They were alive! her precious kids were alive! Amelia shook from the emotions running through her, trying to speak but her voice caught in her throat, a tightness in her chest rising that threatened to burst forth. Thankfully Ti'Chal already knew what Amelia would want as she barked out orders to her crew to head toward the message's coordinates. As the Tartaros moved through space, they caught the attention of a group of straggling Axon fighters, causing Amelia to finally find her voice as she commanded the firing of everything as the approaching enemy. Using their reaction thrusters, the Tartaros rotated 180 degrees around, still heading in the same direction causing a reverse coast, and deployed his teeth. The upper blisters for the laser turrets deployed, barrels for the targeted UV lasers extending even as the platforms raised. The plasma cannons' slid forward into firing position, looking similar to long lances pointed forward. Hellfire PDFs emerged from 6 different places across the ship, and finally, the huge hardpoint below opened up and deployed, revealing a 50-meter-long, black, heavily armored railgun barrel mounted to it, with a rotating magazine of 10 shots.
As the Axon approached, Tartarus taught them why his name was Hell in war. The Axon fired off a volley of plasma shots, but the hellfire PDF ammunition's EM properties disrupted their containing magnetic fields, destroying the shots. The Tartarus shields were quickly drained by the particle cannons, but their Ablative armor provided a second defensive layer the Axon would have to fight through before any damage could be had. Tartarus' own laser cannons began firing shots of powerful UV laser radiation at the Axon ships, draining their shields and critically damaging their energy systems, while the Plasma cannons turned their thrusters into slag two at a time. One of the ships managed to land a shot on their lower laser turret, damaging it and rendering it inoperable, but by then it was too late, as the capacitor banks had fully charged with enough energy to power the boson effect generator and railgun of the mack cannon.
For the 6 Axon fighters, who without shields had no chance of defending against the rounds, full power was too much, but Amelia didn't care, the mack cannon loaded a round into the boson effect generator's chamber, locking it in. The coils charged up with a powerful em field, and the chamber's barrel opened its port, exposing everything to the vacuum of space. With a button, the em fields cycled, pulling and propelling the now massless object to a full 7% speed of light. As the weapon left the range of the boson field generator, its mass returned, but its inertia stayed intact as it rocketed toward its target in a flash. At this range, it didn't even take a second to hit as another round was loaded, another target selected, and another Axon ship dead. Another round loaded, Barrel temperatures for the gun were approaching critical, causing the superconducting coils to weaken, so Amelia hit the purge button, causing liquid nitro to supercool the coils and reduce the temperature of the graphene radiators for the barrel. Another shot, another kill. The last one, evidently realizing the hopelessness, tried communicating surrender, but Amelia would hear none of it, firing anyways. When Ti'Chal and Viza looked at her concerned, they did not see the intelligent but hotheaded girl they knew in her eyes. They saw a predator on a mission to save her young, and kill anything that stood in her way. They saw into Amelia's Abyss, and when it was staring back at them, it send shivers of a long-forgotten survival instinct down their spine. An instinct that said they were not the strongest predator in the room, she was. An instinct that said not to stand in her way. An instinct telling them the only way they could survive. And right now, at that moment, that instinct was entirely correct.
"Rotate back around and give full thrust, use the reaction thrusters if you have to I want us at that location now!" Amelia said, her voice stern, direct, militaria, the kind that would brook no disobedience to her command as instantly, the Krultathan bridge crew did as they were told, increasing their speed and heading that much faster to Earth's upper hemisphere. A few more Axon ships tried pursuing but were cut off as a massive Krultathan ship moved behind Tartarus, its 360-degree defense perimeter blocking the chasers as an incoming hail was automatically played.
"Hi, Auntie Amelia. Varia Zitoh, First daughter of Queen-Matriarch. You look like you needed some extra claws, I wouldn't think you would be the kind to retreat so mind if we steal this battle? We'll join up when we've dealt with these slimefaces."
Amelia looked at the wintery white Krultathan on screen, thankful for the interception but knowing their ship would be too massive to follow the Tartarus to Earth.
"Thanks, Varia. We're heading to a place on Earth, I don't believe your ship can follow, but cover from near space would be appreciated." Amelia responded. Tartarus hadn't slowed down a bit, still moving towards its destination. Behind Varia, a few pings indicating shots against the Krultathan cruiser's shields could be seen.
"Annoying little bastards. Alright, Auntie, we'll lay suppression for you. What are you looking for anyways?"
"My kids are down there," Amelia responded tersely. A few different emotions went through Varia when she heard that, before a stern, serious face on the previously playful one was seen.
"Ciza, Av'Tor, Unella, Rhotgirr, Take a defense force to follow Matriarch-Huntress Amelia's ship, give her full royal protection and help her find her kits, that is a royal order."
As she spoke, Several groups of Krultathans rose, likely the different clans she spoke of, rather than individuals. They all gave the paw-crossed salute and gave their orders to their fighters as Amelia saw a squad of 24 of them form a wing behind her, closing the distance quickly. Varia turned back to the screen, and with a serious face, looked at the armored Amelia once more.
"They are my best vassal clans, they'll serve you well. Good hunting, Aunt Amelia. Make sure those Axon bastards don't take anyone else's kits." The screen cut and the Krultathan cruiser began open warfare with the now 12 large wings of Axon ships, including a super cruiser of their own. Another incoming transmission with the Krultathan royal iff came on screen, the leader of the vassal wing given to Amelia for the time being.
"Claw-mother Bithun Ciza, your grace. we are 24 fighters strong and ready to support our noble's sister-clan, what would you have of us?" An old, graying Krultathan warrior, with many scars littered across her furred body, said with a grace that didn't seem to fit her image.
"Watch our backs, help find my kids, kill anyone who tries to stop us. Coordinate with Ti'Chal if you need further instructions." Amelia responded curtly. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful, but that she only had one thing on her mind. Her kids.
----
"Fuck. Xiixa, where the HELL is that backup you promised?!" A human male said. He had light brown skin with short, well-kempt hair, and silvery-blue eyes. Missing one arm and sitting in a command chair, he was the impromptu leader of the Human fleet after the untimely death of Admiral Michael.
"A little busy, Human. The Axon have us pinned on the other side of the debris field. We wouldn't survive the trip across without taking them out first!" Xiixa fired back. The Axon, after the initial successful strikes, had begun to use strategy rather than overwhelming force, dividing their fleets up to try and pick them off. The 5th fleet had already lost half its ships, and the humans had lost 11 of their twenty ships. The Axon even managed to take down two of the 12 Krultathan supercruisers.
"Fuck. Okay then. Adders, give me options, we need to clear a way to the 5th fleet." The human barked at one of his officers, a human female of pale skin, brown eyes, and brown hair. She analyzed the situation for a moment, seemingly to come up with a plan, nodded to herself, then turned to the interim fleet leader.
"Sir, the debris field kept the momentum of its ships, causing extreme danger for any who enter. That being said, it also creates a blind spot that sensors can't see through. The concealment could be used to our advantage if we link our systems with the 5th fleet's sensors, and target their Axon pursuers with our Mack cannons. If we concentrate our shots to originate for a specific area, it should also clear a hole for the Hexat ships to travel through. It would, however, leave us vulnerable to the Axon squad pursuing us."
"Would the 5th fleet have the power to take down that squad if we did?"
"Yes, Admiral Halsey."
"Can the 5th fleet beat those slimy fucks they're stuck with without us?"
"The prospect isn't great, Admiral Halsey."
"Then you have my answer then. Do it. Have the cruiser deploy the zergs for defense while we fire. Hopefully, they can buy us enough time to pull this off."
Turning to the screen, he hailed Xiixa again, this time with a smile on his face.
"Xiixa, good news, link with our systems and we'll take care of that Axon infestation you have and open up an escape route at the same time. Try to hurry up this time yeah? We'll be sitting ducks during this."
"Oh, and Xiixa, if we get through this, you owe me a drink." He said with a wink at the end before closing communications. Sensor data from the 5th fleet trickled into his ship's systems and, combined with their vi analytics, gave them the optimum angle to fire through the debris field and hit the Axon squad on the other side. Zerg drone ships deployed on defense to protect them from the Axon on their own tail, but they couldn't use the kamikaze technique anymore with the Axon having kinetic shields now as well, meaning they would only buy so much time.
"Fire."
-
Xiixa could tell the battle was starting to turn. They had overwhelmed the Axon in the beginning, but it was taking so many of them to take down each of the Axon ships that they would run out of ships before the Axon did. The only saving grace was that the Human's weapons as impossible as it seemed were able to down the Axon shields in one shot if not outright critically damage them. And without shields, even if the weapon his a non-critical part of the ship, it seemed to remove it from battle somehow. Truly a frightening capital-class weapon, one she was a fool for underestimating and calling primitive, she now knew. If she had been a bit less prideful, perhaps she could've had some installed on her ships, and saved more of her soldiers' lives.
It was too late for that now, however, as she turned to face the Axon scourge. She knew the remainder of her fleet couldn't handle the two supercarriers and their accompanying escort of fighter ships, but she could at least take a few of them down with her, give the humans a fighting chance, and help make Axcizz a little bit safer on Terra's moon. Then she received the transmission from Halsey utterly confused about what he had been planning. The 5th fleet was pinned against a debris field, even in space they couldn't move without running into either it or the Axon ships, what could the Admiral be planning-
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If Xiixa had blinked, she would've missed it. Her own ship's shields definitely wouldn't though, as thousands of pieces of debris, carried along with the shots by impact, tinked against them, draining them considerably. What was worse though were the Axon ships. Each one had a hole punched through them, with minimal debris, but each one was now dead in the void, and behind them, a new pathway through the debris field could be seen. Xiixa immediately ordered her ships through, traversing the aftermath of the larger initial battle's wake to find herself behind the remaining human ships being picked at by another Axon wing. The 5th fleet moved without her needing to order it, blocking the Axon fighter's attacks with their own shields and hull as they had seen the Krultathans do before, something they never would have thought to do before this battle. It was rough, and shoddy at best, but it gave the humans time to charge their death guns again and give another salvo at the Axon menace. killing around half of them and proving once again just how effective the human way of thinking about weaponry was in comparison. If they made it out of her, she would happily buy Halsey a drink or two as thanks. Of course, he was about to owe her one or two as well.
"Fire particle cannons"
A high-speed whirring as a mixture of charged particles was excited then super accelerated and launched like a short beam at the ships, melting through those who had no shields left with ease and turning them to red-hot slag. It may not have been quite so barbarically elegant as the human's weapon, but it certainly got the job done this time. "That's one you owe me now too, Halsey," Xiixa said through the open comm with the human, who just made that slightly cute and slightly disturbing sound they called laughter.
Regrouping, they tried to figure out where things stood at this point as communications were alight with chatter. The Axon had entered with around 50 motherships, each holding 22 fighter-frigate class, 50 fighter-class, 300 swarm-class, and 6 destroyer-class ship contingents, along with their own weapons. Of that, only 14 of the Motherships remained, and estimates of current other enemy ships ranged from 300 to 500.
In comparison, the 5th fleet had been 50 strong mixed-class ships, with a total of 1,700 fighters, 40 destroyers, and 56 frigates between their carrier ships. Terra had 20 ships, each carrying 30 fighters and 60 zerg swarm ships. The Krultathans had 12 ships with 800 fighters each, 20 destroyers each, and unknown just how many frigates they could carry.
They were now down to 8 Krultathan supercruisers all at half or fewer contingents, 10 human ships, with 2 of them down trying to repair their systems, and their contingent, and 27 of the 5th fleet's ships, with half contingent. They had certainly beaten the Axon further than anyone would have thought, but it was far from over yet.
-
"Admiral Halsey, Terran intelligence on communications. Project Thor is a go, repeat, Project Thor is a go." Halsey's communications officer confirmed, and Halsey grinned like a kid in a candy shop. Finally, the real show would start.
"Send word to all fleets, fall back to Luna base. Tell our own ships to lag a bit, make sure those slimy fucks chase us." He said with practically positive glee. With Terra being under attack and Halsey the leader of the Terran defense for the moment, the Hexat and Krultathan fleets complied, rushing towards Luna and Armstrong base, the Axon following close behind.
"Sir, Incoming hail for the Axon flagshit- I mean flagship." the communications officer said with a smirk, causing Halsey to grimace.
"Right, watch yourself, Addams. Audio only."
"I will admit your fierceness, humans. It has been centuries since we have fought such worthy adversaries. But this ends now. You cannot defeat our fleet with the remains of yours, and your planet burns. Surrender, and save what is left!" Zikal shouted, sounding as if she really believed she had won. Halsey laughed at the display, causing the Axon to grow irate.
"Why do you find this amusing? Have you lost your reason?"
"No. No. It's just, you said that with such a straight face, it's hilarious. I'll tell you what, just this once, I'll be nice. Surrender, and your men will survive. This is your only chance, I suggest you take it while us monkeys are being generous."
"Why would I surrender human? You have the disadvantage, we have already won!"
"Suit yourself then. Monkey shoot rock no work? Monkey shoot boulders." He cuts the transmission. The Hexat and Krultathan fleets were out of the way, and the human fleets charged up their FTL drives just enough to jump out of the way as Project Thor fired.
Project Thor was simple. What would Humanity do if every ship, every fleet, and every meteorite launch failed? How could it defend itself even when its enemies thought it was weak? By catching lightning, and slinging it at their enemies from beyond their range. Project Thor aimed to do just that with a collection of 80 supersized mass launchers situated around the Moon to provide a defensive system able to be fired almost anywhere near Earth. kilometer-long barrels under the moon's surface would accelerate metal slugs the size of busses to an astonishing 25% of the speed of light, overwhelming almost anything. Each gun was a single shot, however, but each shot could hit multiple targets. It was a giant one-time-use roulette, and it was one Humanity decided needed to be used.
80 2+ton projectiles flying at 25% the speed of light had more power than every nuclear bomb on earth multiplied by ten. The Axon fleet, what was left of it, didn't even have time to think about what would happen to them as they, half the debris field, and "everything in that general fucking direction" was vaporized or at least very very dead. Some of the Axon from earlier in the battle managed to escape the fight and land on Earth, but if the crushing gravity didn't kill them, then the people soon would. What happened today, this was n longer even a total war, this was going to become a complete war. The number of human lives lost was staggering, and the amount of destruction as well, but Humanity still stood, and they were angry. No
They were bloodthirsty.
----
Adam and the rest were surrounded. Somehow, the Axon knew where they were, and those who had crashed wound up finding their way to the AIs. The Axon themselves weren't a threat, they were much weaker than even humans, let alone the AI's superhuman frames. The problem was who they had brought the attention of. BlackRock.
Surprisingly, BlackRock was actually working with the Axon to try and take the AI down, Adam using the gun he still had from back when he escaped to take out a few of the humans, but BlackRock was taking no chances, with over a hundred soldiers surrounding them, they were pinned, with nowhere to escape to amidst the small bunker they had made by digging into the ice earlier, and Adam had a limited amount of ammunition. Eventually, he would run out, and they would be swarmed. He knew this, knew it was over, yet something within his code told him to fight, to hold out, to defend his siblings no matter what. Even if this was the end, he had to make sure that they could escape, except...he didn't know how. Every statistic, and every variable calculated lead to the same conclusion, they would be overrun. Which is why he was so surprised, and somewhat in awe, when it happened.
A ship, as beautiful and elegant as it was sinister, dropped down from the atmosphere impossibly fast, planting itself in between the soldiers and the AI, as a cargo bay opened, and out dropped feline-like aliens, and a human in a strange black suit that his sensors registered as nothingness, a void. He couldn't see it so much as see an absence of anything in that specific shape, which confused him. The only human he knew who could make something like that was.
"GET AWAY FROM MY KIDS YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!"
He knew that voice, it was her, wasn't it? His sensors confirmed it, but he had to process it. The figure raised a weapon and fired. A flechet of metal shot out of the Gauss gun, hitting one of the human soldiers, and the battle began. The feline aliens raised their own weapons, creating a kill zone in their vicinity as the battle broke out. The figure in the void armor pressed a button on their suit, and the ship's PDFs locked onto groups of enemies, firing like Gatling guns to mow them down by the dozens while the figure jumped impossibly high into the thick of a group of Axon. Flesh was rent apart as they were torn piece by piece, and both the BlackRock agents and the Axon looked like they were staring at a demon, which they might as well have been. One particular feline alien, the sole male, was right beside the figure, claws coated in some kind of metal as it defended her from behind, ripping and rending any foe unlucky enough to cross his path, even biting the skull of one Axon, snapping its bones and killing it.
The other feline Aliens were also attacking in full force, even as a few of them were injured, they still kept fighting. A small group of them made their way to Adam, and the leader of that group held out a paw, having to shout over the Hellfire's sporadic firings.
"You're Matriarch-Huntress Amelia's kits, yes? I'm warrior-Engineer Savi Uvra. We've come to rescue you, follow us to the ship and stay low." The alien said in a low, soft grumble. Adam, still somewhat surprised, took her paw as she heaved him out of the hole, Athena, Limos, and Phthisis following close behind. While the figure, whom he now knew for sure to be his mother Amelia, defended the rescue group, Adam couldn't help but watch her, mesmerized, as sensations of relief and joy so strongly he'd cry if he was organic washed over him, but there'd be time enough for reunions later when everyone was safe and on the ship.
She was truly like a goddess to him, how she defended on the battlefield. It's why they all had nicknamed her Gaia, each one of them thought of her not just as her mother, but as creator and protector. The way she moved was efficient, and methodical, attempting to take as many of the enemy down as quickly as possible. Adam half wondered why she didn't use the other weapons on the ship but then realized. They were too powerful, and would probably kill all of them. He was so distracted that he didn't notice at first until it was too late.
Adam didn't even know why he did it, his subconscious processes propelling him without his consciousness being aware. One of the Axon had slipped through and had been about to fire on Limos, and he just moved in front of her as the weapon fired. The particle weapon hit him in the torso, and Adam could feel his suit breech, surprise on his face. Savi fired back at the Axon, killing it, but the damage was done as Adam looked down to see the red hot hole in his frame, his quantum core exposed and its containment cracking more and more by the minute. He tried to think of an option, a way out, somehow, but couldn't. There was no way to fix it, he was dying as Kevin Ryder had.
"Tell Mother...I'm happy I got to see her one..one last..I...I did good, right? I...did good?" The core cracked, the quantum state lost cohesion, and Adam's body shut down. With no backup and no additional core, Adam gave his life, to protect his family, just as his grandfather had done before him.
Time seemed to slow for Amelia as she saw the shot go through Adam's frame. Kicking off the few Axon around her, she screamed out as she rushed to her child, her boy. Adam was the oldest, her first, he didn't have a way to back himself up. If his core destabilized...
"I...I did good, right?" Amelia arrived just as the final words left Adam's voice, and she dropped down, hugging his frame to her chest and wailing. Viza, seeing her, let out a primeval roar the likes of which could be equated to a lion as his primality showed through. His mate had been hurt, and her kit's life had been taken, 'They had done this, They hurt her, they must pay!'
Viza picked up a fallen weapon and began firing at anything that wasn't Amelia, An Ai, or Krultathan, dropping it when it ran out and firing another one. Ti'Chal joined in the rampage, pulling out a set of daggers she had made when her weapon ran out of ammo and continued her assault, as did every one of her clan. After a few moments, the other fighter ships landed, jumping out and joining the battle since their ship's weapons would cause too much collateral damage.
The fight raged on and on, no one questioned why they were fighting humans, or why the humans were helping the Axon, all they knew was the opponent in front of them, to take them out, to fight for retribution, and to rip and tear until their enemies were no more. When one Krultathan was injured, another would move up to take her place while a third pulled the wounded back to safety, the only two refusing such being Viza and Ti'Chal, who fought on despite being wounded several times. Eventually, the enemy tried calling off a retreat, to leave and fight another day, but neither Viza, not Ti'Chal, nor any of the others would allow that as Viza jumped into one of the fighter ships in his rage, and chased them down, firing the weapons as soon as they were out of range as an explosion of steam erupted from flash vaporized ice. Despite his normally calm demeanor, this Viza was brutal, vicious, and burning with rage. There would be no survivors on the Axon or BlackRock's side, not today.
In the meantime, Savi and her squad pulled Amelia inside along with her children, who were also mourning and holding onto their mother. Even as the sounds of fighting outside the ship raged on, with Amelia's forces fighting BlackRock's in her mind there was a deathly silence. The silence of not hearing Adam's voice after all this time, after finally finding him, after reuniting with her kids, only to watch him lose his life. She held him close, and held onto Athena and the twins as they silently mourned.
In the back of her mind, what little restraint Amelia had, what little inhibition she had for unleashing devastating weaponry upon sentient life, died that day, along with her firstborn. The Axon were dead, they just didn't know it yet.