Chapter 025

"Tell me something… do you feel fear?"

Her physic voice flew across space and into the minds of all the Orcs in the system. A brief pause after her question sent a very unfamiliar primal chill down their spines.

"... You will." 

The Orcs of the Imperium Galaxy have never known an enemy like they will the Spectras. Which will prove stronger? The Orcs' legendary WAAAGH! or the Spectras' Immortal Queen's rage.

"You're God is right here...and she is all out of mercy." 

Those words were like a prophet's warning as all of the main weapons of the 7,130 ships that made up the majority of the 'Invincible Spectra Royal Fleet' powered up within seconds. A bright glow from the entirety of Outer Heaven followed afterwards and suddenly 7,180 wormholes appeared a few miles in front of each and every ship. The Kreons, Cruisers, Battle Carriers, Scopes, and Dreadnought Leviathans let loose a rainbow of colored energy beams and projectiles that speed an average of 5% the speed of light into the wormholes. Seconds later, just as many wormholes appeared in the Orc armada facing all directions. What happened next could only be called a turkey shoot, a massacre, an assault so unfair even Space Marines would have pitied the green giants.

From the wormholes, the shells and beams of energy fired from the Spectra fleet poured like and the sight was like a disco ball except the lights were personifications of death as the attacks blew through whole scores of Orc ships. Many of the shields held against one or two of the smaller blasts but the sheer number of them, accompanied with the much larger and deadlier blasts either overwhelmed or completely ripped through the shields and ships of thousands of ships who had no idea how to defend against such a first strike.

Beams of coalesced energy ripped holes through ships if not outright vivisecting them. Ships depressurized as openings to the vacuum of space sucked out all that was bolted down. Debris filled the space as well as hundreds of thousands of Orcs getting sucked out. Their oxygen was quickly depleted and stolen from them, some even having organs pulled out from their throats due to the suction. Being this far out in space and no protective suits on, the -200+ degrees fahrenheit temperature of deep space flash froze the shadowed portions of the creatures while the portions facing the distant sun were exposed to temperatures in excess of 200 degrees fahrenheit and boiled from both heat and radiation.

Bulwarks and hulls exploded or were vaporized by the attacks, either destroying the ships or utterly crippling them.

In just a minute, a third of the Orc armada was annihilated or crippled in such a fashion that would make any of their enemies jealous. The portals in front of the Spectra fleet remained open and the ships wasted no time in sailing through them to appear in the middle of the confused fleet. The first to arrive were the Battle Carriers with their drills rotating at full speed, shields online and weapon systems targeting the largest ships. The A.I. shipmasters were able to flawlessly coordinate with each other in picking or assigning targets to each other as well as to the rest of the fleet inbound. The Battle Carriers' drills and drill beams were able to punch clear holes through the forests of ship debris as they headed for their targets.

Following their arrival were the Cruisers who swam through space like a school of hungry fish, their open maws glowing red and yellow from the ultra-heated furnaces contained within. The gravity wells did their job in pulling in debris and smaller ships to later use as ammo material and to clear the space of any ships or fighters that may have been missed by the carriers. Their formations of forty stayed behind each of their assigned carriers to provide back-up as necessary.

Following them were the Kreons which quickly broke off into battle groups of 100 and followed after each cruiser group with five Kreons per cruiser to provide the numbers needed to maintain a constant rate of fire for the cruisers to get in close. They surrounded their cruisers on all sides except the front to avoid the gravity well and gave the cruisers the line of sight needed to use their main guns. These Kreons created a solid fighter screen as they began disgorging their own compliments of Buzzard drones.

Each Kreon launched ten Buzzards from internal catapult systems. The Buzzards were large automated fighters designed to best operate in swarms to overwhelm enemy ships, shields, and fortifications. Besides their flight mode, they were capable of transforming into a four-legged walker when the need would arise. At thirty meters in length, they were large enough to be built with thicker armor than the Type-22s while having a large assortment of weapons, the latter forcing the issue of thicker armor as there was not enough room in the design to house an EMF emitter. The large saucer-shaped head had a retractable laser cannon while a pair of dual anti-matter vulcan cannons were mounted on the top and bottom of the saucer to give a greater range of fire. Attached to the head by a thin neck was a blocky body with four limbs spread eagle-style that contained anti-gravity propulsions aided by thrusters on the rear of the body. The body itself housed hundreds of miniature missiles that would detonate on impact to create localized singularities.

10,000 Buzzard drones flew from the Kreons to provide extra cover for the cruisers and battle carriers. They were soon joined by 30,000 more Buzzards from the thirty Buzzard Transport Carriers that were following them through the portals. These drones were also joined by the 5,000 serpentine Type-22s.

(Flight Primal Black Chaotic Angel, Flight MDEA-1 (Lancer), Type-22)

Black Chaotic Angel was similar to any other Spectra-Minor who were within the Spectra space navy. She lived her life, upheld her responsibility to her people and the queen, and served both with all the zeal of a died hard suicidal terrorist and more. She showed no mercy to those who would show none to her and she would rather vaporize someone who showed intentions of being an enemy before they actually became an enemy. She was not afraid of death in battle, only the shame she would feel if she were to die without completing her mission. In a way, people like her were the ideal perfect soldier someone like Danzo would give an arm and an eye to have in their division.

Angel whipped her hair to the side a bit so it didn't cover both her eyes like it tended to want to do most times. Her bluish-black dreadlocks dangled freely over the side of her head while the opposite side was braided down the length of her scalp and down her neck. Her cold blue eyes were narrowed and unblinking as her purple-themed fighter weaved through space with all the elegance of a coral snake through the ocean waters, dodging debris from the poorly prepared Orc ships that met their ends at the bit of the Battle Carrier 'Skewer 's' drill.

Watching the Skewer live up to its namesake was always a favorite of Angel's when at war. The sight of a high-powered energy drill silently shredding the guts of a ship was as much rushing as it was artistic. A deadly beauty that she has had the honor of witnessing each and every time she has escorted this particular ship in combat. This battle would mark the 232nd time she has sortied with the carrier. She has witnessed it destroy thousands of ships in her life as she's protected it from fighters and other ships for over 300 years.

When the call from her queen came to destroy this Orc race, she did not question it for she was too excited to once again kill for her people and queen. Due to being a fighter pilot, she was not given hardly any opportunities to Neblade her kills, if there were anything of them left due to the power of her fighter's weapons, so she was not as powerful as many of those of the Army branch who had their fills after each battle on a planet or infiltrated ship. While each pilot was given 'commissions' based on their kill count, it still left her on the physically weaker spectrum of the Spectra power scale for her class and birth specialization class. Alongside those who were architectures and child nurturers, she would most likely never evolve into a Major before her lifespan expired. It was a simple truth.

However, what she lacked in physical power, she more than made up for with her skills in the seat of her personalized Type-22 which she named Spirit Fire . Besides being armed with the TLS (tactical laser system), hers was a bit thicker than other Type-22s to house numerous ADMM (All-Direction-Multiple-Missile) pods. She felt it suited her well. She was not born of the pilot classification like those of the golden haired Spectras but when she first sat in the seat of a Type-22, she felt a connection that proved more than mental as she broke all previous records of the past 5,000 years. The Grand Primal Commander was all too happy to allow her into her armada as a fighter pilot instead of a ground soldier.

"Flight Primal to Lancer Flight, we'll be flying cover over the Skewer against any fighters. Intel reveals a very unlikely chance of Orcs having fighters though. Should an enemy ship approached Skewer, we'll run interception. Priority targets are the engines and the bridge. We'll leave the rest to the Kreons and Cruisers."

"Confirmed Flight Primal. May the Queen and Prince bless us," her squadron of six (minus her) replied. While it was common for them to say 'May the Queen bless us,' the 'Prince' bit was added recently when word of his rebirth into the Spectra people was confirmed.

She, like everyone else, had been shocked but ecstatic, both for their people and their queen. She had all but confirmed their suspicions of her ignorance in just how severe the loyalty and love they all held for her was with her little speech to those metahumans. Angel would use every bit of her skill and fighter's ability to prove to her the extent of her devotion.

"And may the blood from our kills shower our Queen and Prince with proof of our zeal!" she declared which earned several positive replies from across the battle web, a neural interface present among all fighters, drones, and heavier ships.

The seven Type-22s snaked around clouds of debris while keeping watch over their carrier. The 5.6km ship plowed through remains of ships as they were nearing the edge of the area of destruction caused by their initial assault. Once they cleared the field, it would be open space with the remaining 2/3rds of the Orc armada waiting for them. They were expecting to be faced with thousands of guns aimed at them though given the Orcs both their intelligence and the unknown capabilities of the Spectras, it wouldn't surprise Black Chaotic Angel if their sudden appearance within the debris field went unnoticed. It was entirely possible their sensors couldn't detect the several thousand new contacts due to all of the debris. It was also possible, much to every tactician's chagrin, that the Orcs didn't even have working RADAR or LADAR.

"Battle Carrier Skewer to all escorting parties. Thirty seconds to debris field clearance. All Cruisers, Kreons, and fighter wings, assume EMD formation."

The EMD formation was basically forming up into a closely knit formation. Normally, this would be highly inadvisable but with the nature of the huge electromagnetic field emitted by the ship's power cores, forming such a close formation would allow the EM fields to overlapped and strengthen each other like a phalanx. Any kinetic or energy munitions aimed at them would either be completely redirected around the formation or dissipate within the field before it could reach its target. This would force the Orcs to come to very close range to deal damage, which is why the Spectras designed their ships with so many CIWS (Close-In-Weapon-Systems) and short-to-medium range main weapons.

Behind and on the sides of the Skewer were the thousands of fighters and drones who didn't have very strong EM fields. Shielding them were the Cruisers who were themselves surrounded by the Kreons. Their EM fields finally overlapped and the power behind it was enough to force numerous large ship scrapes out of the way of the formation.

"Breaking through debris field in 5… 4… 3…"

Black Chaotic Angel's grips tightened within the gel-like arm slots of her fighter, her hands clenching onto a pair of spheres with her fingers dug in. Her fighter seemed to tense as well if that was even possible.

"2...1...We're through! All Kreons, prepare to open fire while maintaining formation."

The battle group exploded from the field like a volcanic eruption and the sight they beheld was annoying and relieving. The Orcs had kept moving onwards toward the Outer Heaven that loomed in front of them like a deity looking down at the pitiful mortals squabbling on a planet. Their battle group in particular was heading back towards the Outer Heaven, so they were coming up behind the Orc fleets in front of the armada who were completely oblivious to the insertion of an enemy fleet in the middle of their formation. The only ones who would likely meet the enemy head on were the battle groups moving towards the rearguard of the armada.

For Angel's group, their preparations seemed overkill and the Battle Primal wasn't going to ignore the favor their goddess was shining upon them, though Queen Naruko doesn't want anyone to refer to her as such.

"Battle Carrier Skewer to all escort vessels, the enemy was unaware of our intrusion. For what reason, I'm not caring as we're getting similar reports from all the other groups save for the rear assault groups who met the approaching enemy rearguard head on. We will maximize the use of our capabilities to annihilate this pathetic fleet. All escorts, break off in previous cruiser battle groups and disable or destroy all warships within our area of operations, quadrants X-21 through Z-24. Total enemy ship count is at 742. No sign of enemy fighters. Cruiser Primals, direct your escorts and fighter swarms as you see fit. Also, this just in, the Queen herself is offering extra commissions to the crews of all ships and fighters that cripples or destroys any dreadnought classifications. Happy hunting and may the Queen and Prince smile on our tributes."

The massive carrier's engines flared brighter and increased its speed to catch up to the closest ship that measured in at a dreadnought tonnage. Angel's face twisted into a grin only an adrenaline junky could relate too. She would take the Battle Primal's challenge. It's too bad these Orcs weren't competent enough spacers to give her a personally hard challenge that she could use to impress the Queen.