What War Had Wrought (Rise of the Empire Book 7) Page 16
“A lot of our mining operations are vulnerable; they’ll need to shut down mining ops before they can evacuate,” said Oswald Mein, Commander of Fleets, as Adjutants moved to follow Laura’s orders.
“They will need to hunker down and hope for the best,” Laura said. “We are going to need to move the defense stations to support the First Fleet.”
“The stations can’t move much without the skim drives; once they are moved, they will stay wherever they arrive,” Oswald said.
Laura nodded, agreeing. “We will move them once the fighting starts.” She studied the holo-table for a few moments before turning to Oswald. “How long until Star-Guard One can bring its weapon system online?”
Oswald shook his head. “They are inside Apollo’s corona strain testing their shields; as far as I know, most other systems are offline. They would have to resurface first, then bring the weapons online. Assuming that nothing goes wrong, it would take them maybe twenty hours.”
Laura glanced at the holo, bringing the data about Star-Guard One up. “They are on the other side of the sun; they will be facing Sanctuary in sixteen hours…” Laura said. “Contact them, tell them that they have fifteen hours to bring the station out of the corona and get the weapon online.”
“Uh…Yes, Fleets Master.”
***
“Tell me the truth, Laura.” Tomas looked at the hologram connecting him to Fleet Headquarters. “Can we fight them off?”
“Yes,” Laura answered immediately, then after a bit added, “but, most of our defenses are gathered at the trans-stations, and in Sanctuary’s current orbit, they are not in range. Even if we skim the defense stations to help the fleet, there is still so much that can go wrong.”
Tomas nodded. “I understand. I will call the other Clans and see if anyone can send help. Do your best,” he told her, and closed the channel. The only two Clans that were close enough to actually send help in time were Dai Ven and Warpath. He knew that Laura would’ve called on the two fleets from the other sectors, but they wouldn’t be here in time. He looked around the well-lit room at the people assembled there. They were inside of the bunker below the palace; the rest of the Olympus City’s population was underground as well, but then, most of the city was underground, so it was not that much of a bother to most of them.
“We are sure that it is the Erasi?” Seo-yun asked from his left.
“Yes,” Tomas said, trying to keep his anger in check.
“We tried to make peace with them at every turn. Why would they do this?” Seo-yun asked aloud.
“I don’t know…” Tomas said. He looked at the holo-table that had the relayed information from the Fleet. The Erasi were moving fast, deeper into the system. His system, his home, a place that he had hoped would never know the horrors of war, the Sanctuary of his people. “I need to make some calls,” Tomas told Seo-yun, and opened a channel to Warpath and Dai Ven.
***
Isani closed the link with the Emperor, and immediately sprang into action calling the guard commanders.
“Get the Vanguard ready, Sanctuary has been attacked. We are sending everything we have as soon as you can get it ready,” Isani told them. Tomas had called a conference with him and Clan Leader Jusan, asking for help. Jusan could send only three thousand drones that served as the guard for Waypoint system, but those drones would reach Sanctuary within hours. Isani’s Vanguard ships would take longer; they would need to travel to Waypoint and then to Sanctuary, but they should be there in less than a day. The Vanguard was based on the older designs of the Vanguard fleet—ten unique ships, now upgraded and slightly larger than the older versions. The Vanguard consisted of one thousand ships, ten classes with a hundred ships each.
Isani only hoped that they got there in time.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sanctuary — Command Ship Astarte
Nair watched as the Erasi fleet bombed the mining facilities on the surface of Gem in passing. Seeing the devastation on the planet, he barely managed to hold off on ordering his fleet to skim and engage them. He wanted to do it, but he knew that it would be futile. The skim drive was powerful, but also limited; once used, he would need to wait for it to recharge, and by then he would’ve been surrounded and defeated. His fleet arrived in orbit of Eurus and rendezvoused with another thousand drone ships just as the Erasi fleet passed Gem and headed straight for his fleet. They were taunting him, he could tell—they didn’t need to touch those facilities—but Nair wasn’t about to take the bait. He would wait for them to come to him.
“Order the fleet to equip swarm missile loadouts, ready the pods for launch,” Nair ordered, and waited for the Erasi. The clock ticked down as the Erasi accelerated, showing the true capabilities of their gravity drives. “How much faster are they than us?” Nair asked the room once the Erasi speed became constant.
“At least thirty percent, Fleet Commander.”
“How long until they reach Eurus?”
“Ninety minutes.”
“Order taskforce three to move towards Hades’ shipyards. Have taskforce two cover them from above the rings, here.” Nair pointed at the holo; the place his finger touched turned blue and coordinates immediately appeared, which the Adjutants then relayed to the taskforce. Nair continued adjusting his troops, deciding to spread them around the shipyards that orbited the gas giant. He was setting the board before the Erasi came in range. Once they were close enough, he would engage the Watchtower interface to have a faster and more immersive ability to send out orders. For now, there was no need to tire his mind.
Almost an hour passed when the Erasi plan became apparent. “Only two of their fleets are slowing down,” Nair said to himself.
“What do you want to do, Fleet Commander?”
Nair debated with himself. He had committed to defending the shipyards. He had assumed that those would be the Erasi’s primary target. They still could be, and they just believed that only two of their fleets were enough to defeat his fleet and the defenses. “Nothing. We are committed to defense. It will take them at least another four hours to reach the defenses at Sanctuary. And we have the skim drives,” Nair said. “They’ve made a mistake; they should’ve committed their entire force to Eurus. Two fleets we can deal with, and after we are done, we can move behind the defenses at Sanctuary before they reach them.”
Nair knew that the Erasi had some knowledge of the Empire’s capabilities; they had witnessed the battle at Sol, and had had a short engagement against retreating battleships when they’d ambushed Adrian. But they didn’t really know what their warships could do. They must be underestimating them.
“The Erasi have entered missile range, Fleet Commander.”
“Fire.”
***
From all around the orbit of the gas giant, missile pods and warships fired their missiles at the oncoming Erasi ships. The missiles fired were Swarm MK IX, and as they neared the Erasi point defense range, they split, increasing the number of missiles by six times. Mixed among the Swarm missiles were ion missiles, designed to take down ship shields, and while the Erasi had seen those missiles used in Sol, they didn’t have exact scans of them. And even if they did, it wouldn’t have mattered; the number of missiles flying towards the Erasi fleets was too large for them to be picked out.
Wave after wave of the Empire’s missiles sped towards the Erasi forward fleets, the eight fleets that hadn’t been decelerating, and they started taking down missiles with point defense. But with such a large number of missiles, it was impossible to take them down all. The Empire’s missiles struck and exploded against the Erasi ships’ shields—until the ion missiles arrived. Harsh beams of blue light ripped out of those missiles, targeting the closest Erasi ships and taking down their shields.
The next wave of Swarm missiles didn’t encounter shields. The missiles that passed through the point defense slammed against the Erasi ships’ hulls.
***
Weaver Hanaru winced inwardly as he looked over the damag
e of the Empire’s assault. The number of missiles they had put out had been far larger than what he had anticipated. He had known that the Empire had missiles with longer range than the Erasi, as well as missiles capable of taking down shields, and that they utilized missile pods to increase the number of missiles they could put into space. Yet they must’ve expended most of their missile arsenal to achieve this effect. Four of his fleets had suffered damage; three fleets had lost some ships and had suffered minor damage to about half of their number. But the fleet that had taken the brunt of the attack had lost almost ten percent of their hulls entirely, and had also sustained heavy or minor damage to about twenty percent of the rest of the hulls.
It wouldn’t matter anyway. Soon eight of his fleets would pass by the gas giant and further into the system. The two fleets he would leave would be enough to keep the Empire’s fleet occupied and to do some damage to their shipyards. Hanaru’s plan was to keep the system’s eyes focused completely on his eight fleets. He wanted them to think them the greatest danger, and if their attention was on those ships, they wouldn’t see what he had in store for them.
Then his fleets entered the range of his missiles. He knew that he couldn’t expend nearly the same number of missiles that the Empire had; he would need them later. For a moment, he debated firing the missiles, just to hit back against them, but ultimately he knew that he couldn’t afford it. He planned to attack more systems, and he couldn’t resupply as easily as the Empire could.
Instead, he sent out orders for his ships to target and fire their energy weapons once they were in range, and as they passed the planet.
***
Nair leaned back in the command chair and engaged the Watchtower interface. He opened his eyes and floated above his fleet, watching as the Erasi drew closer. They hadn’t fired their missiles, which wasn’t really surprising; they weren’t going to stop and fight here. But he was sure that they would fire in passing. He started sending out orders and organizing his fleet and the shipyard defenses, along with the defense platforms, making sure that they targeted only the ships already damaged by their missiles. He knew that they would have a very short window of time, too short to actually harm an undamaged ship.
Then the Erasi entered the range of the Empire’s proton beams. The Empire had the advantage of range in this category as well, and they opened fire first. Beams shot out of the Empire’s turrets, reaching out to the Erasi. The Erasi returned fire as their speed brought them into range, and the exchange filled the space between them for a short time as their incredible speed sent them out of the range of his weapons.
Nair looked over the aftermath of the exchange in satisfaction. The Empire had again come out on top; the Erasi had lost more ships, while the only loss on Nair’s part was eleven defense platforms. A great number of his ships that had been the closest to the Erasi fleets had suffered minor damage in places where the shield emitters had failed under Erasi fire, but he had lost only seven ships. It wasn’t that surprising; the Empire’s ships were slower than the Erasi’s for a reason. The Empire built their ships out of metal alloys, with thick hulls. They had far greater mass, which was why it took so much power to move them, but it also made the Empire’s ships much more durable.
He watched the eight fleets for a moment, and then he turned towards the two fleets that had slowed down and were about to enter the range of his missiles.
***
Two hundred and sixty of the Erasi’s newest stealth ships moved through the system undetected. All the eyes of the Empire were focused on ten fleets that had invaded the system. And so, the Empire’s scanners missed the launch of the stealth ships’ weapons. Rocks, gathered in the system’s asteroid belt, were accelerated with the stealth ships’ top-of-the-line gravity drives, sending them on their way towards targets that the Erasi were certain did not have shields. Those targets would most certainly be civilian, but the Erasi had a mission that had to be fulfilled, no matter the cost. They had to create chaos across the Empire, to hurt them so much that they pulled back their forces from the Shara Daim territory in order to defend their own.
The stealth ships sent rocks from all around the system, minimizing the chance that if one group was detected, the others would be as well. And in addition to the accelerated rocks, the stealth ships fired planetary bombardment weapons as well, weapons that would coast through space until they reached their intended targets and destroy them. With that part of their mission done, the stealth ships moved to rendezvous with the rest of the Erasi fleets.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sanctuary — Fleet Headquarters
Laura watched over the battle in the orbit of Eurus from the Fleet Headquarters. The First Fleet had engaged the two Erasi fleets that had slowed down. Missiles flew from both sides, with the First Fleet’s side keeping up with the two Erasi fleets’ missiles numbers. But she knew that they wouldn’t be able to do that for long. As the two forces moved into the range of energy weapons, the Erasi started focusing and destroying the defense platforms as well as attacking the shipyard, almost ignoring the First Fleet. Another two thousand drones had arrived from Waypoint, and Laura debated sending them to Eurus, but ultimately decided against it. That battle wasn’t suited for drones, and the First Fleet already had two thousand drones; any more and the command team’s effectiveness would drop as they would be forced to take control of too many drones.
Laura watched and waited for the Erasi fleets to fully commit to Eurus, and for their other forces to move sufficiently away that they wouldn’t be able to turn back quick enough. Two hours later, just as she’d planned with Fleet Commander Hakeem, she gave the order to the massive defense station protecting the Waypoint trans-lane. A moment later, the large station entered the skim.
Several minutes after that, it arrived at its destination.
***
The Erasi fleets kept focusing their fire at the shipyards, forcing Nair to move his ships to defend them, but even then he was doing nothing. The shipyards were too large for him to be able to cover them with his numbers. Almost forty-five percent of the shipyards had sustained some kind of damage. The Erasi kept their ships at the edge of their main weapons’ range, preventing Nair’s ships from using their mid- and close-range weapons, forcing the battle to be fought only with missiles and energy weapons.
The Erasi shouldn’t be aware of the Empire’s other weapon systems; their tactics were only a reflection of their own weapons systems. Their main weapons were long-range energy weapons, supplemented by missiles; they didn’t have anything else. However, Nair couldn’t leave the defenses to close the range; the Erasi still outnumbered him, and he didn’t want to risk them surrounding his ships.
Then a massive signature appeared behind the Erasi fleet, and Nair smiled as a ripple effect went through the Erasi lines as the station started firing missiles and proton beams in their back line. Then a powerful gravity event appeared at the same place as an Erasi battleship, and Nair watched as the battleship crumpled in the middle and then exploded, sending debris flying into the closest ships, overtaxing their shields and smashing through.
Seeing the Erasi fleets confused and disoriented, he gave the order for his ships to leave the defenses and close the range, pinning the Erasi fleets against the station.
***
Hanaru watched as the Empire’s massive defense station appeared behind his two fleets, as he had known it would. He had hoped for more than one of the defense stations to move; Erasi scientists had theorized that such large stations would have a much longer recharge time for their FTL drives, which meant that the station that had used its drives was effectively one less his main force had to worry about. The Empire’s fleet had started moving from behind the defenses to close the range with his two fleets. If he had been fighting ships that he knew had the same capabilities as his own, he would’ve wondered about that decision; there was no point in closing range, as most warships main weapons were long range.
Erasi knew little about
the actual warships of the Empire. They knew that they had other weapons systems, but the only ones they had encountered in use were lasers, long-range energy weapons, and missiles. They knew that they had other weapons—visual scans had revealed them—but the Erasi analysts had no idea what they were. That meant that the Empire closing the range was in fact far more dangerous than Hanaru’s training indicated. He debated ordering his fleets to turn and fight the station, trying to take it down, but there was no point. He was not here to engage in battles against the Empire’s forces; his mission was to wreak as much havoc in this system as he could.
He glanced at the timer on his holo, seeing another eight hours to go. His eight fleets would reach the first line of defenses in seven. He opened a channel and ordered his two fleets to retreat and head towards the third planet in the system. There were a few installations on that world’s surface, as well as several stations in orbit. Hopefully he would manage to provoke another station, or at least split the Empire’s defending fleet.
***
Nair’s fleet closed the range with the Erasi ships. As soon as his battleships entered the range, their powerful plasma cannons rapid-fired plasma torpedoes into the Erasi ships that had no shields. They were at the extreme range of plasma weapons, so about one in four of the fired plasma torpedoes lost containment and dissipated before reaching their targets, but those that did hit ate through the Erasi ships, burning through their hulls. The dreadnoughts changed targets, and started feeding their impressive weapons fire into the still undamaged Erasi super battleships, proton beams smashing against their shields. And as they entered mid-range, the dreadnoughts’ powerful ion cannons fired, breaking the Erasi shields and allowing their kinetic turrets to finish the job. His drones blanketed space with kinetic shells, pelting any Erasi ships without shields. The station had been swathing any ship near it with its gravity weapon, and its missiles and proton beams blew anything else to pieces.