"Admiral? Hostile ground forces are routed and Horizon is moping up survivors." One of the comms officers said, looking up from their Vox Terminal.

Serano nodded, hands folded behind his back at the holo terminal, staring at the mountain before them.

The mountain in question had been partially hollowed out by hostile forces, and was being used as their primary command shelter…. Part of it was carved out and covered in chitin and metal, a massive hanger door that was armored. "Fire control, Enterprise?" The Admiral said, glancing over to the side at the officers avatar next to him, and his ships avatar before him. "Sir?" Asked his fire control officer.

"You see this mountain?"

"Yes, sir"

"I don't want to."

"Yes sir!"

Around him, the Enterprise rumbled, sounding like cannonfire in the distance, greatly amused, even as words appeared above the holotable "Ẃįťĥ płéà§ùŕê, Mÿ Ćápťäìñ."

/-------------------/

The Enterprise swung around in orbit, her massive cannons adjusting their orientation as the ship swung about, her bow aimed down towards the planet, permitting the most of her armament to be aimed downwards, towards the planet.

Massive barrels swung into position, even as a eerie hum sang around the vessel, her crews working, loading the magazines, others working with her to align each barrel with their target, adjusting for wind, thermal expansion, payload weights, gravity and more.

Around her, other vessels gave her a clear line of sight, many aligning to aim with her, prepping their own payloads, others aiming at other targets, smaller command centers that needed cleared out as well.

The barrels all stopped moving at once, and for a moment, there was nothing…..

And then there were bright flashes, almost like the ship was a small sun for a millisecond, the entire vessel actually being shoved backwards from the force of the blasts of every single one of her main cannons going off, capacitors whining as they charged up again, no longer releasing firing all at once but in a wave of metal rain, the farthest back cannons first, all the way up to the closest to the nose, in a ring of artillery fire, resulting in a stream of metal raining down on the planet, while the Impulse engines glowed brightly, pushing back against the force of the weapons firing.

Down on the planet below, the continent struck shook, as the mountain was blown apart piece by piece, bunker busting rounds detonating not only in the air, but specialized rounds imploded in the soil, yanking mass and air inwards for a split second, compacting it forcefully, before letting it go, flinging the soil and rock everywhere, boring into the mountain as solid metal rounds punched craters in, releasing liquid metal to be grabbed by other implosion rounds to use to help destroy the mountain.

The chitin and metal door collapsed in moments, HE, implosion, and metal pulverizing the vessels within, turning them to burning mush, destroying doors, sending superheated metal and gasses into the tunnels bored into the mountain, causing thralls to burst into flame, adding to the heat and panic within, as if the collapsing mountain around them wasn't enough of a worry, collapsing tunnels, shearing them up and down, throwing forces inside around before the tunnels and rooms were ripped into by ammunition, having tunneled into the occupied area manually.

The demons within never had a chance to escape. Even if they made it to escape tunnels, they found them collapsed, or exposed, being shelled out in addition to the lands around the mountain, molten slag, metal and burning biomass pouring down from the mountain itself, filling the surrounding craters, turning it into a lava moat, and preventing additional escape attempts overland.

Not that it would have worked.

The mountain itself wasn't small, either. Easily the size of the entire Himalaya mountain ranges combined, it was easily the highest point on the planet, though not in the galaxy. And the Enterprise was turning it into a massive crater, to ensure that none of the enemy commanders escaped, and succeeded, eliminating one of the oldest and most successful warmasters short of their own King, not that the ship knew that.

All they knew was that they had eliminated the primary command center on that world.

Across the planet, similar instances happened on a much smaller scale, fortifications cleared by Horizon, her disk section snarling through the air, scanning for prisoners, which her main section teleported and relayed to medical transports, while she marked which bases and fortifications were empty, racing past, using her speed to disorient enemy forces, leaving them easy targets for her sisters fleet to bombard, even as her own artillery sections took aim and lobbed down a few HE shells for good measure, picking off stragglers, using the disk section as the spotter.

The hostile forces tried to run, even as the snarling sound of the Horizon reached their ears, echoing, laughing as she raced overhead, sonic boom shaking them off their feet, destroying their cannonfodder, Turning their thralls to mush, blinding, deafening, even killing many from the boom, and then her main sections shells rained down on them, killing those who didn't die in the first pass, like a specter of death, destroying everything in its path that wasn't a allied survivor, and what she couldn't shell out herself in a second, she sent the coordinates to her fleet mates to evaporate.

And then, as the planet finished its day cycle at last, the firing stopped. The last demon was felled, or captured, all the rest were nothing but paste, or atoms……

/---------------/

Horizon hummed as she floated through space, humming in orbit above the planet they had defended, next to her sister. Inside her, she could feel her Captain/Child sleeping, hanging in a repair scaffold, his limbs sitting on a conveyor line as he rested after the battle. His chestplate had been removed to be replaced, as the hasty repair the Engineer had done had broken, having held up in the main fight. It hadn't broken till Asimov had been forced to take a hit for Zedara that it had broken. Thankfully, none of his vital systems had been damaged, and he fought on, but now that he had been brought back, she, with the aid of Daresh, had herded her Child to medical for repairs and a check over.

Zedara was sleeping in a medical bed, shoulder bandaged up, having been struck by debris when one of the thralls blew itself up near their mortar nest, and had lost alot of blood. Daresh was reading in his bed, hands bandaged, covered in burn gel due to swapping out the mortar barrel and then had to use it as a melee weapon, and had accepted to have his neural link hooked into his PADD, reading the book through his implant. Blink was asleep in a replicated, old style armchair, neural networks sorting through recent events as he rested.

Horizon felt her Sisters rumble of concern and waved it off, sending over a image of her crew and Child, showing most of them resting in medical beds, sleeping off injuries or just resting within her grasp, getting a rumble of amusement out of the Enterprise, sending an image of the civilians evacuated, all being treated by their medical team, with Medic working tirelessly, his team at his side, helping him. The larger vessel offered to have the team hop over, only to get an image of the Medic working with the civvies again…

Much as she wanted her Child and crew to heal faster, the civvies came first, plus, her crew handled their injuries fairly well and would heal. If a situation came up and they needed her crew and full readiness, then she would agree to let the Medic tend to them before the civilians.

On the edge of Enterprises sensors, and well within Horizons sensors, the two vessels sensed an unknown vessel appear in orbit, energy levels consistent with weapons being charged…only to freeze in confusion, it's power levels steady as it let out sensor sweeps of the planet below.

Instaintly, the two vessels let out warning snarls, their weapons locking onto the vessel, but didn't fire, demanding to know why it was here…….

/----------------/

The long eared sentients in the Cleansing Fire were shocked as they stared down at the planet. Pale grey skin, digitgrade legs that almost looked bipedal, with extremely thin, tall physiques, lack of a nose, having long, thin ears, with wavy, always moving, living hair, and eyes that glowed ethereally. They resembled strange, warped elves from earth's fairytales, but every fairytale has a grain of truth to it. And much like the Saurians once being inhabitants of earth, so too did this species.

"Captain, wasn't this planet overrun with the Abominations?" One of the crew said cautiously. "Yes…it was…..and one of their accursed generals was here as well….." "Sir? I'm seeing several areas on the planet that are just…. Craters. Like some force came in and shelled the planet from orbit. I'm seeing signs of unknown, likely local forces, sweeping the planet for more of the abominations, and-" everyone froze as two predatory gazes locked onto the vessel, the sensation of snarls whispering in the back of their heads, the demand to know why they were there hissed wordlessly into their ears.

"Allfather above, what the hell was that!?" The captain said, as several officers panicked as they checked their sensors. "Sir! Multiple vessels still in orbit, but the two closest ones sniffed us out!" The sensor officer said as images of a small, but heavily armed vessel appeared on the viewscreen, drifting next to a much larger vessel, both of which were spinning around to face them, their armament locking onto their own vessel. "Sensors, report! What are we looking at! Comms, get on the Vox and hail those vessels before they mistake our silence for hostility!"

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The crew pits were bustling with panicked activity, officers and crew working feverishly before a report came back. "Sir! Both vessels are armed with older physical armament, sluggers and missile systems, but can launch them fast enough to put a dent in our armor. The smaller one appears to be segmented, looks like it can turn into smaller ships if needed……Hela below, multiple fighter launches detected, assuming combat formations around the larger vessel-" the sensation of small, hungry, gnawing anger chipped at their psyche, before larger demands were made as to why they were there.

"Multiple ships adjusting their weapon positioning! Analyzing trajectories…." One of the sensor crews yelled out, slightly panicked as they saw lines from all around the orbit of the planet all trailing around, using gravity and little dips into atmo to adjust their trajectories ... .and locked onto their own vessel. "But, they shouldn't be able to see us! We made sure we were out of their sensor ranges!" Came the voice of an ensign, before a tactician groaned. "The two ships that Can see us are likely relaying that information to the rest of the fleet, and because it's old, physical shells, they can shell us from around the planet. Provided we can't move." They amended, though looked nervously at the two ships they knew could see them.

"Sir! Vox is open! Translator indicates its Midgardian." The comms officer said, getting a nod out of the captain. "On screen, quickly." The captain said, resisting the urge to order a full evacuation.

"This is Admiral Serano of the HFS Enterprise to unknown vessel. Identify yourself at once and reason for being in an active battle zone, or we will assume you are hostile and remove you from orbit forcibly." An aging Midgardian said, straight and to the point, gaze hard and no nonsense, even as snarls hissed in the back of the Cleansing Fires crew, not at all helped by the readings showing capacitors all over both vessels heating up as they charged, sensor crews hissing as they watched in horror as more weapons charge up all over the planet, readying to make sure that if they were hostile they would perish in a hail of metal.

"This is Lord Captain Aragorn of the Cleansing Fire." The captain said, standing up and facing the viewscreen. "We were on a deployment to deal with the Abominations that had taken root below. We were hoping to sneak in, remove their command structure in preparation for a full scale invasion…" he said, trailing off as it clicked as to why the fleets was there. "Abominations….I'll take it you mean what we call Demons then?" The midgardian said, calming down a smidgen, making a hand motion. On screen showed them both several warriors and Thralls, making the captain nod nervously, noticing the images appeared to be from mid combat, with the Abominations furious, with, startlingly, several dead warriors and Thralls all around them.

All across orbit, sensors showed power levels dropping down to what they assumed was standby levels, the sensation of hissing and growling calming down but never leaving, the sensation of a massive pack of intelligent predators eyeing them up like a potential meal never leaving, just reigned in.

"I see…." The human said, rubbing his chin, before sighing. "Much as I would love to welcome you to the fight, we need to do this through official channels." He said, before sending a very specific set of spatial coordinates.

"There. Standard coordinates for new races to officially announce themselves to the galaxy at large. Once everything is squared away, we should be able to set up trials and see where we can fit your crews into this fight." The midgardian said, rolling his shoulders. "Unless, of course, you wish for us to send a diplomatic team with you to discuss an alliance?" The midgardian said, eyeing something off to the side, as he seemed to tilt his head, listening to something he could hear.

"......a diplomatic team sent with us would be for the best. Mainly as it's not just our kind that are fighting this war on our end." Aragorn said finally, calming down. "I see. I'll send a copy of the paperwork over to the ship going with you to fill out once you arrive." The human said, much calmer than whatever was snarling soft threats over the psionosphere. Several of which made them shudder, before they heard a soft curse. "Sorry about that. The old girls are a little possessive of their crews. So long as you don't try and harm one of the diplomatic team, you should be relatively safe." The Admiral said, as if he hadn't just dropped the fact that the psionic presence the Eldarians were feeling were their Vessels!

They felt like they were staring down Draconids for Hela's sake! Aragorn hid a shudder. And far more lethal, as well. Worst you had to worry about from a Draconid was their psionics. And maybe their strength and durability, mixed with intelligence.

"Captain Aragorn?" He heard, making him shaking loose his head from the treetops. "Yes, Admiral?" The eldarian said, cautiously. "Diplomatic team is briefed, and ready for the journey. The ship is going to be the EHS Event Horizon." The Midguardian said, as the smaller vessel next to what Aragorn assumed was the Enterprise lit its impulse engines, burning towards them, irs weapons flicking about, most of them returning to standby, but some still tracked them, cautiously.

"We would normally send something like the Enterprise herself, but we unfortunately need to stay and help mop up. Her sister ship, the Horizon, is just as capable, and is a scientific vessel, so she has the qualifications for it, as does her captain." The midgardian said with a lopsided grin, as if there was something funny about it. "She can hold out till mop up is finished, and as long as we don't have anymore incursions. Hopefully, they got the message after we removed the mountain their command was hiding under that we aren't letting them get away with invading. We hope. If not, well, there's plenty more where that came from." The old Admiral said, as he accepted a PADD from one of the bridge crew.

The eldarian crew gave worried glances at one another, before a curse was bit back, and a image was put next to the Admirals Vox window, showing a massive, smoldering, molten slag and metal filled crater, easily big enough to fit the Enterprise in if it so wished to make a planetary landing. Many of the bridge crew were white at the image, though personally, Aragorn couldn't help but approve. Despite the sheer Overkill, that was certainly a way to ensure that the enemy commanders didn't escape.

"Alright, Her crew is ready, provisioned, and refueled. Give her a-" He paused as an image flicked on screen, showing a black domed head of a construct of some kind, its optics focused on the screen, even as welding arms installed new armor plates onto its body, and other arms installed freshly repaired limbs. "Apologies for not responding, Admiral. Medic and Engineer wanted a full systems check before they let me do anything else." The mechanoid said ruefully. "That sounds like those two. Heard Engineer saying something about young fools and not listening about the field repair being a Patch Job." The Admiral said flatly, amused. "My crew was threatened. My armor can be replaced easily. I would prefer to keep severe injuries from occurring."

A feeling of exasperation Echoed through the local psionosphere, followed by midgardian voices through the vox

"Dummer kopf!" Came the sound of a germanic voice off to the side. "You may be mostly metal but you still have ORGANIC internals!" Came a heavy Texas accent, even as the mechanoid, now revealed cyborg, at least had the decency to look sheepish. "My hull is easier repaired. Organic tissue is not." There was the sound of a strangled growl, and a tired sigh. "Now you see vhat I have to deal vith vhen YOU and the ze other dummys try and valk off your injuries." "Boy, if you come back lookin like you Came out of a woodchipper, I'm bolting you to a table till you learn some self preservation instincts."

"Ahem." The Admiral coughed, slightly amused, followed by a half apology each, and a additional threat from the off Vox Forgemaster and Healer about taking care of himself, the cyborg rubbed his head.

Aragorn bit back a chuckle, remembering the threats some of his own healers would issue against the more reckless crewmen. There was also the fact that the captain of the vessel he would be flying with was at least one who put the lives of his crew before his own….. on second thought….maybe that wasn't a good thing. "Anyways, captain Asimov here will be head of the diplomatic team. We've already sent him the documents needed as well as made sure his crew is prepped for the excursion. Any questions?"

/-------------------/

Once the Medic and Engineer had transfered back to the Enterprise, the two ships made for deep space, engines burning towards the galactic rim. They had chosen to use the Webway system rather then use the Horizons Vohle drive, mainly because the Horizon wanted to keep it secret, and because the Cleansing Fire was actually flung in by a larger craft, what amounted to a giant transmat ship. Normally, the rest of the fleet would pick the smaller shop up with them, but since they didn't need to come in with the rest of the fleet, they had ro fly back manually.

It took a few weeks to get back, and in that time frame, the crew of the Eldarian vessel, a sleek, nimble vessel, designed like a yacht, but with forward facing cannons, kept themselves busy, mainly with watching the other vessels of their former home galaxy around them, and keeping a tight eye on the Horizon, who kept her cannons moving about constantly, flying in a escort pattern, more like she was escorting them, really.

This saved them multiple times when they came across several patrols on their flight path, many of which let them pass with minimal curiosity, but one constant was that most of the fleets had at least one midgardian vessel, and every midgardian vessel had some form of a soul, communing with one another, and the Horizon, through the Psionosphere, trading information at a rapid pace, faster then the Eldarians expected…which worried them.

But what worried them more was when a pirate vessel dropped out of FTL, began making threats, cannons charging….only to panic and turn tail to run when Horizon made herself known, snarling like a more beastial Draconid, cannons bearing down on the piratical vessel, spitting threats and assurances that if they so much as fired a shot they would be feeding the Black, one way or another. The sheer panic over the vox, despite not understanding many of the languages, was audible, as the ships jumped back out, before they caught the burning Ire of the Horizon.

Then there was the incident when they got to the fleet.

One of the draconid vessels decided it wanted to test the little vessel, like they would their own, and brought their cannons to bear on the Horizon, who responded in kind, all of her cannons locking onto the opposing vessels weapons, her front swinging around, even as the smaller disk section released its smaller turrets, tractor beam tethers snapping outback grabbing some of the flotsam floating about, mining lasers priming, aimed at the flotsam it caught, ready to superheated and chuck at the opposing vessel, releasing a psionic snarl. Her hanger door opened, revealing a well worn and used combat shuttle, it's engines already lit, ready to take off and join the Frey.

The draconids laughed heartily, their frankly terrifying, gutteral laughter ringing out. "Where'd you find the Little Terror, Knife ear?" The captain of the vessel in question said, getting groans out of the Eldarian, and many other vessels crews. "Please, Don't antagonize the diplomats ship. I would like to NOT find out how this ship earned a reputation to make their local pirates run if she so much as twitches a cannon their way."

The draconids waved the Eldarians off, moving their weapons away, greatly amused, even as the stone like, dwarven Squats marveled at the ship. "She feels so alive! Like some of the vessels of old." One of the Captains said over the local vox, their image wavering at the comms table, the draconid captain looking at the smaller ship as it nimbly kept up with the eldarian vessel. While no longer facing the draconid vessel, carrying flotsam or having their hanger open, it kept its cannons aimed in its direction.

/--------------/

"So, what can you tell us about the….situation you encountered." The baron Admiral asked, his image getting up from his command throne. "Yes my lord. Once we got to the afflicted planet in question, we settled into orbit and began scans. Unfortunately, our presence was picked up, but not by the Abominations, but by a fleet of midgardian vessels that had been there already, who had soundly rendered the Abominations fighting force to paste." Aragorn said, as the images and scans of the planet appeared above the table before them, making the other Captains hum.

"Shelled from orbit with a variety of munitions. Not only that, but looks like some form of ground combat as well…… Hmm. Lots of smaller scale munitions all over, so it wasn't just bombardment." The Squat rumbled, looking over the damages…and froze. "What in the name of the allfather!? That…..they shelled out a mountain!?" The dwarven tactician said as he highlighted the smoldering, molten remains of the former command post.

"They wanted to make sure that the enemy command didn't escape. What better way than to remove them then take out everything AROUND their general area with them." Aragorn said dryly. The draconid laughed once more, a wide grin on their muzzle as they stared at the remains. "I see….. well, I suppose that the beat us to our objective. Warlord Gistle is no longer on the field. However,many others will fight to take his place, and they will be much more foolhardy than he was…. And launch many more offensives." The Eldarian Admiral said, steepling his fingers as he frowned at the tactical data they collected.

"Do you believe they can hold their own?" He said, looking up at the captain, gaze stony. "I believe so, actually." The captain said easily, remembering the number of patrol fleets and the sheer size of them. "The midgardians aren't taking this lightly and have several patrolfleets actively hunting for the Abominations. We didn't get a good look at all of them but….the patrol fleets are all sizable, and armed to deal with a good sized fleet. The fleets appear to be made up of more then just midgardian ships, so I can't give you a good idea of their firepower, but if I were to go off the reactions the pirates gave the ship that came with us, the Event Horizon," there was a snort from the draconid at the name, and a raised eyebrow from the Squat, "I would guess that they are set up to punch above their size class."

"Hmm…now I wish to see the ship in battle. When will the Krorks arrive, I will see if we can convince them to setup a competition. If even a diplomatic-" the Draconid said, eyes glinting at the prospect of a good fight, "scientific vessel, actually. It came with us straight from the combat zone, it's crew, it seems, we're also engaged in front line combat, if some of the byplay was to be believed." The eldarian captain corrected quickly. "Well then! I think I'll enjoy seeing if any of my warriors wish to test their might against theirs then! I will draw up the contest rules!" The Draconid said before cutting communications before anyone could say no.

"Personally, I would love to see how their ships tick. Seems to keep up with your vessel without much of an issue, and didn't back down at the challenge. I'll see if I can speak with the captain, give her a once over. See if we can't learn anything from her." The Squat said, watching the ship as it drifted up to the docking ports of the flagship, the Yggdrasill, with great interest.

They all deflated a little when it drifted away, unable to interface properly, even with the universal adapter, due to how different the ports were, and the fact their docking ports were too big, before the shuttle bay opened, and the small combat shuttle flew out, zipping up to a opening hanger.

"Be that as it may. We still need to prepare for our guests. Aragorn? Please, show them to the meeting room." The baron Admiral said, cutting off his end of the communications.

"Well, old friend." The Squat said, pulling a pipe out and pushing a bit of his nicotine weave into it, before igniting it with a small torch. "Looks like things are about to get lively around here." He said, his voice amused, eyes glinting with amusement behind his beard. "That it seems, that it seems….." The eldarian said tiredly.