Chapter 356

356 Search & Rescue, Pt Planet Rinoria, Trefanus System, Minor House Olessa

The Fleet of the Corvus Republic flashed into the Trefanus System through a secured, and obscured, Omega-Tau beacon over Rinoria. With all their signals low and heavily muted, they quickly advanced to the dark side of the planet, and began to orbit alongside.

At the very center of the Republic fleet was their new cruiser, which they were still in the process of naming. It had taken the role of their flagship from the Ravens’ Refuge, and in doing so shifted the roles of the other ships in the fleet.

The Ravens’ Refuge’s role transformed into a dropship and rescue ship combined. They were staffed with dozens of power armored assault marines, support units, and well-equipped civilian rescue squads.

And because Raijin, Azrael, and Lucifer all moved their operations into the cruiser, their old corvettes were now free to be more specialized in their roles.

The Spirit of Amelia was repurposed into Emergency Response, and was fully staffed with MedTechs and a few Field Surgeons. The Accursed Bootlegger was repurposed into Force Reconnaissance, and was staffed with dozens of intelligence analysts and clandestine commandos. Maetel’s Lament was repurposed into a Drone Launcher, and was also Raijin’s first attempt at full automation.

All three corvettes were docked underneath the cruiser itself. They were tucked into their own private hangars and stowed behind heavy plated armor doors at the bottom side stern.

A couple of spherical cores flew between the ships of the Republic at unbelievable speeds, then shot down towards the planet. Each of them were just like Freya’s spherical core from Bellum Aeterna, and were covered in omnitronium plating and what appeared to be thrusters.

Their thrusters didn’t glow like normal ones, and in fact, they weren’t thrusters at all. These were also Raijin’s newest devices, which she called antiparticle drag vents. And she built them specifically for these experimental cores. What they did wasn’t to push the ship – they pulled it.

.....

And in doing so, completely optimized the cores’ movement. The drag vents made little noise, had no visual markers, emitted extremely low output signals, and used a minimum of power. Most importantly, they were much more potent and efficient than even the best fighter thrusters available.

Spinning along different axes around the spheres were five extra rings of omnitronium armor plating. Hovering above those layers were numerous weapon systems, which were housed in talon-like armored enclosures.

Each and every single weapon or armor plate was controlled by countless antigrav and electromagnetic forces, which gave them absolute precision in terms of position, rotation, and facing. Just like Eris’ dual-seater heavy fighter, these cores were able to point their weapons in absolutely any direction.

–

L?vateinn

Pilot: Freya

Core: Raijin Concepts “Oni” Core v1.3 [X]

Class: Variable Superiority Fighter

Loadout

– Raijin Concepts “Shatterpulse” Mortar [X]

– Terra Nach Mar “Executor” LR200 Sniper Cannon [A]

– Primal Machinations “Flametongue” Heavy Plasma Lance [A]

–

Carnwennan

Pilot: Lucifer

Core: Raijin Concepts “Oni” Core v1.3 [X]

Class: Variable Superiority Fighter

Loadout

– Grevatia Armory “Ballista” Corrosion Sniper [A]

– Mechanica Dharma “Hailfire” Thermic Flak Cannon [S]

– NeutroDrive Galactic “Thunderclap” Micromissile Launcher [A]

–

Freya and Lucifer sped down towards the planet at incredible speeds, and leveled off as they punched through the atmosphere. Both ships glowed brightly from the heat of re-entry, as superheated ionized gasses burned all around them.

But they easily made their way further down, unscathed.

They leveled themselves off more and more until they hit the planet’s mesosphere tens of kilometers above the ground. Then, they pushed their ships to the absolute maximum, and shot across the sky.

The two cruised high above at dizzying altitudes, and at extreme hypersonic speeds. Because they were only going in a straight line, they were able to sustain well over 3000 meters per second.

“I was thinking we name our new flagship ‘Binky’,” Freya said over comms.

“What? No. Absolutely not,” protested Lucifer. “How’re we gonna invite anyone to the Republic with any kind of dignity with a name like that? Can you imagine bringing House dignitaries aboard? ‘Welcome, Matriarch, aboard the Corvus Republic’s Grand Flagship... Binky.'”

“Look, I’m just one voice among the thousands. If the majority wants to name the ship Binky, then I’m all for it.”

“No-one wants to name the ship Binky. And I’ll campaign to make sure of it.”

“Can you two tease each other on your own time, please?” Xylo interjected. “We’re here to work, not flirt-fight. Now please, send out a sensor ping.”

Freya and Lucifer both scanned the landscape ahead of them in great detail. Data poured into their ships, which they quickly forwarded back up to the cruiser.

“Nothing immediately apparent,” Lucifer said. “Just plenty of blasted-out cities and towns everywhere.”

“I’m seeing a few emergency beacons here and there, everywhere,” added Freya. “How’re we supposed to know which one’s the one we’re looking for?”

“They won’t have an emergency beacon up,” Claire answered. “The signal they sent was cut out before it finished, so we couldn’t pinpoint it. According to our records though, it’s supposed to be some kind of hidden facility.”

“Well, that’s just great.”

“We may have to do seismic and deep electromagnetic scans, just like when we uncovered the Prophets of Gaea,” Raijin said. “Your cores have enhanced sensor suites that could do it, but you would have to fly closer towards the ground, perhaps half as high as you are now.”

“Fine with us,” said Lucifer. “We oughta still be safe at that altitude.”

Their airspeed slowed greatly as they descended down to the stratosphere – there was simply more gravity and more friction for the cores to contend with. And so they slowed to a more meager supersonic speed of 1,500 m/s.

But this allowed them to do deeper scans, which revealed a number of underground facilities beneath most of the ruined towns and cities.

Many appeared to have a great deal of activity brewing in them, which vexxed the analysts in the Corvus Republic. More than that, some appeared to be linked to each other in a vast network that sprawled under the planet’s surface itself.

None of this information helped them narrow down where their target was. Which Lucifer began to doubt.

“Are you sure this is a real emergency rescue?” ze said. “What if this is some kinda ambush instead? We can’t really rule that out, can we?”

As ze spoke, both hir and Freya’s sensors lit up with fresh data, and their targeting circuits lit up on their screens. It seems they had picked up some faint signals at the very edge of their range, which they slowly adjusted their trajectory towards.

Because of the sheer distance, the readouts and initial readings weren’t fully conclusive or comprehensive. But Freya could easily tell what they were. She had seen very similar signals at least once before, years ago.

“Drogar warships!” she exclaimed.

As they sped forward, more and more data spilled into their cores’ intelligences, which further solidified what those signals seemed to be. Their images clarified on their screens, as further data painted more solid pictures.

“Looks like four frigates, two dozen fighters, and two dozen mecha,” Freya continued.

“Drogar are still present planetside?” said Xylo. “I thought the invasion force moved on.”

“You know, it could be a cleanup crew. Or worse...” Azrael added. “What’re they doing exactly? Can either of you tell?”

Lucifer adjusted hir sensors and narrowed their focus greatly, towards the far distance ahead of them. There, clear amounts of fresh data began to pour into hir systems.

“They’re... attacking a cliffside,” said Lucifer. “Which looks normal at this distance. Seems something’s under there. Or at least, the Drogar seem to think so.”

“It’s either gold in a massive casket, or our rescue target,” Freya said right after. “I’m betting on the Latter. Permission to engage.”

“You’re just two fighters,” Xylo quickly refuted. “I don’t think you’ll be able to do much against those frigates.”

“We don’t have to face those,” Lucifer argued. “We just need to harass the fighters long enough for you to send reinforcements.”

“Exactly,” Freya added. “We take their attention off... whatever it is they’re attacking, and give the Blade of Damocles enough time to come down on those frigates.”

“Do you wish for me to send some drones to support you?” asked Raijin. “This will be your first sortie in the new cores.”

“Hey, we put in at least five hours of straight practice,” Lucifer said with a grin. “We oughta be fine.”

“Better send some backup, just in case,” Freya said.

The two ships shot towards their target at incredible speed, though they began to slowly decelerate. At the same time, they descended down gradually, and headed closer towards their targets. By the time they were 15 km away, they were down to roughly 400 m/s – which Raijin had arbitrarily set as their skirmish combat limit.

Their weapon systems spun around their spherical cores until Freya’s sniper cannon and Lucifer’s corrosion sniper were up above. Their targeting displays focused on a couple of enemy fighters, calculated their trajectories along with their flight speed, the planet’s gravitational forces, and atmospheric conditions.

Then, the moment they crossed the 10 km mark, fired.

Freya’s fully charged tungsten carbide round ripped through the air in the blink of an eye. It slammed into the first fighter with such force that it ripped clean through the chitin armor, past the exoframe, through numerous modules, into the demimatter battery, then out the other side.

The puncture to the battery immediately caused the entire thing to collapse in on itself, as the demimatter consumed everything around it. Half of the fighter’s internal systems were completely annihilated as the demimatter itself spread out across everything it touched.

Systems and modules were torn right out of their casings as they were consumed by it. Even the pilot was completely eradicated and neutralized by it. The entire exoframe warped inwards, toward the demimatter ‘wound’, and sunk deep into it until it was completely expended.

In the end, the hollowed-out fighter simply sailed towards the ground, then crashed into the dirt unceremoniously. The ground kicked up all around on impact.

The bullet itself continued going until it hit the ground dozens of kilometers away.

At the same time, Lucifer’s corrosive sniper shot also hit its target. It similarly punched through the chitin armor and through the exoframe. But it broke open as it did so, and spread its extremely corrosive payload everywhere it went.

It punched through a few systems and modules before it finally struck the pilot itself, right in the head.

Which the corrosive ate through as well.

The Drogar screamed briefly as he was quite literally eaten from the inside. His blood and bone and brain matter all dissolved with as much ease as the metal modules around him.

His fighter also careened towards the ground, and crashed spectacularly into the dirt.

.....

Not that Freya and Lucifer stopped with that single volley – they continued to fire on the Imperial fighters even as they closed the distance. And over the course of a dozen or so seconds, took down a few more one by one by one.