Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:42:57 GMT
Headquarters of the Staebhic Unified Space Navy, a predominantly underground installation, had been busy over the past few weeks. Increasing activity in the outer system had been met with resistance by the SUSN, but results had been...mixed. They had kept the Unanimity out of the inner system, but they didn't know how long that would last, especially with the continued presence of the monitoring station. Fleet Admiral K'maru had seen every report from the encounters, and the results were not exactly promising. Especially the latest ones. A laser weapon with enough power an Arbalest didn't even have time to explode. Troubling.
In light of this, his mood wasn't exactly beaming when he walked into the main command centre, responding to calls for his attention.
"What's the situation?"
"Multiple AUN signals, moving towards the inner system. Four of them."
"Are they headed for Staebha?"
"Negative. They're on a rendezvous course with Aubos."
"The mining world...they must be trying to hit our resources. Slow down naval production. What's the fleet doing?"
"Prepping for an interception. They'll meet them over Aubos."
"Alright. Send an orbital evacuation order to Aubos Control. Who's in charge of the intercept fleet?"
"Captains O'mota and S'dara, sir."
"Hm...okay. Tell them to be careful. We can replace orbital cargo towers with some construction work, but we can't replace fleet captains so easily."
"Acknowledged sir."
The dozen ships of the SUSN fleet drifted steadily forwards, the looming grey-red sphere of Aubos below them. The IFFs of the inbound aggressors sat on the digital viewports, the ranges steadily counting down. S'dara wiped his brow, letting out a low rumble. He'd seen every encounter with these people, and he'd somehow survived every one. Usually, by running away when things turned south. Now, they were in a situation where they simply couldn't afford to. If they ran here, the entire Staebhic Union would suffer for it. S'dara didn't plan on letting that happen.
"Fleet status?"
"Systems green. All weapons armed, capacitors charging."
"What's the situation over Aubos?"
"Almost all the civilian ships have fled. Most have left orbit by now. It's just us, them, and the orbital spires."
"Understood." S'dara nodded, clicking open comms to the fleet.
"This is Captain S'dara to all hands. Every fight until now has been a skirmish. Quick. Brutal. This isn't quite so simple. The stakes here are proper; if we want to avoid our home being starved of resources and naval construction to slow to a grind, we have to drive them back. The only thing more important than this would be an attack on Staebha herself. Make every shot count, men, and make her proud. Captain S'dara, out."
A moment went by before the comms buzzed, Captain O'mota coming onto the line.
"Nice speech, Captain. Didn't know you were the talkative type."
"I'm not. We just need morale as high as we can get it."
"Didn't want to let me do the honours?"
"This is serious, O'mota."
"I'm aware, I'm just trying to remain optimistic."
"I wish I could do that. What do you reckon our chances are?"
"Unless they have some new trick up their sleeve, I'd say pretty solid. Focus them down one at a time, and their shields won't count for much. And we've seen what our impactors do to them. This'll be over before the hour's up."
"True, I suppose. I hope you're right." S'dara grumbled.
"Captain! New data, coming in!" called an officer, one of his displays lighting up. Two of the ships he could take a guess at, from the size. Destroyers, though they looked to be of a new model. No spinal lasers on these, which was promising. The third ship, however, was dwarfed only by the Unanimity station near the system's edge. It was long, with a narrow bow with a glowing yellow barrel. He hadn't the faintest clue what it was.
"The hell is that, S'dara?" came down the line.
"No idea. Stay clear of that spinal gun. If I've learnt anything, it's that their spinals laugh at any defences we put in the way."
"I've seen the reports." O'mota rumbled, his tone darker than before.
"O'mota. I have an idea. Take an Arbalest. Go into a perpendicular orbital path to us. I'll send you a message detailing the rest."
"...Alright. Good luck, S'dara."
"Thanks. I'll need it."
O'mota was away, and now S'dara had to lead the rest to battle. The fleet took formation, engines burning to full.
"Sir! Picking up energy spikes in the Unanimity warships! Weapons are coming online!"
"Alright! Let's not cut them any slack! Open fire, capacitor shells! Have nuclear shells on standby! All ships, space out from each other, give everyone room for evasive manoeuvers!"
Control thrusters fired as the fleet did as ordered, coilguns thudding and flaring with heat as they sent rounds down range. It was seconds before the white-hot beams of laser fire came back the other way. Again, Unanimity point defence flared to life, many shells being shot out of the sky, but with the ranges involved and the muzzle velocity of the slowly improved spinal guns, just as many hit home, lightning crackling across energy shields. Lasers bore into the Staebhic vessels, scorching their smooth white hulls black, spent armour plates ejected into space. Even as the shields of the destroyers faded, however, the larger vessel remained sturdy. It would take a beating to kill. O'mota's words drifted into the Captain's mind.
"All ships! Focus on the left hand ship! Capacitor shells!" came the order. The fleet fired again, and try as the ships did to stop them, at least five struck the shields at once. A true storm of electricity flashed across sensors, before finally, the vessel's shields failed. S'dara didn't need to give the order. Two of the Arbalests launched two impactors, and it wasn't long before the sensory hell of their orion drives signalled their rapid approach. Lasers flared, and the cameras on S'dara's Polybolos polarised almost as much as they had when his ship had been fired at by the station. The entire starboard side, or his port, of the larger ship flashed to life, dozens of lasers lancing out at once. Three of the impactors were reduced to molten slag, likely only fated to splash themselves uselessly against the destroyer's hull. The fourth, however, while its orion drive was destroyed, was already at lethal velocities.
The impactor plunged into the unshielded destroyer, buckling steel and shattering or mangling composites, wrenching anything put ahead of it out of the way through sheer kinetic force. The entire destroyer seemed to bend in the middle, contorting its structures in a fashion that only exemplified the damage. The impactor plunged deeper, its battered tip finally reaching the vulnerable reactor. With its cold lack of regard it rammed it, and the reactor was quickly reduced to all the more spalling shrapnel. All in all, it was barely more than five seconds between the impactor making contact, and the destroyer being blown apart in a ball of fire.
"Contact confirmed! Enemy vessel destroyed! All systems offline!" came the report. A ghost of a smile cracked across S'dara's face. For once, an actual military vessel, killed for good. The SUSN had proved the danger they posed. And the aggressors seemed to notice.
A flash of energy, surging through the larger vessel's weapons systems. The glowing yellow barrel flashed alive, illuminating the rest of the bow and the destroyer's wreck in a strong mustard yellow. And just as quickly, it died down. A yellow beam shot by faster than S'dara could think, and by the time he had registered the shot, two Arbalests had been turned to debris.
"What the hell was that?!" he cried out.
"Unknown, sir! Unclassified weapons type, faster than a laser!"
"You mean some kind of FTL weapon? Since when have they had those?!"
"Sir! Two of the Arbalests have been destroyed! Total eradication, there's nothing but scrap!"
"...C-Captain!"
"What is it?"
"One of the orbital spires has been destroyed! The shot went clean through the orbital anchor, it's coming apart!" the crewman called. S'dara's blood dropped a few degrees. He was thankful, at least, that they were unoccupied. And that, hopefully, there was nobody planetside that would be on the receiving end of the falling debris. He gritted his teeth.
"All ships, open fire! Make that cruiser bleed!"
Just as soon as the fighting had paused, it had started again, coilguns firing and beams of red lancing through space. The other destroyer fired its payload as it started an advance, four torpedoes even larger than the Staebh's own impactors rocketing forth, twisting and turning to avoid fire. One of the Arbalests had a captain with more thought than some, the vessel firing with just the right timing for the kinetic shot to rip the torpedo clean in two, sending the mangled halves spiralling into space. The other three, however, were not so lucky, and sensors blared as three thermonuclear detonations knocked S'dara's fleet down another three. The destroyer took advantage of its opening, engine burning to race for the orbital spires. That left S'dara's Polybolos and four Arbalests remaining.
"Dammit!" he gritted his teeth. "Send two of the Arbalests to kill that damned thing, we'll handle this bastard!" he ordered, taking a glance at his ship's status. A lot of the armour was in orange or red condition. Not that it would matter if that thing got a second spinal shot off.
"Keep firing! Kill its shields!" he almost yelled, coilguns firing again. His ship shook, an alarm blaring.
"Hull breach! Fires in the forward section! Spinal gun cooling compromised!"
"Arbalest One's reactor block has taken a hit, it's losing engine power!"
"Sir! Target shields are almost down!" a crewman called. He went to continue, before another cut him off.
"Captain! Six new contacts, coming in hot from our starboard!"
"What? Show me!" he called. A readout changed, showing the orbital map. Six signals, coming in at breakneck velocities. They were small. Very small. A penny dropped.
"Those aren't contacts! Those are impactors! That's O'mota!" he called. "Fire again! Kill it's shields! I don't care if we break our spinal gun doing it!"
Shots fired out once more, lasers fighting to take them out. Shells were turned to slag or vaporised outright, but just two hit home. And, to the fortune of the defenders, it was enough. Shields wavered and flared, falling and leaving the vessel exposed. S'dara had no time, nor need, to call an order to kill it. The block of laser weapons on its exposed side fired, and four of the impactors went dark. The other two, however, pressed on, and the ship didn't have time to fire again. One of the impactors plunged clean through the gunblock, sending it and the one opposite offline and sending the vessel jerking hard to the side as its innards were gutted. The second clipped the bow, ripping a chunk out with it. The spinal went offline. The ship, alive but hurt, turned, engines flaring as it moved to flee.
"Captain! The vessel is withdrawing!"
"What's our status? And the fleet?"
"Spinal gun is compromised, sir, but we're operational! The Arbalests have killed the other destroyer, but..."
"But?"
"It destroyed another orbital spire and damaged a third."
"Well...I suppose...things could have gone a lot worse. All ships, rendesvous with O'mota. And send a signal back home. We've won. Aubos is safe. And let them know there's a pair of wrecks in orbit they may be very interested in."
Messages of warm welcome greeted S'dara's battered ship as it entered Staebha orbit. The fleet had been almost halved, and most of the other half would likely have been on fire were it not for the vacuum of space. The handful of ships left behind over Staebha came out to escort the beaten and bruised fleet in. A message came in from O'mota, the signal crackling slightly. S'dara's comms antennae had taken a knock.
"Good thinking back there, Captain. That ship might've ruined us."
"Yeah. Good timing on your part. Real cinematic value." S'dara sighed.
"Was that humour I just heard?"
"Trying to lighten the mood, sue me."
"I'll consider it, Captain. I think the mood's plenty bright enough down there, though. We've beaten them in a direct confrontation. And not just a few exchanged shots, either. Actual naval kills. That gives people hope, S'dara."
"I...I know. I just don't know how long we can keep this up."
"We'll keep it up as long as we have to."
"Always the optomist, O'mota." S'dara shook his head, the comms line cutting. Barely five seconds passed before another popped up.
"Captain S'dara."
"Fleet Admiral K'maru, sir." S'dara saluted.
"At ease. Good work over Aubos, civilian craft and repair ships are returning to its orbit now. I understand we took heavy casualties, but the important thing is our resource income is secure, if hurt, and we're on our way to completing our latest naval projects."
"That's good news, Admiral. I hope they can make up for what we lost today."
"As do I, Captain. If we're lucky, they'll end this conflict in full."
"That promising?"
"...I have something I want to show you. Come planetside. Meet me here." K'maru responded, a beep sounding off as a marker on a map of the surface around the orbital elevator appeared.
"...Aye aye, Admiral. What is it?"
"You'll find out when you get there. I can tell you it's important. Nothing else."
"...I understand. I'll see you soon, Admiral. Is that all, sir?"
"Nothing, S'dara. That's all. Over and out."
In light of this, his mood wasn't exactly beaming when he walked into the main command centre, responding to calls for his attention.
"What's the situation?"
"Multiple AUN signals, moving towards the inner system. Four of them."
"Are they headed for Staebha?"
"Negative. They're on a rendezvous course with Aubos."
"The mining world...they must be trying to hit our resources. Slow down naval production. What's the fleet doing?"
"Prepping for an interception. They'll meet them over Aubos."
"Alright. Send an orbital evacuation order to Aubos Control. Who's in charge of the intercept fleet?"
"Captains O'mota and S'dara, sir."
"Hm...okay. Tell them to be careful. We can replace orbital cargo towers with some construction work, but we can't replace fleet captains so easily."
"Acknowledged sir."
The dozen ships of the SUSN fleet drifted steadily forwards, the looming grey-red sphere of Aubos below them. The IFFs of the inbound aggressors sat on the digital viewports, the ranges steadily counting down. S'dara wiped his brow, letting out a low rumble. He'd seen every encounter with these people, and he'd somehow survived every one. Usually, by running away when things turned south. Now, they were in a situation where they simply couldn't afford to. If they ran here, the entire Staebhic Union would suffer for it. S'dara didn't plan on letting that happen.
"Fleet status?"
"Systems green. All weapons armed, capacitors charging."
"What's the situation over Aubos?"
"Almost all the civilian ships have fled. Most have left orbit by now. It's just us, them, and the orbital spires."
"Understood." S'dara nodded, clicking open comms to the fleet.
"This is Captain S'dara to all hands. Every fight until now has been a skirmish. Quick. Brutal. This isn't quite so simple. The stakes here are proper; if we want to avoid our home being starved of resources and naval construction to slow to a grind, we have to drive them back. The only thing more important than this would be an attack on Staebha herself. Make every shot count, men, and make her proud. Captain S'dara, out."
A moment went by before the comms buzzed, Captain O'mota coming onto the line.
"Nice speech, Captain. Didn't know you were the talkative type."
"I'm not. We just need morale as high as we can get it."
"Didn't want to let me do the honours?"
"This is serious, O'mota."
"I'm aware, I'm just trying to remain optimistic."
"I wish I could do that. What do you reckon our chances are?"
"Unless they have some new trick up their sleeve, I'd say pretty solid. Focus them down one at a time, and their shields won't count for much. And we've seen what our impactors do to them. This'll be over before the hour's up."
"True, I suppose. I hope you're right." S'dara grumbled.
"Captain! New data, coming in!" called an officer, one of his displays lighting up. Two of the ships he could take a guess at, from the size. Destroyers, though they looked to be of a new model. No spinal lasers on these, which was promising. The third ship, however, was dwarfed only by the Unanimity station near the system's edge. It was long, with a narrow bow with a glowing yellow barrel. He hadn't the faintest clue what it was.
"The hell is that, S'dara?" came down the line.
"No idea. Stay clear of that spinal gun. If I've learnt anything, it's that their spinals laugh at any defences we put in the way."
"I've seen the reports." O'mota rumbled, his tone darker than before.
"O'mota. I have an idea. Take an Arbalest. Go into a perpendicular orbital path to us. I'll send you a message detailing the rest."
"...Alright. Good luck, S'dara."
"Thanks. I'll need it."
O'mota was away, and now S'dara had to lead the rest to battle. The fleet took formation, engines burning to full.
"Sir! Picking up energy spikes in the Unanimity warships! Weapons are coming online!"
"Alright! Let's not cut them any slack! Open fire, capacitor shells! Have nuclear shells on standby! All ships, space out from each other, give everyone room for evasive manoeuvers!"
Control thrusters fired as the fleet did as ordered, coilguns thudding and flaring with heat as they sent rounds down range. It was seconds before the white-hot beams of laser fire came back the other way. Again, Unanimity point defence flared to life, many shells being shot out of the sky, but with the ranges involved and the muzzle velocity of the slowly improved spinal guns, just as many hit home, lightning crackling across energy shields. Lasers bore into the Staebhic vessels, scorching their smooth white hulls black, spent armour plates ejected into space. Even as the shields of the destroyers faded, however, the larger vessel remained sturdy. It would take a beating to kill. O'mota's words drifted into the Captain's mind.
"All ships! Focus on the left hand ship! Capacitor shells!" came the order. The fleet fired again, and try as the ships did to stop them, at least five struck the shields at once. A true storm of electricity flashed across sensors, before finally, the vessel's shields failed. S'dara didn't need to give the order. Two of the Arbalests launched two impactors, and it wasn't long before the sensory hell of their orion drives signalled their rapid approach. Lasers flared, and the cameras on S'dara's Polybolos polarised almost as much as they had when his ship had been fired at by the station. The entire starboard side, or his port, of the larger ship flashed to life, dozens of lasers lancing out at once. Three of the impactors were reduced to molten slag, likely only fated to splash themselves uselessly against the destroyer's hull. The fourth, however, while its orion drive was destroyed, was already at lethal velocities.
The impactor plunged into the unshielded destroyer, buckling steel and shattering or mangling composites, wrenching anything put ahead of it out of the way through sheer kinetic force. The entire destroyer seemed to bend in the middle, contorting its structures in a fashion that only exemplified the damage. The impactor plunged deeper, its battered tip finally reaching the vulnerable reactor. With its cold lack of regard it rammed it, and the reactor was quickly reduced to all the more spalling shrapnel. All in all, it was barely more than five seconds between the impactor making contact, and the destroyer being blown apart in a ball of fire.
"Contact confirmed! Enemy vessel destroyed! All systems offline!" came the report. A ghost of a smile cracked across S'dara's face. For once, an actual military vessel, killed for good. The SUSN had proved the danger they posed. And the aggressors seemed to notice.
A flash of energy, surging through the larger vessel's weapons systems. The glowing yellow barrel flashed alive, illuminating the rest of the bow and the destroyer's wreck in a strong mustard yellow. And just as quickly, it died down. A yellow beam shot by faster than S'dara could think, and by the time he had registered the shot, two Arbalests had been turned to debris.
"What the hell was that?!" he cried out.
"Unknown, sir! Unclassified weapons type, faster than a laser!"
"You mean some kind of FTL weapon? Since when have they had those?!"
"Sir! Two of the Arbalests have been destroyed! Total eradication, there's nothing but scrap!"
"...C-Captain!"
"What is it?"
"One of the orbital spires has been destroyed! The shot went clean through the orbital anchor, it's coming apart!" the crewman called. S'dara's blood dropped a few degrees. He was thankful, at least, that they were unoccupied. And that, hopefully, there was nobody planetside that would be on the receiving end of the falling debris. He gritted his teeth.
"All ships, open fire! Make that cruiser bleed!"
Just as soon as the fighting had paused, it had started again, coilguns firing and beams of red lancing through space. The other destroyer fired its payload as it started an advance, four torpedoes even larger than the Staebh's own impactors rocketing forth, twisting and turning to avoid fire. One of the Arbalests had a captain with more thought than some, the vessel firing with just the right timing for the kinetic shot to rip the torpedo clean in two, sending the mangled halves spiralling into space. The other three, however, were not so lucky, and sensors blared as three thermonuclear detonations knocked S'dara's fleet down another three. The destroyer took advantage of its opening, engine burning to race for the orbital spires. That left S'dara's Polybolos and four Arbalests remaining.
"Dammit!" he gritted his teeth. "Send two of the Arbalests to kill that damned thing, we'll handle this bastard!" he ordered, taking a glance at his ship's status. A lot of the armour was in orange or red condition. Not that it would matter if that thing got a second spinal shot off.
"Keep firing! Kill its shields!" he almost yelled, coilguns firing again. His ship shook, an alarm blaring.
"Hull breach! Fires in the forward section! Spinal gun cooling compromised!"
"Arbalest One's reactor block has taken a hit, it's losing engine power!"
"Sir! Target shields are almost down!" a crewman called. He went to continue, before another cut him off.
"Captain! Six new contacts, coming in hot from our starboard!"
"What? Show me!" he called. A readout changed, showing the orbital map. Six signals, coming in at breakneck velocities. They were small. Very small. A penny dropped.
"Those aren't contacts! Those are impactors! That's O'mota!" he called. "Fire again! Kill it's shields! I don't care if we break our spinal gun doing it!"
Shots fired out once more, lasers fighting to take them out. Shells were turned to slag or vaporised outright, but just two hit home. And, to the fortune of the defenders, it was enough. Shields wavered and flared, falling and leaving the vessel exposed. S'dara had no time, nor need, to call an order to kill it. The block of laser weapons on its exposed side fired, and four of the impactors went dark. The other two, however, pressed on, and the ship didn't have time to fire again. One of the impactors plunged clean through the gunblock, sending it and the one opposite offline and sending the vessel jerking hard to the side as its innards were gutted. The second clipped the bow, ripping a chunk out with it. The spinal went offline. The ship, alive but hurt, turned, engines flaring as it moved to flee.
"Captain! The vessel is withdrawing!"
"What's our status? And the fleet?"
"Spinal gun is compromised, sir, but we're operational! The Arbalests have killed the other destroyer, but..."
"But?"
"It destroyed another orbital spire and damaged a third."
"Well...I suppose...things could have gone a lot worse. All ships, rendesvous with O'mota. And send a signal back home. We've won. Aubos is safe. And let them know there's a pair of wrecks in orbit they may be very interested in."
Messages of warm welcome greeted S'dara's battered ship as it entered Staebha orbit. The fleet had been almost halved, and most of the other half would likely have been on fire were it not for the vacuum of space. The handful of ships left behind over Staebha came out to escort the beaten and bruised fleet in. A message came in from O'mota, the signal crackling slightly. S'dara's comms antennae had taken a knock.
"Good thinking back there, Captain. That ship might've ruined us."
"Yeah. Good timing on your part. Real cinematic value." S'dara sighed.
"Was that humour I just heard?"
"Trying to lighten the mood, sue me."
"I'll consider it, Captain. I think the mood's plenty bright enough down there, though. We've beaten them in a direct confrontation. And not just a few exchanged shots, either. Actual naval kills. That gives people hope, S'dara."
"I...I know. I just don't know how long we can keep this up."
"We'll keep it up as long as we have to."
"Always the optomist, O'mota." S'dara shook his head, the comms line cutting. Barely five seconds passed before another popped up.
"Captain S'dara."
"Fleet Admiral K'maru, sir." S'dara saluted.
"At ease. Good work over Aubos, civilian craft and repair ships are returning to its orbit now. I understand we took heavy casualties, but the important thing is our resource income is secure, if hurt, and we're on our way to completing our latest naval projects."
"That's good news, Admiral. I hope they can make up for what we lost today."
"As do I, Captain. If we're lucky, they'll end this conflict in full."
"That promising?"
"...I have something I want to show you. Come planetside. Meet me here." K'maru responded, a beep sounding off as a marker on a map of the surface around the orbital elevator appeared.
"...Aye aye, Admiral. What is it?"
"You'll find out when you get there. I can tell you it's important. Nothing else."
"...I understand. I'll see you soon, Admiral. Is that all, sir?"
"Nothing, S'dara. That's all. Over and out."