AN: Another long wait for this one, must've gone through six drafts before settling on this one in particular, I think it strikes a good balance and I thought it was about time to show humanity when it really takes the kids gloves off.
Also I'm unhappy to report I was nearly sober when writing this, though I did make up for the lack of alcohol with a ridiculous amount of tea.
Please Enjoy the next chapter of Belli Dura Despicio.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.
Command and Control Centre.
[+13 Hours since First Contact with the SSV Lion]
Confidence in their skills indeed, Gavilan Nyx thought to himself as the Spirit of Palaven, fired her heavy Mass Accelerator Cannon, the forty kilogramme tungsten cored projectile demolishing another Batarian heavy cruiser, which just so happened to have its shields cracked wide open by a salvo from one of the Lion's main batteries.
The Lion was a marvel of engineering the scans taken of the ship, showed just how enduring the dreadnought sized vessel truly was, Gavilan's mandibles clicked showing his executive officer just how deep in thought he was.
The sheer concept of removing the 'keel' or 'spine' of a ship by building it out of honeycombs was in a word inspired and pretty fucking expensive to accomplish, the results however were very visible as he alongside his crew and by extension the entire Hierarchy witnessed one vessel take a ridiculous amount of heavy calibre MAC fire and continued to take far more as time passed.
Something had been bugging the good Admiral for the last hour, something he just couldn't place about the Lion, that was until how blatantly obvious it was.
"Exec, tell me have you noticed it as well? The sole reason that ship is demolishing the Batarian Animals, whilst they're struggling to retaliate to the threat the Lion is presenting?" Gavilan watched as his Executive Officer studied the tactical map.
"The Lion is in far too close for the Batarian's to fire at full power, not that it would matter…. They're set in a blind panic, firing their all of their MAC's on a partial charge to try and overwhelm her defences with a sheer volume of firepower."
Gavilan gave a single not before continuing the conversation himself. "The Lion is in such a position she's exploiting the one 'weakness' of the Galaxies entire design and Naval doctrinal philosophy." Gavilan gave the Turian equivalent of a smirk. "These Human's, have purposefully designed the Lion to exploit that weakness to its fullest by arming her with nothing but short range, super heavy calibre Snub MAC's."
"Compound that with the fact the Humans are using psychological warfare whilst interfering with open communications by playing their music, its no wonder the Batarian Fleets have lost so much cohesion." Gavilan's Executive Officer's eyes widened just enough to cause Gavilan to smile.
"I really like this species, they well and truly are old hand at waging war, I'd even go so far to call them Honorary Turian's."
All the while the Lion shrugged off the ineffectual Batarian firepower, whilst simultaneously killing two Batarian vessels trying to flank her by going for the Lion's underbelly, only for they themselves to be on the receiving end of eighteen two-thousand tonne slugs each for their trouble.
"If my wife sees this thing in action, I know full well she'll want one as an 'anniversary gift' next year." Gavilan muttered aloud. "Struggling to find things to suitably gift your wife already Gavilan. Hah. You've got many, many years ahead of you yet!"
"At least I have a wife to support me Adrianus unlike you." Gavilan retorted. "What can I say I'm a free Spirited man Gavilan, I have more love to give than any single woman could hope to bear."
"Of course, of course what are you on twelve or thirteen bastards?" Adrianus shook his head. "Sixteen, Colonel Mamerus Acillin's Niece gave birth to triplets two weeks ago." Gavilan just shook his head. "You know full well the good Colonel is going to rip off your mandibles and shove them up your ass, right?"
"Has to get a hold of me first sir." Just then the low level music that was playing throughout the Command and Control Centre changed. [Play: Manowar – Sons of Odin.] "Communications, turn that music up by twenty percent."
"Aye sir."
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Hegemony Combined Fleet Alpha, Dreadnought Divine Right.
Bridge / Combat Information Centre.
[10 Hours until Alpha Relay Reinforcement Fleet arrives.]
Trentch was close to a complete mental breakdown, the impossibility of what had prevented the Hegemony's overwhelming victory against the Councils attack Varren, this was to be retribution for those who dared oppose the Hegemony and their cultural right.
A massacre to shame the entire Hierarchy, instead he and the combined might of three of the Hegemony's primary Dreadnought Fleets were being massacred by some unknown dreadnought sent by some upstart race, a race pathetic enough to not even have Kinetic Barriers!
Out of a force of three hundred, one hundred and twenty had been killed by the Turian defence forces and their established planetary defence grid, a steep price now an additional eighty vessels had been crippled or outright destroyed by a single fucking Dreadnought.
"Failures the lot of you, fucking kill that Dreadnought, nuke the fucking thing now!" Trentch screamed at the assembled officers before him, no one made a single move to follow the livid Admiral's order. "Now!" Trentch screamed once more. "Sir we risk escalati-" The junior officer never finished his sentence.
Trentch had pulled his personal sidearm and had shot the officer in his lower left eye, blowing the poor bastards brains out of the back of his head. "Launch the nukes." He ordered coldly; the other officers now motivated by the fact that their commanding officer had his gun ready to shoot the next man who dared to speak up.
"Launching all nuclear missiles and torpedoes now sir!"
"Spread the order to the fleet. Fire everything at that fucking Colony, nuke it, make an example of it and use whatever is left to nuke that fucking Dreadnought into oblivion!"
November 30th 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar] 2151 CE [Common Era].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
SSV LION R-106, Combat Information Centre.
Klaxons blasted throughout the CIC and the entire ship, on every console and public display terminal a small Ionising Radiation Symbol [Trefoil] was displayed. "Nuclear weapons grade material has just gone 'live' throughout the entirety of what remains of the Hostile Fleet!"
"Jesus fucking Christ, a mass nuclear weapons deployment it could only mean one thing." One senior officer spoke up. "Scorched Earth." Another agreed with the first.
I shook my head, these rabid dogs have just made my day, they'd given me all the reason I'd need to end this fight here and now. "CGO under my executive authority, following escalation protocol: JUBILEE, I'm ordering you to load every main gun with KATIE rounds."
Picking up my personal wireless, I shot Ka'mara an apologetic look. "Torpedo room, this is the Captain under my executive authority load the Super-heavy Type 45 Nuclear Torpedoes."
"Weapons unlock the safeties on all of the RAPIER pods!" If these pricks wanted to go nuclear, I'd show them an entirely new meaning of how to wage nuclear war."
I took a moment to myself before continuing. "Ka'mara inform the OIC of the Sixth Fleet, these Slaver bastards have become a credible threat, I'm authorising a full nuclear strike I'm ending this fight here and now."
It took less than a minute, but with the professionalism and the dedication demonstrated today the main guns were loaded with KATIE rounds stored in multiple secure lockups in the casemates themselves, as the Highly Automatic Weapons Handling System [HAWHS] that transported all of the necessary ammunition from the Primary Magazines needed time to prioritise the additional dollies coming out of the Nuclear Lockup over those which were carrying the conventional rounds already in transit.
The Torpedo Room in the lower half of the bow of the Lion watched as four Super-Heavy Type 45 nuclear Torpedoes were pneumatically lifted and pushed into the four torpedo tubes, Gunther couldn't help but shake his head.
"To think these assholes have pushed the Captain to such a point he's authorising a total nuclear strike, and not the retaliatory kind either."
"It's them or us Gunther and each and every time the Captain will pick us, no hesitation, he'll end whoever becomes too much of a threat, plus our new Turian allies will need to know we can and will end a threat."
Meanwhile the nuclear warheads of all eight hundred 120 kiloton nuclear missiles were activated, their status relayed back to the weapons stations deep inside the Lion proper as each pod swivelled to various angles to present the maximum possible spread for a full scale nuclear launch.
Back in CIC confirmations were coming at me in rapid fire, picking up my wireless I nodded to Smollet who patched me throughout the ship. "This is the Captain, seal all blast-doors throughout the ship, switch to Independent Auxiliary Power [IAP] and secure all stations, brace for hard contact. This is not a drill."
The two grouchy CMO's of the Lion realising the severity of what was to come issued their standing orders, authorising the trauma stations placed throughout the ship to dispense anti-radiation medication and sterilisation field generators, they had the junior and senior medical staff ready for a full mass casualty situation.
The well and truly steeled themselves, the crew of the Lion had been well and truly lucky that the worst casualties currently were some poor chef who'd been burned when a gas line exploded in one of the main galleys, dozens of concussions and hundreds of minor cuts and some severe sprains.
That was going to change, come what may a lot of if not the entirety of the main gun crews were going to be exposed to lethal doses of radiation.
November 30th 2151 CE [Common Era] 2207 EMC [Earth Military Calendar].
Turian Frontier Space, Agamemnon System.
Turian Sixth Fleet, HNV Spirit of Palaven.
Command and Control Centre.
"Sir Hierarchy High Command is reporting that the Turian 11th Fleet is currently on station in the Valkyr System, they're thirty minutes out sir." One of the Spirit of Palaven's senior communications officers reported, Gavilan nodded his head in response. "Excellent, we have done the Hierarchy proud this day, special commendations to Commodore Sidoia Acharius, expect you and yours to receive medals for your displays of valour today." Gavilan however was cut off, when an alarm was sounded throughout the ship.
"Status Report!" Gavilan barked, only for the Junior Sensor Operator to speak up. "Sir the Batarian Fleet has armed its nuclear weapons, Sir, even the nuclear arsenals aboard the wreckage's have gone live!" Gavilan couldn't believe it, the Batarian's were well and truly going to escalate the war to Total War, were they insane?
Gavilan was about to issue the order to arm the Sixth Fleets own nuclear arsenal when his Daughters personal Omni-Tool Comms pinged his own, flicking his wrist. "Ka'mara you -"
"Father listen there is no time, Captain Liam Spruce, Lion Actual has under his own Executive Authority authorised a full nuclear strike against what is now deemed by the Human Conventions of War a credible threat to sentient life…." Just then the Spirit of Palaven's alarms went off once more. "Sir, the SSV Lion has just armed its own nuclear wea-pons. By the Spirits! Just how many nuclear weapons are aboard that thing, I count eight hundred 120 kiloton missiles, four 150 megaton nuclear torpedoes…."
"What is it Lieutenant?" Gavilan asked the now gawping officer. "Sir, this is insanity, pure insanity, every one of the Lion's Main batteries have just loaded twenty kiloton nuclear rounds!"
"What!?" Gavilan shouted in shock, looking back to his Omni-Tool Gavilan had to wonder just what in the name of all of the Spirits, Gods, Goddesses and all that was Holy needed that much overkill for a single Human vessel to necessitate carrying such a ridiculous amount of nuclear ordinance. "Father you need to be ready to intercept whatever gets past us, we'll do our best to intercept as many nuclear weapons as possible but even the Lion has her limits."
"U-understood." Gavilan's Omni-Tool deactivated, leaving both he and his staff in a state of shock, shaking his head Gavilan began to issue his orders. "Order the entirety of the Sixth Fleet and all attached elements to form a broadside defensive screen, not one nuke make it past us, use your ships themselves to block the things if you have to!"
Meanwhile on Agamemnon proper the entirety of the Lion's Viper wings continued to provide CAS and interception duties to assist the Turian defenders some even providing escorts for emergency vehicles, such as hover-ambulances and troop transporters, when each and everyone of the one hundred and sixty strong force of Viper's received a single message. Bandersnatch. Bandersnatch. Bandersnatch. It was the Systems Alliance Codeword for an immediate mass nuclear strike.
Flight Captain Henry Varro, alongside his three peer officers could only voice their shock with a single word.
"Shit."
To Be Continued….
AN: I thought about doing another 5000+ word chapter but I thought no, my fans would prefer another lovingly placed cliff hanger and build some suspense for the up coming finale.