Ravens of Eternity

94 Chaos Theory, Pt Merlin flew over to Valos’ heavy frigate as his fighter escort easily polished off the drones that were chasing him. He swooped over to the frigate’s armored belly, and slowed as he came closer.

And when he reached a certain distance, portions of the armor slid aside and folded into each other. As they retracted, a shallow docking collar just beneath the surface was revealed.

He eased his fighter into position just under the collar, and slowly slid up into it so that he was partially nestled in the frigate itself. Magnetic locks kept the fighter in exactly the right place as huge rubberized seals inflated between them and formed a seal.

There was a long HISS as the fighter’s cockpit pressurized to the frigate’s internal atmosphere.

A mix of smells filled Merlin’s nose, from acrid machine grease to freshly-fired ultraglycerin. And when his fighter’s armor and core opened up, those smells hit him like a brick. It was exactly how he expected any potent warship to smell.

“Big guns and big gears,” he cood.

Beyond that, he had never been on a Terra Nach Mar heavy frigate before and was in absolute awe. Of course, he had seen its design when he played Bellum Aeterna, but it was always from the outside.

Though the design on the inside was much like the outside: raw, powerful angles that spoke of a rugged, no-nonsense build. And that pragmatic approach was etched into every single centimeter. Function was placed much higher over form, that much was clear.

It wasn’t the prettiest design in the galaxy, but it didn’t need to win any beauty pageants. It needed to win wars.

.....

Up above, Templar Valos walked up and down his bridge at a strong and even pace. He looked over his officers’ shoulders as they worked to coordinate the entire battle from their stations. For the most part, everything was going well.

“Templar,” said an officer, “the other captains report that the patrol drones in their sectors have been wrecked. They’re now all getting into position.”

“Good. Once everyone’s confirmed, begin phase three of the plan. Have all fighters tighten up formation and return to escort duties.”

“Yessir!”

Just as the frigates began to move, some of the smaller asteroids all around the field broke open. Parts of them extended out, folded over, and exposed the machinery underneath. Entire sections twisted and turned against each other, opened up, and reformed themselves.

Their outer shells parted from their central core slightly, and revealed their true, mechanical nature underneath.

Gleaming grey barrels extended out from within as low-powered thrusters turned the immobile asteroids towards the closest pirate ship.

Alarms blared on everyone’s terminals moments after the asteroids began firing on them.

“What the hell?” cried an officer. “Weapon emplacements in the turrets!”

Every fighter and frigate scrambled into evasive maneuvers as they found themselves targets of the surprise attack. Asteroids all around them had transformed and pounded them with relentless cannon fire.

Fighters were struck by the heavy shells and torn to pieces in an instant. Some exploded after their power plants cracked and their energy burst forth.

The frigates were significantly sturdier, but they weren’t immune. Their armor dented with every solid hit.Though they were able to tank them to some degree, no way would they last long against these guns.

Distracted by the surprise attack, not a single pirate noticed that some of the other asteroids began to transform as well. As they unfolded and loosened, their mechanical structure underneath glowed blue.

A wave of disruptive energy pulsed out of the asteroids and swept through every hostile within range.

The pilots suddenly found their sensors and instruments scrambled all to hell. All their MFDs displayed were garbled images and incoherent readouts. But that wasn’t all.

Their modules and systems began to fail as power spikes overwhelmed their systems. And while their ships naturally slowed as their systems restarted and recalibrated, they became easy prey to the cannon turrets all around.

Power quickly restored itself as the wave passed on beyond, but the damage was done, and a fair amount of ships were turned to scrap.

And then, just as they recovered, the asteroids pulsed another disruption wave. It was followed by a relentless assault from the cannon asteroids.

“Sir, we’re taking a beating!”

“All ships,” yelled Valos, “decrease power usage thirty percent across the board. Double power to repairs and thrusters. Use asteroids as cover. Focus forward sensors, lock in frequencies! And get outta this fuckin’ moat!”

Every ship in his fleet followed his instructions to the T. Their armor began to repair and they surged forward as they adjusted their power. And by concentrating energy output on only the front-facing sensors, they were able to reduce the effects of the disruption waves.

Because they focused on getting out, they were beat on relentlessly by the asteroid guns. Without side or rear sensors, they couldn’t even fire back. And so, they lost many fighters along the way.

They eventually pushed through the field and away from the hidden turrets. Their fleet was beaten all to hell. The frigates’ armor smouldered and was covered in blast marks and indentations. Many of the fighters were banged up.

And though their sensors recovered as their armor stitched itself back together, they didn’t get much of a reprieve.

Waiting for them as they exited the asteroid field was the Admiral, a handful of frigates, and swarms of drones.

Valos grimaced.

“So they just softened us up, huh? Then they’re gonna swoop in for the kill. At least, I bet that’s what they planned. Numbers.’

“Sir,” said an officer. “Four Federal Shipyards heavy frigates, standard loadout. Eighteen hundred accompanying fast-attack drones, custom unranked, mixed loadouts.”

“Our side?”

“About seventy-one bit vacuum, but we’ve still got optimal fighting capacity. They’ve got us two to one in terms of fighter-class ships, though.”

Before Valos could relay any orders, the Admiral came on all of their comms displays. Her face was filled with hard lines, and she looked ready to kill.

“This is Admiral Chase of the Federation Navy. You’ve encroached on Class V Restricted space, and in violation of Federal Statute ROC-54 Alpha. The punishment for which is immediate neutralization. However, I’m giving you this one chance to surrender.”

Valos tsk’d.

“Look at this haughty bitch. Don’t even respond to her Federation bullshit. Just shoot. All frigates – support your fighters... And charge!”

The pirates advanced directly towards the Admiral. Both drones and fighters surged towards each other, their guns blazing.

Streams of fire flew into both sides, and perforated multiple fighters and drones all at once. And when the two sides crashed into each other, it became an all-out brawl. The superfast drones swarmed around the fighters and shot through them with exacting precision.

Fighter chassis were torn apart as bullets ripped into their armor. Two drones focused their fire on one pirate’s starboard lateral thrusters, and tore it right out of its socket. Without it, the fighter began to corkscrew out of control.

The pirate threw his stick around in an attempt to regain control of his ship, but it was no use. In fact, the more he struggled, the faster the thing spun.

He smashed nose first into an asteroid and exploded as the power plant ruptured violently.

Though the pirates were given a massive beating, not a single one of them took it lying down. They too doled out heaps of punishment, and massacred many of the drones. Those things might have been faster and lighter, but they were also far more fragile.

It only took a few well-placed shots for them to spin out and explode.

Pirate wings simply tightened their formations and picked off the drones one by one by one. At the same time, the frigates fired on every drone within range. Since their armor was too robust, they could sit amidst all the fighting with impunity.

Their turrets swiveled as they speedily tracked the drones’ flight with ease. Accurate bursts of chaingun fire mangled the flimsy drones with relative ease.

“Sitrep,” said the Admiral.

Her voice felt neutral, but she was on edge. The fight wasn’t as one-sided as she had hoped. Though her drones outnumbered the fighters, she had to contend with the dozen frigates in front of her.

She knew that the armament on her fighters weren’t enough to dent their armor, much less puncture it. She could engage with her frigates, but she was outnumbered three to one there.

“Sir, it appears that only half of their fleet have emerged from the asteroid field. Battle analysts predict that they will appear as a second wave to reinforce the lead.”

“Keep our sensors hot and be ready for a counter attack.”

“Admiral,” said another officer. “Casualty report. Pirate forces have suffered over two hundred and fifty casualties so far. We’ve also taken a beating as well, however. Five hundred and thirty four losses, including the two hundred perimeter drones that were out inside the field.”

The Admiral nodded. Although the drones were dropping like flies, she designed them to be inexpensive and easily reprinted. Their strength wasn’t just due to their numbers – it was also in their ease of reinforcement on the field of battle.

They too were her experiments, and seeing them performing in the field already gave her a number of ideas for improvement.

“Have another batch of a thousand printed,” she ordered. “Equip them with twin 50mm cannons, decrease ammunition by at least a quarter, and increase thruster output by ten percent. Also replace their armor weave with Type 7 plating. Let’s see how well they deal with those. What’s the ETA on our pilots?”

“One quarter of our pilots are outside of the base and awaiting orders. Another quarter is gearing up to take off.”

“Have them meet up and advance on the enemy frigates once they’re green. It’ll be a good chance to test out our newest can openers.”

A smile formed on the Admiral’s face. She initially thought that these pirates were going to give her trouble. But instead, she found the perfect testbed for some of her experimental weapons.

And who better than to use them on than some lawless pirate scum?