ISD Admonitor
"Interesting. Much more potent an opponent than I would have thought." Thrawn spoke aloud as the "UNSC" Fleet regrouped into their previous formation and began approaching, using remaining momentum from their slingshot around the moon to approach his main fleet as the expanding field of debris that was once the now late Admiral Gail's warship crashed to the surface of the moon while others were flung into what would be a debris belt around its orbit.
But they were not increasing their velocity, only maintaining it.
Their commander was not about to simply rush in.
A wise opponent.
"We now have more accurate assessments on their weapons sir." Voss Parik spoke behind him as Thrawn nodded, accepting the data pad he was presented.
He scrolled through the data.
"Most impressive. They are able to accelerate projectiles in the range of one hundred tons or more to seven thousand kilometers per second. The Kinetic impact of one of those shells is equivalent to a full Alpha strike by an Imperial Class Star Destroyer." He spoke as the Chiss Admiral's glowing red eyes scanned through more of the information.
"Ah… it seems that they have devised their own form of defensive shielding as well. Not very powerful and only able to be directed at one vector at a time yes but still able to allow them to take a few hits. An interesting use of Plasma and electro-magnetic fields. Their understanding of such technology explains their power of their Rail guns."
Thrawns chief sensor officer spoke up from behind him.
"Sir the enemy ships are holding a steady acceleration rate. 200,000 kilometers and closing. Effective combat range in three minutes and twenty seconds."
Thrawn spun on his heel, his polished black boot squealing on the deck.
"We have verified their form of communication yes?"
Parik nodded.
"Yes sir we have, We can hail them but in combat I believe they will switch to laser link communications. But they should still be able to receive on anything but the Hypercom."
Nodding Grand Admiral Thrawn strode to the comms officer.
"Open up a link, Direct it at the warship at the center of their formation. Lets gain a little bit of intel on our opponents."
The man nodded.
"It may take longer than usual but Will do Admiral."
UNSC Everest
"Order the Musashi to break off and to take half of our Longswords with them. They are to go on a positive 60 degree angle relative to the gravity well of Harvest. That carrier is too fragile to waste in direct combat and those Longswords may give us a chance to at least flank them from above. Keep me in contact with the Wink of an Eye and their payload." Cole ordered as Wien, Frost, and his command nodded and moved to carry out his tasks, the bulk of the UNSC Carrier Musashi along with three Hundred Longsword Interceptors firing their thrusters and vectoring away from the main fleet.
Cole looked sternly on the viewscreens as the enemy fleet approached rapidly.
However for what his ships were capable of, especially after a slingshot orbit, was a snails pace.
But he wasn't about to storm in and have his fleet be caught in a trap.
"Range 190,000 thousand and closing. Enemy fleet is holding position. Maximum effective weapons range for MAC's at 84,000 kilometers, maximum accurate range at 98,000." Frost called out.
The 98,000 thousand kilometer mark was the point where the firing of his primary weapons would give the enemy time to, if their sensors were anywhere as good as his, detect the thermal and magnetic bloom of his MAC's firing and with emergency thrusters get out of the way.
He didn't know how fast these Imperials were at dodging fire, but he knew their larger ships would be slower at sudden course corrections based off of the encounter with the Imperial battleship. The Everest itself and the other three dozen Battlecruisers like her were the largest realistic direct combat warships the UNSC could make that could still have any hope of dodging fire, and that was with the absolute limits of Earth engineering to make such a mass dodge and move rapidly, while the several hundred smaller Marathon Heavy Cruisers in the overall UNSC fleet could barely dodge MAC or railgun fire at 91,000 km, his ship was pushing it at 87,000.
Engaging anything past 86,000 Kilometers with anything besides energy weaponry and Lasers was an exercise in futility, and even the largest swarm of Archer missiles could be shot down with ten thousand miles to spare by pulse lasers without having to bring the Helix MLA defense guns into play, even with their pulse ion drives impressive speeds.
Of course Cole knew the older Electron Beam weapons the UNSC had phased out half a century ago as the primary weapons had an engagement range far in excess of MAC's (USNC ships still carried one or two for use against pirate ships or lightly armored renegade civilian ships). However with the thick armor on modern UNSC warships capable of withstanding impressive amounts of damage alone those old weapons would struggle to burn through his hulls even with multiple shots rendering them largely ineffective. He could only guess how ineffective they would be now.
However there was something that Cole could do to remedy this for long enough to get off an even greater distant shot off.
And luckily for him the enemy had demonstrated at least enough of their main weaponry to him and in the UNSC's first encounter to estimate their maximum effective range to be similar to his own.
He had purposefully taken his fleet into and out of the orbit of Harvest's moon at such an angle to a point where Epsilon Indi would be at their back, carefully running the calculations that the smaller star, about three fourth's the mass of Sol yet brighter, would interfere with thermal and magnetic detection with UNSC sensors of his MACs firing; delaying detection by approximately two seconds.
This would allow the MAC slugs to cross 14,000 kilometers of space before the Imperials, so he hoped, would detect the firing and likely move to evade.
Or so he could hope.
"Set targeting range to 98,000 kilometers. Have all ships use their telescopes and laser rangefinders to select their targets and prepare to fire. No active lock on yet. Do not give them any more readings than we gave to. Passive targeting only."
Wien turned to him, a questioning look on her face.
"We can't possibly hope to hit them from this far out unless they sit there and let themselves be hit."
"I am aware of that. However that star behind us will hopefully delay their detection of our firing long enough to give us more range." The admiral replied pointing his thumb behind him to indicate Epsilon Indi.
"Yes sir."
Frost's avatar suddenly appeared beside Cole, just at the same time where the senior communications officer began shouting.
"Sir! The enemy fleet is hailing us! I cant pinpoint which ship as they are bouncing it off of every one in their fleet but I am receiving an audio and visual signal!"
It was Cole's turn to raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"They wish to talk now? And they didn't feel that the colonists on Harvest were worthy of this?"
He turned to Frost.
"Any malware or cyber attack presence?"
The avatar flashed with code as the AI replied.
"Scanning….Code is unusual but is simple, nothing more than an audio and video packet. No translation is required."
"So they are able to translate into our language. However we finally get to see the face of our enemy." Cole thought.
He would have been lying to think he wasn't curious as to how they looked like. If the non sentient alien life Humanity had long ago encountered during colonization had been any indicator, it would clearly be something unusual.
"Lets see the face of the enemy." Cole nodded.
"Put it on the Main viewscreen."
The stars and targeting data that had been displayed on the forward viewscreen that dominated the bridge of the Everest shifted.
The bridge crew gasped as Cole's irises briefly widened and one eyebrow cocked up, but unlike several of his crew he did not take a step back, keeping is arms crossed behind his back as he took a step forward.
In the middle of the screen was a man, no other way of putting it aside from being overly technical and using the word humanoid, that was dressed in a finely pressed and finished white uniform with golden shoulder pauldrons and rank designations on his chest.
Its uniform looked not too dissimilar to Cole's dress uniform, and reminded him of the old ornamental uniforms of the sea going Admirals and commanders of Earth centuries ago.
But he was not focused on the uniform.
The man had royal blue skin, a strong jaw and jet black hair that was professionally swept back.
But most surprising was the creature's human like eyes, that glowed a startling red.
Yet another surprise was the crew behind him in the unfamiliar command center of the alien warship.
His XO spoke aloud behind him. "Sir those crew behind him are.."
"Human." Cole finished as he stepped closer again to the viewscreen, questions filling his mind more than ever.
"And you might be?"
The alien gave a faint grin, and Cole could see those strange haunting eyes studying him as Cole did the same.
For a full second the two enemies stared at each other, taking each other in.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Galactic Empire and leader of the Empire of the Hand. And you are?" the Imperial asked.
"Empire of the Hand? Do they possibly subdivide their space or star-systems into spheres of influence under military control?" Cole briefly thought to himself while suppressing his surprise of having a conversation with his enemy as he replied.
"Admiral Preston James Cole of the United Nations Space Command and the Unified Earth Government"
The man snapped his fingers.
"So that's what your UEG anachronism stands for. We have been trying for days to figure out that exactly means for weeks now." The Imperial "Grand" Admiral replied with a faint hint of suppressed humor.
Anger briefly built up within him as Cole retorted.
"You could have asked the Colonists of this world, maybe even talked to them first. Perhaps if you hadn't bombarded this world you could have learned more." Cole retorted with a dose of poison in his words.
The Imperial nodded, "Perhaps we could have, my local Commanders certainly could have dealt with the situation in a much more professional manor. It is regrettable."
Cole's fist clenched behind him.
"What are your intentions? Why are you attempting to take this system?"
The Imperial Admiral turned to one of his crew, a man in who looked in his mid thirties or forties before looking back at the screen.
"I wish to add you to the Empire, and place the UNSC under the influence of my sphere of influence." Thrawn answered a matter of factly.
"Well that answers a question."
"So you think we will simply stand down and let you try and rule over us? Could we not simply exist side by side in mutual agreement?" Cole asked.
He knew the answer to the question. If a state actor were going to invade your planets at will the question was a moot one, but he knew he needed to ask it directly. At the very least some politicians in Sydney and New York would be satisfied.
Thrawn paused for a second as the viewscreen briefly was awash in static from stellar interference as if mulling it over.
"I am afraid at this time no. This system is simply too valuable and your existence threatens multiple powers which you don't even know of. You must either agree to become a part of the Empire or this conversation is pointless. I admit that is a rather definite offer so you may carry this message back to your superior…."
Cole turned to Frost's avatar.
"Im done."
"Yes sir."
The link was terminated as the viewscreen reverted back to its previous view of the tactical displays and the sea of stars.
The bridge was silent.
"Range?"
"120,000 thousand sir and closing." Wien replied.
Three minutes had already gone by.
"Maintain formation."
ISS Abmonitor
"Well there is our answer." Thrawn sighed.
Personally, he didn't want to have to pacify yet another region of the Unknown regions. But the Emperor had gotten involved, and he had no choice but to comply for now if his plan was to continue.
However this UNSC changed things.
The civilians they had captured groundside had informed him that this UNSC was in control of at least twelve dozen star systems and some 400 worlds in this arm of the Galaxy, known to the locals as the Orion's arm.
If that was to be true then this UNSC was possibly in control of nearly six star sectors and would be larger than the Chiss Acendancy, nearly as large as the Empire of the Hand itself.
Such a power could simply not be ignored, though how an Empire full of nothing but Humans whom believed its homeworld which they had deduced to be called "Earth" was the mythical homeworld for humanity was beyond even Thrawn. That and the fact that they had built all by themselves an alternate form of Faster than Light travel was both impressive, and potentially destabilizing for his growing Empire.
This UNSC had to be incorporated into the Hand or fall into Palpatine's hands, which would likely see it destroyed and his plan to thwart Palpatine dissolved.
And with the looming threat on the horizon, all he could do would be to act now.
Thrawn turned to Parrik.
"Order the wings to prepare to receive orders and to execute on my mark. " he said as the tactical viewer outlined the perspective groups of ships.
Thrawn had arranged his ships into a triple wedge formation arranged together to form a single wedge. Each "wedge" of this formation consisted of three Imperial Class Star destroyers, four Victory Class Destroyers, four upgraded and slave circuited Dreadnaught class Heavy Cruisers, a single Nebulon B Frigate and a single Acclamator Assault Ship.
"On my mark both flanks are to accelerate to flank speed and to make a heading on a positive 30 degree vector in relation to the flagship."
That maneuver would have both wings of his formation suddenly moving out and "above", swinging his ships into a flanking maneuver that would be above the heading of the UNSC ships, allowing both groups to outflank and encircle the UNSC ships as they fired on them without worry of the UNSC fleet placing itself in between them and risking friendly fire.
The central wedge consisting of hi flagship would hold its position, only throwing the ships into full reverse when the UNSC ships were encircled.
The tactic pinned on him executing it at the right moment. He would turn Admiral Cole's speed built up from its previous maneuvers against it. His ships were positioned within the neutral gravity of the colony's moon's orbital well, allowing them to sit perfectly at a standstill while the enemy fleet came at them.
However he had to order the flanking maneuver at the right time or else the UNSC admiral would notice. Due to the apparent nature of the UNSC's main weapons being spinally mounted, they would in turn spread their fleet out while keeping their bows pointed at his ships, likely turning the trap on him and encircling his fleet.
"I want the central force to hold position until further orders. Maintain formation and ready to lock on and fire." Thrawn finished as he turned to the weapons officer.
"Range to effective targeting?"
"110,000 kilometers and closing. Effective range for primary batteries 90,000 Kilometers sir. I can hit them from here but they likely won't sit still and let me."
Thrawn nodded.
"All batteries to full power. Shields to maximum. 70 percent shield power to forward shields."
Thrawn turned to the tactical display as the angular UNSC warships plowed forward towards him, their weapons systems likely doing the same as his were.
"Lets see what you are made of Cole."
UNSC Everest
"Nearing targeting range. MAC's at 95 percent charge. Secondary weapons are holding charge." The senior weapons officer called out at the fore of the bridge.
Cole nodded.
"Have all ships divert power from their secondary Mass Driver batteries to their MACs and Plasma barriers. All ships prepare to initiate emergency maneuvers. Prepare for counter fire. Have the Marathon's and our own heavy Railguns fire along with our MACs, their slugs velocities is the same so they can hit them too with our MACs."
The officer and the rest of the crew nodded as they carried out their tasks.
Cole again looked at the enemy formation, still simply sitting there, unmoving.
"We passed into the L2 gravity well of Harvest and its moon." Frost called out as Preston Cole thought to himself.
"Begin the firing countdown. Roll from one minute." He ordered as a timer appeared on the top of the tactical viewscreen.
"What the hell are you planning? Trying to lure me in?"
Cole's battleplan was to get the first shot off, but he was likely going to be forced to take a full salvo from the Imperials in turn. His strategy was to appear like he was simply going to charge them headlong, luring them into security as they exchanged likely multiple salvos of long range fire.
Though he didn't like it, his ships would have to run the initial gauntlet of fire no matter what. Even if "Thrawn" or whatever his name was decided to throw his fleet into full reverse Cole's current velocity would likely overcome them or match them, simply resulting in a status quo of long range exchanges of fire.
However he planned on having his ships stay on their course and heading until 80,000 kilometers, likely drawing the enemy in, where Cole would order his fleet to split into three groups and spread out on three different headings, accelerating and using their momentum to outmaneuver the enemy and encircle them.
However Cole knew that his plan was founded on only what he knew of the enemy ship's performance capabilities, and that was very little.
That disturbed him.
His hope was that he could thin out the enemy ranks faster than they thinned his out.
However he was facing an enemy with superior weaponry and defensive shielding, so for all Cole cared his numerical advantage was mitigated.
"Range?"
"Just clearing 98,000 kilometers, entering the envelope of extreme weapons range." Wien replied.
Cole nodded.
"Guns: status on the MACs?" Cole asked as his eyes stayed glued to the firing countdown. Twenty seconds . . . fifteen . . . ten . . .
"Sir, MAC weapon systems are hot!" Wien announced. "Removing safeties now."
A web of trajectories crossed the map with tiny countdown times next to each.
"Fire."
"Transferring firing control to the computer," the senior weapons officer shouted. The woman punched a series of firing codes into the computer, then locked down the controls. The Everest recoiled three times and its MACs spat three bolts of thunder toward the enemy, followed a second later by three more much smaller vibrations as the Battlecruiser's heavy railguns fired.
The starboard view screen showed the UNSC Cruisers, destroyers and frigates launching their opening salvo.
Streaks of orange bolts of magnetically accelerated slugs tore through space like comets, followed closely behind by the much smaller streaks of the heavy railgun rounds fired from the heavy cruisers and Cole's flagship.
They tore towards the Imperial ships as the timer estimated the time to impact.
Three and then four agonizing seconds went by as the slugs tore through 28,000 kilometers of space.
Then the Imperial ships reacted.
The huge Imperial ships began maneuvering at alarming speeds in an effort to get out of the way, throwing mile long ships to the side and attempting to dodge the UNSC weapons fire.
However for as fast as they moved, in comparison to the speed of the MAC slugs they might as well have been sitting still.
It was too late. Cole's plan for Epsilon Indi to be behind him and delay their detection of his ship's firing worked.
The fleet's MAC rounds hammered into the Imperial lines. Shields flickered silver-blue and overloaded as the super-dense projectiles rammed into the formation; with several ships spun out of position by the impact of multiple slugs.
Several slugs were clean misses, several just clipping the shields of the enemy warships and skipping off into space.
The vast majority, however, tore into the Imperial vessels.
One of the lead Imperial Victory destroyers took a direct hit from the heavy round of a cruiser's heavy MAC, which sent the enemy ship into a lurching port spin as its shields burned with electrical fire. Cole saw the destroyer's three large engine cones flare as her commanders struggled to regain control—just as a second MAC round struck on the ship's opposite side. For an instant, the 1000 meter long wedge of warship shuddered as its shields flashed a blinding blue in electrical discharge as it attempted to hold back the attack, held position, then flexed as the hull stresses became too great and its shields collapsed. The destroyer disintegrated and scattered debris in a wide arc, pieces of ship bouncing off of the shields of its fellow ships.
A second Imperial ship—a much smaller Nebulon B frigate—was the victim of the Everest itself.
A slug from Its number one heavy MAC slammed into the much lighter Imperial ship with the force of 1.4 Gigatons of Kinetic energy, setting the shields aglow for an instant as the ship's forward momentum was almost immediately stopped, with undoubtedly lethal results for its crew. The much smaller shields of the escort ship flashed out of existence with an electrical spark as the remaining mass and energy of the projectile tore into the ship, gutting it from stem to stern.
One of the Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers at the rear of the Imperial lines was struck by no less than three MAC slugs fired from a Destroyer and a Frigate. The first slug from the UNSC destroyer Lance Held High set the shields alight with the fire of several hundred megatons of kinetic energy transfer, throwing the ship off its axis just as the second from the frigate Sao Paulo struck. The shields, already weakened flashed a brilliant blue as a hundred meters of the forward clam shaped bow boiled away from the huge thermo dynamic forces and heat transfer of the ship's own shields interacting with the slug.
The shields flashed out of existence and were overloaded just as the second slug from the Lance Held High's second MAC tracked it. Now free to hit unabated the round punched through the ship near its engines and ripped almost half of it apart as its frame mushroomed, a fireworks bouquet of shrapnel and sparks.
One of the monstrous Imperial Class Star Destroyers leading one of the flanking wing of ships was the target of two UNSC cruisers, a Halcyon and a Marathon class.
The first heavy slug from the Halcyon cruiser Midway struck first, setting the shield glow as it repealed the Gigaton level of kinetic energy that shook the 1600 meter long mass of armor and planet leveling weapons off of its heading just as the second and third Heavy rounds from the Heavy Cruiser Sevastapol struck in a one two punch. The shield flashed once, much brighter than the last as heat and energy transfer boiled the shields. A second flash as yet another gigaton level MAC strike struck the flank of the Star Destroyer, this time causing the electric energy blister to wholly block out the image of the wedge shaped enemy warship for a second.
The ship reappeared a moment later as its shields overloaded, and the remaining heat and energy unforgivingly transferred itself to the thick grey hull, gutting and melting dozens sections and bending its frame as the Star Destroyer spun sideways. Her shields stuttered once, trying to reestablish a protective screen just as the four heavy Railgun rounds struck from the Heavy Cruiser, tearing into the ship and cratering the hull, blossomed into fire and sparks of smoldering metal. The ship burned, her internal skeletal structure showing now; as it spun out of formation, just drifted out of control as secondary explosions tore through it as it began to break apart.
"Five confirmed Kills. We have hits on every Imperial ship. Two more have visual damage. Range dropping to 90,000 and closing." Frost announced as Cole winced.
That Salvo should have taken out more.
"What does it take to kill those things?" Wien breathed as the broken formation of Imperial ships reformed, leaving the wreckage of their fallen behind as two of the destroyer sized ships lagged behind with obvious damage.
"All ships maintain formation. Prepare to split up on my mark and recharge MACs and primary weapons." Cole ordered as his eyes locked onto one of the lead heavy Imperial Capitol ships.
ISD Admonitor
"Impact!" Parik cried out just before two of the UNSC's slugs slammed into his flagship.
Thrawn fell backwards as the Admonitor groaned from the stress and energy transfer of two direct shots.
"Shields holding at Forty percent! Hull stress at maximum limits. We have heat bleedthroughs on decks 12 and 33, multiple breaches." The ship's captain shouted in alarm as warning sirens wailed throughout the bridge.
Outside the stars spun as the Admonitor was knocked off its axis, the helmsman firing thrusters and their ion engines to correct their course.
"Heat bleed through?" Parik asked.
Thrawn answered him as his got to his feet.
"Our shields when being hit by such force at a single location create a thermodynamic energy transfer, resulting in massive amounts of heat buildup in an instant."
The Chiss grabbed his fallen data pad as he looked on.
"Fleet wide status!" he shouted, somewhat uncharacteristically.
"Five ships down sir. Gone with all hands. We lost the Fires of Mustafar, Empalla, Casadan and Unrelenting is just off of the screens entirely. The Destroyer Casbonere has heavy damage to its engines and is reporting that it took a projectile clean through its forward decks," the screens morphed to show the damaged Victory Destroyer, its bow mangled and the first 120 meters simply holed.
"But its captain is reporting that her weapons and engines are still online and that their port and starboard shield generators are online, but barely. They are still combat effective." Parik finished.
The screen then morphed to show one of the Acclamator Assault ships.
Even Thrawn was appalled at the damage, but was impressed that the ship was still keeping a relative pace with the fleet.
It had a hole with a diameter of ten meters clean through its ventral and dorsal flanks about a quarter of the way up its length off center on its starboard side. Its frame was clearly slightly buckled as debris escaped from the wound and tumbled into space.
The round had passed clean through, the ship actually lucky that its shields had been completely knocked down to not slow down the round as it hit from the bottom side of the ship instead of travelling its length.
"The Majestic is reporting that its shields are completely offline and that he can only get 60 percent out of the reactor. All starboard weapons are offline but his Missile Bays are still green as are port side weapons."
"Order them to go planetside and provide cover for our forces and to initiate repairs within Alpha Base's shield bubble. They wont last another hit from the UNSC."
"Aye sir."
Parik turned to Thrawn.
"They can hit from outside our range."
Thrawn shook his head.
"No their range is similar to ours. What this Cole was able to do was to fire before our sensors actively detected the threat too late for us to react and maneuver, extending his weapon's range."
His opponent had used the system's star to his advantage, allowing the star to be behind the UNSC ships had delayed the detection of the enemy fleet's firing as the computers and sensors had to filter through the stellar radiation, a process that only took three seconds but gave the rapidly moving projectiles more time to hurtle towards him.
Thrawn turned to the senior sensor officer.
"Range?"
"88,000 kilometers. In firing range."
Thrawn thought for a moment.
He needed to speed this engagement up. The quicker he killed the enemy ships the more of his would survive.
He had to accelerate his plans.
"All ships go to three quarters full. On my command Wings will carry out previous orders and the center force will go to full stop and reverse course."
Parik and the crew nodded.
"Weapons?"
"At full power." The senior weapons officer replied from his station.
Thrawn gazed at the oncoming enemy ships for a second, their weapons undoubtedly charging for another salvo as they barreled towards him on the viewscreen.
"Fire."
The Admonitor shuddered as the viewscreen was blinded by green light as the ship fired its primary heavy turbo lasers. Nearly a hundred large bright streaking bolts of green energy, plasma and light shot out from the Imperial fleet as they accelerated forward, seemingly charging headlong to meet the UNSC fleet.
It took nearly seven seconds for the massed salvo to hit the UNSC fleet.
The UNSC ships had detected the threat as their formation dissolved, angular warships firing maneuvering and emergency thrusters as they attempted to blast their ships out of the way.
An alarming amount of the bolts missed, shooting past wildly maneuvering UNSC ships and off into space to eventually dissipate
However just under half of the Imperial beams and comets of hellfire didnt.
The UNSC's ships directed their defensive barriers to cover the fore of their ships, angling them to further deflect the plasma away from their hulls as the remaining Turbo Lasers slammed into them.
Each turbo laser bolt carried at least a hundred megatons of power, and the Plasma Barriers of the UNSC vessels flared brilliant as they struck.
Several of the barriers collapsed almost instantly on several of the lighter UNSC ships as the heat and energy destabilized their magnetic containment fields, allowing several of the streaks of energy to burn into their vulnerable armored hulls.
Two UNSC Paris Class Frigates were struck by eight direct blasts apiece. The frigates' barrier heated a brilliant red, dispersing the first two bolts of superheated ionized gas as the barriers wavered in and out of existence, the magnetic fields losing containment as the ships shuddered. The third and fourth strike of heavy turbo laser fire burned through and hit bare hull, melting the shield arrays and sensors, boiling away layers of titanium battle plate into space . The other four slammed into them as one. The UNSC ships appeared frozen in time for a moment… before the energy tore through their hulls, blasting internal decks to atoms— amidships, and then the fusion reactors—shattering the ships into a haze of glowing particles.
The Marathon cruiser Leviathan was the unlucky to be the target of the full alpha strike of a Victory Destroyer, 30 Green comets of gases and plasma slammed into the cruiser before it could maneuver out of the way. Its Plasma barrier, an order of magnitude more powerful than those on the lighter frigates and destroyers, shrugged off the first dozen direct hits before its containment field failed. The two meter thick battleplate held the attack for a moment as the Leviathan took a direct hit on her port side. Plasma etched through the meters of titanium-A armor plating like a blowtorch through rice paper, and her center amidships decks vented and burned as several of her turrets were melted away.
The UNSC destroyer Glasgow Kiss was knocked clean out of formation the narrow craft as dozen bolts from Thrawn's own ship tracked it, blasting through its plasma barrier as the remainder of the salvo from the Admonitor tore into it, melting through armor in an instant. The Glasgow Kiss spun out of formation with its engines nearly severed from the rest of the ship spewing silent explosions and atmosphere before its reactor went critical. The port side of the ship bulged outwards for a full second in a surreal display before the ship cracked in half, both parts spinning different directions.
Another ship a Destroyer, the Herodias —was severed amidships by another Imperial Class Star Destroyer as it moved to cover the wounded Leviathan. The aft section of the ship continued to thrust forward, her engines still running hot right past the Halcyon Cruiser Jubilation as it was struck, melting off layers of armor and exposing decks as and her foredecks burned.
The UNSC flagship, the Everest, was hit multiple times on its defensive barrier, but it held strong even as a lucky turbo laser beam melted armor off near her engines.
"Six Confirmed kills, mostly the lighter ships sir. We damaged severely one of their capitols and damaged two more ships." Thrawn's gunnery officer announced as six of the UNSC ships winked off of the display.
"They are maneuverable; we have to close the range so we can eliminate more of their ships." Thrawn thought aloud.
"Range down to 78,000 kilometers and closing." Parik replied.
Thrawn ran a series of calculations on his data pad, and then rechecked them.
"Get ready to initiate our maneuver, full charge on our guns and fire again when ready."
UNSC Everest
Reports flooded into the bridge of the flagship.
"Leviathan sustained major damage, starboard Mass Drivers, Archer Missile Pods and ventral railguns destroyed!"
"Enid and Warspite are down with all hands!"
"Glasgow Kiss was split in two!"
"Destroyer Lance Held High has moderate damage to lateral surface and multiple exposed decks. Its number two MAC is out of action!"
"Cruiser Yamato reports ventral batteries are gone or down! Venting affected areas!"
Cole jotted down calculations . . . and frowned.
"Damage and casualty report, sir." One of his adjutant officers offered him a data pad.
Cole waved it away.
He already knew he had lost six ships and thousands of crewmen in addition to the three previous ones.
"Status of MAC's? he asked as the bridge's flurry of activity only increased.
"Nearing seventy percent and climbing. " Frost replied.
"Arm Archer Missile Pods. Our Mass Drivers will not do enough damage to them anyway."
"Aye sir. Range closing to 70,000. Enemy fleet is advancing. Holding Formation." The AI replied as the viewscreen switched to show the Imperial fleet suddenly accelerate forward at impressive speeds, holding their formation as the charged their weapons.
Cole would have to execute his maneuver much sooner than he had wanted, but he could still get another salvo off before he did so.
"I've got a hard lock throughout the fleet with our Archers sir!" Wien half shouted from the rear of the bridge.
"Launch them. Frost I want our fleet to fire our MACs at a point where they impact 0.1 seconds after our missiles. Make it happen." Cole responded as he ran calculations on his data pad.
It should work.
Frost's avatar nodded in understanding as code ran down his snowflake like avatar.
"Sequences input. Firing Archers."
Hundreds of Archer Fusion missiles shot from their pods and accelerated towards the enemy as the wave of missiles lanced towards the oncoming constellation of Imperial warships.
Pulse lasers and plasma blasts snapped to existence as scores of missiles were felled by the enemy ships, but as Cole had suspected, their point defense capabilities were not as terrifying as their offensive weaponry.
The Balance of the megaton yield missiles were going to strike home.
"Firing MACs."
The prows of the UNSC ships flared as their Magnetic Accelerator cannons fired.
Lines of flame and superheated slugs crossed the space between the two forces.
However as soon as the UNSC fired their slugs Frost bellowed out another alarm.
"Energy spikes! Enemy warships returning fire!"
Plasma and fire erupted from the Imperial fleet, a wave of green energy that looked like a solar flare as it boiled through the vacuum of space toward the UNSC ships.
Cole was already spitting the orders to go evasive out of his lips as Frost reacted, firing the Everest's emergency thrusters and nearly throwing Cole and everyone to the deck as the inertial dampeners were nearly overwhelmed with the sudden course correction.
The vacuum between the two opposing forces filled with a hundred lines of fire and smoldering metal that seemed to tear through the fabric of space.
Their trajectories closed on one another, then crossed, and the bolts of fire grew larger on the main screen.
The Imperial Ships made no attempt to dodge as they focused their shields forward.
Cole smirked.
Just what he wanted them to do.
As the remaining Archer missiles closed to their targets with only seconds from impact, their smart warheads having been assigned to certain ships in flocks of destructive missiles; they suddenly veered to the flanks of the Imperial warships, shooting past their forward shields before in an incredible display of maneuverability turned to slam into the flanks of the Imperial warships. A function that the UNSC had long included in their missiles to overcome Rebel Plasma barriers.
The flanks of the enemy warships that were less heavily shielded as their commanders focused their energy shield's powers towards the front, confirming the energy readings Cole had reviewed.
Hundreds of missiles slammed into the Imperial warships, each Archer's warhead detonating in a cone of focused fusion gas and plasma, directing its full double megaton yield inward at the enemy ships, covering them with fire and silent thunder as the Imperial vessels disappeared behind their shields…..
Just as the MACs impacted.
The first victim which was one of the larger Imperial Class Star Destroyers, its shields fighting back a hundred Archer missiles as its already reconstituted shields were slammed into by two normal sized MAC slugs and a single Heavy MAC round. It shields were nearly immediately depleted shields as one of the shield domes blew out from the stress as the first 400 meters of the bow simply ceased to be while the amidships were tore apart in a cascade of secondary explosions before the aft engine compartment blew out in a jet of plasma.
Two MACs sliced trough an already wounded Victory Destroyer, gutting it from bow to stern in the process. Another Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser received a slug through its main core, splitting it in two before it turned into an eye watering explosion. Seven MAC rounds struck the two ships in the Imperial line a Victory Destroyer and another Star Destroyer, shattered their shields, dented the armor, and pounded through hulls, sheering off the command tower of the Star Destroyer and sending the Victory into a spin as its engines overloaded in an attempt to try and right its course.
The remaining Imperial Escort Frigates simply disappeared into debris clouds as nearly all the other Imperial ships emerged from the hail of fire with some form of mild to moderate damage as their shields slowly crackled back to life
Twenty Four Imperial ships remained, eight Heavy Cruisers, Eight Victory Destroyers, Six Star Destroyers and two Assault Ships.
Cole however didn't have the time to take this in as the Imperial Turbo Lasers plasma tore into his fleet.
The results were much more dramatic.
Plasma Barriers over the fleet rippled with fire as a dozen instantly failed.
Four frigates simply exploded as the bolts pounded through the armor to devastate the interior of the ships as fire ripped their lengths before several split open and tumbled out of formation as expanding fields of debris.
Two more destroyers either were holed, spun out of formation belching flame or turned into a brief star as their reactors went critical while turbo lasers ripped through them.
The wounded Marathon Cruiser Yamato was struck by no less than four dozen hits from a Victory and an Imperial Star Destroyer. Its Plasma Barrier simply flashed out of existence and its armor was boiled away. Plasma lance through its interior as escape pods tore away from it, just before its frame was sliced in two and the mighty UNSC Heavy cruiser was torn asunder in hellfire.
At the same time the Halcyon Cruiser lurched to the side as plasma bolts cut through her like a scythe, ignoring her plasma barrier and burned through two meters of ablative armor, and a dozen decks as if they were non-existent. The cruiser began to roll as its power plant was cut before another flurry of turbo lasers found the ship's helium three boosted reactor. The ship seemed to bulge outward for an instant before light enveloped it, the UNSC ship turning into an artificial nebula of gases and debris.
ISD Admonitor
Thrawn ignored the damage reports as he focused on the enemy, tasting copper in his mouth from where he bit his tongue after being thrown again to the deck as the flagship was struck yet again.
Thirty four UNSC ships emerged from his salvo, several trailing debris as the UNSC flagship remained, another blackened scorch mark of a hull breach on its starboard side.
"Sir we are closing to forty thousand kilometers!" Parik shouted as Thrawn's peripheral vision caught the tumbling mass of one of his gutted Victory cruisers hurtle through formation alongside him, its momentum keeping the destroyed ship going all the same.
It was now or never.
He had to destroy them before they destroyed him, that coordinated Missile Strike had surprised him and nearly batted down his own ship's shields like several other less fortunate casualties.
This opponent had proven to be capable, more so than he had even given credit to, and he mentally panned himself for underestimating them. He had acted like so many lesser arrogant Imperial Commanders and had paid for it.
"Execute!"
UNSC Everest
Cole looked at the display screens with concern as damage reports scrolled down beside him.
The flanks of the Imperial formation shot forward and "up" at alarming speed while the center of the Imperial battlesquadron suddenly began cutting its momentum.
"Sir the enemy fleet is moving to a position to encircle us." Frost replied as the tactical screens morphed to show the icons of the enemy ships, with two pincers moving to outflank his ships as his shot forward. The enemy would have declination above his fleet, with free ability to fire on his ships from both sides with no concern of striking their own ships.
The distance between his fleet and the enemy was now closing by the second, and with his ship's momentum already built up and the Imperials having accelerated, he had few options.
He could order a full stop, but that would still leave him encircled and sitting ducks.
He could order the fleet to go evasive and spread out, loosing the formation and trying to encircle the encirclement.
He ran the simulation on his data pad.
No. It wouldn't work in time with his ships built up speed.
His mind searched for options.
"Enemy ships are building up ambient energy! They are preparing to fire!" Wien shouted with growing concern in her eyes.
Motes of green light collected along the Imperial ships' lateral lines.
He was trapped.
Thrawn had encircled him.
If he was going to have the tables turned on him, the only option was to not do the predictable.
Thrawn wanted him to try and exit his pincer, for he knew he would fail.
"Orders sir?!" his officers asked with growing alarm.
Preston Cole exhaled.
"Input new orders to fleet."
To be continued.
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