Ravens of Eternity

292 Vicious Payback, Pt The Spirit of Amelia’s thrusters flared wide as they rocketed towards Raijin’s waiting position. She appeared to be alone on top of one of the many warehouses in the district, amidst a number of deactivated defense turrets.

Claire saw more than just her signal, or the signals of the rest of the Ravens. She also saw the remaining dozen Peacekeepers who were chasing after them, though they were roughly a thousand meters behind.

“The Peacekeepers are locked onto everyone,” she said over comms. “All our signatures are shining brightly out here.”

“Good,” replied Freya. “We still owe them and That Idiot a piece of our mind.”

“We could easily counter-charge once Amelia arrives,” Lucifer added. “With her flying with us, we’d have no problems taking them apart.”

“We could take ’em apart now,” Kali groaned. “They’re weak.”

“Sure. But we’d also take a heavy amount of damage in the process. I’d rather make it out in one piece.”

“Wait!” Raijin suddenly interrupted. “I’m receiving a large signal coming in from the north. It is 3.4 kilometers out, and closing fast! Thermal and electromagnetic signatures rising quickly!”

Alarm suddenly shot through Freya.

.....

“Amelia!” she yelled. “Evasive maneuvers!”

Azrael didn’t even bother to question her, and immediately yanked the yoke to the side. Amelia’s portside maneuvering thrusters flared out and pushed the ship to the right. At the exact same moment, the destroyer’s hypersonic rail sabot shot past with blinding speed.

It was so fast that it barely appeared as a blip on their sensors. It scraped against the very edge of Amelia’s portside armor. And even with that little amount of contact, warped a few of her armor plates in the process.

Amelia shook from the violent sonic boom that trailed after the sabot round.

The round then pounded into a few buildings a few kilometers behind the corvette. It slammed into the buildings with so much energy that every single one of them bulged outwards for a moment.

Each one then collapsed in on themselves and were reduced to piles of rubble. Huge clouds of dust and debris were thrown in every direction as the buildings fell all around. In the end, the sabot embedded itself deep into the titacrete and caused massive destruction in its wake.

Had it struck Amelia, it would have been utterly destroyed without a doubt.

“That rail cannon is only front-facing,” Lucifer cried out. “Charge into its flank and get out of its line of sight!”

“There’s a million guns along their broadsides,” protested Claire.

“We’ve got a better chance in its flank than in front of it,” countered Azrael. “I’m gonna circle it as best I can – you tear it apart with the guns.”

She then yanked the yoke to the left suddenly, and evaded a second rail cannon shot from the destroyer.

This sabot round also barely scraped their starboard side, but still caused a considerable amount of damage to their armor. It pounded into multiple buildings behind Amelia, and tore down as many buildings as the first.

And although the buildings had been evacuated, who knew how many people were out on the streets when the round hit. And who knew how many had been killed as a result of the devastation.

Certainly Azrael and Freya were distraught over it. But they knew the only way to stop the senseless death was to stop the Peacekeepers right then and there, no matter what.

If they simply fled, they would have easily chased after them, and destroyed everything and everyone in their wake.

Determined to take down the Peacekeepers, Azrael overcharged Amelia’s maneuvering thrusters and pushed the yoke hard right. She strafed in an arc and made sure to keep her nose pointed at their destroyer as much as possible.

Just as they reached 1500 meters, Claire unleashed their quad beamcannons, and struck the destroyer’s thick hide. Despite how much power she put into the guns, they hardly left more than a few scars.

The armor itself glowed dull red as slight grooves were cut into it, but its sheer thickness combined with multiple supporting and repair modules ensured the damage didn’t last. Nanites stitched up the armor almost as fast as the beams dug into it.

On top of that, it seemed as though there were cryogenic cooling modules in play that ensured the armor’s temperature remained stable. Without the ability to properly slag the armor, their beamcannons were all but useless.

Inside the destroyer, the officer on the bridge watched as the Spirit of Amelia flanked them. Then grinned when he saw their meager weapons could never penetrate their armor.

“Maintain port side facing,” he ordered. “Calculate headings, then return fire with a cannonade.”

The officers around him immediately jumped into action. They tapped multiple controls on their consoles and terminals, and commanded the various ship sections with their own orders.

It only took moments for the ship to carry them out. Its maneuvering thrusters flared out as they began to counter-circle the corvette. At the same time, their targeting intelligence predicted Amelia’s trajectory.

The destroyer’s portside cannon batteries rotated and adjusted as they followed the predictions, then fired one after another after another. As each battery fired, maneuvering thrusters on the starboard side flared out and dampened the recoil.

Despite that, the ship lurched with every powerful blast.

Azrael’s heart choked up in her throat and felt her body stiffen up from the cannon fire. But she breathed evenly as Freya had taught her, and did her best to remain calm. Or at least, not panic.

She made small but fast adjustments to her yoke in multiple directions, as she performed evasive maneuvers. Amelia wove between the cannon shots even while she strafed past.

Shells screamed past them at such incredible speeds that Azrael tightened her grip in anxiety.

And despite how well she was doing, two shells still managed to hit Amelia. They slammed onto their top, ground into the armor, and left huge grooves. But thanks to the wide angle, they bounced off before they could fully penetrate.

Azrael’s eyes suddenly went wide in horror as she watched the multiple missile pods face towards them. Multiple lockon alerts splashed their screens and MFDs just before the destroyer unleashed dozens of missiles at them.

Streaks of white vapor fired outwards in erratic patterns towards them, then at the last moment turned inward.

At the exact same time, Azrael frantically tapped a yellow and black striped button on the pilot’s console as fast as she could.

Not that she needed to – the very first press engaged the Electronic Countermeasure module they had installed in the front of the ship. It immediately emitted sharp pulses of raw electromagnetic waves, thousands of times per second.

Though it only took one to completely scramble the missile’s internal targeting circuits. Amelia’s ECM was so effective that almost all of the missiles veered in every other direction completely.

Some were flung down to the buildings below, and tore them to pieces. Many bystanders out in the streets and walkways were also caught up in the explosions.

But of the majority of missiles, only one or two were able to hang on to the signal and hit the corvette. Amelia shook violently as they exploded, but both Azrael and Claire remained stoic and steady.

“These bastards need to go down,” Azrael said angrily. “They don’t care at all that they’re killing people down there! For no goddamn reason at all!”

“I can’t do a damn thing with the beamcannons,” Claire replied. “Their armor’s way too good!”

“Strike at their weak points,” Raijin said quickly. “If you can circle to the rear, you can destroy their thrusters, like you did with the Prophets.”

“Exactly,” Lucifer added. “Or hit their weapon systems and cripple their offensive capability.”

“Got it.”

Claire immediately shifted her aim towards the cannon batteries, focused them into a tight point, and gave them as much power as she could. The beam struck one of the many batteries, melted down its relatively thinner armor, and punched through after a moment.

It blasted into its inner mechanisms and slagged everything in sight. Machinery and ammunition glowed a bright orange as they became molten from the heat.

With the internal mechanisms turned to slag, the barrels simply limped down, then popped completely out of the battery itself. The two huge cannons fell to the ground below, crashed into a building, and demolished everything underneath it.

She then turned her beam towards one of the massive missile pods and began to cook the entire housing itself. Missiles in the pod began to explode in their housings, even while the pod itself glowed brighter and brighter from the heat.

The chain reaction of missile explosions rocked the entire pod and tore it apart into molten pieces. Glowing shards of metal flung out in every direction and tore into the weapon systems next to the pod.

Despite the damage she did, however, the destroyer still had plenty of weaponry. And they certainly didn’t stop using them.

Down below, the Ravens raced down the streets and watched as both ships tore at each other far ahead.

“We’ve gotta back them up,” said Freya.

“How’re we gonna kill a destroyer?” asked Xylo. “If Amelia can’t do a lot of damage to it, how are we?”

“Doing damage isn’t the only way to win a battle.”

“Damage or no damage, neutralizing it’s gonna be a massive pain.”

“I know, I know. And we’ve got That Idiot to deal with on top of it all...”

While Xylo and Freya debated, Lucifer scanned the destroyer’s readouts. Hir eyes flitted left and right as ze attempted to find a way to square all their problems.

“We fight on the destroyer itself,” ze finally said. “If Raijin needs to be in proximity of its systems to take them over, we could cripple it from the inside.”

“I would need to be within range of the circuit in question,” Raijin replied. “However, all of their circuits are deep inside, far from range.”

“Except the sensors. They should be close enough, yes?”

“Nn. That is possible. We must break through its protective armor, but it will be thinner.”

“Okay, I’m down for that,” Freya said. “But if it fails, we cut and run as fast as we can.”

She immediately blasted upwards and headed straight towards the destroyer. The other Ravens followed right behind her, determination etched on all their faces. Not a single one of them wanted to run away, not without finishing their business with the Peacekeepers.

But they would if they had to.

The Peacekeepers behind the Ravens watched as they launched up into the air at top speed. They also watched as the two ships fought each other tooth and nail. The sky was filled with explosions and fire, while the ground underneath them was filled with huge clouds of dust and piles of debris.

“Get up in the air!” commanded That Idiot. “Thrusters at the maximum! I want those Ravens dead by the end of the cycle!”

“Captain!” cried one of his officers. “We’re Peacekeepers, not assassins! We’ve gotta arrest them properly! And we’ve gotta stop with the collateral damage! Triple-S is gonna sue the hell out of the Peacekeepers for all this damage!”

“What kind of slagbrain are you? What we’re doing is for the Federation as a whole! Or don’t you care at all about the Federation? Is that why you’re being some kind of coward?!”

“Wh-what? Of course I care about the Fed-”

“Then shut the hell up,” That Idiot interrupted. “We need to do whatever it takes to free the Federation from the Ravens’ violence. If we don’t stop them here and now, they’ll take their chaotic rampage elsewhere. More will die. Is that what you want?”

That Idiot leapt up into the sky then blasted up towards the two ships fighting in the distance. The rest of his team quickly followed right behind, some begrudgingly.

“What we do isn’t pretty or kind or even good,” he continued, “but that’s the true reality of enforcing the law, end of story.”