Ravens of Eternity

345 The Star Dragon, Pt The Corvus Republic ported in with a blinding flash of light at the Sorellus port beacon, along with numerous others all around. Like them, there were all manner of combat ships porting into the area, ready to help defend the planet, and the 5th Fleet.

Besides the Republic, there were a couple of cruisers, a handful of destroyers, and more than a dozen frigates. They were accompanied by a healthy swarm of fighters and mecha – though they numbered less than a hundred total.

In comparison to the massive fleet a few kilometers in front of them, they were pitiful.

Some in the ragtag fleet were filled with raw fear as they saw the Federation’s numbers. They practically died on the spot when the third wave arrived at the front lines, and joined the rest of the ships assaulting the carrier.

Their sensors now counted 13 cruisers, 38 destroyers, and 127 frigates in the orbital station’s airspace. And all of them were hammering the massive carrier.

Both sides exchanged streams of fire – cannons and slugs and rockets and beams. They threw absolutely everything they had, and tore each other to pieces. There were also hundreds of frigates and fighters and mecha and drones slugging it out in numerous swarms all over.

Every single one of the First Feathers looked at the sight in front of them in awe – not one of them had seen a fight that big. Not a real one, anyway.

They were stunned by the absolute madness that was happening in front of them. Ships were wrecked by the second, and people died by the dozens.

“We’re going up against all that?” Xylo said, aghast. “Are we allowed to change our minds?”

.....

No-one wanted to answer her, or could. Even if they wanted to. The only thing they decided to do was simply move forward, towards all the fighting.

And as they approached, Captain Verault connected to their ships directly, and came on their comms displays. This time, he looked a bit more harried than before.

“Thank you, fleets of the Hegemony,” he said as calmly as he could muster, “it is an incredible honor to-”

“Cut the nonsense!” interrupted the admiral.

He took over communications from his own officer with a cough, then spoke to the incoming fleet directly.

“We’ll exchange pleasantries later,” he told everyone. “If there is a later.”

A few of the incoming mercenary captains were overawed at seeing the high admiral himself.

“The Star Dragon!” one of them muttered into the comms. “Tell us what you need done, and we’ll do it!”

“No heroics,” the admiral replied. “Simply keep the carrier protected.”

As he spoke, he highlighted a few sections of space flanking the carrier, and sent it to everyone’s star maps.

“The carrier needs immediate relief along its starboard flank,” he continued. “Enemy combatants have concentrated their efforts on disabling the portside bays, so we need to heavily protect the other side to prevent their loss as well.”

“What if we recognize a weakness in the enemy formation?” Lucifer prodded. “Can we take the opportunity to attack?”

“You! You’re part of the Corvus Republic. What in the nine hells are any of you doing in here? You know you shouldn’t be in any of the conflict sectors!”

“We’re here to help,” Freya retorted. “Shouldn’t that be enough? Or would you rather we turn back now?”

The admiral grimaced. There was no way he would turn down even a sliver of help. Even if all they brought with them was a single fighter.

“Fine,” he said after a moment. “Form up. But like I said, no heroics. Stick to our flank, and don’t lead any assaults into the enemy lines. Our objective is to keep the orbital station and the planet below safe. Full defensive measures only, am I understood?!”

“You’ve got a deal,” Freya answered.

“Do we at least get some sort of compensation for our efforts?” pressed Lucifer. “We’re all putting ourselves through a massive risk here!”

A few of the other ship captains murmured in agreement, though quietly.

“I’ll do my best to make sure you’re rewarded,” the admiral groaned. “Assuming any of us are still alive at the end.”

Though none of the ships were reassured by any promise of a reward, they still made their way towards the zones that the admiral directed them to.

And just as they got halfway, slugs and shells began to fly in their direction. Various guns on the cruisers and destroyers began to bombard them more and more. The smaller ships of the Republic hid behind the destroyers, whose armor plating was more than robust enough to repel most of the Republic’s weapons.

Even the destroyers’ rail cannon sabot rounds couldn’t get through – they simply shattered against the armor, and left mere dents in their wake. And thanks to Raijin’s optimizations, repaired themselves nearly to full before the next few rounds struck.

The only weapons that could do actual damage were the Federation cruiser’s largest broadside cannons, but they were currently purely focused on the carrier.

Although their destroyers could easily weather the damage, the rest of the ragtag fleet couldn’t. Any that struck left huge dents on their armor plating, and pushed them around from the force.

Worse, dozens of enemy fighters began to head in their direction, along with their supporting frigates. They all came in with their guns blazing, as though they weren’t even bothering to aim. They simply filled the space between them with munitions, and hoped that most of them struck their marks.

And some did.

With the exception of the Republic’s ships, their armor was dented by the Federation’s assault ships with varying severity. Most of the ships in the fleet swerved and evaded in the nick of time. Any shots that still hit lodged into their armor or caused a few dents, but were otherwise minor enough to ignore. For now.

Some of the less experienced fighters and frigates were quickly torn apart, and reduced to little more than slag floating in space.

All of the ships in the Republic could more easily ignore the incoming fire from the smaller ships and frigates. They had all since upgraded their ships to use A-ranked nanoreactive armor plating, and could easily weather the majority of weapons fire in their ship class.

Certainly, the basic C-ranked weapons that the Federation was employing, such as frigate cannons and fighter chainguns, posed little to no threat to them.

The Viridian Nautilus and the Stalwart Fiddler had no problems peeking out from behind their destroyer cover, and blanketed the area around them with anti armor flak. Their turrets spun in multiple directions as targeting data from the Accursed Bootlegger came in and informed their targeting intelligences.

They preemptively peppered their enemies’ paths with red-hot razor-sharp shards, and allowed them to simply fly into them. Federation armor was simply no match against the Republic’s weapon systems, which had all been tweaked and optimized by Lucifer and Raijin combined.

The flak ripped into their armor and chassis and bodies viciously as they passed through. Many exploded from being ripped apart, while others simply spun out into the distance as the pilot died an agonizing and slow death.

But they weren’t the only ships to fire their guns – the Republic’s destroyers also fired their broadside guns at the incoming Federation ships.

They focused their weapons on the dozens of frigates headed their way, and fired numerous shells right into them. Their cannons ripped into the frigates’ armor with ease, and tore them open as though they were made of tin.

Some punched straight into their power planets, and ruptured them violently.

Lucifer sniffed indifferently as the Fleet tore apart the Federation ships all around them. Handfuls of frigates and dozens of fighters were torn to shreds with such ease that ze was almost bored with it all.

What worried hir far more was the carrier itself.

Though it was clear that the carrier had blasted apart even more of the enemy since they arrived, it wasn’t nearly enough to even their odds.

Readings and data from Maetel’s Lament showed that their topside armor was likely down to half strength. It was heavily dented and warped in many places, and huge gaping holes were present in others.

Its armor was gouged out and blown apart, seemingly where turrets used to be, and the remains of numerous mecha were scattered in the space surrounding. The sight was utterly grim, like looking at the remains of a bombed-out building.

Ze zoomed out on hir TacMap in frustration, and observed the enemy fleet with a keen eye. Their specifications and loadouts scrolled in the space next to hir, which ze reviewed with incredible speed.

And as ze studied them, saw the weaknesses in their design. Ze also saw weaknesses in their positioning and their coverage. Ze saw the path that they could take to eliminate their enemies.

Then, ze sent it out to the rest.

“We can take them out,” ze said resolutely. “If we charge here and here, then strike these four cruisers. We open these up, and we open up the rest of their fleet for the carrier to take down.”

But unlike many skirmishes before, the others shot hir proposal down.

“It’s brilliant,” said Xylo, “but we can’t do it. We’ve gotta stick by the admiral on this one.”

“I agree,” added Freya. “There’s too much at stake to charge forward right now.”

Lucifer was aghast at what ze was hearing. They came all the way out here to do something, and now they had their chance to turn the tides, they refused. What was going on?

“What am I hearing?” ze exclaimed. “I get that there’s a whole lot of ships out there, but we can slip through and assassinate them! We’ve got Raijin’s stealth disruption on our side – we could use that to wreck the Feds.”

“No, we really should hold our flanking position like the admiral ordered,” Freya retorted. “And it’s not that we don’t believe you – I definitely do. But this fight’s bigger than us, and I’m sensing it’s bigger than the 5th Fleet. We need to remain in solidarity with each other, if we’re all going to pull through this mess.”

Lucifer grumbled in defiance, annoyed that Freya herself countered hir. That ze still didn’t have the absolute freedom to act, even though ze was part of a nation-state.

“We’ve got the will and the power and the capability to act, right now,” ze protested. “Why shouldn’t we take the opportunity?”

“It’s one thing if it was just us two, acting on our whims and wild natures,” Freya answered. “But it isn’t. Like what’s been said before, we’ve got too many people to protect – on our ships, on that station, on the planet below, in the entire sector.

That hardly satisfied Lucifer, and ze was about to retort when another set of ships flashed in the space behind them – two sections of the 5th Hegemony Fleet had finally returned from their mission to destroy the repair yard.

And were now here to reinforce the carrier.

Their thrusters pushed forward at the maximum, and sped towards the orbital station as fast as they could go. Despite their appearance, however, most were hardly relieved. Even with them on the field, their capital ships were still outnumbered two to one.”

“I’ve got a better idea anyway,” Freya continued. “You oughta be advising the Star Dragon instead. Why risk our ships when he’s got plenty?”