Nineteenth Year of the Nomads

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

“Emperor, Perimeter Scopes. Large, multiple transit FTL arrival signature detected. Estimate one Titan class ship, seven capital class ships, four large heavy cruisers or battlecruisers, four light Cruisers, and one six four escort ships of all types. No estimate on how many of the capital ships are carriers, or how many light attack craft they can launch.”

“Emperor, System Defense Polo’Liekki. Requesting permission to arm weapons systems and activate maneuvering systems.”

“System Defense Polo’Liekki, Emperor. Permission is hereby given to arm Weapons systems and power up inertialess drives. You are instructed to keep within the orbital defense shell at this time. Let us see if our guests are willing to talk first.”

“Emperor, System Defense Polo’Liekki. Restricting movement to within the orbital defense perimeter. Holding fire: will only open fire if fired upon. Out.”

Emperor Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona gave a twist of his head. Even though the artificial neutraility of the missive system, he could hear the frustration in the system defense commander’s voice. He wanted more room to maneuver, to be able to fire first and perhaps to score a decisive blow. Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona had denied him that, because he had a feeling that it would not matter in the end. Over a hundred and fifty escorts, plus an unknown number of light attack craft? No missile salvo was getting through that at anything over very short range. And if this was the human wandering fleet with the missing ex-Fleet ships to back them, then it was a titan with four to seven carriers against the Empire’s three carriers, twelve battlecruisers, twenty four light cruisers, The Crown World Shipyard, and ten thousand orbital defense platforms.

Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona had every expectation that the Empire would lose the battle in space. The only question was whether this was a simple raid or an outright bid for conquest.

“Emperor, Perimeter Scopes. Six capital class ships have launched light attack craft, redesignating as carriers now. Last capital class ship is of unknown class. Out.”

Kokko’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta stood in front of his command throne, graspers clasped behind his back, eyes tracking across the stations in front of him.

“Scopes, Kokko’Liekki. Do we have a count of defending ships yet?”

“Koko’Liekki, Scopes. Null count of defending ships at this time. There are enough light attack craft signatures for three or more carriers, but they are hiding inside the shell of orbital defenses, so we cannot localize them at this time.”

“Koko’Liekki, BIC. There are null defending warships outside of the orbital defensive shell. Enemy intent appears to be to allow us to break ourselves against that stone first. Out.”

“Cryer, Kokko’Liekki. Missive link to the Daughter of the Void please.”

“Kokko’Liekki, Cryer. Missive link established.”

“Kokko’Liekki, Daughter of the Void. The Empire doesn’t seem to want to come out to play.”

“Daughter of the Void, Kokko’Liekki, My thoughts exactly Daughter of the Void. Perhaps it is time to unleash the Voidstrikes?”

“... Solar Wind Actual. Perhaps it is time to unleash the Voidstrikes?”

“Solar Wind Actual, Admiral LVV. Agreed. Initiating Fire Plan Squall. Out.”

Admiral Supesu grinned, a sinister looking thing. “Guns, Admiral. Activate Fire Plan Squall. Target is the orbital defenses of Proxima Centauri b.”

“Admiral, Guns. Fire Plan Squall is active. Salvoing all Voidstrike mark two mines now.”

The Voidstrike mobile mine, mark two was an improved version of its predecessor. Rather than being laid by a frigate or destroyer, it was designed to be launched out of a standard missile tube and coast into range of fixed targets before arming. This used the missile enclosure as a physical barrier to prevent particle corrosion to sensitive electronics. It also had the side effect of being rather difficult to detect, as the Voidstrike mobile mine emitted no active signals until it armed.

Fire Plan Squall unleashed every voidstrike mobile mine in the Nomad Fleet’s magazines. A total of ten thousand voidstrike mobile mines were soon sailing through space, all but invisible to Perimeter Scopes’ sight.

“System Defense Polo’Liekki, Perimeter Scopes. Missile launch transients! Null active missile drives, unable to see incoming missiles. Unknown numbers. Unknown time to arrival.”

“Perimeter Scopes, System Defense Polo’Liekki. Heard and understood. Emperor, System Defense Polo’Liekki. Foe ships have opened fire. Activating all missile defense batteries at this time as defensive measures. Requesting permission to begin offensive fire.”

“System Defense Polo’Liekki, Emperor. Offensive fire is authorized at this time.”

Emperor, System Defense Polo’Liekki. Offensive fire authorization is confirmed. Out.”

The Voidstrike mobile mines slid into attack range of the Proxima Centauri b orbital defense platforms. As one, they armed, locked onto targets, and launched. Ten thousand missiles erupted out of stealth, already in terminal homing mode and on final attack sprint drive settings.

The Proxima Centauri b orbital defense platforms had been searching desperately for the incoming missiles, but without a sensor trace to find they were mostly looking in the wrong places. As a consequence of this, most of the missile defense batteries were pointing in the wrong directions too. They still managed to shoot down one thousand five hundred and ninety eight of the incoming missiles through a combination of luck and computer fast reflexes.

The remaining four thousand four hundred and two missiles slammed into orbital defense platforms. Screens collapsed. Hulls split. Atmosphere and crew vented. Severed power conduits sparked in the darkness. Two thousand four hundred and five orbital defense platforms were either destroyed outright or crippled beyond combat effectiveness.

The seven thousand five hundred and ninety five remaining orbital defense platforms locked their missile batteries onto the Solar Wind and added their fury to that of the System Defense Fleet.

“Admiral Supesu, Tracking. Many hostile missile launches. Estimate one seven five thousand incoming. Estimated time to attack range three zero hours.”

“Strike Craft Command, Admiral Supesu. Missile defense Zeta. Form up with the escorts and begin massed defensive fire. And mind the firing lanes”

“Admiral Supesu, Strike Craft Command. Missile defense Zeta active.”

“Guns, Admiral Supesu. Begin defensive fire according to missile defense Zeta.”

“Admiral Supesu, Guns. Missile defense Zeta active.”

One hundred and seventy five thousand missiles howled through space. In theory, they were all targeted on the biggest threat in the combined Nomad / Remnant Fleet. In practice, many of the missiles lost lock and had to reacquire a target due to either sensor interference, electronic countermeasures, or particle corrosion. Even spread evenly across all nine hundred and forty eight ships, strike craft, and light attack craft in the Nomad / Remnant Fleet, that left nearly one hundred and eighty five missiles per hull.

But with thirty one hours in which to fire ‘cluster shot’ mass driver and meteor cannon defensive fire from mass drivers and meteor cannons, that amount of missiles was nearly trivial to deal with. Nine thousand three hundred and seventy were shot down in the first hour alone, with an average of nearly nine thousand two hundred missiles shot down in every hour thereafter. It took twenty hours, but not a single missile reached the combined Nomad / Remnant Fleet.

Emperor Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona finished his evening meal in time to see the last of the orbital defense platform missiles shot down. He had anticipated that this would happen as soon as he authorized the System Defense Polo’Liekki to open fire. He was frankly surprised that it had taken so long to destroy the salvo, but unsurprised that the Polo’Liekki had fired as soon as possible. According to all of the studies that were publicly available, one hundred and eighty five missiles per target should have been more than enough to get at least some ‘leakers’ through to inflict damage. But up against an intact, unshaken fleet with that much missile defense, time to prepare, and to fire massed defensive fire? There had not been any chance of inflicting damage.

The older Fleet Polo’Liekki and Kokko’Liekki, made wise by the Fleet Archive, would have waited and used long ranged Meteor cannon fire as an opening move to break up the foe’s formation. The System Defense Polo’Liekki believed far too much in the technological superiority of the Empire over the client races, forgetting that the wandering humans and ex-Fleet renegades possessed technology that was equally good if not better.

Admiral Supesu nodded it total satisfaction. “Guns, Admiral Supesu. Well done.”

“Admiral Supesu, Guns. Thank you.”

“Flight Control, Well done. And relay the same to the strike craft please.”

“Admiral Supesu, Flight Control. Thank you and Wilco.”

“Communications, Admiral Supesu. Hail the Harmony Bringer, and instruct her to begin Fire Plan Grapeshot, three rounds only. Target is the Proxima Centauri b orbital defenses.”

“Admiral Supesu, Communications. Harmony Bringer confirms Fire Plan Grapeshot. Firing three round salvo. Out.”

The Harmony Bringer brought herself into finicky alignment with Proxima Centauri b, orienting her three massive spinal KEP guns with the projected orbit of the planet’s orbital defenses. That done, the first of the three guns fired its three hundred sixty seven and a half metric ton projectiles at one hundredth of the speed of light.

Fortunately for Proxima Centauri b, it was not a single solid projectile. Unfortunately for the orbital defenses of that world, it was a canister shot projectile. Upon leaving the barrel of the KEP gun, it split into three hundred submunitions, each as heavy as the man battery projectiles of the Solar Wind.

Projectiles smashed right through orbital defense platforms to hit a second, third, or fourth target. Hypervelocity shrapnel patterns shredded other platforms that managed to avoid taking direct hits. Three thousand nine hundred and thirty three defensive platforms remained combat effective to one degree or another, mostly on the far side of the planet from the Harmony Bringer.

Of the System Defense Fleet, there was only the cratered ruins of ships. Between the Harmony Bringer’s canister shot, the hyper velocity shrapnel clouds, and proximity to exploding defensive platforms, not a single ship remained combat effective.

“Kokko’Liekki, Daughter of the Void. A hole has been made in the Crown World’s orbital defenses.”

“Daughter of the Void, Kokko’Liekki. The hole seems to be a bit congested with debris, but I think we can begin landing troops. Our screens will deal with that chaff better than your gravity shields will, so the Remnant Fleet will take point.”

“Kokko’Liekki, Daughter of the Void. Works for me. The Nomad Fleet will cover your advance.”

Emperor Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona watched as the Ex-Fleet carriers dropped into dangerously low orbits over the Crown World Palace. They would be dropping troops as soon as they suppressed the ground based defensive batteries. Even as he watched, the carrier’s missile defense batteries spat streams of small mass meteor cannon projectiles into defensive emplacements, obliterating them and the sapients manning them with terminal generated mathematical precision. Troop shuttles rained from hangar bays. Each Empire carrier carried a full brigade of five thousand five hundred infantry, complete with attached support elements. The Palace was a large facility, but had only an oversized ceremonial cohort of one thousand five hundred Sapients on duty. They would fight well, but with orbital and close air support on the side of the attackers, the outcome was never in any doubt. Emperor Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona issued the stand down order before the first breaching charges were even placed. His protective detail stacked their weapons in the entryway and took their customary positions around the edges of the throne room in preparation for the surrender ceremony.

The Ex-Fleet infantry escorted the Kokko’Liekki and his second in command into the throne room. Emperor Nukkua’Pohjoisessa’Leijona did not recognise the Kokko’Liekki for a long moment, with the Kokko’Liekki having two arms and graspers, one made of metal. Then memory and realization dawned.

“Kokko’Liekki Laiska’Vanha’Verta. It seems that you have made some unusual friends in your time beyond the Empire’s light.”

“Indeed I have Emperor. But this day is not about either of us. It is about the End of the Empire.”

“You plan on killing me and the entire house of Pohjoisessa’Leijona then?”

“Not at all. The Empire is already crumbling, even you can see that, though your Bureaucrats will never admit it.”

“Indeed, But the Empire is not beyond stabilization. Its Light has not yet gone out. Do you intend to take the throne then?”

“Void no. I have fought long enough, and killed enough Sapients and humans, to know that the burden of ruling the Empire would sit ill on my back. We both know that it would be best for a peaceful transition, for the Empire to step away from its Client states and let them grow freely.”

“Then you are more of a fool than I thought if you think the client states will do anything besides tear themselves to pieces as soon as the guiding light of the Empire is snuffed out.”

“I think not Emperor. We have made profitable trade with the wandering humans, why could the client states not do the same?”

“You ate with Fanatical Purifiers, used their technology to heal yourself, and you would forge this unknown ally into the Empire? Just like that?”

“Hardly ‘just like that’ Emperor. It will take Crown World Orbits of Crown World Orbits, but the Empire can be unmade with little more bloodshed. I know not what final form the new Sapient government will take, but it need not be centered around a ‘preacher in a pulpit and blind devotion.’[8] Perhaps something more representative of the wishes of the Sapients who live within the borders of what will become a new star nation.”

Admiral Supesu watched Proxima Centauri b fade as the Solar Wind made for the edge of the system to make the transition to FTL speeds for the Sol System. They would certainly beat any surrender or stand down message to that system, which was just fine by Admiral Supesu. She had a fleet to smash, a shipyard to kill, and a planet to break.