27th July
05:38 GMT
I feel the faintest of rumblings as the Assailant.. lands on Citadel Complex. Normally, when a ship of this size arrives at a space station it docks. A few heavy duty clamps grab the hull, gangways are extended and form atmosphere seals between the ship's airlocks and those of the station. If the two parties really trust one another there might also be a system for automatic resupply, but from the look of the Citadel shipyards it would appear that they prefer using tender vessels for that. It makes sense; they might be fine automating resupply for their own ships but I imagine that their business partners would want to check things manually. Using tenders for everyone means that they don't have to bother with two systems. Jarko does the same thing. Amalak uses an automated system for his employees and has tenders for his hirelings. The Spider Guild system is -naturally- completely automated.
The Citadel Complex is huge, but even it isn't big enough for a battleship to land inside. Or rather, it isn't designed with that in mind. Volume-wise it could fit inside about a hundred times over, if you didn't worry about the contents at all. Instead, there's a sort of… Socket system, where the part of the Assailant's hull which has the main external entrance plugs into the station. The ship side entrance doesn't have an airlock; it's clearly designed for this purpose only. It means that a huge number of people and supplies can be taken off or put aboard extremely quickly, minimising turnaround time.
It also makes it fairly easy to assault out of.
The work teams aren't surprised to see the marines waiting inside the ship when the hatch opens; they'd just assume that the whole complement wants to spend as much time on shore leave as possible. And those amongst them who are slaves generally aren't inclined to question the people who can administer physical chastisement -up to and including eating parts of them- at will. They aren't even worried that the marines are all carrying their weapons. That's pretty normal for Citadelians. And if the Captain isn't with them when he was so eager to report to the Emperor in person, well. His ship's been shot up. He's a busy man.
They don't start worrying until the guns come up.
"For the Admiral!"
The first rank accelerates to a sprint as fast as their bulk allows, firing shots at any Citadelian not with us. The second rank advances behind them at a walk and the rear rank uses their power armour to leap up, firing while in the air. Their armour doesn't have an AI but it does have an automatic targeting coordination system. Citadelian infantry guns aren't powerful enough to kill a Citadelian soldier in full power armour quickly unless several guns shoot the same target at the same time, overloading the force field and penetrating the armour. The observable effect is that while there's no communication between soldiers, squads all shoot the same target until that target is down, then move on to the next.
They might not be all that clever, but what they can do they do very well.
Return fire in the first few seconds is nonexistent. Aside from the surprise our Citadelians' threat designation system prioritises armed targets. Ten seconds in and our soldiers are filtering through the spare shipping containers of parts and supplies or standing atop them on overwatch, the defending marines dead on the deck.
Good, good.
I look down at the point defence drone the Psions cobbled together and then throw it into the dock, sending the activation signal once it's well inside. It stops, scans its environment and starts shooting internal cameras. While I don't mind the defenders knowing that someone is coming, I'd rather them not know to prepare for Lanterns until it's too late to do so. Positron containment beams lash out at various points along the walls, and a moment later I get an all-clear signal.
"We're on."
The princesses and I fly out of our sensor obscuring bunker in the cargo deck and zoom into the station. I wonder if they realise that they've now made it further than their grandfather's fleet ever did? The front wave of marines is about two thirds of the way to the inner entrances. We're not particularly close to command here, but a short blitz through Citadel Complex's entertainment section should put us in roughly the right place to kill the Emperor. The Citadel's main computer system is on the far side of command. Now I need to task a squad to evacuate the slave workers-.
Force fields activate at the far end of the room, blocking most exits. Komand'r and Koriand'r fly ahead, construct tower shields appearing as they watch for incoming attack. I generate railguns and load crumblers, firing my first volley just as the first autoturrets appear. The defensive system here was designed under the assumption that this was somewhere an enemy who made it this far would be likely to try to board and there are a lot of them. Fortunately, we planned with them in mind. Squads facing high rate of fire weapons duck into concealed positions, rising up to shoot the gun's force field before returning to cover to allow their own to recharge. Squads facing slower firing high power weapons keep moving, trying to deny a multi-kill shot to the gun that can easily blast through their shields and any cover they could get behind.
Which leaves we three Lanterns facing the four anti-ship guns. These are intended to shoot through the hull of any ship landing troops and out of the other side. Before the Citadel reached its present size they were external guns and -in extremis- this section can be opened to space to allow them to fire at targets outside the station. Unlike the smaller battery powered turrets these draw power from the station's main generator, which means that they actually aren't all that slow to fire.
The guns aren't pointing at me, the simple program controlling their actions immediately realising that we're far too small and agile to reliably hit. Instead, they try to fire directly forward through our marines and into our ship. Komand'r and Koriand'r block a shot each with their construct shields. Both are knocked back by the strike and both shields are badly cracked. I manifest additional railguns and start shooting at the same time as generating a barrier of my own.
You. Will. Not.
Two anti-ship plasma cannons vent their fury against my barrier as my crumbler rounds eat through the force fields protecting them from-.
Warning: teleporters active.
But I'm jamming-!?
"Base to base teleportation-"
I see robot guns appearing on the-. The cargo transporters! Komand'r replaces her shield and generates a sword as she flies towards her gun. Koriand'r is a little slower off the mark and spots a heavy turret as it materialises, locks onto her and fires. Rapid fire turrets blindside my marines in three places and I see shields overload and soldiers fall.
"-unaffected."
The guns shooting me cease in order to recharge, their protective coverings moving over their muzzles. Recharge time is about twenty seconds.
"Agh!"
Komand'r tumbles in the air as a heavy turret shoots her in the side, her constructs visibly fading as she stops focusing on how much she wants the guns destroyed. She's not actually hurt, but that could change if she gets hit again without getting her head back in the game.
My crumblers eat through the armour covering one of my assigned guns. The gun itself has a force field around the barrel, but that only takes one more shot to wreck. One down. Next gun.
Koriand'r detours to assist a marines squad-. No! Why would you do that? And she… wants to so ordering her not to wouldn't actually help. I budgeted for this but it's still irritating that it happened so soon. My railguns are chewing through the armour -I don't know what it's made of but some clever Psion integrated materials which resist whatever it is which makes crumblers work- but we've only got seconds until they fire again.
Komand'r rallies, air around her rippling as she slams into the force field protecting her gun sword first. The first shield flickers and dies and she goes to work on the second. Koriand'r flies at the gun she was assigned to, her marines pounding along behind her and assisting their fellows as they go.
And then the gun armour retracts to allow them to fire again.
Komand'r manages to get her sword through to the gun before it fires. Plasma spurts in all directions as muzzle containment fails but she's still hit by enough to finish off her shield and construct armour. Her power armour looks somewhat melted as well, but she's still alive and the partial misfire has ruined the gun. She tries pushing herself up but the armour is too damaged to allow it. Orange light runs all over it as she works to correct that.
Koriand'r rushes a shield and throws herself in the way of her gun once more. She's a little too slow, not managing to soak more than a fraction of the beam before her shield and construct armour fail. What's left of the beam scythes down most of the marines she 'rescued', burns through several cargo pods and then burns into the Assailant. Can't judge the damage quite yet.
My railguns tear apart my second gun the moment it shows itself, then I go to work on Koriand'r's.
