Ravens of Eternity

383 Devastation, Pt Valkyrie squadron flew straight through the glowing atmospheric shielding and right into the hangar bay itself. Their plasma lances tore into any active turrets and drones, even as the few remaining drogar pilots scrambled to their fighters and mecha.

Not that many got a chance to even lift off and fight back.

Freya charged at a half-ready mecha still standing in its station. She thrust her Gungnir forward and jammed it into the mecha’s open core, and pinned its pilot to the seat. One moment later, she yanked her spear free, which caused the pilot’s blood to gush outwards.

More importantly, she completely neutralized the mecha by wrecking its piloting core.

Nearby, another mecha had powered up completely, and ambled out of its station. Its pilot didn’t hesitate to equip its underslung rifle, and opened fire on Freya’s Varulv.

Slugs charged with dark orange energies slammed into her shield and her armor with incredible force – more than enough to stagger her backwards. But instead of tearing into her armor easily, the hyperionized submodules mostly negated the slugs’ energy payload.

And that served to greatly neutralize their lethality.

Without the disintegrating energy field around them, the slugs acted like simple kinetic weapons, and merely dented and scratched any armor they struck.

The Imperial pilot’s eyes went wide in surprise, and was about to charge in. But he never got the chance. He barely had time to blink when Kali charged him with her Planetcracker above her head.

.....

She swung her omnitronium greathammer with incredible force down onto the mecha’s shoulder, and practically obliterated it. The chitin was pulverized and shattered by her blow, and massive cracks spread all throughout it.

Though that first impact was only the beginning.

Kali’s Planetcracker automatically adjusted itself to the chitin, and began to vibrate at an exact frequency. One specifically meant to further break apart Imperial mecha armor. So when she struck again, the damage was even more devastating.

A second swipe of her hammer caused the mecha’s hip to shatter completely, and its protective chitin crumbled to fine dust.

The mecha itself was thrown to the side with incredible force and slammed onto the hangar floor.

And while Kali brought her hammer back up to finish off her opponent, her hammer again reconfigured its resonant frequency. This time, it also took into account the exoframe and mechanisms and systems beneath the chitin, and adjusted for that.

It was all over before she even brought her hammer back down.

She slammed it onto the downed mecha with such brutal force that the chitin blew apart in every direction, as though it was made of glass. The exoframe underneath crumpled and caved inward in an instant, and crushed the hapless pilot inside.

Valkyrie and Maharathi squadrons swept through the hangar with speed and decisiveness, and completely neutralized it while taking minimal damage. And as Freya cut down the last Imperial fighter with her plasma lance, the Accursed Bootlegger swooped into the hangar itself.

The corvette lowered itself onto one of the many landing pads and opened up its deployment bay shortly after. Xylo and her commandos quickly charged out, filled with the need to eradicate anyone in their way.

“We’re going in,” Xylo announced. “My squad – weapons free.”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Lucifer added. “Freya, Kali. You two need to take Valkyrie and Maharathi squadrons back to help protect the Republic. Our cruiser’s getting hit by their mecha, pretty hard.”

Lucifer and hir team of a dozen analysts and tacticians jogged down the ramp right after Xylo’s commandos. All of them were lightly armed with pistols and SMGs, and wore highly agile light armor. But the most important part of their kit were their portable and personal tacmaps, which most of them held in their offhand.

Lucifer’s was held aloft by one of Raijin’s old cottonball drones. It floated by hir side at all times.

“What about you two?” Freya asked. “Who’s gonna watch your backs?”

“Don’t worry about us,” said Xylo. “We’ve got this.”

“Yeah, look who you’re talking to,” joked Lucifer. “Now get outta here and make yourselves useful.”

Both Freya and Kali chortled, then blasted out of the hangar.

Their squadrons followed up right behind them, and dashed out of the Imperial battleship as well. They re-entered the battle outside, and charged straight towards the Republic’s unnamed cruiser.

At the same time, Xylo and her commandos ran further into the battleship with their heavy bullpup rifles at the high ready. Their heavy steps thundered down the passageways and caused the deck’s floor to shake.

More than that, they completely annihilated anyone who stood in their way, whether it was armed security or surprised crew. Regardless of who it was, the commandos fired bursts of their rifles and tore them apart with incredible precision.

The five-round bursts slammed into their chests and heads, and obliterated any drogar they punctured. It hardly mattered if they were heavily armored, or not at all – their plasma-coated tungsten rounds ripped through almost everything they struck.

And while Xylo and her commandos barreled through everything in their path, Lucifer and hir tacticians and analysts ran a dozen meters behind.

They passed by the numerous dead Imperials around them, and save for Lucifer, balked at the blood. Most hardly ever were on the front lines like this, and simply weren’t used to seeing any of it up close.

But they shook their anxieties aside as best they could, and concentrated on the screens in their hands. On them were the various fleets they watched over, from the capital ships and cruisers, to the destroyers and frigates, to the mecha and fighters.

Outside, Valkyrie and Maharathi squadrons raced over to their cruiser. Its exterior was covered with dozens of Imperial fighters and mecha, all of whom peppered the armor with their missiles and beams.

The imperial fighters were mostly entangled with a number of Raijin’s hawk drones, which she was controlling directly. In fact, she was controlling all of her drones directly, but they were scattered all around the battle itself.

They were all protecting the various ships in their fleet, and she was doing her absolute best to help keep the fighters at bay. She was doing incredibly well, and tore at the fighters bit by bit with every moment that passed.

After all, her hawk drones’ plasma lances and needle bolts were more than enough to rip the fighters apart. They dug into Imperial chitin with enough efficiency to wreck them. What worked against her was her hawk drones’ relatively light armor.

Like most drone armor, they were relatively simple and didn’t have submodules installed to help counteract Imperial disintegration beams.

But what she did have was the debris field all around Maetel’s Lament.

Dozens of her antigrav drones pulled in various detritus from everything around her ship, and added them to her materials recycler. From there, they were fed straight into the drone printer, then deployed out of the drone bay.

Despite the fact that the drones in the fleet were annihilated by the dozen every second, Raijin did her best to churn out more and more. Swarms of her hawk drones harassed Imperial fighters and picked them apart relentlessly.

But because they took most of her focus, the Imperial mecha were able to do their work mostly unimpeded.

Their corrosion missiles were incredibly potent against the Hegemony. Even the Republic’s hardy nanoreactive armor wouldn’t be able to last long against a prolonged barrage.

The Imperial pilots maneuvered their mecha expertly over the unnamed cruiser’s armored hull, and locked numerous targets scattered all around. There were armored sensor clusters and rail cannons and thrusters galore.

They could hardly resist firing their missiles, which streamed out by the dozens. The corrosion missiles smashed against their targets and broke into pieces. And in doing so, released caustic clouds all around, which immediately began to eat away at everything.

The metals in the armor plating were affected most, and literally dissolved down into carbon lattices. Numerous rail cannon frames also dissolved from the attack, which caused their barrels to literally break apart.

Their thrusters were also affected to some degree, and their metal compounds were eaten away. This easily reduced the cruiser’s maneuverability.

But before the Imperial pilots could launch another devastating attack, streams of plasma beams stopped them short.

Freya and her Valkyrie squadron charged straight in with their plasma lances on full blast, and utterly devastated the mecha’s chitin. Some were strong enough that they completely tore through the outer layer, and cut into the exoframe below.

One charged shield-first into one of the Imperial mecha, and slammed it into the cruiser’s robust armor. He thrust his Gungnir deep into the mecha’s side, and further split its heavily cracked chitin. Then he fired his coilgun and annihilated the Imperial pilot inside, who was reduced to little more than a bloody soup.

Nearby, Freya chased after one of the Imperial mecha. She poured extra power to her plasma lance, and bit deep into his chitin, even as she maneuvered to keep her aim steady.

No matter how her target maneuvered or moved, and no matter how frantic he tried to get away, she kept the beam locked down on one spot.

The beam itself bore into the chitin and gouged out a blackened hole with every moment that passed. Over the course of a few seconds, she broke through the armor, chewed into the exoframe, and dug deep into the core.

There, the beam of plasma instantly eviscerated the pilot inside, and filled him with pure electrical energy. It coursed through his body in an instant, and immolated him shortly after.

As the pilot was reduced into black ash, his mecha tumbled forward and crashed into the Republic cruiser. Its chitin cracked and shattered into pieces as the mecha itself bounced off and tumbled out into open space.

While Freya and her Valkyrie squadron fended off the fighters around the Republic’s unnamed cruiser, Kali and her Maharathi squadron instead split off to defend their destroyers and frigates.

They were still deep in their fight against the first half of the Imperial skirmishers, and were certainly getting worn down. The Imperial mechas’ corrosion missiles were simply far too effective, and many Hegemony ships in the skirmish flank were forced to pull back to repair.

The Raven’s Refuge and the Blade of Damocles were both right on the front line against the Imperials, and had also taken on a great deal of damage. Near them was the Stalwart Fiddler and Viridian Nautilus, both of whom were busy repairing and rearming the two destroyers with their support drones.

All four ships’ hulls had been breached by the corrosion missiles and some of their crew had been killed.

The Nautilus was also busy providing covering fire against any fighters that came close, and tore them apart with its plasma lances.

Maharathi didn’t even hesitate to get into the mix the second they got to the skirmish flank. They charged straight towards the enemy mecha, and fired their Retribution pistols with near abandon.

Their massive slugs slammed into the Imperial mecha and shattered their chitin on impact. Most dug deep into the exoframe and modules beneath.

Kali and her squadron then came down on the Imperial mecha, hard. They swung down heavily with their Planetcrackers and brought the Imperial offensive against the Republic to an abrupt and violent end.