Ravens of Eternity

212 Blood & Flame, Pt Mia stood on the bridge with anger and disappointment on her face. Every screen that surrounded her and her officers displayed live feeds of everything that was happening below.

Wings of mecha scanned every inch within the cratered settlement and transmitted their findings directly to the frigate. There, her intelligence team pieced together their data, compiled them dutifully, then sent them back.

Their intel displayed alongside the live feeds, albeit with a slight delay.

Hallowed teams down below gathered up what parts they could and packed them into crates. Just like before, they tore apart any corpses they came across. They ripped the remaining fleas off all the cybernetics they found, and packed them up in separate containers.

They also packed in broken drones, mecha parts, logic circuits and everything electronic. Just like all the other times before.

And all of it was brought up to the frigate, where the crates along the walls were taken and sent off towards Medical or Data or Engineering. And in each of those sectors, every piece was disseminated and dissected and extracted of all information. Their reports also joined the others that scrolled on by on the bridge.

And far beyond the Prophets’ vision, and certainly beyond their foresight, Raijin’s billions of nanites found their way into the frigate’s many circuits.

Mia stewed in anger as she read report after report scroll by. It increased more and more as the sight of the crater etched itself into her memory. That anger stemmed from their collective failure, their inability to keep their bases better defended, their inability to catch the perpetrators.

Her failure to protect Father’s work.

.....

Another thought nagged her deeply – she couldn’t figure out why the settlement wasn’t burnt to the ground. Not only that, but whoever attacked didn’t take anything. Previously, they had swapped out mecha parts and taken weapons and ammunition.

This time, everything was left behind. It almost seemed like they were in a rush.

“Crusader,” said one of her officers. “It appears they struck down on our base from 15 kilometers straight above. And that was the only tactic they used in this attack.”

Mia walked over to where her officer was seated, and peered into his terminal. Scores of data was splayed on it, which she reviewed with preternatural speed.

“I see,” she said. “So they performed a bombardment. But why? Their previous attacks were more effective, even if it took longer. Plasma gauss slugs aren’t cheap, and they threw what, twenty?”

“Tactical Intelligence calculates that our defensive forces were more than they could handle,” the officer replied. “So the bombardment was potentially their best move. TacInt also calculates that with nothing left after their attack, they found no reason to act further.”

Mia narrowed her eyes as a number of scenarios played in her head. In the end, she agreed with TacInt – the explanation it gave simply made the most sense.

“If that’s true,” she said, “then based on previous tactics, I would say their forces are minimal. Maybe a wing of six mecha, supported by a light frigate?”

“TacInt predicts a handful of smaller vessels,” said the officer, “perhaps three or four corvettes.”

Mia nodded her head slowly, as she absorbed that tidbit of information.

“It’s likely wrong, but I understand how it came to that conclusion,” she said. “Still, close enough.”

There was a ping on Mia’s terminal, which hovered near the captain’s chair. She pulled it towards her using her DI, then answered the ping.

The Chief Datacoder immediately appeared on the screen. There was a wide grin on her face.

“Crusader,” she said. “I took a look at the databanks you just sent me. I think you ought to know that these haven’t been wiped. Everything’s intact, sort of. The physical housings themselves are torn to bits, but the data inside is still pristine. Multiple redundancies kept their structural integrity intact.”

Mia groaned loudly.

“That’s just great, isn’t it,” she moaned. “The one time we wanted them to take our data, and they didn’t. Or maybe they were able to tell that we had the base alter their coordinates?”

“Impossible,” replied the Datacoder. “The whole thing was shut off and powered down – the first thing they hit seemed to be the base’s generators. It’s more likely that they took a few datacells for themselves, so they could analyze it. Won’t know for sure until we’ve got a full inventory.”

Mia grinned widely on hearing that. It meant that her plans were still at play.

“Those idiots,” she said. “They’re in for a serious surprise.”

She turned back towards her officers on the bridge and issued an order with an imperious tone in her voice.

“Have all teams drop what they’re doing and bring them into the frigate,” she said. “We’ve got some bugs to squash.”

~

Planet Walvous, Mylothia System, Federal Colonial Territories

The two corvettes flew ahead with a low speed and high altitude. Alongside both of them were the four mecha, but with their shields low and to their sides.

Amelia had her ultra long range scanners at maximum, and scanned the ground far ahead of them.

“The settlement’s coming into sensor range now,” said Claire.

“Defenses?” asked Xylo.

“We’re still kinda far out, but I’m not seeing anything crazy. About a dozen drones and a half dozen turrets.”

“What about the Controller circuit?” asked Raijin. “It should be visible by now.”

Claire looked over her reports, then nodded.

“I see it,” she said. “There’s a communications array at the center, and an unshielded databank and logic circuit in the building underneath it. Probably town hall, like the rest.”

“Lightly protected, with fruit ripe for the picking,” said Freya. “I don’t like it.”

“Me neither,” added Xylo. “Seems like bait to me... Wait. Is this them trying to ambush us? Seriously? They may as well have put out signs – it’s laughable.”

“Any signs of mecha or their frigate?” asked Freya.

“Nothing that I can see,” answered Claire. “But they could be under a dampening field, or just plain powered down.”

“Alright, well, I’m sure they’re out there. It’s time to give them a nice, resounding slap. Let’s descend to 5km and attack the settlement. But get ready to switch up targets at a moment’s notice.”

Freya slid her throttle forward, increased her velocity, and began to lower her mecha towards the ground. Everyone else followed suit right behind her, determination etched on all their faces.

And once they were three or four kilometers away from the settlement itself, the mecha lowered down to the ground while the two corvettes stayed at a 5km altitude.

It took them all less than half a minute to get within 1500 meters of the settlement, at which point they began their attack. Like before, the four mecha circled inwards as they closed in on the town.

Not that they went unnoticed – turrets and drones alike had picked up their signals, and shot at them as they circled.

Freya’s chaingun and Xylo’s sniper cannon made short work of any drones that patrolled the perimeter. Their rounds tore through them like they were made of paper. Xylo’s rounds in particular shot through multiple at once, and reduced them to scrap.

At the same time, Max lobbed a half dozen grenades at one section of their defensive lines. They exploded with great force, and tore them to pieces. Their light barricades were blown apart with ease, and opened up the way.

Not that they even bothered to take it – they all knew where the real fight was, and were just biding their time.

Even as the bullets flew all around them, Amelia picked up rapidly growing signals in the thick forest near the settlement itself.

“Detecting large power spikes 2 kilometers northeast of us!” said Claire. “One frigate and a dozen mecha, all coming up from idle.”

She pinpointed their locations on their TacMap to denote their exact position within the trees.

“Here they come,” said Freya. “Time to get these bastards!”

She and the other mecha quickly stopped their attack and rose into the air.

“How ’bout we thin down those numbers a bit?” said Locke. “A dozen seems like a bit much.”

He quickly turned his turret towards where Claire had marked the forest, then blasted into it with his guns. Round after round of the hollow tungsten bolts slammed into the trees as dirt and splintered wood erupted into the sky.

Although most of the mecha scattered out of the way, two were caught in the blasts. Their signals winked out faster than they could power up.

Right after the opening salvo, the enemy’s frigate rose out of its hiding spot. The canopy of trees that they used to disguise it slid off its armor and fell to the ground below.

“Scans complete,” said Claire.

On her screen were the technical readouts of the frigate and the mecha they faced. Although they were all relatively familiar with the Stormrider chassis, these pilots had completely uniform loadouts.

All of them wielded C-ranked Federal Shipyards Assault Rifles in their hands and the C-ranked Federal Shipyards Chainguns on their shoulders. It was a plain, no-frills loadout that was high on offense, and poorly lacking in defense.

But what frightened them was the frigate itself. It was an A-ranked Federal Shipyards “Mighty Caledonia” Heavy Frigate. It sported hefty A-ranked Federal Shipyards “Castillon” Nanoreactive Armor plating. And along each of its sides were four C-ranked Federal Shipyards 150mm Cannon Turrets and one C-ranked Federal Shipyards x48 Missile Battery.

Heavily armed and armored was the best way to describe the beast.

As it turned its nose and headed straight towards them, Mia came on all their comms displays.

“There you are, rats!” she exclaimed. “You’ve ruined our peace for long enough, and it’s time to exterminate you all!”

“So you really are still alive,” Freya responded. “That’s great! Means I get a chance to kill you for real.”

Mia gasped when she saw Freya on her comms display.

“You! Of course it’d be you!” she exclaimed. “Well, I’m gonna take extra special care in tearing you apart! Then I’m gonna turn you into my most loyal Hallowed myself.”

“You sure you’re not gonna blow yourself up first?” taunted Freya. “I mean, I know that’s what you’re best at.”

This infuriated Mia to no end. With her mind filled with rage, all she could do was issue her orders in response.

“Kill them all!” she cried out, then cut comms altogether.

“You didn’t have to provoke her, you know,” said Fluke.

“All the Prophets have got anger issues,” Freya responded. “Let’s see if it gets the better of her, too.”

The two fleets faced off against each other, and began to maneuver for position.

Mia’s frigate specifically charged right towards them, and tried to wedge the two corvettes apart. At the same time, their mecha flew headfirst towards their four, their guns blazing.

Xylo evaded fire from two oncoming mecha, blasted backwards for a few seconds, then fired a single sniper shell. It tore right into an enemy’s core and out the back. It fell to the ground after its pilot was liquefied by the tremendous force.

The others also did their best to evade, but were literally showered with bullets and laser beams. Their shields absorbed most of the incoming fire, and were dented and scored as a result.

They had no choice but to maneuver at top speed to keep them all from surrounding them.

.....

Meanwhile, the frigate purposefully pushed itself between the two corvettes and allowed them to flank it. It fired broadsides with their cannons and peppered both ships with astounding ease. The frigate followed up with a dozen missiles, which flew in every direction before they converged at the last moment. They slammed into both ships with devastating fury.

Although the shells bounced harmlessly off Mr Jurassic’s thick armor, Amelia was far less lucky.

Her C-ranked armor was dented and torn by the barrage all along her port side, and shook Azrael and Claire to the core.