Incoming Press Report, Zero Light Years Away (Escuardo System Network Relay, Union Controlled).

[ERROR—ERROR—ERROR—ERROR—ERROR—ERROR—ERROR—COMM RESTART—FAILED—IDENTIFIED EW JAMMING—NO TRANSMISSION].

- SYS NETWORK SERVICE

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Escuardo System

ISS Jukebox

“Focus fire on that bastard!” I ordered as we closed in on their rightmost flank. Immediately, their two frigates burned forward, attempting to check our advance as their frontline vanguard, and at five thousand kilometers, railgun slugs from both sides opened up in exchanging volleys. Naturally, our ships did their best to dodge it, and so did they, but our target acquisition software (especially Juliett’s) was beyond superior.

We barely even had to raise our shields, all while they did, placing pressure on their reactors.

“Copy that, opening fire on identified hostile Tango Four,” already, our networks were interconnected in a “fleetnet” established by Juliett’s ship. Our sensors all worked in tandem at identifying and relaying the positions of the hostiles ahead of us, all of them marked by different code names. Our volleys converged at the identified “Tango Four”, utterly obliterating whatever shields it had, placing it in an immediate reactor shutdown.

“Juliett! Do your thing, now!” And with that, Juliett’s Particle Lance opened up, and a high-intensity purple beam was generated from the turret that housed it, almost illuminating the battlefield as it did. The enemy ship didn’t fare well, as it was sliced cleanly through, its hull splitting into two burning wrecks as its reactor detonated.”Beautiful!”

ISS Der Narr destroyed!

“Well…I’ll be damned. Her ship is just surprise after surprise,” Harold remarked over the fleet’s comms. “Hehe, seems like these bastards will finally meet their match today.”

“I’ll make sure of that,” Juliett replied. “I’ll make them pay for their crimes.”

“I definitely wouldn’t mind slicing that Forlorn-Class and Lord Preussen with it,” I laughed. “But let’s not get distracted. Push forward! They’re already trying to surround us. Hostile ballistics incoming below us!”

Immediately, we executed further evasive maneuvers, foiling their attempted attacks on the soft underbellies of our ships. I watched as the ISS Der Vaug actually executed a high-G maneuver, rolling to their port side, allowing their upper-mounted turrets to engage their frigates and destroyers that were attempting to fire at us.

“Keep those bastards suppressed!” I ordered, pulling the Jukebox in front of the fleet, the ISS Der Vaug, and the VSS Shine trailing behind my corvette as we charged in a triangular formation. The Radiant began firing its spinal mounted coilguns, slugging further slugs of tungsten straight at their almost packed formations. Their cruisers, which already started firing at us, were forced to raise their shields.

Seems like they’re going to meet my charge. Another one of their Puncher-Class Destroyers swerved in straight to meet us in a counter-charge, and naturally, we had to commence firing back at them. “SYS! Get those Tandem Light Coilguns up and running, calculate for solutions, and put those shields down!”

“Acknowledged.” The Jukebox’s shields finally raised itself as we closed in. Two railgun slugs slammed straight on our shields just in the exact time as it was raising, raising the reactor heat capacity up to fourteen percent. But on my two flanks, the ISS Der Vaug and the VSS Shine supported me. The Der Vaug’s railgun turrets were working overdrive, as multiple missile launches from its side pods synchronized with the Jukebox’s second and third volley at one of their destroyers, forcing the shields of the Puncher-Class down.

Immediately, it pulled back, as purple superheated gasses were vented out, all while the nearby Bungaloo-Class Frigate beside it tried its best to cover it. But I was having none of it. The Der Vaug’s missiles placed pressure on the Bungaloo-Class that attempted to support its buddy, which pinned it reasonably enough for me to get the perfect opening.

Let’s try out that damned Sub-Lance.

“SYS! Synchronize with the VSS Shine. I want two lances slicing that hostile.”

“Photon Sub-Lance power is at a hundred. VSS Shine has acquired the target. Firing.”

Both from the Jukebox and the Shine, two blue beams from our hulls appeared on the battlefield, converging straight into the face of the Puncher-Class that was just about to re-raise its shields. The hot beams from the lances utterly melted the armor and hull of the thing, but it only took a few moments before its shields were fully raised, preventing us from doing any further damage when our attack run dissipated.

But that didn’t deter me, as their ship was already badly disabled, with molten slices venting out atmosphere as the ship limped back desperately to their main lines. “ISS Der Vaug, this is the Jukebox.”

“This is Captain Kincaid. We almost had them,” he replied. I was really starting to respect this “former” pirate, especially when he had supported us well. “I’m firing more railgun slugs at its face, then we can punch through.”

“I’d be charging the Jukebox forward,” I said. “Try to swipe them with the Jukebox’s Photon Sub Lance. The VSS Shine will be supporting my charge fully.”

“Alright, we’ll cover you.”

“Thanks, Captain Kincaid. Out.” I continued ordering SYS to keep the pressure on the enemy Puncher-Class, slowly whittling down on its hull as the VSS Shine launched two fast missiles at the bastard. It was so fast, and its exhaust burned violet, that it must have been another one of Juliett’s unknown technologies, but when it slammed on it, the shields were immediately lowered.

“Fire the Photon Sub Lance again!”

“Firing.”

The beams from the Shine’s Photon Lance and from the Jukebox’s Photon Sub Lance once again converged on that ship, slicing through the almost soft, exposed hull as it did in two directions. The enemy ship tried to resist, turning its hull around to present its still intact armor, or in a vain attempt to angle it, but regardless, our lances burned through it within a few seconds, completely toasting it and causing further damage inside the hull before they managed to raise their shields again.

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“Resume coilgun pressure, SYS.”

But before our Tandem Light Coilguns could fire once more, suddenly, two secondary explosions detonated from the interior of the enemy ship, and just as its final maneuvers from its remaining intact forward-facing auxiliary thrusters fired off, the ship’s lights and shields completely turned off.

ISS Der Kongress disabled!

“Move forward, put down that Bungaloo-Class. Let’s not let them reinforce this hole.” I ordered, and our entire battleline plugged through that gap, as the Bungaloo-Class that found itself in front of the crossfire tried to retreat in vain, its PD systems going haywire at trying to stop the barrages of missiles coming from the Rearguard, Electra, and Amperes.

By the time the frigate’s shields went down, two torpedoes from the Electra slammed straight to its armor platings, creating massive gaping holes in its bows. Then a salvo of railgun slugs from the Rearguard fully silenced it.

ISS Kluck disabled!

“Juliett!” I called out, watching as they converged on us on the battle map. We were pushing hard on their right flank, but their other ships were now responding by forming up on our left side, their slugs already slamming on the shields of the Rearguard, Amperes, and Radiant, driving up their reactor heat capacities in a slow but persistent manner. “Get the Electra and the Luminance up above our battle line. Those Bungaloo-Classes are burning up above us for an attack run straight at our heads!”

“I’m ordering them to move,” she replied before she continued. “Jonathan, their Vanguard-Class is moving fast in an interception against our push. I think we should stop applying pressure on their Forlorn-Class and focus on that ship.”

And indeed, their faster light cruiser, alongside two of their Gallant-Classes was moving straight in front of us, their thrusters burning red as their turrets fired at us with wanton abandon. Already, the Jukebox could feel the pressure they were placing on our line, as I had to keep my eye on the controls to change our heading almost every split-second to dodge the incoming slugs that were being flung in our direction.

“We’re gonna have to intercept their burn,” Harold said over the comms. Immediately, the Rearguard slid next to my ship, and we were burning forward side by side. A brief memory of mine came into my view, back in our days in Loran. A wild chase from a competing criminal syndicate…our two vehicles driving side by side as they kept shooting us with their guns.

I grinned. “Right. You do the railgun pressure on that Gallant-Class. I’ll deal with finishing it off.”

We closed in at nearly two thousand kilometers of distance and began firing at the bastards as they tried to cut us off. We began firing off our ballistic weaponry, the Jukebox’s coilguns, and the Rearguard’s railguns, launching ferric tungsten slugs at their shields every eight seconds as we moved forward. Naturally, they didn’t just sit and take our beating without a response, and they hit us with their own slugs as we tried to dodge it.

“Reactor heat capacity at fifty percent! Falling back from the combat zone is advised!” SYS said, already alarmed. Fortunately, I had already installed improved insulations on the Jukebox during the refits at Lucynthia, so while I could still feel some heat from the ship’s overheating reactors, the CIC wasn’t being turned into a burning sauna.

“Negative, SYS. Keep at it, we’re not backing off until we absolutely have to. Continue supplying power to the shields and the weapon mounts.”

“Acknowledged.”

In the far distance, Juliett’s Electra and Luminance engaged the enemy Bungaloo-Classes in a knife-fighting slugging match, preventing their assault run that could have threatened us. But they were being fired at from below by the enemy’s Forlorn-Class Cruiser. The enemy Bungaloo-Classes weren’t standing up well to Juliett’s drone frigates, but they had some support.

I realized the blunder. “Juliett, I think you should pull back your drone ships to our main line. Those frigates are already going to be retreating. The Electra and the Luminance are overextended.”

“I already am,” Juliett said. “But they can’t just turn around with their cruiser raining down hell on them. They’re engaging their forward-facing thrusters, but I don’t think that’s going to give them enough speed for a hasty retreat.”

“Captain Kincaid, go, support her drone ships. Peel off from our attack run. Juliett, move the Radiant to put pressure on that flagship of theirs again. We’re not losing your drone frigates to that cruiser.” A ping alerted me off from commanding the fleet, as we came almost face to face with the enemy Gallant-Class. They were focusing fire at the Rearguard, which gave me an opening to burn to their flanks as I turned the Jukebox’s bow in their direction, which meant that from their perspective, my ship was almost drifting into the void as it fired off its coilguns.

The Tandem Light Coilguns of my ship didn’t relent, with two slugs being fired every six seconds at this point. The shields of the enemy destroyer finally lowered itself, and my kinetics began blasting away at their exposed hull, but due to the low power state of the coilguns (since I wasn’t charging them fully) reduced its effectiveness, and we were barely chipping away at its armor.

But that didn’t bother me. “SYS, open up our Light Tornado Missile Pod. Fire pods one to four.”

“Missile pods one to four engaged. Firing. Missiles away.”

Eight Tornado missiles were launched from our left-mounted Light Tornado Missile Pod. Each of them sped straight to the Gallant-Class with the downed shields. Briefly, before it slammed onto their hull, the enemy ship reraised its shields in a last act of defiance, but I had already expected that and had fired a salvo from the Jukebox’s coilguns mere seconds before the missiles were launched, which ensured they would hit the enemy ship first. The coilgun slugs slammed on the enemy ship’s shields, knocking it down as its lights turned off, indicating a power outage from their reactor overheating.

The eight missiles slammed into it at extreme speeds, detonating if they didn’t penetrate outside (causing damage to the armor), or detonating inside if they did. The enemy ship didn’t fare well from those missile hits, its thrusters completely dying and placing it into an awkward spin of death, as I gave it the final deathblow.

“Fire off the Photon Sub Lance, SYS. Finish it.” And with that, the Jukebox’s beam of death sliced through the exposed hull and internal components of the enemy ship, and since it was spinning, it sliced through its bow, cutting the ship in two as more secondary explosions from its failing and exposed subsystems wrecked the ship.

ISS Der Harte destroyed!

Celebrations were muted, as I looked at the battle space. Juliett’s drone frigates were still attempting to retreat, still overextended. The Rearguard, Shine, and my ship, the Jukebox, were also just as overextended, now facing a Gallant-Class and a Vanguard-Class that was starting to shift their weapons straight into my shift, and the Radiant was distracted at trading blows with the enemy Forlorn-Class.

While we downed four of their smaller ships, this battle was certainly not going well for us. Not yet anyway.

“I should have expected this…”