Eight Hundred and Thirtieth Year of the Exodus, Fifth Year of the Splintering

Eight Hundred and Thirtieth Year After the Battle of the Sol System

First Minister Abby Bain watched the plot in horror. The damn Militarists had fired on the twisted, and the Twisted, the Empire she corrected herself, had fired back. Her emergency crews were responding to dozens of hull breaches on the orbital habitats from stray mass driver rounds. So far loss of life was light, with forty three people reported dead and another eighty one wounded to one degree or another. But Abby expected it to only get worse. Both the Empire and the Militarists were firing heavier rounds now. A stray one of those could rip a huge hole in an orbital habitat, venting precious atmosphere and rupturing vital systems. A hole too large to be patched quickly.

And all Abby Bain could do was sit and worry. The Empire had not responded to her message, but they had obviously reacted in a timely manner against The Third World. And despite the stray rounds, Abby was impressed with their ships and their discipline. They kept formation on each other and looked to be professional handled. She only hoped that they were commanded by a person as competent at diplomacy as she was at combat.

Soihtu’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta gripped the edges of his commad throne tightly. His facial muscles were taught and his mind races in circles trying to formulate some strategy. His ships had salvoed all of his ships’ missiles to no effect, but his meteor cannons were inflicting some damage on Titan one. Titan two continued to flee, so it was not a threat in the fight. None of the orbital stations had done anything more than patch leaks. Certainly none of them had brought weapons online.

All of the Fourth Squadron was concentrating fire on Titan one, and it was having more of an effect then the simulations had led him to believe that meteor cannons could have. Certainly his destroyers were the least effective, but even their lightweight main batteries were marking Titan one’s hull. And Titan one’s return shots were rather light for a ship of its size. Laiska’Vanha’Verta had expected guns that could turn his light cruisers inside-out with a single hit. Instead, he had only lost four destroyers and one light cruiser. He did not know that The Third World only had her secondary guns available, as the planned spinal-mounted primary guns could not be installed alongside the cryosleep array.

Admiral Korekage Supesu cursed as another meteor cannon salvo struck home in his hull. It was only low mass rounds from the Twisted destroyers, and they barely breached the outer hull, but it was still damage. Damage that Admiral Supesu thought that he should not be taking.

What he had failed to consider was that The Third World’s gravity shields were not invisible walls in space, but rather a discrete area within which any object was subject to crushing deceleration. The Twisted’s meteor cannon rounds were solid lumps of metal: even crushed and slowed down, they were not destroyed entirely the way the missiles were. Enough survived to impact The Third World and inflict a small but steadily growing string of damage. The meteor cannon rounds from the light cruisers were no bigger, the ships simply mounted a few more meteor cannons to go with their missile silos. The meteor cannon rounds from the Viimein’Laiva’Elossa were of a much larger size, and every hit that the inflicted tore much deeper into The Third World. One hit had already reached into the core hull, the up-armored vitals of the ship.

His own mass drivers, on the other hand, had a hard time tracking the Twisted destroyers. Intended to cover the flanks of The Third World, they had limited firing arcs ahead and astern of the ship. Twisted destroyers were taking advantage of these areas where only a few mass drivers could fire. The Third World twisted and squirmed, wrenching her vector around to try and bring more guns to bear, but this only aggravated the weapon tracing issues.

At last, Admiral Korekage Supesu had had enough of trying to swat flies.

“Guns, ignore the destroyers and concentrate fire on the big ass bastard. He is the one hurting us the worst, so lets get him blown out of space.”

“Admiral, Guns. Wilco. Retargeting now.”

Soihtu’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta silently recited a youngling’s cantacle against fear. Titan One had decided that it was done trying to kill the agile Empire destroyers harring its flanks and was focusing its fire on the Viimein’Laiva’Elossa. The battle had chanced, and Laiska’Vanha’Verta felt the need to adapt to it.

“BIC, Soihtu’Liekki. Where is Titan one’s firepower weakest?”

“Soihtu’Liekki, BIC. Titan one mounts few guns on her ventral and aft quadrants.”

“Steersman, get the Viimein’Laiva’Elossa below Titan one and roll us so that we are shooting into her guts. Cryer, proclamation to the Squadron. Destroyers are to harry Titan one at close ranges, in the gaps between the arcs of her meteor canon batteries if possible. Light Cruisers are to get aft of Titan one and rake her stern.”

“Soihtu’Liekki, Steersman. By your will.”

“Soihtu’Liekki, Cryer. Fourth Squadron signals compliance.”

Admiral Musume Supesu watched her displays as the Solar Wind accelerated for the edge of the system. The Peacemakers were doing nothing to help the Militarists, who were slowly being chewed apart by the Twisted. The Militarists were striking back as hard as they could and had managed to destroy or disable about half of the Twisted fleet. But the shape of the battle had changed. The Twisted fleet had gotten itself below and behind The Third World and were systematically shooting its guts out.

Admiral Musume Supesu looked at the countdown timer ticking away until the Solar Wind was far enough away from TRAPPIST-1 to engage its DTA drive. It would not be long now.

Soihtu’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta looked on in satisfaction as Titan one began to come apart. Plumes of escaping atmosphere marked deep, perhaps fatal wounds in the ship. Several destroyers had reported that the Viimein’Laiva’Elossa’s heavy meteor cannon rounds had penetrated all the way through the ship on at least four separate occasions. He bared his teeth in satisfaction. The empire’s first ever Titan class ship kill kill would be his along with all of the glory that came with it.

“Soihtu’Liekki, BIC. Titan one is showing temperature spikes at multiple locations deep inside her hull, possibly inside her core hull. Cause unknown. Will advise.”

“Soihtu,Liekki, Cryer. Incoming missive from Titan one. Text only, Empire common, machine translation. Message begins: ‘we are dead, but we will drag you down to (untranslatable) with us.’ Missive ends.”

Laiska’Vanha’Verta closed his mouth, trying to think through the implications. What systems would be buried deep inside of a ship that could be used to destroy another ship? Weapons always had to be mounted on the outer hull, where they could fire at the foe. What was it that he had read in a Shipkeeper’s report? Something about reactors and the risk if their containment fields were breached? All three of Laiska’Vanha’Verta’s eyes widened in sudden and total realization of what Titan one was doing.

“Steersman, get us away from Titan one now! Cryer, priority proclamation to all ships. Disengage from Titan one at once!”

Laiska’Vanha’Verta was wrong about the specifics, but not the effect.

Admiral Korkage Supesu’s engineers performed their last duty with impeccable timing and to devastating effect. All three of her surviving gravity shield generators and her Black Hole Drive were re-tuned to produce their effects inside the ship, pushing outwards in all directions with as much force as they could generate. The Third World, already nearly gutted by heavy meteor cannon rounds, shattered into several tons of hypervelocity shrapnel.

The screen of Empire ships overloaded catastrophically, leaving their hulls exposed to the incoming debris. The eight surviving Empire destroyers carried only token armor, relying on speed and evasion to avoid being hit in the first place. As a result, they were simply turned into more shrapnel and a few floating giblets. The six remaining Empire Light cruisers fared little better than their smaller brethren. They were left as recognisable chunks, tumbling out of control across the TRAPPIST-1 system.

The Viimein’Laiva’Elossa survived, though she did take heavy damage. Her screen generators eiter melted down or overloaded trying the handle the strain. Her outer armor was suffered major breached in fifty two seperate locations, and her core hull was breached in twelve places, all from where overloaded screen generators had exploded. Her drive was reduced to a mere twelve percent of maximum power, as any more threatened the structural integrity of the rest of the ship.

The human inhabitants of the TRAPPIST-1 system, Peacemaker and Militarist alike, suffered even more horribly. Given the cramped volume of the TRAPPIST-1 system, both the Nova Terra and Nova Mars colonies suffered severe bombardment. Domes ruptured, venting precious breathable atmosphere. Tens of millions of colonists were struck down in their homes by the wreckage of The Third World as if tore through them and into the planetary crusts. The residents of the orbital habitats fared little better. Their dwellings were shattered and tossed out of orbit to tumble into each other and crash into the planets in orbit around TRAPPIST-1.

A tiny handful of humans, Including First Minister Abby Bain, survived the torrent of shrapnel and debris. Who were by ill fortune or pure bad luck in a place that did not lose atmosphere. Many of these places were emergency shelters containing food, water, and their own power supplies. But with the utter destruction of both human civilization and the Empire fleet presence in the TRAPPIST-1 system, search and rescue efforts were not forthcoming for human survivors. A fortunate few both managed to realize this and used some means to ending their suffering before they inevitably died from suffocation or starvation. Most did not.

Admiral Musume Supesu stared down at her displays on the bridge of the Solar Wind. She knew without question what her father must have done. The Solar Wind, like The Third World, had a quartet of gravity shield generators, a Black Hole Drive, and a DTA Drive. The DTA Drive could not be used safely inside a certain distance from a star, dependant on the mass of the star and the distance to the planetary bodies. If it was, it could, in theory, pull worlds out of orbit from their star or pull the star from its path through the cosmos. But the gravity shield generators and the Black Hole Drive could be configured to destroy the ship carrying them and send forth a dying curse of shredded hull and torn frames.

Admiral Supesu stratified up in her chair, “Admiral, CIC. Estimates of survivors in the TRAPPIST-1 system? Is there anyone here for us to save?

“Admiral, CIC. Estimate is that there are no survivors at this time, Twisted or human.”

“Admiral, Tracking. I have ship movement inside the debris field. Only one ship, too small to be The Third World, too large to be anything but the Twisted flagship. No estimates as to her combat effectiveness.”

“Thank you CIC and Tracking. Helm, stand by for transition to DTA Drive.”

“Admiral, Helm. Aye aye Ma’am.”

“Communications, Spin up the translator again please. I have a parting message for the Twisted.”

“Admial, Communications. Ready to record for transmission.”

“Message begins. Beware, beware the Daughter of the Void. ‘Beware,’ I heard him cry. His words carried upon the Solar Wind, as he sank into the stars. [1] Message ends.”

“Admiral, Communications. Clean recording, translating and transmitting now.”

“Helm, take us out of here.”