(Flag Bridge, BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Coldana System)
“Well, hot damn! We actually did it!”
The sensor readings were rather definite. The Harvester had been utterly wiped out. Checking my character sheet showed that I had jumped up to level 55! Ten levels in one go was a pretty definite sign that the Harvester was dead and gone. Oh, and there were some new titles and other goodies handed out.
Legendary Creature slain. All Fleet commanders gain the following title:
Legendary Admiral
While in command of a fleet of warships, you have accomplished things that had been thought to be impossible. Few commanders ever see a X’thari Harvester. Fewer still survive the experience. You have not merely survived. You played an active role in bringing this harvester down, for good.
+100000 Fame
+10% to all skills regarding commanding a fleet
+30 CHA
All Fleets gain the following Perk:
Transnational
This fleet has fought in concert with ships of rival nations to achieve larger goals. This gives you better insight into how to integrate different groups into a greater whole.
+10% to all actions while working as part of force comprised of naval units from different political or corporate entities.
All Ships gain the following Perks:
Legendary Ship
This ship has been part of acts that would be considered legendary in any sailor’s book all ships involved in the Second Battle of Coldana will be considered legends in their own right, and the pride of their fleets.
+25% Defense and Armor vs non-legendary foes
+25% Weapon damage vs non-legendary foes
X’thari Bane
This ship stood in the fire of the X’thari onslaught and gave better than it received, helping to strike a mortal wound against the X’thari Swarm by destroying one of their Harvesters. That act has left a psychic imprint on the ship, aiding it in battle against the X’thari.
+10% to Weapon Damage against X’thari vessels
-10% to Weapon Damage from X’thari vessels
The Black Star Fleet gains the following Organization Trait:
First Strike
It is said that, in war, he who strikes the first blow, if he strikes hard enough, need not raise his hand a second time. Your organization takes that concept and ramps it up to levels thought insane by other groups. However, your results speak for themselves. All Black Star Navy ships and fighters gain the following benefits:
+10% to Attack when stealthed
+10% to Weapon Damage on first attack of a battle (additional +20% if attack launched from stealth)
I whistled softly at the list of goodies. No doubt other ships and groups in the battle had gotten other things, depending on how they had acquitted themselves in the battle. Oh, that’s right, there was a battle still going on. Looking to Raven, I said, “Status of the X’thari swarm?”
“Cohesion between forces has fallen. The only groups still functioning at their normal efficiency would be the escorts chasing the Starhunters. All capitol ship formations are falling apart, acting like individual units.”
“Hmm. So, the Harvester was basically acting as the lynchpin for the entire Swarm, and without it, their entire command structure is thrown into chaos. In that case, we should take advantage of this. How long until we can recover the bombers?”
“They are already beginning docking procedures. As planned, they turned back to their carriers as soon as they recovered from the Scream. Thirty seconds from completion.”
“Status of enemy tarpits?”
“Enemy tarpits are down!”
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I looked at the tactical map with renewed interest. The ships around the planet were doing fine, relatively speaking. But the ships of the strike division had been hit hard, and that was where most of the X’thari were. “All ships, prepare for in-system jump. Coordinates to follow. Launch all Raptor and Thunderbolt squadrons as soon as we get in the engagement zone. Dragons to be rearmed with Dragonbreath torpedoes and launched as soon as they are ready.”
I looked at Raven. “I need coordinates that will get us into the fight. Preferably near the Consortium forces. They’ve been getting hammered hard, and could use some relief.”
“Calculating.”
(Flag Bridge, CNV Vein of Starlight, Coldana System)
Admiral Bradmig Jadegut groaned as he felt the room spin around him. He had a genetic quirk that made him uniquely susceptible to Mental Psy attacks, while making him also uniquely capable of using them. However, he gave such things up when he entered the military, as the Consortium did not allow mental psy users to rise in rank, for obvious reasons. The psychic scream of the dying Harvester, however, was far more powerful than anything he’d faced before, and easily overcame the pitiful defenses that his gear provided.
“—dmiral! Admiral!”
“Ugh. I’m all right. I’m all right.” He struggled to find the source of the voice that was yelling at him. There was something he was doing before the scream, right? Something… oh yeah, a battle. He was fighting a battle! He should probably get back to that.
“Admiral, are you sure? You’re, um, bleeding quite a bit.”
He blinked his eyes a couple more times, and the room swam into focus, allowing him to see the concerned face of his aide. He coughed, and found blood on his hand. Oh, that was bad. He struggled, and managed to make his tablet give him a picture of his face. He wasn’t supposed to have blood coming from his eyes, nose, and ears, right? That was probably a bad sign.
No. No time for that. The battle. He had to finish the battle. He could go sleep when the battle was over. “Damn the bleeding. What our status? What about the Harvester? How bad did the Black Stars hurt it?” He knew the Black Stars had hurt the beast. His brain wouldn’t be feeling like he has a full military parade marching in circles through it if they hadn’t. But how bad did they hurt it?
The aide shook his head. “Admiral, the Harvester… it… it’s just gone, sir! The Black Stars annihilated the thing!”
That statement cut through the haze in his mind like a knife. “On screen!” Sure enough, where the Harvester had been moments before, there was now just a rapidly dispersing nebula of organic material, thoroughly irradiated from… whatever the hell the Black Stars had done. “How?”
“Admiral Mollen sent a flash message to all fleets. The Black Stars altered the flight speed of their Starbolt torpedoes so that they all arrived at the Harvester within microseconds of each other. While that slightly lowered the yield from the slower missiles, the firing plan allowed them to magnify the overall blast damage, overwhelming the shields and having a definitive impact on the Harvester.”
“Excellent. Status of the Swarm?”
“The Swarm appears to be breaking into individual units, Admiral. They’ll probably start organizing themselves into Hunts before long, but for the moment they are all fighting as individuals. Their formations have gone to crap. We even saw one example where a cruiser walked right into a dreadnought’s fire while they were attempting to take out the Forge of Fury!”
Admiral Jadegut grinned ferally. “The X’thari are pack hunters, not soldiers. They don’t have a chain of command, according to Intelligence. If the biggest, baddest hunter gets taken out, the others fight for dominance. We’ve seen it before, in the last X’thari war.”
His aide’s eyes grew wide. “And we just took out the biggest hunter in the whole Swarm, with the Harvester, right?”
“Exactly! Send to all ships, press the attack! Without a leader holding them together, we can get them running!”
(Fleet Command Cluster, IAS Aclotloxl’s Claw, in orbit of Coldana Prime)
Warleader Keh Dhaka bared her teeth in a victorious snarl as another X’thari ship fell before her fleet’s guns. The effects of the perks and titles the fleets had gotten thanks to the Harvester’s destruction were already making themselves felt. The battle had been a desperate one so far, but they had taken far fewer casualties than they had any right to. Now, with the added bonuses, their desperate stand had turned into a counterattack, and the hunters had become the hunted! This was a battle that would be hailed in song for generations, while the War College would teach it as a lesson in how insanity can be a viable battle plan.
“Warleader! Admiral Jadegut has ordered the strike division to press the attack! They intend to rout the X’thari before they can decide upon new leaders!”
The communications savant had barely finished reporting when the sensor savant called out, “Warleader! The Black Star Navy has initiated a microjump, and is engaging the Swarm with the Strike Division! Enemy tarpits are down all over the system!”
So, the mercenary decided that one kill, no matter how massive, was not enough credit for his ships in this battle, and thirsted for more blood? That was good, a fine attitude for any warleader! If he were an Ihm, she would claim him as her mate, and force him to give her many young, to grow strong and one day rule her House when she passed on.
Still, now was not the time for idle fantasies of things that could not be. She was a Warleader of the Ihm Armada, and she would act accordingly! Drawing herself up to her full height, she looked over to the communications savant
“Orders to all ships, both divisions. No mercy to the enemy, but no need recklessly wasting lives now. The X’thari swarm is broken, and we need only drive them off from Coldana. The time for fell abandon upon the field is past. Now it is time for cooler minds to take what kills we can. Our new objective is rescuing survivors on Coldana Prime, not exterminating the X’thari to the last.”
(Flag Bridge, KNS Ashvane’s Pride, in orbit of Coldana Prime)
Lord Admiral Tandred Proudmoore howled in delight as the X’thari ships broke before him like a wave upon the rocks. “All ships, keep firing! We’ve got the bastards on the ropes! Tell Daughter of the Sea to keep her ion cannons locked on that damn carrier! The Marines have almost reached the self-destruct and the bridge. When they do, we can make sure the X’thari won’t be able to make it blow up in our faces.”
“Lord Admiral! The Black Stars have engaged with the X’thari alongside the Strike Division! Warleader Dhaka is ordering all ships to press the attack, but keep an eye out to avoid unnecessary casualties. The X’thari are fracturing into individual ships!”
“Hah! Take out their leader, and the damn bugs don’t know what to do! All ships, continue the attack! The damned Black Stars may get the greatest glories because of the Harvester, but Kul’tiras will not be left playing second to them this time! No mercy to the enemy! Destroy them all!”
“Admiral! New contacts warping in! It is the Confederate Twelfth Fleet!”
(Flag Bridge, CNS Wrath of Gadran, Interstellar space near Coldana)
Admiral Kasyx Rizazzi stood tall on the bridge of his battered flagship. Thankfully, the majority of his Second and Third groups had been only lightly damaged. Running some power cables, rerouting power from a couple areas, and replacing a couple burnt out components was all that most of the ships had required. Which was good, since without Starhunters to draw off the escort ships, once the X’thari swarmed in to close the gap in the perimeter they had created with their unorthodox entrance, the fighting had been fast and furious.
Still, half his ships were still relatively intact, and another fifteen percent, while unable to engage in combat, had, at least, been recoverable to the point where they could limp home to the shipyards. The other thirty-five percent of his command was not so lucky. There were just too many of the X’thari.
They had been on the verge of being overwhelmed completely when the X’thari ships all froze. They just hung in space, suddenly not knowing what they were doing. The psychic scream, it seemed, did not reach far enough out of the system for Twelfth Fleet to be affected by it but the X’thari were clearly bad off for a moment.
That moment had cost the X’thari dearly, with many of their escort craft being disabled or destroyed before they could return to their senses. Capitalizing on this brief reprieve, and the fact that the tarpit that had been over them suddenly broke, he ordered them forward, into the breach they had created. It was time to hunt the hunters!
Arriving in the Coldana System, he saw that the majority of the Allied forces were fighting away from the planet, by where the Harvester must have been. Two parts of the fleet, however, the closer ones to him, were fighting above the planet. “All ahead full! The X’thari have lost their precious harvester, now they will lose their fleet!”