This story was originally published for the USS Maximillian.
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Chapter Twenty-One : Battle
Hellfire seemed to rain down upon the immense vessel as the ships of the Federation began their attack. Forty-eight ships of various sizes and shapes began their attacks, the larger ships of Sovereign and Galaxy classes remaining steady, unleashing their immense payload down to their chosen targets, the multiple redundant power cores. The smaller ships, such as the Akira, Defiant, even a Prometheus class ship, began close attack runs, hitting and running with their considerable power. They bobbed and weaved through the canyons of the rust-colored canyons of the mountainous vessel, seemingly constructed with no regard of sleekness or design, instead only for its destructive power. It made sense, since this vessel was never to be seen.
The ships of the Federation never moved from their battle plan, having seen the folly of moving even a step out of line with what had happened to the Sovereign. They moved in perfect harmony with each other as they executed the first step, bombarding the power cores with every kind of weapon they had at their commands. Not only the beefed-up Errsedorian Torpedoes, even though they were the most powerful of the lot, but also Quantum torpedoes, Photon torpedoes, and full phasers, striking with precision and even grace as the most skilled weapons operators in the fleet took the opportunity to prove their abilities, and showed why they deserved their positions.
For a few moments, T'Kill dared to hope that there would be no opposition, that the vessel was caught completely flat-footed by its reappearance and did not have their weapons ready. Indeed, it was a full minute before the vessel counterattacked the defenders. The Federation ships had complete control of the situation for that minute, striking with impunity.
"Seems a bit easy." Blobbin thought aloud.
"We caught them off guard. Critch is doing his job." Lyon had a soft smile as he said this. T'Kill wasn't convinced.
"Hopefully he'll keep it up." The Romulan glanced at his panels, making a quick decision to not change the plan layout to take advantage of the ship's apparent ignorance of the attack.
It was a good decision. A moment later, the whole of the crystal-shaped maidenhead began to glow bright white, just as large cylinders rose up from the vessel's surface. Inside the vessel, where a smaller but just as dire battle waged, the cylinders moved upward and into position, changing the layout slightly. The motion and grinding sounds were not noticed by the two combatants.
As the cylinders reached their peak, blue streaks of electricity began to surround them, as though they were overloading with immense power. Within an instant, the light on the crystal brightened even more, and then erupted with white beams, expertly targeted by the vessel's central systems. The beams hit their marks quickly, striking five Federation ships, sending them reeling. The Errsedorian shielding protected them from complete destruction, but they certainly were not without damage.
The Maximillian was not one of the ships targeted, but T'Kill treated the attack as grimly as if it had been. "Report!"
"Columbus, Asgard, Enterprise, Explorer II, Lagrange hit!"
"All heavy cruisers." Blobbin observed.
Sending a message to the fleet to boost power to shields, T'Kill glanced at the vessel on the viewscreen. "What's happening with those cylinders?"
The electricity streaming over the cylinders had only intensified, each one almost completely covered by a entanglement of blue. Just as it had reached a peak, the electricity disappeared. It was only a single breath before they began firing yellow bursts of energy into space. The yellow shots moved in tandem, and then suddenly veering off into seemingly random directions. They picked up speed, and then each one reached their destinations: A smaller vessel.
The Prometheus was hit first, taking minimal damage. The Akira was not so fortunate, having taken the electrical energy directly to their warp core. As it exploded quickly, it's flaming saucer flying and crashing on the surface of the vessel, the Black Elk dove and spun out of the way, almost crashing itself before it's Captain corrected the course herself, moving the vessel as though it were a smaller shuttle, flying between two cylinders before regaining its place in the sky, and resuming its attack.
While the crystal seemed to take a moment to recharge, as its light was slowly returning, the cylinders needed no such time, as after the initial burst, it began to maintain a steady stream of yellow pulses, each one dodging through the blackness to strike at another Federation ship. While they were not as powerful as the light beams, they were certainly damaging enough.
T'Kill hollered harshly to his fleet through his console. "ATTACK GROUPS CHARLIE A ND DELTA, FOCUS ON THE CANNONS!" Even as he watched a blue bolt strike the vessel, and a large yellow explosion erupting from the now useless power core, he realized the folly of his statement. Taking two groups away from the main attack, even if they were smaller ships, would lessen their already slim chance of being lucky enough to strike the central core of the vessel, and winning the battle. But it could not be helped; they needed to stay alive to even have that chance.
The Black Elk and Prometheus took control of their respective battle groups, beginning separate attack runs on the large number of cannons. For the sheer size of the vessel, it didn't have much in the way of shielding, and the first runs were successful. Group Charlie consisted of five ships, Delta of four, and they both dodged the initial firing of the cannons by diving close to the surface. Using their torpedoes, they launched a bombing run on their respective targets. The results were impressive, as four cannons were instantly vaporized. One escaped destruction, and fired upon Charlie group, but the shots did not find their targets, moving around in space until they fizzled out.
The second attack runs were more spread out, and neither group could count on the support of the other to draw away fire. Five full cannons were destroyed, but one grouping of shots focused upon one ship, the Doohan. The energy cascade spread through the ship too fast for it to recover, and the resulting flames were too bright to withstand.
Another ship lost, but none of the Admirals, least of which T'Kill, could focus on that right now. He did not order a casualty report of his fleet, knowing each Captain could take care of that themselves. Instead he forged ahead, for while the fight was not anywhere near complete, it was certainly not lost, as he watched another two torpedoes find their mark, resulting in two more power cores being eradicated.
The Maximillian itself was making itself one of the most important parts of the battle. Not just as the command base for three of the leaders of the Federation, but also as an immensely powerful ship. Since an actual Errsedorian made the Maximillian a second home during the crisis, it followed that the latest improvements to the torpedoes and shielding were found there. Thus, it's torpedoes, though technically the same as those on other ships, had been tweaked until the last possible second, and they hit with more power and accuracy. The shielding too was beefed up considerably, though as yet the
Maximillian had not taken any damage in this battle. Yet.
It was fortunate for the advanced shielding, as the white light of the crystal reached its highest peak, and then expanded into beams. Many of the beams struck a ship for a second time, and the Asgard was one of them. Losing power rapidly, it hung in space limply, as its crew worked unsuccessfully to restore controls to anywhere on the ship.
The Enterprise was struck for its first time, but it escaped with only minor damage. So too was the Maximillian hit. The ship shook with the blast, but only briefly, as it continued its fire upon the vessel.
Lyon watched the ships fire and be fired upon from his vantage point, saw the damage wrought by what he still maintained was his poor decisions years before, and inwardly cursed himself. T'Kill watched as well, but instead saw the fight tactically. They had lost another heavy cruiser with the Asgard, and a Capital-class at that. They could ill afford another blow. He tapped his panel, and called
again to the fleet.
"Prepare to launch starfighters. All starfighter squadrons, launch on my command. Target: That damn crystal." At the very least, he thought, this wouldn't distract from the overall goal of destroying the cores.
One of the largest battles to happen within the Federation in its history was happening right outside the hull of the massive vessel, but for the two androids continuing their struggle within, it might as well had been a thousand light-years away. Critch Starblade had met the hard blow of his doppelganger's strike by easily swatting it downward, and punching him in the face once, twice, three times, with as much force as he could pull from within himself. This did have the effect of driving Canty backwards, but only for a moment, as the android regained his stride, and pushed onward with the attack.
As Canty punished Starblade with blows from the metal bar, the vessel shook, as the first shots from the Federation fleet struck. If they had been paying attention, they could have seen the shots coming, the blue and red fire raining down from the heavens, and watched as they hit their targets perfectly. Through the translucent hull images of ships and torpedoes and destruction moved at a rapid pace, but the only thing that alerted the two combatants to the beginning of the battle was the far off destruction of the first power core.
Starblade hoped for luck to arrive soon, as he had an idea on how many redundant cores there were. Other than the impressive weaponry and the sheer size, the unbelievable numbers of power cores were the defense against an attacking army. And just one was all that was needed to keep the vessel running at full capacity.
Not helping his concentration was the fact that Canty had begun to talk again. Although he was able to block out the noise and power through to parry the blows and return some of his own, his enemy continued talking, uncaring of the lack of attention that Starblade was paying to his words.
Every strike, every move that the Marconian made was punctuated by slightly raising his voice, betraying the otherwise unnoticeable effort that was being put forth by the two. The deadly dance continued through the rumble of the fire and destruction around them as Canty began to speak to Starblade again.
"Don't grieve for this ship, Starblade. The same nanites that flow through your circuits move through this ship. The cores will be repaired with time to spare before it reaches its next destination."
Starblade spun around, with the intent of striking Canty in the back. Sensing the move coming, the twin quickly reached behind him to block, and moved to face him.
"I was thinking, it's a bit outside the path, but since we've started with Lyon and this Federation anyway, we should go ahead and finish the job. What sun should we eradicate next, hm?" He moved to take the offensive, with each word said now striking hard at Starblade's head, only just blocked by the weapon. "Andoria? Vulcan? Perhaps the Klingons?" Starblade advanced, finally fighting back, but his weapon met with Canty's, and they pressed against each other, each pushing for a brief advantage, the only kind that seemed to exist, as the vessel shook hard from the destruction of a group of cannons. Canty smirked at his double as they pressed against each other's metal bar. "You see, it really doesn't matter, Critch. No matter what order, no matter what you do, this universe is going to die and there's nothing you can do about it."
Another large explosion, a nearby core, yet not near enough for Starblade's taste, sent Canty backwards just far enough for him to press the attack. Even as he did so, though, he realized that this was a distraction. If this fight continued for much longer there would be no chance for the Maximillian to be told of the correct target, and all of this would be for naught. Instead, Starblade quickly moved back, and then jumped over the railing, far as he could, landing barely on the edge of a moving platform, continuing a slow circular spin around the central power core, connecting the main portions of the vessel to it. The walkway, along with five others, moved clockwise to his position. If there was a purpose to these walkways, Starblade did not see any. For the time being, however, he was grateful for their presence.
There was a far off growl, and with his enhanced vision Starblade could see Canty look for him, and find him. As quick as he had made the first jump, Starblade made a second, and a third, leaping across a broad section of empty space to land precariously on another platform. As he continued to leap around, he attempted to land closer and closer each time to another communications panel, this one at the end of an adjoining walkway. Canty, for his part, was gaining ground with every leap, knowing this ship far better than his counterpart.
Jump after jump was made, and Starblade drew closer and closer to his destination. He made the final leap, landing safely in the center of the lower, stationary walkway that connected the auxiliary panel to the central unit. As he drew to his feet and took a step toward the purplish glowing monolith that stood at the end of the walkway, on the other side from the core, he heard a small grunt, of his adversary making his own jump.
Still clutching his own weapon, Starblade met Canty's chest with the iron pole, the sheer momentum sent the struck Marconian backwards, landing on his back. He jumped to his feet, but too slowly as Starblade decided to take advantage of the situation, hoping that the Maximillian would forgive his indulgence. Before Canty could steady himself, his twin struck him across the face with the pole, leaving a slight red gash. Again and again Starblade swung, hitting true with every lunge, and his enemy was forced backwards further, as the torpedoes and phaser bolts intensified, and a squadron of Federation starfighters rushed overhead.
The starfighters had launched from the Maximillian as quickly as possible, but because of the damage that had been sustained, the main group had been joined with a second formation from the Columbus, being flown by the Capital-class ship's chief engineer, the Klingon Kohan. Himself a transfer from the Max, he knew many of those he was flying with, and although undoubtedly some considered it strange that an engineer was taking the place of a Wing Commander, Kohan paid it no mind. The Columbus was in good hands as it was, and here was a war to fight. And since Kragnar was maintaining security on his own ship, someone had to represent the empire's honor in this battle. And today, of all days, was a good day to die.
With a massive battle cry he took command of the small fleet of starfighters, forming them into one cohesive attack wing. They could not attack the crystal formation dead-on; for fear that the next light beam to come out would simply incinerate them, rendering their flight pointless. Instead they had to cycle around and come at it from behind, somewhat of a sneak attack that Kohan hoped would catch whatever was running the vessel off guard. This, unfortunately, was not without its dangers. To avoid the firing of the cannons, they had to stick as close as they could to the underside of the vessel. This also involved dodging the unceasing attacks from the Federation ships, unable to let up on their barrage for an instant due to the pressing time.
Moving mere meters below the cavernous outcroppings that made up the construction, they dodged around cannons, not even bothering to fire their small but considerable weaponry. Kohan left them for the bigger ships. They had one objective to accomplish, and it was coming up fast. Even now, though they were only at about amidships, they could see the protrusion of the crystal figurehead where the ship rounded off. It rose to a point at both top and bottom, and Kohan growled knowing that this particular part of the vessel was the demon that had destroyed so much. Even the Gorn needed vengeance, to say nothing of his lost Klingon brothers and sisters, and his fellow officers on both the Maximillian and Columbus.
As the small starfighters rushed under the uneven surface, previously unseen cannon came up out of the hull of the vessel. It reached its firing position only a second after they had moved past it, and fired a yellow bolt into space. Kohan radioed a message out to make his people aware of it, but by that time it was already too late. The yellow bolt soared downwards, and then quickly moved back towards the vessel, and directly into the rear fighter. The bolt was so powerful, and the fighter so small, that the energy completely eradicated the fighter as it passed through it, and then impacted on the surface of the vessel itself.
Kohan cursed silently as he pushed his thrusters to their maximum levels, signaling his men to do the same. As he did this, he noticed two more cannons lower themselves into position. Checking his scanners, he noticed he was about fifteen seconds outside of a firing solution on the crystal. Lowering his head, he concentrated all his thought on accomplishing his mission, no matter what the cost. A death such as this would be honor enough.
Another bolt rushed from a cannon, passing through and destroying another two ships directly behind Kohan. They had been covering his attack run, and they had done their jobs well. They would be rewarded in Sto'vo'Kor, he thought, as he cast an eye upon the ship's clock. Five more seconds…Four…Three…
As one last bolt came from the nearest cannon to Kohan's starfighter, the clock reached zero, and the fighter's phaser banks and torpedo bays came to life. Automatically, from Kohan's instructions, all power in the fighter was concentrated on the destruction of its target. Full phasers and every modified torpedo that the fighter had was fired, all hitting various points on the crystal formation both from the rear and the front as the fighter moved past it, outrunning the now confused bolt of energy. The energy bolt was automatically set to home in on the nearest heat signature, which until a moment before was the starfighter. But now with the sudden array of explosions, it had to make a decision, even with its limited A.I.. It chose, stopping only momentarily in mid-flight to adjust its internal directions, and then it flew quickly into the right side of the crystal.
This last powerful blast was more than enough to finish the job that Kohan had set out to do. The explosions began to ripple through the crystal; starting at the center and moving up and out, along the sections, ripping apart the object shard by shard. There was a tremendous concussion wave as the pieces of crystal flew apart, and a large yellow mass of fire burning impossibly in the center of it all.
As Kohan flew back towards the Maximillian and Columbus, and the rest of the battle, a small piece of crystal flew out from the wreckage and struck the starfighter, sending it tumbling end over end. Within an instant, all controls and systems went offline, and the tiny ship fell towards the still rapidly-moving vessel.
Kohan kept his eyes open all the way down watching, waiting for his death to arrive, waiting for his arrival into the land he had long dreamed of.
The vessel moved on, but Kohan's ship did not hit the surface. Instead, it moved out of striking distance just before the starfighter impacted, leaving the Klingon moving through space, with no power, and no way to slow himself down.
"Yes!" The destruction of the figurehead on the vessel was met with several fist-pumps and general celebration on the bridge of the Maximillian. There was a mild applause, and T'Kill waved his hands downward, enjoying the first bit of joviality since this whole affair began. "Settle down, everyone."
The ensign working the communications console called out to Kelvok suddenly. "Captain, we are receiving signal from the lead starfighter. It is disabled, but life support is holding."
Kelvok acknowledged him by turning his head slightly. "Tell them we'll pick him up after this affair is complete." He allowed himself the thought that they would survive past this, as he turned back to the matter at hand. "All batteries continue firing, continue firing at the…"
"Uh…Uh…" Blobbin interrupted, gesturing at the viewscreen. One by one they looked at the screen, their moods changing from hope to horror as they watched.
The crystal figurehead of the vessel had shattered in the enormous explosion, and the shards drifted off into space along with various pieces of scrap. However, the construction underneath the crystal was still quite intact. It formed a brown scaffolding, and revealed in the exposed center were two identical cylindrical cannons, both long and skinny. They moved independently of each other, each able to move left to right as they glided on invisible tracks up and down. The two tracks were spaced mere feet apart, arranged side by side in the center of the exposed wreckage. They seemed to form the power source for the powerful beam weapon.
"What the hell is that?" Lyon wondered aloud.
"I don't want to find out." Turock signaled the fleet. "All ships, concentrate all fire on…"
"Too late!" Blobbin called out, as the gliding cannons began to fire.
They did not fire with the immense power that had been pouring out of the crystal before, but what they lacked in their former destructive ability they made up for in speed. Blue shots began to rapidly shoot out of the two turrets, spitting across space, focusing on their targets. The enhanced abilities of the artificial intelligence that controlled the vessel's systems while its inhabitants battled inside did its job well, defending from all enemies. At this point, everything around it was classified as an enemy.
The blue lasers did not track their targets, and quite a few missed their marks, favoring instead a scattershot approach. The shots that did strike did not do so with immense power, but the sheer number, hitting all across the shields, taxed the remaining Federation ships mightily, and more than one fell, and quickly, as they were already reeling from the initial attack.
As a Norway-class ship exploded neatly in half to the right of the Maximillian, Kelvok calmly ordered his ship up and away from the firing cannons, presenting as a target the Max's large underside. As several bolts struck, depleting the shielding slightly, the ship veered away, as many other ships were attempting to do. T'Kill was hurriedly routing commands to the fleet, making quick course corrections and changes, lest more ships be lost by an accidental collision.
While collisions between the Federation ships were few, they were still being destroyed at a breakneck pace. The shots from the vessel seemed to speed up, and their aim was improving as the A.I. slowly learned how these ships, so different from the Marconian vessels, moved through space.
For their part, the defending force did not retreat, they merely were jockeying for a better position, hopefully out of range of their enemy. But the bolts of energy were striking delicate areas, including engineering, and weapons. The ships that were surviving the onslaught had no choice but to withdraw from the fray, their crews hoping it would only be for a short time so they could continue to help fight off the intruder.
The Maximillian shook violently as another barrage of shots hit underneath, and Turock cringed at the incoming casualty reports, now being sent from the rest of the fleet. As he put his head down, silently reading the numbers, Admiral Lyon stared straight ahead at the viewscreen, watching the chaos around them. He watched as ships were ripped in half by immense explosions, watched small bodies that were once alive float silently into the great blackness, watched the great vessel send its fire into space. His fist clenched.
The tense silence was broken by the young ensign at the communications console, who only now did Turock remember was named Merlomo. The curiosity of why he had been named this escaped him as the ensign shouted to the staff. "Captain! Incoming ships! The Reinforcements are arriving!"
Turock leapt to his feet and yelled. "No! Send them back! SEND THEM BACK!"
It was too late for his words to have any effect. Just as the first ship arrived on the scene, the older-model Excelsior-class was met with an array of bolts from the vessel, almost as if their arrival had been detected. With no warning, and no time to get their shields up to full strength, the bolts did far more damage than could have been guessed, and the ship erupted into flame, its nacelles flying off in opposite directions. One nacelle impacted with a smaller Akira-class ship just as it warped in, arriving just in time to become nothing more than debris, as the nacelle rammed right into the core of the ship. Where there had been two great ships had turned into horrible wrecks of metal and fire in only seconds.
As a third ship warped in, to meet with the same horrible fate as had the first two, Turock's fist hit his console. Though the materials that the console were made out of resisted most blows, it still shook with the impact. Ensign Merlomo called out again. "The rest of the second wave is holding back….We're on our own, sir." His voice grew more worried as his statement went on.
"Thank you, Ensign." Kelvok stated calmly. "Admiral T'Kill, if I may send a message to the remaining fleet?"
T'Kill stopped, and looked at the Vulcan. "Kelvok?"
"I believe it is time to regain the advantage, Admiral, but we cannot do it alone." Kelvok stood adamant against the questioning looks he was receiving. The ship shook from another barrage of shots, and Turock nodded, tapping his panels as he did so to pass control along to Kelvok.
Seconds later, on the command of a Vulcan much of the fleet had never heard of before, the remaining ships of Joint Task Force Alpha stopped their retreat, and came together in a 'V' formation. With the Maximillian leading them, they increased their speed, and advanced on the vessel, and the constantly firing cannons that were swiveling and moving within the brackets of the former crystal shape.
The laser bolts from the cannons stopped for an instant, reassessing the situation and reacting to the new battle plans, and then started concentrating their fire on a single ship, to the right of the Maximillian, and at the end of the formation.
Kelvok was not daunted by the dedicated attack, as he continued to order the fleet forward. "Do not break rank, do not slow. Prepare to fire."
As the rightmost ship, the Explorer II, erupted into flame, Kelvok ordered the fleet to open fire with everything they had. Not saving anything, lest they not make it to the next phase of the plan, the Maximillian and the rest of the fleet began to rain fire down upon the cannons. As it continued to fire, destroying another ship and weakening a third, torpedoes struck the infrastructure of the cannons, and they shook. A beat passed, and they began firing wildly into the mass of ships, striking each as many times as possible, with no perceivable rhyme or reason to where the shots were hitting, aiming to do as much damage as possible in whatever time it had left.
Another explosion, this time to the left of the Maximillian, as the ships were almost on top of the vessel. Kelvok's voice raised without him even realizing it, as the constant barrage striking the ship caused sparks to fly out of nearby consoles.
"Do not slow, do not stop! Fire all torpedoes and phasers!"
As the Maximillian, and the fleet closely following, flew overhead, of the vessel, rear phasers from the ship struck the cannons on their roof. Almost instantly, yellow smoke erupted from the top of the right cannon, followed by the left one. All firing stopped, and the cannons suddenly erupted, exploding outwards in bright orange, the fires quickly dying due to the lack of oxygen.
A cheer went up from the Maximillian, as a grin returned to Blobbin's face. He turned to Kelvok, large pointy ears appearing on his head as he did so. "Niiiiice."
Kelvok nodded, not allowing any positive emotion to show, as he assessed the situation, returning control of the fleet to Turock as he did so.
The crystal figurehead had exploded, and the main weaponry of the vessel was offline, disabled or worse. There were a few alarms of strange noise echoing through the vast spaces, but neither Marconian could hear them. The bloodlust seemingly flowing through them at this point. Canty had tried to regain the upper hand, but Starblade was unwilling to let that happen. The sharp iron bar in his hand had disarmed his adversary, and he had returned to striking the evil android in any place he could reach. But still Canty survived, and fought back. The two moved back and forth across a moving bridge, at separate times losing and gaining ground, but Starblade was winning still.
Canty fell again, leaning against the walkway handrails, as Starblade struck again and again, each time the blow glancing off the walkway, or blocked by the android's arm, the synthetic skin on which was by now bruised and in some places hanging off, revealing the cybernetics underneath. As the fleet destroyed the figurehead completely, including the defensive cannons, Starblade was caught off guard by the immense explosion, which reverberated through the structure. Canty saw his one chance on the next swing, and as the bar sailed through the air, he caught it before it could strike him again.
The two androids, identical in every way but morals and perspective, stared each other down, both unwilling to yield the weapon. But whereas Critch Starblade had been trained in Starfleet, learning their ways and skills, Canty had remembered everything his twin had forgotten, and the Marconian ways were very different. Punching the android suddenly out of nowhere, Canty wrenched the bar from his hands. Starblade sailed back a few feet, landing on his back. Then, before he could even think of defending himself, Canty was upon him.
The tables had turned, and Starblade was the one being struck. Without mercy or fail, Canty drive the end of the bar into his adversary's body over and over and over again, as hard and unyielding as possible. Then, feigning a blow to Starblade's chest, which he prepared to block, Canty drove the sharp end of the bar directly into Critch Starblade's left eye.
His pain sensors not completely turned off, due to the effects of regaining his memory and the need for all his systems to be online to interface with the vessel, Starblade felt the sharp pain, overloading his mind, and he fell to the ground, writhing. Canty pulled the bar out, satisfied with his victory, as his enemy now moved on the ground, the fight having left him. Canty stood, and then kicked Starblade in the lower back.
"Oh relax, Starblade!" He taunted. "You know your 'brain' is located elsewhere, and your body will fix the damage in time. Time that I'm afraid you and your Federation do not have." Adding insult, Canty walked away from the disfigured android. "You gave it a good fight; you did far more than I ever thought you could. Your reward is to watch as I finish this."
Starblade slowly raised his head, using all his energy, to watch Canty move to the console, on the opposite side of the bridge from the power core. He watched with one remaining eye as he placed his hand on the console, and saw a small targeting reticule on the screen, aimed on the fleet, directly on the Maximillian.
Canty smirked. "It's time, for the end."