Shifting in her seat, the Matriarch stared out the viewport. She had been here a few days now, and the repairs for her ship, and those of her sister Matriarchs were almost done. The dimly lit observation deck was quite comfortable and gave her a good view of what was going on. Outside she could see a few Refuge scoutships leaving the fleet perimeter before making a jump. It was a common sight, and they were regularly launching the things. She had come to the conclusion that they were actively building scoutships, but she had yet to see them actually lay down a hull. However the fact that the only ships launching them were the industrial ships strongly supported the theory that they were building the ships. She had also seen them pull and replace a couple of modules on what her engineers told her were carriers. The old modules were then taken apart and recycled for other projects. The only project she knew for certain they used the material on however was the repairs for their damaged cruiser.

A ship whose repairs had already been completed. She had noticed that their engineers were very efficient at their jobs, and it had not taken them long to repair that cruiser. A process that was as simple as removing the damaged modules and installing new ones. Then they replated the hull. The damaged components were then taken apart by worker bees and then pulled into the industrial ship. Since she was dealing with a fellow nomadic culture she knew that those materials would be recycled. She was also pretty sure they had only removed the modules that were too badly damaged for a quick repair job. All the ones she had seen floating in space after being pulled from the ship were practically totaled. The Cylovan weapons had done a real number on those sections of the ship. Which meant it was likely cheaper and easier to replace the entire module, and then salvage whatever was left of the old one.

As she was pondering things she noticed several ships break off from the rest of the fleet. Four cruisers, a carrier, and eight destroyers alongside sixteen of their frigates broke away, and assumed a formation before making the jump to warp speed. It looked like something was happening, but she had no idea where those ships were going. Then again she wasn’t privy to what was going on in the upper circles of this clan. She only had limited access to the lower circles, and that included limited access to their internal market. Visiting their market had been interesting, and she even purchased a few interesting trinkets. Items she felt she could sell elsewhere for a tidy little profit. Maybe a little more as she could play on the fact that elsewhere they would be unique items. As for the ships, if she had to guess they were likely an attack group. Which meant some unfortunate Rykoni were in for a rude awakening.

A young-looking woman settled into her command chair. She had been entrusted command of this task force, and she wanted to impress the Supreme Protector. She also secretly hoped that by impressing him with her skills, he would notice her. Not that she was going to voice the desire anytime soon. Her ship, the SFS Kingdom SFR-03 was a fine ship, and she was looking forward to this battle. Her bridge was currently a flurry of activity, and in about an hour they would be launching an attack on an identified Rykoni base. It was on the surface of a small planet about .9 AU from its star which was comparable to Sol, but a bit dimmer. The planet itself was a bit smaller than Mars, and was quite dry. However it still had a decent biosphere, and several Rykoni settlements dotted a desert in the northwestern hemisphere. The scoutship that found it had determined a population of about two hundred forty thousand most of which were in fact not Rykoni. Given what they knew about the Rykoni it was likely that these non-Rykoni were in fact slaves.

Which played into the fact that they were only authorized to conduct limited ground bombardment. This meant they were to selectively target military targets, and let the troops sort things out on the ground. She had been told to save as many slaves as she could safely. Otherwise she was free to inflict as much damage as she wanted. In orbit of the planet was an asteroid that had been towed into a stable orbit, and a base had been carved out of the rock. Scans had revealed that it had several laser batteries, and a few banks of missiles for protection. It had a nice dock, that presented an excellent entry point. While the base itself was unremarkable, deep mineral scans had revealed that they had some very valuable minerals in their storage. Well worth the extra risk of trying to take the base intact.

She already had a basic plan of attack. The Rykoni only had a small fleet protecting their outpost here. Which amounted to twelve cruisers and about six hundred raiders. The base itself had facilities for a fleet twice that size. So she figured most of the raiders were out. Likely conducting hits on someone’s shipping or harassing the local nomads. Her plan was simple. Most of her fleet including her flag would engage the enemy. She would deploy her fighters in a net to prevent them from escaping. While two of her destroyers would break off to disable the defenses on the asteroid base. Then conduct tactical bombardment of ground-based military installations. Including the ground to space battery their scout had identified when it reconned the system the day before. Given the general state of disrepair the Rykoni ships were in, she didn’t expect them to be able to put up much of a fight. She had been given more than enough ships and firepower to clear out this hostile nest.

Shifting in her seat, the woman waited for her ship to reach its destination. Shortly before they were to drop out of warp in the target system a crewman reported that her pilots were ready to launch. She was glad to hear that as it would take a few minutes to deploy her entire complement of fighter craft. Having them ready and on standby would help cut the time to deploy by a few minutes.

Then finally in a subdued flash, they had arrived at their target destination. Her officers quickly reported that they appeared to be undetected so far, and she gave the order to begin launching fighters. If they hadn’t been spotted yet, then she was going to take advantage of that and deploy their net. Then one of her officers reported, “Commodore Yoshimoto Sir, we have detected what looks to be a disabled Nomad cruiser docked at the Rykoni asteroid base. We have also detected Vysonii Lifesigns on the station.”

She doubted that their new friends or any other clan of their race would choose to willingly dock at Rykoni base. She had no doubt it was a captured ship, and those life signs belong to its crew who had been captured. “That doesn’t change our attack plans much. Alert the detachment that will be boarding the station that they have a new objective. They are to secure that cruiser, preferably without too much additional damage, and rescue the crew. It should earn us more favor with our new friends.”

The officer acknowledged her order and then scurried off to relay her orders. She leaned back in her chair and surveyed her screens. Yoshimoto was keeping a close eye on the Rykoni ship movements, and tracking her own fleet movements.

It didn’t take long for her fleet to get into position, but each agonizing second had felt like years. Once they were in postion she gave the order to activate their hyperspace jammers. With those systems active it would be impossible for the Rykoni ships to make the jump to hyperspace as long as they were in the radius of effect. Her net of deployed fighters would make it very difficult for any ship to escape the net, and let her focus on taking orbital control. Once she had that she would then deploy her ground troops to the planetary surface to take the Rykoni colony.

“Jammers are active Commodore,” reported her operations officer. Then her tactical officer reported, “That seems to have gotten their attention. They have armed their defense systems, and are intensifying their active scans.”

She glanced at her screens. There was a Rykoni cruiser in weapons range of her ship, and its shields were still coming online. Which gave them a window of nearly a minute that they would be vulnerable to attack. “Then let's give them a reason to panic, destroy that eyesore, and give the fleet the attack signal.”

Her tactical officer didn’t say a thing. She only returned a predatory grin and went to the controls. On the surface of the Kingdom’s hull the main beam arrays lit up a vibrant blue, and then an energy beam lanced out at the cruiser. The particle stream punched into the hull amidships and out the other side in an instant. The beam translated along the hull and quickly began to cut the ship in two. Entire sections of the ship explosively decompressed as the hull buckled under the attack. As the beam terminated a second beam followed up to continue the damage. Someone managed to get the shields up in that brief interval, but they didn’t last long. The carrier’s beam array was very powerful thanks to its massive capital ship power plant, and a significant chunk of the beam just punched through the shields. Ten seconds after the shields came up the beam intersected with the primary shield generator and the system disintegrated. A few seconds later the beam finished bisecting the unfortunate cruiser. Not a single missile or reactor had been hit, but the entire ship was now vented to space.

Other Refuge ships opened up to engage Rykoni targets in their weapons range. Most didn’t even have their shields up. Their inability to detect the Refuge ship’s earlier had allowed her to close into weapons range without alerting the enemy. The result was that in the opening two minutes her taskforce eliminated half the defenders without much of a fight. At the same moment, the two destroyers tasked with disabling the orbital base opened up on the asteroid. Particle impacts precisely targeted at the weapon emplacements made quick work of the defenses

A couple of well-aimed photons were used to blow open the hanger bays doors, and then the assault craft carrying the boarding party was launched. While the ships locked their beam arrays on ground-based military targets. The ground to space battery was neutralized before they could even get a shot off, and the rest of the space battle was effectively a curb stomp. A couple of Rykoni raiders did attempt to escape, but they were torn apart by Refuge fighter craft.

Pov Random Marine commander:

The landing marines moved immediately to secure the landing zone. The ship's torpedoes, however, had done a very good job of clearing the hangar. Not a single Rykoni was alive in the hangar to oppose them. Her squad had been assigned the task of rescuing their nomadic friends. She was first up to the door into the base proper. She and a buddy set up a pair of forcefield bars, and activated them before planting the breaching charge. The bars would keep the atmosphere in. Normally they wouldn’t have cared, but in this case, there were people on the asteroid they wanted alive. In other words, the prisoners, they had been ordered to rescue.

The charge made quick work of the damaged hatch, and their squad made its way into the building. A pair of Rykoni were guarding the corridor. She thought them ugly creatures, but paid the thought little mind, and fired at the first one. Two quick shots in the chest and he was down for the count. The other one got off a single round that went wide, and got three bolts to the face as thanks for his trouble. She took a moment to look at the creatures before they passed. They had thick red skin, and strong tusks on their face. Both were tall with robust builds, and had a stripe of brown fur that ran from the top of their head to their tall. Each one had claws on their arms, and strong predatory jaws. She had the distinct impression that they were a highly predatory species.

They moved down the corridor and took a passage to the left. This led them into a room with four more Rykoni in it. Each one was greeted with a pair of quick shots to the chest or head. A couple did manage to get off shots of their own, and one of them even scored a hit on one of her buddies. Their armor easily absorbed the hit, and they were unharmed. Then the group continued down the path towards the life signs the fleet had detected.

They encountered a few more Rykoni on the path to the local brig, but they were all easily dealt with. It was clear that while physically strong they were lacking in real combat training. Which made reaching the brig quite easy for them, where they found the entire crew of the cruiser locked behind bars. Many of them were injured, and even the young were beaten. Likely from Rykoni brutality. Only about a dozen Rykoni were guarding the entrance and only a handful were patrolling the area.

They had stormed through the entrance and greeted each with a precise burst center-mass. As large and tough as they were to her and her squad they were nothing more than big targets. She went ahead, while the others started to open the cells and treat the Vysonii prisoners. Another went the opposite direction.

She encountered the first patrol about ten meters down the row of cells. They saw her first and opened fire with their laser rifles. Her armor absorbed a few hits, but she was otherwise fine. She raised her rifle, and aimed a few particle bolts into their chests. It took her only moments to clear the patrol then she moved on. For the most part, it was a simple rinse and repeat. Taking only moments to clear the cells. As soon as she met up with the rest of her squad they received a report that the cruiser had been secured.