Countryman and party ended up enjoying a long debate between the clans. The Ilyar turned out to be very impressed with him to the point that they followed his every word. After hearing about the dreadnought, and its current state he saw it for what it was, an opportunity. Most importantly, getting access to its database could shed light on the recent silence of the Cylovan armada.
He proposed that his own ships engage the damaged dreadnought directly, and that the allied ships engage the patrols. He had seen what the local clans had access to and knew that with their numbers they were more than enough to deal with ten destroyers. As for the dreadnought even damaged it was a significant threat to any one fleet, but his fleet had the best chance against it. His armor wouldn’t hold long against those guns, but he had something special. He already knew exactly where to hit the ship to inflict the needed damage, and he had weapons that could deal quite a bit of damage. Specifically, the high-yield AMF torpedoes that he didn’t use earlier against the Rykoni. They weren’t cheap to make so he kept them in reserve rather than waste them on targets that could be sunk with more conventional weapons. The Dreadnought, on the other hand, would require their use. Even damaged those weapons were the best thing in his arsenal for damaging the ship, but he was curious about how effective the experimental Phase Lances would be against its armor. Still he did need to limit the yield of the weapons or instead of just punching a hole and disabling things he would blow entire chunks out of the ship. That could prove detrimental to a boarding operation.
The Phase Lance was more powerful than current weapons so he was hoping it could tear through the armor with precision, and disable key systems so his ground forces could board the ship. There was no way he was going to pass up a chance to get a look at the full version of Cylovan Hyperwarp technology. From what he had seen of it, he suspected that the Cylovans were not making full use of the technology. If they could capture the ship he would need a place to study the technology without interference, and he already knew just where to look. The locals called it the Ikar Radiation belt, and it wasn’t far from where she had said the dreadnought was located. The radiation shields his ships carried would keep his people safe from the radiation, and the radiation would keep most prying eyes away while they studied the technology in secret. Only the Ilyatrians showed any inclination to enter the Radiation Belt, but he was certain he could keep them away from their research.
“So you propose to have your ships challenge the Cylovan capital ship directly? Are you sure you won’t need extra support for that?” said the Ilyar Great Mother that was closest to him.
Countryman shook his head, and said, “No, my ships are better outfitted than yours, and will last longer against that ship than yours will. The Cylovans can track my ships better than most, but more importantly, the heavy armor on my ships makes them significantly more resilient than yours.
Factors will shift more in our favor once you take out the destroyers, while my ships keep the dreadnought occupied. However I plan to disable that dreadnought quickly, and Grand Matriarch Eninaci said that their shields are down. If that is the case I should be able to take it out of the picture fairly quickly.”
She leaned forward and asked, “Really!? the armor on the bigger Cylovan ships is fairly tough. I think that is only half the equation.”
Countryman shifted forward as well, and paused for a moment before deciding it was safe to share, “We are very familiar with heavy armor, more so than shields. As such we are very good at defeating armored opponents. Cylovan capital ship armor is actually a bit weaker than equivalent armor on our own capital ships. It will take time, but we can penetrate that armor, but more importantly, we actually captured one of their cruisers some time ago. I’ll share the database with you as it will give you tactical information on their ships that will prove useful in taking down those destroyers.”
A murmur went around the table, and many gladly accepted the offer, and offered gifts in exchange for such valuable information. Countryman politely accepted their offers. The resources offered were quite welcome and would come in hand if they needed repairs. A couple of clans even offered a few canisters of fuel, which he was quite glad to receive. He didn’t need it at the moment but more reserves were always welcome.
He already knew the local clans made their living via trade. However, they weren’t above raiding worlds if they had a bad year. This one had been shaping up to be one, but thanks to his own forces stepping in to purge the Rykoni from these worlds most had been able to make back what they lost earlier this year. Then the meeting shifted to discuss the strategy in more detail.
It took them fifteen days keeping pace with the local clans to reach the dreadnought in question. All the fleets held back their core ships on the edge of the system and out of range of enemy guns. Countryman kept a little more than just his core ships back. In addition to having his city-ships, and industrial vessels stay in the rear he had all four carriers hold position near the Enterprise. They wouldn’t be able to use their beam weapons at this distance, but they would be more effective deploying their fighters from the rear.
As soon as they came out of warp he had his ships start deploying fighters onto the field of battle. Keeping his elite pilots in reserve just in case they were needed, he wanted them fresh. The rest of his forces advanced directly on the dreadnought in an attack formation.
The dreadnought was the first to open fire on his fleet targeting one of the smaller ships at the front of the formation. Her green energy lance went wide and missed entirely. At the same moment, the forces of the clans engaged the destroyer patrol. Their one fighters quickly engaged the Cylovan ones in a heavy dogfight. Cylovan beam cannon squared off with nomadic disrupters, photon cannons, and lancer missiles. While the larger ships engaged each other with deadly barrages of green, yellow, and purple.
The shields of a destroyer flared brightly as they took the full barrage of seven nomadic cruisers unloading their arsenal against it. However the shields held, and the Cylovan vessel returned fire. Her beam slammed into a cruiser her shields held for a few moments before suddenly collapsing. The Cylovan shield disrupter tech clearly at work here. The beam raked across the armored hull of the ship. Penetrating the plating, and venting entire sections into space. Fortunately, nothing critical was damaged, and the ship was able to return fire while unleashing a payload of heavy torpedo at the destroyer.
This time the destroyer’s shields failed to withstand the barrage of seven ships attacking it, and collapsed. Heavy torpedoes slammed into the hull with full force. Each one exploded in brilliant blinding displays of light, and ruptured holes in the hull of their target. Her outer hull a clear mess the ship fired again, a targeted burst at the first cruiser. The energy beam tore through several decks, but fortunately missed anything truly important. The captain of the cruiser wisely backed off, while his buddies dumped another volley into the wounded destroyer. The ship went up in a glorious fireball marking the very first ship to be sunk in this engagement.
As for the Refuge fleet, it was now fully engaged in the fight with the dreadnought, and a couple of their destroyers had taken a few hits by now. Their hulls were a bit melted, and scarred from the impact, but the ships were still fighting.
A couple of explosions occurred on the surface of the dreadnought. Her armor buckled, and the compartments behind the newly buckled plating disintegrated. Several beam weapon mounts instantly stopped firing as their power was disrupted. Just as the twenty Battlehawks entered beam weapons range. In unison, the powerful cruisers opened fire, each one targeting different vital systems on the damaged dreadnought. Sustained violet-blue streams of energy lanced across space to tear into the hull of the hostile warship. Its neutronium laced hull armor seemed to hold for a second or two before the outer layer started to breakdown, and then with increasing rapidity, the beams began to burrow through the damaged hull of the mighty vessel.
The ship rotated in response changing the way the beams were scarring the hull. Several beam cannons locked onto a destroyer, and opened fire. The ship took several glancing blows, as her helmsman used a clever series of maneuvers to avoid a direct hit while a wing of Firebirds unleashed their payloads into a weapons cluster. Several retaliatory beams were fired in response, but only glancing blows were scored. Ones that were easily absorbed by the attacking ships.
The Cylovan consciousness focused its attention on the ships attacking one of its dreadnoughts. It was a valuable asset that wasn’t easily replaced, but it had already sent all that it could spare to guard it earlier. What really grabbed its attention were the cruisers being employed by Species 11257. Specifically the beam weapons they were using. As the weapons were a significant improvement over those in its records. Even more interesting was that it actually recognized some of the ships as previously having fought its ships.
The new torpedoes ripping large holes in its hull were also drawing its attention, and a quick scan showed that they were being fired at low comparative yields. The only reason it could think of for that would be that they wanted to board. That had happened before, and it knew from experience that it couldn’t allow them to connect to the computers. This species was so good at hacking that the last time they completely outmaneuvered its every countermeasure. It had already updated and improved its countermeasures, but that didn’t mean it wanted to have those tested. It had even included a new countermeasure it had never considered before. It had added a self-destruct system to its dreadnoughts. That last one was something it didn’t want to use as it had already lost too many of the valuable warships to the Sylnari, and all but three of its remaining dreadnought were tied up in its new defensive line with the Sylnari. Given its remaining yards and expected causalities over the next few decades, it would be about sixty years before it had any new dreadnoughts to spare. It needed as many as it could get to support the new invasion it was planning, and protect its new territories while it built the replacement yards. A process that given the size of a proper dreadnought capable shipyard would take decades to complete. It had identified nine good sites so far for new yards, and expected it would take thirty years to get all the yards up and running. It planned to have the first coming online in just five years. It had a rather fast-paced plan to get that first new yard up quickly, but it would come at the expense of the other yards. In seven years new dreadnoughts would be fielded, and assigned to patrol and defend vital sector assets. Given recent losses, it could not afford to risk them on an offensive.
All of this relied on it having this dreadnought, but it assigned processing power to making a backup plan in case it lost this ship. In the meantime, it diverted the nearest available ship. A battleship that was currently ten hours away, and in a battle that was an eternity.
Checking its destroyers, it noticed they were faring badly. Eight of them were already gone, and the last two were on their last legs. It ordered them to make an emergency jump, as it needed their sensors to aid the dreadnought in targeting the ships attacking it. One of the destroyers successfully made the jump and moved across the system in an instant. The other however took a torpedo penetrating through the port hangar bay just seconds before making the jump and exploded as it jumped. A trail of fire streaked across the system in a brilliant display.
Back near the dreadnought, a green beam struck a hostile destroyer amidships. The hull melted, and the pulse went out the other side of the ship, and it kept going. A series of torpedoes were fired from its hull as fired a volley at a passing squadron of Cylovan fighters. Their fragile unshielded hulls stood no chance against the deadly alien flak, and they were shredded in an instant. Several torpedoes slammed into the hull of the dreadnought, and detonated. Each one damaging a vital defense system. It was clear that Species 11257 knew exactly where to hit the ship. Each of these impacts were targeted to disrupt its weapon systems. Suddenly a high energy beam punched through the hull of the dreadnought and lacerated the primary communications array and it lost its connection with the ships for a moment. Only to lose it again when the backups exploded from a torpedo. Then again when the next tier of backups was again lacerated by a beam weapon.
It quickly realized that they were targeting the comm systems, and it could send orders to the dreadnought because as soon as a backup came online the system was destroyed. It changed its attention to the destroyer just as a wave of fighters caught up with it. It fired its guns at them, but they weren’t geared for anti-fighter. The shots going wide, but they did scatter a few squadrons. Giving it a little bit of a reprieve as it launched its own reserves into the fray. It had already lost a good number in the previous fight but it still had more to use.
Its fighters quickly engaged the attacking wing, but they proved to be too fast and maneuverable for it. Blue streaks separated from the attackers, and decimated its defending craft in glorious displays of fireworks. Several more of the alien fighters unleashed their payloads on the wounded destroyer its shields not yet recharged couldn’t stop the high yield bombs from interacting with its hull, and in a massive display of fireworks the ship was torn to pieces and with it the Cylovan Collective lost all its data on the battle.
She checked the landing zone, and there weren’t any contacts in the area. The marines ahead of her had evidently cleared the landing zone of all contacts. The Dreadnought was currently offline, and she had seen the damage it did to the fleet on the way in. No ships had been lost, but several destroyers looked to be heavily damaged, and so did a few of the firebirds. Of course, this ship had been practically immobile, her shields had been inoperable and she was half-blind so it said something that she had even managed to damage the ships she had.
With the area clear she signaled her squad forward. Behind her, a couple squads of engineers followed her squad. Their goal was to extract the key engine components that they needed, and get a copy of the Cylovan database from this ship. They didn’t need the whole thing this time though only a few key files, and having already copied what a cruiser had they knew where to look for the information. She led them down a damaged corridor towards an access shaft. They knew exactly where to go thanks to having a blueprint for the ship from the copy taken from the cruiser. Combined with fleet scans of the ship, they were able to find a course that led straight to the main computer banks, and engine room. Which were conveniently for them located right next to each other at the center of the ship.
They passed several destroyed drones on the way to the hatch, and they could hear the sound of fighting as they advanced, but they didn’t encounter any drones on the way to the hatch.
The hatch was still intact, so she hung back and watched the corridor with a few others for hostile drones while one of the engineers used a cutting torch to cut it open. It only took about a minute, and then they were on their way down. Using the maintenance tunnels to make their way towards their destination. There was a transit rail system for moving material a couple decks down, and they were going to commander its rails for moving quickly to the central section of the ship. It was likely offline, but they had brought the equipment they needed to make use of it. A simple device with its own battery that can be adjusted to fit the rail, and then uses a harness to rapidly move a soldier on it. A device like this was actually quite the necessity for tackling large ships. As it allowed for rapid movement in the ship, even after the defenders shut down their own internal transit systems.
They reached the rails and found two drones guarding the rails. A pair of quick shots from her and a buddy brought them down before they were even aware that they were there. With practiced ease, they affixed their rail devices, and made their way into the depths of the ship.
The rail deposited them a few decks above the engine room. The immediate area was quiet, and there were no drones insight. The young marine didn’t sense anything in the area with her other senses either, but she remained on alert as she took point. Heading for an access shaft a few meters down the corridor.
They were only halfway down the corridor when automated turrets sprang out the walls and opened fire on them. One person was hit before they got into cover but their armor held. She tossed a pulse grenade down the hall, and alerted the unit. A couple moments later it detonated with a crackle, and the automated guns went silent. Their systems having been overloaded by the device.
With the defenses offline, they made their way to the shaft unopposed, and proceeded down into the core of the ship. They emerged to find a number of maintenance drones milling about, and a couple of defense drones on patrol. The two marines on point rolled a couple of grenades into the room, and they took cover. The grenades neutralized most of the drones, and they burst into the room firing. It happened so quickly the drones barely had time to process and react before they were downed. Apparently, even mechanical drones were vulnerable to fast attacks. With the drones down they now had access to the computers, and the engines. The marines quickly set up a perimeter, and the engineers went to access the engines. She made her way to the computer access junction and plugged into the system.
It immediately began engaging countermeasures, and the dance of hacking began. Her own telepathic link with the others proved very helpful in allowing her to anticipate and outmaneuver the Cylovan defense. In less than ten minutes they were able to shutdown the Cylovan defenses, and even disable the new self destruct protocol they found.
