Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 7, 2023 18:27:25 GMT
Unknown Location
“This will embolden the more extreme elements of SAGA into independent action like this. Forcing CONA to deal with them much more frequently and not our own operations. It’s a statement that is far bolder than their simple raiding”
“It will affect us too ma’am, the trade disruption will impact our own economy”
“Of course, it will. Which will give ample drive for us to push for greater self-sufficiency, and galvanise the rest of SAGA into a much more pro-active stance, if their economies can be impacted this easily why would they sit around and do little?”
“The plan is ready to go, we have the freighters already chartered. Interdictors are being fuelled with several months of Sinarium as ordered”
“Good, tell the assets to defend them somewhat, nothing major, enough to shoo away early small counters”
“Yes ma’am”
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The freighters were disseminated to numerous points in the galaxy, given false names and sent on their way. All made travel towards the Starlit Avenue, just a handful out of truly impossible numbers of civilian craft that now plied the lane. Despite the war and the disruption at Aedleshaven the grind of galactic economics and fuel trade did not stop here, it was the main arterial way in the galaxy, everything of worth came through here and it was dirt cheap to come this way thanks to the build up of so much Ancerium residue. Petitions to mine it had been shot down and doing so (as many unscrupulous individuals tried) invited arrest or destruction. The Ancerium here kept FTL costs almost non-existent, it aided everyone and so it was left.
One by one however the freighters, of all shapes and sizes, dropped out of warp, registering drive malfunctions or needed additional spooling time.
As each dropped out the counter clocked down on the ships Ais, eventually culminating in the field generators going off. In no time at all hundreds of ships, mostly civilian were yanked out of superluminal travel and sent free floating into dead space. As the fields continued to expand and more freighters joined the operation those that got caught only grew and grew. News outlets flocked to the millions of reports and outrage flooded the Ancnet.
Whoever had done this was in for a rough time.
BREAKING NEWS
STARLIT AVENUE TRADE LANE CUT OFF BY INTERDICTION
In a stunning announcement the Starlit Avenue Trade Lane, the huge navigational route between Aedleshaven/The Expanse and Lost Star, has been cut off. The largest trade and navigational route in the galaxy that sees most Ancerium and goods go through its trunk has been hit with some kind of attack today, after nearly a hundred freighters dropped out of warp simultaneously and fired up powerful military grade interdiction fields.
None have come forward to claim responsibility for the attack but already thousands of civilian ships are now stranded in open dead space, some with the possibility of months long travel to outside the fields. Already traffic is being forced to go round the blockade, driving up travel time and cost, the latter being driven sky high by the disruption to the Ancerium laced route that keeps warp drive travel along the trunk to near minimal levels.
CONA has quickly denied the attack, denouncing those responsible given that market projections for the Krizpakt nations have already taken a downturn, and many SAGA nations have come out to deny it as well, citing that it affects many of them just as harshly including the Union and Carnaith.
Initial response efforts are underway, but many nations seem to be responding, making their way into the fields to discover who may have done this and disable the interdiction.
More updates to follow.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The entire region was chaos by the time the response forces arrived.
Patrol fleets and battlegroups proper of both SAGA and CONA were present, already intently staring each other down from vast distances at the edge of the interdiction zone. Civilian traffic was going around for now, loosing precious time and now with huge cost without the Ancerium laden route. Some vessels had already gone into the interdiction field, and it would take days before they reached some of the freighters which had spread themselves out in such a way as to maximise disruption and travel time for those seeking to reach them.
Either way, the disruption had to be cleared, and fast. And if possible find out who was responsible before things kicked off and the avenue turned into yet another warzone.
Data Centre, Royal Federation Space
"Delayed, delayed, delayed and of course delayed again" The Traffic manager talked to himself.
"She's not going to like this one... and three, two, one." His monologuing was cut off by an urgent transmission request from The War Machine.
"Manager, I have a report here saying that Ancerium and Sinarium shipments are delayed by up to a seven days." The War Machine inquired politely
"Yes, the major blockage in the starlit avenue is causing nation wide delays for all Meta Material imports its-"
"That's all I needed, thank you Manager" She cut him off curtly.
The War Machine stewed for a few seconds before enacting her next set of protocols and requested a direct link with the Governess of the Federations Ancerious Territories. From the camera in her office she could see Duchess Sofia answer her summons. A look of annoyance across her perfectly moulded face.
"Milady, sorry for the sudden summons but we have a situation." The Warmachine said before delving into a somewhat long winded explanation about the current crisis in the Starlit Avenue and its impact on Federal Meta Material production.
"That's enough of the explanations War Machine, I think I understand the problem now and I'll have the Lady Admiral look into the matter." She said halting the AIs speech raising a hand.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The call to action had been a break in what was the longest game of hurry up and wait in recent history for the Federation Navy. Rear Admiral Jean Paul de Artemis had received his orders for this operation while mustering at one of the Federations War Worlds to come this far north into hostile territory to investigate the Interdiction field. He stared motionlessly at the screen in front of him from his command throne, leaning his head into his clasped hands.
"Another SAGA patrol Admiral." His sensors operator shouted.
He watched the IFFs appear on screen, they were keeping a set distance from his contingent.
"Give them the same message as before Drynwyn." He commanded casually.
The small contingent of Federation warships consisting of the Destroyer VMFR Elba and the Frigates VMFR Oural and VMFR Etoile made their way past the SAGA end of the corridor towards the interdicted zone. The crews had been at full battle stations for hours now, weapons hot, defences raised and sensors scanning wildly every direction. They had earned the ire of several SAGA patrols but a simple message of peace and intention had been enough to satiate their curiosity.
"Entering interdiction zone now Admiral."
The Contingent streamed forward into the zone.
From the void arrived four ships from the Divine Lotus Blossom Empire, or more specifically the Celestial River sect, the pre-eminent trading organization within the empire, and possessed of close ties to the imperial house. The ships resembled massive flower bulbs of differing sizes. Two were around 500 meters, while the other two were twice that. Their hulls were a dark indigo blue, and almost featureless save for the glow of the main thrusts at their rears and the vantablack seams between the “petals” of the ship, which almost seemed to writhe and quiver the more one looked. However, while the two small ones and one of the larger ones were sleek and narrow designs, the last was a bulbous, nearly spherical design. All were marked with a stylized emblem depicting what seemed to be a white, swirling river.
Floating within a partitioned pool of liquidized reactive armor, the Golden Core, Minor Grade Immortal Vei Xian sat in a meditative pose. His muscular frame, devoid of any sort of hair-like decorations, was covered in silvery skin his eyes were featureless spheres of white light. Resting his head on his chin, he contacted his three subordinates managing the other vessels. Though it took only a few seconds, to the cultivators it felt as though they were having a relaxed conversation, their avatars, all dressed in dark blue robes highlighted with white and silver, floating in front of one another as they communicated wordlessly.
“I trust you are briefed on this situation, juniors?” Vei Xian spoke first, his voice pleasantly melodic and at odds with his inhumanly muscular body. Though, as all in the empire knew, one’s physical appearance rarely was conclusive when judging capability.
“Of course!” The Intermediate Grade junior of the bunch, Meng Yongliang, spoke, a handsome young man with a perpetual scowl on his face, his skin jade white and his eyes all-black with white irises, long indigo hair glimmering with countless sparkling lights. “This blockage, it is an affront to our sect! It must be dealt with promptly! These mortals should simply make way and leave this issue for their superiors!”
“Do not be so hasty now!” A woman of similar design save for jet-black hair and golden streaks running down her otherwise equally white skin, replied. The other Intermediate Grade Black Core cultivator, Zeya Metrei, looked over at him with a tired expression. “Think of the amount of powers arriving to handle this matter. Even if we are superior to them, it is wide to avoid making unnecessary enemies. Did not the incident at the tea house auction you attended prove there are powers outside our realm which can rival our own bodies? It is best to be cautious.”
“Hah! Expected words from a Urish craven. Your kind would rather vanish into the black than fight honorably.” Meng Yongliang replied arrogantly.
“Were we not bound to complete this task I would-” Zeya began to respond before the pair were cut off by the third.
“Brother! Sister! We must focus on the task at hand!” The third avatar gestured. It resembled a tall humanoid, easily three meters, with no visible features on its pitted, stone-like surface. The Major-Grade Cultivator, Tu Rong, continued. “We have a duty to our sect to ensure that this mission is carried out with utmost obedience. Your arguing is most shameful!”
Vei Xian couldn’t help but sigh internally. That an Animated Meteor Spirit-turned-cultivator of all things was the most reasonable of his underlings! Well, it made sense. The Celestial River sect had found it before it had become a problem, and quickly subdued and nurtured it into a loyal member of their organization. In fact, it had ended up becoming one of their more promising disciples. Truly, heaven’s wonders never cease.
“Indeed, junior Tu Rong is correct.” He looked to the other two. “I shall ask you to put aside your issues for this mission. Otherwise, I shall discipline you harshly. Perhaps ripping out enough of your core that you fall back a grade would impress upon you the importance of cooperation?”
The pair of juniors blanched and bowed low.
“My apologies, senior.” They mumbled nearly in unison. There was little else they could do. A Golden Core cultivator outperformed a mere Black Core by an order of magnitude, disobeying one without the backing of hundreds of your peers was simply asking for trouble.
“Good, good. Now, let us wait and see who else arrives. It may be prudent to allow others to make the initial step forward. After all, we are a sect focused on profit, do not forget this. But, should it prove necessary, I expect you three to strike decisively, and win fame in any conflict which may occur.”
The three nodded solemnly, the seriousness of the issue having been impressed upon them.
“You are dismissed.” The avatars flickered out of Vei Xian’s vision, and he suppressed the urge to simply turn around and leave. What had he done to offend the supreme elder, that he was stuck corralling such troublesome juniors like this?!
Selenican Republic Captial System - Anxios
The disruption of galactic trade was NOT to be tolerated, especially with how precarious the economic situation already was for the Selenicans. However, with most of the most trained and domestic-built ships already on duties, especially in the ongoing engagements elsewhere, it was now that the recent purchase of Kel'Thulian and RANGSI-built ships was to finally show their worth.
"Mr. President?" A minister would ask of Selia, who was in his office smoking as per usual. "We've received word of a massive interdiction of Starlit Avenue. A large portion of our Brightstone exports are running through that lane, and with their interdiction, comes a near full stop of our exporting, which as I'm sure you know, we cannot afford."
"Well, good thing you told me so soon. Assemble a small fleet of those purchased vessels, probably about 6, composition is left up to those more knowledgeable on this than I, and we need to break that interdiction as soon as possible." the president would say after a short period of deliberation with himself, staring at the holographic projection from his desk of the news. How to report this to the public...
---
Soon after, 4 of the upsized RANGSI Type A vessels and 2 of the repainted Kel'thulian Reconnoiter-Class jumped out of Anxios, and right nearby to the interdicted area. Thankfully it was quite close, so no long time waiting.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane - Jugganath Expanse
It was a strange sight to come along the edge of the Avenue, with so many civilian ships stopped up back to back. Every time one had to jump into this lane, normally, one had to be careful to not be split in two by another jumping vessel. Now, it was much too quiet. The captain onboard the "flagship" for this mission, which was a RANGSI Type A, was one Uzri O'thelia. He was a new commander hence the frigate assignment, and he saw the ability for an easy promotion if this job goes well.
Slowly, compared to other Selenican ships, the task force made its way into the interdiction zone, wary of what was to come.
A breaking report for our viewers.
The main causeway of the golden cross has been interdicted, slowing all traffic throughout the critical FTL network. Both blocs of the ongoing war have taken to blaming each other, but neither have come to blows as they dispatch forces to investigate the incident.
CIGO has already issued the following statement:
Neither CONA nor SAGA has anything to gain from this other than the escalation of the conflict. Parties in both alliances are reliant on the traffic through the golden cross.
CIGO supports the imperial standing, and presses for a joint response to the event. Nothing is to be gained from escalation, and efforts should be made to repair relations between the concerned parties. This incident, though damaging in the wake of the existing recession, provides a nonpartisan proving ground for this potential. Imperial forces will be dispatched to assist with investigation along all CONA, SAGA, and unaligned elements in the region.
--//--
The five Imperial ships to arrive at the golden cross were anything but standard; their engines deviated significantly from baseline and market models, stronger and exuding greatly improved power levels. Among their number was a destroyer, carrying mostly a complement of parasite sloops rather than munitions; A modified Lighthouse-class cruiser; and three Flechette-class frigates, bristling with sensors and laser lens turrets.
"All military complements in-region," Began a databurst, "This is Rear Admiral Kros of the Carnaithian Omniversal Empire. Your presence here represents an investment of material and time by your mother states. I urge you all to join forces to clear this roadblock; Nobody has reason to shoot one another. If not in the interest of the galactic community, then in the interest of the perception of your states, or even in that of your ships."
The chevron of Imperial ships, thusly, quickly began a full burn towards the ships responsible for the interdiction - overclocked engines, now clearly of the same DNA of those used in the Far Reach expedition, sending the formation lancing into the interdiction bubble.
She simply sighed.
She was both surprised and not surprised at this occurrence. She knew that at one point, her ancerium supply was going to be threatened, with the galaxy being extremely volatile at the time. However, she didn't think it would be this soon. She was smart enough to always keep a reserve of ancerium, knowing one day it would come, but this new crisis just absolutely fucking blew her up. She only had enough ancerium to supply her nation for a month at maximum, maybe a couple of months if she reduced military spending more than 90%. But this would leave her extremely vulnerable, and even with the new deal with the Lotus, she was still running red numbers when it came to ancerium.
Both sides were denying the event, she expected soon for both sides to start blaming each other for it. However, both sides, at least she wanted to think, knew that of this kept up for long enough, it would absolutely decimate the galactic economy. Knowing that this was also her survival at risk, she decided to send a few ships to the... anomaly, and give her two cents in.
She assigned three destroyers, two Custodia class, and a single Speculator, artillery needed its infantry to be helpful, after all, and two Novum Somnium class frigates. Together, this small fleet could hold itself up in a battle. She loaded them with enough hyperfuel, ammunition and boarding drones to defend itself. Thankfully, this area had a lot of residual ancerium, as to not use as much ancerium as she usually would.
The small fleet would reach the interdiction bubble, her ships suddenly shaking at leaving FTL. They were limited to the speed of light now, hopefully she, and whoever decided to come along as well, were lucky. She even suspected that Lotus was here, somewhere. Her ships switched into vantablack, the color mixing well with the cobalt of the ship. They were smooth, and yet very "natural" looking.
"Ready boarding drones, subroutine Foxtrot."
The Gladius AI would respond immediately, making weaponry, armor and technical checks on the machinery, being ready for combat was a priority, especially since she had a sneaking suspicion this was more than it seemed with this. No one side would ever risk their own economy for a point... would they?
...She had a long day ahead of her
Akuech System, Svarthan Capital - Combined Board meeting.
Despite the Trust not having many active trade routes with nations that are on the other side of the current interdiction barrier, the erection of this blockade does still effect them greatly. Mining operations all across the galaxy are incapable of receiving heavy equipment and further gear or returning their shipments, and it is starting to affect not only their own profit margins, but those of the trust as a whole. Something must be done, and the CTO is suggesting just that, giving a rousing speech that stirs the hearts of his compatriots and moves them to act.
"...So, to summarize, we MUST act now, before its too late! Our mining operations cannot survive without our support, and we cannot continue to expand without their own resources. While we risk joining a war we want no part of it is our DUTY to provide support to those who depend on us, and send our forces to clear up this mess."
Following a thunderous round of applause, both boards give a near unanimous vote of approval to dispatch MHEA assets to investigate the situation, and a battle group is soon scrambled to investigate.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane - Jugganath Expanse
A while after the CTO's speech, the Trust battle group arrives at the edge of the interdiction field, their drives coming to a halt as they enter its confines as much as they can. The attack group consists of 3 "pocket battle cruisers", bristling with heavy coil guns, nuclear pumped lasers, heavy missiles, and particle weapons, currently set to proton collider mode. Supporting them is an assortment of other craft. These include a mobile foundry for producing spare parts for the ships, 2 sensor ships, a point defense sloop, and a small carrier with 6 capital interceptors in case something big is brought to bear by the enemy.
On the bridge of the lead pocket battle cruiser, the commander of the operation sends out a data burst of their own, aiming for as many ships as they can. their mechanical voice sounds pleasant and agreeable, hopefully reassuring those around them.
"This is Grand Captain Nykerth Drusbegax of the MHEA naval contingent, here as part of Trust operation "Atherosclerosis". We seek no conflict with anyone apart from those who set up this interdiction field. Our mobile battle foundry is at the disposal of all those who are here for the same goal, if you provide us with the designs for the parts you require, and a nominal fee to cover material costs. Our sensor ships and magnetically secured comms are likewise available to help further communication and tactical unity, free of charge."
It seems the Svarthan are offering in field repairs for all ships present at a small price. As the transmission is looped, the quite large force begins their own maximum impulse burn toward the source of the interdiction, weapons moving into attack position.
Andracken Forward Operating Base for Response Fleet Gawain, Karzan Strait
A prism of crystal watched silently as reports from the Starlit Avenue came flooding in through the net. Someone was disrupting trade through the region and thereby disrupting the Galactic Economy. Exactly what the Andracken was looking for. Quickly and wordlessly the single Andracken got to work. Invisible hands worked away at computer terminals bringing ships out of ‘hibernation’.
Sat outside the Karzan Nebula the station which held the Andracken fleet sat motionless in the relative darkness of space. Only small reactors hidden deep within provided only essential power to the station. Docked along its many platforms were roughly 200 Andracken warships of varying size and shape, giving the station the appearance of an odd chaotic art installation.
Ice and dust from deep interstellar space blown by galactic winds had collected along the once pristine crystalline skin. While long ancient isotopes and heavy metals blown from the Nebula barraged the side facing it. The combination made the Andracken ships appear like geometric asteroids of ridiculous size.
Power thrummed from within the station as the lone Andracken began the start up procedures for three ships. As power reached the required level the reactor of the ships pulsed to life. Power flooded into the ships and their Andracken crews woke from their slumber.
“Captain Gyu, take Captains Wed and Fet to the Starlit Avenue. Someone has erected a rather large scale Interdiction field in the region and it is hindering traffic. Investigate the disturbance and remove whatever is causing the field.” Admiral Vun ordered. Wordlessly the Andracken Captains followed their orders. A single Overseer class Frigate detached from the station, dust and ice shaking off from the ship as it broke away. Following it were two new Investigator class Scout ships. With enhanced sensors and a smaller profile they could ‘hide’ in the shadow of the Overseer while in stealth. Moving out to a safe, and random distance from the Station, the Andracken ships jumped out, heading for the Karzan Strait.
Rear admiral Britt was not enthused with her assignment.
With word that the Starlit Avenue Trade Lane was more or less being blockaded, a decision was made to intervene, though not due to economic impact. The Huron Technocracy at this point still wasn't interconnected enough for the blockade to have major repercussions. However, with the ongoing war, and the potential economic seizures and political repercussions for not responding was deemed enough. The decision to sortie a response went surprisingly quickly, the decision for Britt, a somewhat backline Rear Admiral, to deal with the problem made just as quickly, to her chagrin.
Out of their folds came a small task force of five ships, a small detachment for what would otherwise have been considered a major problem. A Hammerhead-class Cruiser served as the flagship, whilst two Jaeger-class destroyers, both too equipped with boarding craft, and two escorting Sabre-class Escort Frigates took to its flanks. It didn't take long to register where they were, coming from allegedly the side SAGA forces occupied.
"Alright, you know what to do," Britt began, her voice distant and somewhat bored, "make speed into the interdiction field, set a course for the freighters responsible. Let's make this quick." A few moments later, the task force began their maneuvers, verifying appropriate details to their allies as they flew into the interdiction field at speed.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The endless flashes of various FTL drives denoted that, as to be expected with such a major event, half of the galaxy was responding to the affair. Singular warships, small patrol forces to even entire battlefleets were turning up on mass to investigate and eliminate the problem. Just an hour of trade blockade was costing thousands of nations millions of SIGEC and this number ticked up with every second that the interdiction field was up.
Across the space of the lane, ships of countless nations sped into the interdicted regions, seeking to reach the freighters as quickly as possible. The outer freighters would only take several hours to reach at combat speed under interdiction, but the layering of the interdictors was such that it would take days to reach the inner most ships. The operation was going to take a great deal of time. Thankfully with so many presents coming from different angles, it would cut down the time considerably.
As the groups FTLed in and moved towards the first freighters closest to the latest arrivals, the Carnaithian hail was met by that of a New Janar patrol force.
“This is Captain Amaset of New Janar. We welcome joint operations to clear the obstacle to both sides and to eliminate the risk of escalation here. We will work with you” It was a statement echoed and confirmed by many of the CONA & SAGA forces here. Nobody wanted the lane closed, and only the most ardent of each side were unwilling to co-operate, preferring to operate far away from one another.
Weapons fire was detected some way away, Arcovia missiles were being launched from their strike force towards their nearest freighter, clearly, they wished to kill it before their fleet reached that waypoint. The minutes ticked by, until the missiles were on intercept course, but each was intercepted rapidly. Segments of the freighter had blown off, revealing laser emplacements and railguns which opened fire on the incoming ordnance.
As the Andrackan, Huron, Carnaith, Lilian, Svarthan, Federation and Selenican forces approached the first freighter closest to them, it did the same. And reports were coming in of more revealing weapons. It wouldn’t be a problem, but these bulk freighters were almost 80km in length.
Maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as they thought.
Vei Xian sighed, muttering to himself. “Hum. These impudent mortals would inconvenience me so. I could be spending time within the capital, enjoying fine wines and the attentions of finer beauties, yet here I am. It would be better if they just all died.” He activated his communication systems. “Juniors, to my sides. Tu Rong, have your carrier ship behind the rest of us. Now…” Suddenly, the petals of his Chariot began to open. “I will show these mortals the way our society handles things.”
As Vei Xian’s Chariot completely opened, anyone watching would see a massive figure, seemingly an enlarged version of Vei Xian’s preferred by, seem to slide out of nowhere above the now-open Chariot, though only from the torso up, giving the impression of a silvery giant half-embedded within the shimmering black petals of the flower-like starship, shields flickering into life around it to compensate for the exposed innards. Holding out a hand a massive silver bow seemed to materialize from nothing as well, and a hand reached down to grab a rod of dark tungsten from the Chariot itself, nocking it like an arrow and pulling the shimmering bowstring. As he did this, a series of dozens of rings materialized in front of the arrow’s trajectory, floating in front of the bow yet seemingly unattached and devoid of propellants.
Transmitting on public communication systems, Vei Xian calmly made a statement. “This is Elder Vei Xian of the Celestial River Sect, representing the interests of the Celestial River and Divine Lotus Blossom Sects. Distract or destroy the defense systems of a freighter and send me the targeting data, and I will dispense righteous justice upon these interlopers. My combat system is most suited to felling this manner of opponent, provided I am given support.”
“Heavens, the master is so formidable!” Tu Rong couldn’t help but comment to his fellow disciples. Being an animated spirit, he had little experience with the wider world, and rarely had he had the opportunity to see his superiors battle.
Meng Yongliang snorted, while Zeya Metrei just sounded tired as she explained to her brother disciple. “Something like this, he’s just showboating! For a Golden Core to extrude that much of their body into three-dimensional space to utilize an attack like this, it is incredibly inefficient! Such a method would fall apart in a duel against a peer opponent, too much of his Inner Palace would be vulnerable from the very start of the battle. After all, that giant body of his contains mechanisms which let him process vast amounts of Q-technology, damage to it would greatly slow his growth until it was repaired. Even that bow, ha! More performance. In reality, the bow is just a prop. The actual means of propellant are the coil-gun rings he has half-extruded into our spatial dimension as well. Indeed, it is merely a stylized version of a destroyer-equivalent’s spinal-mounted railgun, though in our case it would naturally be of the highest quality! An impressive weapon, but nothing out of the ordinary for his Core and Grade. However, I must admit his artistry is admirable.”
Meng Yongliang transmitted something like a smirk. “Master seems intent on putting on a show. It is not unreasonable, though. These mortals, let them burn this sight into their memory, the elegance and power of our superior society! And if those wretches interrupt our master or try to close the distance, we’ll slaughter them and gain some glory for ourselves! Haha, perhaps this encounter was more fortuitous than I believed. Truly, this is merely a means for us to gain reputation, is it not?”
“I shall hope to the heavens that this is the case.” Zeya replied tiredly.
The Svarthan watch the ship expose its defensive weaponry, as their craft move into formation, expanding out their scalar wave emitters to prepare to intercept fighters or larger missiles. Point defense weapons likewise whirr to life, high power UV lasers and precision coil rotary cannons moving to track any threats. Aboard the lead ship, Nykerth turns to his subordinates, grinning broadly
"It seems our enemy has drawn their weapons. Let us see if we can identify some more details about them. Prepare to launch a covert close range observation system. I want to know if they have any big guns before we engage at a closer range where our particle weapons can be brought to bear."
The pocket battle cruisers all aim their main battery at the enemy vessel as the captains orders are relayed to them. Each of the 5 kilometer long craft fires a single salvo from their main battery seemingly aiming to just barely miss the enemy ship. However these are not shells intended to cause damage. Rather, each one of these mounts a complex camera and sensor system, with the aim of passing by an enemy craft while transmitting details about visible weapons, and energy signatures that may indicate other types of yet unseen weapons. Then the message from Lotus fleet arrives, and Nykerth quickly sends out a reply as the shells still streak across the void of space towards their foes.
"Understood Vei Xian. Stand by to be patched in to the sensor ships and our own targeting arrays via far field magnetic comms. We will launch a full CNI cluster missile barrage shortly in an attempt to overwhelm the enemies point defense and provide you with even more targeting data. Please acknowledge as soon as you are patched into the system."
The sensor ships and the 3 battle craft all start to hail the Chariot using the promised systems, waiting for them to respond. As they start to transmit the targeting data, the battle craft move into position to fire their missiles at once.
The show is not NEARLY as impressive as that put on by the Lotus Empire chariot, but it is still nothing to frown at. As the missile tube covers open up, the weapons are moved into position. Each is around 20 meters in length and fitted with powerful maneuvering engines, integrated E-war jammers, tracking and guidance systems, a profile designed to minimize radar cross section and visual observation, and even a set of compact yet powerful violet pulse lasers mounted on 360 degree turrets on the top and bottom. The main warhead is a single megaton fusion bomb, but each one carries around 90 far smaller missiles with 100 kiloton yields.
Then the tubes fire, launching the warheads with electromagnetic force. Instead of firing straight up from the hull however, these fire them forward at an acute angle. As the missiles leave their tubes another is loaded, and fired, sending salvo after salvo at the enemy ship. Each battle cruiser has around 30 such tubes, and all of them fire 3 volleys of missiles.
However the saturation fire is not yet complete, as once the missiles are approximately halfway to their target, they begin to engage their thrusters, maneuvering them onto new paths to strike their target. At this point they open up, disgorging their content of smaller missiles, which fly away from their carriers and begin maneuvers. The sheer quantity of CNI equipped units present means that the missiles have remarkably potent computational power for their size and provide a myriad of targeting data for both the chariot and themselves as they bore in, their thrusters firing as they try to avoid some of the incoming point defense fire.
Captain Gyu of the Andracken Overseer class Frigate Plausible Deniability watched sagely as the nearest freighter bared its fangs. The thing was larger than anything in the Andracken inventory. Quick scans of energy readings gave the Andracken his targets.
“All ships, fire at will, configure point defense screens for missile defense.” Captain Gyu ordered. Wordlessly the two Investigators moved in closer to the Plausible Deniability and proceeded forward. Energy charged beneath their surfaces and hidden crystalline machinery glowed with a vibrant array of colors. With a flash a beam of tachyons lashed out towards the source of the interdiction field. The beam would be weakened by the field, but would hopefully be enough to damage it. The Investigators followed suit with their own beams firing on the main source of power and communications for the Merchant Raiders.
Lillian was unfazed by the grimly sight. She expected ships of this sheer caliber to be able to block up the arterial gateway of the galaxy, and this was the first layer, who knew how many more were in deeper. She received several transmissions from several fleets giving their purpose, and she wasn't keen on being seen as a suspect. Her hands moved quickly and swiftly, universal comms on for her transmission.
"This is High Controller Lillian, you may count with assistance if need be. This operation is too large in scale for one singular faction to sweep up, whatever this is, whoever did it, clearly has something extremely valuable to gain. This is no time for mistrust or abuse of trust, for the galaxy at large, we must work together. Keep communications on, DO NOT shy away from reporting anomalies. This is the beating heart of the galaxy, we CAN NOT risk ANYTHING."
The transmission would end as soon as it started, with a part of it being... slightly directed at the very cocky Lotus ships. She had no negative thoughts about them, just saw them as too confident for their own good. She sounded serious, too serious for what she would usually be, and she had all the right to be. This blockage, to her, seemed too big in scale, planning and sheer resources to be anything less than a conspiracy. She hoped, however, that she was wrong.
"Foxtrot subroutine finalized, all weapons and equipment ready for use"
The voice of Gladius would sound deeply robotic and devoid of any and all emotion, being a non sentient AI made for one thing, war. A thing she disliked, heavily, but knew was bound to happen. Lillian would move the ships into a battle formation. Speculator and the Novum Somnium would move above and in front of the two Custodia, weapons pointing and charging up to fire.
"Fire single virus torpedo, if we get lucky, I might be able to access some systems and get a deeper look into this enemy."
The rings on the Speculator would move, a torpedo moving to the "top" of the ship. It looked heavy, bulky, and ready to take a blow before being destroyed. Inside were uncountable micrites, all containing Lillian inside of them. If she was lucky, she could hack a system inside of the ship, although the chance of that would be very small. Still, better safe than sorry.
The Tachyonic Pellet Propulsion Array would spring to life, even if it was more limited due to the interdiction field, it still had enough momentum and kinetic energy to be able to at least cause some amount of damage to the ships. Lillian would close her eyes for a second, millions of calculations a second, all going around in her mind, passing, going appearing at once. The quantum field that was her mind would suddenly stop, and she would open her eyes. A single phrase was uttered from her mouth.
"Gladius, full munition launch."
The ships would sparkle in the empty expanse, looking like new stars had just appeared. Hundreds of pellets, going at a fraction of the speed of light would hurdle through the expanse, all targeting the enemy. Behind them, several dozen volleys of missiles would go into the void, them not visible to anyone far away, but in that distance, looked brilliant, blue and black mixing together. The torpedo would follow suit, bulky and large, and ready. The micrites inside would brace together, trying to resist the acceleration of the torpedo. The last volley would be railgun fire, the shells going incredibly fast, although, would not be as accurate as the other fire, the shells that did hit would give a massive amount of damage.
"Weapons tight, ready for another full munition launch!"
"Be advised, freighters are armed," the imperial ships redundantly announced - off-the-shelf grade weapons fire tracing towards the enhanced-mobility ships. The Carnaithians responded in an explosion of activity; they maneuvered off of their vectors, spiraling out in a difficult-to-predict arc of movement, lasers responding to the assault by bearing down en masse on the freigher's now-revealed hardpoints. "Sweeping galactic registries and productions."
So shallow into the interdiction field, connection to the ANCnet was strong - using CIGO access protocols, negotiated or breached was irrelevant, the Carnaithians swept the signature and any remaining identification of the hulking craft ahead of them, local command AI cores performing millions of simultaneous searches working from class, to model, to unit, to name. After a stressful period of dueling with the "civilian" ship; picking out the eyes, fists, and ears of the assailant as allied munitions approached in bulk; the schematics of the ship as-manufactured were retrieved. Simultaneously with the submission of new searches for every freighter in search radius, the CIVA warships gimballed in place and primed their spinal weaponry, spiking a trio of molten solaris slugs into the reactor core center of the monolithic silhouette and hoping that this thing hadn't been refitted in drydock for a matter of years.
A deluge of weapons fire was descending on the freighter, and Kros watched with intent to see what kind of surprises still lay within the hull of the interloper.
"Well, not a surprise the freighters got guns. Fire at em!" O'thelia said, relaying the order to his other ships. The mix-and-match weaponry of the strike force was an usual sight from the Selenican's primarily tachyonic based firepower. Particle lances from the Reconnoiters fire out in a red burst, followed shortly by the main guns of the upsized RANGSI frigates. Their plasma sheathing was an usual for the Selenicans who had struggled to figure out how they worked, but after a short while a salvo is sent out to the nearest behemoth of a freighter.
Despite the freighter's size, it was also unlikely to be armored in any significant capacity, so a good few railgun shots and particle lances through the hull immobilized the vessel, having apparently hit something vital.
"I wonder what these idiots are doing, blocking up this trade lane." a bridge crew mentions to O'thelia.
"Who knows. Probably just trying to be a massive nuisance or one of the CONA or SAGA members trying to pin it on the other side." he responds, relaxed.
The commander himself is a behemoth of a man in his own right, well over 40 feet long with scales a radiant white. His body is extremely strong and only hardly fits in the upper end of seat sizes that Selenican vessels have. It was unusual for a Reticulatim to be aboard a naval ship at all, given their absurd size.
Despite the sheer size of the freighters in question, at least by their own estimates, Britt was still mildly surprised to see the freighter unveil hidden weapons. As quickly as the freighter unveiled its weapons, however, her strike force was already assuming combat mode.
As the weapons systems of her flagship, the Hammerhead-class Cruiser came online, its signature feature began to be shown off. Two massive plates towards the prow of the ship, giving it the hammerhead shape it got its namesake over, split into four, revealing weapons and electronic warfare systems previously covered by either the ship itself, or stored internally. The plates began to shift along large railways covering the majority of the ships hull, moving to pre-programmed positions to get as many guns and jammers on target as possible.
Mass driver fire from the frigates joined the Hammerhead as they began taking shots at the freighter, yet they did not intend to stay at a distance.
"Close the distance, and keep the frigates' defense systems primed. Get the Jaegers to load ship-killer torpedoes, just in case. We get close enough to disable the ship, if it isn't when we get there, then work things out from there."
Jean Paul studied the main display from his command throne. The ship was massive and the fact that it was potentially concealing a massive armament. His ships were tough and the weapons primitive but the sheer weight of fire would make short work of his contingent. Caution would keep them safe while they investigated. He broke his train of thought to see the bridge crew staring towards him.
"Hold fire and re route weapons power to defences. Helm ease off our speed and let the others over take our forces. Argo?" Jean Paul shouted sternly to his subordinates. Argo the ships AI appeared in front of him, a simple galley from an ancient legend.
"I want a dive into the ships network, See if these ships are talking to each other and see if this one is armed." His tone changed from a commanding one to polite one.
"As you command." The AI replied in a synthesized voice.
A veritable wall of firepower now descended on the closest freighter, missiles, energy beams and railgun slugs all racing inwards with enough collective fire to blow even the 80km freighter apart with ease. Other freighters were all showing signs of revealing weapons now as well across the line, but none were seemingly uniform.
Some used predominantly lasers, of varying types, some primarily chemical weapon kinetics, other railguns, some missile barges. No freighter was seemingly alike in armament and capability just like the differences in freighters themselves. Some had minor defensive armaments and were swiftly destroyed, their interdiction fields collapsing while others were seemingly bastions which intercepted munitions and fired back on the attackers as well as any warship.
The freighter that the polities here were facing was a GY-800 class bulk freighter, built by Feldyne Dynamics and previously in register with two other shipping companies before it was registered as bought by another. After that its registry was blank on the ancnet and it had been missing for 2 years before appearing here. Even as the Carnaithian CIGO operations discovered more about the various other freighters, Triarch, Halcyon Dynamics, CES, Camaco, Tendris Shipping and more all had different origins. But all shared at least something in common, the vessels had either dropped off the grid after whatever company had purchased them last or they had been seemingly destroyed in pirate actions, even more surprising, some had been registered lost after the assault by Yog Narr on Zarathustra.
Still as the fire came in the freighter’s cargo section was also blown off. But no railguns or missiles were revealed. Gravitational disturbances were detected and rapidly built up as the Carnaithian forces instantly recognised the presence of Eosian technology and the observation rounds from the Svarthans showed a white glowing piece of technology in the cargo hold. The haphazardly integrated gravitic wave unit fired off a tremendous pulse, tearing apart the kinetic and missile munitions which had been sent in a wave towards the freighter, blossoms of explosions filled the void as it began immediately recharging for another blast.
The lasers fared much better however, while some were bent ever so slightly off course others hit home, melting through the freighters unarmoured hull, and confirming the Selenican theory, the freighters were not anymore defended than usual. The size of the freighter worked to its advantage, but several large, melted bore holes covered its form, the crafts engines were reduced to little more than molten slag as was its bridge, still the power signatures of the interdiction system, gravitic weapon and power supply were clear as day now at this range and once revealed. The Cyberwarfare approach revealed more as well, rather than being networked linked together the freighters were actually not actively communicating with each other, each a separate island under the slave of one singular network. It would mean that breaking in would have to be done on each and every one, but there did seem to be the hint of an outgoing infolink, not to the other freighters and it didnt appear on any communication sensors, meaning it had to be laserline.
Kinetics or missiles would not stop this thing, but energy weapons would.
"They are connected but they aren't talking to each other. Shall I break down further into its systems?" Argo asked with his synthesised voice.
"This one has already taken some damage and there are still more out there. Send a message to nearby forces that we would like to investigate one of these ships without weapons being fired first." Jean Paul ordered
He watched the weapons fire on the freighter continue as the kinetics were simply slapped to the side alongside the missiles. He knew this was his time to act and the Energy Weapons of his contingent would fair much better against the now hostile freighter.
"Spin up neutrino drives one to three. Disruptor batteries A to F are to begin salvo fire. Have our escorts linked into our firing solution to concentrate fire."
To those watching the innocuous Federation contingent had become a light show show as they finally opened fire in dazzling display of energy weapons.
"They've got gravity weapons!" A bridge crew onboard the leading Type-A would shout at O'Thelia and anyone within earshot, the clacking of the very, very old keyboards onboard sounding out in an irregular rhythm, constantly sending data back and worth between the Selenican ships.
"Doesn't matter. Hold your fire with the railguns, no point wasting shells. How the hell did they manage to get gravitic weapons on these things, though...?" O'thelia would reply, musing a bit to himself at the end. "Ah well, Reconnoiters! You keep shootin' it up!"
Messages were sent out to the small Kel'Thulian vessels, and their barrage of particle based weaponry would continue. Inside the Reconnoiters, however, the conditions are less than favorable. The constant barrage of their main weapons is causing the internal heat to continually rise, slowly but surely, the small radiators of the eye of the vessels are working overtime to flush out the heat being produced.
"Commander, sir, we're going to need to put a hold on our barrages. The Reconnoiters are reporting a an uncanny amount of crew passing out due to the heat onboard." A crewmember of one of the Reconnoiters would send to O'Thelia.
"Ugrh, fine. Just fire a bit slower, then, we'll rip this thing apart soon enough." He would reply, frustrated at the time it's taking even with the combined assault.
Vei Xian coolly observed the devastation, taking in the sight of the massive gravitic field destroying the incoming projectiles.
"How formidable!" He praised inwardly. "An attack like that is not incomparable to a Gold Core of higher rank than myself! However, mortal trash is mortal trash, something like this lacks the nuance and artistry of my ancestors."
He checked the calibration of the 'arrow' nocked into his performative bow. Though seemingly simple it was a formidable piece of technology, an immense tungsten rod equipped with rows of reaction control systems, and paired with the railgun protruding from his Inner Palace, capable of reaching immense speed. Even a single strike could be devastating, but he was well aware of the weaknesses of such a technique. The enemy's defenses needed to be pried apart before a killing blow could be landed. Under normal circumstances, he was a back-line fighter, teamed with other Golden Core cultivators who could bring out the best of his abilities. As things were, he was not capable of reaching optimal battle strength, even with his disciples to assist him. For that, he was privately grateful for the Svarthan offer of assistance, making a mental note to report their willingness to do so when this issue had been dealt with. On that note, the responded to the Svarthan ships.
"That gravitic system is highly formidable! Under normal circumstances, my fighting techniques are countered by it. It may be possible for a sequential attack to weaken it, however. Unless it can repeatedly emit this wave at high frequency, it may be there is a point between its uses in which a fast moving projectile like my own could land a strike! I am receiving all targeting data you are sending, let us cooperate in this affair."
And to his disciples.
"Meng Yongliang! You are a hardlight specialist, your capability is most suitable against this opponent, but as a mere Black Core you are not capable of evenly matching such a vessel within a corvette-class Chariot. Move as close as is safe, but do not risk yourself needlessly! As a direct descendant of our supreme elder you are forbidden from behaving recklessly!"
Meng Yongliang felt irritated within the liquid chamber housing his body. That this old relic was ordering him around was insufferable! But, it could not be denied he could not singlehandedly defeat a monstrous vessel like that as he was now. Even linked with his fellow disciples in this Chariot, he was the only hardlight specialist among them, their formation was not specialized enough to truly enhance his power.
"Yes, senior." He eventually transmitted. "I will move in. If an opportunity arrives, I will exploit it."
As the flight of missiles is wiped out by the gravitic weapon, the Svarthan captain lets out a small curse, before they turn to their subordinates once more. Nykerth starts to gesticulate with their many limbs, while also grabbing the controls, sending commands, changing courses, issuing for systems to be powered up or down as the fleet prepares for advanced action.
"Abort subsequent missile firings, there is no need to waste more to that gravity weapon, and power down the Scalars. Tell the gun crews to set their coil guns for maximum acceleration, and load reactive atomic shells. It may be able to swat them down, but as our allies just transmitted, perhaps a fusillade of the faster, more frequent kinetics can find a breach in the pulses.
Additionally tell the particle accelerator crews to start siphoning off the hydrogen into traps, and load transuranics, maximum mass. I have a feeling that against Eosian tech, all the kinetics we can fire will not suffice given our lack of rotary main batteries so I want to be ready to move into range to hit them with particle beams."
They seem to think for a moment, before giving a decision.
"And tell the crews to prepare the particle focusing array. It may be vulnerable to attacks and that gravity weapon, but the range it offers our particle beams could be invaluable. Do not launch it yet, but be ready to do so on my command."
They give a reply out to the Chariots of the Empire, the captain watching as the ships begin to prepare their maneuvers, and reports come in detailing the completion of various tasks. The first salvo of high speed coilgun shots rips out from all the ships, followed quickly by another volley as fast as the crews can load
"Very well, we will switch to utilizing smaller kinetic projectiles, and begin to probe the barrier of that gravity weapon. Additionally we are moving in to engage with our particle weapons, to hopefully destroy the weapon, making your strike a fare more easy task."
Kros' heart sank as the deluge of munitions was swiftly parried by the eosian weapon aboard the target, explosives detonating and their shrapnel shotgunned out in a wave of composite dust. Alarms sounded quickly as the Carnaithian ships' AIs registered the change in vector on the weapons through the formidable sensory array of the warships; in an emergency measure, fluid solaris was dumped out and swiftly manipulated into layers of ultradense whipple shields by the massive onboard magnetics. The defensive posture was completed as the Imperials pointed their noses at the freighter with the metal mases between them, inertia carrying the smaller ships parallel to the giant.
As the millions of projectiles dug into the defenses and burst through the forwardmost layers, the dazzling effects of neutrino arrays from behind lanced into the formerly-civilian ship, detonating in its depths. It was astonishing how this had gone from what could have probably been an elaborate protest to a battle matching the scale and breadth of something seen during the last war.
"All civilian traffic in the interdiction field, break for escape vectors optimized for speed if not already. Assume all interdicting ships are heavily armed and hostile."
Lillian sighed at the distasteful view of the kinetics failing to do their jobs, especially the torpedo. She only had a very select few with her, and more ships couldn't arrive on time if she used them all up. She gritted her teeth, but look at the results from other weapons, plus the... anomaly from her sensors. It seemed gravity itself was being used as a defense mechanism on the freighter, or more accurately, a weapon. She had theorized for a while that she could use gravity as much as a weapon as it could be used as a shield. But now, this confirmed it, although, for some reason, the weapon... resonated with her, her mind felt a bit fuzzy... as if she had already used something similar before... but that couldn't be possible... could it?
She shook her head, coming back to reality. It was confirmed that they were indeed using gravity weapons, and that well, kinetics were practically useless here... well maybe not her tachyonic pellets, they were too fast for the gravity weapons to be effective, she could use them right after they have been reloaded. But, most of the laser and energy weapons in general worked a lot better. She contemplated a bit before making a decision on the matter, she spoke with confidence.
"Gladius, hold kinetic fire, keep it loaded. Direct power to lasers, fire 5-10 cycles and once that grav weapon fires again, immediately fire the TPA on that fucker, concentration maximum."
She realized that she also needed to get inside the systems of these freighters, and needed to get them decommissioned, if not physically, at least digitally. She moved her hands to the screen, moving swiftly and rapidly, selecting a Quantum Brain for every ship. If she wasn't able to do it physically, which would be a whole lot easier than this method, she would have to do it digitally. This was her expertise, and knew systems well, so, she wanted to test these firewalls, maybe if she could get through, a cyberattack by all forces could be done.
"Beware, I will commence a cyberattack on these freighters, all who wish to test the capacity of these firewalls are free to assist me against the grav weapon freighter. Godspeed."
With this announced, Lillian began her assault in both real and digital space, the lasers firing for five seconds, cooling down for 10, and repeating the cycle. Digitally, Lillian's assault would launch on all fronts against the firewalls of this ship, seeking to see its true power.
Lasers carved through the hardened outer skin of the Andracken ships and were dissipated into the underlying layers. Missiles swarmed and were shot down with ease. Mild annoyance grew in Gyu’s mind as he watched the mysterious Merchant Raiders haplessly attempted to fight against them. Though something was off, gravity was beginning to act odd around the freighter.
Realization hit as energy surged in the freighter and a gravitic wave emanated from the ship. Whoever fitted these ships wanted interlopers to stay clear of them long enough for damage to be done.
“Target the source of that energy and fire with Tachyon beams.” Gyu ordered. A targeting reticle appeared on the main display and zoomed in on the target location. The muted thrum on the FTL beam firing echoed through the ship as a beam of condensed tachyons raced forward.
Open coms chatter from the responding ships caught Gyu’s ‘ears’. They wanted to attempt to hack into the freighters and see how and who was controlling them. Gyu thought on it for a nanosecond. “Captain Wed, take your ship to the nearest undamaged Merchant Raider and board it. Hack into it and pull any data you can from its computer cores.”
Wordlessly one of the Investigator class Scout ships broke off from formation and raced forward towards one of the freighters. Unbothered by biological restraints the ship accelerated to speeds that would have killed most living organisms. As it rocketed through space Andracken Special Operations types were awoken from stasis. As they woke attachments floated onto their dozens of limp tentacles. Cutting lasers, data port interfaces, manipulators, and GRL pods were placed on their ends before their black forms were dropped from their ceiling ports. A central red eye with two orange eyes glowed as they slunked through the high vaulted corridors of the Scout.
The call out by Kros and the Carnaithian contingent was received well by the civilian assets that were still plying the area, many went to FTL to go around rather than wait and potentially be targeted by attacks. However, those civilian vessels trapped within the labyrinth of the interdiction fields were still at the mercy of the container ships, all of them were burning hard on vectors designed to get them out of the field as quickly as possible but even then, some of the deeper fleets would take days to exit. Many now changed course to avoid as many of the container ships as possible slowing them even more so.
A handful of military vessels, cut off within the interdiction field now began to slowly band together, send a message that they intended to destroy the central interdictors to try help from the inside out, but they were burning hard on fuel, even at STL the distances involved were massive.
The Eosian grav wave armed freighter charged as it readied another burst, but it never got to fire off another barrage. A barrage of lasers, tachyons, Neutralinos and accelerated warhead kinetics impacted entire segments, turning internals into melted slag, blowing sections out of its hull and scouring its weaker areas. The huge ship listed as its RCS systems failed totally and power was cut from its main reactor, which was cored by an Andrackan Tachyon beam. Reduced to a heavily damaged and beaten up wreck the interdiction field dissipated.
One down, many to go.
The cyber space however was an interesting affair.
No two of the container ships were alike, just as the Royal Federation had noted that the ships were not communicating via a direct link system the cyber systems of each container vessel were as varied as their weapons and make. Different Ais, firewalls, cyber defence and more were found on each vessel some being far more secure than others. But the sheer distance and lack of FTL uplinks made it a tedious and long affair to try and conduct cyber assaults, the nearest ships had time lags of minutes, enough to cause serious repeated setbacks as the defending systems had the upper hand on response time, still it confirmed that the transports were at least communicating via laser line.
Another near transport was broken into by Lilian and Royal Federation efforts, its Yamanakako built AI was sent into a constant boot and reboot cycle which destroyed its higher functions and let its systems be wide open. But… There wasn’t much there.
The interdiction system, weapons systems, some defensive capabilities, engines, FTL drive plotting and RCS was all that was present. No databanks were kept, all having been either purged or never even set up in the first place. Whoever had deployed them was being extremely thorough, especially in the cyberspace department, to cover their tracks. Would boarding prove any better?
The Gold Core cultivator looked impassively at the battle, programming the RCS equipment embedded in the massive tungsten rod with a suitable target trajectory, aiming to strike the vessel chosen by his compatriots head-on. He made a show of it, drawing his giant bow with his massive metallic body seemingly half-protruding from the now-blooming flower that was his Chariot. As his disciples had remarked, a style of fighting such as this was most unorthodox, and it was primarily for the benefit of onlookers he opted for something so flashy. No doubt such a performance would catch the eye of anyone watching what was no doubt going to be a heavily broadcasted event. More eyes on the empire meant more prosperity, of course!
As soon as his allies created their point of weakness within the target's defenses, the mass of metal held by Vei Xian's body would be propelled with the strength of a destroyer-class vessel's spinal railgun.
Meanwhile, the closed Chariot containing Meng Yongliang and his subordinated Black Core associates moved closer to the front. If an opportunity suitable for a corvette-level vessel could arise he was most willing to take advantage of it.
Zeya Metrei circled around her master, her own ship's weapons at the ready, while the bulky Chariot containing Tu Rong hung back from them both.
"What are our options? Reinforcements would have to be limited, we don't want to pull forces from combat zones."
"BZ Corps is out of the question, hostiles aren't close enough for effect propagation."
"Scalar?"
The limited ships on Kros' palette weren't models known for their scalar capabilities. The flechettes distinctly didn't even have the systems installed, and the Lighthouse and Arcelin both mounted shortwave models. But the Lighthouse boasted a multiple-component array.
"We can try phased array firing. We'll have to break formation." Kros frowned.
"We'll try it. Get us burning for the closest, least-tasked hostile."
"Affirm."
"All munitions charged, ready at command"
Gladius AI groaned, giving Lillian the green light. The show put on by the freighter being molted into slag was impressive, to say the least. But what was most impressive for her was the cyberspace assault. Of course, at such a distance without FTL uplink made it tiresome, but with both forces, it was done. The results? Just the ship, no data, no nothing.
"All united forces, be notified that the cyberspace assault was successful, but we have no data on who did this. Either the data was purged beforehand, or the data wasn't even uploaded in the first place. I am continuing to the nearest target, if your forces are able, board the ship and restrain anyone inside the ship. We need data, or else this attack will become a blaming competition."
She moved her comms to the side, and stood up.
"Gladius, full speed ahead to the next target, ready boarding party. Cool off the lasers, fire once stable again near a target, order to incapacitate the target, no kill shots."
All the ships began to move in the void, accelerating to the nearest freighter. Inside, drones moved into dropships, all equipped with non lethals, with only some being armed with lethals. She wanted as many caught alive, and wanted this foolishness to end as soon as possible.
It wasn't but so long until the freighter had been reduced to molten slag, putting on quite the show for the crew of O'thelia's band of ships. An inferno of questions began to rage among the crew of these ships. How the hell did this freighter get gravity weapons of all things, tech and weapons like that weren't common to see at the best of times even from organized fleets, much less terrorists like this. How did the freighters manage to hold up such a large blockade? Who the fuck is controlling them? Unfortunately, no answers to these questions were found among the melting wreck of what was once a ship.
"Alright, now that one's down, we got a whole lot more to crack open. I'd say the best bet to find 'em is to look at where the interdiction fields are centralized, we won't be able to take 'em on our own, though." O'thelia would say, still basking in this first victory he had claimed over a foe. "Send this out over encrypted transmissions to the others here, they don't seem to be too willing to shoot us and are willin' to shoot the bastards we're here to kill."
//TRANSMISSION BEGIN - CONTINGENT WARSHIPS//
It is with great pleasure the Selenican Republic sees you, warships of many nations. As seen by our collective firing onto the enemy here, we believe it is wise to collaborate in some manner to resolve the issue of the trade lanes being blocked here. As such, we request that contact is kept between us so we can better coordinate our movements and planning within this operation.
//TRANSMISSION END//
"Who knows what the guys here will think, maybe they'll decide to actually be somewhat organized." O'thelia would say to himself, after the transmission had cut.
Thrusters from the Selenican ships, purchased from other polities, began to burn to head deeper within the interdiction spiderweb, to see what, or rather, who was causing the blockage. Perhaps, along with their allies, they could cleave their way through it, and favor would hopefully follow.
"Admiral, I've had a break through. I have system control of a ship. sending coordinates now." Argo synthesised voice came in over the comm
"Helm come about and set full ahead to that ship. Someone get the colonel on the line" Jean Paul commanded
Marine Colonel Lena Dupont was the highest ranking officer among the contingents Marine detachment. Having pre-empted the need for an investigation the Elba had set off with double the standard Marine detachments, two battalions in all. After a brief conversation with the Admiral she formed a plan of attack on the vessel as they were in transit. Now she was sitting in the embarkation deck watching her Marines mount up into a squadron of drop ships.
"Bird is ready Colonel" Dupont's aide shouted over the roar of engines.
"Let's get this over with." She replied plainly
Standing up Dupont made her way to her command ship as the doors finally opened to the embarkation deck, revealing the darkness of space through the light blue shimmer of the integrity field. Docking clamps released their drop ships and the noise of engines intensified as they finally launched. A dozen flyers took to the void carrying a platoon of Federation Marines and a large breaching charge capable of breaking through the thickest of armour. Each ship had a drop point close to each other so that when each platoon could support the other if they made it inside. The rest of Federation contingent would retreat to a safe distance after the deployment of the force to avoid any surprises or misjudgements of the severity that the ship was disabled.
"All birds in the void Colonel, standing by for go" Dupont's aide shouted from his station.
"Light is green." Dupont replied.
To Britt, her assignment went from one of interest to tedium in what seemed like only moments.
Every freighter was now an entirely random obstacle to overcome, unpredictable at best, and unfortunately there were many. After seeing the jury-rigged Eosian technology, something both familiar and alien in nature, and seeing the flare up of their shields after its activation, she needed to be careful. At least, that was her initial thought.
When the freighter was destroyed, all she could think about was knocking out the next freighter.
"Move on to the next freighter. Non-kinetics are a priority from here on. Ready boarding craft just in case."
With the ship taken out of action, Nykerth once more begins to change the fleets directive and prepare for continued action. This time however it seems their changes are less drastic than before, centering more on preparing to move closer to their next target in order to continue sweeping away this blockade. However there are also other orders being sent.
"Prepare a full MHEA clearing team. I want all the troops ready as soon as we can. On a ship that size they could have any number of defenses, traps or other nasty surprises. While I know we run the risk of them just having some huge strategic atomics tucked away in there, their timers ticking down to vaporize our entire detachment, I would still like to know more about the kind of terrorists we are dealing with here."
They seem to think for a moment, before they speak again. Their attention turning back to the front as their fleet engages in a burn towards and eventually past the stricken craft, heading deeper into the interdiction field.
"Tell them I want void capabilities on as many, if not all the troops present. It minimizes our chance of losing so many brave friends."
Soon, the MHEA shuttles are ready, only awaiting their carrier ship to draw closer so that they do not have to use as much fuel and do not have to be in the open for so long.
With the freighter down and out of action the fleets dispersed, each heading for different targets. Some were broken into by cyber-attacks, their defences deactivated, and interdiction fields shut down but others had far tougher AI, the lag responses allowing them to easily rebuff aggressive hacking attempts and keep their systems operational.
More green lights from other regions indicated more freighters were destroyed by other elements as fleets from countless nations moved in systematically to clear the trade lane. So far it was somewhat unpredictable danger, but it was tedious more than anything, the time it took to get STL from one freighter to another added up and they were spread out to maximise area of affect. Current projections put the operation as taking over 8 days to fully clear the trade lane, by that point economic damages galaxy wide would be major.
At least many return acknowledgements to the Selenicans indicated that contact was indeed to be kept open, already ad hoc datalinks between the various prongs of ships diving into attack were manifesting even between CONA and SAGA although they were very rudimentary.
The next trio of freighters assailed by the assembled forces were different to the gravity wave equipped craft. One was fairly simple, armed with hundreds of ETC cannons which rapidly unloaded entire walls of kinetic projectiles while another fought back with X-Ray lasers and thermonuclear missile payloads. The third however did not seem to attack, it had no visible weapons upon its surface nor did any of its sections look modified to contain launchers or concealed batteries. Its AI was remarkably strong too, derived from a modified EPA Cyberwarfare unit from the 2nd Ancerious war. Something about it seemed very different to the others.
For the Federation Marines, Lilian Drones and Svarthan MHEA boarding there was no initial defences, no point defence to shoot them down on approach. This made it quite nice compared to typical boarding ops and the forces entered the freighters swiftly. Within it was dark, the huge corridors, cargo loading spaces and containers were empty and untouched. Some areas showed ad hoc engineering where weapon systems had been jury rigged into their form, but nothing contested the teams as they made their way onto the huge vessels. There was a lot of ground to cover, bridge, engineering and AI control were always the three focus areas to take, but it was nearing these that it became apparent they were not alone.
Cheap auto turrets opened up on the team’s spraying kinetics down corridors, quickly supplemented by automatons. Yamanakako Assault Drones, Teliran Combat Droids and even export Orillian combat models powered up from standby modes in alcoves in the walls. Simply they were in search and destroy mode or programmed to defend a specific part of the ship. Their high ROF assault weapons, grenade launchers and targeting jammers designed to inflict as many casualties as possible and slow the boarders down. But they were not all, explosive traps, gravity plating traps and more ringed the primary objectives on all of the boarded freighters. It was like whoever had put them here was trying to be as annoying as possible.
As the boarding teams fought their first battles and fire was traded between the freighters and the assembled forces the first signs of battle came from the inner interdiction regions.
Five warships winked out, destroyed outright as their squadron was moving in to strike a freighter, only the freighter did not fire. Scans were hazy due to distance, but the weapons fire had come from empty space.
Maybe they were not alone. Maybe the culprits of all this had simply never left.
The death of the five warships in the interior sounded warning alarms across the united comms net, with jumpier SAGA and CONA elements quick to passively put blame on the other before the consensus of the wider composite force shut out the doubts. Captains discussed options, links to intelligence branches through ships left outside of interdiction being queried for intel or possible recon reinforcements. But most notably, the tasking logs of the ships were dredged; Who were the ships from? Why were they separated? More questions like this. Worriedly, some had subscribed to the option that maybe the culprits had invested some into most, and most into some - creating ships like the gravitics-armed freighter at the start, and maybe a stealth model farther in. At least, that's as insidious as they hoped it got.
The combined force approached the next trio, who had already been active and was already showering the fleet with fire from long range. X-ray lasers were tanked by the ultradense solaris clots that the Imperials lugged in front of them, but the flak and missiles would prove a problem.
"Carnaithian contingent. Requesting support, dense formation of three at waypoint delta-four. Saturation combined with high-level spinal grade lasers and guided munitions." Kros examined the signatures calmly. "Intense cyberwarfare support suspected as well."
"Fifth Platoon is pinned re-directing seventh and eighth."
"First platoon reports more bots at the bridge, they're requesting reinforcements."
"Twelfth Platoon falling back, they're routed. Thirteenth to Fifteenth advancing on the engine room now."
Colonel Dupont listened as the reports came in and watched through the eyes of her squad leaders as the Federation Marines boarded the massive ship. The battle for the freighter was slow and challenging. Pop up traps and combat robot made it difficult to advance at speed but this was a war of attrition the Federation was capable of winning. The Federation contingent of ship had since returned from their safe distance and began ferrying Marines to and from the Freighter to bolster their numbers as well as evacuate the wounded.
"Only droids and androids? Gladius you're clear to use lethals, there seems to be no living beings here. Decomission the droids and if possible get some in tact, we want to be able to analyze them after"
Gladius would begin using the lethal assault drones against the automata, no screams of pain or mercy was a relief to Lillian, but she knew better than to trust this fully. Drones fought to the bitter end, if they even had one finger to pull a trigger, they would do it. Her drones got closer with every shot, some had reached their designated areas. Meanwhile Lillian watched the chaos
"First objective reached, further objectives being reached with predicted times. Updated will be recorded"
"Good, all on tim-"
"Error, trap activated. Gravity trap identified. Objective AI room pushed back, estimated 3 minutes"
"Tch didn't even let me finish my sentence"
The drones reached the door of the bridge of the ship, trying to cut the head off the snake, and trying to find living beings on the ship.
She was suspicious when no point defense even tried to attack the boarding craft, and the corridors seemingly dead made her even more suspicious.
Then five warships just disappeared off the face of the universe.
At first she thought it was an error, a faulty scanner, something like that. But no matter how much she reset it, they didn't appear. She was horrified with the confirmation that the ships truly had sunk. She forced the ships to do a full, in-depth scan of the entire area, processors keeping up with such a high demand job. Then she focused her energy on the three freighters.
She regretted not bringing at least a battleship was with gravitic defenses, but she knew she would take too long with it tagging along. But she did know that she had the ability to attack the ships head on.
"Lock TPPAs on the gravitic freighter, lock kinetics and lasers on the attacking freighter, and get me info on that third one! Be prepared for cyber warfare at the doorstep!"
The Svarthan were not there to mess around with navigating the maze of the ships hallways and getting shot at so easily. As they enter they start to pull up schematics of the ship if those are available and get to work. Much as they love to burrow and avoid the enemy in such a way while on a planet, they intend to do something similar here, and as such have brought two "Breachers" with them.
These specialized operatives are laden with cutting gear of all types, from burning bars that can melt through just about everything you could reasonably hope to find aboard a ship, plasma cutters, oxyfuel torches, and even large carbide saws for slicing through metal. Their leg hydraulics are also very potent, and it is soon shown why, as one of them climbs up onto the roof of their initial site, while the other starts to cut a hole in the deck at their feet.
In this way the Svarthan move to secure the engine spaces, and the bridge of the ship, cutting their way through the roof, floors, and walls to find the most direct route that tries to avoid traps. Where they do fight, they fight with ferocity, the heavily modified bodies of the MHEA letting them tank a fair few shots, and carry large guns. Automatic grenade launchers fire back down hallways, supplemented by nano-thermite beams, dangerous weapons that fire a magnetically confined beam of ignited thermite to slice through metal targets with relative ease. If anything squishy presents itself, flamethrowers roar to life, blasting cones of fire that block entire hallways. Traps are sought out with their camera eyes and either disarmed, or triggered remotely with some shots aimed at them.
Still their advance is far from bloodless, and a fair number of casualties are sustained, some fatal some not. Still the crabs push on, attempting to secure the objective, and aid their pinned down allies.
Coming to one of the Merchant Raiders the Andracken Investigator slowed its speed and hovered meters above giant ship’s hull. Crystal shifted from within and jutted out to form leg-like claws. The legs moved in and clamped down on the hull and dug into the metal. A proboscis like tube came out next and buried into the ship. Reaching a corridor the tube stoped and opened up. The black forms of the Spec Ops Andracken slunk out and crawled along the overhead, bulkheads, and deck of the ship, their red eyes scanning across the corridors of the ship.
Like octopi they groped and tested around the ship, scanning and testing systems and panels for an access to the ship’s computer. One scanned along the many wire bundles, searching for a CAN-Bus harness.
Captain Gyu began moving for more targets when a request for support came over the coms. It was the Carnaithian fleet. Gyu was under orders to offer assistance to any Carnaithian ships above any other if requested. Captain Gyu was more than willing to oblige. Ordering for his ship to come about, he made his way for Kros’ ship. The remaining Investigator followed close behind, choosing to stay behind the much larger frame of the Frigate.
Seeing the ships if question Gyu ordered all weapons to be fired on the lead ship. Tachyons charged and high energy lasers fired off targeting enemy lasers. Once charged beams of tachyons lanced out to strike sources of power along the ship.
“This is Captain Gyu of the Andracken Overseer class Frigate Plausible Deniability. We are moving to assist you, requesting data share.” The Andracken hailed.
A trio of hodge-podge ships of different utilities? Perfect fodder, thought O'thelia, seeing these gargantuan vessels make their ways closer. However, despite his enthusiasm and brash nature, the rest of the bridge crew of his "flagship" were quite alarmed by the presence of the kinetically armed freighter, likely able and easily capable of piercing through the thin hulls of the ships present.
"Target that one!" O'thelia shouted out, pointing towards the kinetic-armed freighter, his arrogance not completely blinding his sense. "Punch holes through it, ASAP!"
"Aye, Sir," a relay member said, sending out the orders to the rest of the small Selenican strike force.
Soon after, the Reconnoiters present pointed their forward-facing particle weapons, charged with tachyonic particles, towards this freighter in specific. The Type-A frigates also spun their turrets to bear, analyzing the velocity and vectors of movement even at these somewhat long ranges. The call for fire is sent out, and a small ripple of the guns and lances shoot forth into the vacuum, prayers being that they find their targets true.
"Keep firin'! We aren't able to take one of em' out with just a salvo, we need more, MORE!" O'thelia would speak, his voice overly bombastic. "Fire at will!"
The bridge crew, despite this having been only their first assignment with this upstart commander, were already greatly annoyed at his ridiculous eccentricities. However, orders were orders, and another salvo was ordered and launched from the Selenican vessels.
With the combined fire of the approaching forces the threat of the three freighters working in concert was overcome. While immensely sizable the ships were never meant for direct warship combat, and their total lack of movement and stationary position gave them the largest disadvantage in space warfare. As tachyons, kinetics and EMACCs slammed home into key points derived from various schematics downloaded from the Ancnet the weaponry went cold as reactors were taken offline.
However, the one with no weapons and stronger AI that was being boarded continued to resist. Its EPA derived countermeasures were enough to continuously rebuff attempts to infiltrate its systems from the outside, but as the combat frames and traps internally were destroyed one by one the Andrackan, Svarthan, Royal Federation and Columen forces the main regions of the freighter were occupied. Engineering had not changed at all from the schematics, nor had the bridge as the Svarthans and Columen secured them respectively. But as the Royal Federation marines and Andrackan special forces encountered one another in the corridors leading up to the AI core the last of the defending units were intense. Each one fought to non-functionality as auto turrets tried to pin the attackers down.
Still after an hour of gruelling inch by inch fighting the two forces managed to reach the bulkhead, breaching it they found a massively expansive AI core. It had definitely once been part of an EPA warship, but it had been improved with all sorts of additions, whoever had set this up had done quite the work.
With engineering and bridge control wrestled from the ships AI through direct disconnection the attempts to rip into the AI began. It was a long and problematic affair, only aided as the Andrackan began to physically remove parts of the AI core to reduce its processing power. But even within its deep files, there was nothing.
They had once again whoever had set this up been incredibly thorough, however on a third deep scan a file appeared.
Only one. It was a communications dump log, it didn’t contain any data, but its metadata indicated the exact communication relay wavelength that was used. Channel 8866, it meant nothing at current, but there was one nation present who would be familiar with its origin.
A massive detonation appeared on sensors a moment later, as one of the other freighters had exploded, its whole hold filled with powerful plasma munitions. Losses were reported amongst the forces assaulting its position but at least its interdiction field was down, as was the field around the boarded vessel.
Still another two ships belonging to the Arcovian Kingdom which were engaging a freighter in the centre of the interdiction fields went silent. Sensors indicating heat spikes and debris.
"Admiral, the techs have finished the scans and its found nothing-" The transmission was garbled for a moment as the Andracken took apart more of the core.
"A dump file full of meta data and a comms channel was the best we could-" Again the transmission garbled.
"I'm not sure the trip was-" The transmission garbled again but Jean Paul could make out the lip movements of colonel Dupont. She clearly didn't approve of the boarding action.
The battlefield map pinged with the registration of signals coming from the centre of this mess. Heat spikes, followed by debris, someone made it to the centre and didn't bring enough firepower to take out the freighter there.
"Colonel, recall your forces. I want them back on the Elba ASAP. Helm once our Marines are back set a course for that heat spike signature."
"Nothing... fuckin' hell. This is not worth it."
Lillian was creeped out to high hell. Only the onboard ship AI was on the ship, and its multiple toys to defend itself. She was absolutely astonished by the level of planning these people had. They were determined to not let anyone know who they were. Light flickered on the droids, signaling that the objectives were reached. Lillian ordered them to get back to their designated ships, needing to reload after such a grueling battle. Attempts at accessing any data from the ship were met with nothing, just empty cyberspace that the AI occupied.
Droids got pack to their smaller deployment ships, with them firing full throttle back to the main ships. Lillian observed the heat spike on her sensors, another frigate gone, more casualties. She was getting annoyed at the sheer unnecessary amount of both loss of life and economic loss by the minute. Who would dare to try something like this, in such a public manner, and yet be able to do it without being detected?
"Gladius, once the boarding ships are done connection, go full speed ahead on those energy signatures. Have EVERYTHING locked and loaded for potential cloaked opponents, lasers and weapon damage don’t come from just the sheer vacuum. Have all sensors on high alert! I don’t want them sneaking up on us."
The Andracken Spec Ops units disconnected power lines and entire sections of the core. Scanning carefully as they disassembled the device they noticed the origin of the core.
“Captain Gyu, this is SPF-45006789, we have discovered the origin of the enemy AI cores is of EPA construction.” The lead spec ops Andracken reported quickly before tearing further into AI core. One unit took one of its tentacles and a universal data port was formed on the end. Plugging into the AI the Andracken began sifting through the AI before it found the file. Quickly seeing the files contained inside it transferred the Data to the Plausible Deniability.
“All forces be advised, our units that have infiltrated the enemy ships has discovered the AI cores are of EPA origin, and we’ve identified their coms relay is on channel 8866.” Captain Gyu said on an open channel to all ships present. Hopefully someone would know what that meant as a quick query of her ships archive gave her no helpful answers.
To say that he wasn't already on alert due to the combat circumstances would be a lie, but Kros was very quickly taken by the information broadcast by the Andracken. He flashed a look across the CIC, and found that his CIGO attache was returning the gesture.
"Comms, survey all responding forces for Union of Worlds presence," He asked aloud, not putting the query on the network. He checked the nature of communications on the Freighter in question against those of his own ships, and sat - stunned - for a few moments.
"All ships," he ordered across a tightbeam between his own ships only, "Strengthen scans. Assume Leistunganos presence." He looked across at his attache again, who nodded as she began tapping at her own console.
As the battle suddenly becomes a lot more close and personal, Vei Xian sighs and goes through the lengthy process of readjusting his bow.
"Mmmm. This cannot be helped, I would like to avoid destroying the same vessel our allies have boarded. Change of plans. Tu Rong, use your awakened beasts to cover the advance of my attack. The defenses of these vehicles must be dispersed by such methods before my weapon can penetrate them."
"Yes, senior!" Tu Rong replied energetically, as the Chariot under his control began to warp and twist, like a flower blooming, to reveal a swarm of around two dozen spherical fighter-craft whizzing about- wait- what? Under closer inspection, said fighter craft appear to be various asteroids with thrusters and even weapons seemingly growing out of them.
"I am ready, senior!" Tu Rong continued. "My tamed Awakened Meteor swarm will move to support!"
Targeting the nearest freighter not already being boarded or otherwise interfered with, the swarm of asteroids would move toward it in formation, performing maneuvers which generated enough g-force that a human pilot would have been killed from it as they attack the closest target that won't cause a friendly fire incident. Once the ship's defenses became occupied, Vei Xian made a show of drawing his arm back and loosing his projectile in the manner of an archer, while the rails of the mass driver he'd styled as a bow activated and shot the massive rod of metal towards the center of the targeted ship. Even as it flew to its destination, Vei Xian busied himself with nocking another.
With their missions as complete as can be, the MHEA troops radio in, reporting their findings to the ship.
"Nothing you say? Even according to our more advanced allies? Hmm. Retreat immediately, and prepare to be picked up. I want you off that ship ASAP, before any potential traps can be sprung."
Having received their orders the MHEA troops rapidly return through the holes they made, exiting the craft not long after. As their shuttles move towards their designated vessels, the Svarthan begin to move towards the nearest hostile craft they can reach. Another salvo of surveillance shells is followed up by a missile barrage, this time supplemented with particle charge shells, already loaded with transuranic elements to hopefully inflict as much damage as possible.
Meanwhile, as their guns rain hate down onto their enemies, Nykerth takes some time to compile the data from all "friendly" forces in the area, that is, everyone attacking the ships currently emitting interdiction fields. They want to identify just how many ships and how much interdiction field is left out there, and plan accordingly.
As more time went by, Britt became more and more concerned, though not entirely about the freighters. The seemingly spontaneous deaths of numerous ships, despite the nature of the freighters had her slightly on edge. Still tedious, though, just more interesting.
As her force approached another freighter, having broken off slightly from the main force, the Andracken transmission was received.
"That's... strange," she said out loud, puzzled by what was broadcasted. She understood why, though by no means did she know what to do with the information, outside of potentially the comms channel. She did not know what the significance of it was.
"Get one of the datascythes to initiate silent observation protocols on channel 8866," she ordered, "and just to be sure, double-check the isolation of the datascythe. I don't want any unnecessary surprises."
Meanwhile, boarding craft were readied aboard the two Jaegers, marine raiders and navy hunter-killers embarked. From the force as a whole, a salvo of missiles was followed by a barrage of pulse ray fire, although it was not intended to destroy the freighter outright, rather to cripple.
As yet another freighter exploded from the Divine Lotus, its defences far too concerned with trying to intercept the Cultivators smaller craft to notice the huge round which destroyed it moments later, tearing it in half despite its size and bringing down its interdiction bubble.
With the grouping of allied forces now delving deeper In towards the sudden heat spikes and unknown signatures the survey scans of channel 8866 from multiple nations at first turned up nothing, white noise static and no data being relayed. But as they got further in, spikes began to appear, data packets, broadcast in multiple directions and heavily encrypted with truly phenomenal self-altering ciphers and quantum resilience. The packets were not large by any means and likely did not contain large amounts of information, but ELINT efforts by Huron the Andrackan and Carnaith helped triangulate a position for where most of the data packets were coming from.
Dead space, seemingly empty void around one of the freighters.
They had found their culprits.
“This is UNCS Hallmark of the Union of Worlds, do we read you correctly, Channel 8866?” The wideband message came from a Dart class of the new Horizon fleet, flanked by twin Razor class escorts. They were busy engaging one of the freighters on the far side of the huge interdiction blockade, but the message had only just reached them through some jamming put up by a freighter.
A moment later 6 signatures, comparable to torpedoes were detected at close range on a sprint terminal trajectory to the Royal Federation, Artificialis and Svarthan fleets, two each.
They were nearing the enemy, and clearly, they were making the first move. Their stealth was good, excellent even and so far gravimetric showed nothing, they were staying at range.
"Torpedoes at the bow, heading zero point five, direct intercept in sixty seconds!"
"COUNTERMEASURES"
The three Federation ships lit op the darkness of space with a spectacular light show as the incoming torpedoes avoided the incoming fire and moved at an incredible rate. EW attempts failed to discourage the projectiles as they continued to evade. Only once they got closer did the counterfire begin to take effect with close range MDBs catching one on the right angle and destroying it while the other one took advantage of the distraction of its comrade and made contact with the frigate VMFR Oural. The impact left a gaping hole in the port side of the ship where decompression caused just as much as the impact as the torpedo.
"Oural is hit Admiral, captain reports ship combat rating is down to twenty three percent. They have CIWS only, main power reactor is offline, misalignment caused by impact."
"Order them to retreat, Argo analyse the torpedoes maneuverers so that trick won't work again." Jean Paul commanded.
As the torpedo's suddenly appear on the ships sensors raising alarms on the bridge, Nykerth's camera eyes snap up in alert
"FIRE SCALAR FIELDS NOW!!!"
A shimmering barrier of energy tears space asunder ahead of the Svarthan ships, discharging immense energies drawn from the very fabric of space, hopefully intercepting at least one of the incoming torpedoes as the point defense weapons fire a massive hectic barrage. Lasers bursts flit across the void of space, accompanied by bursts of ignited nano thermite and scores of tiny projectiles from the coil guns.
However the barrage is to forced, and to unprepared to do much. One torpedo is unlucky however, as the Scalar field manages to intersect the weapon, its small size leading to its prompt destruction. The other strikes the lead ship at its bow, blasting a gaping hole into the armor, sending the glimmering shells of Svarthan crew cascading into the void. Some deploy what look to be icosahedrons, and float there awaiting pickup, but for the vast majority, a suffocating death awaits...
"Commander, we have suffered major damage to our main hyper laser battery, and some of the main turreted weapons. They will most likely remain unresponsive for the remainder of the fight, however we can still move and have around 3/4 of our main battery left."
"Very well. Get rescue ships out and back at once, we need to save every one we can before another attack comes. Inform all point defense crews on all ships to remain on absolute maximum alert. Next time we will be ready to intercept. I also want the trajectory of those torps plotted, so we can find the bastards who did this, and make them pay."
"Incoming projectiles, two objects headed towards ships act high spee-"
"Deploy particulate shield! PD to max NOW!"
PD weapons from all ships seemed to light up simultaneously, all pointing at the same two directions. Laser, kinetic, everything was being thrown at the torpedoes seemed to move closer and closer to the ships, not seeming to be affected by the PD at such a range. It was incredible to her how proficient this stealth was, being able to catch ships from three different nations off guard. The particulate, while trying its best to prevent impact, only blocked of the missiles, the hole in the cloud allowing the second one to pass without effort.
The impact glimmered as a Custodia class exploded, the torpedo exploding right on an antimatter containment unit, making the explosion even more powerful. The ship now seemed to be holding on by a thread, half of it now simply debris, meanwhile the other half -the thruster half- managed to survive such a large explosion, with a reactor online feeding the thrusters and what remained of the ship.
"Report!"
"Major damage to one Custodia class, no longer apt to fight. Minor damage to surrounding ships."
"Fuck... analyze what you got from the torpedoes! We need to be ready for another bombardment! Get all info on the point of origin of them and find the fuckers at once!"
As the detonations of the torpedoes and the intercepting fire abated nine signatures now seemed to appear on gravimetric sensors. They were weak, but they were present, all were on a direct intercept course for the forces which had banded together.
The interdiction blockade was beginning to fall now, freighters were being destroyed faster and faster as more vessels joined the assault all across the region. It didn’t matter what firepower or tricks they had up their sleeves as whole battlegroups comprising of vessels from countless different nations and factions teamed up to blow their way through. In some cases, each freighter was fighting near a hundred different vessels, and no civilian vessels no matter how armed or jury rigged stood a chance against those odds.
With the interdiction zone now rapidly getting smaller some of the traffic of the corridor was beginning to flow again, going around the edges which had been cleared or holes which now appeared in the huge no fly wall. Co-ordination was everywhere and had anyone looked at the sensors and datanet of the region they likely wouldn’t have known there was a galactic war on at all. CONA & SAGA, working together with neutrals against the odds. Even a Coronan Linebacker had joined the fray, throwing itself into the densely packed interdiction zone with practically no care for tactics.
But while the lane was being cleared the threat remained and the 9 ships accelerated quickly.
Gravimetric jamming spiked, but by this point the vessels which they were fighting were becoming visible to other forms of sensor. IR and LIDAR readings were being taken identifying six escort, two cruiser and one battleship class opponents based on average tonnage and reaction mass. Visual recognition software and identification protocols matched the vessels they faced with no known faction or species and constant jamming and sensor dampening materials on the enemy hulls made further ID extremely difficult.
The ships kept close to one another, maximising defensive firing arcs but it was clear they were fast.
IR signatures lit up across the unknown opponent’s fleet as Hyperfrequency lasers, Gravimetric accelerators and torpedo launchers opened fire. They made no discrimination, trying to blanket engage Huron, Carnaithian, Lotus, Andrackan, Federation, Artificialis and Svarthan vessels with an overwhelming barrage of firepower. For their size these ships each appeared to pack the firepower of several vessels of comparable size or class, their course was clear, hit the allied forces hard and speed straight through their formations to come out the other side.
The foe had finally revealed themselves.
"Decompression Deck six port side."
"Battery A reports forty percent of guns downs."
"Secondary reactors online to compensate."
"Etoile reports moderate damages but still combat effective."
Jean Paul tried to get the situation under control but the torrent of fire was immense, more then what the Defence Net could keep up with and every hit weakened the Net allowing more fire to come through. The light show in space was spectacular as shield flared, CIWS fired, missiles launched and main guns returned fire. Jean Paul had instructed his gunners to target spinal weapons on the battleship to knock out the heaviest firepower, he had wished the Lady Admiral had sent a Heavy Cruiser instead. The Federation ships moved aside as they fired as to not let the oncoming enemy outright destroy them as they proceeded up the centre.
"Carnaithian force reporting, unknown contacts attacking response group! Military craft!" Kros' authoratative voice had begun to shake with the shock and surprise of the assault, and he saw the command screen report the distribution of combat stimulants to all crews. His force had been spared the torpedo strike, but the heavy spinal weapons of these new hostiles had been less forgiving. His destroyer had taken only a glancing hit from a kinetic accelerator, but one of his four engines and two superheavy hardpoints had been outright sheared off - his Lighthouse-class had been struck by a hyperfrequency laser, and as far as he could tell, was completely destroyed.
Before he could bark orders, code began filling his terminals and readouts. CIGO signatures and auth codes. "COUNTERCHARGE."
The rush of total acceleration and intense Gs of the flagship flipping end over end to brandish its spinal EMACCS was stunning even through the inertial medium of the combat craft. All three remaining engines were at full burn, and all weapons were firing. Dense fields of CIWS munitions were set up like minefields to counter torpedo strikes, all missiles had been launched - even the three flechette-class frigates, with their interceptor engines from the Far Reach project, had launched their own entire complement and were accelerating at full burn towards the new assailants. Hundreds and hundreds of anti-ship munitions, for what?
The question quickly answered itself - his own ship had released both of its superimpactors, which had begun assault burns towards the incoming hostiles. The slower-firing spinal weapons of the new hostiles' firing intervals were being taken advantage of to their fullest. His destroyer's guns were firing full CQC load; molten slugs of solaris composite impactors, designed to transfer every gram of firing energy into their targets in CQC engagements. Every standard and heavy grade ship-to-ship laser was firing, the closing velocities of the two fleets blueshifting the X-ray batteries of the warships. But not only that.
The six gamma-ray batteries of the Arcelin-class began to fire, their own signatures boosted in power by the closing velocities of the fleets. Each one targeted a different hostile ship, prioritizing the escorts - everything else had been focused on the heavy trio at the core of the formation.
"9 unknown signatures detected, fire incoming!"
"Shit, change attack vectors, retaliate as soon as possible!"
The remaining ships began to change their positions, making their net surface area diminish, and therefore made it harder for them to be hit. The PD weaponry fired with glorified brilliance, determined to not fail at its task once again. She smacked her head against a wall inside of her own head, regretting not bringing a battleship for the occasion. A change of doctrine was in order for the next time.
"Gladius, make way for other ships to attack. Let's make sure these dickheads get what's coming to them!"
As the ships adjusted, the ships faced the interlopers with all armaments ready to dispense hellfire. The thrusters fired with a brilliant blue glow, making their way towards the signatures. The inside of the ships were a perfect symphony of moving parts, energy and material being distributed with an efficiency that seemed almost beautiful, ready for the command.
"Fire on all cylinders!"
The ships would fire everything they had, lasers, TPAs, kinetics, even PD, continuous and never-ending. If they were to lose, they would go out in a blaze of glory. Shot after shot came from them, with a fury unmatched.
"Captain, massive enemy attack detected, targeting all allied units in the area!"
Nykerth's comms officer turns back to their screens, as the massive assault comes pouring in. The captain nods, trying their best to remain calm. This was expected after all so the point defense crews were on high alert already, and fortunately the fleet had fallen back as the tried to pick up the survivors from the first attack giving them slightly more time to react.
"Move to intercept hostile vessels, reform particulate shields in the direction of the attack, vent plasma for shielding, prepare Scalar defenses and launch all capital interceptors from the carrier. All other ships prepare to engage with all weapons immediately."
As the order is given the ships swing around, their point defense already flaring to life, with far more accuracy, and as such far more effect. Their shields move to block as much of the fire as they can, electrified metal particle clouds suspended in massive rotating magnetic fields backed by plasma pockets and screened by pulsing scalar fields ahead of them.
The ships also return fire, sending huge flights of transuranic particle shells ultraviolet laser bursts, swarm missiles, and hyper frequency lasers of their own back at the enemy forces. From behind them, the carrier launches its Argos anti capital interceptors, an FTL bubble carrying them towards their target, their weapon bays loaded with strategic scale nuclear missiles, powerful lasers, and hard-hitting coil guns, not to mention their advanced countermeasures
The assault came out of nowhere, and on the bridge of Britt's flagship, confusion was all there was. Although the initial torpedo strike was not aimed at them, for a moment, some of the crew, including Britt herself, thought the torpedoes were a glitch. She was not used to not seeing her enemy, and when one of the saber's was turned into a radioactive husk through hyperfrequency laser fire, confusion filled her mind.
Ultimately, it was not her that started giving orders; it was the ships logic core.
All across the Huron strike force, orders for an immediate turnaround came into effect. The flagship practically flipped itself, inertial dampeners and gravitic manipulation preventing the ship from crushing itself and its crew under its own weight. The destroyers and frigate appeared to have handled the maneuvers much better, having already oriented themselves and accelerated before the flagship. Antimatter thrusters immediately went to full power, and the Hammerhead's weapons stations began to shift along the hull.
The strike force linked their systems together, the destroyers taking advantage of the superior sensors of the flagship and the Saber. The Saber and the flagship turned to electronic-warfare and point defense as the destroyers charged their weapons, jammers oriented towards the new arrivals. A barrage of anti-radiation and conventional anti-ship missiles created a swarm against their aggressors, nearly half the strike forces complement, the oversized spinal mass drivers and torpedoes of the destroyers firing seconds after. Every Pulse Ray and grav-cannon was firing, cruiser-grade or below, as they rapidly approached their targets. The missiles targeted the escorts, whilst everything else prioritized the trio.
As the ships made their move, Vei Xian immediately began assessing the situation. "Meng! Tu Rong! Pull back at once, do not get caught up in this assault!"
"My lord?! What is happening?!" Tu Rong broadcasted in a panicked tone at the sudden attack.
"Idiot! Evade at once!" Meng Yongliang snarled, his ship already moving at an impressive speed, shields flickering as his vessel takes a beating. Tu Rong, however, was in a carrier-type vessel. This sudden ambush had not been anticipated, nor the sheer power of its attacks! A few strikes get through, tearing holes in the flower bud-like structure of the Chariot as the Awakened Meteor's voice is cut by interference.
"Gah! That worthless-" Meng's voice shakes, speaking to his elder. "My lord! Allow me to escort Tu Rong out of the battlefield. We can-"
"No." Vei Xian answers bluntly.
"Master?" The arrogant cultivator's voice is uncharacteristically shaken.
"You are a rising star of our sect. Tu Rong's capabilities have been deemed average. It would be unwise to engage in such a risk-"
Meng Yongliang immediately cuts contact and moves towards Tu Rong's limping vessel. Vei Xian's centuries of experience are all that prevent him from becoming absolutely apoplectic. "Disciple Zeya. Protect your wayward fellow." He says tiredly.
"Yes, elder." The remaining cultivator accelerates to rondezvous with the two in the field, while Vei Xian, looking with concern at the onrushing fleet, re-inters his main body in the now-folding armor of his Chariot. No more showmanship, he must consider this a battle against peers! The next shot of his spinal gun comes out the tip of the vessel.
One of the unknown battleships spinals was destroyed by the Royal Federation, a prescision shot punching through surprisingly heavy shielding and protective capabilities to deal the damage. But it wasn’t until the Carnaithian contingent counter charged that the enemy showed just how resilient they were. Such a countercharge had not been expected and many of the incoming munitions launched from the attackers were destroyed by the defending CIWS barrage. One escort was knocked out, directly taking fire from Carnaithian, Artificialis and Svarthan combined fire, gamma lasers, Kinetics, nuclear munitions all hammered the vessel until it exploded violently. But the punishment it received was enormous, clearly these foes had much in the way of critical redundancy.
One of the cruisers died next, impacted by the spinal shot of the Cultivator Vei Xian, tearing a whole segment of its frontal armour platting apart but surprisingly not killing it. The hole however was quickly exploited as both Huron firepower and a Carnaithian super impactor used the breach to sheer the ship apart, as it came apart numerous of its internal systems detonated.
Clearly whoever had owned it did not want anything left behind.
Two more escorts died on the approach, wiped out by a combination of Svarthan Capital Interceptors and a barrage of Huron Torpedoes, each time the ships detonated leaving behind little remains but scrap and odd parts. The remaining two escorts, cruiser and battleship passed through the Carnaithian contingent, the second super impactor being partially intercepted but hitting the battleship anyway, destroying one of its four large frontal spars. Speeding through the enemy did not seem to have much in the way of rear or side mounted weapons.
Quickly passing through the rest of the allied forces the cruiser took yet more impacts, several crippling its drive systems as it could not defend from the rear. As soon as the enemy broke through however to the other side, they rapidly flipped, facing the allies once more and opening fire as they moved away.
Moments later the Battleship and two escorts broke off their attack runs, leaving the crippled cruiser which kept firing for a few seconds before a blinding flash of a reactor overload appeared on sensors.
The remaining three ships were attempting to withdraw.
The Svarthan anti capitol interceptors give chase as best they can, their fusion torch engines turning them into little more that blueish streaks across the void of space, as they bore in on the enemy from behind. While their big munitions may be exhausted, they still have their lasers, coil guns and lighter yield missiles which they try and dump into the engines of tat lest one vessel, hopefully hobbling it to the point where capture is a possibility.
The rest of their fleet follows in, preparing to recover the fighter craft as they break away from their attack runs. At the very least, if the enemy decides to detonate themselves rather than be captured they may be able to identify the enemies remains or see them up close on their long range cameras, and the cameras of the interceptors. Hopefully that will shed light on who is to blame for this.
Kros's system was on the verge of shock as a deluge of medicines had flooded into his bloodstream - his Arcelin's primary power systems had been disabled, and the seven-kilometer ship was careening on a dead course until further notice of intercept. This said, the reserve power could still receive targeted communications - and the Imperial battle network was clear as day.
One of his flechettes had been shattered like glass by overwhelming firepower, but the two surviving frigates were nimbly maneuvering in pursuit of the enemy, entire hulls' worth of laser banks poking at any weakspot they could - and sprinting along their flanks to either force a redirection of the enemy's hulls and offer a shot on the Carnaithian subcapitals, or permit them to get easy shots in on the assailants' engine banks.
One of the retreating vessels was brought down by Carnaithian and Svarthan fire, the lasers and coilguns firing directly into the engine cones and detonating the drive spectacularly reducing the vessel to little more than a molten cloud.
But the remaining two ships continued to speed on, heading for an open area with little in the way of friendly or neutral vessels, their radiators ran hot but they quickly began dumping various heatsinks each glowing white hot from internal waste heat. Once each of the vessels full banks were discharged they cut their drives suddenly becoming much, much harder to detect as they sped away. Given the state of the allied force, pursuit did not look possible.
Thankfully the interdiction barrier was brought down, the last freighters wiped out in short order and the bubble dissipating. The Starlit Passage once more flowed with tens of thousands of vessels, FTLing above the heads of the warships which had cleared it. Coms systems were almost overloaded and data networks crashed by the sheer amount of 'Thank you' messages received from civilian vessels which had waited at the edges of the interdiction zone with some donating small amounts of SIGEC to the nations that oversaw the operation.
For the unknown perpetrators however there was nothing but questions. The stealth ships had been adept at self destructing, leaving little trace of their original make up. No bodies were found, showing that such vessels were obviously unmanned, and any initial ideas about them belonging to the Ghosts of the Tradex were disproven by the obvious lack of biological parts. Carnaith had at least one lead, a Union Command channel, but another was also found in the wreckage, a piece of MULAT armour, also constructed typically in the Union but known to be exported to select SAGA allies was picked up by the Svarthans. It was little, but it reinforced suspicions on the part of Kros own government.
While no force had been outwardly blamed or identified the day had been won, and it had proven that all sides of the galaxy could band together to deal with a threat serious enough.
Ironically, that had been the exact goal of the Reserve Administration who had orchestrated the ordeal.
“This will embolden the more extreme elements of SAGA into independent action like this. Forcing CONA to deal with them much more frequently and not our own operations. It’s a statement that is far bolder than their simple raiding”
“It will affect us too ma’am, the trade disruption will impact our own economy”
“Of course, it will. Which will give ample drive for us to push for greater self-sufficiency, and galvanise the rest of SAGA into a much more pro-active stance, if their economies can be impacted this easily why would they sit around and do little?”
“The plan is ready to go, we have the freighters already chartered. Interdictors are being fuelled with several months of Sinarium as ordered”
“Good, tell the assets to defend them somewhat, nothing major, enough to shoo away early small counters”
“Yes ma’am”
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The freighters were disseminated to numerous points in the galaxy, given false names and sent on their way. All made travel towards the Starlit Avenue, just a handful out of truly impossible numbers of civilian craft that now plied the lane. Despite the war and the disruption at Aedleshaven the grind of galactic economics and fuel trade did not stop here, it was the main arterial way in the galaxy, everything of worth came through here and it was dirt cheap to come this way thanks to the build up of so much Ancerium residue. Petitions to mine it had been shot down and doing so (as many unscrupulous individuals tried) invited arrest or destruction. The Ancerium here kept FTL costs almost non-existent, it aided everyone and so it was left.
One by one however the freighters, of all shapes and sizes, dropped out of warp, registering drive malfunctions or needed additional spooling time.
As each dropped out the counter clocked down on the ships Ais, eventually culminating in the field generators going off. In no time at all hundreds of ships, mostly civilian were yanked out of superluminal travel and sent free floating into dead space. As the fields continued to expand and more freighters joined the operation those that got caught only grew and grew. News outlets flocked to the millions of reports and outrage flooded the Ancnet.
Whoever had done this was in for a rough time.
BREAKING NEWS
STARLIT AVENUE TRADE LANE CUT OFF BY INTERDICTION
In a stunning announcement the Starlit Avenue Trade Lane, the huge navigational route between Aedleshaven/The Expanse and Lost Star, has been cut off. The largest trade and navigational route in the galaxy that sees most Ancerium and goods go through its trunk has been hit with some kind of attack today, after nearly a hundred freighters dropped out of warp simultaneously and fired up powerful military grade interdiction fields.
None have come forward to claim responsibility for the attack but already thousands of civilian ships are now stranded in open dead space, some with the possibility of months long travel to outside the fields. Already traffic is being forced to go round the blockade, driving up travel time and cost, the latter being driven sky high by the disruption to the Ancerium laced route that keeps warp drive travel along the trunk to near minimal levels.
CONA has quickly denied the attack, denouncing those responsible given that market projections for the Krizpakt nations have already taken a downturn, and many SAGA nations have come out to deny it as well, citing that it affects many of them just as harshly including the Union and Carnaith.
Initial response efforts are underway, but many nations seem to be responding, making their way into the fields to discover who may have done this and disable the interdiction.
More updates to follow.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The entire region was chaos by the time the response forces arrived.
Patrol fleets and battlegroups proper of both SAGA and CONA were present, already intently staring each other down from vast distances at the edge of the interdiction zone. Civilian traffic was going around for now, loosing precious time and now with huge cost without the Ancerium laden route. Some vessels had already gone into the interdiction field, and it would take days before they reached some of the freighters which had spread themselves out in such a way as to maximise disruption and travel time for those seeking to reach them.
Either way, the disruption had to be cleared, and fast. And if possible find out who was responsible before things kicked off and the avenue turned into yet another warzone.
Data Centre, Royal Federation Space
"Delayed, delayed, delayed and of course delayed again" The Traffic manager talked to himself.
"She's not going to like this one... and three, two, one." His monologuing was cut off by an urgent transmission request from The War Machine.
"Manager, I have a report here saying that Ancerium and Sinarium shipments are delayed by up to a seven days." The War Machine inquired politely
"Yes, the major blockage in the starlit avenue is causing nation wide delays for all Meta Material imports its-"
"That's all I needed, thank you Manager" She cut him off curtly.
The War Machine stewed for a few seconds before enacting her next set of protocols and requested a direct link with the Governess of the Federations Ancerious Territories. From the camera in her office she could see Duchess Sofia answer her summons. A look of annoyance across her perfectly moulded face.
"Milady, sorry for the sudden summons but we have a situation." The Warmachine said before delving into a somewhat long winded explanation about the current crisis in the Starlit Avenue and its impact on Federal Meta Material production.
"That's enough of the explanations War Machine, I think I understand the problem now and I'll have the Lady Admiral look into the matter." She said halting the AIs speech raising a hand.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The call to action had been a break in what was the longest game of hurry up and wait in recent history for the Federation Navy. Rear Admiral Jean Paul de Artemis had received his orders for this operation while mustering at one of the Federations War Worlds to come this far north into hostile territory to investigate the Interdiction field. He stared motionlessly at the screen in front of him from his command throne, leaning his head into his clasped hands.
"Another SAGA patrol Admiral." His sensors operator shouted.
He watched the IFFs appear on screen, they were keeping a set distance from his contingent.
"Give them the same message as before Drynwyn." He commanded casually.
The small contingent of Federation warships consisting of the Destroyer VMFR Elba and the Frigates VMFR Oural and VMFR Etoile made their way past the SAGA end of the corridor towards the interdicted zone. The crews had been at full battle stations for hours now, weapons hot, defences raised and sensors scanning wildly every direction. They had earned the ire of several SAGA patrols but a simple message of peace and intention had been enough to satiate their curiosity.
"Entering interdiction zone now Admiral."
The Contingent streamed forward into the zone.
From the void arrived four ships from the Divine Lotus Blossom Empire, or more specifically the Celestial River sect, the pre-eminent trading organization within the empire, and possessed of close ties to the imperial house. The ships resembled massive flower bulbs of differing sizes. Two were around 500 meters, while the other two were twice that. Their hulls were a dark indigo blue, and almost featureless save for the glow of the main thrusts at their rears and the vantablack seams between the “petals” of the ship, which almost seemed to writhe and quiver the more one looked. However, while the two small ones and one of the larger ones were sleek and narrow designs, the last was a bulbous, nearly spherical design. All were marked with a stylized emblem depicting what seemed to be a white, swirling river.
Floating within a partitioned pool of liquidized reactive armor, the Golden Core, Minor Grade Immortal Vei Xian sat in a meditative pose. His muscular frame, devoid of any sort of hair-like decorations, was covered in silvery skin his eyes were featureless spheres of white light. Resting his head on his chin, he contacted his three subordinates managing the other vessels. Though it took only a few seconds, to the cultivators it felt as though they were having a relaxed conversation, their avatars, all dressed in dark blue robes highlighted with white and silver, floating in front of one another as they communicated wordlessly.
“I trust you are briefed on this situation, juniors?” Vei Xian spoke first, his voice pleasantly melodic and at odds with his inhumanly muscular body. Though, as all in the empire knew, one’s physical appearance rarely was conclusive when judging capability.
“Of course!” The Intermediate Grade junior of the bunch, Meng Yongliang, spoke, a handsome young man with a perpetual scowl on his face, his skin jade white and his eyes all-black with white irises, long indigo hair glimmering with countless sparkling lights. “This blockage, it is an affront to our sect! It must be dealt with promptly! These mortals should simply make way and leave this issue for their superiors!”
“Do not be so hasty now!” A woman of similar design save for jet-black hair and golden streaks running down her otherwise equally white skin, replied. The other Intermediate Grade Black Core cultivator, Zeya Metrei, looked over at him with a tired expression. “Think of the amount of powers arriving to handle this matter. Even if we are superior to them, it is wide to avoid making unnecessary enemies. Did not the incident at the tea house auction you attended prove there are powers outside our realm which can rival our own bodies? It is best to be cautious.”
“Hah! Expected words from a Urish craven. Your kind would rather vanish into the black than fight honorably.” Meng Yongliang replied arrogantly.
“Were we not bound to complete this task I would-” Zeya began to respond before the pair were cut off by the third.
“Brother! Sister! We must focus on the task at hand!” The third avatar gestured. It resembled a tall humanoid, easily three meters, with no visible features on its pitted, stone-like surface. The Major-Grade Cultivator, Tu Rong, continued. “We have a duty to our sect to ensure that this mission is carried out with utmost obedience. Your arguing is most shameful!”
Vei Xian couldn’t help but sigh internally. That an Animated Meteor Spirit-turned-cultivator of all things was the most reasonable of his underlings! Well, it made sense. The Celestial River sect had found it before it had become a problem, and quickly subdued and nurtured it into a loyal member of their organization. In fact, it had ended up becoming one of their more promising disciples. Truly, heaven’s wonders never cease.
“Indeed, junior Tu Rong is correct.” He looked to the other two. “I shall ask you to put aside your issues for this mission. Otherwise, I shall discipline you harshly. Perhaps ripping out enough of your core that you fall back a grade would impress upon you the importance of cooperation?”
The pair of juniors blanched and bowed low.
“My apologies, senior.” They mumbled nearly in unison. There was little else they could do. A Golden Core cultivator outperformed a mere Black Core by an order of magnitude, disobeying one without the backing of hundreds of your peers was simply asking for trouble.
“Good, good. Now, let us wait and see who else arrives. It may be prudent to allow others to make the initial step forward. After all, we are a sect focused on profit, do not forget this. But, should it prove necessary, I expect you three to strike decisively, and win fame in any conflict which may occur.”
The three nodded solemnly, the seriousness of the issue having been impressed upon them.
“You are dismissed.” The avatars flickered out of Vei Xian’s vision, and he suppressed the urge to simply turn around and leave. What had he done to offend the supreme elder, that he was stuck corralling such troublesome juniors like this?!
Selenican Republic Captial System - Anxios
The disruption of galactic trade was NOT to be tolerated, especially with how precarious the economic situation already was for the Selenicans. However, with most of the most trained and domestic-built ships already on duties, especially in the ongoing engagements elsewhere, it was now that the recent purchase of Kel'Thulian and RANGSI-built ships was to finally show their worth.
"Mr. President?" A minister would ask of Selia, who was in his office smoking as per usual. "We've received word of a massive interdiction of Starlit Avenue. A large portion of our Brightstone exports are running through that lane, and with their interdiction, comes a near full stop of our exporting, which as I'm sure you know, we cannot afford."
"Well, good thing you told me so soon. Assemble a small fleet of those purchased vessels, probably about 6, composition is left up to those more knowledgeable on this than I, and we need to break that interdiction as soon as possible." the president would say after a short period of deliberation with himself, staring at the holographic projection from his desk of the news. How to report this to the public...
---
Soon after, 4 of the upsized RANGSI Type A vessels and 2 of the repainted Kel'thulian Reconnoiter-Class jumped out of Anxios, and right nearby to the interdicted area. Thankfully it was quite close, so no long time waiting.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane - Jugganath Expanse
It was a strange sight to come along the edge of the Avenue, with so many civilian ships stopped up back to back. Every time one had to jump into this lane, normally, one had to be careful to not be split in two by another jumping vessel. Now, it was much too quiet. The captain onboard the "flagship" for this mission, which was a RANGSI Type A, was one Uzri O'thelia. He was a new commander hence the frigate assignment, and he saw the ability for an easy promotion if this job goes well.
Slowly, compared to other Selenican ships, the task force made its way into the interdiction zone, wary of what was to come.
A breaking report for our viewers.
The main causeway of the golden cross has been interdicted, slowing all traffic throughout the critical FTL network. Both blocs of the ongoing war have taken to blaming each other, but neither have come to blows as they dispatch forces to investigate the incident.
CIGO has already issued the following statement:
Neither CONA nor SAGA has anything to gain from this other than the escalation of the conflict. Parties in both alliances are reliant on the traffic through the golden cross.
CIGO supports the imperial standing, and presses for a joint response to the event. Nothing is to be gained from escalation, and efforts should be made to repair relations between the concerned parties. This incident, though damaging in the wake of the existing recession, provides a nonpartisan proving ground for this potential. Imperial forces will be dispatched to assist with investigation along all CONA, SAGA, and unaligned elements in the region.
--//--
The five Imperial ships to arrive at the golden cross were anything but standard; their engines deviated significantly from baseline and market models, stronger and exuding greatly improved power levels. Among their number was a destroyer, carrying mostly a complement of parasite sloops rather than munitions; A modified Lighthouse-class cruiser; and three Flechette-class frigates, bristling with sensors and laser lens turrets.
"All military complements in-region," Began a databurst, "This is Rear Admiral Kros of the Carnaithian Omniversal Empire. Your presence here represents an investment of material and time by your mother states. I urge you all to join forces to clear this roadblock; Nobody has reason to shoot one another. If not in the interest of the galactic community, then in the interest of the perception of your states, or even in that of your ships."
The chevron of Imperial ships, thusly, quickly began a full burn towards the ships responsible for the interdiction - overclocked engines, now clearly of the same DNA of those used in the Far Reach expedition, sending the formation lancing into the interdiction bubble.
She simply sighed.
She was both surprised and not surprised at this occurrence. She knew that at one point, her ancerium supply was going to be threatened, with the galaxy being extremely volatile at the time. However, she didn't think it would be this soon. She was smart enough to always keep a reserve of ancerium, knowing one day it would come, but this new crisis just absolutely fucking blew her up. She only had enough ancerium to supply her nation for a month at maximum, maybe a couple of months if she reduced military spending more than 90%. But this would leave her extremely vulnerable, and even with the new deal with the Lotus, she was still running red numbers when it came to ancerium.
Both sides were denying the event, she expected soon for both sides to start blaming each other for it. However, both sides, at least she wanted to think, knew that of this kept up for long enough, it would absolutely decimate the galactic economy. Knowing that this was also her survival at risk, she decided to send a few ships to the... anomaly, and give her two cents in.
She assigned three destroyers, two Custodia class, and a single Speculator, artillery needed its infantry to be helpful, after all, and two Novum Somnium class frigates. Together, this small fleet could hold itself up in a battle. She loaded them with enough hyperfuel, ammunition and boarding drones to defend itself. Thankfully, this area had a lot of residual ancerium, as to not use as much ancerium as she usually would.
The small fleet would reach the interdiction bubble, her ships suddenly shaking at leaving FTL. They were limited to the speed of light now, hopefully she, and whoever decided to come along as well, were lucky. She even suspected that Lotus was here, somewhere. Her ships switched into vantablack, the color mixing well with the cobalt of the ship. They were smooth, and yet very "natural" looking.
"Ready boarding drones, subroutine Foxtrot."
The Gladius AI would respond immediately, making weaponry, armor and technical checks on the machinery, being ready for combat was a priority, especially since she had a sneaking suspicion this was more than it seemed with this. No one side would ever risk their own economy for a point... would they?
...She had a long day ahead of her
Akuech System, Svarthan Capital - Combined Board meeting.
Despite the Trust not having many active trade routes with nations that are on the other side of the current interdiction barrier, the erection of this blockade does still effect them greatly. Mining operations all across the galaxy are incapable of receiving heavy equipment and further gear or returning their shipments, and it is starting to affect not only their own profit margins, but those of the trust as a whole. Something must be done, and the CTO is suggesting just that, giving a rousing speech that stirs the hearts of his compatriots and moves them to act.
"...So, to summarize, we MUST act now, before its too late! Our mining operations cannot survive without our support, and we cannot continue to expand without their own resources. While we risk joining a war we want no part of it is our DUTY to provide support to those who depend on us, and send our forces to clear up this mess."
Following a thunderous round of applause, both boards give a near unanimous vote of approval to dispatch MHEA assets to investigate the situation, and a battle group is soon scrambled to investigate.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane - Jugganath Expanse
A while after the CTO's speech, the Trust battle group arrives at the edge of the interdiction field, their drives coming to a halt as they enter its confines as much as they can. The attack group consists of 3 "pocket battle cruisers", bristling with heavy coil guns, nuclear pumped lasers, heavy missiles, and particle weapons, currently set to proton collider mode. Supporting them is an assortment of other craft. These include a mobile foundry for producing spare parts for the ships, 2 sensor ships, a point defense sloop, and a small carrier with 6 capital interceptors in case something big is brought to bear by the enemy.
On the bridge of the lead pocket battle cruiser, the commander of the operation sends out a data burst of their own, aiming for as many ships as they can. their mechanical voice sounds pleasant and agreeable, hopefully reassuring those around them.
"This is Grand Captain Nykerth Drusbegax of the MHEA naval contingent, here as part of Trust operation "Atherosclerosis". We seek no conflict with anyone apart from those who set up this interdiction field. Our mobile battle foundry is at the disposal of all those who are here for the same goal, if you provide us with the designs for the parts you require, and a nominal fee to cover material costs. Our sensor ships and magnetically secured comms are likewise available to help further communication and tactical unity, free of charge."
It seems the Svarthan are offering in field repairs for all ships present at a small price. As the transmission is looped, the quite large force begins their own maximum impulse burn toward the source of the interdiction, weapons moving into attack position.
Andracken Forward Operating Base for Response Fleet Gawain, Karzan Strait
A prism of crystal watched silently as reports from the Starlit Avenue came flooding in through the net. Someone was disrupting trade through the region and thereby disrupting the Galactic Economy. Exactly what the Andracken was looking for. Quickly and wordlessly the single Andracken got to work. Invisible hands worked away at computer terminals bringing ships out of ‘hibernation’.
Sat outside the Karzan Nebula the station which held the Andracken fleet sat motionless in the relative darkness of space. Only small reactors hidden deep within provided only essential power to the station. Docked along its many platforms were roughly 200 Andracken warships of varying size and shape, giving the station the appearance of an odd chaotic art installation.
Ice and dust from deep interstellar space blown by galactic winds had collected along the once pristine crystalline skin. While long ancient isotopes and heavy metals blown from the Nebula barraged the side facing it. The combination made the Andracken ships appear like geometric asteroids of ridiculous size.
Power thrummed from within the station as the lone Andracken began the start up procedures for three ships. As power reached the required level the reactor of the ships pulsed to life. Power flooded into the ships and their Andracken crews woke from their slumber.
“Captain Gyu, take Captains Wed and Fet to the Starlit Avenue. Someone has erected a rather large scale Interdiction field in the region and it is hindering traffic. Investigate the disturbance and remove whatever is causing the field.” Admiral Vun ordered. Wordlessly the Andracken Captains followed their orders. A single Overseer class Frigate detached from the station, dust and ice shaking off from the ship as it broke away. Following it were two new Investigator class Scout ships. With enhanced sensors and a smaller profile they could ‘hide’ in the shadow of the Overseer while in stealth. Moving out to a safe, and random distance from the Station, the Andracken ships jumped out, heading for the Karzan Strait.
Rear admiral Britt was not enthused with her assignment.
With word that the Starlit Avenue Trade Lane was more or less being blockaded, a decision was made to intervene, though not due to economic impact. The Huron Technocracy at this point still wasn't interconnected enough for the blockade to have major repercussions. However, with the ongoing war, and the potential economic seizures and political repercussions for not responding was deemed enough. The decision to sortie a response went surprisingly quickly, the decision for Britt, a somewhat backline Rear Admiral, to deal with the problem made just as quickly, to her chagrin.
Out of their folds came a small task force of five ships, a small detachment for what would otherwise have been considered a major problem. A Hammerhead-class Cruiser served as the flagship, whilst two Jaeger-class destroyers, both too equipped with boarding craft, and two escorting Sabre-class Escort Frigates took to its flanks. It didn't take long to register where they were, coming from allegedly the side SAGA forces occupied.
"Alright, you know what to do," Britt began, her voice distant and somewhat bored, "make speed into the interdiction field, set a course for the freighters responsible. Let's make this quick." A few moments later, the task force began their maneuvers, verifying appropriate details to their allies as they flew into the interdiction field at speed.
Starlit Avenue Trade Lane: Jugganath Expanse
The endless flashes of various FTL drives denoted that, as to be expected with such a major event, half of the galaxy was responding to the affair. Singular warships, small patrol forces to even entire battlefleets were turning up on mass to investigate and eliminate the problem. Just an hour of trade blockade was costing thousands of nations millions of SIGEC and this number ticked up with every second that the interdiction field was up.
Across the space of the lane, ships of countless nations sped into the interdicted regions, seeking to reach the freighters as quickly as possible. The outer freighters would only take several hours to reach at combat speed under interdiction, but the layering of the interdictors was such that it would take days to reach the inner most ships. The operation was going to take a great deal of time. Thankfully with so many presents coming from different angles, it would cut down the time considerably.
As the groups FTLed in and moved towards the first freighters closest to the latest arrivals, the Carnaithian hail was met by that of a New Janar patrol force.
“This is Captain Amaset of New Janar. We welcome joint operations to clear the obstacle to both sides and to eliminate the risk of escalation here. We will work with you” It was a statement echoed and confirmed by many of the CONA & SAGA forces here. Nobody wanted the lane closed, and only the most ardent of each side were unwilling to co-operate, preferring to operate far away from one another.
Weapons fire was detected some way away, Arcovia missiles were being launched from their strike force towards their nearest freighter, clearly, they wished to kill it before their fleet reached that waypoint. The minutes ticked by, until the missiles were on intercept course, but each was intercepted rapidly. Segments of the freighter had blown off, revealing laser emplacements and railguns which opened fire on the incoming ordnance.
As the Andrackan, Huron, Carnaith, Lilian, Svarthan, Federation and Selenican forces approached the first freighter closest to them, it did the same. And reports were coming in of more revealing weapons. It wouldn’t be a problem, but these bulk freighters were almost 80km in length.
Maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as they thought.
Vei Xian sighed, muttering to himself. “Hum. These impudent mortals would inconvenience me so. I could be spending time within the capital, enjoying fine wines and the attentions of finer beauties, yet here I am. It would be better if they just all died.” He activated his communication systems. “Juniors, to my sides. Tu Rong, have your carrier ship behind the rest of us. Now…” Suddenly, the petals of his Chariot began to open. “I will show these mortals the way our society handles things.”
As Vei Xian’s Chariot completely opened, anyone watching would see a massive figure, seemingly an enlarged version of Vei Xian’s preferred by, seem to slide out of nowhere above the now-open Chariot, though only from the torso up, giving the impression of a silvery giant half-embedded within the shimmering black petals of the flower-like starship, shields flickering into life around it to compensate for the exposed innards. Holding out a hand a massive silver bow seemed to materialize from nothing as well, and a hand reached down to grab a rod of dark tungsten from the Chariot itself, nocking it like an arrow and pulling the shimmering bowstring. As he did this, a series of dozens of rings materialized in front of the arrow’s trajectory, floating in front of the bow yet seemingly unattached and devoid of propellants.
Transmitting on public communication systems, Vei Xian calmly made a statement. “This is Elder Vei Xian of the Celestial River Sect, representing the interests of the Celestial River and Divine Lotus Blossom Sects. Distract or destroy the defense systems of a freighter and send me the targeting data, and I will dispense righteous justice upon these interlopers. My combat system is most suited to felling this manner of opponent, provided I am given support.”
“Heavens, the master is so formidable!” Tu Rong couldn’t help but comment to his fellow disciples. Being an animated spirit, he had little experience with the wider world, and rarely had he had the opportunity to see his superiors battle.
Meng Yongliang snorted, while Zeya Metrei just sounded tired as she explained to her brother disciple. “Something like this, he’s just showboating! For a Golden Core to extrude that much of their body into three-dimensional space to utilize an attack like this, it is incredibly inefficient! Such a method would fall apart in a duel against a peer opponent, too much of his Inner Palace would be vulnerable from the very start of the battle. After all, that giant body of his contains mechanisms which let him process vast amounts of Q-technology, damage to it would greatly slow his growth until it was repaired. Even that bow, ha! More performance. In reality, the bow is just a prop. The actual means of propellant are the coil-gun rings he has half-extruded into our spatial dimension as well. Indeed, it is merely a stylized version of a destroyer-equivalent’s spinal-mounted railgun, though in our case it would naturally be of the highest quality! An impressive weapon, but nothing out of the ordinary for his Core and Grade. However, I must admit his artistry is admirable.”
Meng Yongliang transmitted something like a smirk. “Master seems intent on putting on a show. It is not unreasonable, though. These mortals, let them burn this sight into their memory, the elegance and power of our superior society! And if those wretches interrupt our master or try to close the distance, we’ll slaughter them and gain some glory for ourselves! Haha, perhaps this encounter was more fortuitous than I believed. Truly, this is merely a means for us to gain reputation, is it not?”
“I shall hope to the heavens that this is the case.” Zeya replied tiredly.
The Svarthan watch the ship expose its defensive weaponry, as their craft move into formation, expanding out their scalar wave emitters to prepare to intercept fighters or larger missiles. Point defense weapons likewise whirr to life, high power UV lasers and precision coil rotary cannons moving to track any threats. Aboard the lead ship, Nykerth turns to his subordinates, grinning broadly
"It seems our enemy has drawn their weapons. Let us see if we can identify some more details about them. Prepare to launch a covert close range observation system. I want to know if they have any big guns before we engage at a closer range where our particle weapons can be brought to bear."
The pocket battle cruisers all aim their main battery at the enemy vessel as the captains orders are relayed to them. Each of the 5 kilometer long craft fires a single salvo from their main battery seemingly aiming to just barely miss the enemy ship. However these are not shells intended to cause damage. Rather, each one of these mounts a complex camera and sensor system, with the aim of passing by an enemy craft while transmitting details about visible weapons, and energy signatures that may indicate other types of yet unseen weapons. Then the message from Lotus fleet arrives, and Nykerth quickly sends out a reply as the shells still streak across the void of space towards their foes.
"Understood Vei Xian. Stand by to be patched in to the sensor ships and our own targeting arrays via far field magnetic comms. We will launch a full CNI cluster missile barrage shortly in an attempt to overwhelm the enemies point defense and provide you with even more targeting data. Please acknowledge as soon as you are patched into the system."
The sensor ships and the 3 battle craft all start to hail the Chariot using the promised systems, waiting for them to respond. As they start to transmit the targeting data, the battle craft move into position to fire their missiles at once.
The show is not NEARLY as impressive as that put on by the Lotus Empire chariot, but it is still nothing to frown at. As the missile tube covers open up, the weapons are moved into position. Each is around 20 meters in length and fitted with powerful maneuvering engines, integrated E-war jammers, tracking and guidance systems, a profile designed to minimize radar cross section and visual observation, and even a set of compact yet powerful violet pulse lasers mounted on 360 degree turrets on the top and bottom. The main warhead is a single megaton fusion bomb, but each one carries around 90 far smaller missiles with 100 kiloton yields.
Then the tubes fire, launching the warheads with electromagnetic force. Instead of firing straight up from the hull however, these fire them forward at an acute angle. As the missiles leave their tubes another is loaded, and fired, sending salvo after salvo at the enemy ship. Each battle cruiser has around 30 such tubes, and all of them fire 3 volleys of missiles.
However the saturation fire is not yet complete, as once the missiles are approximately halfway to their target, they begin to engage their thrusters, maneuvering them onto new paths to strike their target. At this point they open up, disgorging their content of smaller missiles, which fly away from their carriers and begin maneuvers. The sheer quantity of CNI equipped units present means that the missiles have remarkably potent computational power for their size and provide a myriad of targeting data for both the chariot and themselves as they bore in, their thrusters firing as they try to avoid some of the incoming point defense fire.
Captain Gyu of the Andracken Overseer class Frigate Plausible Deniability watched sagely as the nearest freighter bared its fangs. The thing was larger than anything in the Andracken inventory. Quick scans of energy readings gave the Andracken his targets.
“All ships, fire at will, configure point defense screens for missile defense.” Captain Gyu ordered. Wordlessly the two Investigators moved in closer to the Plausible Deniability and proceeded forward. Energy charged beneath their surfaces and hidden crystalline machinery glowed with a vibrant array of colors. With a flash a beam of tachyons lashed out towards the source of the interdiction field. The beam would be weakened by the field, but would hopefully be enough to damage it. The Investigators followed suit with their own beams firing on the main source of power and communications for the Merchant Raiders.
Lillian was unfazed by the grimly sight. She expected ships of this sheer caliber to be able to block up the arterial gateway of the galaxy, and this was the first layer, who knew how many more were in deeper. She received several transmissions from several fleets giving their purpose, and she wasn't keen on being seen as a suspect. Her hands moved quickly and swiftly, universal comms on for her transmission.
"This is High Controller Lillian, you may count with assistance if need be. This operation is too large in scale for one singular faction to sweep up, whatever this is, whoever did it, clearly has something extremely valuable to gain. This is no time for mistrust or abuse of trust, for the galaxy at large, we must work together. Keep communications on, DO NOT shy away from reporting anomalies. This is the beating heart of the galaxy, we CAN NOT risk ANYTHING."
The transmission would end as soon as it started, with a part of it being... slightly directed at the very cocky Lotus ships. She had no negative thoughts about them, just saw them as too confident for their own good. She sounded serious, too serious for what she would usually be, and she had all the right to be. This blockage, to her, seemed too big in scale, planning and sheer resources to be anything less than a conspiracy. She hoped, however, that she was wrong.
"Foxtrot subroutine finalized, all weapons and equipment ready for use"
The voice of Gladius would sound deeply robotic and devoid of any and all emotion, being a non sentient AI made for one thing, war. A thing she disliked, heavily, but knew was bound to happen. Lillian would move the ships into a battle formation. Speculator and the Novum Somnium would move above and in front of the two Custodia, weapons pointing and charging up to fire.
"Fire single virus torpedo, if we get lucky, I might be able to access some systems and get a deeper look into this enemy."
The rings on the Speculator would move, a torpedo moving to the "top" of the ship. It looked heavy, bulky, and ready to take a blow before being destroyed. Inside were uncountable micrites, all containing Lillian inside of them. If she was lucky, she could hack a system inside of the ship, although the chance of that would be very small. Still, better safe than sorry.
The Tachyonic Pellet Propulsion Array would spring to life, even if it was more limited due to the interdiction field, it still had enough momentum and kinetic energy to be able to at least cause some amount of damage to the ships. Lillian would close her eyes for a second, millions of calculations a second, all going around in her mind, passing, going appearing at once. The quantum field that was her mind would suddenly stop, and she would open her eyes. A single phrase was uttered from her mouth.
"Gladius, full munition launch."
The ships would sparkle in the empty expanse, looking like new stars had just appeared. Hundreds of pellets, going at a fraction of the speed of light would hurdle through the expanse, all targeting the enemy. Behind them, several dozen volleys of missiles would go into the void, them not visible to anyone far away, but in that distance, looked brilliant, blue and black mixing together. The torpedo would follow suit, bulky and large, and ready. The micrites inside would brace together, trying to resist the acceleration of the torpedo. The last volley would be railgun fire, the shells going incredibly fast, although, would not be as accurate as the other fire, the shells that did hit would give a massive amount of damage.
"Weapons tight, ready for another full munition launch!"
"Be advised, freighters are armed," the imperial ships redundantly announced - off-the-shelf grade weapons fire tracing towards the enhanced-mobility ships. The Carnaithians responded in an explosion of activity; they maneuvered off of their vectors, spiraling out in a difficult-to-predict arc of movement, lasers responding to the assault by bearing down en masse on the freigher's now-revealed hardpoints. "Sweeping galactic registries and productions."
So shallow into the interdiction field, connection to the ANCnet was strong - using CIGO access protocols, negotiated or breached was irrelevant, the Carnaithians swept the signature and any remaining identification of the hulking craft ahead of them, local command AI cores performing millions of simultaneous searches working from class, to model, to unit, to name. After a stressful period of dueling with the "civilian" ship; picking out the eyes, fists, and ears of the assailant as allied munitions approached in bulk; the schematics of the ship as-manufactured were retrieved. Simultaneously with the submission of new searches for every freighter in search radius, the CIVA warships gimballed in place and primed their spinal weaponry, spiking a trio of molten solaris slugs into the reactor core center of the monolithic silhouette and hoping that this thing hadn't been refitted in drydock for a matter of years.
A deluge of weapons fire was descending on the freighter, and Kros watched with intent to see what kind of surprises still lay within the hull of the interloper.
"Well, not a surprise the freighters got guns. Fire at em!" O'thelia said, relaying the order to his other ships. The mix-and-match weaponry of the strike force was an usual sight from the Selenican's primarily tachyonic based firepower. Particle lances from the Reconnoiters fire out in a red burst, followed shortly by the main guns of the upsized RANGSI frigates. Their plasma sheathing was an usual for the Selenicans who had struggled to figure out how they worked, but after a short while a salvo is sent out to the nearest behemoth of a freighter.
Despite the freighter's size, it was also unlikely to be armored in any significant capacity, so a good few railgun shots and particle lances through the hull immobilized the vessel, having apparently hit something vital.
"I wonder what these idiots are doing, blocking up this trade lane." a bridge crew mentions to O'thelia.
"Who knows. Probably just trying to be a massive nuisance or one of the CONA or SAGA members trying to pin it on the other side." he responds, relaxed.
The commander himself is a behemoth of a man in his own right, well over 40 feet long with scales a radiant white. His body is extremely strong and only hardly fits in the upper end of seat sizes that Selenican vessels have. It was unusual for a Reticulatim to be aboard a naval ship at all, given their absurd size.
Despite the sheer size of the freighters in question, at least by their own estimates, Britt was still mildly surprised to see the freighter unveil hidden weapons. As quickly as the freighter unveiled its weapons, however, her strike force was already assuming combat mode.
As the weapons systems of her flagship, the Hammerhead-class Cruiser came online, its signature feature began to be shown off. Two massive plates towards the prow of the ship, giving it the hammerhead shape it got its namesake over, split into four, revealing weapons and electronic warfare systems previously covered by either the ship itself, or stored internally. The plates began to shift along large railways covering the majority of the ships hull, moving to pre-programmed positions to get as many guns and jammers on target as possible.
Mass driver fire from the frigates joined the Hammerhead as they began taking shots at the freighter, yet they did not intend to stay at a distance.
"Close the distance, and keep the frigates' defense systems primed. Get the Jaegers to load ship-killer torpedoes, just in case. We get close enough to disable the ship, if it isn't when we get there, then work things out from there."
Jean Paul studied the main display from his command throne. The ship was massive and the fact that it was potentially concealing a massive armament. His ships were tough and the weapons primitive but the sheer weight of fire would make short work of his contingent. Caution would keep them safe while they investigated. He broke his train of thought to see the bridge crew staring towards him.
"Hold fire and re route weapons power to defences. Helm ease off our speed and let the others over take our forces. Argo?" Jean Paul shouted sternly to his subordinates. Argo the ships AI appeared in front of him, a simple galley from an ancient legend.
"I want a dive into the ships network, See if these ships are talking to each other and see if this one is armed." His tone changed from a commanding one to polite one.
"As you command." The AI replied in a synthesized voice.
A veritable wall of firepower now descended on the closest freighter, missiles, energy beams and railgun slugs all racing inwards with enough collective fire to blow even the 80km freighter apart with ease. Other freighters were all showing signs of revealing weapons now as well across the line, but none were seemingly uniform.
Some used predominantly lasers, of varying types, some primarily chemical weapon kinetics, other railguns, some missile barges. No freighter was seemingly alike in armament and capability just like the differences in freighters themselves. Some had minor defensive armaments and were swiftly destroyed, their interdiction fields collapsing while others were seemingly bastions which intercepted munitions and fired back on the attackers as well as any warship.
The freighter that the polities here were facing was a GY-800 class bulk freighter, built by Feldyne Dynamics and previously in register with two other shipping companies before it was registered as bought by another. After that its registry was blank on the ancnet and it had been missing for 2 years before appearing here. Even as the Carnaithian CIGO operations discovered more about the various other freighters, Triarch, Halcyon Dynamics, CES, Camaco, Tendris Shipping and more all had different origins. But all shared at least something in common, the vessels had either dropped off the grid after whatever company had purchased them last or they had been seemingly destroyed in pirate actions, even more surprising, some had been registered lost after the assault by Yog Narr on Zarathustra.
Still as the fire came in the freighter’s cargo section was also blown off. But no railguns or missiles were revealed. Gravitational disturbances were detected and rapidly built up as the Carnaithian forces instantly recognised the presence of Eosian technology and the observation rounds from the Svarthans showed a white glowing piece of technology in the cargo hold. The haphazardly integrated gravitic wave unit fired off a tremendous pulse, tearing apart the kinetic and missile munitions which had been sent in a wave towards the freighter, blossoms of explosions filled the void as it began immediately recharging for another blast.
The lasers fared much better however, while some were bent ever so slightly off course others hit home, melting through the freighters unarmoured hull, and confirming the Selenican theory, the freighters were not anymore defended than usual. The size of the freighter worked to its advantage, but several large, melted bore holes covered its form, the crafts engines were reduced to little more than molten slag as was its bridge, still the power signatures of the interdiction system, gravitic weapon and power supply were clear as day now at this range and once revealed. The Cyberwarfare approach revealed more as well, rather than being networked linked together the freighters were actually not actively communicating with each other, each a separate island under the slave of one singular network. It would mean that breaking in would have to be done on each and every one, but there did seem to be the hint of an outgoing infolink, not to the other freighters and it didnt appear on any communication sensors, meaning it had to be laserline.
Kinetics or missiles would not stop this thing, but energy weapons would.
"They are connected but they aren't talking to each other. Shall I break down further into its systems?" Argo asked with his synthesised voice.
"This one has already taken some damage and there are still more out there. Send a message to nearby forces that we would like to investigate one of these ships without weapons being fired first." Jean Paul ordered
He watched the weapons fire on the freighter continue as the kinetics were simply slapped to the side alongside the missiles. He knew this was his time to act and the Energy Weapons of his contingent would fair much better against the now hostile freighter.
"Spin up neutrino drives one to three. Disruptor batteries A to F are to begin salvo fire. Have our escorts linked into our firing solution to concentrate fire."
To those watching the innocuous Federation contingent had become a light show show as they finally opened fire in dazzling display of energy weapons.
"They've got gravity weapons!" A bridge crew onboard the leading Type-A would shout at O'Thelia and anyone within earshot, the clacking of the very, very old keyboards onboard sounding out in an irregular rhythm, constantly sending data back and worth between the Selenican ships.
"Doesn't matter. Hold your fire with the railguns, no point wasting shells. How the hell did they manage to get gravitic weapons on these things, though...?" O'thelia would reply, musing a bit to himself at the end. "Ah well, Reconnoiters! You keep shootin' it up!"
Messages were sent out to the small Kel'Thulian vessels, and their barrage of particle based weaponry would continue. Inside the Reconnoiters, however, the conditions are less than favorable. The constant barrage of their main weapons is causing the internal heat to continually rise, slowly but surely, the small radiators of the eye of the vessels are working overtime to flush out the heat being produced.
"Commander, sir, we're going to need to put a hold on our barrages. The Reconnoiters are reporting a an uncanny amount of crew passing out due to the heat onboard." A crewmember of one of the Reconnoiters would send to O'Thelia.
"Ugrh, fine. Just fire a bit slower, then, we'll rip this thing apart soon enough." He would reply, frustrated at the time it's taking even with the combined assault.
Vei Xian coolly observed the devastation, taking in the sight of the massive gravitic field destroying the incoming projectiles.
"How formidable!" He praised inwardly. "An attack like that is not incomparable to a Gold Core of higher rank than myself! However, mortal trash is mortal trash, something like this lacks the nuance and artistry of my ancestors."
He checked the calibration of the 'arrow' nocked into his performative bow. Though seemingly simple it was a formidable piece of technology, an immense tungsten rod equipped with rows of reaction control systems, and paired with the railgun protruding from his Inner Palace, capable of reaching immense speed. Even a single strike could be devastating, but he was well aware of the weaknesses of such a technique. The enemy's defenses needed to be pried apart before a killing blow could be landed. Under normal circumstances, he was a back-line fighter, teamed with other Golden Core cultivators who could bring out the best of his abilities. As things were, he was not capable of reaching optimal battle strength, even with his disciples to assist him. For that, he was privately grateful for the Svarthan offer of assistance, making a mental note to report their willingness to do so when this issue had been dealt with. On that note, the responded to the Svarthan ships.
"That gravitic system is highly formidable! Under normal circumstances, my fighting techniques are countered by it. It may be possible for a sequential attack to weaken it, however. Unless it can repeatedly emit this wave at high frequency, it may be there is a point between its uses in which a fast moving projectile like my own could land a strike! I am receiving all targeting data you are sending, let us cooperate in this affair."
And to his disciples.
"Meng Yongliang! You are a hardlight specialist, your capability is most suitable against this opponent, but as a mere Black Core you are not capable of evenly matching such a vessel within a corvette-class Chariot. Move as close as is safe, but do not risk yourself needlessly! As a direct descendant of our supreme elder you are forbidden from behaving recklessly!"
Meng Yongliang felt irritated within the liquid chamber housing his body. That this old relic was ordering him around was insufferable! But, it could not be denied he could not singlehandedly defeat a monstrous vessel like that as he was now. Even linked with his fellow disciples in this Chariot, he was the only hardlight specialist among them, their formation was not specialized enough to truly enhance his power.
"Yes, senior." He eventually transmitted. "I will move in. If an opportunity arrives, I will exploit it."
As the flight of missiles is wiped out by the gravitic weapon, the Svarthan captain lets out a small curse, before they turn to their subordinates once more. Nykerth starts to gesticulate with their many limbs, while also grabbing the controls, sending commands, changing courses, issuing for systems to be powered up or down as the fleet prepares for advanced action.
"Abort subsequent missile firings, there is no need to waste more to that gravity weapon, and power down the Scalars. Tell the gun crews to set their coil guns for maximum acceleration, and load reactive atomic shells. It may be able to swat them down, but as our allies just transmitted, perhaps a fusillade of the faster, more frequent kinetics can find a breach in the pulses.
Additionally tell the particle accelerator crews to start siphoning off the hydrogen into traps, and load transuranics, maximum mass. I have a feeling that against Eosian tech, all the kinetics we can fire will not suffice given our lack of rotary main batteries so I want to be ready to move into range to hit them with particle beams."
They seem to think for a moment, before giving a decision.
"And tell the crews to prepare the particle focusing array. It may be vulnerable to attacks and that gravity weapon, but the range it offers our particle beams could be invaluable. Do not launch it yet, but be ready to do so on my command."
They give a reply out to the Chariots of the Empire, the captain watching as the ships begin to prepare their maneuvers, and reports come in detailing the completion of various tasks. The first salvo of high speed coilgun shots rips out from all the ships, followed quickly by another volley as fast as the crews can load
"Very well, we will switch to utilizing smaller kinetic projectiles, and begin to probe the barrier of that gravity weapon. Additionally we are moving in to engage with our particle weapons, to hopefully destroy the weapon, making your strike a fare more easy task."
Kros' heart sank as the deluge of munitions was swiftly parried by the eosian weapon aboard the target, explosives detonating and their shrapnel shotgunned out in a wave of composite dust. Alarms sounded quickly as the Carnaithian ships' AIs registered the change in vector on the weapons through the formidable sensory array of the warships; in an emergency measure, fluid solaris was dumped out and swiftly manipulated into layers of ultradense whipple shields by the massive onboard magnetics. The defensive posture was completed as the Imperials pointed their noses at the freighter with the metal mases between them, inertia carrying the smaller ships parallel to the giant.
As the millions of projectiles dug into the defenses and burst through the forwardmost layers, the dazzling effects of neutrino arrays from behind lanced into the formerly-civilian ship, detonating in its depths. It was astonishing how this had gone from what could have probably been an elaborate protest to a battle matching the scale and breadth of something seen during the last war.
"All civilian traffic in the interdiction field, break for escape vectors optimized for speed if not already. Assume all interdicting ships are heavily armed and hostile."
Lillian sighed at the distasteful view of the kinetics failing to do their jobs, especially the torpedo. She only had a very select few with her, and more ships couldn't arrive on time if she used them all up. She gritted her teeth, but look at the results from other weapons, plus the... anomaly from her sensors. It seemed gravity itself was being used as a defense mechanism on the freighter, or more accurately, a weapon. She had theorized for a while that she could use gravity as much as a weapon as it could be used as a shield. But now, this confirmed it, although, for some reason, the weapon... resonated with her, her mind felt a bit fuzzy... as if she had already used something similar before... but that couldn't be possible... could it?
She shook her head, coming back to reality. It was confirmed that they were indeed using gravity weapons, and that well, kinetics were practically useless here... well maybe not her tachyonic pellets, they were too fast for the gravity weapons to be effective, she could use them right after they have been reloaded. But, most of the laser and energy weapons in general worked a lot better. She contemplated a bit before making a decision on the matter, she spoke with confidence.
"Gladius, hold kinetic fire, keep it loaded. Direct power to lasers, fire 5-10 cycles and once that grav weapon fires again, immediately fire the TPA on that fucker, concentration maximum."
She realized that she also needed to get inside the systems of these freighters, and needed to get them decommissioned, if not physically, at least digitally. She moved her hands to the screen, moving swiftly and rapidly, selecting a Quantum Brain for every ship. If she wasn't able to do it physically, which would be a whole lot easier than this method, she would have to do it digitally. This was her expertise, and knew systems well, so, she wanted to test these firewalls, maybe if she could get through, a cyberattack by all forces could be done.
"Beware, I will commence a cyberattack on these freighters, all who wish to test the capacity of these firewalls are free to assist me against the grav weapon freighter. Godspeed."
With this announced, Lillian began her assault in both real and digital space, the lasers firing for five seconds, cooling down for 10, and repeating the cycle. Digitally, Lillian's assault would launch on all fronts against the firewalls of this ship, seeking to see its true power.
Lasers carved through the hardened outer skin of the Andracken ships and were dissipated into the underlying layers. Missiles swarmed and were shot down with ease. Mild annoyance grew in Gyu’s mind as he watched the mysterious Merchant Raiders haplessly attempted to fight against them. Though something was off, gravity was beginning to act odd around the freighter.
Realization hit as energy surged in the freighter and a gravitic wave emanated from the ship. Whoever fitted these ships wanted interlopers to stay clear of them long enough for damage to be done.
“Target the source of that energy and fire with Tachyon beams.” Gyu ordered. A targeting reticle appeared on the main display and zoomed in on the target location. The muted thrum on the FTL beam firing echoed through the ship as a beam of condensed tachyons raced forward.
Open coms chatter from the responding ships caught Gyu’s ‘ears’. They wanted to attempt to hack into the freighters and see how and who was controlling them. Gyu thought on it for a nanosecond. “Captain Wed, take your ship to the nearest undamaged Merchant Raider and board it. Hack into it and pull any data you can from its computer cores.”
Wordlessly one of the Investigator class Scout ships broke off from formation and raced forward towards one of the freighters. Unbothered by biological restraints the ship accelerated to speeds that would have killed most living organisms. As it rocketed through space Andracken Special Operations types were awoken from stasis. As they woke attachments floated onto their dozens of limp tentacles. Cutting lasers, data port interfaces, manipulators, and GRL pods were placed on their ends before their black forms were dropped from their ceiling ports. A central red eye with two orange eyes glowed as they slunked through the high vaulted corridors of the Scout.
The call out by Kros and the Carnaithian contingent was received well by the civilian assets that were still plying the area, many went to FTL to go around rather than wait and potentially be targeted by attacks. However, those civilian vessels trapped within the labyrinth of the interdiction fields were still at the mercy of the container ships, all of them were burning hard on vectors designed to get them out of the field as quickly as possible but even then, some of the deeper fleets would take days to exit. Many now changed course to avoid as many of the container ships as possible slowing them even more so.
A handful of military vessels, cut off within the interdiction field now began to slowly band together, send a message that they intended to destroy the central interdictors to try help from the inside out, but they were burning hard on fuel, even at STL the distances involved were massive.
The Eosian grav wave armed freighter charged as it readied another burst, but it never got to fire off another barrage. A barrage of lasers, tachyons, Neutralinos and accelerated warhead kinetics impacted entire segments, turning internals into melted slag, blowing sections out of its hull and scouring its weaker areas. The huge ship listed as its RCS systems failed totally and power was cut from its main reactor, which was cored by an Andrackan Tachyon beam. Reduced to a heavily damaged and beaten up wreck the interdiction field dissipated.
One down, many to go.
The cyber space however was an interesting affair.
No two of the container ships were alike, just as the Royal Federation had noted that the ships were not communicating via a direct link system the cyber systems of each container vessel were as varied as their weapons and make. Different Ais, firewalls, cyber defence and more were found on each vessel some being far more secure than others. But the sheer distance and lack of FTL uplinks made it a tedious and long affair to try and conduct cyber assaults, the nearest ships had time lags of minutes, enough to cause serious repeated setbacks as the defending systems had the upper hand on response time, still it confirmed that the transports were at least communicating via laser line.
Another near transport was broken into by Lilian and Royal Federation efforts, its Yamanakako built AI was sent into a constant boot and reboot cycle which destroyed its higher functions and let its systems be wide open. But… There wasn’t much there.
The interdiction system, weapons systems, some defensive capabilities, engines, FTL drive plotting and RCS was all that was present. No databanks were kept, all having been either purged or never even set up in the first place. Whoever had deployed them was being extremely thorough, especially in the cyberspace department, to cover their tracks. Would boarding prove any better?
The Gold Core cultivator looked impassively at the battle, programming the RCS equipment embedded in the massive tungsten rod with a suitable target trajectory, aiming to strike the vessel chosen by his compatriots head-on. He made a show of it, drawing his giant bow with his massive metallic body seemingly half-protruding from the now-blooming flower that was his Chariot. As his disciples had remarked, a style of fighting such as this was most unorthodox, and it was primarily for the benefit of onlookers he opted for something so flashy. No doubt such a performance would catch the eye of anyone watching what was no doubt going to be a heavily broadcasted event. More eyes on the empire meant more prosperity, of course!
As soon as his allies created their point of weakness within the target's defenses, the mass of metal held by Vei Xian's body would be propelled with the strength of a destroyer-class vessel's spinal railgun.
Meanwhile, the closed Chariot containing Meng Yongliang and his subordinated Black Core associates moved closer to the front. If an opportunity suitable for a corvette-level vessel could arise he was most willing to take advantage of it.
Zeya Metrei circled around her master, her own ship's weapons at the ready, while the bulky Chariot containing Tu Rong hung back from them both.
"What are our options? Reinforcements would have to be limited, we don't want to pull forces from combat zones."
"BZ Corps is out of the question, hostiles aren't close enough for effect propagation."
"Scalar?"
The limited ships on Kros' palette weren't models known for their scalar capabilities. The flechettes distinctly didn't even have the systems installed, and the Lighthouse and Arcelin both mounted shortwave models. But the Lighthouse boasted a multiple-component array.
"We can try phased array firing. We'll have to break formation." Kros frowned.
"We'll try it. Get us burning for the closest, least-tasked hostile."
"Affirm."
"All munitions charged, ready at command"
Gladius AI groaned, giving Lillian the green light. The show put on by the freighter being molted into slag was impressive, to say the least. But what was most impressive for her was the cyberspace assault. Of course, at such a distance without FTL uplink made it tiresome, but with both forces, it was done. The results? Just the ship, no data, no nothing.
"All united forces, be notified that the cyberspace assault was successful, but we have no data on who did this. Either the data was purged beforehand, or the data wasn't even uploaded in the first place. I am continuing to the nearest target, if your forces are able, board the ship and restrain anyone inside the ship. We need data, or else this attack will become a blaming competition."
She moved her comms to the side, and stood up.
"Gladius, full speed ahead to the next target, ready boarding party. Cool off the lasers, fire once stable again near a target, order to incapacitate the target, no kill shots."
All the ships began to move in the void, accelerating to the nearest freighter. Inside, drones moved into dropships, all equipped with non lethals, with only some being armed with lethals. She wanted as many caught alive, and wanted this foolishness to end as soon as possible.
It wasn't but so long until the freighter had been reduced to molten slag, putting on quite the show for the crew of O'thelia's band of ships. An inferno of questions began to rage among the crew of these ships. How the hell did this freighter get gravity weapons of all things, tech and weapons like that weren't common to see at the best of times even from organized fleets, much less terrorists like this. How did the freighters manage to hold up such a large blockade? Who the fuck is controlling them? Unfortunately, no answers to these questions were found among the melting wreck of what was once a ship.
"Alright, now that one's down, we got a whole lot more to crack open. I'd say the best bet to find 'em is to look at where the interdiction fields are centralized, we won't be able to take 'em on our own, though." O'thelia would say, still basking in this first victory he had claimed over a foe. "Send this out over encrypted transmissions to the others here, they don't seem to be too willing to shoot us and are willin' to shoot the bastards we're here to kill."
//TRANSMISSION BEGIN - CONTINGENT WARSHIPS//
It is with great pleasure the Selenican Republic sees you, warships of many nations. As seen by our collective firing onto the enemy here, we believe it is wise to collaborate in some manner to resolve the issue of the trade lanes being blocked here. As such, we request that contact is kept between us so we can better coordinate our movements and planning within this operation.
//TRANSMISSION END//
"Who knows what the guys here will think, maybe they'll decide to actually be somewhat organized." O'thelia would say to himself, after the transmission had cut.
Thrusters from the Selenican ships, purchased from other polities, began to burn to head deeper within the interdiction spiderweb, to see what, or rather, who was causing the blockage. Perhaps, along with their allies, they could cleave their way through it, and favor would hopefully follow.
"Admiral, I've had a break through. I have system control of a ship. sending coordinates now." Argo synthesised voice came in over the comm
"Helm come about and set full ahead to that ship. Someone get the colonel on the line" Jean Paul commanded
Marine Colonel Lena Dupont was the highest ranking officer among the contingents Marine detachment. Having pre-empted the need for an investigation the Elba had set off with double the standard Marine detachments, two battalions in all. After a brief conversation with the Admiral she formed a plan of attack on the vessel as they were in transit. Now she was sitting in the embarkation deck watching her Marines mount up into a squadron of drop ships.
"Bird is ready Colonel" Dupont's aide shouted over the roar of engines.
"Let's get this over with." She replied plainly
Standing up Dupont made her way to her command ship as the doors finally opened to the embarkation deck, revealing the darkness of space through the light blue shimmer of the integrity field. Docking clamps released their drop ships and the noise of engines intensified as they finally launched. A dozen flyers took to the void carrying a platoon of Federation Marines and a large breaching charge capable of breaking through the thickest of armour. Each ship had a drop point close to each other so that when each platoon could support the other if they made it inside. The rest of Federation contingent would retreat to a safe distance after the deployment of the force to avoid any surprises or misjudgements of the severity that the ship was disabled.
"All birds in the void Colonel, standing by for go" Dupont's aide shouted from his station.
"Light is green." Dupont replied.
To Britt, her assignment went from one of interest to tedium in what seemed like only moments.
Every freighter was now an entirely random obstacle to overcome, unpredictable at best, and unfortunately there were many. After seeing the jury-rigged Eosian technology, something both familiar and alien in nature, and seeing the flare up of their shields after its activation, she needed to be careful. At least, that was her initial thought.
When the freighter was destroyed, all she could think about was knocking out the next freighter.
"Move on to the next freighter. Non-kinetics are a priority from here on. Ready boarding craft just in case."
With the ship taken out of action, Nykerth once more begins to change the fleets directive and prepare for continued action. This time however it seems their changes are less drastic than before, centering more on preparing to move closer to their next target in order to continue sweeping away this blockade. However there are also other orders being sent.
"Prepare a full MHEA clearing team. I want all the troops ready as soon as we can. On a ship that size they could have any number of defenses, traps or other nasty surprises. While I know we run the risk of them just having some huge strategic atomics tucked away in there, their timers ticking down to vaporize our entire detachment, I would still like to know more about the kind of terrorists we are dealing with here."
They seem to think for a moment, before they speak again. Their attention turning back to the front as their fleet engages in a burn towards and eventually past the stricken craft, heading deeper into the interdiction field.
"Tell them I want void capabilities on as many, if not all the troops present. It minimizes our chance of losing so many brave friends."
Soon, the MHEA shuttles are ready, only awaiting their carrier ship to draw closer so that they do not have to use as much fuel and do not have to be in the open for so long.
With the freighter down and out of action the fleets dispersed, each heading for different targets. Some were broken into by cyber-attacks, their defences deactivated, and interdiction fields shut down but others had far tougher AI, the lag responses allowing them to easily rebuff aggressive hacking attempts and keep their systems operational.
More green lights from other regions indicated more freighters were destroyed by other elements as fleets from countless nations moved in systematically to clear the trade lane. So far it was somewhat unpredictable danger, but it was tedious more than anything, the time it took to get STL from one freighter to another added up and they were spread out to maximise area of affect. Current projections put the operation as taking over 8 days to fully clear the trade lane, by that point economic damages galaxy wide would be major.
At least many return acknowledgements to the Selenicans indicated that contact was indeed to be kept open, already ad hoc datalinks between the various prongs of ships diving into attack were manifesting even between CONA and SAGA although they were very rudimentary.
The next trio of freighters assailed by the assembled forces were different to the gravity wave equipped craft. One was fairly simple, armed with hundreds of ETC cannons which rapidly unloaded entire walls of kinetic projectiles while another fought back with X-Ray lasers and thermonuclear missile payloads. The third however did not seem to attack, it had no visible weapons upon its surface nor did any of its sections look modified to contain launchers or concealed batteries. Its AI was remarkably strong too, derived from a modified EPA Cyberwarfare unit from the 2nd Ancerious war. Something about it seemed very different to the others.
For the Federation Marines, Lilian Drones and Svarthan MHEA boarding there was no initial defences, no point defence to shoot them down on approach. This made it quite nice compared to typical boarding ops and the forces entered the freighters swiftly. Within it was dark, the huge corridors, cargo loading spaces and containers were empty and untouched. Some areas showed ad hoc engineering where weapon systems had been jury rigged into their form, but nothing contested the teams as they made their way onto the huge vessels. There was a lot of ground to cover, bridge, engineering and AI control were always the three focus areas to take, but it was nearing these that it became apparent they were not alone.
Cheap auto turrets opened up on the team’s spraying kinetics down corridors, quickly supplemented by automatons. Yamanakako Assault Drones, Teliran Combat Droids and even export Orillian combat models powered up from standby modes in alcoves in the walls. Simply they were in search and destroy mode or programmed to defend a specific part of the ship. Their high ROF assault weapons, grenade launchers and targeting jammers designed to inflict as many casualties as possible and slow the boarders down. But they were not all, explosive traps, gravity plating traps and more ringed the primary objectives on all of the boarded freighters. It was like whoever had put them here was trying to be as annoying as possible.
As the boarding teams fought their first battles and fire was traded between the freighters and the assembled forces the first signs of battle came from the inner interdiction regions.
Five warships winked out, destroyed outright as their squadron was moving in to strike a freighter, only the freighter did not fire. Scans were hazy due to distance, but the weapons fire had come from empty space.
Maybe they were not alone. Maybe the culprits of all this had simply never left.
The death of the five warships in the interior sounded warning alarms across the united comms net, with jumpier SAGA and CONA elements quick to passively put blame on the other before the consensus of the wider composite force shut out the doubts. Captains discussed options, links to intelligence branches through ships left outside of interdiction being queried for intel or possible recon reinforcements. But most notably, the tasking logs of the ships were dredged; Who were the ships from? Why were they separated? More questions like this. Worriedly, some had subscribed to the option that maybe the culprits had invested some into most, and most into some - creating ships like the gravitics-armed freighter at the start, and maybe a stealth model farther in. At least, that's as insidious as they hoped it got.
The combined force approached the next trio, who had already been active and was already showering the fleet with fire from long range. X-ray lasers were tanked by the ultradense solaris clots that the Imperials lugged in front of them, but the flak and missiles would prove a problem.
"Carnaithian contingent. Requesting support, dense formation of three at waypoint delta-four. Saturation combined with high-level spinal grade lasers and guided munitions." Kros examined the signatures calmly. "Intense cyberwarfare support suspected as well."
"Fifth Platoon is pinned re-directing seventh and eighth."
"First platoon reports more bots at the bridge, they're requesting reinforcements."
"Twelfth Platoon falling back, they're routed. Thirteenth to Fifteenth advancing on the engine room now."
Colonel Dupont listened as the reports came in and watched through the eyes of her squad leaders as the Federation Marines boarded the massive ship. The battle for the freighter was slow and challenging. Pop up traps and combat robot made it difficult to advance at speed but this was a war of attrition the Federation was capable of winning. The Federation contingent of ship had since returned from their safe distance and began ferrying Marines to and from the Freighter to bolster their numbers as well as evacuate the wounded.
"Only droids and androids? Gladius you're clear to use lethals, there seems to be no living beings here. Decomission the droids and if possible get some in tact, we want to be able to analyze them after"
Gladius would begin using the lethal assault drones against the automata, no screams of pain or mercy was a relief to Lillian, but she knew better than to trust this fully. Drones fought to the bitter end, if they even had one finger to pull a trigger, they would do it. Her drones got closer with every shot, some had reached their designated areas. Meanwhile Lillian watched the chaos
"First objective reached, further objectives being reached with predicted times. Updated will be recorded"
"Good, all on tim-"
"Error, trap activated. Gravity trap identified. Objective AI room pushed back, estimated 3 minutes"
"Tch didn't even let me finish my sentence"
The drones reached the door of the bridge of the ship, trying to cut the head off the snake, and trying to find living beings on the ship.
She was suspicious when no point defense even tried to attack the boarding craft, and the corridors seemingly dead made her even more suspicious.
Then five warships just disappeared off the face of the universe.
At first she thought it was an error, a faulty scanner, something like that. But no matter how much she reset it, they didn't appear. She was horrified with the confirmation that the ships truly had sunk. She forced the ships to do a full, in-depth scan of the entire area, processors keeping up with such a high demand job. Then she focused her energy on the three freighters.
She regretted not bringing at least a battleship was with gravitic defenses, but she knew she would take too long with it tagging along. But she did know that she had the ability to attack the ships head on.
"Lock TPPAs on the gravitic freighter, lock kinetics and lasers on the attacking freighter, and get me info on that third one! Be prepared for cyber warfare at the doorstep!"
The Svarthan were not there to mess around with navigating the maze of the ships hallways and getting shot at so easily. As they enter they start to pull up schematics of the ship if those are available and get to work. Much as they love to burrow and avoid the enemy in such a way while on a planet, they intend to do something similar here, and as such have brought two "Breachers" with them.
These specialized operatives are laden with cutting gear of all types, from burning bars that can melt through just about everything you could reasonably hope to find aboard a ship, plasma cutters, oxyfuel torches, and even large carbide saws for slicing through metal. Their leg hydraulics are also very potent, and it is soon shown why, as one of them climbs up onto the roof of their initial site, while the other starts to cut a hole in the deck at their feet.
In this way the Svarthan move to secure the engine spaces, and the bridge of the ship, cutting their way through the roof, floors, and walls to find the most direct route that tries to avoid traps. Where they do fight, they fight with ferocity, the heavily modified bodies of the MHEA letting them tank a fair few shots, and carry large guns. Automatic grenade launchers fire back down hallways, supplemented by nano-thermite beams, dangerous weapons that fire a magnetically confined beam of ignited thermite to slice through metal targets with relative ease. If anything squishy presents itself, flamethrowers roar to life, blasting cones of fire that block entire hallways. Traps are sought out with their camera eyes and either disarmed, or triggered remotely with some shots aimed at them.
Still their advance is far from bloodless, and a fair number of casualties are sustained, some fatal some not. Still the crabs push on, attempting to secure the objective, and aid their pinned down allies.
Coming to one of the Merchant Raiders the Andracken Investigator slowed its speed and hovered meters above giant ship’s hull. Crystal shifted from within and jutted out to form leg-like claws. The legs moved in and clamped down on the hull and dug into the metal. A proboscis like tube came out next and buried into the ship. Reaching a corridor the tube stoped and opened up. The black forms of the Spec Ops Andracken slunk out and crawled along the overhead, bulkheads, and deck of the ship, their red eyes scanning across the corridors of the ship.
Like octopi they groped and tested around the ship, scanning and testing systems and panels for an access to the ship’s computer. One scanned along the many wire bundles, searching for a CAN-Bus harness.
Captain Gyu began moving for more targets when a request for support came over the coms. It was the Carnaithian fleet. Gyu was under orders to offer assistance to any Carnaithian ships above any other if requested. Captain Gyu was more than willing to oblige. Ordering for his ship to come about, he made his way for Kros’ ship. The remaining Investigator followed close behind, choosing to stay behind the much larger frame of the Frigate.
Seeing the ships if question Gyu ordered all weapons to be fired on the lead ship. Tachyons charged and high energy lasers fired off targeting enemy lasers. Once charged beams of tachyons lanced out to strike sources of power along the ship.
“This is Captain Gyu of the Andracken Overseer class Frigate Plausible Deniability. We are moving to assist you, requesting data share.” The Andracken hailed.
A trio of hodge-podge ships of different utilities? Perfect fodder, thought O'thelia, seeing these gargantuan vessels make their ways closer. However, despite his enthusiasm and brash nature, the rest of the bridge crew of his "flagship" were quite alarmed by the presence of the kinetically armed freighter, likely able and easily capable of piercing through the thin hulls of the ships present.
"Target that one!" O'thelia shouted out, pointing towards the kinetic-armed freighter, his arrogance not completely blinding his sense. "Punch holes through it, ASAP!"
"Aye, Sir," a relay member said, sending out the orders to the rest of the small Selenican strike force.
Soon after, the Reconnoiters present pointed their forward-facing particle weapons, charged with tachyonic particles, towards this freighter in specific. The Type-A frigates also spun their turrets to bear, analyzing the velocity and vectors of movement even at these somewhat long ranges. The call for fire is sent out, and a small ripple of the guns and lances shoot forth into the vacuum, prayers being that they find their targets true.
"Keep firin'! We aren't able to take one of em' out with just a salvo, we need more, MORE!" O'thelia would speak, his voice overly bombastic. "Fire at will!"
The bridge crew, despite this having been only their first assignment with this upstart commander, were already greatly annoyed at his ridiculous eccentricities. However, orders were orders, and another salvo was ordered and launched from the Selenican vessels.
With the combined fire of the approaching forces the threat of the three freighters working in concert was overcome. While immensely sizable the ships were never meant for direct warship combat, and their total lack of movement and stationary position gave them the largest disadvantage in space warfare. As tachyons, kinetics and EMACCs slammed home into key points derived from various schematics downloaded from the Ancnet the weaponry went cold as reactors were taken offline.
However, the one with no weapons and stronger AI that was being boarded continued to resist. Its EPA derived countermeasures were enough to continuously rebuff attempts to infiltrate its systems from the outside, but as the combat frames and traps internally were destroyed one by one the Andrackan, Svarthan, Royal Federation and Columen forces the main regions of the freighter were occupied. Engineering had not changed at all from the schematics, nor had the bridge as the Svarthans and Columen secured them respectively. But as the Royal Federation marines and Andrackan special forces encountered one another in the corridors leading up to the AI core the last of the defending units were intense. Each one fought to non-functionality as auto turrets tried to pin the attackers down.
Still after an hour of gruelling inch by inch fighting the two forces managed to reach the bulkhead, breaching it they found a massively expansive AI core. It had definitely once been part of an EPA warship, but it had been improved with all sorts of additions, whoever had set this up had done quite the work.
With engineering and bridge control wrestled from the ships AI through direct disconnection the attempts to rip into the AI began. It was a long and problematic affair, only aided as the Andrackan began to physically remove parts of the AI core to reduce its processing power. But even within its deep files, there was nothing.
They had once again whoever had set this up been incredibly thorough, however on a third deep scan a file appeared.
Only one. It was a communications dump log, it didn’t contain any data, but its metadata indicated the exact communication relay wavelength that was used. Channel 8866, it meant nothing at current, but there was one nation present who would be familiar with its origin.
A massive detonation appeared on sensors a moment later, as one of the other freighters had exploded, its whole hold filled with powerful plasma munitions. Losses were reported amongst the forces assaulting its position but at least its interdiction field was down, as was the field around the boarded vessel.
Still another two ships belonging to the Arcovian Kingdom which were engaging a freighter in the centre of the interdiction fields went silent. Sensors indicating heat spikes and debris.
"Admiral, the techs have finished the scans and its found nothing-" The transmission was garbled for a moment as the Andracken took apart more of the core.
"A dump file full of meta data and a comms channel was the best we could-" Again the transmission garbled.
"I'm not sure the trip was-" The transmission garbled again but Jean Paul could make out the lip movements of colonel Dupont. She clearly didn't approve of the boarding action.
The battlefield map pinged with the registration of signals coming from the centre of this mess. Heat spikes, followed by debris, someone made it to the centre and didn't bring enough firepower to take out the freighter there.
"Colonel, recall your forces. I want them back on the Elba ASAP. Helm once our Marines are back set a course for that heat spike signature."
"Nothing... fuckin' hell. This is not worth it."
Lillian was creeped out to high hell. Only the onboard ship AI was on the ship, and its multiple toys to defend itself. She was absolutely astonished by the level of planning these people had. They were determined to not let anyone know who they were. Light flickered on the droids, signaling that the objectives were reached. Lillian ordered them to get back to their designated ships, needing to reload after such a grueling battle. Attempts at accessing any data from the ship were met with nothing, just empty cyberspace that the AI occupied.
Droids got pack to their smaller deployment ships, with them firing full throttle back to the main ships. Lillian observed the heat spike on her sensors, another frigate gone, more casualties. She was getting annoyed at the sheer unnecessary amount of both loss of life and economic loss by the minute. Who would dare to try something like this, in such a public manner, and yet be able to do it without being detected?
"Gladius, once the boarding ships are done connection, go full speed ahead on those energy signatures. Have EVERYTHING locked and loaded for potential cloaked opponents, lasers and weapon damage don’t come from just the sheer vacuum. Have all sensors on high alert! I don’t want them sneaking up on us."
The Andracken Spec Ops units disconnected power lines and entire sections of the core. Scanning carefully as they disassembled the device they noticed the origin of the core.
“Captain Gyu, this is SPF-45006789, we have discovered the origin of the enemy AI cores is of EPA construction.” The lead spec ops Andracken reported quickly before tearing further into AI core. One unit took one of its tentacles and a universal data port was formed on the end. Plugging into the AI the Andracken began sifting through the AI before it found the file. Quickly seeing the files contained inside it transferred the Data to the Plausible Deniability.
“All forces be advised, our units that have infiltrated the enemy ships has discovered the AI cores are of EPA origin, and we’ve identified their coms relay is on channel 8866.” Captain Gyu said on an open channel to all ships present. Hopefully someone would know what that meant as a quick query of her ships archive gave her no helpful answers.
To say that he wasn't already on alert due to the combat circumstances would be a lie, but Kros was very quickly taken by the information broadcast by the Andracken. He flashed a look across the CIC, and found that his CIGO attache was returning the gesture.
"Comms, survey all responding forces for Union of Worlds presence," He asked aloud, not putting the query on the network. He checked the nature of communications on the Freighter in question against those of his own ships, and sat - stunned - for a few moments.
"All ships," he ordered across a tightbeam between his own ships only, "Strengthen scans. Assume Leistunganos presence." He looked across at his attache again, who nodded as she began tapping at her own console.
As the battle suddenly becomes a lot more close and personal, Vei Xian sighs and goes through the lengthy process of readjusting his bow.
"Mmmm. This cannot be helped, I would like to avoid destroying the same vessel our allies have boarded. Change of plans. Tu Rong, use your awakened beasts to cover the advance of my attack. The defenses of these vehicles must be dispersed by such methods before my weapon can penetrate them."
"Yes, senior!" Tu Rong replied energetically, as the Chariot under his control began to warp and twist, like a flower blooming, to reveal a swarm of around two dozen spherical fighter-craft whizzing about- wait- what? Under closer inspection, said fighter craft appear to be various asteroids with thrusters and even weapons seemingly growing out of them.
"I am ready, senior!" Tu Rong continued. "My tamed Awakened Meteor swarm will move to support!"
Targeting the nearest freighter not already being boarded or otherwise interfered with, the swarm of asteroids would move toward it in formation, performing maneuvers which generated enough g-force that a human pilot would have been killed from it as they attack the closest target that won't cause a friendly fire incident. Once the ship's defenses became occupied, Vei Xian made a show of drawing his arm back and loosing his projectile in the manner of an archer, while the rails of the mass driver he'd styled as a bow activated and shot the massive rod of metal towards the center of the targeted ship. Even as it flew to its destination, Vei Xian busied himself with nocking another.
With their missions as complete as can be, the MHEA troops radio in, reporting their findings to the ship.
"Nothing you say? Even according to our more advanced allies? Hmm. Retreat immediately, and prepare to be picked up. I want you off that ship ASAP, before any potential traps can be sprung."
Having received their orders the MHEA troops rapidly return through the holes they made, exiting the craft not long after. As their shuttles move towards their designated vessels, the Svarthan begin to move towards the nearest hostile craft they can reach. Another salvo of surveillance shells is followed up by a missile barrage, this time supplemented with particle charge shells, already loaded with transuranic elements to hopefully inflict as much damage as possible.
Meanwhile, as their guns rain hate down onto their enemies, Nykerth takes some time to compile the data from all "friendly" forces in the area, that is, everyone attacking the ships currently emitting interdiction fields. They want to identify just how many ships and how much interdiction field is left out there, and plan accordingly.
As more time went by, Britt became more and more concerned, though not entirely about the freighters. The seemingly spontaneous deaths of numerous ships, despite the nature of the freighters had her slightly on edge. Still tedious, though, just more interesting.
As her force approached another freighter, having broken off slightly from the main force, the Andracken transmission was received.
"That's... strange," she said out loud, puzzled by what was broadcasted. She understood why, though by no means did she know what to do with the information, outside of potentially the comms channel. She did not know what the significance of it was.
"Get one of the datascythes to initiate silent observation protocols on channel 8866," she ordered, "and just to be sure, double-check the isolation of the datascythe. I don't want any unnecessary surprises."
Meanwhile, boarding craft were readied aboard the two Jaegers, marine raiders and navy hunter-killers embarked. From the force as a whole, a salvo of missiles was followed by a barrage of pulse ray fire, although it was not intended to destroy the freighter outright, rather to cripple.
As yet another freighter exploded from the Divine Lotus, its defences far too concerned with trying to intercept the Cultivators smaller craft to notice the huge round which destroyed it moments later, tearing it in half despite its size and bringing down its interdiction bubble.
With the grouping of allied forces now delving deeper In towards the sudden heat spikes and unknown signatures the survey scans of channel 8866 from multiple nations at first turned up nothing, white noise static and no data being relayed. But as they got further in, spikes began to appear, data packets, broadcast in multiple directions and heavily encrypted with truly phenomenal self-altering ciphers and quantum resilience. The packets were not large by any means and likely did not contain large amounts of information, but ELINT efforts by Huron the Andrackan and Carnaith helped triangulate a position for where most of the data packets were coming from.
Dead space, seemingly empty void around one of the freighters.
They had found their culprits.
“This is UNCS Hallmark of the Union of Worlds, do we read you correctly, Channel 8866?” The wideband message came from a Dart class of the new Horizon fleet, flanked by twin Razor class escorts. They were busy engaging one of the freighters on the far side of the huge interdiction blockade, but the message had only just reached them through some jamming put up by a freighter.
A moment later 6 signatures, comparable to torpedoes were detected at close range on a sprint terminal trajectory to the Royal Federation, Artificialis and Svarthan fleets, two each.
They were nearing the enemy, and clearly, they were making the first move. Their stealth was good, excellent even and so far gravimetric showed nothing, they were staying at range.
"Torpedoes at the bow, heading zero point five, direct intercept in sixty seconds!"
"COUNTERMEASURES"
The three Federation ships lit op the darkness of space with a spectacular light show as the incoming torpedoes avoided the incoming fire and moved at an incredible rate. EW attempts failed to discourage the projectiles as they continued to evade. Only once they got closer did the counterfire begin to take effect with close range MDBs catching one on the right angle and destroying it while the other one took advantage of the distraction of its comrade and made contact with the frigate VMFR Oural. The impact left a gaping hole in the port side of the ship where decompression caused just as much as the impact as the torpedo.
"Oural is hit Admiral, captain reports ship combat rating is down to twenty three percent. They have CIWS only, main power reactor is offline, misalignment caused by impact."
"Order them to retreat, Argo analyse the torpedoes maneuverers so that trick won't work again." Jean Paul commanded.
As the torpedo's suddenly appear on the ships sensors raising alarms on the bridge, Nykerth's camera eyes snap up in alert
"FIRE SCALAR FIELDS NOW!!!"
A shimmering barrier of energy tears space asunder ahead of the Svarthan ships, discharging immense energies drawn from the very fabric of space, hopefully intercepting at least one of the incoming torpedoes as the point defense weapons fire a massive hectic barrage. Lasers bursts flit across the void of space, accompanied by bursts of ignited nano thermite and scores of tiny projectiles from the coil guns.
However the barrage is to forced, and to unprepared to do much. One torpedo is unlucky however, as the Scalar field manages to intersect the weapon, its small size leading to its prompt destruction. The other strikes the lead ship at its bow, blasting a gaping hole into the armor, sending the glimmering shells of Svarthan crew cascading into the void. Some deploy what look to be icosahedrons, and float there awaiting pickup, but for the vast majority, a suffocating death awaits...
"Commander, we have suffered major damage to our main hyper laser battery, and some of the main turreted weapons. They will most likely remain unresponsive for the remainder of the fight, however we can still move and have around 3/4 of our main battery left."
"Very well. Get rescue ships out and back at once, we need to save every one we can before another attack comes. Inform all point defense crews on all ships to remain on absolute maximum alert. Next time we will be ready to intercept. I also want the trajectory of those torps plotted, so we can find the bastards who did this, and make them pay."
"Incoming projectiles, two objects headed towards ships act high spee-"
"Deploy particulate shield! PD to max NOW!"
PD weapons from all ships seemed to light up simultaneously, all pointing at the same two directions. Laser, kinetic, everything was being thrown at the torpedoes seemed to move closer and closer to the ships, not seeming to be affected by the PD at such a range. It was incredible to her how proficient this stealth was, being able to catch ships from three different nations off guard. The particulate, while trying its best to prevent impact, only blocked of the missiles, the hole in the cloud allowing the second one to pass without effort.
The impact glimmered as a Custodia class exploded, the torpedo exploding right on an antimatter containment unit, making the explosion even more powerful. The ship now seemed to be holding on by a thread, half of it now simply debris, meanwhile the other half -the thruster half- managed to survive such a large explosion, with a reactor online feeding the thrusters and what remained of the ship.
"Report!"
"Major damage to one Custodia class, no longer apt to fight. Minor damage to surrounding ships."
"Fuck... analyze what you got from the torpedoes! We need to be ready for another bombardment! Get all info on the point of origin of them and find the fuckers at once!"
As the detonations of the torpedoes and the intercepting fire abated nine signatures now seemed to appear on gravimetric sensors. They were weak, but they were present, all were on a direct intercept course for the forces which had banded together.
The interdiction blockade was beginning to fall now, freighters were being destroyed faster and faster as more vessels joined the assault all across the region. It didn’t matter what firepower or tricks they had up their sleeves as whole battlegroups comprising of vessels from countless different nations and factions teamed up to blow their way through. In some cases, each freighter was fighting near a hundred different vessels, and no civilian vessels no matter how armed or jury rigged stood a chance against those odds.
With the interdiction zone now rapidly getting smaller some of the traffic of the corridor was beginning to flow again, going around the edges which had been cleared or holes which now appeared in the huge no fly wall. Co-ordination was everywhere and had anyone looked at the sensors and datanet of the region they likely wouldn’t have known there was a galactic war on at all. CONA & SAGA, working together with neutrals against the odds. Even a Coronan Linebacker had joined the fray, throwing itself into the densely packed interdiction zone with practically no care for tactics.
But while the lane was being cleared the threat remained and the 9 ships accelerated quickly.
Gravimetric jamming spiked, but by this point the vessels which they were fighting were becoming visible to other forms of sensor. IR and LIDAR readings were being taken identifying six escort, two cruiser and one battleship class opponents based on average tonnage and reaction mass. Visual recognition software and identification protocols matched the vessels they faced with no known faction or species and constant jamming and sensor dampening materials on the enemy hulls made further ID extremely difficult.
The ships kept close to one another, maximising defensive firing arcs but it was clear they were fast.
IR signatures lit up across the unknown opponent’s fleet as Hyperfrequency lasers, Gravimetric accelerators and torpedo launchers opened fire. They made no discrimination, trying to blanket engage Huron, Carnaithian, Lotus, Andrackan, Federation, Artificialis and Svarthan vessels with an overwhelming barrage of firepower. For their size these ships each appeared to pack the firepower of several vessels of comparable size or class, their course was clear, hit the allied forces hard and speed straight through their formations to come out the other side.
The foe had finally revealed themselves.
"Decompression Deck six port side."
"Battery A reports forty percent of guns downs."
"Secondary reactors online to compensate."
"Etoile reports moderate damages but still combat effective."
Jean Paul tried to get the situation under control but the torrent of fire was immense, more then what the Defence Net could keep up with and every hit weakened the Net allowing more fire to come through. The light show in space was spectacular as shield flared, CIWS fired, missiles launched and main guns returned fire. Jean Paul had instructed his gunners to target spinal weapons on the battleship to knock out the heaviest firepower, he had wished the Lady Admiral had sent a Heavy Cruiser instead. The Federation ships moved aside as they fired as to not let the oncoming enemy outright destroy them as they proceeded up the centre.
"Carnaithian force reporting, unknown contacts attacking response group! Military craft!" Kros' authoratative voice had begun to shake with the shock and surprise of the assault, and he saw the command screen report the distribution of combat stimulants to all crews. His force had been spared the torpedo strike, but the heavy spinal weapons of these new hostiles had been less forgiving. His destroyer had taken only a glancing hit from a kinetic accelerator, but one of his four engines and two superheavy hardpoints had been outright sheared off - his Lighthouse-class had been struck by a hyperfrequency laser, and as far as he could tell, was completely destroyed.
Before he could bark orders, code began filling his terminals and readouts. CIGO signatures and auth codes. "COUNTERCHARGE."
The rush of total acceleration and intense Gs of the flagship flipping end over end to brandish its spinal EMACCS was stunning even through the inertial medium of the combat craft. All three remaining engines were at full burn, and all weapons were firing. Dense fields of CIWS munitions were set up like minefields to counter torpedo strikes, all missiles had been launched - even the three flechette-class frigates, with their interceptor engines from the Far Reach project, had launched their own entire complement and were accelerating at full burn towards the new assailants. Hundreds and hundreds of anti-ship munitions, for what?
The question quickly answered itself - his own ship had released both of its superimpactors, which had begun assault burns towards the incoming hostiles. The slower-firing spinal weapons of the new hostiles' firing intervals were being taken advantage of to their fullest. His destroyer's guns were firing full CQC load; molten slugs of solaris composite impactors, designed to transfer every gram of firing energy into their targets in CQC engagements. Every standard and heavy grade ship-to-ship laser was firing, the closing velocities of the two fleets blueshifting the X-ray batteries of the warships. But not only that.
The six gamma-ray batteries of the Arcelin-class began to fire, their own signatures boosted in power by the closing velocities of the fleets. Each one targeted a different hostile ship, prioritizing the escorts - everything else had been focused on the heavy trio at the core of the formation.
"9 unknown signatures detected, fire incoming!"
"Shit, change attack vectors, retaliate as soon as possible!"
The remaining ships began to change their positions, making their net surface area diminish, and therefore made it harder for them to be hit. The PD weaponry fired with glorified brilliance, determined to not fail at its task once again. She smacked her head against a wall inside of her own head, regretting not bringing a battleship for the occasion. A change of doctrine was in order for the next time.
"Gladius, make way for other ships to attack. Let's make sure these dickheads get what's coming to them!"
As the ships adjusted, the ships faced the interlopers with all armaments ready to dispense hellfire. The thrusters fired with a brilliant blue glow, making their way towards the signatures. The inside of the ships were a perfect symphony of moving parts, energy and material being distributed with an efficiency that seemed almost beautiful, ready for the command.
"Fire on all cylinders!"
The ships would fire everything they had, lasers, TPAs, kinetics, even PD, continuous and never-ending. If they were to lose, they would go out in a blaze of glory. Shot after shot came from them, with a fury unmatched.
"Captain, massive enemy attack detected, targeting all allied units in the area!"
Nykerth's comms officer turns back to their screens, as the massive assault comes pouring in. The captain nods, trying their best to remain calm. This was expected after all so the point defense crews were on high alert already, and fortunately the fleet had fallen back as the tried to pick up the survivors from the first attack giving them slightly more time to react.
"Move to intercept hostile vessels, reform particulate shields in the direction of the attack, vent plasma for shielding, prepare Scalar defenses and launch all capital interceptors from the carrier. All other ships prepare to engage with all weapons immediately."
As the order is given the ships swing around, their point defense already flaring to life, with far more accuracy, and as such far more effect. Their shields move to block as much of the fire as they can, electrified metal particle clouds suspended in massive rotating magnetic fields backed by plasma pockets and screened by pulsing scalar fields ahead of them.
The ships also return fire, sending huge flights of transuranic particle shells ultraviolet laser bursts, swarm missiles, and hyper frequency lasers of their own back at the enemy forces. From behind them, the carrier launches its Argos anti capital interceptors, an FTL bubble carrying them towards their target, their weapon bays loaded with strategic scale nuclear missiles, powerful lasers, and hard-hitting coil guns, not to mention their advanced countermeasures
The assault came out of nowhere, and on the bridge of Britt's flagship, confusion was all there was. Although the initial torpedo strike was not aimed at them, for a moment, some of the crew, including Britt herself, thought the torpedoes were a glitch. She was not used to not seeing her enemy, and when one of the saber's was turned into a radioactive husk through hyperfrequency laser fire, confusion filled her mind.
Ultimately, it was not her that started giving orders; it was the ships logic core.
All across the Huron strike force, orders for an immediate turnaround came into effect. The flagship practically flipped itself, inertial dampeners and gravitic manipulation preventing the ship from crushing itself and its crew under its own weight. The destroyers and frigate appeared to have handled the maneuvers much better, having already oriented themselves and accelerated before the flagship. Antimatter thrusters immediately went to full power, and the Hammerhead's weapons stations began to shift along the hull.
The strike force linked their systems together, the destroyers taking advantage of the superior sensors of the flagship and the Saber. The Saber and the flagship turned to electronic-warfare and point defense as the destroyers charged their weapons, jammers oriented towards the new arrivals. A barrage of anti-radiation and conventional anti-ship missiles created a swarm against their aggressors, nearly half the strike forces complement, the oversized spinal mass drivers and torpedoes of the destroyers firing seconds after. Every Pulse Ray and grav-cannon was firing, cruiser-grade or below, as they rapidly approached their targets. The missiles targeted the escorts, whilst everything else prioritized the trio.
As the ships made their move, Vei Xian immediately began assessing the situation. "Meng! Tu Rong! Pull back at once, do not get caught up in this assault!"
"My lord?! What is happening?!" Tu Rong broadcasted in a panicked tone at the sudden attack.
"Idiot! Evade at once!" Meng Yongliang snarled, his ship already moving at an impressive speed, shields flickering as his vessel takes a beating. Tu Rong, however, was in a carrier-type vessel. This sudden ambush had not been anticipated, nor the sheer power of its attacks! A few strikes get through, tearing holes in the flower bud-like structure of the Chariot as the Awakened Meteor's voice is cut by interference.
"Gah! That worthless-" Meng's voice shakes, speaking to his elder. "My lord! Allow me to escort Tu Rong out of the battlefield. We can-"
"No." Vei Xian answers bluntly.
"Master?" The arrogant cultivator's voice is uncharacteristically shaken.
"You are a rising star of our sect. Tu Rong's capabilities have been deemed average. It would be unwise to engage in such a risk-"
Meng Yongliang immediately cuts contact and moves towards Tu Rong's limping vessel. Vei Xian's centuries of experience are all that prevent him from becoming absolutely apoplectic. "Disciple Zeya. Protect your wayward fellow." He says tiredly.
"Yes, elder." The remaining cultivator accelerates to rondezvous with the two in the field, while Vei Xian, looking with concern at the onrushing fleet, re-inters his main body in the now-folding armor of his Chariot. No more showmanship, he must consider this a battle against peers! The next shot of his spinal gun comes out the tip of the vessel.
One of the unknown battleships spinals was destroyed by the Royal Federation, a prescision shot punching through surprisingly heavy shielding and protective capabilities to deal the damage. But it wasn’t until the Carnaithian contingent counter charged that the enemy showed just how resilient they were. Such a countercharge had not been expected and many of the incoming munitions launched from the attackers were destroyed by the defending CIWS barrage. One escort was knocked out, directly taking fire from Carnaithian, Artificialis and Svarthan combined fire, gamma lasers, Kinetics, nuclear munitions all hammered the vessel until it exploded violently. But the punishment it received was enormous, clearly these foes had much in the way of critical redundancy.
One of the cruisers died next, impacted by the spinal shot of the Cultivator Vei Xian, tearing a whole segment of its frontal armour platting apart but surprisingly not killing it. The hole however was quickly exploited as both Huron firepower and a Carnaithian super impactor used the breach to sheer the ship apart, as it came apart numerous of its internal systems detonated.
Clearly whoever had owned it did not want anything left behind.
Two more escorts died on the approach, wiped out by a combination of Svarthan Capital Interceptors and a barrage of Huron Torpedoes, each time the ships detonated leaving behind little remains but scrap and odd parts. The remaining two escorts, cruiser and battleship passed through the Carnaithian contingent, the second super impactor being partially intercepted but hitting the battleship anyway, destroying one of its four large frontal spars. Speeding through the enemy did not seem to have much in the way of rear or side mounted weapons.
Quickly passing through the rest of the allied forces the cruiser took yet more impacts, several crippling its drive systems as it could not defend from the rear. As soon as the enemy broke through however to the other side, they rapidly flipped, facing the allies once more and opening fire as they moved away.
Moments later the Battleship and two escorts broke off their attack runs, leaving the crippled cruiser which kept firing for a few seconds before a blinding flash of a reactor overload appeared on sensors.
The remaining three ships were attempting to withdraw.
The Svarthan anti capitol interceptors give chase as best they can, their fusion torch engines turning them into little more that blueish streaks across the void of space, as they bore in on the enemy from behind. While their big munitions may be exhausted, they still have their lasers, coil guns and lighter yield missiles which they try and dump into the engines of tat lest one vessel, hopefully hobbling it to the point where capture is a possibility.
The rest of their fleet follows in, preparing to recover the fighter craft as they break away from their attack runs. At the very least, if the enemy decides to detonate themselves rather than be captured they may be able to identify the enemies remains or see them up close on their long range cameras, and the cameras of the interceptors. Hopefully that will shed light on who is to blame for this.
Kros's system was on the verge of shock as a deluge of medicines had flooded into his bloodstream - his Arcelin's primary power systems had been disabled, and the seven-kilometer ship was careening on a dead course until further notice of intercept. This said, the reserve power could still receive targeted communications - and the Imperial battle network was clear as day.
One of his flechettes had been shattered like glass by overwhelming firepower, but the two surviving frigates were nimbly maneuvering in pursuit of the enemy, entire hulls' worth of laser banks poking at any weakspot they could - and sprinting along their flanks to either force a redirection of the enemy's hulls and offer a shot on the Carnaithian subcapitals, or permit them to get easy shots in on the assailants' engine banks.
One of the retreating vessels was brought down by Carnaithian and Svarthan fire, the lasers and coilguns firing directly into the engine cones and detonating the drive spectacularly reducing the vessel to little more than a molten cloud.
But the remaining two ships continued to speed on, heading for an open area with little in the way of friendly or neutral vessels, their radiators ran hot but they quickly began dumping various heatsinks each glowing white hot from internal waste heat. Once each of the vessels full banks were discharged they cut their drives suddenly becoming much, much harder to detect as they sped away. Given the state of the allied force, pursuit did not look possible.
Thankfully the interdiction barrier was brought down, the last freighters wiped out in short order and the bubble dissipating. The Starlit Passage once more flowed with tens of thousands of vessels, FTLing above the heads of the warships which had cleared it. Coms systems were almost overloaded and data networks crashed by the sheer amount of 'Thank you' messages received from civilian vessels which had waited at the edges of the interdiction zone with some donating small amounts of SIGEC to the nations that oversaw the operation.
For the unknown perpetrators however there was nothing but questions. The stealth ships had been adept at self destructing, leaving little trace of their original make up. No bodies were found, showing that such vessels were obviously unmanned, and any initial ideas about them belonging to the Ghosts of the Tradex were disproven by the obvious lack of biological parts. Carnaith had at least one lead, a Union Command channel, but another was also found in the wreckage, a piece of MULAT armour, also constructed typically in the Union but known to be exported to select SAGA allies was picked up by the Svarthans. It was little, but it reinforced suspicions on the part of Kros own government.
While no force had been outwardly blamed or identified the day had been won, and it had proven that all sides of the galaxy could band together to deal with a threat serious enough.
Ironically, that had been the exact goal of the Reserve Administration who had orchestrated the ordeal.