Chapter 3 Escalation

  "All of life is peaks and valleys. Don't let the peaks get too high and the valley's too low" -- John Wooden

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Time: 12:24 UT

Date: 0005, 25 Feb

Location: Asteroid Ring - Planet Castre

Sentare Star System

Renavol Naval Stronghold

  "All units this is Bomber Leader, we're closing in on launch point alpha! Bombers prepare to drop your ordinance., fighters keep them off us!" A voice fizzled in through the radio as alarms blared in the background. Corrupted called out to Serma.

  "Roger that Bomber Leader." Corrupted switched over to her squad channel. "Serma! You have command. I won't make it in time so I'll RTB back to space first."

  "Yes ma'am, I'll be sure to bring your kids back in one piece. Oh, and thank you for not calling me Butter. I do hope the sacrifice of my dignity and pride was worth it though." Serma let out a short sigh as he thought about his new "name" and how it was sure to become a sore spot for him.

  "At least it was used to good use, Butter." Serma or rather Butter let out another sigh. Though he did agree with Corrupted at least. Their morale was still high, and things had gone smoothly for the most part.

  "Alright maggots, the bombers are about to launch their payload. I want you to step up your defense because Corrupted won't be here to save your asses. Afterwards we shall also follow the payload down and try to minimize the number of torpedoes the enemy shoots down is that clear?" Butter did a full 180 in his personality becoming a no-bs leader on the turn of a dime. The rest of the squad replied heartily.

  "Yes, sir!" Butter fell silently as he watched the enemy on the holomap. He didn't know what, but the enemies position had a certain feeling about it. It did not seem ideal for intercepting bombers.

  "Time to launch in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 -" suddenly all the enemies broke off from their targets and flew down away from the bombers.

  "- 4, 3, 2, 1, fire!" On his command all the bombers launched their payload. Thousands of torpedoes ignited their boosters and fired away from the launch bay, streaking towards the enemy fleet in front of them. Soon another batch of torpedoes were loaded into the launch bays before they too fired away. A total of 3 separate batches of torpedoes were launched from the bombers. The black void looked as it was once more lit up by a thousand glowing stars as the boosters left no visible exhaust leaving only the glowing engines.

  At that moment, the retreating interceptors suddenly turned. They flew into the torpedoes' line of fire and whilst doing so released countermeasures in front of the torpedoes. With the release of the countermeasures almost all the torpedoes locked onto the countermeasures.

  "----!" They cursed as they finally realized what the enemy did, but it was already too late to interfere. They could only hope that the explosions dissipated the countermeasures quickly. Not a moment later, thousands of torpedoes exploded as they were fooled by the countermeasures. With each explosion the smoke began to lose its density and spread out more and more. Till eventually the torpedoes were no longer confused by the countermeasures. However, less than a third of the torpedoes had made it through. A mere ten thousand torpedoes. Seeing this, Butter quickly made a decision.

  "Pull out, we're pulling out. Bomber leader this is, Guardian 2, escort is RTB. I repeat escort is RTB. We are unable to escort payload." As soon as he finished Butter turned around and set a course back home.

  "Guardian 2, this is Bomber Leader, roger that. See you back home." Butter let out a small sigh again.

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Aeternum - Flagship Andromeda

  "Remaining count stands at 10,422 torpedoes." The officer paled at the flashing number on his screen. Even if the number had been reduced to a third of the original it was still terrifying watching the mass of dots closing in.

  "Engage countermeasures. Launch seeker missiles first and let the CIWS mop up the rest." He stared blankly at the map.

  "Yes, sir" Across the fleet missile turrets turned on and locked onto the incoming torpedoes. A second later they all launched a mass of missiles towards the incoming torpedoes. They closed in another until the intercepting missiles burst open, revealing hundreds of spheres lining the entire length of each missile. The spheres were suddenly ejected, but a moment later small thrusters opened on the sphere, and the spheres sped forward towards the torpedoes. Each sphere closed in on a torpedo which suddenly began to make erratic movements to avoid the incoming attack. Not a moment later they made contact. Most of the torpedoes were unable to avoid the spheres and either lost their payload, broke apart, or exploded.

  However, some of the torpedoes made it through the storm of metal and continued towards the enemy fleet. Soon the Aeternum fleet opened fire on the remaining missiles. The torpedoes continued their erratic movements to evade the incoming fire. But the incoming fire was just too great, and the torpedoes started to explode everywhere. The Fleet continued to fire and destroy the incoming torpedoes, but they continued to get ever so close till the CIWS could no longer fire upon them. Aboard the cruiser Taikyu, the Captain immediately sounded a collision alert and yelled out to anyone who could hear her.

  "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Immediately following her shout, a tremendous roar reverberated throughout the ship as it began to groan and shriek from the force of the explosion, but not a moment later another boom sounded out. Bulkheads automatically began to seal across the entire ship to control decompression across the entire ship. Small shudders began to be felt across the entire ship as small explosions continued to erupt.

  Slowly the shaking died down and silence set back in. The entire control center was dyed red by emergency light. The majority of the terminals were flickering on and off; the data on the screens completely unintelligible. But what data that could be read showed warnings all over the ship. The entire structure was severely damaged and a large portion of the dorsal midships was either completely missing. Communications across the entire ship and outside it was completely cut off.

  However, what she was most worried about was the engine; It was severely damaged and whatever reading she could see was all over the place. Luckily the readings quickly began to stabilize, and the Captain let out a sigh of relief. Silently vowing to buy the entire engineering crew some wine one they were on leave before she began rescue efforts.

  The few remaining torpedoes locked onto 3 other ships. Two battleships and another cruiser. However, unlike the Taikyu they were not as lucky. The cruiser suffered a direct hit to its engine and was vaporized in a flash of light. While the battleships, both suffering hits to the midships, were completely severed in half.

  Even in a fleet with close to a thousand ships the sight was a large blow to morale. Sam silently watched the remains of the ships.

  "Begin rescue efforts, focus on the remains of the Formal and Delat. and I want communications restored with the Taikyu. Is Meteor outfitted with the payload?" Sam asked the crew.

  "Yes sir, they finished outfitting during the attack" The officer said timidly.

  "Good launch an attack wave, I want the formation to strike from the right. Also launch Meteor and to enact protocol Zulu 4." Sam remained expressionless the entire time but as he finished talking a trace of sadness appeared in his eyes, he whispered to himself.

  "Please live through this Kells."

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Renavol - Flagship Zeus

  "Ma'am we're picking up a large group of enemy bombers coming in on our left flank, ETA 20 minutes." The command center was chaotic. Reports and alarms flew all over the place as the situation of the battle continued to escalate.

  "Affirmative, send in fighters. Attack from multiple sides. Have Night Dragon engage from below after the other fighters has engaged the bombers and escorts." Rena relayed the orders over to the fighters who just finished rearming and refueling. They immediately took off and headed to intercept the incoming attack, splitting up into 5 separate groups as they did so.

  However, during this time a small asteroid was knocked out of its orbit and slowly drifted towards the Renavol Fleet. No one paid any attention to the small asteroid, at most they scanned it to make sure that nothing was hiding behind it. But with no clear sign of anything hiding behind it they just left it to automated surveillance. The battle raged on as the small asteroid continued to drift unhindered drifting ever so closer to the Renavol fleet; who were preoccupied with the enemy bombing attack on their flank. The attack was not going well for the Aeternum bombers whose torpedoes quickly succumbed to point defense and CIWS weaponry.

  Suddenly, the asteroid exploded and from within a bomber flew out towards the Renavol fleet. The bomber had a base color of red but was covered in yellow and orange streaks as if it were burning up from the front. On board the Zeus an alarm rang out to notify Sewly.

  "Ma'am! We have an incoming bomber in sector 00-86-5. It used a class C-1 asteroid as cover to close in on us. Permission to designate as priority target?" Sewly took the initiative to ask.

  "Permission granted." Kelly watched the singular bomber in silence. Wondering what Sam could possibly be planning to do with one bomber, but knowing Sam, it couldn't be anything good.

  The entire fleet paused as they received priority orders. Quickly every ship opening fire with a missile salvo and firing every anti bomber weapon they had on board.

  On board the meteor, the pilot was unfazed by the sheer amount of fire that was coming towards him. Instead he simply placed his hand on the throttle and firewalled it. A short high-pitched whine was heard before suddenly the entire bomber vanished just as the lasers flew where the bomber was quickly followed by missiles. He had managed to avoid everything. He let out a smile as he watched their futile efforts.

  "Ma'am! The bomber has reappeared approximately 2 km below its original position." Sewly yelled out.

  Kelly watched the bomber, she couldn't figure out what Sam was planning to do with sending a lone bomber down the center, but whatever it was she had to take precautions against it.

  "Change to Delta - 4 defensive formation. Continue to focus fire on the target." The fleet quickly set into motion and became an inverted V with the Zeus in the center. The bomber continued to teleport and avoid the incoming fire, till eventually the bomber arrived within 9 km of the fleet.

  Inside the bomber, the pilot of the Meteor left out a sigh as he finally reached his target point. He opened his bomb bay doors and released the payload. He immediately turned around upon doing so and retreated back to the Aeternum fleet. Aboard the Zeus, the weapon was immediately analyzed, and alarms rang out in the command center.

  "Ma'am we have an incoming antimatter warhead!" Kelly froze as she heard what the payload was. She knew that the weapon was probably protected in some manner and destroying it would be extremely difficult, but she had no choice in the matter.

  "I want every ship to fire on that warhead!" Immediately all the ships opened fire on the incoming bomb. However, this time it was no longer just the point defense weapons or the AAA, but also main weapons also opened fire on the incoming warhead. Despite all the firepower, however, everything missed. Everything that approached the bomb suddenly began to slow down and change direction while the bomb continued unhindered, and after it had passed everything sped up again and reverted to their original direction of travel.

  Kelly grew desperate as she watched the bomb, enclosed in a gravity shield, continue to approach the fleet unhindered. Suddenly, the radio sprang to life and she responded impatiently.

  "Ma'am this is Captain Mayro of the Destroyer Gliese; I ask that you order all ships to temporarily pull back." The captain sounded calmly and somewhat detached. Kelly, who was about to ask what the Captain's intentions were, had just noticed that a ship had broken formation and was flying towards the warhead. She quickly realized what Mayro had planned and said a quiet apology to the Captain before ordering all ships to retreat.

  The destroyer sprinted towards the warhead at flank speed as the crew swiftly abandoned the destroyer. The captain, the last one left aboard, did a quick salute towards the empty bridge before jumping into an escape pod and abandoning ship. By now the Aeternum Fleet had also caught onto what was happening and had begun to fire upon the destroyer to destroy or at least divert it. The shields broke quickly under the concentrated barrage and the Gliese began to suffer damage. At the same time, it also began to turn away from its original heading due to the impact of the enemy fire.

  However, it was already too late, the antimatter warhead struck the destroyer midships and upon contact there was a large flash of blinding light as antimatter collided with normal matter. Resulting in an intense burst and release of radiation. The burst obliterated the Gliese, ripping it apart into thousands of fragments.

  A large section from the aft was sent flying on a collision course towards a nearby carrier which was unable to bring up a shield in time. The fragment crashed into the carrier's center causing severe structural damage. The carrier was knocked out of formation and began to drift before it was quickly brought under control. However, the structural damage alone had reduced the carrier capability severely and it began to retreat.

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Aeternum - Flagship Andromeda

  Sam silently watched the light from the annihilation fade. He was glad that Kelly had survived but despite that he also knew that unless he brought in the Doctrine there was no longer any chance of ending the war quickly. Now he might as well let them finish the gate and attack before they could turn it on. Suddenly Sam smiled, he had come up with a great plan. He turned to a nearby officer.

  "Bring in the Doctrine." The officer froze and turned towards Sam.

  "The Doctrine, sir? But the high leadership ordered tha-"

  "I don't care what they said. You will send for the Doctrine or I'll have someone else do it for you." The officer paled as he quickly went to carry out his orders.