Ravens of Eternity

396 Harbingers of the Apocalypse, Pt Grevatia Relay Complex ASY-9, Avetha System, Great House Grevatia

The ninth Grevatia Relay Complex in the Avetha system was a sprawling base out in the middle of open space. The base itself was comprised of numerous docking stations, warehouses, and operational centers, all of which served the cargo cruisers and haulers that were passing through.

In essence, it was one of the many official waystations that House Grevatia employed as part of their supply network across the house, or to the greater Hegemony. For the most part, haulers often dropped off all or part of their cargo, which was then picked up and hauled elsewhere by some other ship.

Some of the goods that passed through AS-9 were fairly standard – food, medicine, nanites, vices, and other necessities or sundries. These were the most basic things that all of Grevatia required.

But the rest of the goods being transported through the vast complex were military grade weaponry. Massive crates were filled with rail cannons, plasma lances, pulsewave emplacements, missile pods, and other machines designed for death and destruction.

And not just numerous types, but multiple sizes as well. A number of the haulers were transporting only one or two massive crates, each filled with weapons meant for cruisers and battleships.

Some of the largest haulers in the complex were loaded up with storage containers filled with raw materials, either as solid ingots or ultra fine sand. Of the raw materials, roughly half were metallic in nature, such as titanium, tungsten, iron, copper, and silver. The rest were various gasses such as chlorine and flouride, or minerals such as nitrate and carbon.

In truth, they were all raw materials mostly destined to become weapon munitions, explosives, or propellants. These massive containers were shipped off alongside the weapons themselves, and then further distributed to the various rearming stations scattered throughout the front.

And although the crates and containers were absolutely massive – many no doubt weighed hundreds of tons – maneuvering them around was of no consequence at all. Simply, they were in open space. Even the largest and heaviest of the containers could be moved by even a single cargo drone.

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But at the complex, the ships were swarmed by hundreds of cargo drones. They worked in clusters to carefully maneuver cargo containers where they needed to go with controlled speed and careful precision.

All of them were guided remotely through numerous drone operators scattered throughout, which helped ensure the complex’s incredibly smooth (and safe) operation.

And of course, while cargo was moved around from hold to storage or vice versa, the ships’ captains and crews took a bit of rest and relaxation. Though the relay complexes weren’t known for their comfort, they still provided decent food, drink, rest, and sometimes a little companionship, too. The usual.

All pretty straightforward, and certainly nothing crazy.

The only thing that stood out was the huge defensive fleet above the complex itself.

Those who worked at the station felt nervous and incredibly daunted by the fleet. It was more than four times larger than their usual defensive fleet, and to top it off, it was joined by a Hegemony battleship. For many, it was the largest fleet they had ever encountered.

Although they were intimidated, it wasn’t exactly because of the fleet itself. Not directly, anyway. The Hegemony was at war after all, and understood that increased security was necessary.

What got them murmuring in the hallways was the fact that they were reinforced in the first place. It meant that these complexes were potential targets for the Empire. Which made sense, considering the sheer amount of munitions they helped transport across the House.

And the more the station personnel mulled it over, the more it made some of them wonder if the defensive fleet above was large enough.

Those in the fleet itself were wondering the complete opposite. The admiral on the bridge of the battleship itself sighed out of boredom.

He had hoped to be sent to the front, where he could finally get some action. Maybe even the chance to distinguish himself on the field of some battle. To his chagrin, he was instead posted at a place he considered ‘nowhere’.

A loud beeping suddenly erupted throughout the bridge, and an alert popped up on one of the screens.

“Sir,” said a technician at a nearby terminal, “the fleet’s getting odd sensor readings. A small unknown flying object’s headed in our general direction.”

The admiral perked up slightly – this was the only bit of excitement he experienced in the past week.

“Energy readings?” he asked.

“None, sir,” replied the tech. “It appears to be inert. Or at least nonfunctional. Appears to be standard space debris, only traveling at a fast clip.”

“Possibly a chunk of an asteroid or something. Or a wayward slug from a far off battle. In any case, what’s its trajectory? Will it hit the complex?”

“No, admiral. It’ll cruise past 20 kilometers overhead.”

“Aw, well that’s not very interesting, is it?”

In the distance, a seed-like object cruised through space at incredible speeds, at thousands of meters per second. The object itself was about as large as a corvette, and was encased in what looked like incredibly robust chitin armor.

Little slats opened up all around its hull, which revealed thrusters under each one. The ones facing front flared out brightly as the ‘seed’ came to an increasingly jarring halt. Its hull practically rippled from the sheer kinetic forces that spread all throughout its body, even as the seed itself slowed a great deal.

If there was a person inside, they would have been flattened by the sheer g-forces of deceleration.

Despite the sheer amount of energies it had been put through, the seed-like object came to a very rapid and abrupt standstill.

And in the moments following, the space around it warped.

It was followed by numerous bright flashes as dozens of Imperial cruisers ported into space. They were quickly accompanied by hundreds of destroyers and frigates, as well as thousands of fighters, which sent alarms to run through the defending Hegemony fleet.

The Imperial fighters didn’t even wait until all of the other ships had finished porting, and immediately charged the Hegemony ships. The pilots screamed their battle cries even as they wove through space.

These fighters were unlike the usual light tri-pronged skirmishers that the Imperial navy utilized. These were larger and more heavily armored. In fact, they looked very similar to Hercules beetles and had two protruding horns that extended out from their tops and bottoms. Those horns curved towards each other like menacing, insectoid claws.

Spheres of bright orange energies crackled between the very tips of the heavy fighters’ horns, which only grew larger and brighter with every moment that passed. Worse, dark metallic nuclei formed in the center of those spheres, which also grew larger over time.

The Hegemony fleet filled the space between the two fleets with defensive fire in an effort to kill as many fighters as they could. Countless plasma lance beams and rail sabot rounds flew up towards the incoming swarm of Imperial fighters.

A few of them were able to outright perforate the incoming ships. Their plasma lances scarred their chitin just enough to allow rail sabot rounds to punch through. Many other gunners easily clipped some of the fighters, though they only left scars across the chitin.

But most of their gunners could only curse in frustration or gawk in awe as the Imperial fighters wove out of their way. The way they flew allowed each of the ships in the swarm to literally pull those around them out of the way.

What truly worried them however were those black nuclei. Some of the Imperial fighters didn’t bother to evade any incoming shots and instead leveled themselves directly into their beams or sabot rounds.

Despite being direct hits, nothing actually struck the fighters themselves. Instead, the nuclei they carried absorbed anything and everything in their path.

And then, once the Imperial fighters were close enough, they released their mortars and fired them at the battleship, along with any cruisers posted up around it.

Bright orange destruction rained down on the Grevatia fleet.

Their topsides were battered by the mortars one after another after another. The orange energies crackled all over the topside guns and plating, then seeped down into the circuits beneath. There, they clashed with the hyperionization modules for dominance.

As the ships’ energies flared out or ebbed away, the nuclei burst open and spread pitch-black phasic nanites all over. They took no time in eating everything they touched, and chewed through the Grevatia’s heavy plating with ease.

It was only moments later that the fleet was then bombarded by massive shells from above.

The incoming Imperial cruisers and destroyers finally engaged in the assault. Similar to the heavy fighters, these ships were also different from the usual Imperial naval ships. These were thinner, sleeker, and more maneuverable.

More importantly, they had huge weapons platforms that protruded from their bottom sides which fired corvette-sized barbed stingers.

The stingers streaked through space and punched through the Hegemony fleet’s weakened armor and structure with ease. They even tore through numerous decks and machinery and people, then embedded themselves deep inside.

A second after impact, the stingers exploded violently. Razor-sharp shrapnel was flung in every direction by the blast, which further tore into the ship’s innards and caused even greater damage.

But that was far from the end of it.

The stingers also carried large payloads of caustic toxins, which was also spread out by the explosion. Everything they touched was slowly dissolved, no matter if it was metal or flesh. Crew who were hit by it screamed in pain as their bodies literally melted them to death.

Not only that, but the chemicals that dissolved everything in sight also created toxic gasses that spread everywhere.

And since most of the ships that were hit worked to seal any breaches, that toxic gas was able to spread easily.

Any crew who weren’t outright liquified by the caustic toxin instead choked painfully on the gasses. They were dissolved from the inside out, rather than outside in.

All died horribly and painfully and in the most inhumane manner.

Even as the Hegemony ships began to falter and wane, they shot back with as much fervor as they could, with whatever energy they had left. Entire decks were literally eaten away around them, but the gunners still gave it their all.

The battleship’s gunners concentrated as much of their fire as they could on the Imperial cruisers. Despite the cruisers being more agile than their other incarnations, they were manageable enough to hit half of the time. Especially with the plasma lances.

Dozens of the battleship’s topside guns focused their lances into the middle of a cruiser and ate right through the thinnest section of its chitin. The lances easily dug through the exoframe beneath, then into the ship itself.

They carved out modules and systems and drogar until they struck a critical liquid circuit and burst it open. It caused numerous modules and systems to get overwhelmed with power, to the point where they broke and burst and exploded.

The entire cruiser itself broke apart from a chain reaction of explosions inside. Cracks spread across its chitin as its exoframe swelled. Then it burst outright, which sent chunks and slivers of chitin to fly everywhere.

As it erupted into pieces, other cruisers and destroyers around it were annihilated as well. They were torn apart by concentrated plasma lance fire, and were obliterated with great prejudice.

The battleship gunners cheered at their victory, even as their own ship crumbled around them.