Ravens of Eternity

384 Devastation, Pt Swarmchief Alethii growled as he watched the battle unfold all around him. It was a low growl, buried deep in his throat. And it rose as his own frustrations rose.

He pinned much of his hopes on his mecha to soften up the Hegemony fleet, but could only watch as their numbers dwindled further and further. Though their missiles were certainly doing their job and eating away at their targets, it was hardly enough for the beleaguered swarmchief.

“How many ships have we burned into?” he yelled out. “I need a full count and a report, immediately!”

It only took a half a moment for one of his technicians to reply, albeit shakily.

“All Hegemony capital ships have been struck, swarmchief,” he said. “We’ve deployed nearly three thousand Type V missiles, all of which reported detonation.”

“Do I look like someone who cares about how many munitions we’ve used?!” shouted Alethii in response. “You want to know what I care about? Hm? I want to know how many of these gods-forsaken apes we’ve dissolved, that’s what! Now, can someone give a report that says what I want?”

“Swarmchief,” said an analyst, “sensors are showing that our forces have critically damaged over two dozen Hegemony ships. Of those affected, half are cruisers, and one is a battleship.”

The analyst’s voice shook slightly as she spoke, fearful of what she was saying. Not so much in its contents, but in whatever reaction they would prompt from the short-fused swarmchief.

Though none came.

.....

Instead, swarmchief Alethii’s mouth hung open as he stared wide-eyed at the screen in front of him. On it, a massive ship flashed into the battlefield. And it practically teleported in only a hundred or so meters above his own battleship.

The massive Imperial devastator loomed over every combatant in the debris field, and practically overshadowed them. It was a vast monstrosity, much like the Hegemony devastators. Its chitinous hull was brimming with all manner of turrets and emplacements of various sizes.

Dozens of hovering mortar emplacements lined the top and bottom sides while hundreds of stinger-like gun turrets extended out of its broadsides. And jutting out near the rear of those broadside guns were two massive hovering stinger-like turrets.

Each one was large enough to be a battleship by themselves, and no doubt held great amounts of power.

And very much unlike the Hegemony devastator’s main guns, these two weren’t fixed in a forward-only position. They could clearly rotate around unimpeded, and likely had full 180 degree capabilities.

The projection of an drogar flashed into being on Alethii’s bridge. His stance was proud and regal, and most importantly imposing. It wasn’t his height or his build – his very presence oppressed every other drogar around him.

He walked straight towards Alethii with a slight sneer on his face, but stopped short of passing through the swarmchief.

“This fleet is now under my command,” he said. His voice was as sharp as a beltknife. And also as cold.

“S-swarmfather Theryss,” Alethii stammered. “I-I thought you were at the -”

“I was somewhere much more important than this backwoods, yes. But I’ve been informed by Senator Konleth, our most important investor, that your fleet is under some kind of duress. He demanded that I regain control of the situation. And so here I am.”

Theryss walked around the bridge and surveyed the holoprojections that surrounded Alethii. He gave all of them quick glances and absorbed the reports embedded in them as fast as he could.

“And judging by your numbers,” continued the swarmfather, “Konelth was correct to ask me to come.”

“We... I had this situation under control,” protested Alethii. “These Hegemony apes are only minutes away from being utterly destroyed.

“Mhm. I’m sure they are.”

Theryss turned away from Alethii dismissively, and looked at the circular screen around the bridge. On it were dozens of their fighters and mecha being torn into pieces. More than that, he saw how little damage their own units were doing to the Hegemony fleet.

He sighed deeply at the foolishness of what was in front of him.

“This is a battle you should have fled from,” chided the swarmfather. “Instead, you’ve caused unimaginable losses for the Empire. How much Krohn have you wasted during this entire engagement, hm? I’ll bet, judging by the number of missiles you’ve fired, and all of the skirmish ships you’ve lost, at least ten billion.”

Alethii had no response, and was cowed into silence by his own foolhardiness. It was only a few minutes ago that he screamed about not caring about how much of his forces he threw at the enemy. And that was definitely captured by every recorder on the bridge.

“Now, pay attention little chief,” the swarmfather continued. “You’re about to witness how one takes hold of a battlefield.”

~

The Star Dragon clenched his fists at the sight of the Imperial devastator. Its countless guns and incredibly thick chitin promised utter destruction for his entire fleet.

“Full retreat!” he cried out. “All ships, prepare to perform an emergency port!”

“Sir!” shouted an officer. “Port modules are being suppressed! It’s happening to every ship in the fleet! That Imperial devastator’s emitting a massive dampening field – we’re trapped!”

High Admiral de Jardin immediately darkened on hearing that report.

“How the hell did they even port in?” asked one of the other officers around the tacmap. “Didn’t we take control of the port beacon?”

“The lead Imperial battleship appears to have its own teleport system installed,” replied an analyst. “We detected beacon signals emanating inside it the moment the devastator ported in.”

“This is a goddamned disaster,” muttered another officer.

“Pull all combatants back!” the Star Dragon immediately ordered. ” Consolidate the fleet, and have all capital ships protect all the smaller ships!”

He quickly adjusted the fleet’s course and had everyone pull away from the fighting. Or, more specifically, away from the devastator itself. The very sight of it inspired fear through every officer in Erinyes. Rightfully so.

Even the Star Dragon was cowed by it.

It wasn’t just that he knew little of its inner workings, or that their sensors could hardly make heads or tails of their systems. It was simply that he knew they couldn’t handle it.

Or rather, they could, if it was the only thing they were fighting. And he was certain that it would cost them dearly to take it down.

But it wasn’t alone, which meant that it was practically impossible to destroy, not while it was supported by the fleet beneath it.

That said, he wasn’t just going to lie down and do nothing.

He pinpointed numerous targets deep inside the devastator itself, under the assumption that its layout was similar to Imperial battleships. Even if they weren’t, he reasoned that any damage they did to its insides would be a boon.

“Concentrate all fire on that Imperial devastator!” he commanded.

Every ship under his command immediately brought their guns to bear against the devastator, even as they turned to run from it. And every ship under his command shot it with everything they had.

Dozens and dozens of heavy plasma lances converged on the same spot, aimed at some unknown module deep inside. They were accompanied by fully charged rail cannon slugs and cluster missiles.

While the beams gouged huge scars across the devastator’s thick chitin, the slugs slammed in after and shattered it. Deep cracks spread across the point of impact, which were broken apart further by the numerous cluster bomblets that erupted all around them.

Huge chunks of chitin were blasted off, along with any turrets near the point of impact.

But the damage hardly fazed the devastator. The only thing it did in response was lumber forward slowly as it angled its dozens of bottom mortars at the Hegemony capital ships. Then, they fired all at once.

Massive dark metallic globs encased in bright orange energies shot towards the Hegemony capital ships with incredible velocity. Though the Erinyes attempted to shoot down the mortar shots, nothing they did slowed or stopped them. It seemed as though their munitions were simply swallowed up by the mortars themselves.

They slammed into the Hegemony ships with great force. The orange energies that encased the mortars spread out, then sunk down into the armor itself. There, the energies tangled with the hyperionization submodules and canceled each other out.

And that allowed the dark metallic nuclei to burst open and utterly obliterate the armor itself. The corrosive nanites ate through everything with voracious ease, far faster than the tiny missiles could ever accomplish.

In fact, some of the mortar shots struck armor already weakened by Imperial corrosion missiles, and further devastated them. They ate deep into the ship’s structure and systems, and chewed into the decks beneath.

Massive clusters of corrosive mortars ate into the capital ships and exposed multiple decks to open space. Many Hegemony crewmembers were flung out into space where they choked and froze to death. If they weren’t themselves consumed by the corrosive mortars.

But the devastator was far from done. Though they had successfully stripped away much of the Erinyes capital ships’ armor, the ships themselves were still there. The Imperial devastator’s broadside turrets fired their disintegrator beams straight into the numerous open wounds across the fleet.

The beams ripped into the exposed decks, even as the corrosive mortars continued to eat away at everything. Dark orange energies ripped up everything they touched, from the walls and floors and modules and systems and crew.

Whatever they touched was broken apart at the atomic level, and completely disintegrated into nothingness.

Crewmembers screamed in pain as their bodies literally dissolved around them.

It took very little time for the devastator to rip into numerous Erinyes battleships, and literally cut all the way through them. Their beams punched through the other side, even as numerous systems exploded deep inside.

One of the battleships lurched as it bulged outward, then burst violently in a massive ball of energy. Its power plant tore itself open with such force that the entire ship was ripped in half. The whole thing then continued to get blown apart as a cavalcade of explosions consumed it from the inside.

The Star Dragon slammed a fist down on the tacmap in front of him as frustration filled his chest. It was all he could do in the face of such destruction. He didn’t even have any words to say when the devastator turned many of its guns on his carrier, and fired.

He felt his ship as it shook madly. He imagined numerous explosions on decks above and below, even as disintegrator beams carved it from the inside out.

The tacmap itself blinked out and shut down moments before the entire tactical bridge went dark. Every terminal and station simply deactivated, which caused absolute panic to spread.

Technicians and analysts and even officers screamed out of fear, and immediately ran for their lives out towards the escape pods.

But the Star Dragon knew better. He already knew that they were lost. If the bridge no longer had any power, nothing else on the ship did, either. He couldn’t even communicate with the rest of the fleet, to warn them, to tell them to flee faster.

He instead stood up as straight as he could, and firmly saluted all of his officers in front of him.

Then, the floor buckled underneath their feet and ruptured violently. The bridge and everyone inside it were consumed by searing-hot flames, and were immolated.

There at the second Battle of Rhylen Terra, the Star Dragon, hero of the Hegemony and stoic leader of the Grand Parliament’s 5th Hegemony Fleet, perished without a word.