Ivan Kal - Warpath

The Second Fleet opened a vortex to trans-space and entered.

Nair Hakeem got the same order from Sanctuary that the Second Fleet did. His Third Fleet was in one of the Empire’s border systems, waiting to enter the trans-lane to the closest Sowir system. His ships would be the first to strike at the Sowir held system in this new war, as the travel time through the lane was just two days. The system that was his target had a moderate military presence, sixty Sowir ships were always stationed there, with dozens moving through the system on and from their patrols of the border.

Nair sent out the order to his ships, and they entered the trans-lane.

Nelus – five and a half hours later – warship Harbinger

The Warpath Fleet entered Nelus system between the hyperspace barrier and the system’s gas giant, at the Nelus only incoming trans-station. Immediately their sensors went active, bathing the system in a tachyon burst. The fleets FTL sensors came back painting the exact picture of the system on Clan Leader Adrian Farkas’ small holo on his command board.

The Sowir Fleet was moving further into the system, towards the fifth planet of the system its three moons and twenty four stations orbiting them and the planet. There was nothing in the orbit of the sixth planet – the gas giant, only debris from destroyed ships and installations. That angered Adrian, he had warned the council to abandon those installations and move his ships back to the fifth planet which was much more defensible.

The council had stationed a fleet of four hundred ships at the fifth planet. Again they had refused to listen, and had kept the rest of their ships in orbit of Nelus. The Sowir had started preparing their ship formations for the siege of the planets defenses. Adrian could see it in their movements, a glance at the information provided by Clan Leader Jusan told him that the Sowir ships were just outside the effective range of the station’s weapons. The Sowir had put eight hundred ships forward while the rest were adjusting their course to move around the planet and proceed deeper towards the next planet.

That would have played well for Adrian’s fleet, if he had arrived a bit later. He knew that the Sowir would turn those ships around once they detect his ships. He checked the ranges and calculated that if his fleet starts moving at full speed immediately they would catch the eight hundred Sowir ships before the rest could return. It would take the Sowir awhile to detect his ships, as their sensors were still only light speed.

Assuming their fleet turns back the moment they detect his ships, he would have nineteen minutes until they get back and in range of Adrian’s ships who will by then be engaged with the force they left behind. In nineteen minutes his ships could do some real damage to the Sowir, if the Nelus ships push forward as well. Once the rest of the Sowir fleet returns, he might need to disengage regroup and then see what can be done.

Deciding on a course of action, Adrian recorded and sent a message to the defenders instructing them to have their ships push forward at the Sowir once his arrive. He also sent a message for Sowir to surrender as the Emperor ordered, but both of them knew that it was unlikely they would accept. Then, with a couple swipes of his hand and implant commands he sent out orders to his fleet’s commanders and watched as his ships started moving forward. The speed of his ships was much faster than that of the Sowir, but still the ten Warpath ships were moving at speeds that were less than what they were capable of as they had to keep at the pace of the battleships.

Adrian swiped his hand to his left, and a list of names appeared there. With his implant he found the Commander of the Specter and opened a channel. In front of him a window appeared with the video from the Command Center of the Specter and its Commander sitting in her chair.

“Warmaster?” Commander of the Specter Mariana Tully asked, using Adrian’s title when in command of a fleet. He was no longer a part of the Empire’s regular fleet so his old rank of Fleet Commander no longer applied.

“Commander Tully, it looks like you will have the honor of being the first of the Vanguard fleet to test the full extent of your abilities in battle. It is time for you to weave your web Commander. I’m sending you your orders.” Adrian said. He saw the Commander read through his orders and then grin.

“Understood Warmaster.” She responded. Adrian nodded and closed the link.

He looked at the holo in front of him and watched as the Specter dipped below the fleet, and then as it’s heat signature slowly started fading. The Specter was equipped with best heat sinks that the Empire could produce, which would allow it to move cold for about a day before they would need to expel the heat out of the ship. Plenty of time to fulfil Adrian’s orders. He checked the movements of the Sowir main fleet once more. They were still moving away, but the light from Adrian’s fleet hadn’t reached them yet. But it will reach the force Adrian was moving towards soon.

Adrian started issuing orders to the battleships and the Vanguard fleet. He instructed Lighthouse to send out its drones out and spread half of them around the force in front of them and to send the other half towards the main force. He moved Tiamat and Titan in front with the battleships, splitting the force into two wall shaped formations of one hundred and fifty ships each, remaining fifty battleships he pulled back to his ship Naming the formation task force zero.

Then he sent the orders for Valhalla and Twilight to move into the Tiamat’s formation, and Retribution and Ras’tar to move into the Titan’s, renaming the two formations into task force one and task force two. He kept Lighthouse and Invictus with his ship and the battleships in the formation between the two walls.

As his force drew closer to the enemy, he started to notice a change in their formation, they had finally seen his ships. Which meant that the defenders should have gotten his message. There was no response from the Sowir and their movements suggested that there wasn’t going to be one. Another couple of minutes later and Adrian noticed the Nelus fleet moving forward, abandoning the defenses of their stations and moving to engage the Sowir. He also noticed that the Nelus ships moved at speed that will let his ships reach the Sowir first. That was fine, their ship were less powerful than Sowir ships.

Then his ships entered into firing range. Firing missiles at the Sowir ships wouldn’t be as effective as it would have been against a smaller force, their ships were positioned close together and there was enough of them to provide protection for each other. But Adrian still sent out orders for task forces one and two to do so. His missiles might not even reach their ships, but it wouldn’t matter, the Sowir had no way of defending against his ships other weapons.

Three hundred of the Empire’s battleships came to a stop and launched their missiles, in a span of five minutes each task force fired 7500 missiles. 15000 missiles sped towards the Sowir. The last time that Sowir ships encountered the Empire’s missiles didn’t go well for them. But this time they were ready. Upon detecting the Empire’s ships the Sowir assumed a formation specifically designed to fight this kind of threat. Each ship’s on-board point defense computer linked with each of the other ships, creating a net, their point defense lasers now working in perfect harmony. As soon as the Empire’s missiles entered the range of their defenses they opened fire.

Six hundred ships were positioned to take the Empire’s fire, each of those ships equipped with dozens of point defense lasers. Lasers reached out to strike at the missiles with pinpoint precision, every laser fired at the same time at the missiles that were approximately the same distance from them. The tactic was devised to take down as many of the enemy missiles as possible before their computers realized that they were under fire and executed their evasion protocols. But the Empire’s missiles were not the same as they were thirty years ago. For every 500 missiles, one was actually equipped with FTL sensors and connected with the others. The 30 sensor missiles detected the danger the moment the Sowir ships fired, but still the near instant response wasn’t fast enough.