Existential Threat: Chapter 9 Part 2 of 2 (Patreon)

The ships adjusted their targeting based off of new information, unleashing staggered barrages of missiles meant to cover the next wave as they accelerated along the cleared paths forward.

Limited CIWS reached back.

“They’re firing missiles.”

“Weapons on the shipyard and on some of the asteroids are firing,” Leblanc said.

Targeting changed on the fly, the fleet marched forward. They had centuries of firing data fed into their battlenet computers, the hardware and software improved and updated.

Missiles crashed into the enemy destroyers, chasing through the detonations of their fellows, they vented their fury, scouring hulls, others breaking through and smashing into armor. They poured their energy through the armor plating and decking of the ship. Destroyers weathered several hits before cracking and coming apart.

“Enemy missiles are non-nuclear,” Leblanc said.

“Still deadly.”

“Yes Admiral.”

The fleet swept forward, leaving broken Destroyers.

“Defensive systems orientating on us. They’re firing rail cannons.”

Hidden weapon systems in the asteroids began powering up and turning, interceptors lashed out. Rounds fired to bracket the fleet lashed out. Missiles lit off from asteroids, swarming the fleet.

“Corvette Yoshei has taken hard impacts, it is rotating back,” Ayambe said.

“Spin the ships,” Dana said.

“Spinning ships, cut accel?” Klinsky said.

“You have the nav.”

“Yes Admiral, cutting the accel, countering with forward thrusters.”

The force pushed Dana against her harness and ‘up’.

“We’re being targeted,” Leblanc said. Shoki shook with some hits.

“Cruiser Iloki, just took several nasty rail cannon hits, they’re CIWS is hurting, they’re using interceptors and missiles to counteract.”

The rounds had hit a missile just launched, detonating the warhead, slamming up against the ship.

“Understood.”

The enemy destroyers were torn apart under the Iron Fleet’s weapons, the defenses turned to smaller smears of asteroids spread across the system.

“Clear any and all defensive weapons,” Dana said as they closed with the shipyard asteroid.

“Aye Admiral,” Leblanc said.

“Ayambe, broadcast on all channels.”

“Ready Admiral.”

“This is Admiral Huang, surrender and we will recover you and make sure you receive a fair trial.” Dana signaled to Ayambe. “Repeat that again and again on all channels.”

“Yes Admiral.”

“Make sure that the Hellcats, dropships and troopers are loaded and ready to launch.” She wanted to give them boxers, but the feeds from this fight would be broadcast far and wide.

“Troopers report ready and waiting, dropships are powered up and loaded into their cradles,” Ayambe said.

“Reaching launch point,” Klinsky said. The enemy fire had withered away into nothing.

“Release when ready.”

The Carrier Hellfire orientated its sides onto the asteroid, hurling dropships away from the asteroid, braking them against the ship’s momentum and covering them in case of attack. The dropships accelerated, cutting their momentum down against the asteroid and turned, sweeping in behind the fleet, the space growing between the two.

“Passing the enemy base,” Klinsky said.

Cannons found, targeted and fired on possible weapon positions randomly throughout the fleet.

“Turning and burning.” The behemoths of the Iron Fleet fired thrusters, flipping their engines to face the direction of their momentum, Dana was shoved back ‘down’ into the decking as the ships went to their full acceleration, to break against all they’d built up.

Dropships and their Hellcat accompaniment moved int their pyramids towards the asteroid.

Weapons fire cut out from the asteroid, interceptors traced back along the lines of CIWS fire.

“One dropship damaged, crew is affecting repairs and pushing on to the target,” Ayambe said.

“Rail cannon!”

Two dropships disappeared before they had time to maneuver, interceptors slammed into the asteroid throwing up fireballs before it got off a third shot.

Dana changed her view to that of the dropships, the view moving around as they affected random maneuver patterns.

Several weapon systems fired, the flash of impacts hitting hellcat and dropship as they fired back with CIWS and interceptors, faster than human reactions.

Ships fell away, turned into smashed debris.

Dana’s view suddenly inverted and went black, switching to another, a hellcat that shot ahead, gathering fire onto itself as it hurled out countermeasures, pasting targets for its fellows as interceptors spat out along its wings, then it was inside the asteroid, it was almost like a conch shell, a slit allowed one in, curving around and then hollowed out beyond.

“They carved the shipyard into the asteroid itself, saving on the parts they needed to use,” Leblanc said.

Miners worked on veins of materials, belts across the walls of the asteroid, feeding a factory complex that drained into the shipyard.

Weapons fire cut off as soon as the hellcat made it through the slit.

Locations were highlighted around the base of the shipyard.

“Found their living quarters,” Leblanc said.

Hellcats dove through the ‘slit’, firing interceptors, losing two of their number as the flashes of light announced the last of the defenses being destroyed.

Dropships dove in and then up into the widened area of the asteroid, spreading out to land among the factory lines and belts around the facilities.

Weapons fire cut out from the facilities. Dropships fired back with heavy cannons, Bots moved through the maze of machinery and threw themselves just inches off of the ground with a few kicks, pulls and thruster adjustments.

A dropship was hit in the engine, the ship flipping  on one side, using thrusters to correct as another missile struck it, the ship coming apart in a rippling explosion as bots continued to jump from its rear.

The fighting moved from outside the facilities, into them.

Bots moved through the halls, tracers ripping down corridors lined with the necessities of life, sleeping quarters, environmental. A spacers nest of interlinked systems.

Two machine gunners advanced, firing off of one another to keep up a constant stream of fire down the hall, advancing as bots moved behind them, breaching rooms on either side. The gunners replaced as they needed to reload.

Heavies would have been better used here.

The ones she was following reached an open area, a cafeteria of some kind cut out of the rock. “Some of them are real,” A bot called out, stepping over a body, blood globules sticking to his armor as rounds raked his chest and shoulder, ‘killing’ him.

“Try to take them alive!” The squad leader yelled.

Flash bangs were hurled out. The bots auto-filtered out the noise and light, the humans among the defenders flinched back, cutting down the fire, while the defender bots continued firing, using the Legion’s hesitations against them.

Bots rushed forward, targeting the defenders, taking out more and more of them, as more flashbangs were hurled out.

The bot she was watching through, fired a burst through an enemy bot, moving through the upturned tables, shooting another bot in the side before they could turn, so focused on the entry points into the cafeteria.

The bot was thrown off by the rounds and the low gravity, revealing a human woman behind, shaking her head.

“Put your hands on your head!” The man yelled through his bot.

“Fucking mercs!” The woman snarled, thumbing a grenade and launching herself at the bot. He shuddered with inaction.

“I die free!” The start of the grenade going off snapped to black.

Dana closed her eyes breathing in through her nose and letting it out, knowing that memory would carry with her for the rest of her days.

“Bots are encountering resistance, there are humans among the bots, we have some in custody but it is costing us a lot in forces, many of the humans have used grenades to take a bot out with them. A group is working on breaching what we think is their command center.” Leblanc flicked a feed up to the main screen.

“Breach!”

The explosive panel went off, hurling the metal around the hatch and the hatch into the space beyond. Flashbangs went off, leaving impressions of an ad-hoc bridge.

Bots flooded through.

Net-suits hung next to chairs, many moving still, there were several seats in an arrowhead, with one on a raised platform in the middle, Victor Ramirez dropped his arm, blinking against the light.

“For Rukian Co-op!”

“Detonations throughout the facility and asteroid!” Leblanc said.

The asteroid came apart in sections as big as a Dreadnought, different detonations coming at different times.

“Most of the ships and the bots were destroyed, the forces that were on standby outside are moving out of the way of debris.”

“Secure any wounded humans they find, scour every inch,” Dana said. She opened the channel to Brad and Stuart, the two of them in their net conference room.

“We saw it all Dana, you and your people did the best you could. They didn’t want to be taken alive.” Brad let out a sigh. “I can understand that  to a degree. We will send the information to our allies and through Wei Li to news outlets.”

“Yes sir.”

“He became the thing that he was trying to fight,” Stuart said.

“Thank you.” Dana nodded. She didn’t feel sad, or angry, frustrated that she had lost ships and bots and that they had been forced to hunt him down. Some people, sometimes there was nothing left but having to die. He would have kept going, attack after attack that hurt the people of the Federation.

“When someone turns to killing innocents to make their points they’ve already lost.” She muttered to herself. “How is the Yoshei’s repairs going?”

“They’ve fixed most of the functional damage, their nanite layer is repairing their outer armored panels.”

“Good, have scouts and hellcat wings break off to scour the area.”

“On it.”

“Leblanc I want recordings of everything that happened in this system. Lets make sure they didn’t leave any more surprises.”

“Yes Admiral.”