Ravens of Eternity

373 Blood on the Line, Pt “I need an update on FGIC Two,” said Lady Felrahn.

The holoprojection on the central tacmap was illuminating, but only to a certain degree. Everyone around the table certainly could see when their ships took damage, and their general numbers. But numbers were only one part of a battle.

“All capital ships moderately damaged, ma’am” reported an analyst off to the side. “Support vessels have suffered nearly 10% casualties, while skirmish vessels have suffered little over 17%.”

“And the Imperials?” asked the High Admiral.

“Sensor scans indicate that they have suffered half our casualties at most. However, we still hold the numerical advantage.”

“The tactical team predicts a favorable outcome,” added a Tactician on the other side of the room. “Our forces will hold the system, but they’ll suffer massive casualties in exchange.”

“We’ve also received a manual alert from one of the fleets,” said a communications officer. “They’ve reported that their capital ships’ teleport modules are being suppressed.”

“What? Why? What would be the point of that?” asked the Hegemony Counselor. “I would understand them locking our fleet down if they’re losing. But not if we’re projected to win the fight.”

“They always seem to do this,” answered the High Admiral. “It’s like some kind of strategic compulsion on their part. We can safely ignore it. In fact, we ought to be cheering that they aren’t choosing to run themselves.”

.....

“Regardless of what they’re doing, we’re still basically eking out a victory,” said Lady Felrahn. “That’s not the news I wanted to hear. At all. Do we send more reinforcements their way? If we stamp out the invading Imperials harder, can we reduce our losses?”

“Best that we reinforce them immediately after a victory,” answered the High Admiral. “Sending in another fleet now would certainly increase the damage we take. Only spread out among the ships.”

“And it would leave the Felrahn core systems completely open,” added the Hegemony Counselor. “If we get anxious at the mere thought, imagine what the populace would think.”

“We’re in a war, Counselor,” replied the old woman. “Swaying their opinion would be child’s play right now.”

“I’m with the Counselor,” said the High Admiral. “We’re already stretched to the absolute limit. Beyond it, honestly. If we emptied the core systems, we’d only be exposing our weaknesses to our own people. We wait for victory, swap out fleets, lick our wounds. It’s the only way we’ve got forward right now.”

“And what if we lose FGIC Two? What then?”

The old woman didn’t receive an answer from anyone. Not that she needed one. She had impressed the entire system’s importance enough times already.

“Now,” the old crone continued, “I propose we rearrange-”

As she gave her orders on what to do next, a heavy klaxon rang through the room. It was loud enough to completely drown everything out, though it only lasted for a few seconds. At the same time, numerous alerts flashed on the central tacmap.

–

ALERT

Location: Vencal System

Notice: Primary teleport beacon over Rhylen Terra has been compromised.

–

ALERT

Location: Rhylen Terra

Notice: Primary orbital station and defensive fleet identify hostile Imperial vessel signals in local space.

–

Everyone around the table went completely pale on seeing all of the alerts come through. Then came the numerous warnings right after – that the defensive fleet and orbital station was under direct attack.

And it was all happening hundreds of kilometers high above their heads.

Their collective worst-case scenario had finally come to reality. The Drogar Empire was right at their doorstep.

The High Admiral was the first to act. He quickly reached out frantically, and adjusted the tacmap to show the space above Rhylen Terra.

Just like every invading Imperial fleet, this one also had 1 carrier, 2 battleships, 15 cruisers, 30 destroyers, and 80 frigates. Fighters and drones began to spill out of the carrier, and their numbers were estimated to be in the hundreds.

And since the Felrahn had already deployed half the fleet guarding the planet, they were only left with 1 carrier, 1 battleship, 12 cruisers, 18 destroyers, and 40 frigates. Of course, they were supported by the orbital station, which had hundreds of turrets.

Plus they had thousands of fighters and mecha and drones at their disposal, in the carrier, around the station, and also on the ground itself.

“Thank the gods we invested in our planetary defense network,” muttered the High Admiral. “We can still win this.”

“Y-yes,” said Lady Felrahn.

She was visibly shaken by the sudden appearance of the Imperial ships. Her fear was heightened by the fact that she very nearly emptied out their only defenses. Had she issued the order to reinforce the line a few minutes earlier, the Imperial would have met zero resistance in the system.

“We poured hundreds of trillions into developing them,” the old woman continued. “This would be a great showcase of their power. Prepare the city’s defense systems.”

“Yes ma’am,” said an officer.

“Is no-one going to ask how the Drogar got to us?” the Hegemony Counselor cried out. “We’re dozens of systems away from the front! There’s no way they could have gotten our coordinates that quickly!”

“They clearly broke through our code,” said the High Admiral. “They likely punched through any of our digital defenses while they suppressed our capital ships’ port modules. They’re a single hop away from the navigational intelligence, after all.”

“That’s not a very comforting answer!”

“It appears to be a series of strategic maneuvers, sirs, ma’am,” a tactician added. “We now estimate with a 73% probability that the Imperial Navy engineered this outcome.”

This greatly alarmed everyone around the table. Lady Felrahn especially.

And it dawned on her slowly that they were indeed outmaneuvered. She cursed loudly at her foolishness. At their combined foolishness. Every move that the Drogar had made was calculated for them to win the battle.

Even if it meant losing a handful of battleships along the way.

The fear in the room shot through the roof the moment the tacmap lit up with more alerts and warnings. It wasn’t just because the Drogar fleet finally engaged with their own defensive fleet.

It was because a second Drogar fleet ported into the system.

And unlike the first Imperial fleet, they completely ignored the defensive fleet, and began to head down to the planet below. Straight towards them, at the capital.

“Activate Rhylen Terra’s Surface Defense System! Fire initial barrage!” cried the High Admiral.

The ground rumbled all over the capital megacity as emergency klaxons filled the streets. People ran to their homes, or to shops, or to anywhere indoors – it hardly mattered where. Armed city guards and soldiers ushered everyone to safety as fast as they could.

Spread out equidistant from each other were massive military facilities nestled among the rest of the normal city buildings.

Each and every single one of the facilities were themselves gargantuan buildings that were nearly 5 kilometers tall. Their exteriors appeared to be like the rest of the city around them, but were clearly simple disguises.

Anyone who looked close enough could see the heavy armor plating beneath the false facades. And, of course, the numerous military personnel that guarded its highly secure entrances all around.

Many wondered what was contained in them, and theorized all sorts of weapons and mecha and drones.

Only a handful guessed correctly – each one was a massive cannon. Or, more precisely, each one housed a massive cannon.

Each of the building’s ceilings slid open like an aperture. Massive cannons rose up from the depths, from the numerous disguised military facilities across the city itself.

The cannons were well and truly the largest the citizens of Rhylen Terra had ever seen. They were larger than what most humans in the galaxy had ever seen. In fact, they were as long as some carriers – their barrels ran over 2 kilometers in length.

Their primary ammunition were shells the size of frigates, which certainly promised to shatter battleship armor with ease.

The few dozen cannons scattered across the city were certainly more than enough to present a major threat to the invading Drogar. It didn’t matter how advanced their chitin was – they wouldn’t be able to sustain the damage these guns could cause.

Each of the massive guns swiveled slowly and carefully on their turret mounts, as they angled their impossibly long barrels towards their targets high above.

Their internal electromagnetic circuits lit up brightly as energy coursed through them. Then, with a wave of energy, shot forward gigantic sabot rounds into the sky.

The ground itself shook violently from the magnetic recoil, and people were thrown around from the force. Those closest to the facilities felt the magnetic forces flow through their bodies, and almost literally felt the iron in their blood get pushed away.

Streaks of superheated air trailed after the spinning sabot rounds. Fire erupted along their paths as the sheer friction caused the oxygen to combust. The sabot itself split apart halfway to their targets and broke away.

Then, they smashed into the incoming Imperial ships dozens of kilometers above. The spinning armor-piercing shells struck the chitin squarely, and caused large chunks to break off. Some cracks also spread from a few points of impact, but not many.

Unfortunately, because they were still so far away, and because their targets were at an incredibly steep angle high above, the shells did little damage. They had simply lost too much kinetic energy on their way up.

But the High Admiral was hopeful. Seeing the damage reports fill the tacmap gave him confidence in their defensive array.

After all, the closer the Drogar came in, the more damage their guns would do. Or in other words, the sabot rounds would retain more kinetic energy before impact.

“Reload all guns,” he commanded. “Prepare to fire another volley. This time, hold until they cross the 10 kilometer mark, then fire in unison.”

Outside, the guns glowed as they charged up once again, and their barrels swiveled slowly as they bore down on their targets once again. Each made slow, deliberate, and minute adjustments as every second passed by.

Then, once the incoming Drogar passed the mark, they fired once again. Another wave of energy swept out and launched the devastating sabot rounds into the air. Incredible amounts of magnetic recoil struck the city a second time, and pushed everything down just a little bit more.

The rounds smashed into the Imperial capital ships once again, but this time the damage they caused was much greater.

Most struck the Imperial capital ships on their thick bow chitin, and shattered them to pieces. Large chunks of their armor were blasted right off, and long cracks spread across what armor remained.

It didn’t take long for those shards to rain down on the city itself, and smash into everything exposed to the sky. The larger chunks utterly annihilated hoppers and small vehicles, while the smaller shards punched into the ground, or into walls and ceilings.

And like some kind of biblical hailstorm of death, cut down countless civilians hiding in the city buildings. Shards of superhardened chitin literally sliced through their bodies and cut them down where they stood.