The Homeworld Chronicles by Hardcore

Published on Kiith Iopia on date Unknown

Chapter 1
The Beginning and the End

As the Kushan Fleet moved on the met new races. Some were friendly like the Bentusi and some were not like the two pirate races they've just defeated. Those were the Protectors of the Gardens and the Turanic Raiders. Now the Kushan have just stumbled upon a vast resource patch.
< 0800 Fleet Command Meeting, Gathering of all Generals and Admirals >
"Sensors report a vast patch of resources. I've gathered all of you here to
decide on how to best exploit these resources", said Fleet Commander Brenner.
"Lets get started." Admiral Korjac, I hear the research department has a few ideas."
"We do sir,"
"While the resource patch is great it cannot get us completely home if you used all the resources exclusively for that task. I suggest we put the resources to make an advanced task force of ships led by new Dreadnought-class cruisers that can take on 10 heavy cruisers at once. My R&D department is already working on the design and other designs that could take anything an enemy might throw at us.
"Interesting, continue with your designs," said Brenner.
"I believe Admiral Fkol has a unique idea, Admiral Fkol"
(Fkol commands the Liberty, an Avatar-class Heavy Cruiser)
"My idea is to harness the resources as weapons themselves. At the battle of Skall(destruction of Turanic Raiders) you've seen how damaging and ion blast into a dust cloud can be. Just consider if we could harness asteroids as weapons. By fitting them with engines they become a low cost weapon."
"Wouldn't that be a waste of resources", said General Bjarin
(commands the Revelation, the first destroyer produced)
"We might as well kamikaze all of our scouts the next time we run into trouble.
I suggest we gather all the resources we can and then use most of them for a long hyperspace jump and then build a lot of the ships we already can make so we can survive"
"I'll take both of your points into consideration", said Brenner
"Lets take a vote on the issues raised"
"Who supports Admiral Korjac's idea?"
Six hands were raised.
"Who supports Admiral Fkol's idea?"
Five hands were raised.
"Who supports General Bjarin's idea?"
Seven hands were raised.
Since there was not a majority of 75% he could decide which plan to enact.
"Who supports my idea that we spread our resources acroos the board?"
Eighteen hands were raised.
"Excellent, meeting adjourned"
<1100 Avatar-Class Cruiser Liberty, Head of Task Force 3>
"How is the resource collection coming lieutenant?", said Fkol
"Excellent sir, we're getting approximately 10000 RUs an hour. We've also finished installing dust cloud shooters on all ion ships in the fleet."
"Outstanding", said Fkol. "You're dismissed lieutenant"
A couple minutes pass.
"Admiral, we have anomalous readings to our northwest" said a young ensign.
"Confirm with fleet command, ensign", said Fkol.
"Confirmed, Admiral"
"Order the Carrier Reliant to launch an element(2) of scouts to investigate"
"At once sir"
<1115 Carrier Reliant>
"This is General Rlin. Pilots of Blue Squadron, Element Two get to your ships on the double. Thats an order!"
The Scout Element launched quickly. Within 5 minutes they were at the point of the anomaly.
"Fleet Command we've f......"
The Scout pilots never had a chance to finish that thought. An orange light surrounded them.
<1120 Carrier Reliant>
"Pilots come in, repeat come in!, damn!"
"This is General Rlin of the Reliant, our scouts have been destroyed awaiting orders Fleet Command."
"This is Brenner, The order to engage has been given, Task forces 1 and 3 engage, Two, Four, and Five take a defensive postion around the Mothership. Launch lots(144 ships) 1(interceptors) , 2(cloaked fighters), and Corvette Lot 2(Heavy). Standby on fighter lot 3(bombers).You have your orders, engage!"
Task Forces 1 and 3 engaged the enemy with their fighters trailing behind the cap ships in the charge. A squadron(12) of defenders and a squadron of interceptors led the charge however.
<1130 Anomaly Point>
"This is Red Squadron Leader we report 2 destroyers, 7 frigates and 3 lots of strike craft, two are interceptor, one is corvette presumably heavy"
"This is Fkol, corvette lot take the point, arrange yourselves in wall foramtion and use the charged burst attack."
The corvettes complied with Fkol's order.
"Initiating charged burst attack, sir"
"Boy's lets give em hell"
The corvettes warmed up and released a very large beam of orange-white energy completely vaporizing their first lot of interceptors.
"Haha they're on the run now. Interceptors take em down"
Quickly the interceptors engaged. The interceptors from both sides were both in an intense dogfight. The battle started to turn to the other side. Fkol realized that however.
"Cloaked Fighters come from under them and kill every last enemy interceptor"
" Affirimative, sir. You heard the man people, Alpha Wing(4 squads) to my right, Delta Wing to my left. It's time for some serious ass kicking."
The cloaked fighters came from under the intense dogfight like a panther pouncing on its prey. The Kushan fighters mopped up the remaning enemy interceptors quickly. The cost was high however as 80 interceptors and 20 cloaked fighters were lost.
The Kushan strike craft quickly turned their attention to the enemy corvettes. They were no match for the vastly superior force of more than 150 fighters and a full lot lof corvettes. Their fight was superb however as the Kushan fleet only had 50 fighters and 50 corvettes left.
"Fkol here. Excellent work pilots now destroy those frigates. The Liberty will come to assist."
"General Malec of the Avatar this is Fkol, Take your fleet and destroy those destroyers we will deal with the frigates."
"As ordered, sir"
"This is Fkol. Task Force 3 take out those frigates and then join Task Force 1."
Both Task Forces swooped in on the enemy. The enemy was in retreat. However they all were headed for the exact same point. When they reached it they just stopped. Fkol was confused but pressed the attack.
"This is Commander Dlarit of Red Squadron, Corvettes and fighter squadron heads prepare to attack"
A resounding affirimative echoed.
Green Corvette Squadron's leader felt something was amiss however.
"Green Squadron turn around, Dlarit somethings wrong here tell all the groups to trun tail now"
"Negative Green Leader get back in line"
Green Leader did not get back in line however he did not act quick enough. Three ships faded into existence. The strike craft slowed their speed abruptly. Before Dlarit could warn eveyone they were engulfed in the glow of twenty-five ion beams.
"What the hell happened to our strike craft lieutenant, are those what I think they are?"
"I'm afraid so Admiral. Those frigates apparently have 4 ion beams."
Fkol could call in the bombers but with the gravwell generators they would be useless."This is Fkol to all ships, retreat back to the mothership the enemy is more powerful than us here."
Both task forces combined 8 assualt frigates, 4 destroyers and 2 heavy cruisers could not win the battle without near total losses so it was the wisest choice. However a blue square appeared into their path. Twelve craft emerged from the square.
"Thats Impossible how can that be. Fkol here, men just give it all you have we can beat them."
The combined task forces were quickly covered in ion blasts. When 1 destroyer went down a dust cloud appeared. An ion cannon struck the cloud. Crackles of lightning appeared the cloud. Both sides tried to escape the blazes of lightning but they were too close to each other. All the frigates in the area had bluish-purple energy lancing through their hulls destroying them outright. The heavier destroyer classes survived with heavy damage. The surviving heavy cruisers easily destoyed the enemy destroyers. They had won. The three remaining Kushan ships made it back to the Mothership. Ten kilometers away twenty-two ships appeared. The Kushan now have only 30 minutes before total annihilation.

<1200 Kushan HQ>
"This is Brenner, Task Force commanders report"
"Admiral Plaek here. Task Force 2 running at full efficiency of 1 heavy cruiser, 3 destroyers, and 10 frigates. Five are ion.
"Admiral Torse here. Task Force 4 has 2 heavy cruisers, 4 destroyers, and 5 assault frigates."
"General Njai here. Task Force 5 has 3 destroyers and 15 ion frigates at your disposal"
"General Rlin of Carrier Task Force here. Running at 90% capacity of strike craft on our 5 carriers. Have a full lot of heavy corvettes, a full lot of bombers, and a full lot of interceptors. We also have our two escort cruisers and five escort destroyers at your disposal"
"This is Fkol of Task Forces 1 and 3. Our destroyer is running at 64% and our cruisers are running at 86%."
"People we should be able to defeat this enemy easily. However the enemy might have forces held in reserve. Carriers be careful of grav well generators. We'll need all the help we can get. Also start building ion cannon frigates. We need as many ships as possible. Brenner out"
The carriers complied with the order. Seven ion frigates were built in 15 minutes. Task Forces 1 and 3 merged with Task Force 5. Task Force 4 took the defense lead. The enemy is nearing the defense perimeter.
<1215 Kushan Defense Perimeter 5 km from the MS>
"Brenner here Blue and Green Defender Squadrons launch immediately"
In 3 minutes Twenty-four defenders met the enemy fleet.
"Blue Leader here we report 15 heavy cruisers and 5 multi-beam frigates inbound. "Requesting bomber assistance HQ."
"Granted Blue Leader, but take out some frigates"
"As ordered, sir"
" This is Rlin. Red and White bomber squads launch NOW!"
A few seconds later a multi-beam frigate blew from Defender fire.
As the bombers fired their plasma bombs the cruisers fired their guns in vain. a novice pilot strayed into a beam and was vaporized. However the constant battering of plasma bombs pierced the cruiser's armor and it erupted in flame. In the middle of the group two objects revealed themselves. The fighters tried to get away but they were quickly shredded by over 100 guns. They didn't survive for more than a couple seconds.
"Incoming transmission from the lead cruiser, admiral."
"Put it through ensign."
"We are the T-Mat. You will surrender your ships to us now. You will comply or we kill every last of your kind here. If you do comply we will only kill a few of your commanders."
"This is Fleet Commander Brenner of the Kushan fleet. We will not back down. It is you who will surrender to us. Brenner out."
"As you wish, we will enjoy your deaths immensely."
As quickly as the T-mat said that another 20 ships decloaked behind the current fleet.
"Lieutenant what class of ships are those?", Brenner asked.
"Destroyer Class, sir"
"Damn", said Brenner. "Options lieutenant?"
"Well Sir, we do have 7 cruisers, 16 destroyers, 20 ion frigates, and 10 assault frigates as well as lots of assault craft. If we can take out the grav generator we should be able to stand a chance."
"Thank you lieutenant. This is Brenner to all Task Forces. We must take out that grav generator NOW! Use the dust cloud to your advantage. Assualt frigates stay back. We'll need you if this doesn't work."
The 43 Kushan ships engaged the 36 T-mat ships. The Kushan fired first. Their combined 20 ion attack instantly took out a enemy heavy cruiser and then took out another. The 12 remaning enemy heavy cruisers quickly took down 12 ion cannon frigates with their quad ion cannon attack. The 8 Kushan Ion frigates quickly employed their dust clouds which struck the heavy cruiser, destroyer, and frigate groups respectively. One shot fired into the frigates dust cloud was enough to take down the four multi-beam frigates. Three Ion beams fired into the destroyers dust cloud took down half their armor. The 4 ion beams into the cruiser's dust cloud took only a quarter of their armor. The T-mat cruisers opened fire on the Kushan ion cannon frigates leaving only space dust. Thanks to the Ion friagtes sacrifices the Kushan destroyers overpowered the T-mat destroyers but only 7 kushan destroyers remained.
"This is Fkol, we must take out these last 12 cruisers even if it means our death."
"Fleet prepare the eng..... What the HELL!"
From the starboard side of Fkol's Liberty came a bright blue wave that washed over the battle field. The wave first struck the Liberty but barely a scratch registered. The wave continued toward the t-mat and the 10 assualt frigates defending the mothership. Just 1 km away from the assualt frigates the wave hit something very large. A huge wing first appeared with a quad ion cannon battery at its end. Three heavy gun batteries appeared as the wing was revealed. The main fuselage of the behemoth of the ship was soon revealed. It much resembled a normal heavy cruiser except ten times larger. The dual ion cannon turrets were relpaced with quad turrets and the 3 gun batteries of the heavy cruiser were now ten. Port and starboard quad ion cannon turrets were added to the head of the ship. A carrier-like section connected the wings to the fuselage. On each corner of the hangar was a missle launcher designed to take out enemy fighters. Two Grav-well generators escorted the dreadnaught. Genuine shock and fear was felt by every Kushan that witnessed the site.
"Is that thing real, admiral?"
"I'm afraid so lieutenant. It's going to kill us all"
Just a few seconds after the wave hit the dreadnaught-class craft, blue squares appeared near the three grav-well generators and the three of the heavy cruisers. Explosions soon rippled through the gravity generators and two heavy cruisers after the blue squares dissapeared. One blue square was still there. The T-mat commander ordered his ships to move away from the blue square. Five destroyer-class ships soon emerged from the square in X formation. The four outside ships started to transfer their energy to the middle one. the transfer made the formation literally look like a green X because the energy the transfered was green colored. The middle destroyer emitted a circle of green light. The circle caught three of the heavy cruisers and propelled them into three of their own heavy cruisers destroying six heavy cruisers. The new ships worked together with the Kushan to quickly destroy the final four cruisers.
"To all friendly ships we are the Halen. We have come to help you defeat our mutual enemy. They have destroyed a great many of our ships as well. We must defeat the dreadnaught while it's grav-well generators are down. Use all your capital ships and we will aid you with our bombers."
"To Halen vessels, this is Kushan Fleet Commander Jhat Brenner accepting your aid. We will ensure the dreadnaught will not leave here alive even if it means our deaths."
"Thank you for your assistance Kushan fleet. You do not know the magnitude of what you have accepted."
With that a blue square emerged behind the Halen destroyers and six squadrons of Halen bombers escorted by their escort of three scout squadrons. The Kushan cruisers and destroyers moved into position to attack. They alone could hold their own against the dreadnaught but would eventually be destroyed without help. As the Halen bombers came within 1km of the dreadnaught, fighters erupted from within the belly of the beast. Two interceptor squadrons prepared to take down the Halen fighters. Brenner considered ordering interceptors to that area but the battle changed his mind. Although the interceptors contained four times the firepower of the Halen scouts, the Halen were much more resourceful than they appeared. As the T-mat interceptors started to fire. The scouts fired a port side thurster and were rocketed sideways well away from the blast. They continued to impressively dodge nearly all of the interceptors fire. After the interceptors made their first pass the scouts with their unusually high maueverability quickly chewed the interceptors' six. Even though the armor on the interceptors was twice as good as a scouts they were quickly defeated. The Halen only lost two scouts. Brenner was most impressed. That however turned sour as six squadrons of light corvettes came out of dreadnaught's hangar. The position they took made the dreadnaught's four missle launchers look dangerously close. The Halen scout/bomber combo however continued on determined to destroy the enemy dreadnaught. Brenner could not let the corvettes maul the Halen fighters. "Docking Bay 1 launch corvette lot 1(light) now!"
They launched quickly. Within a minute they were engaged with a far smaller enemy corvette force. However it wasn't without a heavy cost. Five squadrons of Kushan corvettes were lost to the combined combo of t-mat corvettes and enemy missles. The remaining Kushan corvettes wisely turned back. They joined the rest of the capital ships in preperation to attack.
"This is Rlin. Red, White, Yellow, and Rainbow scout squadrons launch." Rainbow is the designation of the top squadron of that class in the entire fleet. They are only called on in extreme danger. "Defend the Halen fighters. They are our only hope." The four Kushan scout squadrons joined the Halen fighters as the went inside 500 meters. As that happened the Kushan fleet prepared the necessary diversion. Twenty-one pairs of ion cannons struck the dreadnaught. The attack took down the armor of the dreadnaught to 79%. The dreadnaught retaliated by punching 16 ion cannons and 10 heavy guns through two heavy cruisers and by launching the last of its fighters which were three squadrons of defenders. Not dissuaded by the destruction of two of its heavy cruisers. The Kushan fleet fired again. This time seventeen-pairs struck the dreadnaught taking it down to 62% armor. Just as the defenders reached firing range the five Halen destroyers worked as one. They accelerated the defenders to the speed of a scout with their hyper-magnet turret. As the defenders were about to hit the destroyers the destroyers move leading them in a half circle turn. Soon the defenders were accelerated towards the dreadnaught at speeds of 1km per second. Acting quickly the destroyers fired a gravity pulse as the defenders shot passed them. This doubled their speed. Going this fast the defenders could not avoid ramming the dreadnaught. Each t-mat defender acted as a plasma bomb as they pierced a few layers of the dreadnaught's armor with their initial hit and a couple seconds later their plasma exploded doing massive damage to the dreadnaught. The dreadnaught now had only 26% of its armor remaining. It quickly destroyed four Kushan destroyers in a violent rage of metal and energy. Twenty-one pairs of ion beams lanced out from both the Kushan and Halen vessles. Plasma bombs from all six squadrons of Halen bombers soon were launched. The first twenty struck armor, but the next fifty-two bombs struck the core of the dreadnaught exploding it. Fires could be seen around the dreadnaught. They along with the dreadnaughts bulk collapsed the dreadnaught into a ball. The ball soon exploded in a giant ball of bright bluish-purple light.
"Excellent job, Kushan fleet. Will you assist us against them in the future. We will need your help against them as you will need ours."
"Very well, we will make sure you will get back what you have given us. Brenner out."
As Brenner said that he thought: What am I getting us into?

Chapter 3
The Race for a Solution

<0800 the next day, Strategy Session with Halen>
"Welcome Halen representatives I am Jhat Brenner of the Kushan Fleet"
"And I am Vid Tckeel of the Halen Defense Force, thank you for meeting with us."
The Halen took their seats. Brenner had many questions to ask these Halen.
"I have some questions for you Vid. Please answer these truthfully." Brenner paused.
"How did you take out the three grav-well generators and how did you initiate that great pulse of blue energy? Also, why are you at war with the T-mat?" Tckeel grinned. "We took out the grav well generators with our cap-ship missiles. They can destroy any frigate class vessel. But they are expensive. They cost 750 RUs plus hyperspace costs. Our five destroyers created the blue wave by de-concentrating the beam. That's why it did no damage to your ships. As for the T-mat we can only guess why we are at war. All we know is that we were attacked much like yourselves. They came in and destroyed over half our fleet in the first battle. We have only survived by making new technology. Over a period we've learned more about them. What we do know is that each of those dreadnaughts has the same capabilities of your mothership and ours but is as you've seen very well defended. We must destroy all these dreadnaughts to reveal the mothership. The mothership is constantly cloaked and it only reveals itself when building. And when we destroy all the dreadnaughts it will attempt to make another. We have already destroyed four including the one you have just destroyed. Do you have any technologies that you have not shown us Brenner?"
Brenner was most intrigued by their response. Why did they need their help? Their question however was sound so he answered truthfully.
"Just a few. We have cloaked fighters, drone frigates that can direct their firepower in any direction, missile destroyers, and we have cloak and grav-well generators. Besides that you've seen everything."
"Good Brenner. However I suggest you take a look at the dreadnaught wreckage you'll need all the help you can get.
"OK Tckeel we will but right now how should be seek out and destroy these dreadnaughts.
"We will use twelve of your support frigates supported by twelve of our destroyers."
"And twelve of our missile destroyers. You'll need anti-fighter support"
"Good idea Brenner we move out at 1800. Good day"
"Good day"
<1100 Kushan HQ>
"Patch me through to Resorce Collector 1, lieutenant."
"Link established sir."
"Collector 1 what is your stasis on the dreadnaught recovery"
"We've completed the dreadnaught recovery. We're now collecting from other resource patches."
"Good work Collector Lead, carry on."
Brenner wondered how the T-mat built such a ship. It took almost the whole Kushan fleet to destroy. That reminded him of something. "Lieutenant, what is the stasis on those missile destroyers and the Task Force rebuilding."
We've built 8 of the missile destroyers. Five hours till that order is filled. Task Forces 1-6 are at full strength. The 7th is at half strength and is on hold for now."
"Thank you, lieutenant."
Brenner did not like the fact that he did not have ten task forces by now as he had hoped or the entire missile destroyer force for that matter.
He had reservations about this entire area. The resource patch itself was a double-edged sword and a hard one to avoid. The patch was vast enough to not be able to avoid yet held an enemy that had many, many ships. As he looked out the window toward Higara. Home. He wondered if facing the enemy even if they were victorious would be worth the cost of lives in the end. Well we just have to be victorious. The survival of our race depends on us on winning the battle. On me.
<1745 Kushan HQ>
"Brenner here. Support Frigate Squadron are all ships at full capacity?"
"Affirmative," replied the frigates in unison.
"Prepare to move out"
Brenner was very nervous about this first operation with the Halen. They were capable but he knew that someone would die in this operation. However he assigned Rainbow Defender and Rainbow Interceptor squadrons to Support Frigates 1 and 5. This would make sure the loss of life would be almost non-existent. However Brenner was still uncomfortable with the idea with them searching for the dreadnaughts. When they did Brenner knew losses would be high…. for both sides.
"The ships are hyperspacing now sir."
Brenner knew one of those ships would not return.
<1800 Rendezvous w/ Halen>
"Captain Kaj Mizr of the Frigate Glaivepoint calling Halen fighters to join us."
With that ten squadrons of interceptors and two of bombers proceeded to join the Kushan fleet. Mizr thought that the Halen were pretty sure that they would find a dreadnaught today and he didn't like that thought one bit.
"Everyone fan out. The dreadnaught's somewhere in these parts and we will kill it."
<1830 Middle of nowhere>
"Siren's Call (Frigate 5) calling Glaivepoint have you found anything"
"Lemme check Siren. Initiate pulse destroyer Pride." A hum was heard.
"Nothing yet call."
"I'll keep you posted lead."
After that Siren's Call told its accompanying destroyer to initiate another pulse.
It complied with the order. As the pulse splashed across space nothing out of the ordinary happened. However after the pulse hit asteroids were visible where none had existed before.
"Halen Destroyer do you see those asteroids 10km off our port bow."
"Yes, we see them."
"Eliminate them destroyer"
"Uh, ok Siren's Call whatever you say"
The Pride opened fire with its four ion beams. It de-concentrated the beam just a little bit so it would take out all of the asteroids. The asteroids were completed obliterated, as was whatever matter was within the asteroid sphere.
"Full sensor sweep ensign." The Captain Timms ordered.
"We're picking up wreckage sir. Just 1m cubed in size at most."
"We appear to have enemy activity here."
Must've been a support frigate and strike craft he thought.
"Get me Glaivepoint"
"This is Glaivepoint. Oh its you again Siren. We can't exactly talk so often."
"Mizr we've found something, a enemy support frigate, destroyed of course.
We need assistance now. "OK Siren we'll send you support."
"Glaivepoint calling groups 11 and 12 (have bombers) report to Frigate 5's position now!"
" HQ this is Glaivepoint we've detected enemy activity could be a dreadnaught. Standby to send help."
"Glaivepoint this is HQ. We have twelve Halen and twelve Kushan destroyers ready to hyper to your location upon discovery of a dreadnaught."
"Glaivepoint copies"
<1900 Group 5's position>
"Groups 11 and 12 here ready to move out 5"
"Sure, said Timms."
Timms thought why he had to be the one to find the dreadnaught. Well at least he had some people on his side.
<1905>
"Initiate Pulses" Captain Timms ordered.
With 3 pulses each could cover three times the distance. That also meant it was three times more likely to find something. The longer blue wave at the very end of it's travel hit an object which then spread out into a cone like or pyramid configuration. Unfortunately the one object was in reality eleven. And ten of those surrounded a giant box-like vessel.
"Oh ----. They have a super-carrier and 10 destroyers."
"HQ this is Captain Timms of Siren's Call. We have encountered a large group of enemies. We have a super-carrier and ten destroyer escorts closing fast. Please help HQ"
"I'm sorry Timms we cannot allocate resources for hyperspace at this time. You must fight them alone."
Brenner didn't like having to commit three of his support frigates and pilots to probable death but he had to. He had to save his resources for the eventual dreadnaught battle.
"I understand HQ," said Timms. However he did not understand. Twenty-four destroyers could totally wipeout the force they were facing. He had other matters to worry about though.
Timms was thinking how to approach them. He had one idea.
"Halen Destroyers how big could you make a grav pulse."
"Ummm about 700m in diameter."
"Ok standby to target that pulse on the carrier or more importantly the fighters we only have one chance to take out a large number of their strike craft. Try to take out as many corvettes as you can with that pulse. When that one is finished do a combined ion blast, slightly de-concentrated to take out some more craft. After that is done we hope the missile destroyers and our fighters can do the rest."
The destroyers started to charge up the gravity pulse.
As the enemy group lurked closer to scout force the carrier launched its strike craft.
Fifteen Squadrons of Interceptor class fighters and Twelve Squadrons of Heavy Corvettes launched from the carrier.
"Fire grav-pulse now!" shouted Timms.
Already warmed up the destroyers released their green circle of energy. However the distance and the size made it easy for most of the strike craft to evade. Fortunately it hit a group of corvettes. Unfortunately the blast only forced a squadron of corvettes into the super-carrier's hull. That alone did massive damage to the super-carrier knocking its armor down a quarter.
"Fire ion beam!" Timms yelled once more.
The beam was larger, faster, and longer, than the grav-pulse. This time two squadrons of corvettes were destroyed. Now the Destroyers had little power left for any immediate shots. They wished the missile destroyers good luck.
The three missile destroyers each had four missile turrets. That meant they could take out a squadron in each volley. When the corvettes were nearing they came just within missile range. A squadron of corvettes was quickly vanquished. However the corvettes entered their firing range. Concentrating their firepower on one destroyer, the heavy corvettes destroyed their first missile destroyer in two volleys. That cost them two corvette squadrons. They destroyed they other two carriers in six volleys with just 2.5 corvette squadrons lost. Now four-and-a-half squadrons of enemy corvettes turned to attack the Halen destroyers. In response to that the support frigates launched their fighters. Two squadrons and the one squadron of corvettes launched from the Kushan frigates. The corvettes enraged at losing their protecting corvettes charged their weapons and delivered their charged burst attack. It destroyed a squadron of corvettes. The interceptors also enraged however realized there was only one way of stopping them. They vented power to engines and went at the corvettes head-on. Some were destroyed before impact but it was irrelevant. The bulk and speed of the Kushan interceptors' kamikaze attack pierced the corvettes armor. They were destroyed. The last squadron of enemy corvettes, preparing for kamikaze runs were destroyed by Kushan corvettes from behind.
"Good job strike craft but its not over yet. Take care of the interceptors."
Four squadrons of interceptors and one of corvettes prepared to take on fifteen squadrons of corvettes. The corvettes were immediately swarmed. The corvettes quickly started firing. They were shooting down fighters at a rapid pace. However the combined firepower of 180 interceptors got to them. The corvettes shot down three squadrons before they were set ablaze by enemy gunfire. As the interceptors prepared to engage green and blue beams of energy splashed on the four wings of enemy fighters. Eight squadrons were blown clear and four were obliterated.
"Thanks Pride," said Lieutenant Klivian, leader of Rainbow squadron.
Klivian now knew that the bombers could blow the carrier with their superior maneuverability and deadly plasma bombs. As the bombers approached they unusually slowed. The carrier then turned and revealed almost mockingly to them a grav-well generator. Actually the turn put them right in front of the missile launchers. They had a chance to fire two volleys of bombs before the carrier's missiles hit them. The bombs did great damage however and the carrier was now at half armor.
"Damn, why didn't we see that before. Full Retreat."
The three destroyers and three frigates along with their fighter escorts headed back to headquarters. Mysteriously they ran across a vast patch of asteroids, which they couldn't outmaneuver. The capital ships were destroyed on impact and the fighters were left in the coldness of space and were never seen again.
"Come in Siren's Call, Come in." Silence.
Brenner was very distraught at how he could have let some of his most elite pilots to their doom.
"Call every support frigate group back except the lead group. Hyper the twenty-four destroyers to Glaivepoint's location and double the pilot's training time." He ordered.
Damn, he thought. Why did we have to run across them, now? They'll pay. They'll PAY!