ship strong fleet split into three groups, 300 on the Union's starboard, another 300 on their port and the other 340 ships on the far end of the rear. The MAGNUS, the IRS's superweapon which is essentially a giant laser cannon capable of firing beams of exotic cosmoparticles that would rip apart targets into atoms and perhaps even decay them into radiation, soon warped out as well and joined the rear formation.
All three groups scattered and spread themselves out. Energy shield panels flickered to life and fighter squadrons were scrambled. Railguns swiveled and took aim at the nearest defence stations so they would not be a nuisance for their one true target; the Crucible.
"This is Fleet Admiral Idrani of the Interstellar Republic of Singapore. All hands, to combat positions! You know your orders. Carry them out to the fullest of your ability. Cheers to the Republic's safety and prosperity,"
Idrani's taskforce had a simple job to do. Cover the Allied formation's flanks, defend them from enemy missile and fighter attacks and escort them long enough to get the core Allied assault forces and their MAGNUS cannon close enough to engage the Crucible.
Shattered, broken hulls, not unlike blinkers except for the given fact that they were uniform rather than unique instances with each and every body, drifted through space at high velocity. Some small ships continued on at a faster speed, even as they were ravaged by the in-system defenses. As the allied fleets jumped in, automated systems onboard the small number of survivors transmitted IFFs. Carnaithian. FTL exit signatures were detectable a distance away from the black hole, though they were few in number. Something had recently happened, and the systems aboard the high-speed corvettes weren't the sort to give away movement information.
D.N.A. fleet of 800-odd exited out of hyperspace and rendezvous with the AGA fleet, taking the rear flanks of the Union fleet. The fleet spilt into two group, 400-odd ships on the far rear along side the IRS' ship and their superweapon the MAGNUS for further protection of the superweapon, and the other 400-odd ships on both starboard and ports of the Union and IRS fleet. The Draken Cannon Warship, D.N.A.'s superweapon capable to eliminate more then half of an enemy fleet with it, namesake, exotic Draken energy beam, exited out of hyperspace, cloaked itself with high advance cloakers and Shadistal metal alloy embedded in its hull to further it's stealth capabilities and to hide from radars and sensors, joins alongside the MAGNUS at the rear.
The two groups scattered and spread out to prevent any easy kills for the enemies and any accidental collision with allied ships. Their shields powered up to full on their ships. Fighter squadrons scrambles out of hangers of carriers and other variants of ships. Variants of D.N.A. capital ship arsenals are powered up, armed and ready for action.
"This is Admiral Thual Symial of the Dragon Nations Alliance. We have arrived to eliminate the horror weapon of the APP, the Crucible! Together we will emerge victorious! For Eternal Peace!" Said Thual as other crew members and officers repeat 'For Eternal Peace' as their moral are on all time high and ready for action.
"Inform Dewitt that were ready for combat and inform him of Operation: Burning Sun." Said Thual to the Comms-Officer
It was soon after the Unanimity main fleet, around 500 ships, entered the system towards the rear of the assembled AGA force, a string of strong, mustard yellow light seemingly 'building' the ships in rapid speed, the typical electromagnetic bang signalling their arrival blaring on sensors soon after. Subtlety was hardly the Unanimity's specialty. As soon as ships were clear, systems begun powering on again, shields reengaged, guns brought online and broadside super-capacitor banks readied. Among the formation, guarded by some of the AUN battleships formed the shape of the Holoship, perhaps the most advanced of the Unanimity's ships, and one they were proud to state was entirely of their own design. Its own servers and projectors were prepared. They planned on making use of it. Neyu-class battleships, switching their side guns to defensive fire, turned to angle their guns outward, covering as many angles of incoming fire as possible.
At the fleet's unassuming flagship, one of those Neyu vessels, Admiral Kulne sat in her seat as lights and holographic displays burst to light, though the interior of the CIC remained overall dim. "Fleet status!" "All ships accounted for! Combat systems, online! Green across the board!" "Vessel status!" "Shields at 100%, armour integrity nominal! Internal systems nominal! All standard weapons online and charged, side guns set to defensive fire! All missile and torpedo bays are loaded! Spinal is commencing charging sequence!" "Good. What's our situation?" "Priority target dead ahead, ma'am, systems are still working on getting exact numbers on enemy warships and stations. Recommend we maintain defensive fire while at these ranges, let the HCs handle offense." "Indeed. Send a message to the fleet." "Aye."
"All AUN ships, this is Admiral Kulne. Our target, the Crucible, is dead ahead. If we cannot destroy it here, the future of our people is at stake. I'm sure you all know what that means. So, the answer is simple. We will destroy that weapon, and woe betide anyone, human, alien or otherwise, that stands between the barrels of our guns and that blasted thing!...I know we have fought for years to escape the violence of the interstellar age, and I know we have wanted to avoid conflict here, too. But here, now, we have no alternative. Even if many of us are lost here, a victory here could mean a future for all of us. Here, and back home. We will cast down that weapon and those who defend it." A pause. "So...All ships, all hands, battlestations! We are engaging the enemy!" she boomed into the comms line, and though she could not hear it, was met with cheers across the fleet. "Send a message to the Union fleet. The AUN is green and ready to provide defensive and supporting fire."
It was packed.
That much was very clear.
The glow of the hurtling gases around the Devourer which made up its accretion disk illuminated the battlefield with far more light and radiation than normal, clearly glowing off the hulls of allied and APP ships alike. But there clear as day against the black yawning maw of the singularity sat the Crucible, its large form clearly under repair from whatever damage Carnaith had inflicted in its raid. But surrounding the Crucible, was one of the largest fleets ever assembled by the APP. Fleets of Capitol reinforced with thousands of defense platforms and numerous starbases were augmented by Triarch, Shadowblade, Atlantis remnants, Auraxii, Justicar, Axiom and Abberation vessels. Their silouettes outlined by the Devourer as they watched the huge assembled force of the allies warp in to fight them.
Raxis had relished this fight.
"All forces of the APP, I stand with you now on the precipice of the war. This battle will decide which way the war swings, our plan worked we have brought the main allied fleets together into one location and now is the time to smash them! We fight for freedom and we fight for our people! I ask every man, women and AI to fight to their limits, never surrender and no retreat! Attack!" He shouted from the bridge of the High Emperor class he was aboard. The response from Capitol was immediate, missile launchers across the entire fleet and defense installations opened up, firing a cacophanic volley towards the allied forces as the TAs opened up shortly after, the barrage was not concentrated it was designed to show that the APP would defend this place, and give the allies a taste that this would likely be the pivotal moment of the entire war.
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Captain O'Lam of Triarch however recieved the order with a grin he had 900 ships and also numerous platforms ready to defend this place and all of them had their target. It was a revenge target really, after a humiliating company defeat in Irobottom Triarch had looked at getting revenge on the Nucleans and Dominion. However after reports that the Dominion had been destroyed by the Eos anomaly came in that just left the Nucleans.
All across the Triarch fleet missile launchers opened up, railguns powered and lasers heated themselves to firing point as the fleet targetted the Matterforge in a singular combined barrage at the huge target. As one the fleet firing a huge stealth missile volley along with the forward proton cannons and the Super dreadnoughts relativistic railguns all aiming for the huge spherical super weapon which had destroyed Orange Eclipse and been the fault of their defeat. O'Lam knew not to reveal his actual ace yet however, he would keep Darl Revenant in reserve for when it was needed.
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Admiral Tarkis of Atlantis kept his fleet spaced as the order to attack was given. He was a cautious man, having lost much at the hands of the CAE during the invasion of Atlantis to avenge the ICS. His fleet however was itching to get revenge on the allies no matter the cost and when he was asked to represent Atlantis and help in the pivotal battle of the war he could not turn it down. Rallying most of the remaining Atlantis fleet forces available he had made all speed for the Crucible, knowing he was going to be massively outnumbered he hoped spreading his fleet would prevent any sort of super weapon use on his forces and allow him to act as a response force where needed.
He gave the order to open fire, taking pot shots with the Hyperfrequency lasers at the RSC fleet hoping to do damage where able before the battle devolved into a close range slugfest.
"Comrade Admiral! Allied ships have warped in-system! Comrade Raxis has initiated the first wave of attack!"
The 50 year old Admiral Zheshan, whose black greatcoat have been adorned with the medals of countless battles in the defence of Yurixian in wars before, stood up and analysed the Allied positions on the holographic interface. Her wrinkled and scarred face winced, in a mixture of anger and excitement for the thrill of glorious battle.
"Supplement the APP barrage with our own missiles and mass drivers, but the fleet is to hold our position near the Crucible until further orders."
The 625 ships, all of them hulls purchased from Triach, spread out between the starbases and defence stations. They recognized the distinctive dark green rectangular hulls of their nemesis and inferred from their positions that they were in a defensive posture, guarding the Union fleet and possibly something else. They took careful aim at the Allied ships, scanned for the structurally weakest spots and fired conservatively, in no hurry to get out a large volley like their peers. They were likely to be safe from this distance, along with the ample cover that the starbases provided.
Zheshan pulled down the inventory of all the ships under her command, a list of their callsigns, status and designation number. She selected 20 Forge-class Cruisers and 30 Furnace-class Escorts, their names highlighted in blue from the touch of her fingers.
"Selected ships, you are hereby retasked to form a new group from the main fleet. Here are your new orders; separate from the fleet, regroup at the Quantum Gate and flank the Allied fleet. I want you to scout them out. Only fire when fired upon, use all the ECM and stealth you can use at your disposal to cover your approach."
"Roger that Comrade Admiral. Separating from the formation to the Quantum Gate now. Out."
An array of communications centers, in prefab rooms docked to the command centers of the Crucible, designed not to interfere with Capitol operations nor disturb the careful architectural decisions of Inara's engineers, monitored the unravelling situation surrounding the infinite maw that fed the now-damaged titan. The swift, if reckless, effort made by the Carnaithians not long ago in a bid to save their colonial capital had been fully recorded. Leistunganos analysts, in their own territory in centers housing the paired quantum communications devices, now mulled over this data. They had, of course, informed Shadowblade of the ensuing battle, but it did seem appropriate to contact Grundsatz about the care the Empire had shown here. It was being decided what response was appropriate for this size of hostile fleet, so the scientists had a small bit to talk over this decision before military overrides came into play.
The forces of the Auraxii and the Justicars were fully in formation with one another. Despite this being the second time both had fought together their overlapping fire lanes and cross reference targetting solutions provided an ample oppitunity to fire good long range shots. Across the two fleets munitions were loaded into mass drivers as tungsten rounds from heavy realtivistic mass drivers mounted on Justicar vessels opened fire, targetting the larger vessels of the IRS and Nuclean fleets they aimed to inflict as much damage as they could. The Justicar fleet then launched a volley of missiles, all bomb pumped laser warheads they did not speed towards the allied fleets but instead burned in eliptical movements around the APP fleet in the area prepared for any allied missiles. Attack craft were also launched as a secondary screen but not all of them, only half the fighters while the other half and all the bombers were kept in reserve.
Finally the huge form of one of the Justicar dreadnoughts that remained at the back of their formation began charging its main gun, the energy signature of such being very much known to the Union, the Justicars had brought one of their Vector Cannons.
The Auraxii fleet too kept a somewhat open formation, relying on the Justicars to provide screening the Auraxii now got to work on doing what they did best. Utilising long range large scale railguns against larger enemy ships. Targetting the Dominion and DNA forces each ship class began targetting those that were above it, escorts targetted destroyers, cruisers targetted battleships and so on. The larger size of Auraxii railguns afforded them longer range and acceleration, and each shell also came with its own CIWs systems. The volley was smaller than most would expect but the size of the projectiles was danger enough.
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The strange lavender and dark blue vessels that lurked closer to the Crucible itself however took measure of the battle with cold and calculating interest. The huge form of an Abberation dreadnought hung silently surrounded by 10 frigates in a circular formation around it, each had their drives powered down and energy signatures were minimal. They sat calculating as the vast malign intelligence known as the Abberation assessed the situation and plotted accordingly. It was only here as a token defence to show its commitment for the APP and had no intention of outwardly fighting the allies with the bulk of its forces. The few ships here had been judged as 'expendable', an effort to gain more intelligence on the allied warfare capability in order to simulate better tactics against them for its future ploys.
Still it would be bad reputation to simply sit and watch, the intelligence may have been patient and cold but it would not throw away the chance to judge its own weapons effectiveness on the allied fleet.
Diverting its energy to its ancient weapon mounts the Dreadnought synchronised with its attendant escorts using them for additional processing power as it targetted several AU and Union battleships. 8 lavender beams leapt out of its estoic weapons each one a force surpressor designed to break apart the electroweak force that bound atoms together hoping to either cripple or outright destroy the targets.
"The ultimate sacrifice of ones soul is to give unto another everything one is. From times when humanity in all its honoured existance picked the fruits from trees to far from now when they roam the universe to be one with the Syntagma sacrifice remains the same. It is a universal truth that has been so honourably indebted to us by her holy lady Shifting Mirrors, that we humble courtiers of the Blinker fleet serve you and give all your honoured forms everything that we are. In our own methods we follow the very routes and verses of the Syntagma to its infinitity and fulfil our debt to our holy Axiom"
The verses of the Axiomatic blinker fleet never seemed to stop, they hadnt ever since the Blinker fleet had repulsed the Carnaithian raid on the Crucible and turned what would have been a complete disaster into a minor setback, and still victory. Despite the constant soothing hymns of the gigantic superplastic warships the Captiol personel still listened to them, almost becoming a mandatory ritual to listen to the soothing and wise words of their most exalted allies. To fight alongside such instruments of the Syntagma was a worthy notion indeed, and while the Blinkers had been endlessly praised by HICOM and those who worked on the Crucible their endless modesty had almost forced one into total shut down. From that point on Capitol had asked the sheer influx of praise to the Blinker fleet be throttled.
Still the 50 Axiomatic craft, more than any that had been fielded before, sat in perfect strategic formation their hulls glowing from the primordial destruction that occured behind them. The presence of the allies did not faze them, simulations had been conducted and it was a total certainty that the allies would strike the Cruicible after its discovery. However the allies also had another surprise waiting for them. While 40 of the Blinkers were the expected Gen 1 patterns 10 of them were not. Only having been seen once before in the raid on Mirach the Gen 2 Blinkers were far more advanced, their sleek and impressive forms denoted a lethality that eclipsed their old feared predecessors. Only now would the allies truly find out how lethal these new craft were.
Across the Blinker fleet processing power went to full, linking in with excess processing power across the entire APP fleet as well as the massive server farms normally used by the Crucible for targetting they initiated a full cyber warfare attack across the allied fleet, attempting to blind and confuse the allies in their initial strike, Neutralino batteries were charged and Scalar waves were pumped out to cover the APP fleet from any enemy Scalar barrage that might occur. The Gen 2 Blinkers however began to ignite their disturbingly powerful drives, making full speed away from the main battle line but moving in an arc that looked like they would attack from one of the flanks.
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Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:21:32 GMT
The Devourer: Capitol Space, Crucible Location
Immediately, the forward 480 vessels within the Nuclean fleet sprang into action at the incoming fire from Triarch and Capitol, utilizing their superb phased array layer of their hulls combined with Lance missile fire to shoot down the incoming mass driver rounds and missiles aimed at them, some also using their own shields to intercept the laser and proton cannon rounds when possible. Smart chaff was also launched to make targeting more difficult as the chaff itself messed with weapons fire as well as sensors, while decoys within gave a multitude of false targets. This effect was also bolstered by the phased arrays and particle bolt batteries installed on the Matterforge as well, greatly softening the assault against it as the remaining fire, composed mostly of directed energy rounds, impacted the station's powerful shielding.
Fleetmaster Serrexx meanwhile, monitered the position of the enemy fleets, noting the ten Axiomatic blinkers and 50 Seperatist Union vessels departing from their respective fleets on different courses, ordering that they be tracked to see what was going on. The Justicar dreadnought charging also concerned him, and upon seeing the energy readings he decided to contact Shipmaster Lakton to inform him of the threat and take action.
That was when the Axiomatic cyberattack took effect, as the communications and navigation bridge displays went haywire and multiple warnings sounded, alerting them to the malware infecting their systems. Quickly, the crews of the warships, mandatorily well trained in this after the Ecumene's struggles in Beri and Ironbottom, set to work shutting off comms and switching hardware connection breakers to isolate the infected systems and switching to backups, while the dedicated cyberwarefare systems went to work scrubbing out the infected cores, which thankfully wasn't as difficult as it might have been due to a respectable chunk of the malware having been preemptively scrubbed in cache by the system VIs. This meant that they were on their own now, and would suffer degraded coordination for the time being.
The Matterforge was no exception to being affected by the attack, as emergency procedures were carried out to fix their comms and sensors and scrub malware from the infected computers. Shipmaster Lakton, similar to Serrexx, had noticed the presence of the Justicar superweapon charging, and based on the attention that the station was getting from them, it didn't take a genius to expect them to aim it at the Matterforge once it was finished. With comms down with the rest of the fleet, including the flagship, he decided to take action. "Maw control, how charged are we?" he asked the officer in charge of the primary weapon. "Maw at 50 percent sir" was the reply.
"Discharge it at the dreadnought charging its spinal gun, beam configuration, and then recharge" he ordered
"Yes sir" the officer replied, altering the shape of the maw containment fields to allow the monstrous blue beam to reach out from the opening of the station towards the Justicar dreadnought, bolstering the beam with the station's massive physi-beam arrays as had been done against the Orange Eclipse in Ironbottom. Meanwhile, at Lakton's orders, the large surface batteries on the forward side of the station, not engaged in point defense due to their size, were directed towards the Crucible, aiming for the smaller connection points holding the four arms together.
"Missile volley! Lots of em!" an officer cried out. The terminals onboard the RSSN 'Kilo Kamba', Idrani's Orenstar-class Super Dreadnought that formed the flagship of the entire fleet and is part of the rear formation escorting the MAGNUS, soon started flashing with thousands of incoming red dots. The Kilo Kamba's AI as well as all the other AIs of the fleet began pooling their data, tracking and predicting the path of every missile group it could hope to register and calculated optimal firing solutions and tactical options.
The standard procedures for dealing with missile swarms kicked in. The two 300-ship fleets covering the Union's flanks began firing all their laser point defence weapons and flak railcannons to trim down the missile swarm while launching out thousands of strikefighters, GENEVA mechs and Gun Drones to from a defensive perimeter around the allied formation. The second step soon became clear to the IRS; use ECM to send the swarm into disarray. AIs soon started sending out false radar signatures and attempted to bombard the missile guidance systems with static rubbish on various frequencies possible. The third step was prepped up; huge Kharon III torpedos were loaded with Cluster munitions that would detonate into thousands and thousands of superheated shrapnel while Raptor II missiles were outfitted with EMP and Plasma warheads. A small volley of these was launched out to the enemy missile swarm, hoping to find their way within the blob and deal a wide area of damage to destroy or at least incapacitate the missile swarm.
The Justicar's relativistic tungsten rounds came and smashed through the fleets guarding the Allied formation, punching straight through 30 frigates and cruisers in the first volley destroying them outright as their fusion reactors and ammunition stores went critical and caused secondary explosions from within. Another 20 Battleships and Dreadnoughts were also hit, the tungsten rounds punching through the topside sections but did not manage to cleanly pass through thanks to their thicker armor plating and shields.
The TAs however were a problem as always. Even with newly fitted Multi-Layered shield panels that the IRS developed with the tech that the Union's Hargun had given out to the Allies before, they were not as strong and formidable as the Union's and quickly fell after managing to deflect a few lucky shots. Bolts of these FTL matter smashed through the Ionoactive panels of 100 ships, most of them frigates and cruises, on the flanks. Crushing through Lunaceramite and dealing critical hits to their reactors and ammunition storages, the unfortunate blew up into nuclear fireballs seconds after they were shot. The rest spaced out and returned fire, redirecting power from their engines to boost their shields and their weapons' output.
Soon after the barrage, the Axiom's cyber attacks soon came in hard, disrupting communications and disabling targeting and automated firing systems. Protocols developed from intel shared by the AGA on the Axioms' cyberwarfare soon kicked in; control over essential life support, power, engines and shield systems were routed from the central AI servers of the ship and delegated to the Autoprograms in these sections before electronic and virtual links to these systems were cut off, isolating them from further Axiom cyberattacks and viruses at the expense of centralised control from the bridge. Alarms soon blared through the gunnery crews, signalling to them that automated control by the ships' AI has been disengaged and they are needed to manually operate the weapon systems. What little human crews rushed to man what number of railguns, missile pods or point defence systems possible, relying on visual cameras and their own stations' basic backup sensors to aim and track targets. Until the central servers could be rebooted and the Axiom's cyberviruses purged or contained with the help of their Allies' more advanced anti-cyberwarfare systems, the IRS ships now operated at a significantly reduced capacity.
The Axiomatic cyber attack slammed into the Restevian fleet like it had the other allied forces, sending comms, targeting systems and more haywire and into a digital frenzy as the fleet continued to advance. The AIs aboard the Restevian ships fought back like mad to regain control of their vessels as the organic crews performed what procedures to isolates infected systems and switch over to backups that they could reach before the system was totally compromised. The success rate of such actions was far higher than it would have been without the AIs, but all the same the computers were not entirely purged of the intrusion. It'd take time, the AIs and counter-cyber warfare protocols enacted by the crews of these ships working as hard and effectively was possible to maintain control, and to isolate the enemy. Like the IRS, the Restevians were stunted but by no means out of the fighting.
The hyperfreq attack on the fleet was fairly effective as the lasers struck vessels with flickering shields and glitching engines when they struck, spearing through four dozen and more vessels in the span of only a few seconds before the shields were brought back online kicking and screaming. Though it was unsure what good the shields would do against such types of weapons, far better that they had them than not. Then the TAs struck them from Capitol, ripping another three dozen and more ships apart in the span of only a few seconds as those within died without sound, the missiles taking a toll of a half a hundred ship squadron in the lead. The fleet returned fire, filling the void with silvery missiles and relativistic railgun rounds as they slammed out against the Atlantis fleet and Capitol's defensive stations, advancing relentlessly. Even stunted they fought on, and the superweapon Furious Stars to give it's name in Galactic Common prepared to open fire. Remaining locked onto a vector that would take it's shot against a mass of the defense stations and the enemy fleet in it's path, the order was given. With the superweapon's AIs bashing a hole through the Axiomatic jamming for just long enough to communicate with the main laser system properly, the superweapon opened fire.
The Yarost' Zvezd spoke in it's language of fury, the pump detonating it's massive world-ending bomb to fuel the birth of the planck laser that would serve as their lance. With a flash as bright as a hundred suns the laser screamed forth into the silent void towards the main line of defense stations, the crew of the superweapon more or less firing blind with the cyberattack. They held their course, firing on the axis that they had targeted before the Axioms struck them and set their maneuvering engines to push them along, sweeping the beam across the enemy station line. The beam of Furious Stars blazed with hellish wrath for a few seconds and no more before it petered out, but with luck, they'd have done their damage before they had no choice to retreat.
The Union fleet kept their anti nuclear formation, taking the various Tachyon shots from the Capitol fleet with one or two losses as the Unions group shields deployed and the Bullet KKVs took picket duty. Particulate shields were fired up and fights were launched, thousands of Firestorm fighters their distinctive flying wing shape filled the void as they were magnetically launched out of hangars with their full ordnance. Bombers were kept behind for the time being as two Ferrum class battleships simply dissapeared, cored in a single round as their shields and armoured form were broken into constituent atoms by the Abberations barrage.
Dewitt kept up with the deployment of the AGA forces as the Union now targetted its own main guns. Hyperfrequency lasers powered up, Meson lasers focused optics, Mass drivers loaded in ammunition and Missiles were checked as the Union fleet targetted the Capitol forces closest to the battlezone. In one massive barrage the Union opened fire, targetting the vessels of cruiser and under with overwhelming fire, they aimed to wipe away the Capitol defensive ships and leave the heavy hitters wide open for attack.
"Charge the main gun, target the Crucible and fire on my command" Dewitt ordered.
"Yes sir! Graviton Pulsar now charging, gaining firing solution now" Came the reply. Power across the huge form of the super dreadnought now flowed to its main gun, the entire ship lined up on the Crucible as it readied to fire.
Jaseron sat as he watched the final returns from the initial strike force on repeat. Carnaith had forces on standby, but he knew that at this point other AGA members and their allies would be making their arrival. The signatures of his fellow High Generals' shuttles - other than Reik, who had jumped less than a kilometer outside of the hangar - made their way to regulation jump distance before leaving him alone in the portal exclusion zone. It wasn't long after this before he, himself, and his shuttle shunted into a small pocket dimension - the site of his command post in Ancerious. The lack of stars always made his heart sink, as did the outright lack of light. What was worse was all of the science vids that told him "this is what the future of the universe looks like." Indeed, it wasn't long after his first arrival in the galaxy that he discovered this was truth, reviewing the readouts from a scan on the edge of Ancerious. Everything looking outwards from it was pure darkness. But that was enough for his elderly sense of mortality. His shuttle hadn't even docked before he had the stations' quantum-linked communications send a feedback request to its other half, which in turn requested information and live reading feed on the Crucible from a joint AGA information center. He wanted to know the situation before he ordered actual lives into the gravity well of that black hole.
The singular ship signature of the Inquisition continued its advance towards the Crucible. The arrival of relativistic munitions was expected, and the smaller vessels within the cloud shifted in tandem to avoid direct hits, but a good 40% taking damage regardless. The following missiles were met with an almost literal wall of phased array maser fire and point railguns, utilizing the Ceres' sensory data and gravimetric triangulation.
This was however until the Axiomatic cyberattack took effect. Fortunately, the ruse of being one large ship lasted just long enough for only a handful of ships in the central cluster were affected as harshly as other fleets. Unfortunately, this included all but 2 of the Ceres class ships. The onboard AIs and various systems and subsystems across the fleet were quickly infected in their entirety, due in part to the configuration of Annoliddan computer systems. However, as redundant and backup systems were activated, and manual control being used when needed, the collective ships resumed normal functions, and the most heavily affected ships were analysed for weaknesses before their shutdown was complete. This chaos did however succeed in breaking the protective cloak and reveal the dagger of the Annoliddan ships within.
Target tracking was now switched to an individual ship level as to avoid further interference and widespread jamming. Revealed, the Rigel class dreadnoughts and Eridanus class battleships began unloading kilometer-wide particle streams and relatavistic, critical mass shells at the APP fleets, primarily the ships now targeting the AGA's conglomeration of superweapons.
Through all this, the Inquisition did not slow or alter their path. Even if all their ships were destroyed in the next moment, their hulls would still be on collision course with the Crucible.
Among the Artifician fleet, things were still relatively calm. As one of the fleets further back, their smaller numbers meaning they were anything but fit for front-line bullet-sponging, not all of the fire was thrown their way. Still, though, the guns of the Neyu vessels set to defensive fire flared to life, shells detonating with shield-like waves to intercept missiles and volleys of fire as shields proper flared on impact, laser turrets returning fire in lances of red. Aboard Kulne's warship, an alarm blared, an officer spinning in their seat. "Ma'am, something is firing on the Arragirs!" they called, and indeed several of the larger, older warships were going offline. "Flank group, return fire. Massed volleys. Turn them to ash." she stated firmly, coldly, in return, tapping at a holographic display's controls. "How is the Holoship doing?" "Charging complete, arranging protocols and sequences." "Good."
The warships of the flank changed their attitude, to put it bluntly. Targeting the warships that had so quickly devastated several of their battleships, capacitors were charged as the laser gunblocks on the later Artifician warships were readied, surprisingly few targeting points planted into vectoring systems. The intended use of such weapons. Alarms blared as EPA's mass cyber attack hit, compromising targeting systems and weapon controls, crews and ICOs racing to minimise the effect and make up for the loss, a few more targeting points added in the hopes some would hit. Finally, with a blinding lightshow of red, the flanking battlegroup fired, untold hundreds, perhaps thousands of lasers firing back at the Abberation vessels.
As for the main group, other weapons were charged. Spinal capacitors charged, rails and barrels cooled and stabilisers initialised as tachyonic and particle cluster weapons were charged and loaded. Like the flanking group's attack, accuracy was hindered by the EPA, but with luck, someone was going to feel it. If the laser barrage was blinding, this was thunderous as heavy duty spinal weapons fired in a furious volley, headed straight for the APP forces between them and the Crucible.
Most of the large D.N.A. ships were hit by the Auraxii's large-scale railguns barrages 1 of the Megalodon class Dreadnoughts were crippled badly, 5 of the Basilisk class Battleships destroyed, 3 of the Nightblade class were crippled, 3 Oni class Battlecruiser crippled, 22 Cruisers of different classification destroyed, 5 Hade class Destroyers crippled, and 12 Chimaera class Frigates crippled and destroyed, and finally 100-odd of the Escorts class were either destroyed or crippled. With the one-fourths of the fleet either destroyed or crippled, the remaining D.N.A. fleet retaliated with volley and volley of Relativistic Railguns, Plasma Railguns, Relativistic Plasma Cannons, Heavy Laser Cannons turrets, and along with volleys of Havoc Anti-Armor Missiles, Scatter Multi-Cluster Missiles, Starburst Plasma Missiles and some of the Dreadnoughts, Battlecruisers, Destroyers, and Battleships equipped with exotic weapons from their allied race from Capital Advance Dark Pulsers turrets to Electromagnetically-Induced Linear Acceleration Cannon (EILAC) on to the Auraxii fleet. After the first volley, the D.N.A. fleet starts to spread apart to avoid or minimize the damage of the Auraxii's large-scale railguns volleys, then resume volley once their spread out enough.
The Superweapon; Draken Cannon Warship remain unaffected by the Auraxii's volley due to it being away from the main D.N.A. fleet and moved near to the IRS' Superweapon the MAGNUS Array, the Warship activated its cloaking shields and ECM to be blocked from APP's radar and sensors, due to the highly advanced and rare weapon that the Warships carried on it, the D.N.A. high officials won't allow it to fall it into enemy's hands, so it been equipped with the highest advanced cloaking shield, the Vokunro Shield, a Phasic Stealth class Shield, and the highest ECM, the Nahlon Miin, a Quantum Jammer class ECM, that D.N.A. has to offer to protect and conceal the Draken Cannon Warship itself and it's signature from APP.
Raxis barked more orders as the Capitol fleet continued to fire, this time linking with the Triarch targetting solutions. TA torpedoes, beams and railgun fire leapt out of vessels to target the Matterforge and the Nuclean fleet covering it as the newer Capitol Mk.3 vessels continued to prove their worth. Raxis was happy to have such new upgrades, to fight a battle like this with the older Mk.2 vessels would have been suicidal. Still alarms blared as heavy return fire from the Union fleet and other allied fleets now slammed into the Capitol defense force, Tachyon shields glowed brighly as they briefly intercepted munitions, PD and shield blasts took round after round and the Justicar defense had kept the worst of the missiles out. But still it was a heavy barrage, and along the front screening vessels erupted as Mass driver and Meson laser fire cored through Hydra and Isumon classes tearing them to pieces as their reactors exploded and their crews tried desperately to abandon ship.
"Whats the sitrep on the Crucible?" Raxis called out as the High Emperor class rocked from a glancing hit.
"Minor damage from allied and Matterforge barrages, defense platforms and the starbases are taking or intercepting the brunt of the damage sir-" The crewman paused as a huge energy signature speared through the battlezone, the icons of nearly 500 platforms and several large Hermes class starbases suddenly went dead as the beam vapourised everything in its path to clear a firing solution from the AGA fleet to the Crucible itself "Massive energy signature! Appears to be some kind of RSC super weapon, approximately 498 defense platforms destroyed, we also lost 3 Pantheon and 5 Hermes starbases the Crucibles wide open!"
"Then get us over there! Redeploy and plug the hole now!" Raxis shouted as the Capitol fleet quickly lit its drives and sped to plug the hole, the remaining defense platforms still numbering over a thousand in number continued to intercept rounds and pump out a heavy blanket of fire, this time barraging the RSC fleet and the weapon they had used in a blanket of railgun, Thermonuclear missile and Tachyon fire while they recoiled from the cyberattack.
O'Lam kept an eye on the holographics despite the veritable lightshow going on outside the viewscreen of the bridge. Inquisition munitions were deflected or intercepted by the Triarch shields and PD as they focused on the Triarch fleet, some losses were bound to occur however as Triarch vessels exploded or were crippled by the odd fire breaking through the defraction shields to find a target within. Still the Triarch fleet kept its powerful shields up, covering as much as they could of the APP fleet, used in conjunction with the Justicar Bomb pumped laser swarm intercepting the allied missiles O'Lam knew they would have to relieve the Justicars.
"Launch our own barrage of BPLs and keep focusing the Matterforge, I dont care if their fleet is intercepting I want that thing dead for the honour of the company." He commanded, the Triarch fleet kept firing, their weapons on full ROF as they employed every munition they had, using the stealth missiles to get through where the cyberwarfare affected the Nucleans the hardest to hit the station behind. O'Lam also noticed he had been gifted the firing complement of all of Capitols 187 Tartarus mobile bombardment platforms and he smiled at the gesture. Linking the targetting the Tartarus vessels began firing their hyper impactor rounds, designed to kill large targets all joined the Triarch fleet in attacking the Matterforge.
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Tarkis kept a close eye on his fleet numbers as ships were destroyed by return RSC fire. It was to be expected but it hung heavy in his heart. Every ship destroyed, every death was one more piece of Atlantis destroyed until they could effectively rebuild. He quashed the heavy feeling and used it to feed his anger, noticing the Capitol redeployment to the sudden breach in the APP lines he also ordered his vessels to aid the defense. Hyperfrequency lasers once again lashed out at RSC and this time DNA vessels as the Atlantean vessels lit their main drives and moved in loose formation to reinforce the Capitol position to cover the Crucible.
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The Justicar Bomb Pumped Laser missile swarm had intercepted the majority of the AGA missile fire directed towards the APP forces, entire missile barrages were swiftly blown out of the void or vapourised as thousands of Justicar missiles detonated into temporary blossoms of light and laser to do their job. Those that got through were quickly intercepted by Justicar Reaver fighters and any that got through that were then free game to any of the APPs point defense or shields. The multilayer defense had done a grand job of migitating the initial barrage, the Justicar fleet did not renew the BPL barrage as Triarch took over from it. Just as well the Matterforge fired upon their fleet.
The Justicars knew their BPLs and particulate shields would not hold such a powerful beam, and so they reverted to something far more simple to protect their own super weapon. They used their very ships to protect it. Nearly 532 vessels focused their energy shields and put themselves in the way of the beam. They would not redirect it, but tank the hit, the impact simply wiped them out, systems overloaded, shields went down, hulls were vapourised and more. Only a handful of the vessels survived and even then they were crippled. But they had done their job, The Vector cannon took damage as the beam hit home but with the majority of its energy robbed by the self sacrifice of the Justicar fleets forces the Vector cannon had survived, while most of its surface weapons had been damaged by the impact of the Matterforge its main gun now at full power also opened fire. Guided down its containment corridor the bolt of potent energy sped forwards aiming to slam into the Nuclean super weapon, just like it had done to the allies at Alpha Ceti.
After firing however the ship went dark, having to reboot its capaictors and systems the damage it had taken was heavy. Orders were given for the vessel to retreat if able, as the Justicars now using their remaining ships to give covering fire.
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The Abberation judged the impacts of its weapons on the AU and Union fleets accordingly. Analysing all the information on enemy defensive systems, how the weapon had reacted on the vessels internals and how that must correspond with layout as well as a hundred other minor details all of which took more priority than the rest of the battle. It was all a test and the outcome had been acceptable against the Union and AU vessels which had both suffered hard or outright been destroyed by its weapons. The Abberation had many other weapons to test at present but it needed more data. It almost didnt pay attention to the fire it was currently under.
The AU laser fire was intercepted by the Abberations own high frequency lasers, a technique which disrupted the incoming beams and robbed them of energy as best they could. The laser fire then impacted the Nightstone of the dark blue-black vessels with little visible impact the heat of the laser fire quickly being redistributed across the entire vessel and used in estoic ancient capacitors. A few sections took visible damage as the Nightstone cracked and buckled but quickly began to run almost like a liquid as it began to reform itself in self repair. At the end of the ordeal two escorts had taken substantial damage and were not self repairing but they were functional, thats all the intelligence cared about.
Redirecting its attacks the Abberation now targetted the largest vessels of the Nucleans and Dominion, partly to accede to the constant requests to concentrate fire the other to find out what effect its weapons had on other allied members. Once again 8 Lavender supressors fired in the battlespace targetting 5 Nuclean and 3 Dominion vessels all of the largest designs.
The 50 Separatist ships that had been tasked to recon the AGA fleet continued its course for the Quantum Gate at full speed where they would converge, quickly regroup and then separate once more into teams of 5.
Passive defence systems detected that some of the AGA ships had tried to target and lock on onto them, before breaking off due to the interruptions posed by the Axiom cyberattacks. The recon fleet took this into consideration and scattered their formation even more. The Furnace-class escorts activated their Phantom Drives and went into full stealth while the Forge-class cruisers ramped up their ECM; hacking into AGA sensors and forcing them to reboot giving the cruisers precious time to spread out and go on a full burn to arc away from the AGA fleet's effective firing and detection range. Even while the Separatist fleet were now seemingly in havoc and going all over the place the rendeavous point remained the same; the Quantum Gate.
Meanwhile, the RSC's laser superweapon had caught Admiral Zheshan and her main Separatist battle fleet by momentary surprise. 20 Vulkan carriers, 10 Warsmith battleships, 20 Forge cruisers and 50 Smithy corvettes were instantly wiped out along with the Capitol defence stations.
"Possible RSC superweapon in the vicinity! What are your orders, comrade Admiral?"
"Concentrate all long range firepower on it! Continue taking cover behind the defence stations, let them take care of the AGA ships!" Admiral Zheshan replied. Her call was answered with haste. Streams of heavy proton beams and streaks of mass driver rounds trailed from the Separatist fleet, all heading towards the RSC's superweapon, the Yarost' Zvezd.
As per the doctrine of auraxii, each ship had standing orders to open fire on the class above it. While it's formation was so far holding steady, fighters and bombers were deployed alongside the justicars to help maintain the relative safety of the formation. The two Auraxii dreadnaughts that were in system took wide flanks with the justicars own massive ship, each one focusing their cruiser-sized spinal guns on the larger enemy ships using targeting data from the Justicars to coordinate their firing.
The Axiom fleet continued to broadcast its hymns and praises as the Gen 1 Blinkers positioned themselves directly behind the Capitol fleet, using it as cover and ensuring that they had a buffer between themselves and the AGA, using the defense platforms where nessecary too. They kept up the cyber warfare assault, blanketing the AGA fleet in ECM and false targets using the combined processing power of most of the APP forces present to achieve this. It was then that the Gen 1s also began to discharge their Scalar waves and Neutralino weapons. Scalar waves were projected across the AGA fleet, targetting areas where attack craft wings or missile barrages were being fired, as well as trying to hit small escort squadrons. It was a concerted effort to rid the AGA of their screening capabilities while the silent and devastating Neutralino guns targetted AGA capital ships across the fleets, they kept no specific target for now hitting dreadnoughts and battleships seemingly at random to snipe as many heavy hitters as they could.
But while the Gen 1 Blinkers held the line and acted as fire support the Gen 2s were doing the complete opposite. The titanic Strangelet rockets of the 10 vessels which took up the majority of the ships mass burned so hot that they obscured conventional sensors with heatglow and radiation as they now arced around and towards the AGA fleet, targetting the RSC flank as they approached the high end of relativistic speeds, burning comets of energy the Gen 2s now readied their weapons and shrouded themselves in Pions, looking like a strange halo around the Blinkers as they dumped Antimatter into their AM pumped hyperfrequency lasers. 15 Beams per blinker powered by antimatter and supported by 4 Neutralino beams each were fired into both the RSC super weapon and the heavy hitters of their fleet, the Blinkers aiming to punch right through and into the fleets behind, their speed and energy glow making return fire extremely hard to target.
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Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:21:44 GMT
The Devourer: Capitol Space, Crucible Location
A storm of torpedoes, tachyon arrow fire, and railgun slugs flew towards the Nuclean fleet from the Capitol fleets ahead of them, a cloud of gold and grey. Coming to meet this storm, unseen but definitely present, was the invisible x-ray lasers of the Nuclean phased array CIWS systems, swatting projectiles and missiles from existence like hundreds of thousands of swords, protecting the vessels creating them and the assets those vessels were tasked to screen. This had the desirable effect of knocking down the incoming fire that got through by a decent fraction, although of course they couldn't stop the tachyon arrow pulses, which impacted against the shields and hulls of the screening vessels at the front of the fleet, and the shields of the Matterforge. Coming around behind the station now, were the stealth missiles launched by Triarch. Multiple passed too close to one of the rear warships behind the station, and were shot down, but others slipped through, impacting the fresh shielding on the superweapon's rear. The front meanwhile, was starting to show some significant damage, as the Tarterus canons lobbed their shells at it, some impacting sections of shield and exploding as their kinetic energy vaporized them from the sudden halt, others breaking through and punching holes in outer armor and decks below, pockmarking the surface which otherwise looked rather smooth from a distance.
On the bridge of the Matterforge, Lakton watched the maw beam lance out towards the Justicar dreadnought, however was disappointed that most of its destructive energy went into destroying their ships rather than the superweapon. This was then compounded by alarm as the damaged but still functional weapon fired at the station itself. Due to the jamming and cyber warfare from the Axioms, the Nuclean fleet was not as coordinated as the enemy had been, and so was unable to pull the same screening move to protect their centerpiece. Multiple ships in the path, unable to get out of the way in time, simply evaporated, and all Lakton was able to get out before the beam impacted the station was "Brace-", and he was thrown from his feet, as was most of the bridge crew from their chairs as the enormous station shook.
The vector cannon beam tore through the station, flying right into the maw and boring through the armor and decking behind it, coring the main reactor completely, and punching out a hole through the rest of the station, sending some ejecta and unfocused energy out the back, destroying several warships behind that were in the path. Alarms on the bridge blared, as Lakton grabbed the nearest terminal and picked himself up, his armor having saved him from serious injury as he called out "Report!" As the other officers got back into their seats and viewed the results of the hit, the navigation officer replied with "Main reactor gone, we're on auxiliaries only. Lost one main engine" which was closely followed up by another saying "Maw offline sir, physi-beam generators are still intact."
Lakton viewed walked to his terminal and looked at the details, as a diagram of the battlestation showed the hole through it. Thinking for a moment, he addressed his crew "Evacuate nonessential personnel from the station. Nav, set a collision course for the Crucible at maximum acceleration, and Maw Control, use our pysi-beam generators to pull us towards them and try to shear the damn thing apart if you can. Weapons, direct all firepower towards the Crucible, and Comms, tell the rest of the fleet to get out of the way."
Evacuation alarms sounded throughout the massive structure per the shipmaster's orders, and from the many landing bays, shuttlecraft and fighters launched in a hurried but ultimately ordered fashion, accompanied by escape pods. As this happened, the station fired the remaining 14 main engines as needed, directing the massive spherical bulk towards the Crucible at maximum acceleration. At the same time, the massive internal physi-beam generators, powerful enough to lift large sections of planet up into orbit and shear ships and asteroids in half, now latched onto the Crucible itself, one per section of the superweapon, and began attempting to pull it towards the Matterforge, to lock them into a deadly dance to their volumes merging. Surface batteries also opened fire, directing the station's fury at Capitol's terror weapon.
As the station accelerated, warships around it scrambled to get out of its way, some from hearing Lakton's message, and others getting the point via sensors. Thankfully, none more were lost in the process, however several of the supercruisers took some rather nasty hits from the Abberation's lavender suppressors, and the fleet's smart chaff was burned away, as was the shields and even hulls of some unfortunate smaller warships, as the Axiomatic scalar fire washed over the fleet This was then closely followed a by ship here and there, being without shields and unprotected, exploding from neutralino fire. The fleet otherwise fired upon the Capitol and Triarch fleets, and continued to fight through the cyber and electronic warfare upon them.
The Unanimity fleet thundered on, lasers and sporadic tachyon cannons lancing out, the former in blindingly bright massed volleys, often at single or very few targets. Their focus was the APP battlegroups rushing to fill the hole the Restevian fleet had just blasted in the Crucible's defences. Neyu pulse shells detonated in barrages, shielding the fleet--most importantly the Holoship--from waves of enemy fire and missile barrages where they could, the older Arragir battleships making up for their slack in offensive firepower with their own monolithic turrets, theirs among the brightest lasers hitting the defenders. Still, Admiral Kulne grimaced silently as the readouts blinked red, several of the escorts and a few cruisers going offline or hitting critical damage.
"Have the damaged ships still mobile fall back to rear fleet positions, and get them replaced ASAP!" she called, the bridge awash with motion. Still, her order was acknowledged, ships burning to keep forward integrity as strong as they could manage. Kulne's eyes were set on the Crucible ahead of them, barely even flinching as the barrels of the massive laser turret ahead of them fired. "Someone give me status on the Holoship."
"No damage, ma'am. Power banks are charged, projectors warmed up and ready to engage."
"Show me Projector Fleet numbers."
Another display lit up, showing the 500 hardlight warships the Holoship was capable of generating. Mostly cruisers and heavy cruisers, with a decent handful of battleships. There was no need for escorts, as the projections were not capable of mechanical fault and had little need for dedicated screening ships. There was no material loss if one was forcefully dissipated anyway. Kulne's hands fluttered about the displays, pinpointing where Projector ships should go. If they couldn't get enough fire through the hole to destroy the Crucible, then she would bring the ships doing the damage closer. Still, the Blinkers nearby worried her. Not for any change in attention, but because they might be able to snipe the Holoship early. And that would be a major setback. The order was sent, and the Holoship, after only a brief pause, engaged.
As the Capitol warships burned to guard the Crucible, engines roaring, a new obstacle came in their path. Their arrival was signalled not by the sudden appearance of hostile IFFs, as the projections gave none. Instead, sensors lit up directly ahead as the bright, mustard yellow silhouettes of Unanimity vessels burst into existence. Namely, four hundred of them, in a formation granting all of them a direct line of fire. However, no Capitol ship found itself on the receiving end of their fury. No, if anything, the fleet utterly ignored them, for as long as they had time to. Instead, in a mass of laser fire rivalling that of the fleet itself in capacity to damage retinas, the Projector Fleet fired on the Crucible, the Holoship straining to manifest as many lasers as it could, as fast as it could. However, that was not the extent of the Fleet's numerical capacity.
As for the Blinkers not far away, they did not escape the Holoship's purview. Creating ships in such a multitude of formations was difficult, so to save processing power the 100 remaining ships was reduced to a few dozen. With luck, that would be enough. Warships, no larger than cruisers, appeared in groups of two or three, manifesting in extremely close range to their targets, lasers lancing outwards in an effort to cut down the Axiomatic ships. No other APP ships were fired upon in this effort. They were not their target.
The Restevian flank was beaten to hell by the enemy assault, and under the hellish barrage of fire the Yarost' Zvezed began to shudder and howl with strain. Her shields were down, the armor failing, the supports of the hull buckling and bending. The truth of the matter was shortly arrived at despite the efforts of damage control-- the superweapon was going to die. The order to abandon ship went out as the rents got only larger and larger, crew racing to escape pods and other small vessels to flee the fading weapon.
But some remained behind. Seeing the Matterforge and it's terminus course for the Crucible, the helmsman of Yarost' Zvezed poured all the power he still had into his engines and the power core, heading through the scattering Restevian fleet towards the enemy defensive line.
The fleet itself fought bitterly, bitterly on despite the brutal savaging the Restevians were undergoing, dreadnoughts and battleships being smashed to bits by the Blinkers, the Separatists and Capitol's fire. The lighter ships were relying entirely on their maneuverability and their point defense to escape their brutal deaths despite even now their losses, the larger vessels pouring as much energy as could be spared into their shields and PD in turn. Still onwards they advanced, returning fire with everything they had into the Capitol defenses. Railgun rounds, shells, missiles, drones and strike fighters, all tore forth from the bleeding RSC ships to batter and destroy before they were taken and killed in turn.
The Dominion of Risallas’s comparatively small contribution to the AGA forces at large first suffered the weapons fire of the Auraxii and then the sudden viral attack of the Axioms the latter being far less dangerous than the former. The shots fired by the Auraxii utterly failed to do great damage because they faced mostly fresh ships at a range where the kinetic power of the attack was markedly less effective. Despite this, damage reports poured into the DRNS Glassboro’s command information center even as Captain Taravis watched and carefully typed out orders with one hand as one arm was broken in the finale to the battle of Rubikon. His busted arm was braced and stabilized and despite the protests of his chief medical officer and several medical staff he refused any medical treatment other than being “patched up enough to finish the battle”. Even Captain Taravis’s second in command could not argue, as this was the battle of wills that a true warrior of the Dominion whom sought victory demanded. But then the lights went out and the one hundred and forty-eight vessels of the main Dominion force went utterly dark for just a few seconds as the viral attack by the axioms hit. This would not last as Dominion computer systems were violently incompatible with foreign systems and the flicker lasted for less than ten seconds, but this was an agonizingly short time as crews were pitched into a lack of gravity and the loss of normal amenities. For the truly unfortunate they were caught in a hygrine facility and found themselves locked in with a now mechanically locked system, thankfully the outage was short enough to limited casualties to a handful and damage to very localized issues. It was just a few seconds after that the Dominion main assets moved, reoriented and returned fire on the Auraxii who now bore all the blame for the viral attack. This was considered a state of dishonor, and as such the Dominion aimed for center mass with calculations for no less than three vectors of potential movement. The Auraxii had managed to incur the wrath of the Dominion…powers help the Auraxii.
The Union fleet once again took sporadic fire as it moved forwards, the defensive wedge formation of the vessels denoted the anti nuclear but still overlapping fire orientated attack the Union had planned with Bullet KKVs out in front and fire having to go through the particulate and group shields before hitting actual vessels, still some of the smaller ships were destroyed by the odd long range hit.
With the Capitol fleet hit hard and their forces now heading to plug the hole in their lines Dewitt watched as the screen and sensors flashed white for a second and the screen quickly polarised.
"What the hell was that?"
"Sir the Matterforge just took a direct hit from the Vector cannon, judging from damages its out of the fight... From what I can tell the Nucleans have set it to ramming speed..." The sensor operator replied as Dewitt observed on the now rapidly clearing sensors. While ECM was still heavy he could clearly see the huge sphere making full speed towards the Crucible, with the gap the RSC had made the APP would likely not be able to destroy the sheer mass of the Matterforge before it collided with the Crucible. This was it, the mission had been acomplished for all intents and purposes. However they would stay until they knew.
However Dewitt could feel the roaring deep within the depths of the ship. Transcendant Angel wanted revenge for Mirach and Klendathu.
"Fire control target the Triarch fleet and open fire with the Graviton Pulsar. All ships then follow up with concentrated barrage, ECM is high so accuracy will be low hit the entire area that Triarch is in lets wipe them from the playing field shall we!" He held his fist high as he felt the RCS aboard the mighty super dreadnought fire, re-orientating the prow to face the Triarch fleet. With the titanic energies already built up Dewitt gave the order to fire.
For a moment another huge spear of energy flew across the battlefield. The bright purple tinged beam seared its way towards the foe, screens polarised to prevent blindness as the beam aimed for the centre of the Triarch fleet. However thanks to the ECM it was aimed slightly off course, however when the beam reached its point of impact it didnt matter about a direct miss. For a brief moment a point of gravitational immensity was generated, crushing the vessels closest to it and drawing in many others, not into a singularity but into a small knot of gravity crushing ships or pulling entire sections of vessels apart before the energy contained within the region was directed outwards. The shockwave and energy released would be enough to vapourise most or severely damage those nearby. With the aftermath of the Graviton Pulsar the Union fleet then followed up.
Mass drivers, Meson lasers, Plasma missiles, Force surpressors, Spearhead drones and long range overcharged Plasma cannons were fired in a huge barrage at the Triarch fleet. Or what remained of it, the Union fleet relishing in crushing an APP force utterly as revenge for atrocities commited to Union worlds.
Just like Rubikon however the ceasefire order for the Auraxii was relayed to Dewitt, surprised the Fleet Captain then relayed it to the other AGA factions, ceasefire on the Auraxii and allow them to withdraw and destroy any Auraxii vessels who refused to do so.
What few readings got through the scrambled sensors of the Annoliddan fleet showed the matterforge on its collision course, and the efforts of all their allies to pulverize their long-standing, grudge-matched opponents. The Annoliddans up until now had been fortunate to avoid making such a hatred for themselves a reality.
"All units, reroute all power to forward guns and thrusters! disable all non-critical systems exempt what you need to find targets! Destroy all at will! Full speed ahead!"
All communications went dark, as did the Inquisition ships themselves. Bulkheads sealed for the last time as life support and artificial gravity were disabled, and even pressure regulation was brought to a minimum as power was diverted across the fleet. The large missiles following behind accelerated, outpacing and arcing to take out the remaining ships and defense stations in the matterforge's path. They were not alone in this; hundreds of relativistic, nuclear armed slugs and sweeping particle waves rained down from the Annoliddan battleships and dreadnoughts. The lesser ships surged forward in a breaking formation, not targeting any one defending fleet in particular as they recklessly fired everything their ships could whilst charging forward.
Admiral Thual have receive word from Fleet Captain Dewitt of the Union fleet about the Auraxii's ceasefire and their withdraw from the battlefield. In responds he ordered all D.N.A. ships to not open fire on the retreating Auraxii fleet, but to fire back on any Auraxii ships that refused to do and are still firing on AGA vessels. Beside the relay message from Dewitt, the D.N.A. fleet itself receive only either minor to mediocre damage from APP fire, resulting either shields being collapse to armor hulls having minor holes. D.N.A. ship's arsenal still unleashed barrage of barrage of fire powers and missiles onto APP fleets and the Crucible's defensive platforms for their current goal are to either destroy or heavily damaged the Crucible itself, same goal as the AGA, or to destroy or damaged the portal to prevent the Crucible from firing on anymore AGA-aligned systems and causing untold numbers of lives be either military or civilian.
The "Silent Shadow" is still undetected by the APP ships and is currently on standby alongside the IRS' MAGNUS ARRAY. Captain "Red Eye" Karlson, an middle-aged grim looking-human with a cybernetic eye from old battle, earning him the nickname, in a D.N.A. black-ops captain uniform, is on his command seat watching the battle via the bridge's view or on holo-screen. He's deep in though of when the AGA are able to deal damage to the Crucible and/or the portal.
"Comm-Officer make an encrypted call to Fleet Captain Dewitt, and discuss to her about our back-up plan encase the ships are unable to penetrate the APP defenses." He said in a grim and frighten tone.
"Yes sir" Said the Comm-Officer as he hail to Dewitt's ship the "Transcendant Angel".
As the Axioms' scalar waves hit the IRS's fleet, the battlefield turned into a fiery sea of orange as thermonuclear missiles were prematurely detonated, both in the screen and those primed in the missile bays. Numerous ships began reporting major damages as their warheads began cooking off, destroying a huge chunk of the ship or at worst, starting a chain reaction that consumed the ships whole.
Idrani did not know how many ships he'd lost with the communication networks still down from the Axiom's cyberattack. But the looks of it, it seemed as if a hundred more ships had been taken out or heavily damaged to the point of combat ineffectiveness.
The bridge of his dreadnought suddenly shook violently and Idrani was almost thrown off his command chair. As he struggled to reposition himself admist the tactical mess playing out in his head, the crew rushed to run a manual diagnostics through the computer terminals.
"Status report!"
"Kilo Kamba has been hit! Missile bays 3 to 7 are offline! Fire alarms in sectors 6 to 10!"
"Engineering teams are reporting sudden explosions, Fleet Admiral. They have begun sealing off the damaged areas and activating the manual fire control systems."
"MAGNUS Array looks visually intact. Small fires but nothing more."
"Copy that," Idrani muttered as he looked up, only to see 10 battleships and 2 battlecarriers go up in flames, the neutralino beams had done their magnificent and deadly work. For a moment, he shuddered in horror; the feeling of hopelessness from the lack of communications and witnessing so many heavy hitters destroyed in that flash of a second crawling up his throat. He struggled to sieve through his mind palace, searching for any knowledge or military intel on the APP that he could use to salvage the situation.
An agonising second passed. Idrani then began adjusting his collar and relaxed his hands around the arms of the command chair as he thought through of what to do next.
"Switch to manual laser signalling. Communicate my new orders to the fleet leaders," Idrani returned to his calm composure as he swiped over the holographic map with his tactical markings to the communications officer.
"Yes Fleet Admiral. Beginning laser-morsing now."
The Kilo Kamba's laser arrays began beaming to the other subordinate Fleet Admirals and Fleet Captains, the unique frequency and pulses of the laser beam conveying a special instruction encrypted within that could only be translated by IRS ships that receive it.
While each laser-morse was different (and thus required differing and unique encryption keys from the receiving end) for each of the sub-flagships, the general orders sounded like this: spread out, deploy plasma flares, scatter on full burn and wait for the systems to reboot, recover and readapt to the Axiom's cyberattack. The MAGNUS and its protection detail would remain in the cover of the AGA fleet, while the rest would go on a full retreat and attempt to escape far enough from the battlefield to recover. While slow to respond without the instant delivery of the tachyometric communication systems, the IRS fleet eventually executed his orders once they got them as the sub-flagships laser-morsed their immediate subordinates and so on. Plasma bomblets were launched and detonated to form a screen that blinded APP sensors and the ships went on full burn in multiple directions away from the battlefield, heading towards the edges of the system in full speed while the MAGNUS remained where it was in the rear of the AGA formation. There was the risk of the retreating IRS ships being picked off one by one, but Idrani knew the Axioms and the rest of the APP had better targets to pursue than some stragglers seemingly fleeing away.
The Capitol fleet made full speed, trying to plug the corridor to the Crucible with their ships, in this regard Raxis knew they had failed. The form of the Matterforge, half destroyed and blazing heading straight towards his charge was proof enough that there was nothing they could do to stop the Crucibles destruction. The sudden appearance of holographic ships out of nowhere also added to such. His fleet however continued to engage, fire from Nuclean and other allied ships hit the Capitol forces head on, causing Tachyon shields to burn bright as they leapt between points to intercept incoming rounds. Ships died, but then they always did. Raxis kept himself calm as he took in the situation, the Crucible was lost, all that was left was to make the allies bleed.
“All ships cease plugging the gap, concentrate all fire on those vessels behind the Matterforge, they are trying to break through and we shall make them pay!”
The Capitol fleet as one responded to Raxis order, drives and RCS fired as they flipped re-orientating themselves towards the enemy forces. Tachyon Arrows, Tachyon torpedoes and railgun fire roared out of guns silently to streak across the void, targeting the Inquisition ships aiming to punch through the hole. Capitol attack craft in their thousands also began to launch, forming vast wings of craft now streaking towards the AU fleet. Raxis wanted the projections gone, after identifying the massive energy signature at the heart of the AU the waves of attack craft now leapt forward, fighters out protecting the bombers each one carrying anti-ship missiles.
----
The defence stations had a substantial amount of incoming fire directed at them. With the combined fire from the RSC, DNA and Inquisition fleets aiming to wipe them out many platforms exploded as fire overwhelmed their shields and tore through their armour to send them critical. Yet there were hundreds of platforms, each one armed with a Tachyon arrow, railguns or missile launchers, and they answered in kind nonstop, despite the losses that were piling up. Still it wasn’t just the platforms that were engaging, the various starbases present, monolithic in size and carrying as much firepower as a small battle fleet themselves also added their armaments into the mix, targeting heavier ships of DNA and the RSC the rounds continued to hammer away even as the starbases launched their own craft, this time to add to the fire engaging the Inquisition fleet.
Those on the platforms knew the Crucible was doomed, that much was obvious. Little if any fire was directed at the Matterforge which was allowed to continue on its course. And those platforms that were near the holofleet temporarily engaged before readings made clear that they were merely projections.
----- The Atlantis fleet while on course to link up with the Capitol forces came to a hault. Tarkis realised that such methods would end up putting them as a target for potential AGA super weapons. The Atlantean fleet re-orientated itself and quickly locked on to the Inquisition force trying to punch through, putting themselves at an angle where the Matterforge would not cover their shots Hyperfrequency lasers targeted larger ships as they kept accelerating, using evasion patterns to avoid return fire. Tarkis was glad of his call, for the sudden bright glare of the Union Super dreadnought firing confirmed his paranoia.
----
O’Lam barely had time to think before the beam hit his fleet. Warning klaxons of extreme gravity wells blared loudly over the bridge as the entire vessel was rocked hard and began to groan under the monumental stresses of the Graviton Pulsar. Triarch ships were crushed or distorted beyond recognition, their prestigious shields and armour doing nothing to save them from the power of gravity. Then there was the blast. Entire squadrons of vessels were vapourised as the battlefield was once again whited out from the energy wave, by the time O’Lan was recovered himself from being thrown half way across the bridge the first damage reports were coming in.
“Status report!” He shouted, wiping blood off his face and straightening his captains hat.
“Over 500 vessels destroyed sir… We were lucky that wasn’t a direct hit” Came the reply, O’Lam stiffened.
“Over 500… By the expanse we are down to barely a third of our forces..”
The Triarch fleet, now scattered and out of formation, became pray for the follow up barrage. Nuclean and Union fire destroying more isolated ships as the Triarch fleet rapidly began to re-organise. Return fire was focused towards the Union as O’Lam felt anger rush through him.
“Call in Black Ghost tell them to take out that Super dreadnought, and use the remaining Capitol Tartarus to blast us a hole in the Unions defence screen! I want those bastards to pay!”
----
The Justicar fleet, having lost most of their number and now withdrawing to cover the Vector cannon continued to do so. The damaged dreadnought was on full burn as it aimed to get out of interdiction. Its FTL drive spooling up to charge in anticipation of escape. Content that their charge was safe on its own the Justicar fleet that remained once again flipped trajectory, heading back towards the battle, aiming to engage the IRS and DNA fleets with long range railgun fire and missiles. The Justicars were not yet done with this battle.
-----
As the bright flash of the Union super weapon washed over the black forms of the Aberration ships the intelligence within drank deeply in sensor data. This truly was an excellent opportunity, to get scans and information about so many factions’ vessels, weapons, defences and more let alone to watch their super weapons in action was just what the Aberration wanted. Every scrap of information was processed and sent onwards, each bit to aid its future plans against many of these races.
With most of the damage done to it being from the AU the Abberation retargeted its lavender beams at the giant energy signature coming from the centre of their fleet, a beacon if ever there was one. Firing again the Abberations secondary weapons and those of its escort ships then began firing smaller bolts of energy towards the Inquisition vessels as they got closer.
Milliar's single ship shot out of FTL at incredible speeds, a great distance away from the combat zone. He wasn't here to fight, - yet, at least - only to scout ahead. Stealth systems rapidly enveloped his small corvette, cold propulsion altering its trajectory in a difficult-to-predict direction. The first thing he saw, however, was the Matterforge careening towards the greatest investment - and greatest reason to bring a battlegroup - in the region. Simulations rapidly deduced that near-total destruction was likely, but the combat held promise in dealing blows to AGA number. A bit more monitoring, he thought to himself.
The Gen 1 Blinkers again ignored the storm of fire pelting the various defense platforms and Capitol fleet that was screening them. Using focused Scalar barrages to destroy incoming rounds or stray munitions as they took in data from the battlefield and calculated accordingly. A focused target was instantly relayed across the Blinker fleet, each Gen 1 igniting its Neutralino accelerators to lock on to the Holoship. The beacon of energy was a threat and with the holographic ships now pounding the Crucible and the defense platforms its additional support to the AGA had to be silenced. Keeping up their ECM coverage the Blinkers fired a massive volley at the AU vessel, each shot targetted to precisely bracket the ships internals with nuclear fire. The fleet was determined to exterminate the threat or at least put it out of the fight. The Scalar waves this time however were delegated to APP combined control, Scalar waves were requested from several fleets as barrages were directed to destroy incoming missile waves, attack craft squadrons or target unshielded vessels to destroy them. The Gen 1s functioned like the APP artillery.
This could not be more different to the Gen 2s.
The holoships appearing at close range and the return fire from the RSC fleet managed to destroyed two of the Gen 2 Blinkers, sporadic fire punching through their immensely delicate strangelet and antimatter containment shields and creating massive explosions which engulfed the very holoships that had done the damage. But it was only one barrage they would get, the Blinkers were accelerating even faster, passing the RSC fleet in an instant they once again dumped more antimatter into their weapons, targetting the IRS fleet and the DNA fleets heavy ships and the MAGNUS array with Antimatter pumped Hyperfrequency lasers and Neutralinos. Return fire from the RSC was torn apart by the strange halo of the Pion shields which tore apart ships in proximity to them, with the Blinkers having raced through the RSC fleet they had aimed to do as much damage as possible. The Gen 2s were rapidly approaching 0.9c and with the ECM targetting them was becoming increasingly hard, as they raced towards the IRS and DNA their focus was clear. Their barrage would hit home, and then the Blinkers would too.
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Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:21:55 GMT
The Devourer: Capitol Space, Crucible Location
The MAGNUS Array was given the thickest of Lunamite Nano-bonded armor, the strongest of energy shield panels and a sophisticated smart armor system underneath that dissipitated excess heat and charged energy radiation from DEWs. Even the internal honeycomb structure was armored and each section was separated by layers of armor and shock-absorbent gels to mitigate kinetic shocks. Such compartmentalisation allowed damages to be relatively isolated; compromised sections could be simply sealed off and repaired later on.
The hyperfrequency lasers scorched the surface of the armor, most of its energy taken in by the shield panels. The armor glowed and some showed signs of melting, but it was for all purposes still largely intact. Some sensors and weapon systems were destroyed by the lasers, but otherwise nothing too serious. The neutralino attacks bypassed the armor and exploded within, greatly damaging some compartments such as fire control stations and sensor posts along with some ammunition stores but the MAGNUS was still intact thanks to its compartmentalised internal layout. Damaged sections were sealed off, fires were put out with automatic extinguishers deployed from the ceilings and engineers went to work patching up breached hulls and the like. Other heavy hitters were also struck but unlike the MAGNUS, they suffered more significant damages, with 10 more battleships confirmed KIA as critical hits were made on their main reactors and volatile spinal weaponry.
Now able to pinpoint the location of the Blinkers that attacked the MAGNUS with their back up sensors, the MAGNUS responded in kind as its MAGPIS cannons separated from the huge vessel and aimed at the enemy, firing meson beams across the Blinkers' last known location in continous lines. The MAGNUS itself also opened fire on the Blinkers with an overwhelming volley of grasers and relativistic railgun rounds. The other ships moved even closer to the cover of the Union ships, hoping that their shields could extend to them and protect them from the kamikazing Gen 2s that seemed to be closing in fast while firing out more plasma sheathed nuclear rounds and the Temujin's masers to keep the Gen 2s away.
Meanwhile, the IRS ships that fled the main battlefield rushed for settle near the asteroid fields or in the gravitational shadows of other planets or planetoids in the system. They scanned their perimeters, powered down their engines and began devoting power to their internal cyberdefence programs in order to cast out the Axiom's cyberattack viruses and malware. Every computer, compromised Autoprogram and data server was rebooted and wiped clean. Technicians then had to retrieve hard back up copies of the hundreds and thousands of different programs and install them back manually while software engineers isolated small pockets of the Axiom's virus programs and studied them in isolated virtual boxes in order to develop new ad-hoc improvements that would help to mitigate the next cyberattack. This was a time-consuming task, and it would be long before the 500 or so ships could rejoin the battle.
"Direct hit on Triarch fleet, reporting huge damages. Ceasefire order has also been relayed and received"
"Excellent. Keep up the pressure on Triarch. The Crucible is all but destroyed at this point, if we can decimate their fleet here its less we have to deal with tomorrow, lets make this descisive!" Dewitt ordered. The bridge cheering in response.
Triarch return fire impacted the various layered defenses of the Union fleet, they were angry. That was normal after all. Missiles were rapidly intercepted and laser and railgun fire were taken care of by the group shield or dispersed by particulate screens. Those few that got through did various amounts of damage if they were lukcy enough to impact. Various escort vessels were torn apart as shots still connected despite the monolithic defenses, but overall the Union fleet kept coming.
The Union fleet continued to fire on the Triarch forces, ignoring the Auraxii who were now withdrawing near them. The Justicars also appeared to be trying to flank around but Dewitt ignored them, he wanted to smash the main nations forces, with Triarch out the way he intended to swing round and hit the Blinkers and Abberation. The Crucible was all but destroyed, the Matterforge close to colliding with the Crucible itself and being pushed into the event horizon in time, the station was already heavily damaged and coming apart, the holoships had definately done their job. However Dewitt knew that the left flank was being hammered bad, the RSC and IRS were being hit by the new gen 2 blinkers despite the Union killing one in Mirachs raid they knew how powerful they were. Still he couldnt break formation to help just yet.
Union attack fighter wings moved to engage Triarch fighters and missiles as combined firepower kept up a continious barrage on Triarch and those defense platforms that were closest. They could win and they would do so to seize a descisive victory.
Heavy fire bracketed the DNA fleet. Combined fire from the defense platforms and the much larger starbases tore through the void to skewer vessels in concentrated barrages. Added to the fire from the Justicars long range railguns the DNA fleet now found itself in a precarious situation. That situation was now made even worse by the 8 Gen 2 Blinkers now speeding right at them.
Fighters were launched to try intercept and the fleet redirected fire to the blinkers as they came in their attack runs. Railguns missiles and lasers leapt out while other vessels continued to target the APP platforms. The ECM disrupted much of the fire causing it to go wide but the DNA kept up the barrage intent on defending themselves and their IRS allies from the blinker assault, despite their ships exploding around them from heavy fire. It was now or never, the Draken cannon had to be fired or it was going to be at risk and wasted without doing its job.
The Silent shadow as it was known dropped its stealth fields, totally useless while charging the super weapon began charging up its main gun all the while targetting systems found a lock on the Blinker leet of Gen 1s having to try relay targetting through multiple allied fleets to try counter the ECM. Either way the DNA fleet formed up to defend their super weapon as it readied to fire.
The large dark blue Nuclean vessels in their fleet continued fired all weapon systems in a continuous barrage at the Justicar and Triarch fleets, even was they watched the damaged Justicar dreadnought withdraw, it was not enough. As the phased array CIWS swatted aside nearly all the incoming solid munitions, directed energy fire still hit the shields, draining them slowly. Aetherfighters and Hurricane gunships from the fleet clashed with those of the enemy ahead of the warships, fighting tooth and nail as they unleashed their full firepower. Meanwhile the critically damaged Matterforge accelerated forward towards its doomed target, their collision now guaranteed as the distance rapidly closed. Surface batteries from the station that were still intact now fired at the Gen 1 blinkers and Triarch fleets on either side as it passed them on the final approach to the Crucible's firing array. This flurry of fire was joined by an increasing amount of the fighters fleeting the station, having been readied before the battle in anticipation of use, now decided to inflict pain on the enemy themselves, as they began to swarm towards the Gen 1 blinker fleet, firing their guns and unleashing hordes of nuclear tipped Lance missiles. Shipmaster Lakton stood on the bridge of the station, watching the forward view of the Crucible go from a speck in the distance to a now growing form as it came closer and closer at what otherwise would have been an alarming rate. But he was ready, and put his fist to his chest in the Nuclean salute. Then, the two superweapons collided, as the Matterforge attempted to use its superior mass and therefore momentum as well as more solid construction to force the Crucible past the event horizon of the Devourer. Lakton was knocked from his feet once again by the impact, and once again struggled to pull himself back up as more alarms sounded. But the engines of the station kept firing, pushing it forward.
The word about the complete Auraxxi cease fire finally arrived on the Dominion’s communications arrays after the first retaliatory barrage had been fired. The range and delay between firing and impact with the expected bright flares of detonations marked the passing of a scathing use of concentrated weapons fire. But this was not fated to last as finally though interference addled communication’s systems word of the complete Auraxxi cease-fire arrived and not a moment too soon. Captain Taravis peered into the holographic displays marking his force’s positions relative to the enemy, residual glitches caused by the electronic warfare attack were still messing with the sensor’s ability to accurately see what the true extent of the damage was to the enemy. In his mind the barrage stunned them as there seemed to be no return fire, indicators from primary weapons crews all across his fleet signaled readiness for another heavy bombardment of the target, and then a lone voice barely heard drew the Captain’s attention away from the next strike. The voice belonged to a twenty-something aged ensign assigned to the fleet-wide laser communications array. “Captain! Urgent message relayed to all AGA members and allied assets….The Auraxxi have requested and been granted a complete cease fire! All other allied units have ceased attacks on the Auraxxi.” Inevitably Captain Taravis looked at the Ensign with understandable doubt, it was rare for a foe to attack as the Auraxxi had then completely stand down. “Ensign, did you verify this?” The ensign nodded and pointed to the portion of the message that indicated it was verified as genuine, twice. Captain Taravis rubbed the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb, somehow this just made his headache worse. Commander Ujarak Leaned into the conversation having not heard the message brought by the Ensign. “Whats the hold up Captain the troops are waiting for you to designate a target.” Captain Taravis looked at Commander Ujarak and simply stated with a slight tone of disappointment due to the battle being over so soon. “The Auraxxi have been granted a complete cease-fire…all of the AGA and its allies including our forces are going to honor it. Tell all of our assets to stand down and offer the Auraxxi forces here the same guarantee of safe conduct and an escort off the battlefield. Since I suspect something else has force their surrender, we will offer this Auraxxi force the same considerations we granted to Admiral Drust’s Forces…” It was clear that Captain Taravis had guessed that something happened somewhere to take the fight out of the Auraxxi, but it would be a while before his guess that politicians were at work would be proven wrong. As such the Dominion maneuvered to allow the Auraxxi to leave unscathed with any ship that wasn’t adrift or completely crippled as they had at rubikon. Curiously what was left was to be picked over and hauled off by Dominion second line assets for study. This was all just a comparatively minor foreground happening to the death of the crucible of course, the Captain’s shifted back to the holographic representations of the impending collision between he Nuclean Matter forge superweapon and the Crucible superweapon. No one in the Dominion had ever seen two artificially created objects of that scale collide before in the next few seconds it was definitely a moment many would never forget.
The collision of the two superweapons was quite the sight to behold for the Annoliddan crews. As the two masses struggled against the even horizon of the Devourer, it became clear their mission success was an inevitability. Still, in the heat of battle, the Inquisition ships continued to expend all missiles, maser blasts, and gauss rounds aboard their ships until their sweeping of the defense platforms and defending ships came full circle. This was not without casualties. Through it all, the collective firepower thrown the Inquisition's way and their occasional ramming efforts costed them a generous two-thirds of the fleet. The now much smaller entourage began making way out of interdiction range. One of the ship captains sent a very brief quantum message to Inquisitor Vilrik, informing him that the Crucible was only a short time away from complete destruction, and that they were pulling out of the battle.
The Restevian fleet was scored, battered and burned by the fire slamming into them from all around, Blinkers and defense platforms, enemy ships and other things all ripping into them from many angles. Ships were dying in the dozens now, more and more from the formation being forced to disengage and pull out to avoid being destroyed. Even then for many that wouldn't be enough, as the Blinkers disabled engines and power systems, setting these ships to drifting and at the tender mercies of the battle around them.
Even so with the hell slamming into them the Restevians responded. Those nearest to the Blinkers unleashed everything they had, Pion shields be damned if they were going to die they were going to go down trying to take a few of these damned things with them! Those nearest the defense stations and the enemy fleets pounded them without mercy and at a relentless pace, guns thundering and missiles streaming out from ammunition bays now beginning to near 'low ammo' status. Fusion warheads, thermonuclears, plasmas, missiles and shells both slammed out into the enemy as the Restevian ships kept spreading out, making themselves harder to hit as they fought on. Some were near enough now to make an attempt to ram the enemy if they had to, but they weren't there yet.
Fifty ships had been all that had fled from Ural as the system died. Fifty ships large and small, who's men and women had lived these past weeks with shame and fury, seeking their vengeance against the terrible weapon that'd done this to them. Here and now, they flew alongside the Restevian fleet against the APP as other ships died around them. Their commanders argued what there was to be done, the comms hot and heavy with angered tones. "Comrades, we are so close now! The damned monstrosity is right there!" "And the Matterforge just hit it, it's doomed. There's no need for us to risk our lives." "So what?! So many have died to get us to this moment, ten billion died to that gods damn thing!" "If we strike it now, we die too! Then what will the sacrifices have been for?!" "Maybe some of us would prefer to die. At least then we'll see our loved ones again." "I for one want to live, to shove it in the enemy's face that I will not be broken by them." "I propose a compromise, comrades." "Make it fast." "Those of us who wish to make our last stand for the motherland, see the Furious Stars in. Those of us who wish to stand and fight another day, make sure they get in safely. Kill anything and all in our path, if it bears Capitol colors, it dies." "...All in favor?" "URA!" "Alright. Make it so. For Restevia!"
Fifty ships burst forward from the formation, spreading out as they moved to flank the Restevian superweapon as it barreled in towards the APP line. Maneuvering had been taken out as the HLCV had taken more and more damage, the helmsman gripping grimly to his controls as the defense stations loomed larger, the hated Crucible behind them. The ships from Ural flanked the crippled superweapon, those fifty firing endlessly into the defense stations and enemy ships ahead of them as their run went ahead. Engines flared, men and women howled in anger, the end run aimed at the enemy's instrument of death and that which protected it burning forwards. The Matterforge if it had any sensors left to see would know that Yarost' Zvezed was heading for it through the defense station line, aimed at the Crucible as it's engines flared, the ships leading it in firing endlessly into the defense stations, many of them doubtless about to die-- but still the assault did not slow. If it reached it's goal then Ural would be avenged twofold. If not, then the Restevians still would have made the enemy bleed with their fury. Either way, it would soon end.
The crews of the many Unanimity warship watched as the Matterforge burned for the Crucible. The monolithic engine of death, and one of the driving forces behind their joining the AGA, was not long for this world. They saw little reason to remain. The small crew of the Holoship felt particularly disappointed, having wasted their time attacking it with the Projector Fleet. Admiral Kulne flexed her shoulders and fixed her hat, cringing at the slowly, steadily depleting numbers of ships at her disposal. They had lost dozens already. "All ships, fall back! We have no need to remain at close range! The Crucible is to be destroyed and it is our reason to be here! Keep the Holoship safe, have it perform defensive duties!" With that, manoeuvering engines fired and thrusters burned, the ships turning to circle behind the other AGA fleets, the Union and such, the massive arrays of lasers continuing to fire immense volleys, innumerable beams of light lancing out every couple of seconds.
The Neyu's turrets continued to fire, joining the masses of point defence lasers firing on the Capitol fighter swarm in pursuit, the pulse shells detonating in shield-like waves, catching not just anything ahead of them but anything in the vicinity. The shells were spaced so there were no gaps, and the very few that were had a pulse shell right behind them. On the edges of these bowl-like waves were the focused, massed lasers attempting to stop anything slipping around. The ships guns continued to fire, the massed lasers focused on the Separatist Union headed in their direction, dozens to hundreds of lasers focused on singular points. The holoship changed its focus, the movement and damage already incurred lowering the number of hardlight warships it could manifest. Its new target was the Gen 1 Blinkers among the APP fleet, attacking with a similar strategy to their previous assault on the Axiomatic fleet, warships manifesting in close proximity. Kulne's attention was drawn to a new display that lit up, and if she had blood, it would have ran cold. 'MTP ARRAYS ACTIVE'. As if on cue, something flashed off her battleship's bow, scorching the armour plating of one of the gun turrets black. Fortunately, the gun's systems remained green. She could only think of one thing. They were aiming for the Holoship. She growled. Seemed everything wanted their superweapon dead all of a sudden. "All MTP-equipped vessels! Move to shield the Holoship! The Axiomatic fleet is trying to snipe it!" she ordered, the Neyu warships moving to overlap their defences. Flashes shook the fleet again and again, Kulne gripping the sides of her seat as warnings blared and readouts fluttered. Of course, no defence is perfect. "Ma'am! One went off against the Holoship's starboard hull! It's taken severe damage, the energy discharge fried most of the projectors and forced a shut-off! They won't be able to bring them back online here, the ship needs repairs!" an officer called. "Dammit, they got it... what's the ship's status, outside the Projector Fleet?" "Functional! Propulsion and FTL are still green! Standard shields damaged!" "Alright, order it to charge FTL! We're moving to withdraw damaged forces!" The fleet continued to burn, headed to distance itself from the assembled APP forces.
The sight was beautiful and terrifying to behold. The Crucible had always been a fragile thing, designed not for defense but for its singular purpose. Now it was smashed apart, scattered into pieces molten and otherwise as the impact from the Matterforge tore it apart, destroying the station in the process as the flash from the destruction reached all those on the field of battle. With the two stations all but wrecked the remains of them kept moving, entering the accretion disk of the Devourer, rapidly being drawn towards the event horizon as tremendous forces tore both stations wreckage apart. It was done.
The Crucible was destroyed. No matter what happened here, the AGA had achieved their victory.
But that didn’t stop the APP.
Raxis muttered curses as he watched the destruction of the Crucible. While it was known such a station was almost certainly going to be destroyed he still ached to know it could not have been saved. The Capitol fleet now no longer needing to plug the hole attacked the Inquisition fleet, Tachyon Arrows, Railguns, Thermonuclear missiles and Tachyon Torpedoes were fired in huge volleys as attack craft from the nearby starbases aided the fleets own craft, attempting bombing runs on larger Inquisition ships and launching volleys of missiles to add to the fire. Capitol took losses in return, various return fire and targeting destroyed ships as their shields failed and their hull buckled. Still Raxis was determined to make the AGA bleed before they likely withdrew.
----
The Attack craft swarm which now engaged the AU was spared the brunt of the point defence and return fire by the Scalar wave that washed over the fighters and exploded in a roiling wave in front of them, dispersing much of the laser fire and vaporising physical projectiles. Still many squadrons were destroyed by fire as lasers tore the small craft apart or flak rounds exploded within their formations. As the Scalar wave dissipated the bombers in the formation launched all their ordnance in one go, a huge wave of Tachyon Torpedoes, directed at larger vessels now raced forward, the craft taking heavy losses at the disappearance of their Scalar screen. Instantly they turned and headed back to the safety of the APP fleets.
----
The defense platforms now ceased targeting the RSC and began to accede to wishes of Triarch. Firing the sheer amount of the combined guns at the Union fleet. While some did target the RSC and Inqusition forces charging the platforms many platforms were destroyed as the two allies engaged them, added to the fire from the Matterforge just before it died. The starbases however stayed as unyielding fortresses continuing to hammer the Inquisition and RSC forces as they tried to sweep the platforms. Additional attack craft were also used to counter the Matterforges craft, co-ordinating with the Axioms to use both mass Scalar waves and then Capitol Sabre Mk.2Bs to clear up what was left. ----
Tarkis watched the death of the Crucible and felt tears well in his eyes. They had failed again. They had failed to protect something. While his fleet kept up in their assisting of the Capitol vessels he took a moment to regain himself. Noticing new arrivals at the edge of the engagement zone he retargeted the Atlantean Hyperfrequency lasers for long range fire and unleashed a barrage onto the newly arrived Dominion. It was both tactical and done out of spite for anyone who was to still show their faces here.
Tarkis watched the death of the Crucible and felt tears well in his eyes. They had failed again. They had failed to protect something. While his fleet kept up in their assisting of the Capitol vessels he took a moment to regain himself. Noticing new arrivals at the edge of the engagement zone he retargeted the Atlantean Hyperfrequency lasers for long range fire and unleashed a barrage onto the newly arrived Dominion. It was both tactical and done out of spite for anyone who was to still show their faces here.
----
O’Lam was grateful as the Triarch, Tartarus and defence station fire now focused itself onto the Union fleet, the sheer volume of fire was sure to break their collective defence as the Triarch fleet kept firing.
“Overcharge shields to maximum!” O’Lam gave the order and space once again seemed to bend somewhat around their fleet as Nuclean and Union fire was merely refracted away from impacting the Triarch vessels, some died but the majority of the fire despite its massive intensity was redirected away from being dangerous. O’Lam knew he could not do this for long, he just needed to keep them focused on his own fleet, before letting Black Ghost and the other APP elements inflict the damage they needed. O’Lam wouldn’t die here, he intended to withdraw after completing his objective.
The Triarch attack craft engaged the Unions in a huge exchange of missiles, lasers and gunfire. Defender Interceptors fought with Union Firestorms as the two sides sought to gain the upper hand. Triarch had advanced stealth systems and better manuverability, but the Union craft had better defences and weapon systems. The two sides kept up the attack with no sign of slowing. It was then a small FTL signature appeared just out of interdiction range
At the edge of interdiction the large dark form of Black Ghost appeared from FTL, giving off as little as possible it kept its stealth systems up. As part of Triarchs Strategic Strike Wing Black Ghost now began plotting the optimum strike with its nano-disassembler missiles on the Union super dreadnought. ----
With one FTL signature appearing another seemed to leave. Exiting the interdiction range the Justicar Vector cannon ignited its drives and quickly left the battlefield, it would take extensive repairs to get it operational again in any given time. This however only galvanised the Justicar fleet that now descended on the IRS and DNA. Railguns and missile systems fired continuously seeming to try clear a way through the escorts, depleting the screening capability of both fleets and minimising their capability to intercept the Gen 2 Blinkers.
----
The form of the Abberation recorded the death of the Crucible with interest. Like the Dominion it had been a very, very long time since anything of such a scale had happened in the memory banks of the Eldritch AI and it took relish in being able to witness such. The Abberation fleet of several ships now began to move however, the Crucible was destroyed and the Abberation now had no commitments to be here, it had undertaken tests and that was good enough. It continued to fire on the Inquisition fleet and any Nuclean attack craft that came close otherwise the lavender coloured drives now lit as the fleet withdrew.
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Superplastics melted and exploded as the 50 holoships briefly appeared next to the Gen1 Blinkers before quickly disappearing as the Holoship was crippled. 14 Blinkers were torn apart, with most of the others taking some form of damage of varying degrees, this was enough to break the ECM barrage for a few moments as the Blinkers took in their situation and began to act accordingly. With the loss of some of their number and damage sustained they began to form up with the Capitol fleet, working with the starbases to scour the Nuclean attack craft from the void with precision Scalar barrages meanwhile targeting both Inquisition and Union fleets with the remaining Neutralino Batteries. They also ensured that the wrecks of those Gen1s that were destroyed were truly vaporised, commending their brothers to the Syntagma to prevent any sort of capture attempt.
The Gen 2s however lost another 2 of their number to the absolute storm of fire that was directed at them. Between the RSC, DNA and IRS even at the velocity that were going the Blinkers lost vessels, at such speeds the tiniest scrape could be devastating. One piece of flak shell managed to somehow penetrate the Pion shroud to hit the main engine array causing a catastrophic explosion as the Blinkers passed through the IRS and DNA fleets, the second was destroyed by it passing through a maser beam slicing it in half and causing one part to impact a DNA battleship vaporising them both. The remaining 6 Blinkers as they passed through the formation targeted the Silent Shadow and the MAGNUS array with all of their weapons as they then sped out of the other side at nearly 0.9c
With their fuel reserves getting low all 6 Gen 2s now charged their wormhole drives and continued on arcs that would make them exit the battlefield in the quickest time.
"Oh no..." was the only words that escaped Admiral Zheshan's lips as she and the other Separatist Union personnel looked on the Crucible's destruction at the hands of the Nuclean's Matterforge. They had failed their mission.
"Comrade Admiral...zzz..." the fleetcom crackled. Zheshan's momentary daze was dispelled and she turned back to reality.
"This is the recon team, taking heavy fire. Managed to scout out fleet layout, but need to evac from area fast," the frantic message came through.
"Roger that recon team. Rejoin the main fleet and cover your approach. The Crucible has been destroyed. Primary objective...is no more," she replied.
"All we can do now, is to make the AGA bleed."
"...Yes comrade Admiral."
The Unanimity's laser fire had taken out 10 Forge-class cruisers who were keeping up the ECM barrage and another 10 Furnace-class escorts who did not make it in time before they could turn on their stealth drives. As concentrated laser fire saturated the void, the recon team knew better than to fire back and reveal their positions to a superior enemy. The escorts and cruisers darted about in all directions - 'up', 'down', 'left' and 'right' and all in between to evade the Unanimity's attack. When Zheshan's order to regroup was given, they immediately deployed plasma flares and arced back to the main fleet at full speeds.
Meanwhile the main fleet stayed where it was, near the corpse of the Crucible, and simply scattered out even more taking cover behind the trillions of debris of destroyed ships and defence stations. Proton cannons were charged up and fired at the AGA's heavy capital ships while heavy mass drivers were loaded with submunition platforms and contained plasma shells. The shells of two types streaked to the AGA formation centering around the Union, the submunitions detonating into clouds of armor-piercing fletchettes while the plasma shells bursted into rapidly expanding shrouds of hot plasma that would burn and melt those caught in its radius. Zheshan wanted to break up the AGA fleet before she would do anything else. A fleet divided would find it more difficult to cover and defend one another, and their ability to concentrate shielding would be strained, making their important capital ships vulnerable for massed attacks.
The Auraxii fleet had kept up its end of the bargain. All weapon systems had been shut down, although defensive systems and shields stayed operational as the fleet left APP battle lines and moved to rendevouz with the Dominion. They would be escorted from the battlespace and withdraw as per the agreement of the ceasefire. The host of ships burned hot, many of their crews resented the ceasefire while others welcomed it, it was a split while some wished to aid the APP some saw it as a pointless war which the Auraxii should stay out of.
Still they were forced to manuver even as they charged their jump drives, the Atlantean fire was clearly aimed at the Dominion but the Auraxii took no chances, they had a ceasefire, no more of their blood would die this day as they performed evasives wherever a hit may have been even remotely possible.
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Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:32:46 GMT
The Devourer: Capitol Space, Crucible Location
With their primary objective met, the Nuclean fleet now focused on essentially the same goal as the APP had fixated on: bleeding the enemy out. And with that in mind, the Nuclean fleet kept firing on the Triarch fleet in front of them, focusing fire directly forward with everything they had in a storm of mainly blue. As well, they reached out with their offensive matterconverter arrays, targeting the hulls of the heaviest Triach vessels with disintegration effects. The sensors momentarily picked up Glack Ghost's arrival, but the signature quickly faded as the superweapon engaged its stealth drive, and therefore was disregarded. Meanwhile, the Nuclean fighters and gunships continued to attack as much as possible before they were swatted from space, emptying their missile payloads and ramming into each Blinker with guns blazing.
The Atlantean hyper frequency laser strikes by intention or by luck hit the portion of the Dominion forces that had arrived from the battle of Rubikon almost exclusively. This battle group had already taken damage and a number of ships simply ceased to exist. Even the flagship of the force the DRNS Glassboro was struck several times and went dark. It was unknown in the seconds after the bombardment if the ship and its crew was a loss or if it was simply disabled. Of the fifty-one ships that arrived from the battle at Rubikon, ten were outright destroyed and nineteen were rendered inoperable. True to their professionalism the assembled forces under Commodore Dakara, did not fire or react to the sudden strike as they had a truce to uphold. With the Glassboro having gone dark and immediate scans indicating it had minimal power signatures, was listing to its port side and was adrift. There wasn’t any time to do more analytical scans, but there was time enough to maneuver critical forces away from the corridor that the Auraxxi were exiting through so that a counter attack could be reasonably mounted. The fleet’s vessels with the longest ranges, both Morris class maneuvered along with a number of cruisers and what Bergen class vessels were able to move quickly into formation. These forces moved rapidly away from the truce line all the while overcharging the firing capacitors for their extremely long ranged weapons. Commodore Dakara Watched through holographic display as small craft rushed to aid the stricken Dominion vessels at the same time, the display indicated that the forces had a full fire solution, fire pattern Delphi had the best chance of causing the absolute most damage at the given range and heading of the targets. Delphi was a particularly nasty fire pattern because it not only bracketed the target but put significant fire down the center. The pattern was designed with the Dominion’s larger cruisers and the Morris class in mind, and here at this battle there were several examples of each present. Commodore Dakara calmly gave the order to open fire and repeat as needed, The Atlanteans would soon find themselves receiving an unyielding torrent of AGML and Autoglaive fire as repayment in kind for their actions.
It was done.
Dewitt and the various personel of the Union fleet seemed to almost take a moment of calm admist the raging chaos of the battle. Watching the flaming forms of the two stations collide was something for the history books, awe was written across the faces of all those who watched it. The Crucible was destroyed.
Dewitt nodded to himself, muttering a small mantra to the memory of Asuras before he focused back on the battle at hand.
The combined fire directed at Triarch seemed to have been massively migitated by them overcharging their shields, shots went wide of all kinds and very little damage was inflicted to Dewitts annoyance. But that wasnt the pressing part.
The combined fleet shield overloaded, having been battered from the engagements start and now focused by Triarch, the defense platforms and the Axioms it finally gave way with a collosal flash of energy. Particulate shields did what they could against incoming kinetics and missiles but along with the energy fire ships died in fire. MTP shields flared wildly prematurely detonating Neutralino volleys outside their hulls but more died as the shields failed and the exotic particles decayed within their hulls. With railgun, laser and missile fire now bracketing the Union fleet Dewitt now realised that they had already won, perhaps pushing onwards would just be a waste of life. As much as he wanted to make the APP bleed, and destroy more forces he knew it would be the allies who also bled. He opened a com line to the rest of the fleet.
"All forces. The Crucible has been destroyed. Our objective here is complete, and we have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. While we can sit here and trade shots all day our losses will only mount. For that reason we shall withdraw, we have our victory and revenge has been taken. Regroup at rendevouz point charlie." With the order given the Union fleet ceased its advance and now began to withdraw.
FTL drives were charged all across the fleet, however weapons still thundered in reply, guns targetted the Capitol and Triarch fleets still focusing them with Mass driver, Meson laser and missile fire as the fleet pulled back. Most of the Mass driver fire however was kept ready. The attack craft of the Union were given the order to break off, ceasing their fight with the Triarch side they had been slowly crushing the Triarch forces with numbers now they would withdraw. As the Firestorms leapt away the Union fired its Mass drivers on defensive flak mode, creating a storm of fire to prevent the Triarch fighters from pursuing.
It was done, all that was left was to withdraw.
The small fires dotting the MAGNUS Array grew bigger and more violent as the Gen 2 Blinkers unloaded their weapons into the Array before retreating, the anti-matter pumped hyperfrequency lasers and neutralinos scorching and destroying an increasing number of its internal areas.
"This is MAGNUS Command to Kilo Kamba. Taking heavy fire, requesting permission to evac immediately. Over."
The Kilo Kamba, along with the other IRS ships that retreated to the edges of the system, had by then finished reactivating their communications and electronic systems though functioning only at a fraction of what it once was since not all of the programmes had been installed - only the vital ones did with the limited time available.
"MAGNUS Command, this is Kilo Kamba. Permission granted. Evac immediately, make sure your escort fleet provide covering fire. Out," Fleet Admiral Idrani responded as he bore witnessed to the death of the Crucible. His objective was completed. And as a bonus, they had isolated samples of the Axiom's cyberattack programmes. A more comprehensive study of it would greatly aid the development of better cyberdefences and countermeasures against future attacks.
"All IRS forces, mission accomplished. The Crucible is destroyed thanks to the valiant sacrifice of the Nuclean Matterforge. Regroup with the MAGNUS and the rest of the allied forces. As we move, we will give the APP a farewell party."
The 500 or so ships began moving full speed for the Allied fleet while Idrani began placing markers on remaining APP starbases. His fleet began hammering out one last concentrated volley of railgun shells, fusion missiles, lasers of all spectrums and huge Kharvon torpedos, aiming to incapacitate the APP's military infrastructure as much as they can before they withdraw.
With their primary objective met, the Nuclean fleet now focused on essentially the same goal as the APP had fixated on: bleeding the enemy out. And with that in mind, the Nuclean fleet kept firing on the Triarch fleet in front of them, focusing fire directly forward with everything they had in a storm of mainly blue. As well, they reached out with their offensive matterconverter arrays, targeting the hulls of the heaviest Triach vessels with disintegration effects. The sensors momentarily picked up Glack Ghost's arrival, but the signature quickly faded as the superweapon engaged its stealth drive, and therefore was disregarded. Meanwhile, the Nuclean fighters and gunships continued to attack as much as possible before they were swatted from space, emptying their missile payloads and ramming into each Blinker with guns blazing. That was when Admiral DeWitt's message came accross to Fleetmaster Serrexx. He was a little disappointed admittedly, however DeWitt was correct in his words. He gave the fleetwide fall back order, and the Nuclean warships began charging their reality drives, while reversing 'backward' compared to the direction they had been facing rather quickly, keeping their heaviest forward firepower on the enemy as they moved away from them, as their attack craft disengaged and moved back to their launching vessels.
The Silent Shadow never got its shot off.
Neutralinos burst into sudden violent decay within the super weapon slagging nearly all of its interior in a single instant. Crew were vapourised, machinary melted or ceased to exist and the super weapon turned into little more than a blazing shell for a few moments. That was until the capacitors which were charging the main gun also were vapourised immediately triggered a release of energy that was monumental in size.
Another bright flash bathed the battlefield in the light of a star for a few seconds as the Silent Shadow detonated. With the super weapon gone the DNA fleet also seemed to be hit, sensor readings showed nearly several hundred DNA vessels had been caught in the blast, instantly atomised by the sheer energy release including the flagship that had led the fleet.
In total dissarray the DNA fleet immediately began to withdraw, regrouping what elements they had left they continued unco-ordinated barrages onto the Blinkers as they desperately tried to get revenge even as they withdrew from the battle, charging their FTL drives as they did so.
With the Crucible destroyed, doomed to the maw of the Devourer for a moment the dying bulk of Furious Stars paused. It's target was gone, but that was only momentary pause as the lone helmsman aboard turned his eyes upon another target, and put every working thruster into a collision course with the nearest Capitol fleet and station unit-- one that with luck, would hold an enemy commander. With the strain on the already failing systems pushed even harder not a one of the thrusters survived the maneuver, but nevertheless it was done. "Comrade, get out of there!" was the sudden shout from one of the Ural ships, the destroyer seeing it in to it's target now flying alongside and near as it dared. "We will get your pod, just get the hell out of there!" "Somebody needs to guide this thing in," the helmsman responded. "No, it doesn't. That fucking thing is on terminal, set the bombs to blow on proximity and it won't matter if it misses by a hundred kilometers!" The helmsman was silent, the other surviving Ural ships already beginning to scatter back to the fleet with their eyes upon the superweapon for a few precious moments longer... and then cheers, as a lone life pod blasted out from the citadel of Furious Stars towards the destroyer to be nabbed up, the superweapon now alone as it soared to it's death on a proximity sensor. The Ural ships burned away from it like rats fleeing a sinking ship, and when the hulk smashed into the enemy line the light of ten thousand suns flashed out as every one of the immensely powerful bombs meant for powering the laser detonated normally in a raging wave of death.
The Restevian fleet at large began to withdraw as the Union was, sending storms of fire against APP strike craft and nearer warships as they turned, badly damaged ships already entering slipspace and leaving the area while they were still able. Their role here was done, it was time to join their allies and go home.
Their primary target destroyed and now with a quarter of their starting strength remaining, the Inquisition vessels turned all remaining efforts to simply survive the ensuing chaos of enemy fire. Proton cannons, missiles, and the occasional neutralino beam among other munitions decimated the remaining ships. Now with the cyberwarfare at manageable levels, the collective commanders and captains agreed with their crews their next course of action. Amidst the destroyed husks of their fellows, the Inquisition ships completely drained power from weapons, life support, even shielding and non-essential gravity, pouring it all into their engines and setting course for the lingering APP fleets taking cover in and around the debris field. A dozen more were destroyed en route, but the handful that made it through set their generators to critical levels. Upon their destruction, gravity wells supporting the cores collapsed, releasing momentous detonations that left blazing streaks through the collective debris and scattering it wildly at the enemy.
Thus, it was over at least for the Annoliddans. With no more intact vessels to call their own, this final blaze of glory was all they could muster.
The Unanimity fleet continued to burn, with the signal to withdraw received and wordlessly responded to With an automated signal of acknowledgement, the fleet brought their engines to full, the gold-yellow torches on the rear of their ships glowing brighter than ever. The rear-facing guns on their vessels continued to thunder, focusing barrages on anything stupid, or brave, enough to follow them as FTL drives begun to charge. The side turrets on the Neyu battleships continued to thunder, all set to defensive fire as they shot slug, missile and fighter alike out of the sky, shields flaring as shots that got through hit them.
The torpedo barrage from Capitol had a...far lesser effect than they had been hoping for. While the scalar wave had gotten them in firing range, it didn't take a genius to figure it wouldn't protect them forever. Wave after wave of pulse shells from the assembled ships flew at them, the sustained defence that had been intended with the secondary turrets on the battleships. Torpedoes were blown out of the sky, reduced to debris and balls of fire as wave after wave of dense shielding struck them. Still, a small handful got through, by luck or by fortune of programming, sending several of the escorts and frigates near the fleet's rear to oblivion. The focused fire on all but nullifying the Capitol torpedo strike, however, had left them comparatively open to the plasma flare strike of the Separatist Union. Point defence lasers raced to respond, and many were shot out of the sky in balls of plasma-based fury, but with even the heavy defensive fire of the Unanimity fleet, not every ship was safe. The escort fleet was sent into disarray trying to compensate, several of the cruisers they were guarding having holes bored in their hulls, yet more ships on the lighter end going out in a ball of fire and plume of smoke. Other ships returned fire, cruisers and heavy cruisers coordinating vicious laser fire on what Separatist ships were still in range, aiming to drive the foe off; those near the rear were not shot at, while those still advancing were.
Another Capitol vessel exploded in close proximity to Raxis own dreadnought as the fire from the Union fleet kept up its barrage even as they now withdrew. Return fire lashed out in anger as Tachyon fire and thermonuclear missiles raced across the void to deal death to those who had destroyed their charge. Raxis knew this was over, with the AGA withdrawing pursuing the foe was pointless. Their forces had been reduced to a fraction of what they were, and damage was rife across the APP fleet. It was clear to Raxis what order had to be given, even as the heavily damaged Annolidian Fleet now charged his own.
“All ships do not pursue. The Crucible is gone, the enemy bleeds but so do we. Pull back and regroup, I repeat do not pursue” The order went out as Capitol fire hammered the incoming Annolidian vessels, Raxis knew their plan. And when the first one of them overloaded its reactor he was proven right. Numerous Capitol vessels died as the Inquisition vessels sacrificed themselves in fire.
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Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:32:58 GMT
The Devourer: Capitol Space, Crucible Location
The defence platforms continued to spit death towards the Union fleet as the starbases focused their assault on the RSC forces now attempting to withdraw from the combat. Massive salvoes of railgun fire and missiles filled the void with explosions as endless death rung out clear as day. Capitol attack craft continued to mop up Nuclean fighters, all but wiped out by the Blinker Scalar waves and the crossfire of the platforms point defence. The platforms took their share of losses however as long range fire from the withdrawing IRS fleet hammered home, blowing open missile platforms and Tachyon platforms with ease. But it was the Furious Stars explosion that did the most damage. The bright light engulfed many platforms and even two nearby Pantheon starbases as they were vaporised by the heatglow of the super weapons death, even some of Raxis own fleet was caught but most of them along with the Blinkers and Atlanteans had been out of range.
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Tarkis knew that Raxis was right and with a heavy heart gave the order to pull back. His small force moving to rendezvous with the Capitol fleet even as the massive explosion of the RSC super weapon filled the area with light. Tarkis knew the incoming fire would hit them even as they continued the long range Hyperfrequency fire. Sandcasters fired, point defence leapt out and shields flared as the Dominion barrage hit home. Atlantean ships exploded as their defences failed and they were torn apart. Tarkis hoped rendezvous with the Capitol fleet would afford better protection, at least the battle was nearing its conclusion.
O’Lam twitched as numerous shields collapsed across his fleet and vessels exploded either to Union and Nuclean firepower still directed their way or to their own reactors overloading through massive overcharging.
“Cease shield overcharge at once. Tell Raxis that we will form up with them. Do not pursue and pull our fighters back!” He ordered watching the Triarch Defenders unwittingly fall into the Unions trap. Pursuing the Firestorms the Defenders flew straight into the flak barrage that now blossomed across the line. Fighters died as thousands of sub munitions exploded around them showering them with shrapnel and hyper velocity fragments.
Still it was not just the Triarch craft who suffered. The Capitol Tartarus class now loaded bomb pumped munitions, firing them directly towards the Union attack craft wave that headed home the huge munitions burst into prismatic light vaporising hundreds of Firestorms in a brief instant. O’Lam smiled at this measure of revenge even as more vessels were reduced to atoms around him.
----
With the calculations complete and its charge now moving away from the battlefield Black Ghost initiated its attack. Four missiles slid out of launchers across its totally unadorned hull and coasted through space even as the super weapon now moved away and began charging its FTL drive. The missiles all concealed by stealth systems activated their drives and flew at full speed towards the Union super dreadnought, their nanites payloads hungry for their targets death.
O’Lam received the message clearly. “Payload is away. Mission undertaken” It was text only but it made the Triarch captain smile.
---- The Justicar fleet now but a handful of ships continued to engage the IRS as they withdrew, using Limpet missiles to create large gravity wells on IRS vessels slowing them down and tearing them out of formation before the crippled stragglers were then focused down with overwhelming fire. While not in large numbers the Jusitcars nipped the IRS fleet down before they received their orders to withdraw. Ceasing their harassment attack the Jusitcar vessels now moved full burn away from the AGA, knowing the battle was done.
With its mission completed the Abberation ceased attacking. The Inquisition which was the immediate threat had been wiped out and now the AGA was withdrawing, with its data collected and everything studied the corrupted AI now sought to pull out, its charge was gone here as was its reason to stay. Accelerating away from the battle the FTL drives of the large Nightstone vessels charged up as the small force prepared to exit the battlefield.
----
The Gen 1 Blinkers had managed to withdraw behind the cover of Raxis fleet before the RSC super weapon detonated, saving themselves from a quick and brutal death. While mostly damaged the Blinkers had easily despatched the attack craft that sought to attack them, Scalar point defence proving to invalidate any sort of swarm tactics and vaporising whatever came close to them including missile volleys. Some of the Blinkers were more damaged however from the occasional impact and with their weapons or systems mostly offline sat at the back of the formation while whatever repair work could be made now was undertaken. They continued to fire Neutralino barrages at the AGA, focusing on the Nuclean fleet that had tried to destroy them. With most of the EW capability severely reduced by damage and heated cores they ceased any that they still tried to use instead focusing on self-repair where able.
----
With the damage done the Gen 2 Blinkers now almost out of the fuel and travelling at near Luminar speed approached the edge of the interdiction fields, ceasing their pion shrouds and with no attempt to slow down their velocity activated their wormhole drives as the ships were consumed in the vortexes they created. Disappearing from the battlefield to re-arm re-fuel and repair.
The Auraxii fleet having been covered by the Dominion and with their crews angry at the sudden withdrawal now activated their FTL drives. Withdrawing from the battle entirely.
While their fleet was now safe from further attack the problems they would now face on their return would be far harsher than even this battle.
"The allies are retreating, and they have accomplished their mission," Zheshan's stated the facts in a calm demeanour, but her eyes betray it all. Pupils once lit with passionate fire to destroy and humiliate the hated Republic had now faded of all colour and sparkle, turning dull from the fatigue, the weariness and the disappointment within herself. Her failure to defend the Crucible will be thoroughly questioned by the Kyomizars back home, and she knew she deserved every bit of scruntiny.
"Capitol Command, there is no longer any purpose for my forces here. We will retreat to our home systems for immediate repairs and we will return here shortly with supplies and additional transports to scavenge and save whatever and whoever we can."
With that the Separatist Union fleet, suffering light losses but the heavy burden of failure, charged up their warp drives for the return back home.
The Nuclean fleet zoomed away from the Devourer and APP fleets, still firing at them as their drives charged. Neutralino fire ricocheted off of their shielding, however some of the smaller escorts and patrollers, who had either fully or partially lost shielding, simply exploded without warning. Thankfully however, the APP fleets weren't pursuing them, and actually didn't direct much fire their way, so losses were still minimal. "Get us out of here now!" Serrexx ordered, as the confirmation from the remaining vessels began streaming in that their drives were charged. His command was carried out, and as they exited the interdiction field, the various warships simply disappeared almost all at once, with no fanfare nor grand visual display as their reality drives kicked in.
The verified end of the crucible was reason enough to not stick around. A brief holding action was implemented as the ships that were damaged enough to be moving at reduced speeds made their best speed out of the system while more functional vessels covered their exit. Every other vessel that was crippled but intact was towed the Dominion’s battle line lasted for another twenty minutes as the force filtered out of the sector with whatever foreign tech they could capture and whatever Dominion vessels could not be hauled off were simply destroyed as a last act to prevent capture of technology or intelligence. By the fifteen mark, there were no disabled Dominion assets on the field and nothing left for the enemy to conceivably capture…the battle was over. The last vestiges of the battle line made a mad dash out of the system at maximum speed utilizing evasive maneuvers to avoid any potential incoming fire.
The Restevians made their retreat as their allies scattered, APP fire slamming into their shields and armor as they turned to withdraw. Ships died still as their own weapons fire stopped, vessels battered and shredded by the battle before hand at last succumbing to the weight of enemy fire. Escape shuttles and pods were grabbed up by passing ships in as many numbers as they were able as their engines flared with brilliant drive trails.
Like the Dominion as well, the Restevians denied their destroyed ships to the enemy as signals were sent out from the flagship to those computer systems to the dead ships still able to receive them. Ammunition stores and reactors detonated to destroy the hulks and server as last graves for those that had fought aboard them, filling space with fireballs and shockwaves. With that, the Restevians left the battle and the enemy fire behind as they burned beyond enemy range for the area where they'd be able to jump.
The Unanimity fleet continued their hasty withdrawal, guns thundering even as their FTL drives reached full charge, aiming for anything caught with its shields weak or down. "Admiral! All ships, ready to withdraw!" "Understood. Anything else?" Kulne asked, glancing briefly at a screen. "All detected escape craft have been secured and brought aboard remaining ships. It could've been a lot worse, ma'am. Lost vessels are sending their reactors and capacitor batteries into overload now." After a pause, Kulne nodded, watching the electromagnetic flashes as the husks of AUN warships were replaced by brief, but fierce flashes of light. "Are we out of interdiction range?" "Exiting now, admiral. ETA 6 seconds." the navigations officer called. "Good. Find us somewhere safe to jump to, then we'll head to the rendezvous." she tapped some of the holographic buttons on her readouts. "I'll send a small detachment to escort the Holoship back to Unanimity space." With that, she looked ahead, out the digitally displayed viewport of the battleship. "All AUN warships! Our mission has been accomplished! Withdraw!"
With streaks of yellow, the Artifician warships vanished in rapid succession, disappearing into the endless void of space. They were gone, and there was little more than scrap they had left behind.
"Sir we are about to exit interdiction"
"Good drop interdiction and jum-" Dewitt was interupted mid sentence.
"Sir incoming heavy munitions! Directed at us, stealth warheads reading massive payloads!" The voice was one of surprise and fear. Dewitt and everyone on the bridges faces dropped.
"Intercept I want all weapons on those warheads!" The order didnt need to be given. The Triarch warheads sped through the outer layers of defenses, the particulate shields doing little to the huge missiles while defensive fire began to open up from the Union fleet. The Transcendant Angel itself and its escorts filled the void with flak and laser fire. One of the missiles, one of 6 detonated as a Meson laser speared it through, another was brought down by counter missiles, and three more were destroyed on their approaches by the concentrated Mass driver fire. Their stealth systems, while compromised at close ranges still disrupted lock on and targetting systems. Dewitt was barking orders when the last missile hit the Super dreadnoughts shields.
The huge missile was a tandem warhead, the impact exploding enough to force the second warhead through the Unions shielding and sent it flying into the hull. Much to the Unioners surprise, there was no explosion.
"What the hell? Is it a dud?" Dewitt asked aloud as he scried the data read outs.
"No sir! Detecting massive numbers of nanites now consuming the hull in that sector... By creation their replicating faster than any ive seen"
The hull of the Blue super dreadnought crawled, almost a kilometre worth of Quantum lattice plate, composite armour, weapons emplacements and internal areas had been consumed in a few moments as the ravenous nanites consumed, replicated and repeated across their targets. The Strategic Strike had hit home.
"Energise the hull! Flash fry the bastards!" Dewitt shouted angrily "I wont let my girl go down to such trickery!" The hull flashed, and flashed and continued to do so as massive energy levels were dumped into flashfry systems above the hull, vapourising whole areas of the nanites but no matter how many were destroyed even the smaller amounts survived, spreading like wildfire each time.
"Sir its no good flashfry is ineffective, at this rate they will consume the ship in just under an hours time" The report was break. And Dewitt hung his head low and sighed. He had no choice.
"Get everyone out of that region that hasnt evacced already, seal off the entire Port side of the ship, then when your ready detonate modular holdings. We will purge them that way" His order was met with one of hesitation and strange looks. Union ships were highly modular, allowing new sections of hull, weapons, engines and more to be taken off and replaced quickly. Each one came with small explosive devices, while such going off individually would do nothing to the ship overal detonating them in a section at once was enough to detatch that section quickly for rapid replacement. In this way it would save the ship. In one move the Super dreadnought shed its entire portside of weapons emplacements, armour and more. Sealed off against the void the nanites had not jumped over, and consumed the entire port side to quickly become a writing cloud of nanites drifting in space. With the Super dreadnought entirely crippled Dewitt growled, it would take a long time to get her space worthy again.
"All ships jump when ready. Lets go home" His anger was clear. With the damage done the Union fleet activated its slipspace drives and pulled itself out of the system.
---------------
"Admiral. All AGA elements have left the system save for some stragglers who either cannot FTL or attack craft"
"Understood" Raxis leant back in his chair. It was over. The Crucible was gone and the AGA had retreated, his rag tag fleet was damaged, in desperate need of repair and resupply and this place was now strategically useless.
"Clear up the survivors. No prisoners for escape pods or wrecks. Not today. Bring our dead and wrecks in. Tell the fleet to jump for Celefra, our allies can do as they please and tell them they fought admirably. Get the tugs as well and bring our defenses home, no point in them being here now" Raxis ordered looking into the Devourers acretion disk and still seeing some remnants tumbling around in fire.
"Yes sir" The commands were sent and Raxis sighed.
"So this is where our road has led us"
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