Chapter 350

350 The Defense of Sorallus, Pt The gargantuan thrusters on the 5th Fleet’s carrier flared out to the maximum as the entire ship flipped over along its length. Its top deck had been all but thoroughly torn apart, and every millimeter of its thick armor had been completely shredded.

All of its emplacements and turrets had been reduced to useless scrap, along with all of the mecha and defense drones scattered on its surface.

Almost nothing was left of the forces on that side, and so as promised, the admiral rotated it out. He showed the Federation the hangars they had previously busted, then flipped to the bottom side of the carrier.

Absolute glee filled him as the hundreds of the fresh mecha and turrets peppered the Federation with their weapons fire the moment they were able.

Cannon shells and chaingun fire and AA flak flew up and smashed into the fatigued enemy front line. They ripped and tore into their weakened armor, and exposed even more of their vulnerable insides.

“Oh no, you don’t,” he said as the enemy fleet began to move out of range.

Clearly, they had taken too much damage, and needed to pull back to affect their repairs. But he simply had the entire carrier move up and followed right after them. No way was he going to allow them to get away now.

They tried to fire back with what they had, to discourage them from chasing after them. Their few guns rained down shells on the fresh turrets and mecha.

Some were ripped into by the larger shells, and torn apart where they stood. Their disparate parts flung in every direction as they were shorn off from the blows.

.....

But the Star Dragon didn’t care. He responded simply by throwing swarms of cluster missiles at the slowly fleeing Federation ships. Dozens of massive missiles launched out of their tubes and wove their way towards the enemy line.

Though countless streams of defensive minigun fire erupted from every ship in the Federation fleet, there was nothing they could do. Not only did the missiles wave around chaotically, but hitting them only caused a few of them to break open earlier than expected.

Roughly a kilometer out, the rest of the missiles burst open and released hundreds of smaller missiles in their wake. Hundreds of thousands of micro missiles wove violently as they spread out across the field.

They seemed to loom over the Federation fleet, menacingly. They then slammed into the ships in front of them with terrible force and shook them all to their cores.

The Federation ships were blanketed by fiery explosions that outright destroyed any defensive fighters and mecha flying all around. Many frigates were ripped open violently as well – their armor and structure could hardly handle the sheer force of the carrier’s devastating attack.

Most had been wrenched open hard enough that everything inside had been revealed to the rest of the galaxy. Their crew were flung out into space, who choked as they froze to death.

Many of the destroyers had also taken a great deal of damage, and some were also ripped open as a result. More critically, for the majority of destroyers, their rail cannon barrels had been warped by the blasts – just enough to prevent them from firing safely. Not without some measure of repairs.

Half of the remaining enemy cruisers had also taken significant damage from the cluster missiles – their armor had been torn open and weakened by previous hits. The missiles simply opened them up even further.

Massive blackened scars stretched across their hulls and revealed their more vulnerable systems and modules below. For a few, huge sections of their decks were open to attack and completely vulnerable. Almost all of the ships were clearly weakened by the attack.

Weaknesses that the Star Dragon didn’t hesitate to exploit.

“Fire at will,” he told his forces.

They complied happily and bombarded their enemies with savage ferocity.

Off to the Federation’s flank, their interception fleet waned significantly. The Lucifer-led Hegemony fleet wove around them like a swarm of piranha, and chewed away at them bit by bit. Ze adjusted hir fleet’s trajectories, and squeezed the Federation fleet ruthlessly.

And over time, reduced them down to the last intercepting cruiser.

It was battered on all sides. Its guns had been shorn off or bent, its missile emplacements had been wrenched off. Its armor had blackened gaping wounds across every surface, and most of its thrusters were sputtering and close to death.

Even then, the flanking fleet’s cruisers battered it further with their guns from all sides. They punched through to the center, and obliterated everything they targeted. Repair modules and navigation systems and circuit coolers – all were ripped apart ruthlessly, and from every angle.

To the point where its rear thrusters went dark. The entire thing listed as it began to drift forever forward, seemingly dead.

Then, just as it drifted a dozen meters or so, multiple explosions began to erupt along its vast open wounds. As they did so, they ruptured more critical systems deep inside, until the whole thing burst open. It lit up with a violent blast that tore its outer shell into many pieces, and flung them in every direction.

A wave of force swept out from the center, and shook all the Hegemony ships in its vicinity. Not that they stayed to watch for long – Lucifer quickly turned them around, and began to head towards the remainder of the Federation fleet.

Of course, they had taken their own damage as well – the Federation fleet had done a number on all their hulls. And despite their evasive maneuvers, they still took a great deal of shots from the Feds.

Their portside armor was warped and torn up in many places. Most were heavily dented and pock-marked with all manner of munitions. Some even lost their guns and missile emplacements in the skirmish.

Even the ships of the Republic had been damaged to some degree. All had numerous scratches and dents on their armor. Some of their guns had also been shot off. The Raven’s Refuge also had a huge dent on its port side armor, after having taken a number of potshots from the cruisers.

Thankfully, their armor held firm and fast.

Still, their casualties were far less overall – they had only lost 8 frigates and 3 destroyers. In terms of casualties suffered, the Federation beat them by far. Their entire interception fleet had been completely wiped out.

Not that their collective damaged port sides was too much of a problem – Lucifer repositioned their fleet so they were still on the same flank, but now headed back towards the carrier. This revealed their fresh starboard armor and cannons to the Federation, and kept their damaged port sides out of sight.

Ze watched reports fly across hir TacMap as the admiral tore into the remaining ships and whittled them down even further.

Together, they had caused a great deal of damage to the attacking Federation force, and reduced them down to 7 cruisers, 12 destroyers, and 29 frigates. There were still hundreds of fighters and mecha on the field, but far less than before.

Ze estimated that half of both sides’ freighters and mecha had been eliminated throughout the entire battle, but were still plentiful enough to make a difference.

Lucifer angled their approach even further, and skirted the very edge of their range. This time, the Federation didn’t send a fleet to intercept them – instead, some turned to their fresh broadsides to help shield the rest of the Federation fleet.

Ze grinned a bit as ze saw them maneuver defensively. It was a sign that they truly had lost the fight. As though they held their guard tight because it was all they knew to do. It was clear they were wavering, and all ze needed to do was deliver a barrage of killing blows to finish them off.

Lucifer quickly targeted multiple weak points on the ships they were facing, then sent it out to the rest of the fleet.

“Weapons free,” ze told them, then angled their trajectory further inward, ever so slightly, and ever more defiantly.

Their guns immediately fired, and filled the space between the fleets with their shells. They slammed into the enemy’s armor violently, and dented them heavily all over. Every ship shook as their volleys punched into them, and pushed them around violently.

Not that they sat there and did nothing about it – the Federation fired back as best they could, and returned the blows in full.

But all they struck was fresh armor, and did little to slow Lucifer’s flanking maneuver.

There was a flash of light as another section of the 5th Fleet ported into space. They quickly regrouped and headed to fight with the carrier, despite the fact that they had already clearly taken damage and suffered casualties.

Unlike the other two that came earlier, this one only came with 1 cruiser, 7 destroyers, and 32 frigates. Regardless, their numbers were a welcome sight.

Although their cruisers were even in number to the Federation, the Hegemony now held a considerable numerical advantage with their destroyers and frigates. It was more than enough to polish off the remaining fleet.

Still, Lucifer was wary. In fact, despite how weak the Federation looked, and how many ships were left, ze knew there was still much to do.

And in truth, nothing stopped the Federation from sending in even more reinforcements.

If they had any, at least.

Just as the mercenary Hegemony fleet protecting the carrier moved forward to engage, every single ship in their fleet was hit with an emergency alert. It interrupted all of their actions, and ensured that everyone saw it clearly and cleanly.

And it came straight from the Central Hegemony. More critically, it was sent with the highest security and encryption, and was tagged Delta-Alpha-Alpha.

On seeing it, most of the Hegemony officers on the field shuddered in fear.

–

To All Hegemony Fleets

Return To Rendezvous at the Rylaren Gamede System immediately and without hesitation.

By Order of the Hegemony of Free People’s Grand Parliament

FURTHER:

All Combat-Ready Hegemony Fleets must additionally report to the The People’s Defensive Armada located in the same system.

If deployed in Conflict Sectors, disengage and commit to a full retreat regardless of position and advantage.

CRITICAL:

The Drogar Empire have violated their cease-fire and nonaggression treaty with the Hegemony of Free Peoples. Reconnaissance indicates an amassed Imperial fleet broke through the Demilitarized Sector and invaded multiple Great, Major, and even Minor Houses within the Hegemony at the same time.

Many defensive fleets were devastated by the maneuver, and now a wide call for defenses are necessary.

Together, the Hegemony of Free Peoples shall push the Imperial Invaders out of our sovereign territories, and restore order to our borders and our people.

–

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Author’s Notes

This chapter marks the end of Arc 8, and I’ll be taking a week break to further refine the story points for Arc 9 before I start writing it in full. It’s going to be a pretty crazy arc, so I need to make sure its plot is super tight. I hope you’re all enjoying the story so far, because it’s starting to draw to a close – there’s only 5 arcs left!