HK-217 felt the shock of the engines of the Star Hammer push it forward.
"Sections one through three form into delta formation, Battleship Confederate and section four preform a micro hyperspace jump behind and underneath the enemy fleet."
From the view point his photoreceptor detected the signatures of the one and a half thousand Vulture Droid and Tri fighters launching from the hangers.
"Once the fighters have been launched raise thermal shields and concentrate fire on the largest vessel, use our turbo lasers and heavy guns to tear open there shields and crush the bridge."
"Commodore this is section 2 we are range of the enemy Lunar class cruiser."
"Open fire, Sections one and three stay with me we'll be engaging the three light cruisers and the other Lunar directly."
"HK-217 this is Captain Roidic I have made the jump and am engaging the eight Sword frigates, I expect to lose two or three of my frigates to their guns, but I can guarantee their destruction. "
One the OOM battle droids said from its station that enemy fighters were being launched in large numbers and that they were being struck with anti-capital ship ordinance. Torpedoes from the Lunar class cruiser struck the particle shields of the Star Hammer.
Bright flashes of explosions light up the viewport as the payload from the torpedoes exploded. His estimates of the fleet's total strength had been on the high side and with only twelve vessels to his sixteen. The two Lucrehulks were taking fire from the every vessel no engaged with destroying the Munificents.
This was however just as Hk-217 intended and the majority of the frigates were free to concentrate fire on the Lunar Class cruiser, and unless directly engaged by one of the light cruisers or the sword class frigates they were untouched.
"Launch B2-RPs when their shields are eliminated, I want the full complement launched into their hangers."
A horde of droid fighters clashed with the imperial craft as they around the capital ships. The Lurcehulk Confederate was discharging its full volume of fire into the underside of the Lunar class cruiser, the enemy frigates tied up either trying to engage the Star Hammer or the Confederate, and this left them open to engagement by the Munificents.
One of the Light cruisers was dueling with section one, trading fire with the four frigates.
The Lunar cruiser was sustaining the deluge of firepower being poured into it by the two battleships and returning it as effectively as it could against the Star Hammer.
"Reactors are operating at 100 percent capability captain."
"Cut power to the engines, redistribute to the forward gun batteries and shielding."
"Section three jam there communications with static and fire onto the Lunar class's bridge."
The shields started to show signs of weakening under the bombardment which at close range fire from two battleship class ships was beginning to become too much for the ship to sustain.
"Close the gap and launch the B2-RPs into the holes blasted by our gun fire."
The Star Hammer lurched forward, its cannons holding their fire as it redirected power to its engines. It was closing the gap between them, going into suicidal point blank range. As the Battleship barreled forward it came under heavy fire as one of the enemy light cruisers turned its gun upon it, abandoning the two Munificents it was fighting and turning to engage the Star hammer.
"Uh Sir," one of the OOM pilot droids said as they hurtled forwards, "We are detecting torpedoes from the cruiser, the ship has turned to face us."
"Commence jump to hyperspace, I want that cruiser captured."
The Star Hammer fixed its acceleration, the computer crunching the data needed to perform the short jump, it would leave it perilously close to the enemy guns and in range for rapid deployment of counter assault forces.
The view port blurred as space seemed to stretch around the battle ship and it stopped seconds later only one kilometer away from the Lunar.
"Maximum firepower, into the shields and lance turrets!"
"HK-217, the B2-RPs are ready to launch."
"Hold them until the shields have been lowered and their hull has been penetrated."
A firestorm erupted from the cannons on the Star Hammer and for a short instant the guns of the cruiser halted in astonishment with the speed at which the battleship closed with them.
A heavy barrage of fire at close range from both battleships was astounding and as the other ships of the Confederate fleet closed in likewise fashion the Imperial ships were caught off guard.
The other two light cruisers were now concentrating on the Star Hammer and bursts of lance strikes and macro cannon fire spent themselves on the shielding of the immense war ship.
A munificent was the first ship destroyed, broken in half by the third light cruiser's bombardment. The frontal section fell downwards striking a sword frigate locked in combat with another group of Munificents.
Its shields gave out as the frigate rammed into it and the pair of Munificents took the opportunity to destroy the bridge of the sword frigate with a barrage from their massive frontal turbo lasers. The frigate drifted listlessly to the side, and hyena droids swooped in firing proton torpedoes into the hole made in the frigate's plating. The few fury interceptors left from the escort carrier were being picked off by swarms of vulture droids and tri fighters who while often requiring ten or more fighters to bring them down outnumbered them by a vast margin.
"HK, this is Commander Fredrick, as far as the ground battle is concerned, all is going to plan and my droid army has made a breakthrough, relay a response as soon as possible."
"Sir we have several breaches in the hull plating, and have detected approximately one hundred life forms throughout the ship, deploying response forces."
A group of B1 battle droids activated by a signal from the central control computer started marching towards the noise of human footsteps on the metal deck plating of the Star Hammer.
A cold metallic voice sounded over a ship wide intercom.
"This is HK-217 to the boarding party I will give you exactly ten seconds to surrender or face annihilation."
The sound of the feet on the metal stopped and the battle droid platoon continued forward, rounding a corner to face a firing line of arms men with las and plasma guns ready. One rank was on one knee and the other standing.
A barrage of las gun fire destroyed the front ranks of the battle droid platoon and the droids father back took a second too long to respond allowing some of the arms men to throw frag grenades into the droids.
"These feeble machines are all you can send? I was hoping for a true test for my men's abilities" shouted the sergeant at arms.
The sound of more clanking steps were his only answer.
Gesturing to one of the arms men carrying vox unit on his back, he checked for signals. The sound of static on the other lines was his only answer.
"Frak, men they are jamming our communications and we will be separated from the other squads.
"Sir, we got what looks like fifty or more of these droids headed our way!"
"Move forward, meltas in the center of the formation, we are too make it too the bridge before the other groups to open a way in for them and the Sisters sent with us. Move out!"
They ran down the corridor and past several rooms holding droids in storage.
Running towards them from down the hallway was a armsman from another squad, he was screaming and bleeding from a large slash on the arm.
"They're coming, run!" He screamed as he sprinted towards them.
"What's coming soldier?"
He slipped on something wet and came skidding to a stop at the front ranks of the armsmen squad.
"They came out of holes in the ceiling in a great swarm, I saw men dragged under a tide of machines and cut to pieces. They were like mechanical Tyranids."
A skittering sound on the corridor marked the approaching swarm.
"Quickly armsmen into here!" A voice said from their right. They saw a door open on wall and one of the Sisters of Battle beckoning them in.
They rushed in and the door closed behind them.
"Those droids will pass soon enough and we'll strike at the bridge."
"Don't be so sure sergeant, take a look around you."
He did and saw the destroyed forms of various battle droids scattered around the room where the Sisters had cut them down. Most didn't look like they had put up a fight except for the large grey droid which outwardly resembled a Super battle droid except for its large claws and spiked shoulders.
One of its clawed hands was sunk straight through a Sister having cut through her armor with is claw and punching out the back.
"What is that?"
"One of the bronze droids called it a grapple droid, but none of our briefings say anything about it."
One of the Armsmen had taken a position next to the door his lasgun raised to shoot at the first thing that came through it.
"Get more men at that door."
"If the droids know we are in here you don't have enough men to hold them off sergeant."
"I beg your pardon sister but I was ordered to terminate the droid in command of this vessel and until I do so every single soul on the planet below us is in danger of being subjugated by these abominations."
She was about to respond but a shaking interrupted her.
The lights in the room flashed red and the felt the battleship lurch forward.
"Quickly armsmen now is your chance to strike down these foul machines that threaten our Holy Emperor's Imperium!" The Sister superior shouted.
She rushed through the door followed by the other eight members of the squad behind her.
"Follow her men what are you waiting for!"
The charged out of the storage room and headed for the bridge the Sisters in front of them.
They ran down the corridors any attempt at stealth abandoned. They past numerous side corridors and many more storage rooms but ignored them all.
In roughly six minutes they had crossed the kilometer separating them from the general area of the bridge.
Panting the sergeant and the armsmen slowed. The Sisters forged ahead leaving the guardsmen behind.
"Smell that?" asked one of the other armsmen.
"What?"
"Smells like burning flesh sir."
From every direction the stamp of metal feet could be heard, as if those words had called every droid in the vessel towards them.
From behind them a group of Super Battle droids equipped with flamers marched forward taking up the entire corridor.
"Get to the Sisters, men!"
The armsmen ran backward firing lasguns into the horde of droids advancing behind them.
The sounds of bolter fire and explosions marked the way as the Sisters battled their way through the droids.
A bolt struck the sergeant's back, absorbed by the carapace chest plate he wore but sent him lurching forward.
They rounded a corner and he turned to see several of his troopers cut down by blaster fire before they rounded the corner. A jet of fire forced him to away from the opening.
The Sisters were priming melta bombs for placement on the doors to a section of the ship. Next to them were a group of armsmen one with a grenade launcher ready for the droids.
"Quickly to us, we must face the droids together!"
The first of the droids were rounding the corner firing pointblank into the gathered Imperials.
Several of the Sisters who were not equipped with melta bombs were adding their bolter fire to the storm of lasgun fire that erupted from the assembled armsmen.
Several of the B2s went down internal explosions from the bolt shells tearing them apart, while others were cut down by massed lasgun fire.
The mass of droids walked over their dead and kept coming, it seemed that for everyone killed two more stepped up its place. The smaller battle droids crumpled easily enough however, they were carrying grenades.
"Quickly men into the side corridors!" One of the Sisters shouted gesturing to the sides which were covered by other squads respectively.
A blast punched a hole straight through the doors of the battleship's bridge.
"Storm them!" He shouted, giving his chain sword a rev.
The droids now surged forward, and from within their ranks, they saw ripples and heard the sounds of metal bodies being slammed into metal walls. Bursting through the front ranks a group of grapple droids sprang forth. The Sisters recoiled backward as one of them leaped upon her, its claws outstretched to impale her on them.
Raising her bolter she unloaded into the droid, catching it the chest and riddling the droid with both surface detonations and internal ones as well. There was a great cloud of smoke in the hole and that's when they emerged.
A trio of Destroyer droids appeared out of the smoke, shields deployed and blasters blazing.
A metallic voice could be heard shouting over the sounds of battle.
One of the grapple droids was run through by the power sword wielded by the sister superior as it attempted to impale her. It wrenched an arm around and clubbed her to the side tearing her sword from her hand.
One of the Armsmen next to him was gunned down by a destroyer droid, and another was flung into a wall with a gaping hole in his chest by one of the B2 sergeants.
They were being surrounded, the sisters and men with the heavier weapons holding the line, while the droids hemmed them in from all side. One of the regular B2s was walking towards him, its armor withstanding the fire from two men with lasguns and was only helped by their trembling hands causing several shots to go wild.
"Stand fast defenders of the Imperium, the Emperor wrath will sweep these unholy abominations from our sight!"
She was standing with one foot on top the hulk of the grapple droid using her bolt pistol to gun down the various droids advancing towards her.
The B2 slammed a steel fist into his chest plate, sending him tripping backwards, as it fired a wrist rocket at one of the armsmen firing their lasguns at it.
The massive battle shook violently and many of the men and droids had to stop fighting to maintain their balance, as the impacts from the Imperial weapons began to shake the vessel.
The lights above them flickered off and were replaced with red flashing ones and blaring klaxons.
One of the destroyer droids skidded into a wall and shortly afterwards its shield malfunctioned and failed leaving a glowing patch where it had tried to vaporize the wall.
One of the armsmen shot it with his lasgun, and while due to its armored plating it had been difficult to harm the droid did seem to take damage from it. The droid turned its attention to the trooper and shot a hail of blaster fire from its dual cannons, burning holes in his flak armor and killing him instantly.
The B2 fired another burst into his face, killing the sergeant instantly.
It in turn was dropped as multiple bolter shells riddled it blasting its torso.
The sister superior was looking into each hallway, rapidly shooting down the advancing droids and shouting commands to the surviving sisters and armsmen as they fell around her.
One of the sliver chested droids stepped forward; this was one of those who possessed a large cannon on its right arm and a red dot on its chest.
She raised her bolt pistol to smite it, but as she pulled the trigger the gun clicked empty, and the droid raised its gun to blast her, the red glow in its barrel was a sign of its intent.
She dropped the pistol and slammed her power sword through its armor plating, and out its back.
The droid paused its remaining processors struggling to control is mechanical body after that violent impact. It swung the cannon arm around and bludgeoned her with it, discharging a large laser bolt in the process. She stood firm and withdrew the sword in one fluid move and bisected the droid. It collapsed to the ground and she whirled around and cut several of the smaller frail bronze droids in half.
"Take that one down!"
The droids moving down the hallway started converging on her, she ducked under the fist of a B2 and felt her armor growing hot from the heat of the droids blasts.
She felt a sharp electrical shock to her back and turned around to find one of the oddest looking droids she had seen to date, this one was very humanoid and was moving to strike her exposed face.
She parried with the power sword expecting it to cleave straight through the staff, but found it only left a shallow cut in the metal and bounced off, almost like a normal sword.
It brought down its staff down with a down stroke intended to smash her skull, and it would have as the machine was capable of matching her power enhanced strength. She swung at it attempting to sever one of the arms from its shoulder, and felt the strike of its weapon into her side.
Her armor mostly dissipated the shock but the physical force from the blow sent her blow off course, burying it into the floor.
The Magna Guard kicked her in the side and she went to the ground, hard.
It was bringing its staff down on her, when one of her sisters slashed it from behind with her chain sword. The droid stopped and turned to face her, twirling its electrostaff in an attempt to block any further attacks from the sister.
The one whom the droid had knocked to her feet rose almost instantly, her power sword ready to block the droid's weapon. It whirled around twirling its electrostaff, it was fighting both of them, blocking both strikes from the power sword and chain sword.
The battleship started shaking again, and once again the melee halted as shaking sent several of the combatants to their knees. One of the super battle droids collapsed on top of the sister superior, grabbing her and pinning her under it.
The Sisters however maintained their stance throughout the ordeal, they drew together and started firing on the destroyer droids, attempting to overwhelm their shields with bolter fire and a flamer.
The Magna Guard was the first to recover and once again raised its electrostaff, this time the purple glow at the end crackling with energy far more intensely than normal.
"The age of flesh is over, the machine will claim you." It said as it delivered the death blow to the sister superior, bringing the staff down onto her head with enough force to shatter her skull.
The rest of the sisters leveled their bolters at it and with cry, started firing.
Several of the droids that were rising to their feet around the Magna Guard were struck by the hail of bolt shells and exploded.
The two remaining destroyers started firing at the Adepta soroitias and while the first several hits did not penetrate their armor, they set several of the cloaks ablaze.
The Armsmen rose alongside the droids and the firefight outside the bridge resumed, with causalities mounting on all sides.
"Project a ray shield in front of the hole in the bridge," the cold metallic voice of HK-217 rang out and soon a flickering energy field appeared in the hole.
He turned his attention back to the battle at hand, the Lunar class cruiser was leaking atmosphere and the Confederate would soon lose its shields. They had lost two frigates to enemy gunfire, however when the enemy attempted to engage a group at long range, they were decimated by the super heavy turbo lasers mounted on their fore.
A flight of torpedoes from one of the light cruisers detonated on the shields of the Star Hammer.
"Sir, our shields are at thirty percent and failing, we have only thirty minutes until they are breached."
"How are the other ships faring?" asked HK-217.
"Two of the frigates have been destroyed and three have suffered damage to their hulls."
"Sir, the enemy cruiser has lost its shields!" said one of the OOM droids excitedly.
"Launch the B2s from our hangars; have them board the enemy vessel."
From the view screen HK-217 observed the droids swarming out of the hangar towards the Lunar class cruiser, where they would attempt to capture the vessel through holes shot by the turbo lasers of the Star Hammer's batteries.
Blasts from the Lunar cruiser struck the Star Hammer's shield and seem to waver for a second as they seemed to register that their shields had been dropped.
The hull of the ship was strong and its adamantium armor withstood blasts from the heavy guns and quad turbo lasers. Until one of the Munificent's super heavy turbo lasers shattered a hole twenty meters across in its armor.
The super battle droids who had been launched by the Star Hammer rocketed towards it, closing the gap as fast as their rocket packs would allow.
A stray macro cannon shell tore through one of the edges of the cloud of droids.
A tactic that had been utilized by the Secession to disable a Lunar class cruiser in the past was used once again as a squadron of Vulture Droids launched their torpedoes into the open wound in the ship's armor.
Buzz droids by the hundreds swarmed inside it, cutting and sawing at the internal systems of the ship to clear a path for the larger B2s to enter through.
"HK-217 this is M167, I have defeated the intruders in this section of the ship however, approximately two hundred are still fighting in pockets throughout the ship, whatever hyperspace jump you preformed got these troops onto the ship."
"Understood, were any prisoners acquired?"
"Yes, six of the Armsmen surrendered once the rest were subdued and one of Sisters of Battle I knocked unconscious."
"Efficient as usual, send them to the holding cells for information extraction. How many droids were expended?"
"Six Hundred, eighty three."
Turning his attention back to the battle HK saw the first ranks of the Super Battle Droid swarm touch down on the surface of the cruiser. They magnetized their feet and strode inwards.
"Establish a comms channel with the droid leading the operation."
"Roger roger."
"This is HK-217 to B88827, your orders are to assault the bridge of the ship, kill any officers you come across with the exception of the bridge staff, capture them and extract them in escape pods, launch them away from the battle, towards the orbital docks."
The deep voice of a B2-HA responded, "Understood."
Closing the comms channel he directed his attention back to the battle.
"Disable the enemy weapons systems, priority on the lance batteries on the dorsal ridge of the ship."
Two frigate were stationed behind the Star Hammer at roughly a light minute out and were firing their super heavy turbo lasers at the Lunar class's weapons batteries. One blast from those cannons was sufficient to blast through the shields of a Grade Three battle station and having their firepower turned onto the admirably resilient armor of an Imperial ship was devastating.
A blast tore through a lance turret and disabled yet another weapons system from the ship's ability to respond.
A nearby Imperial frigate exploded, after sustaining an hour long bombardment from a pair of Munificents that were covering each other, while they took shots from immense range.
A pair of frigates sped towards the Star Hammer, unloading laser fire from their batteries as they did. The Star Hammer occupied with its assault on the now crippled cruiser reacted slowly and only a fraction of its firepower was brought to bear.
An explosion rocked the Star Hammer as a nearby Munificent was spilt in two by a Sword frigate's prow.
"Commander, if we take any more lost ships, we will not be able to fight a third fleet!" Said one of the OOM droids in a panic.
"Cut off the assault on the cruiser, we have caused it sufficient damage, target the frigates."
The two battleships disengaged from the Lunar class cruiser, which still maintained a weak barrage into both and turned the full force of their batteries on the frigates, though that was a relative term as these dwarfed republic star destroyers.
A full barrage from the Star Hammer turned on a sword frigate was crippling, it was at the end of a pass and was getting ready for another run, when several hundred turbolasers unleashed their firepower onto its plasma engines.
The ship halted and faltered, its armor there was weaker than at the front and sides, and gave way under the barrage smashing it's engines and sending it spiraling out of control.
A squadron of vulture droids chased down one of the remaining fury class interceptors past the view port of the Star Hammer, a massive amount of laser shots streaking past it.
"I predict a eighty percent chance of victory." HK-217 mused as he watched the destruction unfold in front of him.
