Ravens of Eternity

95 Chaos Theory, Pt The doors to the bridge snapped open as Merlin walked through. He whistled in awe at the simplicity and efficiency of the bridge’s layout. It was the first time he had ever been on a bridge like this, and he was absolutely delighted to the core.

Valos stood in the middle along a catwalk, while his officers and their terminals surrounded him. And all along the walls around them were multiple large MFDs which displayed all manner of information. Some were filled with live feeds of the battle, while others were covered in readouts and data outputs.

Valos spotted Merlin, and waved him over to his side.

“Ah, there he is! Man of the hour! Come on over.”

A huge grin filled Merlin’s face as he stood next to the Templar.

“I guess I did good, huh?”

“Good? You did great! Showed us where the big money is, and boy oh boy, this is some big fuckin’ money.”

“Can’t ever have enough of it, right?”

Valos nodded emphatically. Then he put a hand on Merlin’s shoulder and patted it.

.....

“By the way,” he said, “you’re now an honorary member of the Temple of Discord. You’ll get officially inducted soon enough – probably after this little mission here.”

Merlin beamed with pride as he watched the battle occur over the screens. The Admiral’s drones swarmed all over them, and reduced too many pirates into dust.

“‘Course I’m honored, but... Lookit all these fuckin’ drones, man. They’re cuttin’ through your pilots like cheddar.”

Valos simply laughed.

“Who cares?! Those drones are just little toys for ’em to play with. If they can’t handle ’em, then they didn’t deserve a piece of the pie in the first place.”

“That’s cutthroat as fuck. But I bet it gets ’em motivated all to hell.”

“Everyone knows it’s a dog-eat-dog kinda galaxy. And if they get eaten, well, there’s no-one to blame but themselves.”

“Basically, don’t get eaten.”

“Yeah, basically. Anyway, show’s about to start, so stick around.”

Merlin turned back towards the displays and paid a bit more attention to the battle that raged just outside.

Fighters and drones were intermixed and wove chaotically around each other. Cannonfire, beam lasers, and missiles flew in between. The sounds of guns firing, metal tearing, fuel exploding, and men dying all filled the bridge.

Merlin turned to Valos and found that he reveled in the spectacle of battle, and was in absolute awe amidst the cacophony. There was even a hint of pride in his gaze.

It was like he was a conductor of some great symphony.

“Templar!” cried an officer. “Second Fleet is in position.”

“Well, what’re they waiting for? Launch the next phase immediately!”

“Aye, sir!”

On the opposite end of the inner zone, the other half of the pirate fleet emerged from out of the asteroid field. They too had taken some damage from the turrets, and bore the marks of their conflict right on their hulls.

They adjusted course and made a beeline straight for the asteroid, specifically towards some structures that sat on top of it. There wasn’t anything all that special about them – they were metallic structures that housed some of the base’s systems and modules.

There were things there like turrets, cooling vents, solar panels, maintenance hatches, and so on.

However, once the pirates got within a couple thousand meters, dozens and dozens of hidden turrets popped up all over the asteroid.

But these things weren’t standard ballistic defensive turrets with hollow barrels. These were two slabs of highly intricate machinery that lay parallel to each other. They pointed themselves at many of the ships coming towards them, and began to glow blue as they powered up.

The empty space between the two slabs crackled as huge amounts of electromagnetic energy built up.

When they fired, it appeared as though they emitted beams of blue light – but in fact they shot a small group of supercharged electrons at the speed of light, or at least incredibly close to it. And though they were just a few particles, the kinetic energy they were infused with was beyond devastating.

One particle cluster collided with one of the fighters, and completely obliterated it out of sheer force. The entire thing caved in on itself and glowed bright orange as its titanium structure was superheated from the impact alone.

In the blink of an eye, the entire thing along with the pilot inside disintegrated into absolutely nothing.

Other fighters that were struck also met the same fate. Instant death from sheer kinetic force. The impacts were so fast that they didn’t even have time to react.

Hell, those pilots didn’t even realize that they were shot at, much less that they were dead.

But the defensive turrets didn’t just take out the fighters. A number of them collectively fired on the frigates as well, their AI having determined that they were the larger threat overall.

The strength of their shots sheared off entire sections of the frigates. One had a third of its hull wrenched completely off, and its structure glowed brightest where it was shorn.

Pirate crewmen were thrown into the vacuum of space, where they slowly choked to death. Their bodies ballooned as the oxygen in their bodies expanded, and their eyes bugged out as their internal liquids boiled.

The crippled frigates were ultimately finished off by the guns. Large pieces of them were chewed off with every shot from the S-ranked Particle Disintegrator turrets. Highly destructive, highly accurate weapons seemed to be the Admiral’s trademark.

But even they were little more than scrap without the protection of a fleet.

The pirates quickly launched their counterattack. Since evasive maneuvers were useless against the turrets, they stood still in order to maximize their accuracy. Multiple quad 50mm batteries on each of the frigates set their sights on the turrets, and fired without delay.

Though each shell wasn’t of a very high caliber, the sheer amount of them was plenty enough to do devastating damage. Each group of four smashed down on the turrets, perforated their armor, and dismantled the fragile turrets into pieces.

Parts flew everywhere as the frigates rained down their bombardment. By the time they were finished, all of the turrets on their side of the asteroid were neutralized.

Without anything impeding them, they moved closer to the asteroid, roughly to the 500 meter mark. Then, leisurely sat as they prepared their attack.

Inside each of the frigates, crewmen rushed as they loaded multiple torpedoes into open tubes. Once they were all filled, they shut the tube hatches and sealed them tight before hitting a green button that sat right next to them.

Gunners on the other side of the armaments room received “Ready” notifications on their terminals, and began to hit a number of controls on their screens. They tuned the torpedoes against the base’s energy readings, then unceremoniously launched them with the push of a button.

Each of the ten remaining frigates fired their torpedoes at the structures on top of the asteroid. Red lights on the tips of each one blinked faster as they armed themselves to detonate on impact. They hit the structures with a FWOOM, and exploded in a ball of blue plasma.

But they didn’t destroy the structures. Instead, electricity spidered out from every point of impact. They coursed up and down every electrical system up and around and inside the asteroid itself.

The disruption energy permeated down through the asteroid via electrical conduits and penetrated into the city deep inside.

Emergency lights wavered and electronic systems glitched as the power grid absorbed the attack.

Then, the frogates fired another round of Disruptor Torpedoes and wreaked havoc on all their internal systems. And they continued firing until all their torpedo tubes were completely empty.

Since the base was already operating on emergency power, there was barely any energy shielding to protect it. The barrage of disruption plasma surged through towards every transformer that directed power, and overloaded them.

Sparks flew as fuses burst from the overcapacity of energy. Some even caught on fire. The power plants found themselves cut off from the rest of the base, and unable to send power anywhere.

Sectors within the asteroid base lost power one by one. The lights went out and all went dark. Everyone inside shivered as they were suddenly surrounded by the pitch black of the inside of an asteroid.

Although some systems were able to remain online simply because they had their own separate power sources, they certainly wouldn’t last forever. Without full power, their life support already began to wane.

Without any power to feed them, all remaining defensive turrets powered down uselessly. And worse, drone operators suddenly found their terminals dead and unable to transmit orders.

Darkness suddenly surrounded the hangar. The light from a distant red giant spilled in through the open hangar bay and painted everyone inside with a dreadful red hue. Luckily, the hangar itself had multiple of its own power systems, and so the atmospheric shielding held.

For now.

Eva, Miko, and Redstar sat in their cores and watched as everything unfolded on their MFDs. Low on power, guns, and protection all while surrounded by pirates.

“Deja vu is hitting me real hard right now,” muttered Eva.

Outside, the drones simply stopped moving and stopped attacking. Having lost their connection to the base, they lost all sense of purpose. Without any instructions, they had simply become little more than scrap.

The pirates didn’t even bother with them any longer, and advanced directly onto the handful of frigates left in the battle.

The Admiral’s eyes shot open in alarm as the tide of battle turned against her. Without drone support, their few hundred fighters were no match for the nearly two thousand pirates.

Her hands shook as the reality of the situation dawned on her.

“Fall back to base!” she cried. “On the double!”