Part 6: World Breakers

Nineteenth Year of the Nomads

Eight Hundred and Forty Ninth Year After the Battle of the Sol System

Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona, Emperor of the Empire after his father’s abdication, lived in fear. Two years had passed since the day the last Valo’Haltija had vanished. After the recording had gone out, no one had been able to find Miekkailija’Vanha’Verta for over a Crownwordl Orbit. He was eventually found near the Vanha’Verta compound with a bullet wound in his head. Officially, it was a suicide. Unofficially, it was an execution: no sapient could suicide by shooting themselves in the head three times.

The Fleet was reduced to a network of System Defence Forces, bolstered by whatever units could be produced locally. Three of the client races were in open revolt, and had effectively won independence when the System Defence Forces assigned to their systems were withdrawn to the Crown World. Two more client races had been bombarded back into the stone age. The Empire’s economy was stable, but only because so many of its works had been paused or abandoned.

And there was still no sign of the wandering humans or the ex-Fleet units. Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona believed that they were still out there, waiting to strike, but none of the Bureaucrats that actually ran things would believe him. Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona wanted to ramp up production at the Toinen’Maailma shipyard, but no such production was forthcoming. The Bureaucrats believed that the fifteen remaining carriers would be enough to ward off the wandering humans. With only three of them guarding the Crown World Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona had his doubts. At least two Fleet carriers were still unaccounted for, and the wandering humans had at least one carrier of their own.

Equal numbers of ships may favor the defender who has armed stations and weapons platforms in support on paper, but Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona had at least a modicum of Fleet experience. More importantly, he still had tenuous access to the Fleet Archive and the studies it contained. With so much free time on his hands, as his ‘work’ only consisted of signing whatever papers the Bureaucrats brought him, Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona had delved into those studies and the math behind them. Fixed defenses, which is what armed stations and orbital weapons platforms were called in the Fleet studies, were only as good as their defenses. Once detected and localized, they were vulnerable to bombardment. Active defensed like missile defense batteries and screens would help, but were often not cost effective. Most importantly, the wandering humans had already demonstrated that they understood how vulnerable fixed defenses were at the Kuud’Estoista’Maailma raid.

Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona saw and knew that the Empire was crumbling. He would be its last Emperor, though his distant siblings may claim the throne, or have it forced upon them, with his death. But Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona had one last trick up his sleeve. The Crown World defenses, like all System Defense Forces, needed the authorization of the highest ranking non-Fleet Empire representative present to leave orbit. For other worlds, this meant the system governor. For the Crown World, this was Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona himself. All he had to do in order to end the Empire was say ‘no’ when the time came.

Kokko’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta flexed his graspers. The feel of the new ‘titanium composite augmetic’ one was still slightly off, mostly in how… sterile the sensations of the air pump blowing on his arm felt. His natural arm and grasper felt one thing, the new artificial one felt it slightly differently. He could not put it into any definitive words, nor could he describe it too well. That being said the ability to do two grasper things again, like dressing oneself properly without assistance, was a gift beyond value.

And his new eye! It faithfully duplicated everything his natural eyes could do and a little bit more. That ‘little bit’ being the ability to display a plot or terminal window directly onto his vision, which Laiska’Vanha’Verta could then manipulate with ease thanks to his new hand. It was incredibly useful in his day to day paper work, despite being not quite as good as the ones humans made for themselves. Laiska’Vanha’Verta was not jealous in the slightest in getting an ‘inferior’ model, given the reasons for it. While he would have liked the low light, thermal, telescopic, and combination options found in human artificial eyes, it came down to the number of eyes in his head. He could have had those functions, but it would require replacing all of the eyes in his head, the way human boarding party members did. Laiska’Vanha’Verta felt no need to change himself beyond what was needed to return to being a fully functioning sapient.

Laiska’Vanha’Verta looked out across his bridge on the newly refitted CV Viimein’Laiva’Elossa, his new eye automatically acting as a relay to display the essentials of whatever Officer’s plot he was looking at. Half of the ratings and assistant officers stations were vacant, their jobs taken up by vastly improved support terminals. The steady glow of green readiness lights in the dim compartment brought a twist to his head. Laiska’Vanha’Verta could hardly believe that the Viimein’Laiva’Elossa’s launch bays now held ninety six new generation light attack craft, up from sixty four.

The Viimein’Laiva’Elossa’s number of missile silos had not been increased any, but each now had an attached six missile ‘ready magazine’ and a small assembly bay that could build and load another eight missiles. In total, the Viimein’Laiva’Elossa still had only a thirty two missile salvo, but could fire a total of four hundred and forty eight missiles before running dry. It’s meteor cannons had received improved tracking and traverse speeds, and the missile defense batteries in particular had received a hefty rate of fire boost.

The new build light attack craft were also quite an improvement overall. They sacrificed some of their total life support capability compared to the Empire models that they replaced. The crew had been shrunk to a third of what it previously was, so their life support endurance had actually gone up by half. As an example, the Empire built light attack craft carried enough air for ninety Crown World Orbits of use by a single sapient, but carried a crew of thirty six sapients, resulting in only two and a half Crown World Orbits of life support endurance. The new build Light attack craft carried only sixty Crown World orbits of life support and had a crew of twelve, resulting in five Crown World Orbits of life support endurance. The new build light attack craft were no more heavily armed or armored. However, they kept the same power and propulsion systems as their predecessors inside a smaller, lighter hull, which made for a vastly more maneuverable craft. In fact, it was possible for a new build light attack craft to perform maneuvers in excess of what the crew could withstand unassisted.

The battlecruisers in the Remnant Fleet, as Laiska’Vanha’Verta referd to the Fleet Ships that had followed him beyond the light of the Empire, had received a more substantial overhaul. They had been stripped of their twelve medium weight meteor cannons, firing what the humans called a ‘three hundred kilogram’ projectile once per tuhan. In their place, six ‘titan light’ meteor cannons had been installed, each firing a ‘one thousand kilogram’ projectile at a rate of three for every two tuhans. The increase in throw weight per tuhan was not huge, only two thousand or so ‘kilograms’ every three tuhans, but the impact of the projectiles was immensely more powerful. With the ‘titan light’ guns a Remnant Fleet battlecruiser could expect to enter a meteor cannon duel with, and win handily, against any Empire battlecruiser. The heavier projectiles would just rip through Empire screens, armor, and critical ship components alike.

The sentients freed up by the reduction in ship companies had been put to valuable use. An entirely new class of ship, the Viisas’Tila’Maatila class fast fleet provisions ship, had entered service with the Remnant Fleet. It carried only token weapons and screens, but was capable of putting out a truly stupendous volume of consumables to feed and fuel the rest of the Remnant Fleet. They were also semi capable mobile forge and repair ships. Getting more performance in that regard would require a much larger, more complex, more crew and resource intensive design, like the humans own Solar Wind and mobile shipyard.

The humans had not been idle in their own ship constructions and improvements either. Their fourth carrier, the Reprisal, was set to enter service, along with a curious carrier sized ‘orbital artillery ship’ called the Harmony Bringer. Laiska’Vanha’Verta found the ship strange in more ways than one. Human carriers were boxy affairs, all hard edges and sharp angles. The Harmony Binger was much ‘smoother’, long and pointed like a hunting spear or a grasper claw.

The human titan Solar Wind carried a total of twelve heavy meteor cannons as her primary armament, of which she could bring at most nine to bear on a single target. The Harmony Bringer carried twenty seven such heavy meteor cannons as a part of her secondary armament. They were not backed up by any missiles, but their arrangement and rate of fire made for a rather effective long-range weapon. The Harmony Bringer’s primary armament was three of something the humans called a ‘Cee Fractional Kinetic Energy Projectile Launcher’ in prow firing spinal mounts. From the decriptions that Laiska’Vanha’Verta had been able to read, they sounded like meteor cannons that had been enlarged to the point where the difference in size also became a difference in kind. Laiska’Vanha’Verta was unsure how such massive weapons could ever be brought to bear on a mobile ship, but Harmony Bringer’s designation as an ‘artillery ship’ indicated that the humans expected her to bombard stationary targets like shipyards.

Laiska’Vanha’Verta was not sure what to make of the Harmony Bringer, but he knew that he never wanted to have to fight against it.

Admiral Supesu, known to the Twisted as the Daughter of the Void, looked upon the Harmony Bringer with regret. If the Twisted or the Empire knew of her real purpose, they would either fight or cower in absolute fear. The Harmony Bringer was intended to settle the debt between Nomad Humanity and the Twisted Empire. The ‘score card’ currently sat at two systems, a homeworld and a first colony, to none in the Empire’s favor. Admiral Supesu intended to balance that score before leaving the local arm of the Milky way behind for good. Perhaps she would return to Refuge, or perhaps she would wander the stars as a Nomad for good.

In truth, Admiral Supesu had no plans beyond the defeat of the Empire. She had lived her entire life in its shadow, her entire career was built about bringing its downfall. And now her Nomad Fleet had helped a pack of Twisted refugees flee from its embrace. Had helped them refit their entire fleet from a pure warfighting force to something that would likely prove the scourge of colonised worlds if its leadership ever fell apart. Admiral Supesu did not know how she felt about that.

She also did not know how Admiral LVV, which was as close as she could come to pronouncing the Twisted Admiral’s actual name, would feel about her plans. She decided that the best way to find out was to ask him.

“Communications, Admiral Supesu. Get me a private, secure link to Admiral LVV please.”

“Admiral Supesu, Communications. Stand by please… Link established.”

“Admiral Laiska’Vanha’Verta, Daughter of the Void. This is an unexpected pleasure.”

“I hope you think it is one when we are finished talking Admiral. I do not know how much you know about the Nomad Fleet’s future plans, but I think that where we humans are going… you Twisted may not want to follow.”

“... you Sapients may not want to follow.”

“Going after the Crown World and the Emperor then? That I mind not at all. The bastard signed my execution order, do not forget. And both of our spies and information raiders have captured the rumors that the Valo’Haltija was executed.”

“It is a bit more than that Kokko’Liekki. I will not lie to you, the Empire killed humanity’s crownworld system and first colony system. I plan on paying back that debt in full.”

“I see. I see indeed why you thought that I might not follow you.”

“I will call a staff meeting to start the smooth separation of our fleets then.”

“I have another option. Help the Remnant Fleet capture our Crown World system, and then we part peaceably.”

“...”

“You are uncertain?”

“I had not thought of that. Between my Nomad Fleet and your Remnant Fleet, we probably have the firepower and infantry power to pull that off. And once that is done, we would depart, leaving you in control of your crownworld?”

“... in control of Proxima Centauri b?”

“That would be the idea, Daughter of the Void. It would be a legitimate excuse to separate the two fleets at least, and a reason for the Remnant Fleet to stay behind when your Nomad Fleet left.”

“You do realize that after a fight like that, there probably will not be much in the way of system infrastructure left, right? A fight to the finish like that… it leaves a lot of wreckage laying around.”

“That is something I am willing to put up with, both to claim my vengeance against the Emperor and to separate our Fleets on good terms.”

“I’ll call a staff planning meeting to start the planning going then. Admiral Supesu, out.