Chapter 338

338 Tarsus Aflame, Pt The surviving crew and pilots of the Hegemony point defense fleet cheered on open comms as the Republic’s destroyers peeled away from the fight. Floating in the space surrounding the cruiser were the remnants of most of the enemy destroyers.

The only remaining Federation destroyer fought back to the bitter end. Its crippled body limped in space near the cruiser in a feeble attempt to escape. They had no such luck, as the cruiser easily pointed its largest guns at it, and fired with impunity.

Massive shells tore into it, and shredded it to pieces.

Even as its wreckage fell down towards the planet, the two Republic destroyers angled further down and broke through the atmosphere. Their noses glowed a bright orange from the extreme friction while ionized gasses burned in a layer in front of them.

They flew ahead with their thrusters pushed to the maximum – they needed to catch up to the rest of the fleet that was ahead of them.

And when they descended far enough down the atmosphere, their hangar bays opened up.

Xylo and her squadron lifted up from the Raven Refuge’s topside hangar bay, while Freya and Kali’s squadrons dropped down from the bottom hangar bay. All of their squadrons had doubled, and grown to 12 each.

They were joined by a fourth squadron, which dropped out of the Blade of Damocles’ bottom hangar bay.

Unlike Xylo’s sleek Locust fighters, these were wide and heavy fighters with thick armor. More importantly, each of them had four massive munition tubes that had been built into their wedge-like wings.

.....

–

Hydra Squadron

Class: Skirmish

Role: Bomber

Squadron Leader: Tyretha

Loadout:

NeutroDrive Galactic “Basilisk” Heavy Fighter [A]

4x Raijin Concepts “Shatterpulse” Mortar [X]

–

Their captain, Tyretha, appeared on the fleet’s comms and signaled their readiness once all were fully deployed.

“Hydra squadron, ready to go,” she said.

“Received, Hydra,” Lucifer answered.

Ze paced around hir TacMap as new intelligence scrolled past. Their sensors revealed numerous enemy advance forces headed straight towards the same exact township they were headed towards. Ze noted that their column was stretched out and had mixed armaments – dozens of fighters, mecha, drones, and hovertanks. A few thousand kilometers behind them were four frigates and two destroyers.

Their own fleet was in a similar position – with their smaller ships far ahead of their destroyers. Ze quickly calculated that, at their current velocity, the Federation’s forces would get to the township first. At least, before their own destroyers could get there.

Which meant that their corvettes were going to be vulnerable in the meantime. Lucifer was confident that they could defang the Federation’s skirmish vessels quickly, as long as they could get to the township first and secure its airspace.

“Viridian Nautilus,” ze called out over comms, “it’s your turn to shine. Take Squadrons Valkyrie and Maharathi with you and secure the township! Squadrons Muse and Hydra – advance, but hang back.”

All four squadrons immediately shot forward with their thrusters pushed beyond their maximum. Sonic booms cracked across the sky as they reached supersonic speeds over the course of a dozen seconds.

At roughly the same time, the Viridian Nautilus, the Corvus Republic’s support frigate, peeled slightly away from the three corvettes.

The frigate itself was a beautiful design, similar to an actual nautilus shell, but thinner and sleeker. And though it looked lightly armored, appeared to be moderately armed with numerous turrets and emplacements along both its broadsides.

–

Viridian Nautilus

Class: Frigate

Role: Rapid Support

Bridge Officer: Captain Harwood

Armament

Broadside Turrets: 16x [M2]

Broadside Emplacements: 8x [M2]

Topside Drone Bay [24/24]

–

The frigate’s massive bottom thrusters glowed brightly as power coursed through them. The whole thing picked up speed, faster and faster as the moments ticked by. It only took seconds before it too shot forward with a ridiculous amount of speed.

Muse squadron immediately banked to slow down as they flew over the settlement, having reached the township minutes before the enemy’s skirmish forces could arrive.

They were quickly followed by the heavy fighters, who followed rights after Muse. Then Freya and Kali’s mecha squadrons dropped down just outside the settlement itself. There, they kept watch for the incoming enemy.

Behind them, the Viridian Nautilus continued to fly forward at a near-reckless speed. On the frigate’s bridge, Captain Harwood gripped the handrails next to her as her ship rocketed closer and closer to the township.

Just as they crossed a specific distance, and right when the advance force’s fighters came into near sensor range, she cried out, “Perform drift halt now! Present starboard, prime all kinetic turrets. Fire on ten... nine...”

The frigate’s rear thrusters cut out completely, and went nearly dark. But they didn’t apply any reverse thrust whatsoever, which caused the whole ship to continue careening forward. At the same time, its forward starboard maneuvering thrusters and its rear portside maneuvering thrusters opened up to their absolute maximum.

The Viridian Nautilus rotated along its yaw and began to slide as it approached the township. Though its forward momentum slowed even as it spun, it kept on going. The moment its starboard side became perpendicular to its trajectory, all its starboard thrusters opened up to their absolute maximum.

This caused the careening frigate to slow even further.

Everyone watching from below gasped in wonder as the frigate slid across the sky above them. Captain Jax cheered them on from the ground, and even waved at them with exuberance.

It came to a complete stop the exact moment that half of their starboard side cannons fired. The force of their recoil practically halted their momentum, and stilled their advance.

At the same time, anti armor shells burst in the air, right into the advancing Federation fighters. Black clouds filled with shrapnel were flung in every direction, and ripped into the fighters’ armor.

One of the shells burst open right over one of the fighters, and tore it to slivers in the blink of an eye. Thousands of shards punched through its armor and structure and systems and pilot with such violence that it exploded seconds later.

Most of the other fighters were fairly damaged from that initial burst, but they kept on going. Though their armor had been ripped up, there were still close to two dozen of them. More than that, they had plenty more of their forces right behind.

But as they approached, realized too late that the Republic frigate only used half of its starboard turrets – only four of them were anti armor. Two of the turrets were quad-barrelled chaingun that immediately filled the airspace in front of them with countless slugs.

Their HUM was so loud that the Federation pilots could feel it in their teeth.

Worse however, were the streams of bullets that peppered their armor. The chainguns easily tracked a number of the incoming fighters, and poured everything they had into tearing them apart. Their barrels began to glow a dull red as they spat out countless rounds of ammunition.

The frigate fired another volley from its AA guns, but the shells shot past the incoming fighters. Instead, they burst over the drones and mecha that were a few dozen meters behind, and tore into them as well.

Shards of tungsten rained down on them and embedded themselves into their armor. Though the enemy mecha were able to mitigate most of the damage with raised round shields, the drones were far from lucky.

Their thinner armor and more flexible structures were no match for the flak. A great majority of the drones were instantly torn to pieces and turned into scrap. Some exploded as their power sources were torn into and split apart.

And with the vast majority of the incoming skirmishers greatly weakened, Freya, Kali, and Xylo all charged forward.

Xylo’s Muse squadron shot forward first with a massive burst of speed. They curved outward as they slightly flanked the incoming enemy fighters, then merged into their position once the Viridian Nautilus paused its own attack.

With guns blazing, of course.

A dozen devastating graviton beams tore into the unsuspecting Federation pilots – they hardly even realized anyone was at their flank. The entire Muse squadron was practically invisible, and they would never have realized they were there, if not for the rising of their weapon’s energy signatures.

And by the time they realized Muse was there, it was far too late to do anything about it.

The beams scored their already-weakened armor and chassis, and crumpled or warped or wrenched them apart as they passed. Modules and systems and thrusters and weapons all were turned to useless scrap under the strength of the Republic’s graviton beams.

More than half of what remained of the fighters simply fell out of the sky, their chassis and their pilots warped beyond recognition. Some exploded from their power plants being wrenched apart and torn open.

One crashed into another, and both were flung violently to the ground, where they bounced and crumpled and spun to pieces.

The remaining Federation pilots’ morale instantly plummeted at seeing their forces wiped out so quickly. The barrage from the frigate and the stealth fighters reduced them to a mere fraction of their original force.

They never even got the chance to flee, as Xylo and her squadron quite literally turned them to scrap.

While they cleaned up above, Freya’s Valkyrie squadron shot ahead of Kali’s Maharathi squadron and charged forward, towards the incoming enemy mecha. They were spaced out widely, and held both their shields and their spears high.

Their shields shook violently as the enemy peppered them with countless slugs and bullets. At the same time, they wove left and right and dodged any incoming rockets, which blasted the ground all around. Not to mention any fighters that fell from the sky.

As they neared the enemy, their thrusters flared out to the maximum, and they boosted straight at their targets with incredible speed and momentum.

And with deftness and precision, thrust their spears forward right at the moment of impact. Their spear points punched through the enemy’s armor, and cut deep into the structure and systems below. Then, each of them fired their coilspears, and flung a tungsten slug deep into their enemies’ chassis.

The hypersonic slugs wrecked everything they passed through on the inside, then burst out the other side. They then slammed into the mecha behind, and embedded themselves into their armor or their shields.

But that wasn’t the end of it – Kali’s Maharathi squadron leapt up and over the Valkyrie squadron, just as they crashed into the first line of Federation mecha. All of them swung their devastating weapons down as they landed onto the mecha’s rear line, and crushed or chopped or otherwise obliterated anything in their way.

Enemy mecha stumbled backwards, or to the ground as their armor was torn off in huge swaths, their pilots stunned by the Republic’s ferocity. The Rakshasas then unleashed their wildness and swung their weapons with near abandon, and tore into everything around them.

Their blades and hammers sliced and crushed and maimed and gouged and wrecked until not a single Federation mecha was left standing.