Aoi System
Interdimensional Gate
The interdimensional gate, a megastructure build perhaps thousands of cycles before the collapse of the Human Domain gate system, is considered by the UAF their only way to establish one day a way back to their actual home dimension.
The massive ring was created with exotic materials that eluded their best scientists leading to the Federation building the Royal Automata Battle Group, an entire fleet of Neuko Androids that act as an autonomous hive tasked with exploring the Persean Sector in search of the needed materials and technologies to repair and reactivate the megastructure.
Being of great importance to the UAF, the Aurorans naturally tasked also a fleet to guard the gate from outside threats.
Problem being that today it wasn't a threat coming from outside of the gate but one from within it.
As to why the threat came from within, if the Aurorans had the same experience and sensor technology that the GTVA uses they would have been the first species in both dimensions to witness the creation of a subspace node. A subspace node so large even the Terrans and Vasudans had never encountered before.
Two subspace nodes and one subspace corridor.
A subspace corridor linking not just two Star Systems but two dimensions with one another.
A corridor that will not just change the fate of the UAF and the GTVA but the entire Persean Sector because the creators of the corridor are about to exit it.
Said creators being the Shivans.
The Shivans, a species named after the ancient Hinduism God Shiva, are considered by the Alliance a space-faring civilization that had existed for thousands if not perhaps for millions of years. The only evidence both the Terrans and Vasudans had for this claim are manuscripts left behind by a civilization that rose to galactic prominence and got wiped out by the Shivans eight thousand years ago.
The UAF and the Persean Sector as a whole had no idea what is coming their way.
As such the Fleet protecting the gate were the first to witness with their own eyes the opening of a subspace vortex.
Captain Douglas Cain CO of the Destroyer UAFS Trinity could only stare in wonder at the gigantic strange anomaly his Sensor Operator told him to have originated from subspace. Said wonder turned into confusion when more and more of these strange anomalies started to appear.
Upon the question as to how many of these strange vortexes have formed the Operator could only answer seven dozens.
Cain's confusion turned into insecurity.
And then he saw something that made his blood freeze.
Emerging from this weird vortex was something that terrified him to the very core. It was a massive "thing"colored black and red looking more like a creature with four giant arms and claws than an actual space ship.
SJ Sathanas 17, the monster that destroyed the GTVA Colossus, had emerged in the Aoi System right in front of the UAFS Trinity more than 6000 meters away.
The Trinity was unknowingly well within range of the Sathanas ultra-heavy beam cannons.
Unable to move or say a word, the Captain and his entire bridge Crew could only stare at the front of the large ship right as the thing started to slowly adjust itself towards them while charging up some sort of high powered energy weapon on its upper left claw.
Seeing the energy being accumulated on one of the massive claws the Captain finally snapped out of his trance like state.
"Raise the shields imeadatly!" screamed the UAF Officer out with haste and fear in his voice.
Barely in time the Trinity was able to raise its shield as the Shivan Juggernaut unloaded the massive red energy beam onto the Destroyer. At first the shield was able to hold the devastating strike, but than something happened ships in the Persean Sector suffered greatly.
Thanks to the collapse technologies in the Sector have stagnated or in some areas even regressed to a point that ships who use Matter/Anti Matter fuel as their life blood generate - by firing weapons and using shields to protect themselves from damage - heat which is simply called flux. Once a ship reaches a certain threshold of flux the ship overloads making the ship unable to fire most of its weapons and become helpless for several seconds.
Because of the UAF basing their technology off of Persean Ships their own ships naturally suffered the same problem.
Receiving massive hard flux by the powerful beam cannon the Destroyer overloaded. When the ships safety measures to vent the flux kicked in the shield simply deactivated itself leaving the Trinity completely at the mercy of the still ongoing beam.
The GTVA very well know that the Shivans either not care enough or do not understand the very concept of mercy.
At last it was a kind of mercy for Captain Douglas Cain and his entire Crew that they were simply vaporized in an instant when the beam simply gutted the Ship, breaching it's Reactor containment and igniting their antimatter fuel storage.
With a explosion bordering on the creation of miniature star for a split second the UAFS Trinity and her Crew will be recorded as the first casualties of the UAF to this unknown adversary.
Being witness to the direct hostile action the rest of the defense Fleet imeadatly opened fire while using their maneuver engines to get as fast away from the ship and the vortexes as possible. Turning tail and using emergency burn the Fleet saw it's best chance of survival to bail out and rejoin the Royal November Fleet stationed above New Auroria.
Perhaps this decision was the saving grace for the defense Fleet as from the vortexes sixty nine more Sathanas Class Juggernauts emerged.
YRNFS Solvernia VII
Admiral Solvernia could only stare with a feeling of dread at the cutoff video feed that once came from the very same Destroyer that just simply got vaporized.
At first she also was simply amazed when the massive vortex opened, but once that black and red "thing" larger than any ship she had ever seen before emerged her amazement turned into pure utter terror.
The size easily eclipses that of the YRNFS Solvernia VII, a ship this size should be, by her experience a logistical nightmare. Than there was its design, looking more like a creature with giant claws the thing screamed death.
A apex Predator among the stars.
Clearly Solvernia can see that whoever or whatever designed and built that thing was not Human.
Aliens?
A first contact scenario already gone south in under a minute.
"Ma'am! Multiple new contacts emerging from... ah... subspace!" shouted the Sensor Operator finally bringing the Admiral out of her thoughts.
"How many are there?" asked Solvernia with apprehension.
"Twen- Thirt- Fiv- sixty nine new Contacts, all bearing the same size and design of the Ship that destroyed the UAFS Trinity!" shouted the Operator in disbelief.
Solvernia felt like she had a deja-vu remembering the arrival of the AI controlled Ships that attacked their original Home World long before they got stuck in the Persean Sector.
Shaking her head to clear her mind, she knew that right now she needed to be fully invested in the here and now. Therefore she needed everything there is to know about these "ships".
"Sensors, I want detailed informations about these ships." ordered the Admiral.
"Long range sensors are giving us the following informations. These ships have a length of 5978 meters and have no indication of possessing shields. While lacking shields the ship uses armor made from unknown materials the likes of which I have never seen before. Then there is their weaponry, it looks like the bow facing Beam Weapon that destroyed the UAFS Trinity had a damage output at least in the... triple digits of Gigatons!?" replied the Operator shortly stopping and saying in disbelief the Beam weapons damage output.
Triple digits of Gigatons? Not even our Semibreves have this much power. Bet the other arms have the same type of weapon installed. A frontal engagement is a direct suicide mused the Admiral.
"The ships power output is out of our charts, from my readings the ship has no trace of matter/anti matter fuel but it has large quantities of Deuterium. If I point this out correctly their fusion rectors must be large, highly advanced and, please excuse my wording Ma'am, are simply out of this world." explained the Sensor Operator further.
Hearing that these ships used simply Deuterium and not antimatter, Solvernia could see that perhaps her first assumption that these ships must be a nightmare logistically was not fully true. Deuterium while being a ingredient for matter/anti matter fuel production can be mined relatively cheaply from gas giants and interstellar nebula.
Sometimes she really wished that Auroran ships would still use Deuterium like before they started to implement the technologies of the Persean Sector. M/AM Fuel is hard to produce and therefore very costly meaning a ship as large as the Solvernia VII would simply bankrupt the Auroran Economy the moment they leave Aoi and start flying around the sector thanks to the fuel and massive amount of supplies needed.
She also doesn't trust the whole M/AM fuel is "safe" saying, especially if said saying came from the morally and ethically bankrupt Human Domain.
The Comm Officer turned towards her.
"Ma'am, the Permaisuri is contacting us." said the Officer slowly.
Taking a deep breath Solvernia prepared herself to face her Queen with very bad news.
"Put her through."
Queen Aeria appeared on the bridge screen.
"Admiral, I come with important news, AER-1A has informed me that whatever is going on at the Gate could potentially be a Fleet using subspace as a form of FTL or even dimensional travel. AER-1A has recalled the UAFX Novaeria II, Empress and the Royal Automata Battle Group." informed the Queen with haste the Admiral.
Solvernia could only stare back at Aeria's face silently questioning why she, the Admiral in charge of protecting New Aurora was not informed by AER-1A ahead of time.
"Solvii, is something wrong?" asked Aeria concerned using Solvernia's nickname after not getting an answer out of her.
Hearing the nickname, something she clearly prefers to keep a secret from her own crew, Solvernia imeadatly answered back.
"My Queen, it appears that seventy unknown ships have entered the system right before your call. We already have lost one of our Destroyers to one of these ships. I'm sending the recording to you. These ships are sitting still now near the interdimensional gate."
Aeria could only stare back before turning her head slightly to the side probably watching the recording she had just received. Solvernia could see that Aeria first had the same reaction like her at the beginning of the video until the massive warship emerged from subspace.
Slowly Aeria turned back towards the camera with a grim expression.
"While losing the UAFS Trinity is a tragedy, which pains me greatly, I order you Admiral to hail the unknown ships and send a first contact massage. Hopefully we can turn the situation around before anymore of our people's lives will be lost." ordered her Queen with resolve in her eyes that she is most famous for.
"Understood, my Queen." replied Solvernia knowing full well that if push comes to shove with these aliens they have a high chance of losing everything they hold dear to their hearts.
While Solvernia has no doubt that her own ship has at least a chance of taking on one of these ships, there are sixty nine others that will definitely not just sit around and watch.
"Communications, open all hailing frequencies and send a first contact massage on an open channel towards the entire unknown fleet." ordered Solvernia.
"Hailing frequencies are open and first contact massage send, Admiral."
"This is Admiral Solvernia, CO of the Royal November Fleet Flagship YRNFS Solvernia VII, unknown fleet you have attacked one of our own ships. While we normally would see this transgression as hostile intentions, we hopefully can come to terms that will prevent anymore bloodshed. We hope that you respond." said the Admiral hoping that here and now they can resolve this situation without the loss of more lives.
Now not just she, but her entire civilization are awaiting the response of these clearly alien ships. What will these beings look like, asked the Admiral herself.
Seconds turned into Minutes.
She waited and waited but no response came back.
Finally after waiting for several painstakingly minutes the Comm Officer turned around from their station towards her.
"We are receiving a data package with a video file via tight-beam communication, Ma'am."
"Is it usable and secure?" asked the Admiral the Officer.
"Yes, it appears to be usable and no dangerous algorithms have been detected by the ships cyber warfare systems." countered the Officer after checking the content of the received data package.
"Send a copy to the Permaisuri and on the screen with it." replied Solvernia, being slightly surprised that they were even able to directly use a data package coming from an alien civilization.
As the video started playing Solvernia's surprise turned into confusion as the very first thing the video showed was clearly a human. This human was wearing a very simplistic button-less gray military tunic with gray pants, a black belt, black military boots and a gray peaked officer cap. The words Terran were displayed below the human before the human simply disappeared from the screen and got replaced by something that she clearly could call an alien being.
Solvernia could only stare at the screen eyes wide and her mouth slightly opened.
The being was bipedal with two arms and five fingers per hand, two eyes and a mouth like the Human first shown and that's where all similarities ended. The being was much larger and wider than the Human, had long digitigrade legs with only two large toes at their feet, brown mottled skin and it's body was skeletal-looking. It's head was also much larger and elongated than the Human before. Add also the fact that the being was wearing absolutely no clothing, not that there was anything to look at with the alien clearly not being a mammalian. Below the alien the words Vasudan appeared.
Finally snapping out of her staring Solvernia raised an eyebrow. Humans calling themselves Terrans? And this Vasudan species looks kinda creepy with their skeletal-looking bodies she thought.
The video changed, showing now the Terran and Vasudan standing on each side of the screen with the words Galactic Terran Alliance being displayed below the Terran and below the Vasudan stood the words Galactic Vasudan Empire.
"Galactic..." breathed Queen Aeria slowly out watching the video as well while still being on the Comm line and imagining all the Paperwork this would mean.
The words below both species started to change to their respective acronym GTA and GVE. Right after that the Terran and Vasudan where replaced by something Solvernia believed to be their representing species military coat of arms. With the Terran one being two half circles one silver, bending downward and aligned horizontal while the other was gold, vertical and bending to the right with what appears to be the half of a golden star being placed in the inner curvature.
The coat of arms of these Vasudans was different as it was mostly silver and having a symbol or alien glyph as background. The only thing that Solvernia and also Aeria were able to understand was at the center of the symbol. As it appeared the center piece of the glyph was actually a planet with two large twin continents.
Now something interesting happened as both symbols started to merge in the center of the screen taking elements of both the Terran and Vasudan coat of arms. The Vasudan coat of arms turned into an mirrored on its side lying silver S and the Terran coat of arms turned into three golden vertical lines with the center piece being the longest and the other two respectively curving slightly outwards. The symbol representing the Terrans got enclosed by the symbol representing the Vasudans. Under this new combined coat of arms the words Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance with the acronym GTVA appeared.
"An actual galactic alliance of not just one but two different species united under a single banner, this is very interesting." spoke Aeria slightly in awe, being the visionary dreamer that she is.
Solvernia on the other hand was terrified believing that these massive seventy ships that just entered Aoi were part of this so called GTVA.
Thankfully for Solvernia the ongoing video will calm her nerves as the screen changed to an actual GTVA Battle Group flying in formation.
The ships that the video displayed where a mix of two clearly different designs. One could see that the Terran ships were colored grey and green with soft curves but still having an rather industrial feel to them. On the other hand Vasudan ships were a brownish golden color with sharp curves and gave of a feeling as if an actual artist designed a piece of art which was outfitted with armaments and armor. On how she was able to know which species designed which ship the video showed names like GTD Aquitaine and GVD Psamtik above the respective ship.
There were also several smaller ships following both Terran and Vasudan designs. She could imagine that they most likely acted as escorts of the larger ships.
Solvernia studied both ship designs, her experience, enhanced eyesight and keen knowledge telling her that this Galactic Terran Dreadnought Aquitaine was clearly a heavily armed and armored super carrier. She can easily see this with the ship being outfitted with five massive dual cannon turrets and several green emitters with the most dominant one being the large one placed directly in the bow. Than there was the amount of over a hundred and fifty Fighters and Bombers flying in formation with their mother ship. Meanwhile the Galactic Vasudan Dreadnought Psamtik looked more like a first line ship with an aggressive, back-swept prow and a gleaming palace superstructure all heavily armored and covered in weapons. It of course also had a sizable Fighter and Bomber compliment following after it.
What followed after that where several clips showing the GTVA ships engaging ships that were red and black. These ships had the exact same color scheme and designs partly resembling the very warships that had entered the Aoi System.
A quick check told Solvernia that the ships haven't moved and are still holding the same position near the interdimensional gate.
From the footage it was clear to see that the GTVA employed a mixture of powerful long range energy beam cannons both for anti capital ship duty and as an anti Fighter/Bomber and Torpedo defense. They also use several calibers of laser turrets. To complement their anti Fighter and Bomber defenses they deploy small, medium and large flak batteries that turned the space around their ships into a literal wall of explosive shrapnel, a Pilots worst nightmare. It appeared that these flak batteries were powerful enough to do even damage against larger ships. Allied ships also fired a variety of different kinds of missiles.
Solvernia could see that the GTA Ships fired green beams while their GVE counter part fired yellow-golden beams. The beams against Fighters, Bombers and Torpedoes where colored blue on both the GTA and GVE Ships. One thing was very intriguing as she was able to see that some of these beam weapons actually slashed across enemy ship hulls taking out multiple weapon emplacements in a single shot.
But what truly showed the strength of the GTVA was their Fighter and Bomber Wings with several different designs being present, their Fighters either fighting off enemy Fighters and Bombers or taking out enemy capital ship weapons and systems with long range primary weapons and missile strikes while their Bombers were taking out the capital ships themselves via the usage of high powered torpedoes.
If the Terrans and Vasudans are truly both two galactic entities in their own dimension, together their industrial capabilities should be immense. What type of weapons and ships could they have build that are not shown here wondered the Admiral.
Solvernia looked at the clips, she can see from the movement of the camera that all these new video clips where definitely combat footage from a Fighter. A very maneuverable and fast Fighter, perhaps a Space superiority Fighter or an high-performance Interceptor outfitted with four energy weapons. From what she can see the armaments should be pulse cannons and two types of different missiles.
"Communications, where did the tight-beam data package came from?" asked Solvernia not taking her eyes from the view screen where she could see the Fighter engaging and destroying several Wings of the unknown Fighters and Bombers. From the footage she was able to see that both the recording Fighter and the enemy Fighters and Bombers actually had Shields which compared to Persean Sector Shields are surrounding the vessels based on quadrants.
A Front, Left, Right and Rear Shield for each side.
"It appears that the tight-beam communication came from the underside of one of the unknown-" tried the Communication Officer to explain only to get interrupted by the Sensor Officer.
"Ma'am! One of these subspace vortexes has just opened on our port side 400 meters away!" shouted the Officer.
Solvernia's attention imeadatly snapped away from the video feed over to the Sensor Operator.
"On the screen now!" ordered the Admiral fearing the worst.
The bridge screen switched to a part of space where a comparatively small vortex had opened and a grey 17 meter long Fighter simply appeared from it, right in the middle of the Royal November Fleet.
Putting two and two together Solvernia came to the conclusion that this Fighter has to be the origin of the data package they had been watching up till now.
Then she noticed that the Solvernia VII and the rest of the Fleet were starting to turn their flak guns towards the Fighter.
Imeadatly the Admiral gave the order to her Crew and the rest of the Fleet to not open fire.
Receiving the confirmation, Solvernia breathed out a sign of relief and being grateful that all her subordinates are professionals and not trigger happy psychopaths.
Almost another first contact going south.
With this crisis averted she turned her attention towards the Fighter.
The Fighters design definitely was not part of the unknown fleet with it's color being mainly gray with yellow and red markings. Solvernia can see that the Ship was made up of three main parts. There was the sleek, elongated and lightly curved main body of the Fighter with a black opaque Cockpit located towards the front, a slanted backwards sensor array sticking directly below the Cockpit out of the vessels underside and a single tail fin placed on top at the back. She also could see some sort of docking port at the top between the Cockpit and the tail fin. On both sides in the rear area of the main body where two large aerodynamic engine pods attached. The pods were not just housing the propulsion but also the missile banks and primary weapon hard points of the Fighter. Attached to these engine pods where also a pair of lightly backwards swept wings whose tips are bent upwards. Looking at the overall design the Admiral got the impression that the Ship just like all UAF Fighters was designed to operate in atmosphere as well.
"Admiral, we are receiving transponder signals identifying the Fighter as GTF Perseus, GTVA 3rd Fleet GTD Aquitaine, 70th Blue Lions Squadron, Call Sign Alpha 1. GTVA Fighter is holding its position." informed the Sensor Operator her.
"We are being hailed by this Alpha 1, Ma'am." informed the Communication Officer Solvernia.
Giving a simple nod towards the Operator, Solvernia couldn't wait to finally get some much needed answers.
On the screen in front of her appeared a greenish video feed showing the GTVA Pilot. Solvernia could only see the upper body of the Human with the camera being situated in the left-hand side of the Cockpit. From what she was able to see this Alpha 1 was wearing a rather bulky flight suit with a thick helmet that had an integrated re-breather mask. The helmets black opaque visor was pulled downwards making it impossible to see the Pilots face.
"This is Lieutenant Commander Wolf, Fighter Pilot from the GTVA 3rd Fleet Flagship Galactic Terran Destroyer Aquitaine, Squadron Leader of the 70th Blue Lions, Call Sign Alpha 1. I greet you in not just the Name of the GTA but also of the GVE. It is also good to be around other humans after Capella, even if the situation we are in right now is sub optimal. While I have many questions, they can wait for later, if there is going to be a later that is." spoke the Terran, his voice sounding tired and hoarse.
Solvernia raised an eyebrow after hearing that the, by her thought, GTD Aquitaine and probably GVD Psamtik are classified by the Terrans and Vasudans as Destroyers and not a Dreadnoughts.
"Lt. Commander, this is Admiral Solvernia from the United Aurora Federation, CO of the Royal November Fleet. There are a lot of questions that I would like you to answer me. But first things first, can you tell us who or what these massive ships are?" asked Solvernia.
"We call them Shivan Juggernauts of the Sathanas Class. Originally the Shivans had eighty one of these Sathanas, but we were able to destroy the first one we encountered and the other ten got blown up as a result of them turning the main Sun of the Capella Binary System into an artificial Supernova-" the Terran stopped talking before a coughing fit overtook him. When he stopped coughing he took several deep breaths.
"Is something wrong, Lt. Commander Wolf?" asked Solvernia waiting for the Man to continue, while for her the idea of someone turning a Star into a Supernova sounded ridiculous she had to remember herself that the Human Domain was able to deploy a weapon that can kill an entire planet. So perhaps destroying Stars isn't so impossible. And there where originally eighty one of these ships!
"I normally don't like to talk much, but you will need to hear what I have to say. I'm not feeling rather well. The last couple of days... were hectic to say the least. All the constant attacks on our civilian settlements and evacuation transports have been very taxing." replied the Terran back before he continued.
"So anyway. The Shivan race is by us considered to be a threat to all sentient live in the galaxy. Trying to talk to them is useless as they don't communicate like us Terrans and Vasudans do via speech. We believe that they see us simply as pests or insects they can exterminate without a second thought whenever we get in their way. You should better activate all your planetary defenses as their Bombers have a habit of attacking planetary settlements. Talking of this, I will send you my ships on board database entries on Shivan vessels so you can recognize what their Fighters and Bombers are. Fighters have the acronym SF while Bombers have SB." finished Wolf urgently before starting the upload.
"Ma'am, receiving data. No dangerous algorithms detected, shall we implement it?" asked the Communication Officer.
"Do it, any information we can get about these Shivans will be instrumental. Send it to the rest of our Fleet, the Permaisuri and AER-1A on Lunamun." countered Solvernia.
"This is Queen Aeria to the Lt. Commander, I speak in the name of the Auroran people. We are grateful for these informations and thank you for them. I only can imagine what you and your people have gone through and sincerely hope that you where successful in the evacuation of your civilians. You said these Shivans have destroyed this Capella Star. Can you tell us how they accomplished that?" asked Aeria having heard over the com-link the entire conversation. She was understanding now that these Shivans must be such a massive threat, that it lead to two completely different species coming together and forming an Alliance.
An Alliance to ensure the continued existence of both their civilizations in an uncaring and vast cosmos.
"Queen Aeria? You must be this "Permaisuri" from the first contact massage I received before. To answer your question the entire Sathanas Fleet of eighty ships basically surrounded the Main Star of Capella and used their arms to emit some sort of subspace anomaly. I am not an expert when it comes to that so I'm sadly not able to give you any further explanations." answered Wolf back sounding even more hoarse than before.
"Ma'am, the energy readings of these Santhanas ships are raising exponential!" called out the Sensor Officer.
"They must be charging up their Subspace drives." informed the Lt. Commander them.
As one the Sathanas Fleet opened seventy subspace vortexes before being pulled into them leaving the Gate behind. The only evidence they had been ever there before was the floating debris from the UAFS Trinity.
Performing an inter-system jump the Fleet split into two groups of thirty five ships each and re-entered real space in two empty parts of the Aoi System far enough away so that their position wasn't in the elliptical path of any of the Systems Planets. Shortly after that the ships opened their Hanger Bays starting their remaining Fighter and Bomber Wings.
Around three thousand two hundred and twenty four Fighters and Bombers exited their Homes before spreading out like an angry swarm of bees.
"Shaiwen Juggernaut ships have separated into two groups and are scrambling their Fighters and Bombers, what the... three thousand two hundred and twenty four new contacts!" shouted the Sensor Operator in disbelief at the amount of deployed craft.
"Before anyone asks, I really have no idea what the Sathanas Ships themselves are up to now. But you better get your defensive systems online pronto cause their Fighters and Bombers will definitely swarm us soon!" called the GTVA Officer out knowing full well that while the Santhanas Fleet itself follows some not explainable directive their Fighters and Bombers on the other hand will attack anything they come across.
"Understood. My Queen, how's the ETA on the UAFX Novaeria II, Empress and the Royal Automata Battle Group. We will definitely need every Fighter we can get." acknowledge Solvernia before asking Aeria about the whereabouts of their reinforcements.
"AER-1A just told me that they will be here in one hour. I will alert our defensive forces and civilians to make sure that they are taking shelter. Lt. Commander Wolf would it perhaps be possible to call in help from the GTVA?" asked Aeria after having informed Solvernia about the whereabouts of their own reinforcements.
"I honestly don't know. Normally if the Shivans are involved and or innocent lives are at stake in general we would gladly help according to the Beta Aquilae Convention or BETAC for short. But the last information I got, from the Briefing before we started our mission in Capella, was that they wanted to completely seal off Capella by destroying the subspace corridor leading towards the Vega System. Even if they didn't do that whatever is left of the Capella System would be too radioactive to move crewed ships through." answered Wolf back while adjusting something in his Cockpit.
"It was worth a try. I have to go now. I wish you good luck out there, Warrior Princess." informed Aeria before cutting the com-link.
And here was the other nickname she honestly tries to keep a secret. Solvernia saw her bridge Crew stare at her and she could swear that the Terran on the feed stopped whatever he was doing and was staring also directly back at her.
"Ignore that, that's an order!" shouted Solvernia with heated up cheeks, overlooking the fact that the Terran was not her subordinate.
Imeadatly her crew replied with an Ma'am, Yes Ma'am. That left the GTVA Pilot, which Solvernia was now glaring at.
Thinking about his options the Pilot choose:
"I don't know what you are meaning. What am I supposed to ignore, Ma'am." replied Wolf only back knowing that he should not get on the bad side of an Admiral. His best chance to survive and return one day home was to make good relations with these Aurorans.
Solvernia breathed a sign before trying to change the subject.
"What types of weapons are best suited to fight off and destroy Shivan Fighters and Bombers?" asked Solvernia their "newly acquired expert" when it comes to these Shivans.
"Flak, AAAF Beams, energy pulse cannons and swarm, aspect seeking or fuzzy logic missiles. Shivan particle shields are highly resilient against kinetic weapons. I heard a Great War Veteran once say in the Vega Flight Academy that shooting kinetics against them makes you feel like you are just throwing wet toilet paper at them. Most Shivan Fighters and Bombers have strong Shields but weak hulls." replied the Terran back while checking again the status of his Fighter.
Solvernia could only grimace at this information knowing full well about the UAFs heavy reliance on kinetic Weapons. But perhaps there was one thing that could turn the tide.
"What about nukes." asked Solvernia hopefully.
The Terran turned towards the camera.
"You guys are still using these... firecrackers? I guess when you aim for the thickest group of Fighters and Bombers you could do some serious damage, but... nukes of all things? Like for real?" replied Wolf back, surprised since the last time he heard about nukes being used was in school during a history lesson on the early-mid 20th century.
"Sure, we Aurorans pride ourselves on our Semibreves and Minibreves." explained the Admiral with pride of her People's accomplishments.
Wait, thought Solvernia, when he calls nuclear weapons "firecrackers" than what has the GTVA as weapons for WMDs?
"Admiral, my Fighter sensors are picking up subspace signatures, Shivan configuration. They are here." called out Wolf.
Just as the Lt. Commander has finished speaking twenty subspace vortexes opened 5000 meters away from the Royal November Fleet.
Solvernia looked at the small group made up mainly of Fighters. She thought it to be weird that they not simply swarm them like the Lt. Commander had said. Then she realized it.
These are scouts, to see and test what capabilities her Fleet has.
"Scramble Fighters imeadatly and mark the Lt. Commander's Fighter as friendly unit! Have our Fleet form a defensive formation with the Solvernia VII and our Super Carriers at the center!"
GTF Perseus
Lt. Commander Wolf also known simply as Alpha 1 stared at the group of twenty Shivan Fighters.
His HUD marked the Shivan Fighters as eight SF Mara, eight SF Basilisk and four SF Astaroth. Out of all these Fighters only the SF Astaroth could become a problem with them being the Shivans equivalent to an Interceptor. The rest where simply to slow to keep pace with his Fighters speed and maneuverability.
Easy prey.
His right Hand was holding the Fighter control stick in a strong grip. Perhaps a little too strong. His pointer finger ready and itching to unleash the four deadly GTW UD-8 Kayser, a weapon great at taking out enemy shields and hull armor.
His left Hand holding onto the Fighter accelerator handle ready to blast towards the Shivans.
His Feet were placed on top of the pedals that controlled his Fighters micro adjustment propulsion engines.
He could feel his body start to produce adrenaline in preparation for what is to come. The stress hormones pushed his feelings of sleepiness, hunger and thirst to the background. His perception heightened.
Right now he seriously couldn't care less what the Aurorans are going to do. All he now needs to know is when these Shivans get into his weapon range.
He was ready.
No more talking.
It's Time.
Pushing the accelerator handle forward, the powerful - by Nankam Aeronautical designed and produced - engines pushed his Fighter forward directly towards the small strike force the Shivans have dispatched.
He could see Admiral Solvernia trying to say something but right now he simply doesn't want to talk anymore.
All he wants to do is to make the Shivans, these five-armed freaks, realize that you can't just run around the galaxy blowing up Planets and Stars as you please without consequences.
Cutting the com-link, the Terran Pilot started to close the distance with his adversaries.
4000 meters remaining.
This is what he had been training for the last four years.
3000 meters remaining.
He could remember all the faces and names of Pilots from Squadrons he had once been a part of and that got wiped out during the second Shivan incursion. He remembered the GTVA Colossus valiantly holding the line and being destroyed so that the GTD Bastion could accomplish its given task.
2000 meters remaining.
The Shivan Fighters noticed him. They turned his way and started to directly approach his Fighter. The four SF Astaroth leading the charge because of their higher speed compared to the rest of the strike force. Being faster than the rest they started to put distance between themselves and the rest of their strike force. The Terran shifted energy from other Shield quadrants towards the front quadrant. The Shivans - perhaps - superiority complex is playing right into his hands.
1000 meters remaining.
This is for Capella, the 30000 Terran and Vasudan crew members of the GTVA Colossus and all his dead friends he was able to make since being stationed not just on the GTD Aquitaine but also the GVD Psamtik and GVD Memphis.
This is for a Grandfather he never was able to meet, thanks to the SD Lucifer destroying the GTD Galatea during the Great War.
This is for the 70th Blue Lions Squadron.
Reaching firing range, Wolf targeted the leading SF Astaroth before pressing down the firing button.
A fast firing salvo of twelve focused waves of subatomic particles in the color of red quickly impacted the leading Fighter. The impact caused the wave function of the particles to collapse and emit extremely intense, zero-point energy micro bursts which ripped the - for Shivan standards rather weak - front shields of the Astaroth apart leaving the Fighter at the mercy of the rest of the salvo. The Astaroth rather frail Hull couldn't withstand the remaining eight projectiles.
The Fighter got pushed out of its original trajectory before succumbing to its wounds exploding shortly after.
Without batting an eye Wolf immediately targeted the next one, this time receiving return fire. He had anticipated this.
When Nankam Aeronautical designed and built the GTF Perseus they didn't just gave the vessel the highest top speed of any Terran designed Fighter and comparatively good maneuverability, they gave it - for an Interceptor - relative strong shields and good hull armor. While still classified as an high performance Interceptor, the Perseus is considered by most Pilots that had the pleasure of flying it a Multi-role combatant that can easily fill the role of a Space superiority and Medium Assault Fighter. With all of these factors the GTF Perseus has shown its mettle not just during the NTF Rebellion but also the second Shivan incursion becoming the top of the line mainstay in the GTVA Fighter arsenal for years to come. Perhaps they will make one day also a Mark II variant just like the GTF Hercules had received.
Firing another salvo, the second SF Astaroth became quickly another expanding debris cloud.
The last two remaining SF Astaroth shot past him.
Turning in an Immelmann maneuver around the Fighter Pilot targeted this time the rear of the closest Shivan Fighter dispatching it just as easily as the two others before it.
The last enemy tried to turn but was simply too slow to maneuver, the only thing this SF Astaroth was able to intercept was another salvo from the deadly primary weapons of the GTF Perseus.
Having dispatched the largest threats, Wolf imeadatly turned towards the rest of the Shivan Strike Force.
The SF Mara while very agile is way too slow to keep up.
The SF Basilisk being a Heavy Assault Fighter designed to fight larger vessels, was even slower and unable to maneuver fast enough to pose much of a threat.
And so the GTVA Pilot went to work dispatching the slow Fighters with an ease bordering on a massacre. Not like the Shivan race after destroying Vasuda Prime the Vasudan Homeworld, almost destroying Earth and blowing up the Capella System with millions of inhabitants deserved any kind of mercy from the Terran.
Having accomplished his task and satisfying his thirst for revenge - for now - the GTVA Pilot simply engaged his subspace drive, jumping back near the YRNFS Solvernia VII and in the middle of the Royal November Fleet.
As he exited the vortex and stopped his engines, Wolf could see that the Fleet had in the meantime scrambled their Fighter complement, looking at them the GTVA Pilot raised an an unseen eyebrow.
The Terran was clearly surprised that these Aurorans use for their Fighter designs several designs he swore he had last seen in an history book about Jet Fighters of all things from the late 20th and early 21st century back from Earth.
Interesting choice for designs thought the Terran and hoped that the Fighters had energy weapons.
A quick scan revealed that this sadly wasn't the case, even worse some don't have energy Shields.
And now he also noticed that he was being hailed by the Solvernia VII since his short and for him rather uneventful excursion against the - by his standards - laughable small Shivan Strike Force.
"I hate talking." mouthed the Terran annoyed in his mother tongue.
While not liking to talk, he was an military Officer, meaning that he has to do things he doesn't like to do.
Therefore he accepted the hail and saw a very angry Admiral glaring back at him.
YRNFS Solvernia VII
Admiral Solvernia Auroria was livid, having watched the GTVA Fighter Pilot simply ignoring her and cutting the com-link when he shot off towards the Shivan Strike Force.
OK, it was kinda impressive of a single Fighter taking out twenty enemies, but that wasn't the point!
The GTVA Officer is now more important than anyone - except Queen Aeria of course - else since his presence and especially his Fighter could give them the opportunity to not just get a gleam at technologies that could revolutionize their own ships armaments and protection, hell perhaps even FTL capabilities and they would be able to get in contact with the rest of the GTVA.
Wasting such an opportunity is the main reason she was angry and cutting her off was definitely not the reason that Solvernia was trying to convince herself.
"Ah, Lt. Commander Wolf, you know if you would have been one of my subordinates I would have personally dragged your ass to the next court martial! What where you thinking putting your life in such an dangerous environment against twenty enemy Fighters?" asked no demanded Solvernia in a rather fear inspiring voice.
"I saw their Strike Groups line up and saw no direct threat for me and my Fighter. I know of Shivan behavior and that they prefer to dictate the engagement on their own terms. Put them on the defensive and they crumble quickly. Honestly I did you Aurorans a favor. After I have now seen that most of your Fighters are lacking Shields and using kinetic weapons the following massacre would have not been the Shivans but your Fighter Pilots." replied the GTVA Officer simply back not one bit unsettled.
Solvernia squinted her eyes at Wolf.
She knew that the Pilot perhaps was telling the truth and perhaps he saved also the lives of several UAF Fighter Pilots with this stupid stunt of his.
Taking a deep breath to calm down Solvernia swore to herself that she will someday somehow get back in someway at the Pilot for this affront.
"Ma'am my Sensors are receiving strange subspace readings coming from both Santhanas Groups." called the Sensor Officer uncertain out, being a little spooked from having heard his CO talk in such a way.
"Are these perhaps the same readings that we received before the seventy massive alien killer warships have appeared in the Aoi System?" asked Solvernia simply back just being done with anything that involves subspace especially a certain Fighter Pilot.
"Yes. Ma'am how do you know?" asked the Operator back.
Solvernia simply glared back at the Operator.
"Admiral Solvernia? My Fighters sensors are not strong enough to be able to get what your Destroyers sensors are picking up. Can you please send me these readings, perhaps my on board systems can figure out what is going on? " asked the Terran Pilot having over the feed heard about the whereabouts of the Sathanas Fleet.
Breathing a sign in annoyance Solvernia gave the allowance for sending the readings.
Wolf stared at the readout, he may not be a scientist on board of an GTSC Faustus class science vessel - as old and outdated these things are - but if these readouts are right, than the Sathanas ships are clearly manipulating the subspace continuum creating from the looks of it a subspace node and corresponding corridor to an perhaps nearby star system.
Hold on does that mean that the Shivans are the original creators of the subspace network?
"It appears that the Santhanas Fleet is creating two subspace nodes and the corresponding corridors to two Star Systems unknown, the implications this holds to the GTVA are immense." informed the GTVA Pilot over the feed the bridge crew and Solvernia.
"Subspace. Subspace. Subspace, what's so important about subspace anyway. I bet it isn't as good as Hyperspace travel." asked Solvernia still annoyed.
"In simple terms, subspace is an n-dimensional tunnel between one point in the universe and another. A vessel can travel through this tunnel in a matter of minutes, making a journey that might otherwise take decades or even centuries at light speed. But it is rather restrictive since you need a subspace node and corridor to leave a Star System." answered the Pilot back.
Now this piqued Solvernia's interest. A FTL drive that is able to simply jump from one side of the galaxy to the other, this could clearly not just be great for military but civilian uses as well. Even when it is more restrictive than Hyperspace FTL.
"And how does this subspace drives even work?" asked the Admiral.
"A jump drive causes a ship to vibrate in multiple dimensions until its modulations are in perfect synchronization with the subspace continuum. A vortex opens, creating an aperture from an infinitesimally small point in the cosmos, enabling the vessel to cross the subspace threshold." replied the Pilot feeling his throat getting worse.
Solvernia heard the explanation before actually breaking out in laughter.
"Wait, are you saying that you guys are basically flying giant vibrators through space?!" laughed Solvernia, trying and failing to act professional after hearing the GTVA method of space travel.
"Giant, powerful and deadly vibrators." countered the Terran barely able to make each word.
Calming herself down Solvernia noticed the Terran Pilot was barely able to speak.
"Lt. Commander Wolf, it would be in the UAFs and also your best interests that you land in the Solvernia VII Hangar. Since our fighters have been scrambled there should be enough space for your Fighter to land. We will have a Doctor on standby to check on you." informed the Admiral now in a better mood than before.
"What about the Shivan Fighters and Bombers. They can attack us any second?" asked the Terran back.
"Port. Side. Hangar. Land. Now. The UAF are not some damsels in distress that need everyone's help constantly." countered the Admiral sharply.
Without a single word the GTF Perseus started to approach said Hangar.