HOMEWORLD2: WRATH OF THE GODS
CHAPTER 24: CLASH OF THREE ULTIMATES
"Broken friendship is best mended by Tragedy or Apology."
Source unknown
Imperial Hive, Nalthoran Capital City:
Karan Sjet opened her eyes, expecting to see herself on the Other Side. Naturally, she was incredulous when she noticed that they were still in one piece. The city was smouldering from the Dreadnaught crash, but the planet seemed largely intact.
She looked to Captain Soban for news, and he responded with a relieved look.
"Good news Karan. The Exodus Fleet arrived just moments ago," Soban reported, "They managed to intercept the Qwaar Jet's blast with the Koshiir Ra's distortion field."
"Koshiir Ra? You people managed to find the last ship?"
"It took a few coincidences and lucky guesses, and we managed it alright," came the reply, "Now we should continue our conversation later. We need to get you onboard the ship ASAP."
Karan nodded and walked briskly into the Gatekeeper's airlock. As the last of the royal retinue boarded the ship, the airlock closed with a dull thud. Soban wasted no time contacting Engineering.
"Engineering, Soban here. I assume we have insufficient drive power for escape velocity?" Soban enquired.
If our predictions are correct, we'll only be able to reach 85 of Nalthora's escape velocity.
"Well then, I hope you're right about the phasing sequence."
The Dreadnaught shuddered as its thrusters came online, blasting away at the shattered ground beneath. As the ship staggered off the crash site, Soban prayed for a miracle.
The Gatekeeper phased out.
Onboard the Legacy of Kharak, low orbit over Nalthora:
Yuno was relieved to have control restored to her. Kiir Sjet was managing the systems onboard the Koshiir Ra along with Eefrit and his team. Coordinating fleet actions would be up to her now.
"Yuno to fleet, we are dealing with an infection entity that has transcended the Beast in many ways. For the duration of this operation and war with that entity, we have given it the codename "Neo-Beast." Remember that they have subverted Progenitor ships among their forces, so this is going to be a tough fight."
"Your objectives will be to provide support to the T-MAT fleet against the Neo-Beast until we can get the Nalthoran royalty and Karan off the planet. The Nalthorans are also launching what few colony ships they managed to fill in the past few days, so we have to buy as much time as possible."
"Strike craft and frigates will move forward to cover the T-MAT flanks from the Neo-Beast Drones and fighters. Destroyers, heavy dreadnoughts and battlecruisers shall engage the Neo-Beast capital ships at maximum range, focusing fire on infection-capable vessels."
Yuno paused and wondered if she had forgotten anything. Moments later, she concluded the briefing.
"Your objectives are clear. Let's go!"
The Exodus Fleet leapt into action, fighters and corvettes swarming from their docking bays. As the Hiigaran capital ships moved forward with their strike craft escorts, they were quickly joined by their Nalthoran equivalents. The T-MAT made no comment, but from their actions signified that they too were part of the new alliance.
The unified force entered the battlefield.
Onboard the Koshiir Ra, low orbit over Nalthora:
Eefrit was manning the main computer terminal, and he was displeased with what he saw.
"Kiir, that last Quantum Pulse hit brought the Distortion Field down to 70 percentpower. I fear that we may not be able to protect the planet for long."
"No worries Eefrit," came Kiir's reply, "I'm rerouting power from all non-essential systems to the field generators. It should be enough to block four more hits."
"If there's anything that pisses me off about this ship," Eefrit complained, "It's that fact that it lacks a single gun to shoot with!"
"It's to be expected from a defensive vessel. Alright, I'm bringing the ship forward to project a forward field around the Sajuuk. We'll be leaving the protection of the planetary distortion field, so be prepared for hits."
With a mighty roar, the Koshiir Ra's main drives came to life, and it advanced beyond the protective barrier it had erected around Nalthora. Almost instantly, Keepers came surging forward from the main battle, ignoring the assaults of the combined fleet. Wasting no time, Kiir quickly projected a localised distortion field around the ship.
The Keepers opened fire, blasting away with ion beams and plasma bolts, but their assaults merely grazed the Koshiir Ra's defensive field. Onboard the ship, Eefrit was amazed to feel only the slightest vibrations.
"Two minutes before we're within projection range of the Sajuuk." Kiir noted.
Onboard the Gatekeeper of Sajuuk, high orbit over Nalthora:
Captain Soban was relieved to see that the phasing sequence had gotten them off the planet. The only problem was that they had exited hyperspace right smack in the middle of the space battle.
The shields had been brought up in the nick of time and the Gatekeeper shook as the Neo-Beast fleet opened fire on them. Soban would have stayed to assist the combined fleet, but he had important personnel on board. He quickly got over to the helm controls and steered the Dreadnaught towards the Sajuuk.
Soban cursed and swore as ion beams and plasma bolts continued to pummel the Dreadnaught's shields. He prayed for them to hold long enough, but Engineering told him otherwise.
"Captain, shields are at 80percent and falling fast. We can't hold off this barrage forever!"
"Then dump whatever power we've got into those shields! I need enough shield power to get us to the Sajuuk!"
Everyone held on for dear life as the Gatekeeper was rocked by yet another explosion. As Soban scrambled to stay at the helm controls, he was horrified to see a Keeper trying to ram them.
To the relief of everyone onboard, a T-MAT megaship swept in and sliced the Keeper to pieces with its ion beams.
"It appears that we may have been wrong about you Hiigarans, the collective voice spoke, We will do what we can to get you to the Sajuuk safely."
Soban was amazed when he saw six T-MAT megaships arrange themselves into a spherical formation around the Gatekeeper. Now that they had the Unbound on their side, things were starting to look up.
"Alright then," Soban yelled, "Full speed ahead!"
Onboard the Qwaar Jet, high orbit over Nalthora:
Kaark watched the battle unfold before his eyes, and was most annoyed by the sudden change in circumstances. Just minutes ago he was on the verge of destroying another planet, only to have the wretched Koshiir Ra show up at the last minute.
He watched the combined fleet push through his defending fleet, which was struggling to inflict damage on the intrepid defenders. However, the Hiigarans had been quick to update their T-MAT and Nalthoran allies with Kiir Sjet's Quantum Distortion Algorithm, which the allied fleet was now using to great effect. Ion beams and plasma bolts from the Keepers were rendered useless as they bounced harmlessly off the localised distortion fields.
Kaark watched the battle for some time and finally decided to even the odds a little. He sent another command through the systems, and the Qwaar Jet responded.
Various gunports began opening across the Qwaar Jet's hull, each glowing with increasing intensity. Then ion beams lashed forth from the gunports, bending in the influence of the gravitic focusing arrays to hit their targets.
Onboard the Legacy of Kharak:
Yuno watched in stunned silence when the Qwaar Jet exploded in a fury of ionic energy. Now dozens of ion beams rained down upon the combined fleet, tracking their targets with lethal accuracy. The beams were lashing back and forth like glowing whips of hellish energy. Screams began cutting through the communications channels as frigates were sliced in half and destroyers pummelled to bits.
But the defenders refused to admit defeat. Hiigaran defence field frigates surged forth and deployed their defence fields, enveloping the Fleet in a protective blue glow. With some of the ionic assaults blocked off by the field, losses began to subside.
The T-MAT were stepping up their assaults now, each ion beam blasting an unshielded Keeper to dust. As the combined Fleet crept closer and closer to the Qwaar Jet, the T-MAT summoned the last of their reinforcements.
Yuno picked up dozens of hyperspace signatures behind the Neo-Beast fleet, and they equalled the number encountered at the Southern Fringe gate.
It was the T-MAT mothership fleet.
Now the mothership force began to attack the Neo-Beast fleet from the rear, while the combined Fleet pushed on from the front.
It was then that Yuno picked up an energy spike coming from the Qwaar Jet. When she saw what was coming, she screamed for everyone to get out of the way.
"Yuno to allied forces, Qwaar Jet is powering up the Quantum Pulse Cannon! Stand clear, I repeat, stand clear!"
Onboard the Koshiir Ra:
"Eefrit, I'm picking up an energy spike from the Qwaar Jet," Kiir reported urgently, "They are going to fire that cannon again!"
"Has the Fleet been informed?" the Admiral asked anxiously, "That cannon alone has enough firepower to wipe the defenders out!"
"I think Yuno's already sent the warning. The Fleet is taking evasive action and everyone's trying to get out of the way. But in the circumstances with all the Keepers…"
Kiir was interrupted as the Koshiir Ra shuddered from some massive impact. Lights flickered slightly as everyone struggled to get back to their stations. Various viewscreens flickered on to display the Qwaar Jet lashing at them with all of its ion warp turrets.
Their advance had not gone unnoticed.
Almost immediately after the first strike, the Qwaar Jet fired its main cannon again, sending a blue streak of energy hurtling towards Nalthora. The beam cut through the Void that had once been occupied by the Fleet and slammed viciously into the protective field. The distortion field held stubbornly, but began to crackle from the loss of power.
"Kiir, what's the status on the planetary shield?" Eefrit enquired.
"55 percentpower after that last hit, and those bendy ions cut our local field to 95 percent. I'm throwing whatever power this ship's got into the generators already!"
"Will we still have enough power to shield the Sajuuk?"
"I'm not sure, but I'll do my best… crap the Qwaar Jet is powering up its infection beams!"
Various spikes now jutted out from the Qwaar Jet's sides as they powered up for a good infection shot at the Sajuuk. Moments later, a flurry of beams was unleashed alongside an infection salvo from the Epsilon V Neo-Beast mothership at the rear. With an innumerable number of beams all headed for the unprotected Sajuuk, Kiir thought that all had been lost.
At the very last moment, the beams were deflected by a series of quantum distortions put up hastily by the Gatekeeper and her T-MAT escort.
They had reached the Sajuuk in one piece.
Onboard the Sajuuk, high orbit over Nalthora:
Karan wasted no time getting to her command cubicle. As she stepped into the anti-gravity capsule, the med teams rushed in and began preparing Karan for insertion. Outside, Soban was using the Dreadnaught's hyperspace module to shield the Sajuuk as best as he could, along with the T-MAT megaships. However, every quantum distortion they brought up only caused more infection beams to flare from the Qwaar Jet and Epsilon V. Sooner or later, there would be too many beams and too few distortions.
Time was something they no longer possessed.
Karan's visual feeds were plugged in first and she was immediately elevated back into her Unbound status. Watching the battle around the ship, she saw the Qwaar Jet unleash another Quantum Pulse shot into the withering planetary shield around Nalthora. Meanwhile, it was maintaining a spirited attack on the Koshiir Ra, which had been forced to halt by the fierce assaults.
She marvelled at the Koshiir Ra's capabilities. Even though the Qwaar Jet was firing more than 20 rapid-fire ion beams at the ship, the vessel's protective field absorbed all the punishment silently.
Now the secondary feeds were plugged in, giving Karan access to internal non-essential systems. Using her newly-returned abilities, she now ran diagnostics across the entire vessel. Karan was relieved to find that repairs to the Sajuuk's control systems were complete.
Ending what was probably the fastest Unbound insertion in galactic history, the primary feeds were plugged in. Karan took a few seconds to adjust to the sudden mental stress, then opened her eyes.
Sajuuk was alive once again.
The first thing Karan did was to activate the Sajuuk's energy shielding, sparing the megaships and the Dreadnaught from the hectic distortion field generation.
"Karan, you're plugged in that quickly?" Soban asked over the channel, incredulous that the process had taken so little time.
"Well, it was nerve-wracking, but we've got our objectives," replied Karan, "Captain Soban, I need you to target the Qwaar Jet with the Phased Cannon Array. Surely they can't shrug off a joint blast from the Gatekeeper and the Sajuuk at the same time."
"Roger that, relaying orders to Weapons Control now!"
The Sajuuk roared away from the Nalthoran mothership Stargazer, which had not too long ago taken it prisoner. Now the Nalthoran mothership was also providing supplies and support to the Fleet, which was still trying to neutralise the Keeper threat.
As the Sajuuk brought its main weapon to bear on the Qwaar Jet, the Dreadnaught moved into position at its side and aimed its main gun as well. Both ships began glowing as they charged up for a joint Phased Cannon Array blast.
Onboard the Qwaar Jet:
Kaark cursed and spat at the image before his eyes. Sajuuk was operating on its own power and now sought to impale the ship with that wretched Phased Cannon Array. In the final few seconds before the Arrays discharged, Kaark pushed whatever power he could spare into the energy shields and reinforced the organic armor layering on the ship's left side.
The vessel rocked violently as the yellow beams blasted into the Qwaar Jet's side. The shields shimmered and dispersed under the assault, exposing the hull to the blast.
Kaark roared in defiance as the beams faded. Analysing the damage, he found it to be most undesirable. The beams had breached the hull in several places, and destroyed one of the Quantum Focusing Arrays. If not for the organic reinforcement of the Qwaar Jet's superstructure, the ship would have succumbed to the attack.
It was time to retaliate, and retaliate he did by turning the ion warp turrets from the Koshiir Ra to the Sajuuk.
He also decided it was time to use his trump card.
Onboard the Sajuuk:
The Great Maker shuddered in the sudden ionic assault. The energy shielding struggled to hold off the attacks, but dispersed in several places. Ion beams slammed into the Sajuuk's hull, opening decks to space and damaging various systems.
Karan felt the ship's pain and reeled slightly. She quickly compensated by activating the Three Cores and projecting a quantum distortion around the vessel to prevent more damage.
"Karan! Are you alright? That last salvo looked pretty nasty!" Soban's voice cut in anxiously.
"We've just suffered moderate hull damage, nothing too serious. Captain Soban, the Qwaar Jet is bringing its weapons to bear on the Sajuuk. You had better get your ship out of the way or you'll be caught in the crossfire!"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to leave anytime soon. After all, the Sajuuk is supposed to be fighting with the assistance of the Dreadnaughts. Even though there's only one left, it's better than nothing."
"Very well then. Captain Soban, when this is all over, I'll see to it that…"
Karan paused in mid sentence as she picked up anomalous energy readings from the Qwaar Jet. Checking the readings, she could not believe her eyes.
Onboard the Legacy of Kharak:
Yuno had picked up the readings too, and she too could not believe what the sensors were telling her.
"Yuno to Koshiir Ra, Kiir, do you read?"
"Kiir here. What's up Yuno?"
"The Legacy's sensors are picking up something really weird about the Qwaar Jet. Can you confirm?"
"Hold on a sec, let me check…" Kiir went silent for a few seconds before returning to the conversation. "By the Gods of Kharak, there is no mistaking it."
"Are you sure about it, Kiir?" Yuno asked hesitantly, hoping there was some mistake.
"Those readings… they are consistent with infinite gravitic readings of singularities…"
"Qwaar Jet's making a black hole?"
Onboard the Gatekeeper of Sajuuk:
"Captain! You've got to see this!" the sensors officer yelled, his voice shaking with fear.
"Patch it through to the main viewscreens."
The viewscreens flickered as they switched to a zoomed-in view of the Qwaar Jet. Soban gasped when he saw the ship.
The Qwaar Jet was focusing quantum energies at its front yet again, but this time the energies appeared to be surrounding something small and intense. Within the blue sphere of light was a spot of darkness, and it appeared to be growing along with the quantum energy sphere.
"The sensor readings… what do they say about that phenomenon?" Soban asked, even though he knew the answer.
"The Qwaar Jet's inducing a localised quantum singularity. If fired, I fear even Koshiir Ra's shield will fail to hold."
"What is the Qwaar Jet's target?"
"From its current position, most probably Nalthora. That means that the motherships, command ships and carriers are in danger as well, for they are in low orbit!"
"Damn it, we have to retreat." Soban muttered, "Does Karan know about…"
"I already know, and so does Yuno," Karan's voice came in, "We are broadcasting the information to the Nalthoran and T-MAT fleets. The Nalthoran colony ships in orbit carry a total of three million colonists, it will have to do."
"Wait Karan!" Now Kiir interrupted on another channel, "I'm shutting down Koshiir Ra's local field to divert power to the planetary shield. I'm sure it will hold…"
"Kiir Sjet, I'm afraid it will not hold!" Karan rebutted," Nalthora is lost, and we have to flee while we still can. Yuno's standing by to pull everyone into hyperspace with the Grand Core. We can always return to fight another day."
"But…"
"No buts, Kiir Sjet. I understand your intentions, but we can't win all the time. I hope you can understand."
"… Yes Karan." Kiir replied before cutting off communications.
The battle ended abruptly as the Qwaar Jet released the singularity. Wasting no time, both Neo-Beast and Allied ships jumped into hyperspace to escape the eventual gravitic catastrophe.
The last ships to leave were the Sajuuk and Koshiir Ra. Kiir tried to stay for as long as possible, maintaining the barrier until the very last moment. Eventually, the shimmering blue sphere impacted the planetary shield with cataclysmic force, dispersing the final remnants of the distortion field's power.
Karan watched as the isolating quantum energies dissipated, dropping the singularity into realspace. With a mental thought, she summoned forth all the energies of the Three Cores and pulled both ships into hyperspace.
As the quantum wavefronts swept the lengths of the Sajuuk and Koshiir Ra, the tiny black hole pulled everything within its grasp. Nalthora's atmosphere was stripped off, the planet's life-sustaining gases spiralling into the point of infinity. Those lucky enough to escape painful asphyxiation were crushed instantly by the sheer gravitational forces.
But the singularity's hunger had yet to be satisfied. It continued to rip chunks of rock off Nalthora, swallowing entire continents in mere moments. The planet shattered in the merciless grip of the black hole's gravity while the singularity began to shrink. In the end, the fabric of space time closed over the black hole, healing itself rapidly.
Nalthora was gone.