Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

“Iris, I need a way in.” Adrian said. He kept looking for room to get Leviathan inside the Sowir formation, but there was none. A couple of seconds later Iris spoke in his mind. “Follow this course.” Iris said, as a course appeared on his map.

“ Iris, that will take us on a collision course with their battleships. ” Adrian said.

“Trust me, they won’t be there when you get there.” Iris said.

Trusting her, he sent the order. As his ships changed course, he started seeing a subtle shift in the Sowir tracks. Soon he saw what Iris knew would happen. The Sowir battleships altered their course to cover the force that Retsar Isani was brining from below, to avoid being surrounded. Ironically, that was just what was going to happen. The Sowir plan was to bring in their heavy cruiser in the hole they had just made, and ordinarily they would have succeeded. But Iris saw their only available course of action, which meant that now, Leviathan and its escorts would plug the hole before the heavy cruisers arrived. Sowir battleships would be surrounded by Adrian’s ships on the one side and Retsar Isani’s on the other, while their heavy cruisers now unable to close the gap would be left outside on the Leviathan’s side. Quickly Adrian ordered his commanders to focus on the six battleships, as they were the biggest threat. Leviathan started taking fire from Sowir particle weapons in increasing amounts, but Leviathan’s heavy hull shrugged it off. A moment later, as they reached the optimal range for railgun fire, Adrian’s ships opened fire.

Ship Master Leia Kim, commander of the light cruiser Conqueror watched the holo as ships under her command speed towards the four Sowir light cruisers and the two troop transport they were protecting. Her command consisted of one other human light cruiser, and four Nel frigates. Although Nel ships weren’t directly under her command, they would follow her lead, their ships were not capable of stopping the Sowir ships on their own. She sent out orders to Talon and the four frigates, and the six ships started firing their missiles and lasers. One light cruiser moved to protect the transports, while the other three split off to cut Leia’s ships. Missiles from both sides started getting through the defensive fire, without the bigger ships they had very little defensive capabilities. Human ships proved better at taking down missiles, but they still took the brunt of the attack as they moved to cover the Nel frigates as they fired the remainder of their arsenal. Seeing that if they don’t get by the three ships the troop transports would get away, Leia pressed the attack, closing the distance. Invisible beams scorched the surface of the ships on both sides, even as missiles struck and exploded against the hulls. Conqueror and Talon managed to get by with light damage, while inflicting more damage to the Sowir ships. The Nel frigates didn’t fare so well, after they expanded their missiles they needed to get out of the cover provided by the Conqueror and Talon in order to fire their lasers. And each time they did so, Sowir focused fire on them. It wasn’t long until one of the Sowir beams managed to hold target long enough to burn through one of the frigates hulls, a moment later the Frigate exploded. Meanwhile Lia tried to focus one of Sowir light cruisers that appeared to have taken more damage than the others. Conqueror’s laser fire managed to disrupt the Sowir ships defensive fire long enough for Talon’s missiles to pass through and slam into the ship’s hull. The missiles penetrated and the Sowir ship exploded in a short flash of fire, leaving only a mangled husk. But that focus cost them another Frigate, and depleting the last of their missiles. But watching the holo Leia saw that the ships were now close enough that railguns could be effective. Railguns on the Conqueror and the Talon rotated and locked on the enemy ships. A moment later they started shooting at the Sowir ships. Because of the distance the Sowir ships had less time to evade the incoming fire, and soon glancing blows became direct hits, mauling the Sowir ships. But even with all that the two remaining Sowir ships wouldn’t be destroyed in time, and their return fire had already started to impair Conqueror’s and Talon’s ability to maintain the same level of fire, with constant rotation and maneuvering to avoid the brunt of Sowir laser fire their railguns had to be retargeted constantly. Then another Frigate got hit and exploded. Looking at her holo helplessly Leia tried to find a way to get around the two Sowir light cruisers and catch up to the transports. Then she noticed a blip on the holo moving extremely fast on an intercept course with the transports. It was the damaged Nel light cruiser, accelerating at an amazing rate. After a moment Leia realized what the commander of that ship was going to do. They had overloaded their drives, gaining an enormous amount of speed while guaranteeing that their ship would not survive. She also saw the two Sowir ship moving to block its path, and she pressed the attack harder. Conqueror, Talon and the remaining Nel Frigate pushed the attack as Sowir ships tried to reposition themselves to catch Nel light cruiser. That attempt cost them everything. The three ships poured fire into their sides, lasers and railguns fire started hitting the Sowir hard, but even so the return fire from their lasers was hitting Talon hard in return, but soon the two ships stumbled under the continuous attack. Almost simultaneously they exploded, leaving Conqueror without full maneuvering and Talon heavily damaged its hull sporting gashes and melted hull. The last Nel Frigate had light damage from a few glancing laser hits. With the destruction of the two light cruisers, the Nel ship had a direct path opened at the Sowir transports. As the ship neared, the remaining Sowir light cruiser opened fire, but Nel ship ignored any form of defense instead pouring everything into offence. It opened fire with its missiles and lasers on the light cruiser as it sped past it on an intercept course with one of the transports. Leia watched the front viewer seeing as the Nel ship hit and damaged the light cruiser’s drives, even as its hull was now falling apart pieces breaking off. It sped past the light cruiser and slammed into the troop transport disappearing in a ball of fire. Leia hung her head, she knew that she had just witnessed what someone fighting for their home was capable of.

The remaining Sowir transport ship kept its course towards Nuva, there was no chance for Lia and her ships to catch it. The light cruiser that served as its escort drives were damaged and it couldn’t keep up, it slowly turned and set a course for Lia and her ships. Looking at her crew and then back at the holo she gave the order for them to meet the enemy ship.

Ship Master Paul Isaacs glanced at Adrian, his friend, as he commanded the fleet. For Adrian the battle was a chess match, but for Paul and the other commanders it was a lot more personal. They were fighting their ships, trying to destroy the enemy while keeping their ships safe.

“Power grid fourteen is down, we lost railguns thirteen through fifteen.” Weapons Handler reported.

“Send the repair crew, get them back online.” Paul’s High Prime ordered.

Studying the holo Paul noticed that battleship Battle Song managed to push six missiles through one of the Sowir battleships defenses, the one designated as H3. Seeing an opening Paul immediately started giving orders.

“Rotate the ship. Bring all our top weapons to bear on H3.” Paul ordered.

Almost immediately Leviathan started its rotation, turning its top towards the Sowir battleships. As each of Leviathan’s weapons got into range they started firing on the 290 meter long battleship. Railgun fire started ravaging the battle ship’s hull even as Leviathan’s lasers scorched it. And then one of Leviathan’s main lasers managed to keep a full 5 second burn on its target. The result was a flash of fire as the beam burned through the hull and ignited the air inside. A change immediately came over the ship.