Chapter 97: Shooting Stars.
Jack Mason strode onto the bridge of the GMF and found his beloved wife Tik eleth waiting for him dressed in her full battle armour complete with weaponry.
"Spectre has called in and confirmed they are ready on their end my love," she said as she saw him approaching.
"Anything from the Dark Angel and Star Stalker teams yet?" he asked and she nodded.
"Dark Angel teams one and two confirm their charges are planted and ready, we're just waiting on Star Stalker teams one and two, as well as Royal Sword, packs one and two to check in," she said and Jack nodded.
'Six relays and six teams, a hell of a lot to get away with right under our enemy's nose, lets hope this all goes smoothly," he said and Tik eleth nodded.
Rather than waste time on trying to set up integrated teams based on people who had never really worked together the joint council had decided that it would be a better idea to send place their teams under the command of Clan Mason as they had far more experience with this kind of thing than the other two species combined.
So while the teams still answered to their respective governments, for the sake of this operation they were taking orders directly from Clan command.
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"This Clan stealth tech really is something else!" Vessra exclaimed as she and her sisters used their zero-G manuverability packs which had been recently upgraded thanks to Clan Mason to float along under the glowing shield that covered the entire planet.
It was like looking at a ball wrapped inside of an even bigger ball even when one was so close to it that you could positively reach out and touch it.
"Focus Vessra we cannot let the team down and we cannot afford mistakes due to distractions we have to prove that we are worthy of our place in this alliance and that we are every bit as dedicated to it as they are!" Cemmil said in a chastising voice as she glanced back at her pride sister.
Vessra felt her feathers bristle against the tight undersuit that she was wearing underneath her assault armour.
Their science prides had made incredible strides with these protective suits thanks to aid and technology provided to them by Clan Mason and the results were truly incredible.
For the first time in their history, the Surface Stalkers were not only a match for pretty much anything on their planet's surface but now in the stars around it as well which had given birth to an entirely new unit, the Star Stalkers.
With the Raptorian people not only venturing further out of their system but entering into this partnership with the Clan and their sister species the Serpentinus the newly appointed Governing Pride and the military Command Prides thought it was wise to up their game.
So this had given birth to an entirely new unit taken from the best of the very best of the Surface Stalkers.
Highly decorated veteran Surface Stalker units were offered the chance to become Star Stalkers and those that accepted the position were transferred to Raptoria's newly established orbital defence platforms which doubled as space stations.
There with the help of Clan Mason advisors, they were trained in everything from Zero g combat to boarding spaceships and dealing with their crew.
it had taken months but finally, these teams who despite being highly secure were ready to go and now finally they had this monumental chance to prove themselves to both the Alliance but also to their own Government because they knew there was going to be a hell of a lot of eyes upon them here.
Just like the Clan Mason Dark Angel teams who were specialised combat units made up entirely of Xenos from the War Angel hive Vessra and her Pride had hitched a lift through the shield itself on the hull of a drop ship on its way down to the planet.
Once inside of the shield they had detached themselves and had deployed their Zero G manoeuvrability systems which allowed them to fly around in a vacuum using a series of ionic thrusters to create thrust.
Vessra glanced up above her head and looked at the planet which was both above her thanks to her orientation and below her thanks to her altitude above its surface and swallowed hard, it seriously was a long way down from here.
"Yeah I got this, I was just commenting on how useful these cloaking systems are is all," she said defensively as she and her sisters flew silently towards their first target following a preset path along the inside of the shield.
"Look I'm not having a go at you sister, i just want this to go off without a hitch, a lot is riding on it and if we pull this off not only will it prove to everyone that the Star Stalkers can hold our own but it will mean we'll get to be among the first teams deployed to the ground and you know what that means," Cemmil said.
"Yeah, we get to be on the ground with all of those pretty Clan Mason boys running around all unprided and handsome," Taska another of their sisters said.
"Ha bloody ha, will you get your mind out of the gutter for five minutes!?" Cemmil said in frustration.
"Oh come on like you weren't thinking it too!" Taska protested.
"I was thinking that the fact that when this fight really gets going it will be our pride which will be stood right there with our allies on the front lines raising the flag for Raptoria and all Raptorians!" Cemmil said in annoyance.
"Heads up ladies we're approaching our first target," Jex called from her position at the point of their arrowhead formation.
The team swiftly manoeuvred themselves closer together and switched on their zoom functions to scan the large relay node they were going to be landing upon.
"Looks clear, I'm not getting any thermal signatures or signs of life down there," Vessra said as she flicked through the visual modes of her mask.
"Heads up all the same, for all, we know these bugs could have fucking tame mimics so we take no chances," Cemmil said and with a silent hand gesture, she pointed down and gestured for the pride to split up and come in from all sides to land on the large relay node.
As Vessra touched down she activated her magnetic claws which allowed her to stick to the metal surface, these had also been upgraded by Clan Mason spider technology which had been developed by the Xenos of their science hive and given that Xenos could walk on all surfaces they really were the experts when it came to this kinda stuff.
Vessa felt her stomach lurch a bit as her brain tried to trick itself into believing that she was on truly solid ground again and not hanging upside down on a floating metal platform thousands of miles in space.
The team had split into three groups of two and right next to her was Cemmil who nodded at her and gestured for her to move up while scanning the area with her modified rifle.
This new generation of firearms they were now using really was something else, they were based on the Clan Mason Railgun design but had been stripped down and modified to make them easier for a Raptorian to handle.
Instead of the bulky rails and large capacitors, these models used a smaller and much more compact coilgun design which actually still used a barrel which was tightly wrapped with a series of electromagnetic coils which could propel a slug down it at high velocity but it could also still handle standard ballistic fire if something closer and quieter was needed.
The benefit of this system was the capacitors were all located in the rear of the weapon giving it a bullpup design and thanks to a duel magazine system it allowed to switch between the Tungsten slugs used in the coilgun mode and the much lighter ballistic slugs used when firing the weapon with the liquid propellant which had also now been refined for use in a vacuum.
The team advanced in pairs along the curved metal surface towards what the scouts had identified as their target which was an oblong-shaped hatch built into the side of the large relay.
With every step she took Vessra could feel the throbbing of the electronics hard at work maintaining the shield it was an integral part of and she could see the emitters constantly shifting their positions around her to keep the grid stable.
Fortunetly none of them were walking along the tracks the emitters used to reorinate and move along the hull though it still made her jump when one of the large conical emitters shot past her left side silently, space seriously was disconcerting sometimes.
The team surrounded the hatch and as they did the majority of them turned around to face outwards with their weapons in the aim, this allowed Yeppie who was their pride's tech expert to begin her job of cracking into the relay and getting that hatch open without being detected which took longer than any of them would have liked.
But finally, she managed it and there was a rumble under their feet causing them all to glance back just in time to see the large panel retracting into the hull.
"Alright girls let's get the first charge planted while I plot the course to the second target, Vessra you check in with control," Cemmil said and Vessra nodded and pressed her comms toggle.
"Star Stalker one three to control I repeat Star Stalker one three to control come back over," she said.
A slightly crackly voice came through her suit's internal speakers in response.
"Go ahead Star Stalker one three what is your status over?" the voice which blatantly belonged to a human male by the accent.
"The first package is being delivered and will be moving to secondary target momentarily over," she said.
"Roger that Star Stalker one three keep us in the loop, control over and out," the comms officer replied and Vessra gave Cemmil a thumbs up to indicate the message received and understood.
"Charge is set lets move out," Yeppie said clambering out of the patience area and back onto the hull.
"Alright girls that's one down one to go let's get this done," Cemmil said and with that, the group kicked off the hull and began their flight towards their second target.
In the distance, Vessra could see the Dark Angel team after her IFF system picked them out against the blackness of space which was a good job because she'd have had no fucking chance of spotting them otherwise.
It appeared that the Dark Angel teams were heading for the exit which meant that they had already completed their job boy those Xenos seriously did not fuck about.
"Looks like the Dark Angels are already done," Vessa said pointing off into space and Cemmil glanced where she was pointing only to see the two Dark Angel teams flying in formation backtwards the shield entrance.
"I'm not surprised, they got a hell of a lot more experience doing this kinda stuff than we do," she said with a hint of bitterness in her voice and Vessra glanced at her sister, she could positively feel the need to prove herself and her pride washing off her sister.
"Don't worry Cemmil we're every bit as good as those girls, we'll show the whole alliance what we Star Stalkers can do and think of it like this, yeah you are right they do have a lot more experience doing this kinda stuff than we do so the fact that we managed to pull this off on our first try say more about us than them now doesn't it?" Vessra said trying to cheer her pride sister up and it seemed to work.
She positively saw the flash in Cemmil's bright violet eyes through the face plate of her mask and she nodded her head.
"You're right Vessra! Let's show everyone what we Star Stalkers are fucking made of!" she exclaimed and with that, the team made their final approach to their second node.
As they landed on the hull the team were already weapons up and ready, they scanned the flat metal surface and just like before they moved in teams of two from different directions towards the hatch.
Vessra couldn't help but think about how much easier the Xenos of the Dark Angel teams had this kinda thing given how easily they could move across any surface, hell their long segmented limbs were designed perfectly for it and despite being on all fours they lost none of their lethal potential thanks to things like their tails.
But as she glanced around at her sisters framed against a backdrop of stars that floated in an endless ocean of black fighting for a people that were not their own, she could not feel more proud of them than she did of them at that very moment, infact she decided to use her mask's photo mode to take a snapshot of this scene as to her it perfectly captured exactly who and what the Star Stalkers were all about even if the image was a little fuzzed due to them all being cloaked.
Once Yeppie popped out of the hatch and gave a thumbs up Vessra put her call in to command who commended them on a job well done and told them to return to their Runner so they could link up with the other teams.
So once again the girls took to the stars and began their flight back to the gateway, as they did Vessa looked down at the planet far below them and she found herself wondering if the people of this world would embrace them and their efforts like those of Clan Mason?
As they reached the gateway they had to hold and wait for the glimmering green barrier to be dropped for a ship to pass through it so that they could escape but once they were clear they rapidly began their flight back towards their cloaked Runner which was currently hiding in the shadow of one of the large Moth-like carrier ships.
As she looked around at the size of the fleet surrounding the planet it was impossible for her not to feel nervous, even with their mighty Dreadnaughts, this fleet dwarfed their own at least ten to one, these were some seriously steep odds and she could only hope that this plan worked.
As they entered the airlock and it repressurised the pride stood in a tight circle in the centre of the room all holding arms, it was kind of their tradition before going on a mission and after returning from one, it was their way of silently giving thanks to the Great Tree for protecting them after they returned and praying for the shielding of her divine branches before they went.
As the light flicked from red to green the internal door opened and they found the two Dark Angel teams waiting for them beyond it.
"Excellent work out there girls, how are you feeling?" one of the Xenos a large female by the name of Sixxer Longfang said.
"Feeling good, think we did alright, no hitches and no contacts," Vessa said as she lowered her mask into her armour.
"Those are always the best kind, you made awesome time considering there was only one team of you girls, we've only been back a few minutes ourselves so pretty damn impressive work," another of the Xenos this one a large male called Zerval Widetail said.
"Many hands make light and short work, it's the mentality of every Raptorian pride," Cemmil said lowering her own helmet and shaking out her feathers.
Vessa couldn't help being a little bit envious of how thick and luscious her sister's feathers always looked, they were also so vibrant that they were often mistaken for those of a male's at first glance.
The Dark Angels all hissed and chuckled while nodding.
"You lot would do well in a hive," Zerval said with a wide grin on both of his mouths.
"We'll take that as a compliment," Yeppie said with a happy bristle of her feathers and a wide smile of her own.
"Heads up the Royal Sword packs are on their way in," the pilot called back to them and the three teams turned to look at the airlock expectantly.
The Royal Sword packs were each headed by a Ghost Slitherer that had trained under Clan Mason's Seekers and just like the Star Stalkers had trained with Clan advisers.
The addition of a Ghost Slitherer gave them a distinct tactical advantage over the others due to having a Dream Warrior in their number but despite this addition and the fact that there were two teams of them, it seemed that the single Star Stalkers pride had beaten their sisters back.
A fact that was not lost on Cemmil by the smile that now rested on her face.
Vessa clapped her sister on the shoulder and gave her a knowing smile.
"Told you," she said and Cemmil nodded.
"You did and I thank you for setting me straight sister," she said bowing her head to touch her snout to her sister's in a sign of familial love and respect.
As the two Royal Sword packs slithered into the meeting area they gave greetings to their opposite numbers of the other teams.
They were wearing specially modified armour that like their own had been developed in conjunction with their own scientists and Clan Mason's science hive and it showed.
It was jet black in colour and along the lower half from its stomach down to its tail tip, it had a magnetic set of omnidirectional rollers that would allow them to not only stick to a surface but to slither over it, even in zero-G.
"Now we're all here it's the Clan's turn and I seriously hope this plan of your Grand Patriarch's works," Vessa said and one of the Xenos clapped a large hand on her slender shoulder.
"Never doubt a hive queen little one, trust me on that," she said and with that, all of them took their seats for the ride back to the GMF for a debrief.
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"The sabotage teams just checked in Grand Patriarch and Matriarch, they confirmed their mission is accomplished and all the relays are primed," Zexxal Darkhide said lifting her head from her console and making her predlock charms jangle as she turned to towards the two Clan leaders.
"Excellent, they report any problems?" Jack Mason asked and Zexxal shook her large head.
"No Grand Patriarch, they confirm all went swimmingly," she said.
"Are the queens in place?" Tik eleth Mason asked.
"Three of the four are Grand Matriarch, we are just waiting on Queen Citrus and her king Yoshi to check in, my guess is King Yoshi is probably making last-minute adjustments," Zexxal said and Jack Mason chuckled and nodded.
"Yeah I wouldn't put it past him on the dawn of the Clan's largest military conflict to date to still be tinkering right up to the last second, well let us know when they check in and make sure you keep relaying all information to the alliance," he said and Zexxal saluted.
"Yes Grand Patriarch," she said.
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"Will you stop tinkering with that damn thing my love?" Citrus hissed softly before taking hold of Yoshi's hands in one of her massive hands and lifting his chin with the other.
The plethora of magnifying lenses strapped to his head made his beautiful human eyes appear as large as a set of hazel moons in his head and Citrus had to suppress both a chuckle of mirth and a hiss of want at the same time.
"I just wanted to make sure that this signal could be as strong as I can make it while making sure that there can be no feedback to you, my love," Yoshi said sounding a little guilty as if his fear for her safety would make her angry with him rather than love him even more than she already did.
"I learned a long time ago to trust in your work my heart's truest star, it was your belief in me and in us that made our glorious hive possible and now look at us, the parents of a hive of some of the best minds in the universe, I believe in you and our children my love, now it's your turn to believe in me, trust me when I say I can do this," she said softly.
"I do believe in you my love, I umm just wanted to protect you," Yoshi said softly and Citrus hissed softly, this human king of hers was truly adorable at times.
"Protecting is my job, my king, now let me do it," she said and he nodded before turning to Velat and Velam who were in the control centre of this incredible contraption.
"How are the readings?" he asked and the twins looked up from their consoles.
"Green across the board our king, we are reading a flat rise in both beta and alpha waves while the omega waves remain stable but once we flip that switch and our queen connects to her sisters that will soon change," the pair said together as was kinda their way, those two had been spending way too much time around the Raptorians in the hive.
The amplifier itself kinda looked like a 3D VR omnidirectional treadmill crossed with a full dive suit.
Citrus herself was standing on a large platform surrounded by a circular guard rail on all sides while wearing a very form-fitting suit that had a plethora of wires and plugs running off it, the only thing she wasn't currently wearing was the helmet for the rig.
"Contact the Clan and tell them we are as ready as we'll ever be over here," Yoshi said and Kasmar who was sitting in the pilot seat of the Runner saluted and nodded.
"At once my king," he said and began making the call to the GMF.
No sooner had he placed the call than they received a reply.
"Message from the Grand Matriarch my king and queen," Kasmar said.
"Well don't keep us in suspense, my son, what does she say?" Citrus asked.
"Bring the hammer down," Kasmar said and Citrus felt herself smile as she turned to her beloved king.
"Well my love let's not keep our Grand matriarch waiting, you know how testy she gets before a hunt," she said lifting down the large helmet from its stand and placing it on her head as her king scrambled up his step stool to help her secure it.
"Give 'em hell my beauty queen," he said softly giving her a tender kiss before closing the face plate.
Citrus was aware of the humming around her getting louder as the relays and the amplifier powered up getting ready to broadcast their psionic signal across the entire region, but for this to work she was going to need total concentration so she closed her mind off and shut out all of the external noise.
"Are you there my sisters?" she hissed into the darkness all around her.
"We're here, we've been waiting patiently for you sister," Aine's soft voice echoed through the darkness.
"We figured you we having a final tender moment with you kind so we did not wish to interrupt," Ink their newest member said softly.
"Indeed I was, he fusses so much over me, human sweetness knows no bounds, one of the many many reasons I adore him," Citrus replied as the ghostly images of her sisters appeared around her like shades in a haunted house.
"True indeed my beloved sister, it took much persuading for me to get my king to step back and even now I do not doubt that he paces around my booth," Zara said with a chuckle to her voice.
"So do we stand ready to truly begin this war sisters?" Citrus asked and the three other queens all nodded together.
"Let us strike the first true blow in this conflict sisters, together we will show these enslaving fucks the true power of the free Xenomorphs!" Ink said passionately and her sisters all shrieked and hissed together in agreement.
"Then on the count of three, one...two...three!!" Citrus said and together as one, they let loose the most powerful pisonic shriek that had ever been created.
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Despite having a psionic barrier up around his mind as all Seekers did, Jack Mason still felt the initial pulse of the united queens attack as it rolled over him like a wall of white noise that tried its hardest to seep its way into his consciousness.
"That's our cue, all hands this is the Grand Patriarch prepare to engage the enemy!!" he yelled into the comms sending the entirety of the GMF into a frenzy.
"Zaffa punch it!" Tik said to the Yautja pilot who with a simple nod of confirmation hit the throttles causing them to jump to hyperspace long enough to pop up right in the middle of the disrupted fleet.
The entirety of the alliance fleet had been spooled up and ready to make their jumps on the GMF's signal, so when Tik eleth gave the command the entirety of the sizable combat fleet jumped right into the heart of Velon space in the blink of an eye.
Leading up the assault were Clan Mason's Dreadnaughts, their job was to draw the majority of the fire from any defenders coposetic enough to engage them.
Behind them were a mixture of heavy cruisers and torpedo frigates which were even now fanning out to be able to provide a fire screen for the weaker and smaller craft among them, as well as to protect the priority targets like the carriers and assault carriers which were transporting troops and vehicles ready for the ground engagement.
Both the Raptorians and Serpentinus had their own ships intermixed into this formation as well, with both Raptorian cruisers and dropships filled with their new Star Stalker units and Surface Stalker units alike ready to drop to the surface.
The Serpentinus ships which to Jack's eyes actually kinda looked like giant flying snakes due to their long segmented hulls were acting more as close defence ships due to them having learned a hard lesson during the seige of their homeworld.
It seemed that Queen Celina had no intention of ever having one of her ships shot down ever again by just how many anti-torpedo, fighter and missile defences were peppered across the hulls of these things, so they were deployed throughout the fleet in a defensive capacity to intercept incoming fire.
"All alliance ships weapons free!!" Jack Mason said into the comms and instantly the GMF's mighty gun ports began to open all over the ship along with those of the other Dreadnaughts.
Bright plumes of flame spewed from the long tubular hulls of the torpedo frigates as well as from the frontal tubes of the heavy cruisers as they fired off their opening salvo of anti-ship torpedos.
But it appeared that despite having their neural network completely fried by the queens who were still acting in the capacity of a psionic air-raid siren screaming in their heads, the insects were not going to go down without a fight.
"Target that giant moth thing off our port bow!!" Tik eleth yelled and Jack looked up to see one of the giant moth-shaped carriers baring down on them and before the GMF's mighty guns could swivel into position to fire on it its abdomen seemed to split open disgorging what looked like oversized wasps into the vacuum of space.
"Fighters!! Grand Patriarch to all ships watch for close-range fire, deploy counter fighters!!" Jack yelled into the comms.
No sooner had the words left his lips than he saw streams of their own fighters being deployed from the large hangers in the belly of the massive Dreadnaught.
The shields suddenly lit up in a tremendous burst of colours as something large impacted them and dissipated its energy across the invisible bubble that surrounded the massive ship.
"Railgun and plasma fire inbound from multiple sources, shields are holding!!" weapons officer Yalet yelled as she quickly pin-pointed the sources that were firing on them.
Both Jack and Tik looked at their displays which were being fed from all the major stations of the ship to identify and target their assailents.
"Take a breath Yalet, this is what this ship is designed to do remember? She is the strongest and most well-armed ship in the entire CMN, it's our job to keep the rest of the Clan and its allies safe, we lead the way," Jack Mason said in a soft but confident voice allowing his confidence to leak into the hearts and minds over every officer on the bridge of the mighty ship.
"We are the shield behind which the innocent are saved!!" one of the Saviors currently sitting at the sensor and intel station yelled proudly.
"We are the sword by which evil is slain!!" one of Tik's Hunters who was manning one of the gun battery stations yelled.
"We are the eyes by which all will see the truth," Jack Mason said referring to the Seeker motto.
"We are the Clan Mason and we stand for all who cannot stand for themselves and we will stand this day and all days forwards!!" Tik eleth snarled proudly earning a loud battle roar shared by all on the bridge of the GMF.
Finally, the guns on the port side of the hull angled into the correct position and one after the other the gunners unleashed a full broadside of railgun fire at the giant moth carrier that was still spewing wasps into space.
In a vacuum, hypervelocity railgun rounds don't have any kind of resistance acting upon them like air, so the time from fire to impact on the target is so minuscule you'd have to be a Seeker like Jack Mason to be aware of it, but what you'd be aware of quite acutely is the devastation of those massive slugs dumping all of their energy into the thing they hit.
It seemed that the giant insect did indeed have some form of energy shielding protecting its outer hull but the sheer amount of fire from the guns that hit it all on one go overloaded it on their opening shot causing the insect to light up like a Freedom day tree momentarily as it tried in vain to absorb and dissipate the tremendous amount of energy created by well over a hundred tungsten slugs hitting it all at once.
The GMF gunners never even had the chance to reload for a second shot on the moth carrier as about two seconds after the initial impact of their slugs the creature was hit by a second salvo, this one fired from the GMF's sister ship, the Grand Patriarch's Justice.
This time there was no protective energy barrier to absorb all of that energy and the slugs blew clean through the outer carapace-like hull leaving Molton glowing holes in their wake as the tremendous kinetic energy turned the slugs into jets of molten metal which vaporised everything in its path.
The result was the side of the moth instantly turned into the top of a pepper pot with holes blown all along its side and even some of the wasp fighters which had been caught in the salvo we blown to smithereens which didn't even slow down the slugs that had impacted them.
Thick green ichor began to leak from all of the wound channels into the frozen vacuum of space, turning instantly into large green asteroids of frozen goo that floated away from the ship.
But it appeared that the moth wasn't done yet as it turned and opened a pair of odd-shaped mandibles at the front of what looked to be a mouth of some kind it fired a singular large glowing green ball at the GPJ.
"High-density plasma!!" Tik eleth yelled in alarm but it was too late, the large ball impacted the shields of the GPJ and thanks to the tremendous amount of energy the shot had held it overloaded them causing some of the heat to wash out over the black hull.
But thankfully the clever Xenos of the science hive had foreseen plasma being used as a weapon against the Clan and as a result they had lined the entire outer hulls of all their ships with a composite material made from graphite and other high-temperature resistant materials, this allowed the heat to dissipate and rendering the damage done minimal, though the GPJ was going to need a new coat of paint.
Before the moth could fully charge its second shot and even before Tik or Jack had to tell them to, the gunners of the GMF not only unleashed their second salvo on the wounded carrier but they specifically targeted some of the railguns onto this exposed weapon.
Some of the impacting rounds instantly slagged as they hit the super-heated and magnetically confined ball of gas, but others managed to slip past it and hit the super magnets that were compressing it, while others still managed to hit the plasma pipes feeding it.
The result was spectacular.
The ball that was contained in the creature's mandibles simply burst sending its oen plasma washing over its head, essentially cooking it like a lobster in a pot.
While this was happening the now ruptured plasma pipes ignited from the combined heat of the tungsten slugs tearing through them and the plasma washing over them, igniting the plasma streaming down them.
This sent bright green flames rushing first from the mandibles themselves and secondly right back up into the pipes before finally reaching the concealed tanks hidden in the thorax of the creature.
The resulting explosion blew the moth's head section clean off and tore its hull clean in two, exposing its entire insides to the vacuum of space.
This had the effect of sucking out the majority of the crew into the vacuum and for a split second giving the bridge crew of the GMF a perfect view inside one of the gargantuan insectoid creatures and it did indeed appear that they were alive just like their crew formally were.
Funnily enough exposure to extreme heat and vacuum are not exactly great for sensitive components like drive cores, so upon this happening the remainder of the ship simply exploded sending shrapnel of both the organic and inorganic type shooting out in every direction.
Thankfully the Clan Mason counter fighters had the good senses to clear the fuck out before the ship went nuclear but the same could not be said for the wasps that were in the process of trying to pursue them.
The result was most of the swarm that had been disgorged into space by the creature was caught in the blast destroying a great many and crippling others leaving them floating helplessly in space.
Jack Mason looked out through the bridge window across the battlefield of space around them to see similar engagements opening up across the entire field, between the Serpentinus and the Raptorians as well as their own ships as all got stuck into the fight now.
He turned to look at his beloved wife and he gave her a confident smile.
"One down fucking many left to go, my love," he said.
"This is going to be a good hunt my heart's star, so let's get pauking to it shall we?" she said and he nodded.
"You always know how to get a man hot under the collar my love, helmsman, all ahead full, let's show these fuckers who's come knocking on their door shall we?' he said.
"Aye aye Grand Patriarch!" Zaffa yelled and began to steer the mighty ship right into the heart of the battle where it belonged.