Chapter 15
Authors Note
Just to give a little perspective I've released the information for the Terran Empire and Parasite Swarm ships and fleet size.
Terran Empire
Defiance Heavy frigate
Fleet Count-11
Size-5km
Armament-Three lance batteries, eight rail-guns, one hundred pilum missile launchers, and eight point defense guardian flak gun batteries.
Fury Cruiser
Fleet Count-10
Size-8km
Armament-Four lance batteries, ten rail-guns, two hundred pilum missile launchers, fifteen guardian point defense flack gun batteries.
Requiem Carrier
Fleet Count-5
Size-8km
Armament-Two lance batteries, five railguns, one hundred and fifty pilum missile launchers, and two hundred and fifty Gladius fighters, two hundred fifty Scutum bombers, and ten guardian point defense flak gun batteries.
Shortfang Anti-Fighter Corvette
Fleet count-7
Size-1.5km
Armament-One lance battery, two rail-guns, ten pilum missile launchers, and twenty guardian flak gun batteries.
Annihilator Battleship
Fleet Count-3
Size-12km
Armament-Two armageddon cannons, fifteen lance batteries, forty five rail-guns, four hundred pilum missile launchers, and thirty guardian flak gun batteries.
Olympus Destroyer
Fleet Count-16
Size-8km
Armament-One Armageddon cannon, ten lance batteries, thirty rail-guns, three hundred pilum missile launchers, ten guardian flak gun batteries.
Dawn Breaker Siege Ship
Fleet Count-7
Size-7km
Armament-Three Armageddon cannons, four lance batteries, twenty five pilum missile launchers, nine guardian flak gun batteries.
Vengeance Über Dreadnought
Fleet Count-1
Size-25km
Armament-Six Armageddon cannons, forty five lance batteries, ninety rail-guns, one thousand pilum missile launchers, and seventy guardian flak gun batteries.
Four hundred Gladius fighters, and four hundred Scutum bombers (Drones).
Fleet Total-60
Parasite Swarm
Kraken Cruiser
Size-7km
Swarm Count-16
Appendages-Four bio toxin casters, ten spike ejectors, one hundred spore launchers, and three drone nests.
Leviathan battleship
Size-10km
Swarm Count-14
Appendages-One bombardment plasma cannon, thirteen spike ejectors, five bio toxin casters, one hundred and twenty five spore launchers, and nine drone nests.
Swarm Carrier
Size-5km
Swarm Count-10
Appendages-Seven spike ejectors, two bio toxin caster, two hundred spore launchers, and thirty drone nests.
Eviscerator Cruisers
Size-3km
Swarm Count-34
Appendages-Two spike ejectors, thirty spore launchers, and two drone nests.
Predator Heavy Frigate
Size-5km
Swarm Count-14
Appendages-Four spike ejectors, one bio toxin caster, fifteen spore launchers, and six drone nests.
Reaper Frigate
Size-4km
Swarm Count-45
Appendages-One spike ejector, ten spore launchers, and four drone nests.
Swarm Total-140
That's all the ship types that will participate in this engagement.
Enjoy the chapter!
The Swarm War
Chapter 15
Fox and his friends were standing by Varrus who was sitting in the captains chair. They all gazed at the enemy swarm with a feeling of dread. There were over a hundred enemy vessels situated only five hundred thousand km away. "That's allot of ships." Fox muttered.
"Yeah...." Falco said distractedly.
Krystal was visibly shivering with her tail stiff as a board as she stood next to Varrus. Noticing this he brought his right hand around and grasped her coinciding paw and squeezed it comfortingly. Soon after she calmed down she turned to him and gave him a grateful smile which he returned.
"What do we do?" Slippy asked nervously.
"We fight." Varrus replied his voice flecked with steel. Letting go of Krystal's paw reluctantly he activated the holotable and contacted Admiral Hood. The weathered man appeared shortly.
"It seems that the enemy has arrived early."
"Indeed so." Varrus confirmed "I take it the fleet is ready?"
"They know there duty." The admiral said solemnly.
"That's all they need."
"What are your orders Pretor?"
Varrus took a minute to finalize his thoughts. "Maintain all ship positions except for the dawn breakers. Move them to a parallel vector to my ship and target the closest, and biggest enemy vessels."
"Orders received Pretor." The admiral said with a brief salute. The ships in question moved to their new locations. "Targets are two leviathan battleships and a kraken cruiser the other ships around them are also within range." He informed Varrus.
"Excellent when the firing solutions are finalized you are clear to engage." Varrus said as he added another 'screen' to the holotable showing the enemy fleet in comparison to his own. The table did him the courtesy of labeling the ships on both sides by class and size.
Fox looked out the window with Falco as they watched the forms of seven ships move to align with their designated targets. These ships were seven km long with segmented heavy armor plating and were heavily gothically influenced. Each ship had three long barrels placed equidistant on the prow. The huge barrels began to alight with barely restrained power until finally they erupted. Each barrel exhumed a huge pulsating slug of dense plasma. These massive glowing rounds hurtled through the vastness of space faintly leaving a trail of cooling particles. After a short amount of time they closed in on the enemy fleet.
"Whoa..." Fox said speechless his muzzle hanging open at the power contained in those deadly cannons.
"We should jury rig one of those onto the Great Fox." Falco said before returning his focus to the speeding projectiles.
The enemy fleet was arrayed in no particular order they were just assorted into a huge cluster as they sat there ominously. For some odd reason the ships did not deem it necessary to evade as they just sat there watching the slugs draw near. Finally they connected, in a blazing flash of pure devastation they impacted against there targets.
The smaller kraken creature was gutted from bow to stern spewing what appeared to be entrails into the freezing unforgiving climate of space where they flash froze as macabre icicles. It let out a silent death cry as it listed to port and drifted from the kinetic force that was applied to it.
The leviathan battleships fared little better. The forward one was pushed backwards by the force and it's chitin plating crumpled at the effected area as plasma leaked into the living ship, but otherwise was not fatally damaged. The other one was not so lucky as the slug had tore right through the weaker section of chitin on the lower portion of the bio ship. Unfortunately it wasn't in a critical location so it was still functional.
The other eighteen slugs impacted among the fleet wounding a handful and destroying another two kraken and a predator. Almost immediately the swarm exploded into activity releasing innumerable drones and began to lethargically move to close with the Terran fleet.
Seeing this Varrus contacted his holographic ally "Lupa warm up our Armageddon cannons and target the two lead ships." He said spying two leviathans leading the charge.
"Yes commander."
"Three cannons per ship should do." He mused while scratching his five o'clock shadow.
"Understood." She said with a feral grin.
Fox could feel the deck lightly shudder as the cannons readied to release their lethal payload. Less then a minute later they fired. The bridge shook as the plasma slugs sped towards there targets with barely contained explosive energy.
The two ships targeted were torn asunder. The lead bio ship was hit three consecutive times in the same spot shearing it into a two shredded pieces. Expelling its guts into the void it died in silence. It's companion was slightly luckier but not lucky enough. Only two were solid hits as the final munition only grazed the poor beast. The two good hits connected and bisected the bio ship into two gory pieces.
"Damn look at that!" Falco shouted doing a fist pump with a triumphant grin on his beak "those ships got wrecked!"
"There are still over a hundred of them and the larger vessels are going to be in weapons range momentarily." Varrus warned the ecstatic avian. True to his word the larger bio ships were now within range. They could only watch as the enemy vessels fired retaliatory bio plasma blobs. "All available power to forward shields!" He called out to Lupa who enacted his order with haste. No sooner as the shields were reinforced the enemy's return fire impacted against there smaller fleet. His ships shields barely dropped a percent but others were not so fortunate.
A fury cruiser 'The Unyielding' was crippled by multiple strikes to the prow when the shields collapsed and was forced to limp back to the rear of their defensive line with erratic bursts from damaged engines. Two dawn breakers 'Belial' and 'Absolom' sustained heavy damage as there shielding was not as potent as there frontline cousins and they were at the front of the fleet. The luckier siege ship 'Absolom' was only damaged by a gouge in the starboard armor plating and so remained on the battle line. The unfortunate one 'Belial' was almost gutted by a direct hit amid deck as it tried to turn to avoid a incoming plasma blob which ironically sealed its fate. The ensuing impact had caused a catastrophic reactor leak. The captain ordered his crew to abandon ship and Fox could see life pods jettisoning from the dying ship.
He couldn't help but feel that for some reason they got off lucky in the initial point of the battle. As he was thinking this the enemy slowed to a stop and drones began to rush towards them.
"Lupa tell the admiral to intercept them with our own fighters, and tell him to have the bombers swing back around our fleet and head towards the native satellite" Varrus ordered. She confirmed his orders and vanished no doubt relaying them to the admiral.
Fox was interested in why he wanted the bombers to head out so far from the battle. "Why did you do that Varrus?"
"You'll see Fox just give it time." He replied with a knowing smile. Meanwhile the rest of the team watched the fighters move to engage as they were fighter pilots and happened to be curious of Terran ship designs. One of the small attack craft zipped by the observation window and they got a good look at it.
It was big for a fighter at about roughly forty feet in length much longer then an Arwing. The cockpit was built to be near the front of the craft. Several rotary barrels were placed on the front of the fighter, most likely laser or auto-cannons. It's wings angled downwards and were equipped with a multitude of missiles. The ship was colored in large swathes of black and gold trimming yet it did not seem to be decorative. They faintly glimpsed a symbol of an armored man crushing a blade spinner with his boot with a motto next to it that read 'Bug Stompers'.
The fighter they were watching had by that time regrouped with its squadron and moved to engage the incoming wave of drones. Falco and Fox, the true aviators of the group, could only watch in awe as the two gigantic forces collided in a hurricane of unrelenting fury, weapons fire, and missile exhaust.
The ensuing fur-ball (dogfight) as they called if was bigger then any they had ever seen before. The enemy drones although inferior were far more numerous and almost consumed the Gladuis fighters in a blanket of shear numbers. Thankfully the Terran fighters fielded veterans who knew how to handle a drone swarm so casualties were minimal in the initial scrap.
As if this was some hidden signal the enemy fleet resumed its ponderous lumbering to the Terran defense line. All this time the siege ships had continued to pour rounds down range in order to hopefully reduce the size of the opposing fleet. Sadly they only managed to destroy a handful of krakens and cripple a couple of leviathans. Moments later the two sides had completely reached the firing range and began to exchange titanic barrages of munitions.
Almost immediately two defiance frigates, 'Mastodon' and 'Storm-fury', exploded in a brilliant flash of light having been impaled by a clutch of spikes from a pack of Eviscerator cruisers. Who vanished just as fast from a brace of retaliatory lance beams from a vengeful annihilator battleship 'The Emperors Wrath'.
The annihilator battleships with the help of the Vengeance prevented the enemy from steamrolling their much smaller fleet of ships by solidifying the front line. Varrus looked on in frustration as he saw a a wounded kraken ram into one of the requiem carriers completely bisecting it.
Krystal was stunned by the unbelievable devastation occurring at such speed. It didn't help that she was a telepath and the deaths of all these soldiers could be felt by her as the keening wails of the suffering clawed at her mind. She tried to tune it out but so many were dying it was overloading her barriers that she used to fortify herself. She had huddled up into a small ball of fur and was quivering softly. Varrus who was preoccupied in orchestrating the efforts of the entire fleet looked over to her after feeling somehow that she was in trouble.
Laying eyes on her sorry state he quickly gave fleet control over to Lupa and rushed over to Krystal's side. Meanwhile the ships outside continued to duke it out in a contest of strength and resolve against a relentless onslaught.
"Krystal are you alright?" He asked worriedly. At this time the other members of Starfox had noticed her condition and looked deeply concerned.
All she could do was moan "so much death" and huddle up into a tighter ball.
"Slippy!" Varrus shouted out "get her down to the infirmary!"
"W-where is that?" The amphibian asked shaking.
"Lupa will guide you." Varrus answered before making his way back to command the fleet as they needed him more. Even though he was worried for Krystal he had a obligation to his people. Still he sent one last concerned glance back at Krystal as she was helped up by Falco and Fox who handed her to Slippy and Peppy who with aide from Lupa headed down to the infirmary.
Shaking off his worries he refocused on the battle. It was not going well they were down to three quarters strength and the swarm had only lost thirty five ships. At this rate they would not last much longer. They needed something to level the playing field. Luckily Varrus had a trick up his sleeve. He contacted the admiral.
"Pretor this engagement is not going well." The venerable man said voicing the Pretor's thoughts aloud his face looked haggard as he showed up on the holo communicator.
"So it seems admiral but I have a plan." Varrus said confidently.
"I hope its a good one."
"Do you recall what I commanded you to do with the bombers Admiral?"
With that a spark of understanding lit up the old mans eyes. "Of course there out by the moon!"
"Correct, now order them to flank the enemy fleet."
"At once Pretor!" The admiral all but shouted out with a salute and a grin. With a brief flash of light he dissipated from the holo field to relay the order.
With that done Varrus looked back to the void war. During that short meeting a further three ships had been destroyed a heavy frigate and two of the shortfang anti-fighter corvettes. But not without reaping horrendous losses to the enemy who now had an additional fifteen ships that were not but floating tombs, disgusting monuments to their heinous existence. While he waited for his trump card to move into position he tried to rally his fleet.
"To all Terran Empire vessels this is Pretor Varrus." He began "I know you are all fighting at your best." He praised as he looked out upon the sprawling conflict. "A mere glance out the viewport can attest to the fact." Ships could be seen broadsiding each other from the void equivalent of knife fighting, and Hordes of drones were barely being fended off due to the Valorous efforts of the sorely outnumbered Gladius fighter wings. "Do not lose hope we will be victorious!" His voice soon turned firebrand as he attempted to inspire his beleaguered forces, to galvanize them to do Herculean feats of valor. "They have come to ravage our planet, kill our loved ones, and spread their vile filth ridden carcasses across the stars. We can not and will not allow this to happen. We do this not for ourselves but for all the people who reside on the surface below who are undeserving of such a terrible fate. We! not anyone else, not the politicians who sit on terra and debate the worth of your lives, not the far off commanders who sent you to die, not even the emperor himself for he is to busy managing the affairs of our great and powerful empire, are the ones that can and will defend them. It is our solemn duty, No! our privilege to give our lives for theirs. This is what it means to serve in the Empires legions. That is why our Empires maxim our mantra our axiom the very reason I was created! is what it is.
SEDULAM VIGILANTIUM EH TUERI INFIRMOS!" He exclaimed with passion.
Moments afterwards he cut off his connection to the fleet and sat back down in the captains chair with a tired sigh. Clearly the speech had taken a large portion of his energy. He did not notice Fox and Falco looking at him in amazement. They had never before heard a rousing speech quite like that.
"That sure was something Varrus." Fox said breaking the silence on the bridge.
"I just told them what they needed to hear." He humbly replied.
Fox was still curious "what was that you said at the end is that what we saw on your this ship when we first arrived?"
"That it was."
"What does it mean?"
"It comes from the roots of our Empire over a millennia ago. It loosely translates 'ever vigilant in protecting the weak." Varrus explained to the inquisitive vulpine.
"I like that." The orange furred fox said after a minute. Falco just looked thoughtfully at this new trait that he has seen from this mysterious human.
In the meantime the defenders seemed to have recovered some of their forgotten morale. The fighters could visibly be seen fighting fiercely against overpowering numbers. Each one eliminating a score of the drones. The bigger ships were fighting doggedly denying their monstrous foe even one km of void space. In fact one of the annihilator battleships 'Storm-Herald' had taken too much damage so the heroic captain ordered his ship to charge into the enemy fleet. Gun-crews still firing as it plowed through the substantially larger force before he detonated its fusion plasma core. The ensuing explosion blinded both fleets with its raw power. After the searing light dissipated a full quarter of the enemy fleet was incinerated and the rest were in complete disarray.
Varrus after making a brief prayer for their noble sacrifice commanded the fleet to press the advantage. In a stroke of luck the bombers had just moved into position behind the enemy fleet. Varrus then ordered the fatal hammer and anvil maneuver. With his ship spearheading the charge the wounded fleet rallied around it and pushed into the disorientated enemy. Simultaneously the bombers began there deadly bombardment flanking the now vulnerable enemy.
Perhaps sensing their imminent defeat the bio ships rushed into the vengeful fleet while taking obscene casualties. Varrus was confused as to why they were suicidely pushing forward.
In horror it dawned on him. The planet! Acting quickly he vainly tried to reorient the fleet, but it was too late the remaining dozens of ships had launched their deadly payload of warrior organisms.
Hell had come to New Arcadia.