Ravens of Eternity

434 The Gates of Hell

The Matriarch watched the swirling chaos of that distant system for a seeming eternity. To all around her, she burned a hole right through the space between. Whether that was vengeful or not, most didn’t know.

She herself roiled deep inside. The guilt at all those losses ate into her. It shook her to her core and threatened to bring her to her knees.

But thankfully, she held her will and remained firm.

“I hope that’s the only shot we ever have to make,” she said.

“You know as well as I do that they’re already calling our bluff right now,” replied the Grand Parliamentarian to her right. “I’ll bet a hundred ducats that both nations have already sent comms requesting for time. To get their business in order, or whatever excuses they come up with.”

“A fool’s bet,” said the Matriarch. “Of course they will. They know it’s an impossible demand. They might even think I’ve gone mad, or out of control. It doesn’t matter what they conclude, as long as they also stop.”

“And if they don’t?” asked the Master Engineer.

“We do what we must do.”

“And in the meantime?” said the Parliamentarian. “How do we keep the pressure high without actually firing the weapon? How do we let them know just how serious we are, while they scramble for time?”

.....

“All we have is the threat,” said someone from behind them.

Matriarch de Jardin glanced over at the man who spoke. Another de Jardin High Admiral, of course.

“High Admiral Pavir,” the Matriarch said. “Come stand with us. We need a military mind to help us with decisions going forward.”

She motioned for him to stand by the Grand Parliamentarian’s side, so that they flanked him on both sides.

While the high admiral stepped up, the Parliamentarian glanced over at the both of them, then at everyone all around.

“It’s occurred to me just how expansive the de Jardin family has become,” the old man said. “I must congratulate you all on your ability to grow and thrive, even in the most dire of circumstances.”

The Matriarch sincerely bowed her head to him in appreciation.

“Humanity must survive at all costs, no matter what it takes,” she replied. “And to answer the question, yes, I agree that we do have just the threat of this weapon. All we need to do is escalate it every so often, to ensure that time does tick down, but in our favor.

“We concede the time, but add conditions as more of it passes. The use of occupying forces, for example. If they take too long, then we start taking systems.”

“That sounds like a maddening escalation of tension,” replied the Grand Parliamentarian. “We can’t push too hard.”

“Nor can we be too reasonable,” said Pavir de Jardin. “Our enemies could see that as some kind of weakness they could exploit.”

“It’s too fine a line,” said the Matriarch. “We’re liable to slip down either side at any time. Let’s hope that -”

The Matriarch was immediately interrupted when the control room was bathed in dark orange lights and a klaxon rang all around. Alerts flashed up on numerous screens around the control room, all of them devastating in their own way.

—

WARNING

Intrusion detected: Teleport Beacon DDRS-13

Systems:

– Communications

– Navigation Control

—

WARNING

Hostile Takeover: Teleport Beacon DDRS-13

Status:

– Compromised

– Inaccessible

—

WARNING

Teleport Incoming: Teleport Beacon DDRS-13

Signal Identification: …Scanning

—

The Matriarch didn’t have to guess who owned the incoming ships – she had seen the profiles of Imperial warships for far too long now. And the live feed on her screen showed them flashing into existence high above their position.

She watched as the Imperial fleet warped into existence, who almost immediately fired on the advancing defensive fleet. Of course, they took their own fire in exchange. Both of the fleets tore into each other without hesitation or a single call for parley.

No warnings came, only death.

“High Admiral, please take charge of the defense,” said the Matriarch.

Pavir’s eyes went wide at the massive boatload of responsibility he suddenly found himself with. He was only here to observe, not to command. But this wasn’t something he could protest. Not at a time like this.

Regardless, he bowed his head and took a step forward.

“I need a temporary command map here,” he waved in the space in front of them. “For now, issue a siege command priority and have the fleet fight more defensively and conservatively. We’ll assess strategic needs after a closer look.”

It was only moments after his request that a couple dozen fist-sized drones flew into the control room. Each one sped straight towards the area he pointed out, then hovered in a hemispherical dome all above it. Then, each one projected portions of a TacMap into the space in front of the Matriarch.

On the tacmap was Dendrus IV, then the layer of mirror satellites all around. The mirror barrel was off to the side, and the central station above – where they were – was above that all.

In a layer around the station were countless defense turrets. Most of the ones in the northern hemisphere fired upwards, past the defensive fleet and into the advancing Imperial fleet.

A basic force count of both forces appeared alongside the tacmap, which allowed everyone a view of their numbers in realtime.

And it didn’t look good.

—

Imperial Fleet

Devastators – 4

Carriers – 12

Battleships – 24

Cruisers – 96

Destroyers – 240

Frigates – 600

Fighters – 1200

Mecha – 1200

Drones – 2400

—

“How in the nine hells did they even know where we are?” said the Grand Parliamentarian. “This location’s supposed to be hidden from, well, everyone! Or do we have a serious leak on our hands?”

“It doesn’t matter right now,” said the Matriarch. “They’re here to destroy the cannon, and we have to stop it at all costs.”

“Destroy? What if they’re here to take it from us?”

“There are contingencies in place,” replied the Master Engineer. “In the event of catastrophic failure, at least. Being boarded and our control wrested would certainly qualify.”

“That is?”

“We deactivate the antigravity field and allow everything to fall into Dendrus.”

The Grand Parliamentarian had no more questions after that. He pursed his lips tight and instead began to hope with greater fervor. The last thing he wanted was to be consumed by Godeater.

Outside, far above their heads, the two fleets clashed furiously. The de Jardin defensive fleet bared their heavily armored broadsides to their enemies and absorbed the brunt of their enemies’ weapon fire. Their armor was scarred by countless disintegration beams criss-crossing in every direction.

Despite how powerful Imperial beams had become, the de Jardins’ defensive fleet was the best of the best. In fact, they were specifically designed to work with Dendrus itself. Each drew energy straight from the planet, through particles fired and reflected through the countless mirrors.

All that energy poured into their power-hungry gigareactive armor, which was layered in between sheets of standard armor. Anything that tore into or pierced their standard titanium armor was all but stopped in the gigareative layers.

Though Imperial beams certainly scarred the surface, none got much further, and none were too deep or too terrible. And even the worst damage that they caused was quickly undone and repaired moments after. Swarms of nanites stitched the plating back together with such speed and efficiency that the Imperial officers were astounded at the sight.

Before they could adjust their strategy, the four de Jardin devastators fired their main weapons one after the other. They all concentrated their heaviest fire on only one of the four Imperial devastators and utterly pounded it with everything they had.

First came a ten-point burst of massive frigate-sized rail spikes. Each of them slammed into the nose of the first incoming devastator, right into the thickest portion of its armor. They caused it to shatter and splinter and crack and break further with every hit.

More than that, the combined force was enough to slow the entire ship’s velocity significantly and cause it to lurch to the side violently. The moment one of its broadsides became easier to hit, the second de Jardin devastator opened fire with its plasma lance.

The blue-white energies slammed into the enemy’s front port side and chewed into the chitin plates with ravenous hunger. It was more than enough to tear halfway through the heavy armor. And they didn’t just strike one portion of the ship’s armor – they scarred it all the way from the front to the rear.

Of course, the Imperials had also vastly advanced their own wartime technologies. Although their nanite swarms were much slower to repair than the de Jardin ships, they did more than simply stitch over old wounds. They also worked to add bulk to the armor plating and doubly reinforced every scar.

Not that they got to that point – the de Jardin devastators continued their assault. Before the Imperial devastator’s nanite swarms could begin to repair the chitin, the third de Jardin devastator opened fire.

It shot out three massive torpedoes at the same time, all in a spiraling triangular formation. They spun towards the Imperial ship and crashed right into its weakened armor. Each of the three torpedoes erupted with astounding force.

.....

The blasts caused space to ripple and warp at the point of impact. Those waves of energy were so powerful that they literally tore the weakened, splintered, gouged armor to nothing. Entire sheets of chitin were blasted apart and flung out into the void.

And in the next moment, the armor shattered and broke to the point that the exoframe warped and bent and twisted from the inside.

Worse, entire swaths of interior decks were now exposed to space. Any crew closest to the largest open scars were flung out into space, where they clawed their necks as they suffocated to death.

Last but not least, the fourth de Jardin devastator brought its weapon to bear.

Its massive triple-pronged barrel glowed brightly as it charged up. And once it struck its peak, every energy node along the prongs thrust forward. They each channeled a single particle to come together to the same point, and forced them to occupy the same space at the same time.

Unfortunately, they refused, which resulted in a massive wave of energy.

Each of the three particles expended vast amounts of energy to break off from each other. But instead of going in different directions, all were channeled down the same path – straight towards the Imperial battleship.

The three particles slammed into the exposed portion of the ship with such tremendous force that its interior caved instantly. Its entire midsection collapsed into a smooth, deep, and wide bowl that utterly flattened everything

One of the demimatter batteries were partially crushed in the process, which led to an energy implosion that caused another section to completely collapse. The devastator soon suffered cascading catastrophic power failures which caused it to list to the side before various explosions and implosions began to destroy it from the inside.

Despite the loss of a devastator in the opening moments of the battle, the Imperial fleet marched ever onward, straight down towards hell itself.

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