Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

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.

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.

Then the Erasi ships started accelerating, moving out of the range of both the station and his fleet, their retreating fire striking against his ships. Half an hour later, every remaining Erasi ship had moved outside of the range his forces. Nair checked their trajectory, and saw them heading towards Boreas and not in the direction to meet with the rest of their fleets. Boreas had several research stations both in orbit and on the surface, stations that weren’t defended, but Nair knew that they had already been evacuated, as most of the system had been. All had been moved behind the protective lines around Sanctuary. At worst, the Erasi would just inflict material damage, but even that made him angry. From their action, it was clear that they had come here to inflict as much damage as they could.

With a last look at the retreating Erasi fleets, Nair gave the order for the First Fleet to enter skim, moving behind the defenses around Sanctuary.

Laura seethed as she read the reports. The Erasi had inflicted significant damage to the shipyards, killed thousands of people on them, and halting the Sanctuary shipbuilding for months, if not years. And at the exact moment when they couldn’t afford that. She read through the rest of the reports, seeing that the two Erasi fleets had suffered significant damage. They had lost at least thirty percent of their hulls, while the First Fleet had lost only sixty-two warships. It would be another eight hours before the Erasi warships reached the first defenses, enough time to rearm the First Fleet.