The Black

-2 min earlier-

“Multiple contacts!!! 228 by 097! 60 plus Ships and an… Oh god…” the Delmar Crewman at the sensor station of the USN Galveston visibly paled…

“And what, Crewman” Harrison stated, his tone slightly muted, but urgent.

“Captain… Its an Asteroid at the center of the sensor cluster… I’m getting antimatter readings from it” The Delmar got out finally, “Captain… the Asteroid. It’s registering course changes… It’s under power and headed straight for the planet and the Tetrarchy ship.”

“Full alert! Have the fleet come about to intercept, Notify the Rear Admiral. We screen the Tetrarchy ship until further orders” Mac barked, “Prepare for…”

A blinding white flash flared out everyone’s eyes and Ambassador Gwen was standing on the bridge when it faded, “REPORT” she barked and received an update.

“Very good” she began, “Give me fleet wide including a transmission to Port Royal.”

The briefest of pauses occurred before the comm nodded and Gwen began speaking, “This is Admiral Gwen to all Fleets, make best possible speed to intercept incoming contacts. These are Hostile forces, I repeat. Consider all non-Delmar and Non UGN ships hostile until further notice. The Tetrarchy ship is stranded. Our priority is the Asteroid, I repeat. Our Priority is the Asteroid. Strategic is Authorized. This is not a Drill. Strategic is Authorized, this is NOT a drill.”

The Six Legion fleets, and the entire Delmar Defense Force reported in over the next two minutes, as Admiral Gwen nodded, “Get me a secure line to Admiral Karmarin.”

“The admiral is on the Hail, Ambassador” Harrison stated after a moment. The image of the Kawmari officer flashed into view.

“Admiral, I assume you know the situation?” Gwen stated levelly.

“I do, I assume you have a more... complete understanding as of late?” he asked carefully.

“Affirmative, This is going to be a hard fight. We see you are mobilizing your ships. I am sending your flag ship a Beacon code set. Have each of your ships take one of the codes and broadcast it on your beacons. It will mark your fleet as Friendly, and our Datalink will not target you.” Gwen stated, nodding to the Coms-man as he sent the message.

“I see it, we will use the codes. We will be burning for an intercept in the next 5 minutes” The admiral responded.

“One moment admiral” Gwen held up her hand as a separate message came directly to her wrist unit, “That won’t be necessary. Rear Admiral Burgoyne will be in contact with you shortly. We are going to give your ships a lift.”

“I do not understand but will await his contact. Karmarin out.” The UGN admiral closed the connection.

“Game plan Admiral?” Mac stated.

“I need you here. I’m sorry, Concords sitting this one out.” Gwen stated, “You and Clint are taking 1st and 3rd are in position to protect Delmar, Set a defensive screen between the planet and the Hostiles. I am leaving you all of the 4 Eros currently in orbit.” She flashed a smile as Mac’s eyes widened at the implication. “Burgoyne is going to pull another piggyback. Subspace is being interfered with. But the slip-drives are reporting operational. Hail the Tetrarchy ship”

After a moment a giant metal head coalesced into reality, “Admiral.”

“Aierecastum, please return me to your ship and allow me access to your communications and data transfer systems. Since you cannot run, I would have you synced with the fleets should they reach orbit. I will coordinate from there.” Gwen stated.

“As you wish…” the being rumbled before a familiar flash blinded everyone and Gwen was once again gone from the Bridge of the Galveston

“You heard the woman! Clint you on the line?” Mac barked.

“Here brother, I know that tone. What are you planning…” Clint’s voice was cautious...

“Something out of a very old book. You remember Uncle Martin’s Defense of Luna? The second day.” Mac’s voice went cold, “Prepare Close Order Shield wall by fleet, 50,000 km from the planet. I want the Eros firing from Cover.”

“Pickets Charge.” Clint said with a smile, “Consider it done, 3rd will form to your right. Steven’s out”

Mac turned to look at a stunned Captain Harrison, “What?”

“And you call me an old soul.. YOU HEARD THE COMMODORE!” He bellowed, “Spread the message to the fleet we move in 2 minutes!”

Mac synced up a mental image of the formation to Datalink, and it was sent out to the two fleets. He was taking a page out of history. The distances were so great that maneuvering was irrelevant and would only put the Planet in danger of incoming fire. So Mac created a fortress, using the close in formation of his fleet as well as 3rd fleet, to lend their shield power to one another to create a wall of energy to protect as much of the planet as possible. The Eros were split into two teams, one behind each fleet’s wall. Their job was to provide superior targeting telemetry to both fleets for coordinated MAC fire. The enemy was 3 hours away from orbit. They had tried to surprise the defenders by jumping in on the opposite side of the system away from the beacon.

10 minutes later, the two fleets were in position, with the Tetrarch ship sitting just behind the Eros ‘emplacements’.

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Legaris watched from a ship that had jumped into the Asteroid field under cover of the Calamity, created by his Exterminatus Fleet’s entry into the Signus system. Something did not feel right, He scanned his data feeds as his Capital ship “Symphony of Death” floated in the void, ignored by the enemy as they left their station vulnerable to his ship. It made no since, the ship departing the station began clustering up as if to dock. He knew that they had to understand how futile an intercept was from these distances…

“Sensors, focus on the enemy nearest the planet, give me a composite image with telemetry” he rumbled, settling into his command chair and leaning back and swinging his screens over to him, “What are we dealing with.”

The screens scrolled with data as well as a composite image of the ships arrayed against the devoted. They were in two distinct defensive formations, smaller ships up front, larger ships behind with 4 concerningly shaped ships behind those formations. The Abomination sat just between those ships and slightly behind… His eyes widened as energy readings spiked and the space in front of these two formations seemed to shimmer slightly before going back to normal.

“I don’t like these formations... How long until we are within weapons range” he asked, never looking over he shoulder.

“2 hours Legaris. Our Ballista type plasma batteries be the first to engage at 175,000 Kilometers” The sensor station responded.

“I see, give the order to raise shields, I don’t like some of these numbers... It is almost as if they mean to engage us from tha…” His eyes widened as the 4 elongated vessels spiked in their energy outputs. His sensors picked up the nose bow’s of those weapons signatures as it rendered an image of the gaps in those ships prow’s began to crackle and arc. “GET THE FLEETS SHIELDS UP NOW!!!” He bellowed.

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Admiral Gwen once again found herself standing on the platform she had met one of the last remaining Corth on. This time a chair with a console and floating holograms flooded with data awaited her.

“Admiral, welcome back” Aiericastum stated from her seat inside the Golem’s head. She had its face plate open, but it was clear she was receiving medical attention of some kind, “Forgive my state, I spent too much time outside of my facilities. This body is being... repaired...”

“I see, I do need you to shift your vessel further to the rear. When an Eros fires, it is best not to be too close to it without proper compatibility. I don’t know what the EM field of one of those would do to this ship... we are about to fire 4 at once…”

The beady eyes widened, “You wish to mark them from here? It would do little, The shield of a shuttle could deflect a laser fired from this ship's main battery at that distance”

“We are not using Energy weapons…” Gwen’s voice was cold satisfaction, “They are well inside our effective range” She keyed up the codes and clearances to link the Tetrarchy ship into USN Datalink, “Talk to me boys” She spoke

*We eagerly await Picket, Ma’am* Clints voice was cold humor.

The Corth actually shrank back as Gwen flashed all of her teeth in a feral smile, “Martin would be proud, consider ‘Pickets Charge’ Approved. You may fire when ready.”

*All Eros, Rifle only. Even spacing Independent. The rest of 1st and 3rd fleet, alternating volley by fleet maximum rate 5 second delay at start. Confirm targeting solution. We focus the Asteroid, Let Burgoyne focus the fleet.*

One by one the captains all sounded off confirmation of Fire Control Link integrity.

“Commence fire mission” Admiral Gwen stated after the coms silenced. “Aiericastum, external view if you please” Gwen stated calmly.

A holographic representation of the two-fleet appeared in excruciating detail just in time for the front of every Eros erupted in blue fire laced with plasma as they bellowed as one battery. Similar, if smaller bubbles of wrath erupted from every MAC cannon 1005 caliber or larger. In under 10 seconds, over 1000 tons of Steel, Tungsten, and Depleted Uranium streaked out at various percentages of the speed of light.

The Corth flicked her wrist, and the image became a rendering of the enemy formation. They had 64 ships arrayed in a spherical cloud around the Asteroid. 12 of them were arrayed in front of asteroid.

Moments later, The Combined Superheated Kenetic Wrath of two Human fleets arrived to deliver their Molten Fury. 6 Vorath ships disappeared in a bubble of super-heated gasses and flaming shards of metal and polymers.. two of them simply were erased from existence as they were hit by an Eros semi solid superheated steel and depleted uranium “rifle” ammo type. The other 4 were turned into balls of quickly cooling Horror’s of expanding metal shards and flash cooked organic mist. This enemy apparently did not decompress for combat either.

“By the Void…” Aiericastum whispered as almost a 10th of the Asteroid facing the Delmar Homeworld was ripped bodily from the primary mass and flung into 3 more ships. 2 of those ships survived but fell out of formation spewing atmosphere and flickering with the telltale signs of main power failure. “What did you just do.”

“We are Humanity, we are very good at killing.” Gwen stated just as the second volleys erupted from the 1st and 3rd fleet. The Eros were only capable of 1 round every 20 minutes in slow fire. They could fire 2 within seconds of each other, but the Heat generated would slow their rate of fire to extensively. The S.O.L.’s and the Terran Corvettes however, were designed around this very concept of “Fill the air with Death, you will hit something.” Every MAC in Human Hands was firing at its optimal rate of fire. And the Reaper slicked his scythe with a bountiful harvest of Vorath crews.

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Legaris’ roared in anger, nearly crushing the screens in front of him as these strange ships engaged his devoted as over double his ships effective range, “REPORT!” He bellowed.

“Sir, they are firing…. They are firing Kinetics… From our distance calculations, some of these are coming in at over a tenth of the speed of light…”

“All ships, Evasive. Shields to Double front. Get the Battle Cruisers to take the lead. We can’t afford to lose that much of the Asset before it reaches Orbit. Keep the containment field from rupturing at all costs” he growled. His orders were carried out, His larger capital ships were moving to the fore, removing all but the minimum of shield from their aft quadrants and focusing all of their energy into deflecting this Catastrophic Cacophony of incoming fire. The massive rounds that had taken so much of the Asteroid had not returned yet. Maybe those weapons were slow to fire. He Hoped…

“Legaris, it appears to be working, our Vengence class ships appear to be able to withstand the fire for now. They report the fire is not directed at them, It is directed solely at the asteroid. They are not being focused on.. yet.

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Gwen Grimaced as the enemy adapted. “Gregory, how much longer.”

“We are an hour from jump. Our Destroyers are itching to go. We don’t have the space to attach them, so they are just on standby. Permission to Loose the Hounds Admiral.” Greg stated from the organized chaos.

“Granted. Keep strategic in reserve. I want to use that one altogether. Gwen out.” Gwen switched channels, “Commander Silu, I need a report on Patriot.”

“Ah, Admiral. We are halfway through the retrofit. I have 150 Harpoon S’s ready for you. 30 of them Strategic.” The Station commander responded.

“It will have to do. I want you to be on full alert, maximum shield and full active sensors. Let’s not get caught with our pants down.” Gwen stated.

“Will do. Anything else I can do for you?” Silu asked.

“Record all of this, Send everything to Sol in the even this goes badly. Gwen out.” The ambassador clicked off the channel.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Legaris was down to 50 ships.. The larger weapons were indeed slower, but one of his strongest Battle cruisers took a direct hit from one and had been turned inside out, destroying 2 more escorts in its explosion. The weapon had still ripped chunks from the Asteroid as if the ship had never been there.

“Legaris! The smaller ships near the station… they jumped…” His Tactical officer blurted out, “They just jumped to the fleet inside of 30,000 Kilometers!!”

“Gods Dammit! We can figure out how later, all capital ships cruisers or bigger screen the Asteroid at all costs. Destroyers, and Escort gunships. Engage the enemy in close action.” He stated cooly, “If they wish to die like devoted, we shall grant them that wish.”

The battle was joined. To Legaris’s relief, none of these ships, that had somehow managed to evade subspace jamming and jump anyway, had brought the kinds of weapons that were ravaging his front lines. Laser and plasma boiled and streaked into the void as a more familiar battle began, at least at first… The enemy revealed yet another weapon when their smaller escort capital ships began launching ancient technology at his ships. Solid state rockets began erupting out of these enemy ships, and Legaris’ eyes widened as these rockets turned to chase and intercept his ships. They exploded with some kind of combination shaped explosive and electromagnetic resonance charges. His crews started reporting their shields experiencing resonance destabilization on impact. And 4 ships lost shields almost immediately under multiple hits. They were quickly destroyed by concentrated fire before the survivors of the first fusillades of combat drove the enemy further out away from the asteroid. He watched as yet a third new weapon made its debut as one of his smaller escort ships was sliced in half like a scalpel on soft flesh by one of these deadly harasser’s as it did a high G flying pass on a cluster of smaller gunships. ‘these are not weapons of the corth… these designs are so far departed from anything the Lithral ever advocated... what in the gods did we find here… he switched data streams and focused again on the ships leaving the vicinity of the station... he watched them begin their burn, and the realization hit him as he watched the unknown designs finish docking with the Unity ships… ‘they are going to jump docked, by the void’ he surged to his feat

“Helm!! All ahead flank!! We need to disrupt their jump immediately!!! All weapons active! Fire at will, prioritize the docked ships and the station!!” he bellowed even as his ship surged out of the asteroid field and opened fire.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Commander, an enemy ship has departed the asteroid field and has…” Philip paused as another plasma blast impacted the shields of Port royal, “opened fire on us, they are on hard burn. It looks like they mean to bypass us and hit the fleets.”

“Very well Philip, you may open fire. Target engines, and weapons. We may need answers after this is all done” Silu stated before turning back toward the viewer. The Sharply-raked battleship reminded him of the Tetrarchy ship, except instead of an obelisk, it was a spear tip with jagged pods of engines at its rear. Its flanks spat laser and plasma, “Damage report”

“Shield 84 percent and holding. Harpoons away.” Philip responded. Pausing to wait for their affect on target, “Their point defense took the missiles, and their shields are holding, switching to MAC and Laser”

Port Royal bellowed and roared as her defenses dispensed a withering fire on the Largest Enemy Capital ship on the field. It returned its hatred as the Artillery duel increased in its intensity. For the next 15 minutes Port Royal battered the Titanic Battle Cruiser until it slipped past toward Admiral Burgoyne’s ships.

“Gregory, one BIG contact, headed your way.” Philip stated through the communication line he had kept open with Admiral Burgoyne.

“We jump in 10 seconds. Thank you for the warning.” The admiral then cut the connection.

The entire UGN fleet, each capital ship magnetically attached to a USN vessel blinked from existence as they were dragged bodily into slip space for a fraction of a second before dropping out into the teeth of the oncoming armada.

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Legaris picked himself up off of he Bridge Deck as the first of the cursed station's hate arrived. His Battle Cruiser was weathering the storm, but only just. Even the intercepted guided rockets packed enough punch to rock his ship from where they detonated.

“REPORT!!” he bellowed.

“The Ships we are intercepting jumped Sir. We don’t know how. They are now engaging the Exterminatus fleet.”

“Charge the Subspace Drives, we are following them.” Legaris growled. His ships had adjusted their subspace drives to avoid the antimatter interference of the Asteroids little present, he could follow.

“Charged sir!” the Helm reported.

“Jump! Open fire immediately upon arrival” Legaris barked.

His warship blinked the distance between the station and the Battle in moments. Laser and plasma spewed from her the moment she arrived. Two of the smaller enemy ships exploded in the withering fire, and holes appeared in one of those infernal titanic monsters that were leading the charge.

“Show them the wrath of…” Legaris began before being thrown from his seat once more. The ship he had hole’d with his Ballista battery turned to face him, and its incoming wrath started causing His ships forward shields to spark and flicker. The battle was joined and the Clash of Titans commenced in full for several minutes.

“Damage report!!” Legaris bellowed, clutching his chair for stability.

“our Larboard side number 3 guns are down! We are venting atmosphere from decks 3-2-9-6 and 4! Away damage control.” Legaris’ first officer reported and ordered simultaneously. “They have reinforced their shields sir! We are not reading any power banks!! They are using their core only!”

“Keep firing! We need to overload thei…” Legaris turned in shock as a junior officer at the tactical station interrupted him with a panic’d shriek.

“ATOMICS ALERT. OH GODS! MANY ATOMICS ALERT!!” The young Vorath corporal just stared at his commander in shock.

Legaris spun to the observation screen in time for it to snap to the battle outside... streaks of white, much larger plumes this time arched from every enemy ship at once. His data scrolled... The radioactive energy readings he was witnessing had not been seen in millions of years…

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The jumping of the enemy ship from the station had been a surprise. Olympus had suffered heavy damage and had been holed 4 times before she could recover from the initial barrage. Two of the Mars-made Destroyers had been vaporized in the process. The artillery duel between the two Void Titans was ongoing. Olympus was giving as good as she got. Her PAC’s had punched clean through the forward shields thrice but had not penetrated the hull. Her Foe was cracked however, white mists of atmosphere sprayed from several seams as she fought on. Proximity-fused Harpoons had buckled several sections and taken more of the enemies’ firepower, but Olympus was faltering.

Gregory Burgoyne grunted in agony as another shot of painkillers was administered automatically by his suit. He was now missing an arm now, courtesy of the opening salvo of the ship that ambushed them. Olympus Mons had taken Catastrophic damage before he could reorient his shields and engage... His suit had sealed the wound, but he would need attention soon. His Marg stood beside him; she had a piece of shattered steel embedded in her side but she refused to leave him.

“Give me an update please” he asked the first officer.

“Our slip drive is destroyed, Port engines 3 and 4 are down. Our core is stable as are shields and weapons, but we cannot sustain this for long.”

“Launch fighters and shuttles, get everyone off the ship” Greg stated even as he sat himself down in the command chair. His brain was beginning to fog. He had lost too much blood. “Its been an honor gentlemen. Olympus has one final gift to give. GO!”

He turned to Marge, “Its time.”

“I’m too old to run like this… Come, I can introduce you to Bryton” she smiled gently.

Gregory sighed, he was too wounded to force her, and the crew had all departed the bridge, “Very well, tap the comm for me will you love?”

She winced and reached for the buttons, keying up the entire combined fleets. The entire allied force could hear them.

“This is Admiral Gregory Burgoyne, Olympus has fallen. We are no longer combat-capable. All ships in the combat zone, MANHATTEN. I repeat, MANHATTEN. T-minus 5 minutes. Collect survivors and Burn to Delmar. It’s been an Honor. Burgoyne out.” Greg tapped in the launch codes and data link did the rest. He watched as the automated guns kept pounding at Olympus’ Murderer...

“I guess we see what’s next together.” He chuckled as he leaned into Marg, his mind was fading in and out with the loss of blood.

Moments passed and the two felt the shudder of the repurposed and shielded ICBM type missiles leave Olympus to their pre-determined targets…. Every ship fighting near the asteroid fired half of all the nukes they carried and Jumped with the survivors of Olympus.

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Admiral Gwen stood and stared at the screen in front of her… Aiericastum watched with a combination of Horror and fascination as hundreds of millions of kilotons of Nuclear Fusion explosives reached their marks in a rolling ripple of blinding Rage that Humanity had often called, “Canned Sunlight”. Every escort ship near the asteroid evaporated under the True Wrath of Sol incarnate. The Giant Battle Cruiser that had chased the fleet was spinning slowly, disabled by the repeated blasts. The Asteroid was in 25 distinct pieces having been blown apart when the antimatter containment field failed. None of the larger pieces were on a trajectory to Delmar, the Eros could pick off any of what was left that remained a threat.

Admiral Gwen focused her attention on the last remaining enemy vessel as it sputtered and flickered, trying to regain control of itself, “Port Royal survivors, replace 1st fleet’s position. 1st fleet…. BRING. ME. THAT. SHIP.”