Ravens of Eternity

344 The Star Dragon, Pt Every turret on the top deck of the carrier shifted and swiveled and adjusted as they tracked the many incoming enemy targets. Many pilots and gunners gripped their controls tightly as they anticipated the initial barrage.

And once their targeting intelligences beeped in alert, squeezed their triggers.

Almost all of the mecha’s guns fired at the same time, and flung countless shells and slugs and sabot rounds up and out at the Federation fleet. The force of the combined blast was so powerful that the entire carrier was pushed downward.

That was even in spite of their bottom thrusters flaring out to absorb the massive recoil.

Most of the rounds they fired were concentrated on the incoming cruisers – all knew that eliminating them quickly was the only way they could survive this assault. Or at least, see it through to both their grisly ends.

They smashed into their noses and utterly pummeled their bow armor, as thick as it was. Dozens of shells struck them over and over, each time crushing and denting and collapsing them further and further inward.

One of the cruisers took a massive beating from the assault. Some of the Hegemony’s shells punched through the weaker sections of its armor, and tore their way deep inside. As more and more shells flew into it, the more it was split apart and shredded from the relentless cannonade.

The cruiser shifted and began to list as the bridge completely lost control of it, then in a series of ruptures, exploded into thousands of pieces. Shrapnel flew in every direction, and tore at any destroyers and frigates charging alongside.

One large chunk came flying out at incredible speed, and crashed into a frigate just below the cruiser. The sheer size of it completely obliterated the frigate, which crumpled from the impact. They were flung out to the depths of space, even as the cruiser continued to explode into smaller and smaller pieces.

.....

Many shells also struck the numerous incoming destroyers and frigates. A handful of destroyers had their noses torn right off, or their rail cannons wrecked as shells peppered them. Plenty of the ships, especially the frigates, were torn apart by the massive shells.

One took a shell straight-on, and was torn inside-out before any alarms could even ring.

Despite their losses, the Federation warships continued their advance. The remaining cruisers swung outward, then curved back towards the carrier and angled their broadside cannons for an optimum barrage.

At the same time, their destroyers slowed as they charged up their rail cannons. Then, in unison with the cruisers’ initial cannonade, fired a barrage of sabot rounds.

Hundreds of shells rained down on the carrier’s top deck, and pounded dents all over the armor. Even worse, many tore through a number of the mecha stationed there, and utterly devastated them. Their chassis were blown apart, or their barrels were punctured or bent or broken.

Regardless, many pilots were reduced to bloody paste.

Both sides fired on each other, and absolutely peppered each other with cannon fire. Violently. Vehemently. Armor plating, gun turrets, mecha – it didn’t matter who was who, or what they fought for. Everything was torn apart and reduced to bloody scrap.

Another Federation cruiser burst open and exploded as a barrage of shells tore into it, along with a number of destroyers around it. At the same time, an entire squadron of Hegemony mecha were torn apart by a series of concentrated destroyer fire.

Equally as devastating, a number of cruisers aimed at the various defensive turrets all over the carrier – particularly the flak turrets. They pounded a number of those positions with their medium cannons and ripped them open with delight.

They punched into one so hard that they struck the munitions storage beneath it, and ignited them from the force and the friction. And all of the remaining flak shells burst open violently, which tore open a gaping hole on the top deck.

People and parts and millions of tungsten carbide pellets were flung out in every direction, out into space.

The Hegemony carrier faced off against the Federation cruisers and destroyers with undying ferocity. All of them slugged it out with their biggest guns as though nothing else mattered in the galaxy. Perhaps that was true.

Even while the capital ships fought tooth and nail, the frigates and fighters flanked the carrier itself, and flew down to its sides. There, the carrier’s hull was ringed with numerous hangar bays, each sealed behind glowing atmospheric shielding.

More than that, they were protected by numerous AA turrets, who immediately tracked the incoming ships. Dozens and dozens of them fired explosive shells at the frigates and fighters mercilessly, and filled the space around them with dark clouds of flak.

They ripped into their armor with devastating power, and ripped apart everything with ease. Fighters and their pilots were literally perforated to death in an instant, as thousands of pellets tore into titanium and flesh in an instant.

But that was the last of their problems. Even as they angled away and evaded further flak shells, dozens of Hegemony interceptors launched out of the hangar bays and headed straight towards them. Just as the flak turrets paused to cool their barrels, the interceptors launched their flanking attacks and tore into the Federation.

They opened up their numerous beam cannons and quite literally cut their opponents apart. Dozens of squadrons went specifically against the frigates, and scored their armor deeply with their red-hot beams. Enemy fighters were also slagged into ribbons by the interceptors’ attack run.

And just as they buzzed away to regroup, the flak turrets resumed their bombardment and perforated their heavily-weakened armor.

Even despite their losses, the Federation forces were undeterred. The frigates maneuvered into an attack formation, even as they were bombarded relentlessly. They angled their broadsides towards one of the carrier’s hangar bays, and fired everything they had.

Cannons and chainguns and flak and rockets all fired into the massive bays, and peppered everything inside them. They tore apart fighters on the landing pads, munitions in the depots, repair printers, equipment, drones, crew members, everything.

They hardly stopped as they continued down the line, onto the next hangar bay. There, they kept firing as fast as they could and put as many shells as they could downrange. Even while the turrets and interceptors ripped them apart, gun by gun, ship by ship.

It was only when their numbers had been reduced to nearly half that they banked away as fast as they could and pulled back. Though they left a massive trail of wrecked frigates and fighters behind them, they also did a fair amount of damage to the carrier’s hangar bays.

More than enough to cripple them for the rest of the fight.

“Damage report!” commanded the Star Dragon.

He had felt too many tremors under his feet, and was worried they were taking on too much damage too fast.

“Topside armor reduced by 27.5%,” replied one of his technicians. “Topside structure damaged 7.2%. Damage to modules and systems negligible. Armor and structure nanorepairs at 85% power.”

“Five turrets down an inoperable,” added another technician. “Sixteen more under heavy repair. Twenty-one lightly damaged, but still operational.”

“Two of eight fighter hangar bays are inoperable,” said a third. “Artillery mecha reduced by nearly two-thirds. We’ve also suffered 11 interceptor fighter casualties, but they’re marked as recoverable.”

“And the enemy?” the admiral continued. “What’s our confirmed kill count?”

“We’ve downed two cruisers,” began a technician on the other side of the bridge, “7 destroyers, 23 frigates, and 87 fighters.”

The High Admiral bent his head down for a moment while he thought. Then he popped back up almost instantly.

“There’s still too many of them out there,” the admiral said adamantly. “Launch half our drone defenses, and rotate out the mecha squadrons. I also want bombers prepped for those destroyers – we need to get rid of them before-”

“Sir!” interrupted one of his techs. “The second wave just arrived! Third wave ETA – forty seconds!”

Reports on the screens surrounding the bridge were filled with fresh numbers, which filled everyone with dread. They already had too much on their hands, and they were about to get hit by even more.

It certainly wouldn’t take them long to get torn apart from the Federation’s combined armament.

The admiral grit his teeth, hard.

“Open up a line to the rest of the fleet, alert them to our status. Again, reinforce their current orders – but have them regroup the moment they’re able.

“And also, open a secure line to all Hegemony-aligned combat ships in the sector. Rally them here to hold a defense. Make it an order.”

“Yessir!”

~

The Fleet of the Corvus Republic lifted up and out of the now-empty township. Their holds were now packed to the brim with civilians, and whatever left they had of their lives. They scanned the area around them, and noted that the many wrecked ships around them were slowly being repaired.

Especially the two destroyers.

“We oughta finish them off,” Lucifer said over comms.

“As much as I like the idea,” Freya answered, “that’s not what we’re about.”

“They’re just gonna get back up and maybe even come after us. If not now, then later.”

“If they’re dumb enough to do that, then we’ll deal with them then.”

Before Lucifer could argue another point for hir case, an emergency alert swept through their secure communications lines. This one was tagged Delta-Sigma. And before they could manually accept the comms, a somewhat disheveled Hegemony officer appeared on their displays.

“Apologies for the intrusion,” he said. “I’m Captain Verault of the 5th Hegemony Fleet. We are currently assigned to the defense of Hegemony Administrative planet Sorallus, in the Pallan’cha system. And we are also currently under heavy attack.

“By order of the High Admiral de Jardin, all combat capable ships in the sector are called to action in defense of the planet.

“Loss of this planet and system will result in a loss of the entire sector. This will lead to tens of millions of deaths, all across the sector.

“I repeat, all combat capable ships in the sector are called to action in defense of the planet.”

“The 5th fleet!” Azrael said over comms. “That’s Max’s Dad over there, I think. And in massive trouble.”

“If the 5th fleet’s in trouble, what the hell could we do about it?” asked Xylo. “We’re talking about a fleet carrier with a dozen cruisers protecting it.”

“I agree,” Lucifer added. “Plus being given an order like that bugs me. I don’t like being told what to defend. That’s for us to decide. Besides, we don’t exist to fight on the front lines – we’re not a bludgeon.”

“I’m with you on that,” Freya followed up. “We wouldn’t do much in a straight naval fight. Plus we’ve got all these people, and I don’t want to expose them to that level of fighting. At the same time, though – we can’t simply do nothing. That’s a whole lot at stake here.”

“Yeah, exactly!” Kali exclaimed. “There’s millions of lives on the line here. No way can we just turn our backs on them.”

“So true,” said Claire. “We voted to get ourselves in here to do something. Turning back now seems like a betrayal of that. It’s a betrayal of our own articles, honestly.”

“We should help defend,” Raijin finished up. “It is why we exist.”