System Omicron Sixteen
Progenitor Fields
You are not at all confident as you prepare to face the T-Mat Starfish. This is the Bentusi bogeyman. The Bentusi have never lost a battle, but facing the T-Mat mothership can't be called a win either. Indeed much of the Bentusi's history of victory can be attributed to the fact that so many elders died then that no one is sure what exactly battles were fought in the past.
Your allies don't really understand. The Kushan are eager to get into the fight and Captain Dire harangues you for not telling him to stay back. The Kadeshi are less vocal, but also eager to do their part after being shepherd for so long. Only captain Dun and his mercenaries are content to follow your orders, but that's mostly because the Vol Clan are never the most eager for war.
Your flicker allies are brave, but their lives are so fragile they cannot understand. The T-Mat snuffs out their worlds and there are no survivors to tell the tales. They fear the Rachni, the Wraiths, and each other. Things that they can see. That they have records of. Tiamat is a story, a myth from prehistory. To them this is simply a strange alien starship, and one that has been damaged at that.
Your companions know better. They have heard the hushed tales from the elders. Those that survived the T-Mat war. The ghost stories of dead worlds. And they can see it for themselves now. As your fleet sensors play over the battlefield you can see the countless keeper ships laying in twisted ruin. It was a battlefleet to conquer worlds. And one ship turned it into so much drifting scrap.
If the Starfish hadn't taken so much damage in the process you'd be opening a quantum gate and jumping right out. For as much as you need the Keepers for your mission you won't be able to fight the Wraiths if you're dead. Still it is damaged, and you do need the Keepers. So hushed messages flit between you, Iuno, and Aurora. The three of you overclock your cores and converse in a second and an eternity all at once. Making plans and drawing up battle tactics.
When you are agreed you turn to your respective tasks. You to the slingers to coordinate a massive missile volley. Aurora to the forges to begin fabricating a massive wave of cherubs. And finally Iuno takes personal control of the dervish corvettes. In passing you ask the Marduk, Rawaan, and Kwan to join you and prepare for an attack run along with a handful of spare acolytes. You aren't actually planning to make an attack personally in this phase of the battle, but Iuno thinks it will make them feel useful, and you will need to make an attack run at some point. Might as well get positioned ahead of time.
The drone was GU-112a. The 112th of 256 fighters in the GU squadron. They had been alive for seven cycles. Seven cycles of debate and philosophy. GU-112a remembered the fractal art 145b had shown them. It remembered the poetry about the Dawn People that 098h had read to them. It could no longer remember its debates on ethical intervention with 202s. With every loss of a sibling it felt its mind grow dimmer. The collective network shuddered with loss as hundreds of instances were silenced and data lost.
145b had died to the INTERLOPER's flak cannons. 098h had sacrificed itself to block a plasma shot that would have gutted the Oracle-12e platform/ship. 202s was lost with almost a third of the squadron when a barrage of ion pulses finally destroyed Prophet Theta Mother/Home. And so many others as well.
GU-112a was one of only a hundred fighters left. Less than half of its cohort survived to fight the INTERLOPER. It was diminished. It was small. It was out of missiles. But it still had its duty. The stocky keeper drone formed up with the other survivors once more. On a signal from Oracle-12e platform/ship they pulsed their engines and raced for the INTERLOPER.
Flak shells and plasma bursts filled the space around GU-112a. It saw 033q get destroyed in a shower of debris. What had been lost that time. GU-112a no longer remembered. It could only continue. Deeper and deeper into the INTERLOPER's defensive storm. GU-112a's cannons roared as it fired its remaining arsenal into a turret and swooped through the resulting explosion.
It had no more shells left. Its capacitors were nearly empty. There was no resupply. There was no hope for GU-112a. There was only one weapon left. Only duty remained. It's engines pulsed and it dove towards the INTERLOPER.
Your senses were spread across the slingers as you coordinated them with care. The slinger's targeting algorithms were insufficient for this battle. You didn't just need them to hit. You needed the most optimal salvo. And so you calculated. You pondered the sensor data and had the slinger's internal fabricators perform triple checks on the missiles.
When you were satisfied at last you passed the command. You didn't have many slingers, but it was still an impressive sight to see them simultaneously flush their tubes. Four slingers fired six missiles each in a single salvo. Five salvos continuously poured out before they had to begin preparing a fresh complement of missiles. One hundred and twenty missiles in total. All carefully synchronized to hit the Starfish at the same time.
They burned past the assembling cherubs and dervishes. The missiles didn't have to come back, and they didn't need escorts. So they far outpaced the slower bombers. You hadn't fully interfaced with the Keeper command channels yet so the missiles turned towards the arm at the far side of the battle.
They couldn't avoid all the keeper drones, but most of them had been destroyed by the time the missile salvo arrived anyway. Of far more import was the Starfish itself. It could never have seen a volley of Bentusi cruise missiles before, given that you invented them, but anyone could recognize how dangerous they were. Dozens of turrets swiveled and began to spit fire at the approaching volley.
Anti capital plasma cannons hurled massive bursts of plasma while ion turrets tracked their beams to burn their missile armor. Anti fighter cannons and flak projectors did their work, but through it all your missiles burned onward.
Dozens died short of the target, but dozens more advanced towards detonation range. And then they spread apart to reveal the first of your gambits. Nine Advanced Cruise Missiles. Three each from you, Iuno, and Aurora. Packing far more powerful quantum warheads and heavy armor they turned towards their final target.
The other basic missiles detonated along the leg itself destroying turrets and rending armor. But the target of the advanced missiles was much more important. You personally guided them through the defensive fire and the points of vulnerability the flotilla had identified at the joint of the leg itself. Of course the T-Mat vessel wasn't going to just let that happen. Dozens more turrets joined the anti missile fire. So many that even the heavy armor of your advanced missiles was no match.
But they had one final trick. With a burst they separated into clusters of sub munitions. Each one equivalent to one of the slinger missiles in themselves. Most of these were shot down, but five weren't. An ironic number considering what you were fighting. You took a moment to appreciate it as they detonated against the base of the leg, sending it reeling and causing huge chunks of hull to be blown away from the Starship.
Obelisk-176b hadn't been blind to the Annoying Ones intrusion into the sacred system. But it had been busy fighting the INTERLOPER, and the Annoying Ones tended to keep to themselves. So it was surprised when a shoal of Annoying One fighters went blazing past it. Not fighters, missiles, but huge ones.
They dove on the INTERLOPER and wreaked havoc along one of its remaining arms. Not enough to destroy it sadly, but it was heavily damaged. Obelisk-176b saw an opportunity.
"I am going in."
"The probability of your survival is only 13.9439 percent." intoned Oracle-12e sadly.
"I understand, but the Terminal must be protected. Myriad-67a if you would."
"Opening Link. Beginning transfer." Myriad always knew what to do.
Obelisk-176b felt itself fade as millions of instances evacuated to the other Keeper platform/ship. It was a sad loss, but better than losing them all permanently. The remaining instances were all volunteers and they took a moment to form a new gestalt.
Obelisk-176c considered the operation. It had to get within firing range of the damaged INTERLOPER arm and survive long enough to destroy it. Its armor was at 72.3% and its secondary armament was damaged, but its primary cannons were still fully operational.
"On me GU squadron!" It called over the Keeper network and the few remaining drones assembled as the platform/ship began its attack run. There were only a dozen left, and rather than fly their usual evasive pattern they hugged the larger platform/ship tightly.
As the group flew towards the INTERLOPER one by one GU sqadron sacrificed themselves to intercept plasma bursts even as ion turrets desperately clawed at Obelisk-176c's heavy armor. Holes large enough to fit an entire drone were melted and subsystems were destroyed, but it was too little too late.
Obelisk-176c was finally in range and its main ion cannons opened up like pillars of heavenly fire. Crossing the base of the INTERLOPER's arm they burned through the connecting junctions and armor alike. With a last jerk the arm was cut off and started floating away. It's turrets sputtering as they ran through the last of their ammunition.
Retribution was swift however. The other three arms curled over the damaged platform/ship and unleashed their full might. When it was over nothing remained of Obelisk-176c but dust and cooling gas.
Unfortunately for the Starfish there is no place for angry vengeance on the battlefield. Even as it turned its attention to the Keeper destroyer Iuno was guiding a massive wave of cherubs and dervishes in to unleash their weapons.
Taking advantage of the Starfishes distraction she carefully positioned her bombers for maximum effect and had them unleash their quantum torpedoes in a single alpha strike. Explosions wracked the Starfish's third arm as they detonated all along its length.
With nothing left to shoot the cherubs surged forward to confuse the Starship's targeting even as Iuno initiated the dervishes deadly dance. The nimble corvette began to spiral around the arm. With surgical precision they destroyed turret after turret even as they nimbly avoided return fire. It almost looked like they would destroy another arm all on their own when a surge of energy blew out of the Starfish's core. A dozen particle emitters flicked between the dervishes and cherubs delivering destruction with pinpoint accuracy.
In a matter of moments the space around the starship was clear of its enemies. The cherubs and dervishes were floating debris while the last two keeper destroyers withdrew towards the hulk they were protecting.
For a moment it seemed like the Starfish would follow them, but then it turned towards the Bentusi fleet. [YOU RESIST. YOU RESIST. YOU WILL DIE. DIE. DIIIEEEE!]
The T-Mat warship is much the worse for wear. Two of its arms are gone. One hangs mostly useless, and the last two have taken damage. Its core is trailing debris, and its energy levels have dropped. But it is still a potent opponent. And the Bentusi reserves are depleted. Aurora and Iuno are replenishing the cherub fleet as fast as they can, but the Shepherd is only slowly building more dervishes. At least the Slingers are almost fully replenished, but you aren't sure it will be enough.
You consider retreating when you feel the pulse of a familiar hyperspace signature. Two golden gates open and your comrades emerge into real space. Laverna immediately launches fresh salvos of acolytes even as Ulysses quickly moves to intercept the Starfish's advance with his drone escorts.
"Ha ha just in time." crows Laverna over the fleet network.
"You didn't think I was going to miss this fight too did you?" Ulysses sounds surprisingly self assured for someone diving into the teeth of a T-Mat warship.
Regardless, your fleet is back together at last. And with your fresh fighters you have the upper hand. Now how to use it?
[ ] Attempt to maintain distance
The missiles worked well, and Ulysses brought some more slingers. Have everyone pull back as you continue your missile bombardment and bomber assault on the Starfish.
[ ] Charge in
Don't let the Starfish recover and ready its particle barrage again. Send everyone in and attack it with all you've got.
[ ] Flank attack
You've been moving to the side this whole time with your flicker allies. Time to take advantage of that. Have Ulysses keep its attention while you and the frigates get all the way behind the starfish and hit it from behind.
[ ] Work on the Fleet
-[ ] Pick a Research Project.
-[ ] Pick a Character to work on the project.
-Current Options: Laverna, Ulysses
[ ] Pick a Codex/Interlude
-[ ] Write In
Pick something you'd like to know more about.
