A single Bigro Meir jumped into the Angelus Holy Union’s home system, the Heaven System, for some preliminary scouting. Much to the surprise of Arkhan and his creations, the system was anything but heavenly. It was a binary star system with two stars that were exactly equal in terms of size, mass and composition orbited each other, a rare phenomenon to say the least. Orbiting theses two suns were a couple of planets that could be easily described as hellscapes.
One was a gas giant that was so hot that it nearly turned into a miniature star.
One was a world that was orbiting both stars at extreme range, turning it into a massive ball of ice and cold.
One was quickly switching orbits in a near figure eight around the two suns and was molten.
The worlds inside the Heaven system were all scenes from hell. All save one. Heaven Prime was somehow situated in the dead center of the two orbiting stars in just the right placement to avoid the rampaging molten planet, the full gravitational force of the twin suns and the full force of the twin stars’ destructive capabilities. In short, the homeworld of the Angels was in a miraculous bit of misfortunate fortune, constantly daytime and only just barely out of harm’s way at all times.
It would be a pain and a half to navigate this place with any sizable fleet, and even more dangerous to fight a battle here. Thankfully, Arkhan had just the right way to deal with the one hundred and twenty AHU warships and the one hundred and eighty-three suicide ships. It involved a bit of math, some remote guidance and the fact that relativistic impacts were apocalyptic in scale.
Seven purpose-made ships were brought to the edge of the system and positioned just so. Every bit of space that would have been open, filled with munitions, housing personnel or used for life support had been filled with large amounts of heavy metal. The ships had no crew; not even a single Mobile Suit Golem manned them. They were remotely operated and once they got into position, they started to wind up their hyperdrives.
…
The fleets of the Great Evil gathered into five groups at the edge of Heaven. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this would be the moment where the Enemy was broken, and the chosen of God would turn everything around and bring the light of Lugus to the Galaxy. They waited out in the dark corners for the courage to dare try and face the righteous, but like the cowardly demons they were, they could not approach the Light.
The fleets of the noble and pure held position, awaiting the inevitable attack from the heathens and infidels, but after a few minutes of waiting it became clear that those sinful souls were content to hide in the shadows. One of our ships picked up the ripples emanating from seven of their warships. It was a clear sign that they were fleeing into hyperspace and running away from their eventual doom. Then, they vanished.
The ship was rocked as debris ripped through the fleet at speeds near that of light. The savages! They had sacrificed seven of their own warships, complete with crew, to use such a cowardly tactic! But what else could we have expected from Pagans and Barbarians? We should have known they would play dirt…
“By Lugus! Heaven Prime! What is the status of our home?!”
I called out to the comms officer and with a tearful face she tried to break the news without falling to complete sorrow.
“Initial reports are coming in… There is so much death… So much pointless and unnecessary death… The capital… it was…”
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“What of the capital?!”
“They… they suffered a direct hit. One of the infidel’s ships missed the fleet and made direct contact with the Great Temple. By Lugus… there’s nothing left but a crater and flames! Oh, my God. Please, Lord, have mercy upon our souls!”
Hell and Damnation! Those savages! Those damned savages! To strike anywhere in our Holy Union was a crime punishable by death, but to strike our home, let alone the Great Temple, was utterly inexcusable!
“They will pay dearly for this. All surviving ships make ready! The hour of glory and justice is upon us! For the fallen, the living and those yet to be, bring righteous justice to the embodiment of genocide and cruelty!”
We began our advance as quickly as we could. Navigating the massive debris field was no small task, but we needed to do something and quick. Of the more than three hundred ships we started with, only ninety-seven remained, all but a handful of them now sporting some sort of damage or another. We were lucky; our ship was unharmed.
“Sir, there is an issue with the spinal mounted plasma cannon. We are reading a power leak that is venting some of the built-up energy from the top of the ship. If we take direct fire to that leak it could cause a cascading chain reaction that would not only blow us to bits but also likely destroy everything in the immediate vicinity.”
I nodded to show that I understood and gave some words of my own.
“Then, if push comes to shove, we will go in flames and take as many demons with us as we can. Now, all of you, prepare for the day that will live in legend for all time as the day we turned back the shadow and started the end of all xenos life! LUGUS PROTECTS! LET NONE FIND US WANTING!”
The rest of the fleet let out our battlecry as we moved together towards one of the five Demon Fleets.
“Glory to Lugus!”
“God smiles upon us!”
“Judgement Day has come!”
“Death to the unbelievers!”
“We go in glory!”
“For the Union!”
We would win this! Our holy mission could not be stopped by anyone or anything! With their forces divided, we would crush them all, one by one! The greatest battle to ever be was about to begin!
…
“What lovely fireworks! Don’t you think so too?”
Arkhan chuckled as he watched the explosions of the dying ships and arcing light of the relativistic debris.
“This… This is barbaric!”
One of the ambassadors recoiled once the full scope of what had just happened was made clear. With just seven drone ships Arcadia had decimated the AHU armada and had done so with no casualties. No one was on those ships, and it seemed to be exceedingly easy for Arcadia to make these Hyperspace Rams.
“And you would have me sacrifice untold numbers of my people and my creations in a wasteful expenditure of life and resources just to claim victory in a standard engagement? Are you a fool? When given the option to take down a foe with minimal losses, a leader should first weight the consequences of said action. If the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, then the wise leader uses such tools. In this situation, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Losing a few ships to deal such monumental damage was an acceptable tradeoff.”
The ambassadors and the news crews were stunned.
“But this little show isn’t over yet. We still have to deal with the stragglers. And after that…”
Arkhan let a cruel smile cover his face.
“…after that, we begin Operation: Fallen Down.”
As if on cue, the five fleets of Arcadia advanced towards Heaven Prime. The massive planet-spanning industrial city was suffering from the aftershocks of the previous attack, but they would not be left to lick their wounds and heal. The Holy Union ships that survived were heading to face off against the fleet that had the most ships, leaving the other four fleets to do as they pleased. Heaven Prime lacked any defenses, which left them open to orbital bombardment.
Perhaps they thought such a thing would never happen. Perhaps they thought they were safe and would never be attacked. Perhaps they believed that no being, or group of beings at that, would be foolish enough to dare strike at their homeworld.
Whatever the case, they lacked any way to stop what was coming. In their hubris the left themselves open to the strikes from Arcadia, and now they were paying for it.
Arkhan stared down the advancing ships with a look of satisfaction. The Angels were nearly done with, and after that he would have more time to do other, less warlike things. These cocky bastards thought that they could beat his forces with their mix of nearly crippled and decently damaged warships. How much pride in their own abilities did they have to think that they could win? Such arrogance from such a twisted and cruel race.
“Then again, pride does cometh before the fall. So, Angels, lets see how hard you strike when you hit the ground.”