“Emperor, none of the ships have jumped to the coordinates.” On Valerian’s flagship, corporal Faraday reported with slight disappointment. The Davis fleet didn’t respond to Valerian’s broadcast. This meant war was inevitable.

Valerian signed. ”Then so be it.” He had done a lot to make the Dominion as strong as possible after his takeover. Engaging the Davis fleet in combat was the worst possible option, but he didn’t have a choice. “Prepare the fleet to engage.”

Faraday opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he ended up remaining silent as he left the room.

Valerian signed again and walked to the window. Outside, hundreds of battlecruisers and thousands of fighters and support ships were assembling in battle formation. These metal beasts were the backbone of the Dominion. They were what kept mankind safe in a world of powerful aliens and menacing monsters. And yet today they were going against their own brothers and sisters. Countless human will die for a stupid cause. Whatever the result of the battle was the Dominion would be severely weakened.

Valerian smashed his fist onto a table of the bridge.

A static sound signaled a communication was opened.

“None of the ships left Davis.” Valerian said slowly.

“We have discussed this. Davis wasn’t promoted to general by your father for nothing. She is a good commander. Your place as the emperor isn’t enough to rally all the lower leveled soldiers against their commanders. Anyways. That was just plan A. Now it’s time for plan B.” Jean was as chill as ever

Valerian lowered his head. “Do it. Just try to do no harm to the foot soldiers. They’re just following orders Take out the commanders and that’s it.”

“I will need the crew members to fly these ships, so I will try to save them, but the same can’t be said for the ground forces.” Jean replied coldly and turned off the comm.

Sailing from Korhal, the 500 Dominion battlecruisers flew slowly toward the 300 rebel cruisers. The Dominion fleet and its support ships covered the space. Fighters, including wraiths, vikings, and tac fighters, were released every second. Liberators, ravens, and science vessels filled most of the gaps.

The rebel fleet seemed much weaker, but not by much.

There was no further conversation. What could be said had already been spoken. As soon as the two fleets got into weapon range they opened fire.

Laser batteries from both sides unleashed upon those from the other side. These batteries were plenty but relatively weak. They could only bounce off the plating of battlecruisers. Didn’t matter. They were meant to destroy smaller fighters.

Vikings and wraiths charged forward. Their enemies were opposing fighters. If fighters from one side could destroy the counterparts of the enemies then they could use their missiles, which were designed to take down massive ships, to do exactly that.

Jean watched from the bridge of a battlecruiser as the brutal fighting was ignited outside. None of the terran had any mercy against their own kind. They were mostly experienced enough to know that on a battlefield there was only friend or foe. Mercy to the enemies meant suffering to the friends. And so soldiers from both sides fought with utter determination.

A Dominion vikings fired a pair of lanzer torpedoes toward an enemy wraith. The rebel wraith pulled up and dodged the torpedo with its superior speed and reflexing time. The viking, much more clumsy, flew by. Using its speed the wraith slipped behind the viking. With a flash its gemini missiles fired off. The viking tried to dodge, but the fighter wasn’t designed to be agile. Instead, it was meant to take the damage and try to survive. Unfortunately such was not the case. The ship plating that could withstand several glave worms was torn open by the blast of the missile. The viking pilot perished along with his ship. The only thing left was a quickly silenced scream in the communication channel.

The wraith had no time to celebrate as a string of laser batteries dotted by. He tried to dodge. The first one, dodged. Second one, no problem. Third one, shit…

The wraith cursed as a laser battery grazed past its right wing. The agile aircraft flipped and exploded in space wreckage, just like the viking it destroyed seconds ago.

The space battle could only be described as brutal. The only way for men and women on both sides to survive was by killing those from the other team. Laser batteries, torpedos, missiles, and smaller lasers darted throughout the field. Occasionally an explosion would signal the end of one or more fighters.

On her flagship in the center of the Dominion fleet, Jean watched the battle unfold thoughtfully. Warfield had refused to fight his own men. Valerian didn’t really have any experience in war, so she was given command of the fleet. Still, her influence on the fleet was limited to reasonable commands. If she ordered the entire fleet to jump to Shakurus no one would listen to her.

Jean had never really fought in a space battle against an enemy fleet on equal grounds. She would either use trickery, backstabbing, cloaking, or her hacking skills to win. Unfortunately in this case the enemy wasn’t some idiot with no technology support and allowed her to board his ship, nor was it some proud protoss that had few detection. General Davis was a trained general with decades of experience in battle. No trick could really work against her. Luckily she managed to gain an edge by using Valerian Mengsk.

500 vs 300 was already tough enough. If Davis had any more ships…

Behind Jean Nova walked up. “We’re pushing through with our numbers.” She concluded. “But if Davis wants to run away we can’t stop her.”

“For now, yes.” Jean replied quietly. “Adjudent. How is the mapping going?”

“I have graphed the exact coordinates of half the enemy fleet. It will take time to complete the map.” The metal voice of the adjutant replied.

“Very well.” Jean stated and continued to watch the battle unfold. Nova looked at her as if she had a question. With the inhibitor chip removed she was no longer a pawn that could only follow orders but was rather an emotional human being. Still, decades of training told her not to question her commander. So she kept her mouth shut.