The admiral studied his screens. The fleet had not been able to spare him many ships. He only had ten ships at his command, and he had to use them wisely. They were currently just one jump away from their destination. The first of several major Cylovan systems that had been identified as critical shipyards or industrial centers supporting their fleet. A great deal rested on the result of this attack. If successful they would set be able to force the Cylovans on to the backfoot. They lacked the ships and manpower to do more than push them back. Doing so, however, would give the Union, and the Alliance time to buildup a more powerful fleet. One that they sorely needed. They calculated this attack if it succeeded would set them back about a hundred years or more, and that would be enough time for the younger races to grow strong enough to face them on more equal footing. Hopefully enough to defeat them, but simulations showed it might trend closer to a stalemate. Honestly how things go would depend on the amount of damage they could deal before the Cylovans dispatched a fleet to intercept them.

All ten of his ships were heavily armed behemoths known as Superdreadnoughts. He was particularly proud of his flagship the Aqerousi Class SDN Moroth. She was the largest ship in the fleet at 3200 km in length she was the size of a small moon. The Moroth carried twelve triple barrelled Hypervelocity Cannons, and 2200 Ultra-heavy Antiproton cannons as her primary armament. The hull also supported multiple Antiproton beam arrays as part of her secondary armament. Hundreds of Hyperspatial torpedo turrets were mounted all across the hull, and she had drone bays supporting millions of small drone fighters. For protection, she was plated with Xeos hull armor several kilometers thick. Afterall when a ship is the size of a small moon you had the space to spare for some truly absurd armor. The armor was reinforced with specialized structural enhancers, and a network of special systems were integrated with the armor for dispersing the force of energy weapons, and explosive warheads. Inside the ship, reactive systems were included for nullifying internal explosions. The entire hull also supported an integrated hull regeneration system that allowed the ship to rapidly regenerate during battle.

These systems and the armor greatly enhanced the survivability of the ship. In addition to armor the ship had eighteen shield generators that generated a powerful multiadaptive energy barrier. Few races could get past that shield, as it was capable of adapting to most forms of attack. The Refuge were one of the few who likely could get past the shield, given their use of shield penetrating weapons. However, he doubted they would be able to inflict significant damage before the shield adapted. Such a battle was unlikely however, as they had been profiled to avoid battles they couldn’t win. Meaning they would much rather be our friend than our enemy. The Cylovans, on the other hand, had developed a specialized method of attack for defeating Sylnari energy shielding. It was crude but effective. Allowing them to get past the shield in a matter of minutes if they had enough ships.

The real gem of the ship’s defensive systems was the Prophet Defense Array. This device was the ultimate in predictive defenses for the best way to stop an attack was to know it was coming and how. The system used a powerful cluster of sensors and analytical computers to help predict incoming attacks. However, that was only part of the equation. To function at full ability it actually needed the aide of a highly psionic individual. Psionics had an uncanny ability to predict highly probable futures if they had enough information. In fact, he recalled a project to scan the future from a few centuries ago. They quickly learned that it was easy to predict events within a scope of a few years, but the further into the future you looked the less accurate your predictions. That is why they didn’t bother to look further than a century. Being able to predict the actions of your neighbors was an invaluable asset. One thing to keep in mind was the system was only as good as your data. The arrival of the Refuge in this quadrant is a good example of this. They didn’t have any recent data on other parts of the galaxy, and as a result, had been unable to predict their arrival here. The results of their arrival are also hard to predict, mainly due to a lack of data.

Seeing everything was in order he gave the order, and every ship in his fleet made the burst jump to the target system. Ten ships materialized in an instant just twenty thousand kilometers from a major Cylovan Shipyard complex. Eighty Cylovan dreadnoughts were docked in the slips. All of which were under construction. Some of which were nearly complete, and others were just a star frame. Construction had only recently begun with those ships, and they already knew that each one took around two years to build. This was one of nineteen shipyards in the collective that was able to build these mighty behemoths. They only needed to destroy seven of them to cripple the collectives military interests in this region of the galaxy. Not to mention with this one being the largest its destruction would be a major setback for the Cylovans.

He didn’t even need to give the order. All ten captains followed the plan as given before the jump. The instant they were secure from burst jump they opened fire on the preselected targets. A few well-placed hypervelocity rounds tore the shipyard to pieces, and a couple of hyperspatial explosives followed in their wake and detonated near the largest surviving mass concentrations. Other nearby ships were targeted. Rounds ripped through patroling dreadnoughts, battleships, and cruisers. In under a minute they had wiped out the shipyard, and half the capital ships defending the system. Then the Cylovan ships began to raise shields, and that was their signal to jump out, but not without leaving behind a few gifts. A few extreme yield hyperspatial explosives detonated mere seconds after they jumped out. Unleashing a shockwave that engulfed half the system, and inflicted considerable environmental damage to the planets in range, and ripping the one the shipyard orbited into pieces. Most of the larger ships that survived the initial attack survived, but a good chunk of their surviving fleet was destroyed by the blast. While much of the debris was reduced to expanding dust clouds by the energy.

The jump led them to a mostly clear system with only a single cruiser, and a small mining outpost in it. Needless to say, they were both destroyed in short order, without being able to put up much of a fight. The jump gave them a little time to prepare for the next attack, and he heard a few junior officers excitedly chatting about their success. So the admiral barked at them, “Don’t get cocky. We won so easily because they were completely unprepared for an attack. Next one I expect they will put up more of a fight.”

They had to make another jump before they could make the jump to the next shipyard. The next chosen system for that jump was a fleet base where a good number of Cylovan ships were moored for maintenance and resupply. If they could hit it while the ships were still docked they would be able to weaken their navy. The base was responsible for their seventh fleet, which was primarily responsible for defending worlds in this sector. Its loss, and the loss of those ships would certainly delay the Cylovan response to their attack.

As soon as the drive was ready for another jump, they jumped into the system. They emerged not far from the fleet base, and a quick scan revealed that the base was not fully mobilized yet. Most of the moored ships were powering up, and the patrols had raised their shields. The base itself had also energized its shields.

The admiral had expected this, and was glad for the efficiency of his captains. Who following the plan opened up with a concentrated barrage on the fleet base. Hypervelocity rounds zipped across space and slammed into the shield. The barrier struggled to absorb the first barrage of shots, but managed to stay up. Albeit in a severely weakened state, and the second volley ripped through the shields and exploded on contact with the hull. The immense amount of energy from the round was explosively unleashed upon the hull of the fleet base. Entire sections distorted as it broke apart, and the moored ships didn’t fare much better. Even those not directly hit were shredded by shockwaves and flying debris.

His shields flared, as a Cylovan Dreadnought leading a patrol of battleships opened fire on his ship. The battleships quickly following suit. The captain of his ship responded quickly and gave the order to return fire with the antiproton cannons. Golden yellow energy bolts rippled across space, and tore into the patrol. The dreadnought taking the brunt of the fire. Her shields absorbed a good chunk of the energy, and would have lasted for several minutes, had a second ship not opened up on them. The bolts slamming in from a second angle quickly led to the shields collapsing the hull absorbed multiple heavy hits. Each one ripping massive chunks of the hull apart, but they switched targets before the ship was destroyed.

It took their group a few minutes to dispatch the patrol, and as soon as it was destroyed they jumped out before the other patrols could enter weapons range, and they once again left behind a few presents for the Cylovans. He was sure they were well received by their intended recipients. He didn’t have time to check, given that they jumped right into the middle of an enemy-held system. A shipyard complex was less than a light second from their position. The complex was smaller than the last one, but still decently large with seventy-three dreadnought sized slips. Each one containing a dreadnought at various stages of construction.

This one unlike the last one had several extensions containing numerous slips for Battleships. This shipyard was a major yard for the construction of battleships in the collective, but also a major supplier of Dreadnoughts. With nearly two hundred slips supporting battleships in various stages of construction it had been marked as a priority target. The yard itself had numerous shield generators, and the more complete ships were powering up.

Fortunately, none of the patrols were in a position to threaten the fleet. They immediately began a concentrated barrage on the yard. Its powerful shields completely absorbed the first seven volleys from their guns. During the eight volley localized failures allowed rounds to slip by and inflict considerable damage to the station itself. Several incomplete husks were torn apart the debris explosively pelting the surrounding slips, connectors, and even other ships. The station actually survived that volley, but the ninth and final volley signaled its end. As the shields collapsed completely and the explosive energy of the rounds ripped it apart. A couple of ships were torn to pieces as they attempted to escape the dying yard.

A patrol made a short in system hop at that moment in an attempt to close into range, but they were already making the jump out of the system. Once again they left some gifts behind for the Cylovans to enjoy. He felt he was quite generous with his giving, but he couldn’t stay to see their reactions to his gifts.

Just moments after they were secured from the jump a communications officer came up to him. “Sir, we have intercepted several Cylovan communiques, and we received a missive from the fleet command. The Cylovans have pulled back on all fronts, and eight fleets are in route to this sector. We have six hours before the first fleet reaches this sector.”

“Then we better hurry,” he said before giving orders to make the jump to the next target. Another shipyard in a neighboring sector. It was only a cruiser yard and wasn’t big enough to build the more important capital ships, but it was a hopping stone towards a primary target.