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Though he supplemented the fleet with a myriad of disparate elite ships and fleets until it was close to a full complement. He directly commanded 2 carriers, 2 battleships, 22 cruisers, 37 destroyers, 64 frigates, and close to 1,000 fighters, mecha, and drones.

Close to his command was Eris and the Temple of Discord. Or rather, half of the Discordian fleet. Like the Star Dragon, she left the other half back where they were in Federation space. So they could continue their operations, and their income, as normal.

As a result, she only had command of one carrier and one battleship. They were supported by 20 cruisers, 30 destroyers, 50 frigates, and 600 fighters, mecha, and drones.

Also supplemented by disparate elite ships and fleets, the Corvus Republic flashed in alongside the others. Their command was expanded, and had a carrier, a battleship, 10 cruisers, 23 destroyers, 38 frigates, 144 fighters, 132 mecha, and 440 drones.

Lucifer was madly reviewing as much of the fleet’s composition as ze could, even while everyone else was anxious and worried and terrified at what was about to happen.

The war suddenly got very real for all of them, now that it was right in their faces. There was, after all, a massive difference between their small skirmishes, and an all-out front line engagement. Many looked at those next to them, and wondered if they would still be there when all was said and done.

A few dozen kilometers away, the Imperial fleet stationed near the blasted-out orbital structure leapt into action. The very moment that Hegemony signals appeared on their sensors, each of the ships in the massive fleet adjusted their formation and began their approach.

.....

In front of the advancing Imperial fleet was one of the larger battleships. On its bridge was swarmchief Alethii, who was in the midst of barking multiple orders at the officers, technicians, and analysts around and below him.

“What in heavens is going on?” said Konleth.

His projection walked around the command floor and peered at the numerous reports that floated all around.

“This is nothing you have to worry about, Senator,” said Alethii. “It appears to merely be an amassed Hegemony fleet. We will take care of it in short order, then we can return to our discussion.”

“I’d like to have an all new discussion right this very moment. For example, I would like to know how a Hegemony fleet this size managed to break through your port-lock. You gave assurances of this system’s security.”

“We can worry about navigational breaches later! The only thing that needs attention right this very moment is removing these intruders from my system.”

The rotund old senator chortled in response.

“Your system, eh?” he said. “Seems to be you barely have a foothold over this planet, much less this system.”

“I’ve run the Felrahn government out of their own territory,” Alethii replied sharply. “That means it’s all mine now. And with all due respect, senator, but I have a fleet to command. If you don’t mind, I’d like some space to do so.”

Konleth’s little chortles turned into a full guffaw. He found Alethii’s attempts to grasp power as clumsy, and it amused him greatly.

“No, I don’t think I’ll be leaving,” Konleth replied. “This system is critical to our plans, and I need to see for myself if you have the ability to defend it. If you can, I’ll personally recommend your promotion to swarmfather.”

The swarmchief bared his teeth in frustration, but only for a scant moment. It quickly turned to defeat, then acceptance.

“Very well, senator,” he said. “But you had best stay out of the line of command. This is a naval vessel, not the senate.”

To which the old senator nodded, then stepped back behind the swarmchief.

“Don’t let me stop you,” he said with a grin.

Outside, the Imperial fleet adjusted its formation as they advanced steadily towards the Hegemony fleet. They spread out in multiple directions in an attempt to flank them on multiple sides. But even as they approached, the Erinyes pulled back.

Though they completely expected their enemy to meet them in the middle, they instead retreated into the massive debris field nearby.

“Swarmchief,” said one of the analysts at his feet, “sensors indicate that the majority of the enemy fleet’s installed plating have hyperionized circuitry protecting their carbide mesh. Their signals are much higher than normal.”

“Yes, alright, and?” Alethii snapped back. “How does this affect us?”

“We calculate that our disintegration beams are only 40% effective against the defenses on this armor. Applying the maximum amount of overcharge could bring it up over 60%, according to a few estimates.”

“What about the shatterstar rounds?”

“We predict their energy coatings would be diffused as well, right on impact. No carbides would be destroyed, and the round itself would never penetrate the armor. There might be enough kinetic energy to still do damage, however.”

Alethii grimaced at the reports he had been given. Their primary weapons were all far less effective against enemy armor. That certainly was a surprise.

But it didn’t mean that winning against them was impossible.

“Fine. Report on their weapon systems,” he said. “Can they get through our plating?”

“They appear to be their updated complement,” said another analyst. “The capital ships appear to be equipped with heavy plasma lances and rail cannons and missile emplacements, unsure about the support ships’ weapons. But some of their weapon systems’ energy readings are far greater than normal.”

“I’ll ask again – can they get through our plating?”

“Yes. But we’re still running the numbers on how much time it could take for them to accomplish a full breach.”

“Seems the Hegemony fleet’s ready for you,” said Konleth. “How interesting.”

Alethii didn’t respond to him. Instead, he cursed loudly.

“Do we have absolutely anything that can punch holes in them?” he shouted. “That’s what I care about, honestly. Give me data on that. Everything we’ve got.”

“Swarmchief, we could potentially field our mecha,” said a tactician, “Most are equipped with corrosion launchers, and could make short work of the metal ores in Hegemony plating. If we can weaken them enough, then we could follow up with our weapons as usual.”

“Then we go with that. Since the Hegemony’s determined to keep their distance, we can give it to them. Halt the advance, then launch the skirmish squadrons. Let’s see how they deal with this.”

Front thrusters on the advancing Imperial fleet flared out and slowed everything down to a halt, even while the Erinyes went deeper into the debris field itself. Though, like the Imperials, they too slowed down when they did.

And they also began to show their broadsides when the Imperial fleet did as well. In particular, the massive capital ships turned to their left and revealed their starboard sides. At the same time, huge drone and hangar bays on the Imperial carriers opened up.

Hundreds of drones and fighters and mecha streamed out of them. They quickly formed into large squadrons headed up by numerous frigates, then charged after the Erinyes fleet less than a few kilometers away.

While the skirmish vessels charged in, the ships of the Erinyes lined themselves up defensively, and nestled themselves among the floating detritus and debris. In fact, they used much of the dead ships around them as physical shields.

Although they weren’t very robust, there was still enough between them to minimize any incoming fire. Not that they saw any.

“Since the Imperials have been nice enough to sit still for a moment, we should acknowledge that,” said the Star Dragon. “Bring the rail cannons out of idle, charge them to maximum, and give them a proper greeting.”

“Yessir!”

Every ship in the Erinyes fleet that had rail cannons immediately followed his orders. Battleships and cruisers and even destroyers angled their numerous rail cannons at the enemy’s capital ships. The interior of their barrels glowed a bright blue as they charged up with intense electromagnetic energies.

Then, with powerful pulses, fired hundreds of sabot rounds at the Imperial ships. They streaked across the distance between them in a blink of an eye and slammed into chitinous armor with devastating force.

Their pointed rounds embedded deep into the chitin and caused massive cracks to spread out across them. Huge flakes of armor were sheared off, thanks to the enormous amounts of kinetic energy from each impact.

The unnamed cruiser of the Corvus Republic also shot their rail cannons, but like the Blade of Damocles, they employed tungsten spears instead of rounds. And they too held cores of lithium silver, which carried incredible amounts of electric energy.

They drove the spears deep into an Imperial cruiser’s chitin, punched through to its exoframe, and pierced down into the semi-organic modules and systems beneath.

It was there that they released the charges they carried, and poured that energy straight into the ship’s systems. Arcs of electricity coursed down every spear shaft, and overloaded many systems instantly. Some burned to a crisp as vast amounts of energy poured into them.

And because the ship’s circuits were liquid, they carried the electricity through the metallic particulates, and propagated the Republic’s attack further than normal.

As a result, numerous systems on the cruiser shorted out or flat out failed.

But that wasn’t all they did – after their initial electrical attack, the spears also released small packets of nanites. They swam through the shorted liquid circuits at great speeds as they primed the ship for another kind of attack altogether.

Some veered off and attached themselves to nearby modules and systems. The vast majority made a bee-line towards the multiple communications systems on the ship itself, and embedded themselves in the various ports, submodules, and subsystems in the circuit.

There, they immediately replaced a few key components and injected Raijin’s engines into the code.

Within moments, they covertly rewrote the underlying communications code and captured any incoming commands. But instead of taking over the systems overtly, the engines instead posted copies of themselves on any outgoing ports, and hitched rides to any nearby Imperial ships.

And from there, slowly but surely spread throughout the Drogar fleet.