Chapter 36: The Venerable Armada
The Imperial Cybran Empire's 1st armada regrouped with their ruler, guardian, and admirals on board for the presumed quick invasion. Vexis after confirming which armada she is taking with her, warped to the 2nd armada's flagship ICS Vicencia; a conqueror class titan with multiple weapon platforms. Both armadas executed their warp travel at the same time, leaving the 3rd to 15th armada guarding the core sectors of the empire.
"Rendezvous our armada with the other regents, contact the Aster kingdom if they wanted to join the fight,"
Vexis commanded while overlooking the ally and enemy fleet's position in the main galaxy intel directly from the space observatory uplink as the commander complies with the order. At the same time, she pulls the warp for the whole armada with her dark matter powers to travel faster since Svidana's armada already arrived first at their position.
"Naiki, this is your wish; I will fulfill it. For us to rule this galaxy as one eternal galactical empire." Vexis says in her thoughts looking at the 1st armada signature at the live signal feed.
[ICS Leviathan, 1st armada of the 1st fleet flagship]
"Naiki and Grukev, you're here at the command bridge? and not at the throne room?" The commander of the throne ship casually speaks his mind to Naiki and Field Marshal Grukev with hundreds of the bridge crew saluting at him. Altia escorts him to his command seat near the sensory uplink of the radars.
"I have a good overview here rather than at the throne room that is full of silence, sorry that your vacation is cut short my fellow cybrans." Naiki answers.
"No worries here, we enjoyed the time. But now, to earn that deserved break."
The words of the commander are cut short as the warp is disrupted by the enemy fleet that is already waiting for them. Admiral Altia stands at his side and warns him of the trap, Naiki only scoffs since the other fleets are already deployed at full alert before the warp. As the warp halted, the 1st armada of the 20th to 29th fleets open fire at the fleet in front of them; making the massacre quick and clean. The comm illuminates as a familiar face reports back to Naiki.
"This is Admiral Frey, all enemy warships destroyed. No casualties on our side, resuming the warp to the charted course."
Naiki nods with a confident smile and the communication end. Altia quickly wanted the other Admirals' current standing order while Naiki focused on the sensory readings.
"Commander, quick status check," Altia commanded.
"2nd to 9th fleets on standby, 10th to 19th fleets resumed escort formation, 20th to 29th Spearheading in the warp, 30th to 39th fleets have begun to flank the enemy sector. We are steady on course. 2 more lightyears and we are there."
"Good," Altia responded to the commander's report.
As the warp ended at their destination, they were greeted by the enemy's tactical advantage. Massive hurdles of asteroids propelled at their targets using the makeshift boosters' straps to their end, ramming the spearheading fleets. Admiral Frey adapted to the situation and managed to minimize the casualties from the unorthodox enemy tactics; only to be at the receiving end of long-range concentrated laser barrages and two pairs of fleets flanked at the rear of the armada. Admiral Eisenheart commanding the rear fleets; split up his formation to counter the rear position enemies. Both forces are fiercely fighting to gain the upper hand. Naiki just watched the battle quietly since he wanted to see what Altia will do.
"Come on, the enemy capital planet is another sector away! We can reach it!"
Altia closely watches the number of enemy warships appearing in the range of the Leviathan's radar that is capable to see cloaked ships increasing bit by bit. As Naiki was about to give the order for Leviathan to use its arc emitters, Altia interrupted him.
"Your highness, please allow my fleet to deploy and lead the battle from here. It will make room for you to start the capital planet invasion."
Altia looked at him with a raging spirit to get hands-on with her fleet. Naiki takes a moment to think about it.
"10 minutes, go now…" Naiki answered her. She quickly salutes him and Grukev, walking fast-paced into the teleportation room. Clicking a projection button, two new faces appeared before him in the communicator.
"Verner; Ragnar, deploy your fleet too. Make sure to cover Altia in this battle." Naiki gives his resolution.
"Yes my liege, we will secure you this victory." Verner's sharp voice answers him, and both disconnected the comm as Grukev sees them.
"Just like her father who likes to take on the situation by directly entering the battlefield," Grukev says to her behavior.
"Altia wanted to show me what the in-training-lead-admiral is capable of mustering. That is a perfect opportunity for her to do so." Naiki says while getting up from his throne.
"Naiki, who are those two youngsters?" Grukev did not know of them; asked Naiki while he executes Leviathan's queued orders to punch through the enemy fleet all by itself at a 1/3 speed.
"The two rising noble houses that I am acquainted with in the academic days." The 7th and 9th fleets launched while Naiki is speaking; neatly exiting the Leviathan's side dockyards, assisting the already launched 2nd fleet.
Grukev hums acknowledging it while looking at the sole speeding warship trying to ram the throne ship's bridge from afar, it was shot into smithereens by Frey's fleets even before they got the chance to do it. The fleets under Eisenheart's command take a beating after they accidentally cruised into a concealed minefield. Instead of hunting down the enemy fleets, he does a tactical move; focusing fire on the stragglers first and waiting for them to regroup.
A few squads of bombers pass through the debris of the asteroids and struck hard on Altia's fleet's left flank trident formation. Three of them managed to bomb her ship.
"Guh, they got the nerves of steel fighting off us who have superior numbers…" Altia utters it while recovering from the shield impact. She is late to order eight battle carriers to launch screen autonomous fighters to protect them from further bombing runs as another wave comes to target them again. Frey's fleets received the most damage as the enemy fleet begins to change in front of her, forming four lines to punch through them and barrage them using its broadside weapons.
"Frey, let me take command," Altia says to Frey who remained on comm with her. Frey immediately nods in compliance. Altia draws up the command for the fleets to make a "Double W" formation to counter the tactics that the Valian admiral has used; pushing them back. ICS Leviathan finally fires its lightning arc emitter after they see Frey makes a gap in their formation for it to open fire, their foes cannot believe their eyes of the sheer powerful energy is enough unrivaled by the Valian fleets as they fall.
As the front battle heated up further, the rear enemy fleet quickly makes a beeline to the front to allocate the loss of their warships. Verner and Ragnar's fleets begin flanking maneuvers; intercepting the beelining fleets on the left and right. All of the admirals suddenly receive the signal from the Leviathan to open up communicators. It was from their Emperor.
"Admirals, change of plans. The Leviathan will stand and fight with you, I want all fleets to move at the same speed as the throne ship." Naiki directed them to minimize casualties.
"Yes sir!" They complied simultaneously with the order.
Using her knowledge, Altia planned the formation of the deployed vessels to suit the situation. Multiple formations are used in the command table, shaped like two arrows with the fork in the center and two more arrows on the right flank. All formations are outside the firing arcs of the Leviathan's top weapon platforms, letting it fire without obstruction.
"Clever girl…" Naiki says out of impressed with her adaptability. Grukev just laughed since it is wildly different from her father's known tactics.
Taking the hint, the Leviathan let loose of the top-placed weapons systems including the sub-lightning arc emitter turrets against the Valian fleets. Felling a little uncertain as the armada is making good progress Naiki stands near the direct intel feed from the observatory to the Leviathan. His instinct was right as hordes of long-lance sniper craft are beginning to bombard them from afar, behind them is a supercarrier; launching more multirole fighter waves against them.
"What in tarnation is that thing!? it is nearly as huge as our titan class warships!" Grukev says with a surprising tone.
"If we have it, they also have it. But not as crazily made by us." Naiki gives his words as he tapped his leg.
With his tap, the enemy supercarrier is scanned by the use of his link with the space observatory. Inch by inch, it is detailed fully with high resolution including the internal scans, structural equipment, complex hangar layouts, and weapon types. The ship data was archived in the blueprint's files for Zarck to experiment with the concept later on.
"You sly fox, are we going to copycat that ship?" Grukev says to Naiki, watching him give a full smile at the data.
"Nope, we are preparing a much more suitable countermeasure in case we have to fight more of them. Plus, the weapons that were specially made to destroy it…"
"But we can make an exact copy of it as a target practice." Naiki gives his response.
Grukev laughed at his humorous answer while seeing the enemy space fighters being obliterated by the weapon Zarck installed as an experiment against smaller crafts. The dual cluster burst missiles proved to be excellent even if the enemy fighters are doing evasive maneuvers. Regaining the advantage, the 1st armada moves as one and begins countering the nearly half a million opposing warships; destroying them one after another. It was the largest single space combat that the cybrans have done involving the whole 1st armada who have quintuple the amount of their foe's total warships. Only the supercarrier remains; turning sideways for the efficient fire of their weapons, giving out its last stand.
Naiki gives free rein to the admirals on what to do against the supercarrier. Altia wanted to capture it as a sign of her worth. She quickly utilized wolfpack tactics against the supercarrier. All of the admirals' massive fleets surrounded the supercarrier in multiple layers while blocking escape points of the sectors. The leviathan sits far, watching the situation. The cybran admirals coordinated on what parts of the ships to be disabled first with rear lines as supporting fire if it broke through but it was Altia's primary fleet that did most of the work.
The engine was targeted first as the fleets circled it in a sphere formation, limiting its evasive maneuvers while receiving fire. Some of the cybrans are surprised that they see the supercarrier using neutron missiles with a large impact area against them, and even that Altia's main fleet managed to evade and find their mark on the outer layer of the formation. The moderately damaged ships hit by it are ordered by their admirals to turn away from the actions and back to the leviathan for repairs. Weapon platforms and launching bays are taken out after the engine, stripping out the claws of the predator.
In its last-ditch effort; the supercarrier flickers in glowing light particles, warp speed away with the busted engine to the north of the 1st armada position while disintegrating the cybran warships that blocked its direct path. Altia was not happy with the result. Being as cautious as ever, she ordered her fleet to dock back inside the leviathan.
"Naiki, where do you reckon the carrier is going to?" The commander inquires.
"Back to their home capital planet, I guess. To stop us from conquering it."
Naiki answers, he tactically opens the targeted sector intel. Plenty of colonized planets are seen including the eccentric Terran capital planet. Altia and Frey enter the command bridge of the leviathan to report their status, and both of them stand properly in front of Naiki who is fixated on the data.
"Your highness, enemy fleets vanquished." Frey begins her report.
"I am not able to capture that supercarrier; it is my fault for not being fully aware that they have emergency drive systems." Altia low-toned her voice to reflect on her mistake.
Grukev slides into view as he counts the casualties of the space battle. He passed it over to Naiki who hard-heartedly gazed at the number since the destroyed warships also carry numbers of families of the crew. He returns to his normal self, properly assessing what has happened.
"We got pressing matters to do, I have the blueprints of that carrier. We can build one now if necessary, or give it a second try to capture it since they retreated to their sector. No need to worry about that." Naiki head over to both of them while saying what is on his mind.
"Good job on minimalizing our casualties…" He rested his hand on the admirals before returning to his seat.
"Go and get something to eat. After this; it is going to be a long battle," Grukev suggested to Altia and Frey.
Both leave the bridge to return to their flagship while remaining on standby for a quick response. Being experienced in command, Verner and Ragnar take on the escort duty of the throne ship as they finally reached the Valian core system without using the warp drives. Naiki was disturbed by the sudden chime from his gauntlet. It was Vexis sending a message that all is well on her side of the operation and proceeding with their next phase.
"I bet that is some good news for you?" Grukev takes a guess looking at Naiki. He simply nods at him to reply.
Moments later, they arrived at the Valian capital sector. The leviathan sends a strong short energy wave to scan for active and passive threats. Briefing out the next step to the admirals; each picks their targets of the inhabited planet. Altia and Frey team up to target the colonized moon as the supercarrier has retreated there. The two noble admirals went on the stabilized gas planet with their invasion force, and three other vice admirals decided to investigate the barren bombarded planet that have minor life signatures. Eisenheart switch to guarding the Leviathan while it approaches the capital planet.
To test their defenses, Eisenheart sent a fast observation destroyer just to graze the orbit of the Terran planet and directly go to their space elevator. Barrages of laser fire whiplashed the destroyer back out of orbit; forcing it to put full power on its shielding system. Unable to pinpoint the direct location where the fire came from; the leviathan once more uses its passive energy wave scan to find the hidden ground to orbit defenses.
"That is a quick surprise, they are already waiting for us." The commander reacted to the scene.
Eisenheart calls out his siege battleships to rain precise outer orbit bombardment against the targets, and soften them up for a large-scale orbital invasion. Grukev is about to prepare his force to land when Eisenheart appeared on leviathan's communication projector.
"Emperor, a massive energy spike appeared on the planet. I suggest we delay the invasion and see what is going on." The Admiral notified Naiki of the readings.
"They still have plenty of cards to play. Remain vigilant." Naiki responded while waiting for the active scan of that planet. It slowly reveals the massive complex of orbital fortresses preparing to take off.
"Your move Valian…" Grukev says it while Naiki patiently waits with their deployed warships.
"Why don't we just indiscriminately bombard the planet, the waiting game is killing me." The commander speaks out of tone after waiting for two hours.
"I want that planet intact and not full of holes commander. Terraforming this planet back will add another burden for the mobile terraformers since the three of them are in use elsewhere." Naiki answers while Grukev departs to teleport inside his already deployed assault battleship.
Finally, the Valian orbital fortresses were fully deployed. It was the exact moment Eisenheart pick them off one after another, sending them crashing back down into the planet without Naiki giving the orders to do it. Naiki just watches the light show of the laser and plasma fire to the fortresses. The chaotic turnaround is further used to the full extent with cybrans assault battleships shooting teleportation lances across the planet.
Coordinated movements throughout the planet's ground defenses prepare for the invasion as the first wave of cybran army groups teleported across the planet. Field Marshal Grukev commanded with the absolute authority of the ground forces. Another reserve Valian fleet managed to break through the barren bombarded planet as they make their way to disrupt the invasion.
"Naiki, don't you want to join in the fun?" Grukev contacted Naiki while grinning in his command warship.
"No, I'll let all of you have fun this time. I will only join in if needed or the last remnants of the Valian remain." He answers, looking at the progress of the admirals on the other planet via the direct intel projection.
"As the boss who enters the fight last huh? All right, I will do the same as well." Grukev grins, deploying close air support and air superiority fighters to keep the planet's skies in their control.
Naiki smiles back at him as the comm shut down. The commander of the leviathan turns the throne ship to make the Valian capital planet in their direct view. The bridge control and command crews see the battle with their eyes while Naiki directly tapped into the sensors of the Leviathan to get a good grip on the situation.
Three fierce battle is taking place on the enemy's capital planet; one on the ground, one in the sky, and one in space as the Valian desperately tries to defeat their invaders. Cybran close air support drones give way to the advancing forces, some were shot down by Valian's heavily armed fighters. Grukev sees this and plays out his other moves.
"Carriers, it's time to deploy our remote-controlled interceptors and strike fighters. They have bitten the bait."
With the command from the field marshal; even while under heavy fire, the division of carriers deploys what have ordered while the battlecruisers shield them from further attacks. The deployed interceptors use their agile speed to hunt down the Valian fighters; dodging fire and performing high-G pulls while the pilots are safely controlling them straight from their command carriers. It was the same as the strike fighters, targeting defense lines with precision.
In an unfortunate situation, a fleet under Admiral Eisenheart suffered some damage as they were shot by a high-yield munition from the ground. It was equivalent to a nuclear shell and forces two of the cybran cruisers to make a belly land on the planet as the system of the ship accidentally shuts down.
"Eisenheart, two of your cruisers just crash-landed. I am sending some of my forces to guard it while they restart their engines." Grukev sees it directly voiced at the comms of Eisenheart.
"Thank you, field marshal. They were too focused on the enemy fleet and unaware of the situation on the planet's surface." Eisenheart expressed his gratitude.
Naiki joined in the chat since he is included in the communication.
"That is fired from the destroyed orbital fortresses. Maybe some of the platforms are still operational. Even Frey has alerted the same weapons her and Altia's fleets encountered." He briefed the other two while marking the location of the fortresses.
"My air groups will make another pass at them," Grukev says it.
"No, stay back from the area. Commander, fire the lightning arc emitter at a low density at my marked locations."
"Yes sir!" The commander confirmed the order from Naiki and begin his task.
The lightning arc emitter fired its low-charged shot at the designated targets, completely obliterating the fortresses' remnants. Sharing the visions of the autonomous deployed megaliths IVs, he sees the Valian forces deployed from their underground facilities, reinforcing the frontline and pushing some of the cybrans back with a multitude of weapons. The casualties on the cybran side quickly rise including the autonomous assault bots.
"This is going to take a while…" Naiki says it while the battle turns predictable to him as he sits down.
Having fed up with the situation, he materializes his crown and wears it. His silent order is given. The death mark forces warps down to the planet, surprising the Cybran and Valian forces. Colored in abyss-black integrated armor as the dark matter mass they projected behind them with their glowing red plasma swords, they strike down the Valian as some flee out of fright. The fleeing foes were quickly struck down as they phase in front of them and executed the Valian in the howl of the wind.
"So, those are the extreme loyalists that served as his assassins." Grukev gawked at the scene. He suddenly clears out his throat and relaxes a little as the battle is held to their advantage.
"Shit, I am having goosebumps. They are like phantoms…" Grukev closely zooms at one of them in action and sees how they fight much more brutally than his forces as they begin to clear the underground complexes.
The emperor continues to watch with sharp eyes how the battle unfolds in front of him on all of the invaded planets as the day ends with the Valian continuing to resist the Cybrans.