Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

Two large forces of ships, both from parts of the formation untouched by his attack, started accelerating towards his fleets. The two large forces outnumbered his twelve fleets by almost a factor of two. They took the most direct path towards him, as he’d known that they would.

Adrian’s fleet kept running, utilizing only about ninety percent of their drives, fast enough that they wouldn’t suspect something and yet slow enough that their calculation told them that they would overtake his ships before the hyperspace barrier. His skim drives had already been recharged, but Adrian gambled on the fact that the Erasi would be too enraged to wonder why he hadn’t skimmed away.

Both Erasi forces flew right into his trap.

Even before Adrian had entered this system, he had lain a trap. His stealth ships had lain mines along the direct route that his ships would take to leave the system. Although they weren’t really mines, just missiles floating in space and guiding drones that would detect hostile ships once they entered range, and as soon as the last line of Erasi ships did so, they activated.

Missiles all around and inside the Erasi formations activated, found targets, and sped towards them. Ion missiles took down shields and Enforcer missiles blew their hulls open. In a span of several minutes, the two Erasi forces had lost half of their number.

Adrian’s face contorted into a predatory smile as he ordered his fleets to turn around and attack the now weakened force. Burning at full thrust, his ships advanced on the surviving Erasi ships. He kept out of the range of their energy weapons and pummeled them with his proton beams, taking down their pathetic and disorganized attempts at striking back with missiles. As his fleets destroyed the last ship, he noticed more leaving the large formation in pursuit.

Adrian ordered his fleet towards the hyperspace barrier, and as Erasi entered the missile range, he watched and waited. When they had expended a significant number of missiles, and when they had reached more than two thirds of the way to his ships, he ordered his fleets to skim. Leaving the Erasi with a taste of what awaited them in Kaleras.

December; Year 58 of the Empire — Erasi Devastator End of Hope

The reports kept coming in, filling the holograms in the command room of Garash’s devastator. Somehow, it didn’t yet seem real to him. The Empire’s ships had attacked his great force, and had destroyed tens of thousands of ships. The attack had come out of nowhere, and with a devastating effect. Before his ships could recover enough and bring their shields online, the Empire’s attack had ravaged his formation. This attack by the Empire had destroyed almost forty-three thousand ships, and all because he hadn’t seen it coming.

“They destroyed almost a fourth of my force,” Garash whispered, “and damaged at least half as many more.” He raised his eyes to glare at Valanaru, who stood on the other side of the holo-table.

“We didn’t know that they had such weapons; we didn’t even imagine that they could utilize their FTL drives in such a manner,” Valanaru said.

“What good are you, then, to me? To the Erasi?” Garash asked harshly. “This is your purpose, Weaver .” He said the last word mockingly. “The Weavers are the ones that were supposed to gather information about other races.”

“If you hadn’t pushed for this war”—Valanaru glared back at him—“if you hadn’t disregarded the Empire as insignificant, we would’ve had the time to learn more about them.”

Garash’s face twitched in annoyance. “It doesn’t matter, they will die soon enough.”

“You still intend to continue with the assault?” Valanaru asked, perplexed.

“Of course. They hurt my fleet, but I still outnumber them.”

“But what of the Empire’s weapons? You saw what they did to us, and you want to attack them?”

“They caught us unaware, with no shields and no point defense net, and they used nuclear weapons to spread even more confusion and destruction. That will not happen again,” Garash said resolutely. “And I do not believe that we will encounter these weapons again.”

“And why not?” Valanaru asked.

“Because if they had more, they would’ve used them already, destroyed all of my forces. However, they didn’t; this was only a desperate attack to reduce our numbers. But even if they had more, I would still go.” Garash looked at Valanaru and allowed his rage to rise to his eyes. “In all of the years of my life, I have never before been so humiliated. That Human and Shara Daim bested me on that planet, and then dared to attack my ships!” he bellowed angrily, making the air around him tremble.

“We should call for more aid from the core,” Valanaru added carefully.

“There is no time. If we don’t strike now, defeat the Shara Daim and then turn towards the Empire, they will grow to become too large of a threat to be defeated.”

“Every moment that you give the Empire, they will use to build more of those weapons,” Valanaru cautioned.

“I won’t give them time. I will destroy theirs and the Shara Daim’s fleets at Kaleras. While Weaver Hanaru creates chaos in the Empire’s territory, I will end the Shara Daim and then turn to the Empire.”

“Every time we have gone against them, things did not go according to plan. Be careful, Garash; the loss of this force would not be received well by the rest of the O’fa.”

“They have nothing else to throw at me, I am confident of that. And after Kaleras falls, they will have no fleets left to oppose us. If you do not care for my plans, you are welcome to get back to Tarabat and wait. I will not have you and your manipulating ways inserting doubts into my head when I cannot afford a single mistake.”

Kaleras

Anessa looked over the records that Adrian had showed her of his attack on the Erasi for the tenth time. She hadn’t really believed him when he’d told her what he was going to do, yet somehow he always did exactly what he claimed he would. She watched the devastation among the Erasi fleets recorded by the Empire’s stealth ships in the system, and shuddered imagining those weapons being used against her own fleets. The Erasi were too surprised to act, to defend themselves, and that had cost them.

“If you’ve had these kind of weapons, we could’ve defeated the Erasi by now,” Anessa said, turning to look at Adrian, who was standing to her left.

“You wouldn’t; we didn’t have them until recently. And I used most of what we had there,” Adrian said, pointing at the holo.

“But you have more?”

“Only a hundred or so missile pods, and a dozen skim missiles. Lurker of the Depths had been working nonstop to build them, but it won’t be enough. They won’t be unprepared again; the missile pods won’t hurt them nearly as much as they did there when they have their shields active. We are still outnumbered,” Adrian said somberly. “These new ships of theirs are better than yours, their weapons and shields more powerful, and they are faster than my ships. They still have the advantage.”

“We are defending,” Anessa said.

“Defending gives us an initial advantage, but they won’t get close enough to let our fixed defenses harm them. If I was them, I would take them out by missiles or kinetic weapons.”

“Erasi don’t use kinetic weapons.”

“Space is filled with rocks; all they have to do is collect enough and push them towards our platforms and stations,” Adrian told her.

“So you still don’t think that we can win?”

“It will be very hard. If we can force them to make a few mistakes, if we can hit them when they do, force them to overextend, then perhaps…” Adrian said, “I and my fleets will do everything we can to help you.”