Petajoules
The Endless Cosmonaut, having survived the destruction of its Flagship, joins the Hivequeen's battlegroup.
Battlegroup Elvis:
1) Hivequeen uses Tactic: Infestation to Lock On to Shamokin Rising, launch boarding pods at Shamokin Rising.
2) Hivequeen uses Maneuver: K-Drone Kill Pack to launch an Area-Target Payload at Battlegroup Eland. Flight time is 2 (range 3, minus 1). Starfield Furies use Angels of Death trait: 1/round when this Escort’s Flagship uses a Maneuver, repair 3 HP to one of this Escort’s Wings. You can only use this ability as long as neither ship in this Escort group is destroyed. One Fighter Wing is repaired to full HP.
3) Diluvia uses Tactic: Lashing Storm to deal 1d6 damage to a hostile Escort within range 4-0 - target Destroyer Undine, rolled 2 damage.
4) Starfield Furies use Tactic: Wing Commander - Interceptor Screen.
This Escort’s battlegroup gains +1 Interdiction until the end of its next turn for each Fighter Wing remaining in this Escort group. That's +4 total.
The Undine quivers under several minor impacts as the diluvian swarm reaches out like a starbound amoeba, dozens of its constituent drones sacrificed in an attempt to scour the destroyer's armour.
Despite taking torpedo hits from the Undine, the starfield carrier continues its methodical business of recovering fighters, rearming and refueling them, and launching fresh wings. Soon, the Passacaglia squadrons are flocking to reinforce the Hivequeen's interceptor screen.
The Shamokin Rising begins to come under fire from the Hivequeen's batteries. Breaching pods strike the carrier-frame amidships, disgorging their drone cargoes.
And a new configuration of K-Drone missiles flashes towards Battlegroup Eland, carrying powerful cluster nukes aimed at bombarding not just the battleship, but its escorts as well.
5) Endless Cosmonaut uses IMPERATIVE: ATTACK, which increases damage to 2 and deals its damage to the Nikolai Bukharin.
"We're picking up that transmission again," reports Aegis. "The one from the Cornicen's solo mech fighter. It's clearly still in the fight."
<TABITHA 7777777^%&?::I SEE YOU>
The exotic particle beam whips across the battleship's bow, frying sensitive electronics and impairing internal life support systems. It's stronger now, better attuned to the ship's weaknesses...
Battlegroup Splinter:
1) Maneuver: Retrograde Burn! (+2 Defense, +1d6 Interdiction)
2) Tactic: Lock Firing Solution (Hivequeen)
"Hostile Battlegroup is being pushed back, Captain. They're taking the opportunity to recover and bolster their defenses." Chief van Ghent looks over at Captain Var. "Battlegroup Eland has taken serious damage but they're holding for now."
Caspian Var nods imperceptibly. "Very well then. Helm, burn retrograde. Sensors lock up that Hivequeen." He looks over at the holographic projection of Captain Lutjens of the Björn Járnsíða. "Captain Saint-Germaine has crippled them. We will end them."
"Weapons are at 75%. Beginning targeting procedures." calls Gunnery Officer Bryant.
Boarding Step:
Breaching pod attempts Infestation against Nikolai Bukharin, roll of 16, success. Nikolai Bukharin takes 3 damage and is Locked On at the start of next Action Turn.
Breaching pod attempts Infestation against Shamokin Rising, roll of 6, failed.
All across Battlegroup Eland, crews struggle and strive in red-lit combat compartments, all under varying levels of acceleration. In cramped destroyer decks. Aboard Peregrine fighters landing hot for combat refueling and rearming. And on the bridges of the battleship and carrier.
Many of the crew members have private, unofficial timers set up on their consoles. Counting how long it takes for spinal petajoule kinetics to charge.
If an entire fleet could hold its breath as one, it would. Waiting for the shots that could end this battle...
Round 3, Logistics Step.
There're tremors coursing through the Richard Wagner now as the last timer ticks down the last few minutes to full power. Gunnery Officer Bryant and her team are making last minute adjustments. The tension shows on their faces as the numbers tick down. Thirty minutes. Twenty.
Ten.
Aboard the Björn Járnsíða, the systems on her twin Harbinger turrets swing to bear, their focal heads making final calculations as they zero in on their quarry.
Eight.
Capacitors hum with power as their beam's intensity amps up geometrically pumping petajoules of directed radiation in a pair of coruscating beams that rake across the tattered hull of the crippled Starfield Fury.
Five.
Composites wilt and steel sags as the focused energy beams paint the ship, seeping through rents punched into its armor by the Undine's torpedoes, fracturing hull frames and crumpling sensitive electronics.
Three.
Then it happens - the lasers searing touch grazes the robotic mothership's fuel stores. For a moment, reinforced internals struggle to keep the heat from its deadly cargo. Then they too begin to wilt. Volatile gasses spew forth, expanding rapidly and uncontrollably, blowing out bulkheads and venting out through weakend skin.
Two.
Jets of flame burst from multiple holes in the baby carrier's hull, consuming it rapidly. What little remains of the ship is shattered moments later as its ready-use stores cook off.
One.
Captain Caspian Var watches the destruction of the Starfield Fury with grim satisfaction, her attached combat wings spiralling aimlessly as central control is lost. He folds his hands behind his back and looks down at Gunnery Officer Bryant.
"You may fire when ready."
Art by Utopie Selective
Impact Step:
Battlegroup Splinter:
SPK 1 - Fire at the Hivequeen (Roll: 3 + (6/5/4 take highest) = 9). 15 damage to Hivequeen. 5 Damage to Starfield Fury
SPK 2 - Fire at the Hivequeen (Roll: 8 + (5/3/2 take highest) = 13). 15 damage to Hivequeen. 5 Damage to Starfield Fury
Total Damage: 30HP to Hivequeen, 10 damage to Starfield Fury.
Time seems to stand still for a split second as the Richard Wagner's twin SPKs discharge with enough power to light up all the cities on Cradle for a day within a split second. The colossal shockwave causes the quarter of a million ton ship to physically recoil in its free fall trajectory. The vast energy surge instantly ionizes the solar wind around the ship and its hyperdense projectiles creating a shimmering multicolored halo around them as they streak just below light speed towards their target.
The titanic slugs careen through the enemy formation, passing bare kilometers either side of the surviving Starfield Fury. Even at that range the shockwave from their passage slams into the smaller ship with all the force of a battleship at full pelt. The carrier visibly crumples in on itself as its hull is stressed beyond capacity, shattering hull plates and spewing its contents into the void. Then they hit the Hivequeen.
The gigantic capital ship shatters like an egg as the slugs strike home, her hull first buckling on impact, then exploding in a storm of exotic alloy fragments and heavy composite shards barely recognizable as having come from a ship. The expanding cloud of hypersonic debris then acts like a giant fragmentation bomb tearing through the Diluvia swarm and the Starfields' surviving strike craft, ripping them to shreds.
Caspian Var turns to Gunnery Officer Bryant and nods.
"A successful shot." he says with a thin smile.
Nothing, it would seem, could emerge intact from the detonation of the Hivequeen. Nothing, except the Endless Cosmonaut. The skeletal frame of the mech fighter is backlit against the incandescent cloud that once was an automated Karrakin warship.
<TABITHA, IT WILL BE AN HONOUR. UNTIL OUR NEXT WALTZ.>
The mech explodes.
Across the Union fleet, sensors reach out to confirm the kills. No enemy vessels remain, except for a few dozen orphaned Passacaglias left behind after their carrier was destroyed by the Björn Járnsiđa. Enemy warheads in flight, bereft of guidance, are detonated safely.
The fleetmind begins to disentangle. The fleet legion unfuses, individual NHPs returning to their shipside duties.
The familiar voice of Vera can be heard on the Nikolai Bukharin's bridge. "Captain, I'm afraid I cannot track the mech's tachyon signature. It's escaped."
"What do you mean, escaped?" asks Petrov.
"The Captain has a time-travelling stalker now," explains Vera. "Not the most ideal of situations."
Tabitha Saint-Germaine acknowledges the Cosmonaut with a slightly raised eyebrow at Vera as she turns to speak to her fellow Captains. "The Bukharin has taken a lot of damage. We'll need to put in for repairs before we return to station. Captain Meade... conduct S&R to see if any of our pilots made it out of their ships. Everyone else, let's prep for jump." She looks around at the crew and her Captains.
"Well done everyone."
Spinning, stars streaking madly around him. Lieutenant Vau taps his helmet again, but it's no good - comms are still dead. Warning light blinking at the edge of his view, telling him that the O2 is running out.
He's pretty sure at least half his flight made it through that last attack pass. Those damned Karrakin fighters hit hard, but the Union wing gave as good as they got. He wishes he at least knew if the others made it.
A light among the spinning stars, getting brighter. Every rotation, the source shines closer. He waits long minutes before a grapple claw gently catches him and stops his rotation. The S&R shuttle pulls him into its airlock, and the air hisses all around him.
Vau yanks off his helmet, gasping, then groaning. He hears voices ask him if he was hurt.
"I'm okay," he says weakly. Then he grins. "We won?"
Vau is one of 13 pilots recovered after the battle. A small consolation for an engagement that had hit the Peregrines particularly hard.
Half a day later, the Union fleet is underway at nearlight speed.
The nearest port of call would be Lighthouse Station, run by Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar, the premier shipbuilding corprostate. Lighthouse is ostensibly neutral during the Dawnline Shore conflict, but IPS-N sells ships, mechs and arms to a number of local factions, and has leased some private security vessels to clients within the Karrakin Baronies. So it's complicated. But at least the Union ships can dock and resupply here.
The routines on board the members of Battlegroup Splinter remain largely unchanged. The entire Battlegroup is unscathed and the mood is mostly of quiet satisfaction of having done their jobs. Beyond that, the only difference is an increased tempo of battle drills and wargames - something the crew is well aware that their ever watchful Captain is fond of. Even at the best of times, Caspian Var can be something of a martinet.
For Battlegroup Eland, things are different. Personal messages from Captain Saint-Germaine and the other senior officers to the survivors of the Shamokin's fighter wings, damage inspections, constant reviews of combat footage and the endless cascade of information and intelligence requests as the Battlegroup's officers analyze their findings in minute detail as best they can - Captain Ki of the Undine is nursing a pretty spectacular shiner on her forehead from the Diluvian attack on her ship.
Next: At Lighthouse Station