Ravens of Eternity

315 Fleet of the Corvus Republic

One Week Later

The sleek and powerful destroyer slowly flew up and away from St. Jakque’s star harbor towers. She was joined by three corvettes, a dozen mecha, and a half dozen fighters.

Emblazoned on each and every single one of the ships was the seal of the Corvus Republic – a black silhouette of a raven’s head, whose eye was bright purple and aggressively angled.

Tens of thousands of people watched the nation-state from the star harbor’s observation decks, and cheered heartily for their success. They watched as it flew higher and higher into the sky, until they disappeared from sight altogether.

The fleet itself was fairly grand, in comparison to what they were previously.

They still had the Spirit of Amelia and the Accursed Bootlegger, but they also spent a majority of their ducats into acquiring the others. Most of it went into the destroyer, of course. But a good portion also went into refurbishing and updating their original two corvettes.

The Spirit of Amelia had been converted into a medical corvette, and her entire cargo section had been retrofitted into a well-equipped field hospital. It had been split up into three sections, specifically.

The smallest section was a highly sterilized and sealed room with three medical pods in them. It was designed to treat anyone with any kind of contagion. The largest section had been turned into a general clinic floor, and it held nine medical pods.

Each of the dozen pods were technological marvels, and were considered among the best medical devices available in the Hegemony. The Ravens certainly spared no expense in getting them. If they were going to get hurt, they needed to make sure that they could be stitched together as efficiently as possible.

.....

These pods were designed to fully enclose the patient, where swarms of nanites could potentially rebuild their bodies using genetically stored data.

There were a couple of MedTechs in training that were doing their best to further optimize and maintain the pods. They pored over the equipment and made sure everything was in top condition.

In the third and final section, First Feather Azrael settled herself into her lab’s terminals, and activated the entire thing with the tap of a finger. Though the section was about as large as the quarantine room, she found it was more than enough for her needs.

One one side of the room were a handful of analysis and pharmaceutical equipment, while the other side held the materials recycler and two different sizes of medical printers. In the center was the controlling platform, which was encircled by multiple terminals.

Azrael smiled happily as her systems connected with each other, then she began to work on her next project.

Of course, the Ravens had long since cleared Amelia’s habitation of their stuff – this was now meant for her new crew. She had an all-new pilot, copilot, and engineer on the bridge.

The Accursed Bootlegger had also gone through a major overhaul. Half of her cargo bay had also been converted, though instead of a medical bay it was an intelligence hub. There were more than a dozen terminals around the walls, though there were only a handful of analysts seated at them.

All along the walls were numerous screens and monitors, all of which reflected what information was displayed on the terminals themselves.

And in the very center of the room was a robust TacMap that displayed the fleet as it was currently. First Feather Lucifer walked around it in admiration, and tweaked its settings to hir preference.

Ze also wore a massive grin on hir face, and the absolute ecstasy etched on it didn’t seem to want to fade away.

The corvette also had a new pilot and copilot, though there wasn’t any space for an engineer on the bridge. But they did restore the small hab just behind the bridge, which was comfortable enough for four.

The next biggest change was also that the Ravens had opened up its sealed weapons port and installed a turret mount there. However, instead of installing a weapon in the turret, they instead attached a robust sensor cluster, then armored it lightly.

Because it was on a turret mount on top of the ship, they could angle it in any direction they needed, and could get any readings they desired. Of course, this meant they no longer had a near-zero emissions field, but they were still lower than every other ship in the fleet.

In fact, its signal was about as visible as the six fighters that flew right alongside it.

Those fighters were captained by First Feather Xylo, and were comprised of ships based on Lucifer’s Locust, which was essentially a stealth superiority fighter. They were incredibly nimble, lightly armed, and had low signals. Each one also had one large gun integrated into their chassis, but nothing else beyond that.

They were designed to slip into enemy space undetected, blast apart their target, then slip away.

Despite their low armor and armament, they could still hold their own in a skirmish against other fighters. Their mobility and agility helped ensure their superiority over their opponents.

This allowed the corvette and the fighter wing to scout ahead of the main fleet, do damage where they could, and remain well hidden regardless.

The third and newest corvette was more utilitarian than the others, and was designated as the fleet’s science vessel. Thankfully, its design was far newer, and far more advanced than the other two corvettes. Though in turn it barely had a cargo hold to speak of.

Instead, the majority of its interior space was a technical laboratory. In the very center were four design and development tables laid out in a square grid. Each one had antigrav fields, robotic assistance arms, and design terminals attached on the sides.

One of them even had a cluster of circuits and parts floating in its field.

Off along one side of the lab were a number of material printers, each one sized differently, and designed for specific kinds of parts and materials. Some dealt only with metals, while others dealt with synthetic polymers. Another combined the output between printers.

On the other side of the printers were huge containers filled with raw materials, which were fed into those printers via antigrav drones.

First Feather Raijin floated among the equipment, and connected to each of them through a hovering terminal that followed beside her as she went up and down her lab. Also in her lab were a quartet of her new assistants – two engineers and two coders, specifically.

Each of them gathered around one of the design tables, and began to work together to build what seemed to be a large drone.

Raijin had named her corvette Maetel’s Lament, based on her mother’s absolute favorite manga from when she was Raijin’s age.

She considered it her tribute to her family back on Earth.

The corvette also had her own dedicated pilot and copilot pair. Of course, they didn’t need their own engineer, considering there were a number of them aboard already.

The fourth and largest ship to the fleet was a sleek and curvy destroyer, which they aptly named the Raven’s Refuge. The destroyer itself was created by the de Jardins, specifically by their official ship manufacturing branch of the family, NeutroDrive Galactic.

And although she was technically a destroyer-class ship, she wasn’t nearly as heavily armed as a military destroyer. She still had a good amount of turrets and gun emplacements – ten on each of her broadsides – but far less missile pods and AA mounts than normal.

This was simply because of the ship’s expanded hangar bays, which were inset above and below the ship itself. Each one was large enough to hold a dozen mecha and a dozen fighters each, which was more than enough for their current complement.

They knew that they needed the flexibility to expand their skirmish-class vessels, and the best way was to get a ship with large hangars. The Raven’s Refuge was perfect for this.

But that was far from the only difference. This destroyer was also more civilian-oriented, rather than military. Where its central command and intelligence deck normally would be was instead fitted with a township deck.

This was because the Corvus Republic had both a crew and a civilian population – they all had to live somewhere. Even the crews on the other vessels had a hab on the Raven’s Refuge, despite the fact that they also had temporary habs in the ship they served on.

The township deck was rather spacious and comfortable – there were dozens of villa-like habs on one end of it. Each one was large enough to house six people comfortably. Eight if they became pressed for space. There was also a lounge, an eatery, a quaint theater, and a couple of small shops. There was plenty for all to do.

Up on the bridge, Rear Admiral Aurora took her seat on the captain’s chair and glanced up at the star maps displayed on the screens in front of her. Then she called out to the dozen or so officers behind their terminals, and ordered their next destination.

In a spacious room behind the bridge was the beating heart of the Republic itself – the Operations Nexus. Despite its fanciful name, this large office-like room was actually far more utilitarian than normal. It held numerous databanks inside of climate-controlled enclosures all down one of the walls.

On the wall opposite was literally covered in various screens, with each one displaying all sorts of statuses regarding fleet health. And in orderly rows in front of those screens were a number of workspaces and terminals, where a half dozen staff monitored absolutely everything.

In the very center overlooking it all was a rather large desk with numerous terminals on it.

There, First Feather Claire watched over the Corvus Republic, and made sure they all flew smoothly.

Flying alongside the destroyer were a dozen heavily armed and armored mecha. They were split into two wings holding six mecha each.

The first wing was captained by First Feather Kali. She, along with everyone in the wing, piloted the four-armed Rakshasa chassis. And just like Kali, they were each equipped with machine pistols and devastating two-handed melee weapons.

There were two who wielded greataxes, two with greatswords, and two with great mauls. The wing’s aggressiveness was written right on their highly damaging loadouts.

On the other side of the destroyer was the second wing. This one was captained by First Feather Freya, and similar to Kali’s wing, these held a loadout similar to their captain. Each one was a Varulv, and they were equipped with coilspears and tower shields.

Where their loadouts differed was with their shoulder mounts and sidearms. A couple had beamcannons while the others had chainguns or missile pods.

If Kali’s wing was designed to annihilate, then Freya’s wing was designed to defend.

“Alright Ravens, it’s time to take to the stars,” Freya told the fleet, “Let’s see what trouble the Corvus Republic can get into.”

~~Author’s Notes~~

Hey all! Hope you’re enjoying the story so far! I took a week vacation from writing the book, so FYI there will be no chapters next week. Apologies for the inconvenience, but I really needed the break. Have a great week!