Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

Adrian watched on the c-board as his twenty one ships accelerated steadily towards their target. There were no communications from the Adrian’s side, there was no point. Sowir refused to communicate every time they tried. And they were not here to plead with them, they wouldn’t initiate communications with them. They were here to intimidate them into opening communications.

New information highlighted information started appearing on his c-board, Iris was anticipating Adrian’s needs and used the c-board to get him info faster than he could have looked it up himself. He looked at the holo of the shipyard and a few seconds later he started to see movement from their warships. The shipyard had three light cruisers, two heavy cruisers and a battleship guarding it. There were also at least two dozen ships in various stages of construction at the shipyard itself. If the projection about Sowir shipbuilding output was right, then the lack of defenses here suggested that the people back home were right, the Sowir were engaged elsewhere. Perhaps some of the Consortium still survived, and were even now fighting them.

Adrian studied the Sowir movements. The ships were clearly trying to move in front of the shipyard, to protect it. According to Nel intel, the shipyard defenses were poor at best. Pouute used it to build civilian ships, and had no real need for defenses. And after the Sowir took it they didn’t add any.

Then Adrian saw that his fleet had entered the maximum firing range of their missiles. The missiles that his ships now carried were not the same as what they had during the battle of Nuva. New upgraded versions were designed to fight the Sowir superior defenses. Adrian highlighted all of the ships on his c-board, preparing to order them to fire on the shipyard. Now came the most difficult part, according to the records from the Consortium, when the Sowir realized that they had no chance of winning against the Consortium military, they for the first time since their contact opened communications. In order for this plan to work, Adrian needed to make it completely clear to the Sowir that his fleet could wipe out their ships and shipyard, without actually destroying them. The Sowir had the records of the battle of Nuva, they knew what Adrian’s ships were capable of. He needed to convince them that humans were a threat that they can’t match yet.

Adrian sent the order to the fleet. The amount of missiles they would fire should be enough that a significant amount would pass their defenses and inflict damage but not enough that they will destroy them.

A few seconds later, Adrian watched as hundreds of missile signatures appeared on his board, headed for the Sowir shipyard. The new Swarm Mk1 missiles were almost 50% larger than the previous missile type and sped towards their target at a 20% faster speed than their predecessors, from a 30% greater range. After fifteen seconds of firing, six hundred missiles were on the way to their target.

Sowir ships saw the incoming missiles, and managed to get into position in front of the shipyard in time to meet them. As the human missiles entered Sowir range, they opened fire with their laser point defense. Within the first few seconds of laser fire, the eight Sowir ships managed to take down ninety three missiles. Then the computers on the missiles figured out what was happening, they engaged the evasion protocols, which slowed down the rate of their destruction significantly. Another fifteen seconds later the Sowir ships managed to take down one hundred and forty five missiles. Then the missiles reached the optimum range for their secondary protocol. Each Swarm Mk1 missile separated into three missiles that engaged their smaller but more powerful drives, doubling their speed. The sudden increase of speed and the sudden appearance of more targets confused the Sowir computers. 1086 missiles sped past the Sowir ships ignoring them completely, the Sowir ships managed to take down another two hundred missiles as they went past them. Then the missiles came in the range of the shipyards defenses, another one hundred and ten missiles were taken down, but the rest smashed right through, finding their target. Half of the missiles exploded before they reached the shipyards surface by design, the other impacted with the hull. The damage that the missiles did was minor when one took into consideration the size of the shipyard, but its hull was clearly scarred. Craters lined the shipyards surface, with a few places clearly venting atmosphere. The first salvo from the human forces succeeded in its intention.

Adrian watched as his missiles went pass the Sowir ships and reached the shipyard. The Sowir must have realized that this was nothing compared to what his ships could unleash. Especially now that he had three dreadnoughts in his fleet. There was still no communication from them, and Adrian watched as Sowir ships started moving away from the shipyard and towards his ships. He knew that it was futile, they stood no chance against the First Fleet. But Adrian needed to make sure to get his point across. Soon the Sowir battleship would enter its particle beam range, and Adrian remembered the power of that weapon, and knew that he couldn’t allow his fleet to lose any ships or drones. He needed to end this soon. Adrian gave the order.

Suddenly the space between the two forces was filled with invisible beams as the human ships opened fire with their laser cannons. The Sowir ships started rolling trying to dissipate the heat of the weapons, just as they tried to bring their own laser weapons to bear. But before they had a chance human ships released one more salvo of missiles. Two thousand missiles left the human ships, and the Sowir knew that there was no chance of them surviving them. The human lasers kept firing even as their missiles sped towards their target. One Sowir light cruiser came under the attack from six different beams from three drones, their combined firepower melting the ship’s hull cutting inside, the air inside the ship caught fire and the resulting explosion blew the ship apart. The Sowir ships focused on the incoming missiles, their defenses striking out at them. Now and then a laser beam would reach out to the human fleet, but the coating on their hull dissipated almost all of the Sowir fire. The Sowir lasers barely scratched the human ships.

Then the human missiles engaged their secondary protocol. One thousand and seven hundred missiles that survived the Sowir defensive fire, became three times that number. They sped forward through the Sowir point defense. It was overkill. Each Sowir ship disappeared into a ball of orange fire that lasted for a second as the air inside them burned out. Once the fire cleared, there was nothing remaining of the Sowir ships.

Adrian heard the crew of the Leviathan cheer in elation at the destruction of the Sowir ships. But he kept his mind focused on the c-board. There was still no communication from the Sowir, he would give them one more chance, then if they still don’t try to communicate he would destroy their shipyard and proceed to destroy any other asset they had in the system. The people back on Sanctuary already considered that they were at war with the Sowir Dominion. And while they had no resources to fight such a war, they would do everything in their power to make the Sowir think otherwise. Buying themselves at least some time. Adrian highlighted the three dreadnoughts on his c-board, sending out orders to the commanders of the Prideful, Salahuddin and his own Leviathan.

The massive turrets on the three dreadnoughts swiveled around to face the Sowir shipyard, and within a single minute opened fire. Massive metal rounds exploded out of the human turrets sent towards the Sowir shipyard at a fraction of the speed of light. The human weapon was devastating, when it hit their target. The mass and speed of the rounds giving them amazing destructive power. But the downside of these weapons was that once they were fired their trajectory couldn’t be changed. If the enemy knew their trajectory it was an easy thing for them to move out of the way, which meant that their most effective range was short, when the enemy ship had less time to move out of the way. But unlike a ship, the Sowir shipyard was relatively stationary, and even thought the distance between the human ships and the shipyard was considerable, it could not move out of the way. The Sowir had no choice but to watch as the human rounds drew closer.