This is the first I've heard of that series, but I'll be sure to check it out when I get the chance.  Anyway, here's the next chapter:

CHAPTER TWO

THE SINEWS OF WAR

The Hydra Class Assault Carrier is unlike any other carrier in existence. Rather than deploying its squadrons at the edge of a gravity well and staying out of the main fray, the Hydra is designed to plunge into the heart of an enemy fleet, guns blazing. It is fast enough to keep pace with its escorting cruisers, and its shields rival those of a Kol battleship.

But the Hydra's true strength, the reason for its success, is its weapons. Its primary armament is a cunningly designed network of automated laser turrets, numbering in the tens of thousands. A single Hydra could have dedicated five of its turrets to each and every fighter in the 12^th and still have enough left over to shoot down all of the missiles that the main fleet launched at it. With its escort of gunships, and working in tandem with another carrier, it was all but invincible. The 12^th fleet was doomed the moment its squadrons entered range of the enemy cannons, but Zaarus had no way of knowing this; not a single fighter had appeared on his scanners, and the carriers' hangar bay doors remained firmly shut. He had undoubtedly been nervous about the enemy's reasoning, but had probably concluded that the enemy carriers were waiting until they closed the gap, and that they were relying on their gunships to defend themselves. Accordingly he had targeted them with his missile frigates, coordinating the assault so that the first of the squadrons would appear at roughly the same moment the last missile salvo hit. When his squadrons were destroyed, Zaarus had little choice but to order battle formation and give the order to attack.

Zaarus was right, but he had not anticipated the heavy defenses on the carriers. He did anticipate the presence of enemy bombers... but not the quantity. For the Hydra had the largest fighter complement of any vessel ever built, massive shipboard factories capable of producing entire squadrons at a time, and the main hangar was filled with racks, thousands of gleaming automated squadrons fresh from the production line, endless rows and columns-

of bombers.

The enemy fleet closed to engage, faster than anyone could have believed, and the murmurs that had begun at the fleet's appearance stopped when the carriers unloaded their squadrons into the heart of the 12^th.

An hour later, it was all over.

If you intend to make a mod out of this, that ship had better be able to be killed by more than what you are about to suggest.  I mean, you could make them indestructible, for the sake of balance, I would hope not...

As far as the story goes, its interesting and makes you want to hear more.

The next two chapters:

CHAPTER FOUR

THE AREOLIAN SECTOR

The Areolian Sector is the heart of the Eastern Front. It serves as the regional nexus for countless phase lanes, from which nearly any major star system in the 2^nd Quadrant could be assaulted. It also lie directly astride the major Phase Tunnel leading out from the Core Systems and into the vast emptiness of space, the path that led out of the Milky Way and into the nearby galaxy Andromeda...

The path that two empires traveled, to plunge into the heart of Trader Space.

Since the sector fell to the Vasari twenty years ago, no one empire had owned the entire region. Due to the nature of the region- the unusually close knit web of star systems- it is extremely difficult to conquer, but should any empire manage to hold all of it, then they would have a tightly packed defensive grid, with access to the entire 2^nd Quadrant, and more.

The Vasari had long ago been driven out, but the Advent remained locked in a ruthless war of expansion with the TEC. Recent losses to the resurgent Vasari on the Western Front had drawn valuable resources away from the East, and the Advent now controlled three fourths of the sector.

Or rather, they controlled three fourths of the sector. For the Imperium had emerged suddenly and without warning, using speed and surprise to overwhelm the Unity's defenses. More than half of the sector fell to them within a month, and they were poised to conquer another third within a week. So far, their victories had been complete, their attacks so sudden and their tactics so different that the Advent had fared little better than the 12^th Fleet, and the TEC had fared even worse.

Admiral Kol sought to change that.

Until the slaughter at Adonica, he had been tasked with fighting Vasari in the 3^rd Quadrant, but the destruction of the 12^th Fleet served to alert High Command to the extent of the new threat. The 12^th had been the primary TEC force in the region; with its destruction the Advent and the Imperium had quickly parceled up the sector amongst themselves and were now locked in a bitter war for territory while the TEC were shoved forcibly to the sidelines. Only one of the fifty major star systems remained to the TEC: Ronellidor.

It was here that Admiral Kol would begin his counterstrike. Kol was a cautious man, and an even more cautious commander; the last thing he desired was to engage in battle with a new enemy without even knowing the enemy's name.

And so the 81^st Recon Division found itself in orbit over Obrai when the Empire attacked the Advent fleet.

To his dying day, the commander of the task force would shudder at the memory of what he had witnessed there.

CHAPTER FIVE

FIRE AND SWORD

Captain Drake looked up at the scanners again with annoyance. So much interference... the local storms must be acting up again. As it was he could barely make out the star base in orbit, much less the enemy fleet. Admiral Kol will want to know what's here, but how am I to get that information? He supposed he ought to be grateful that the storms also hid his ship; the last thing he wanted was for the Advent to know they were here. He sighed and reached down to flick a switch.

Alarm klaxons blared to life, snapping him out of his reverie. He was about to ask the sensor officer what had happened when he looked out the viewport.

The sensors officer approached, pale as ice. “Sir-”

“I see it.” The enemy fleet had just jumped into the system... 

The other enemy...

The Imperial fleet that entered the system consisted of three battle groups, each identical to the one that had attacked Adonica. It also had an additional battalion, centered around two ships that the TEC had yet to witness. Knowing Kol would want to know about the battle, Drake gave the order to record the sensor data.

The Leviathan Class Battleship is the imperial answer to the TEC Marza. It is heavily armed and geared for planetary assault, with most of its firepower facing forwards. Its escort, nearly fifty heavy cruisers and support craft, were crewed by experienced hit-and-fade operatives. In addition to heavy ion cannons and plasma turrets, the Leviathan was also armed with rapid fire railguns in a fashion similar to the Kol's Autocannons, and had specialized modular munition attachment points for various siege weapons.

Two of those weapons were firing now: railguns modified to fire nanite projectiles that sabotage the targeted hull at a molecular level and shielded with ionic particles, so as to penetrate enemy shields. As the projectiles hit the Advent Mothership, the ion cannons opened up on the hapless vessel. The weak hulled Progenitor disintegrated under the combined assault of the two battleships.

Then the Leviathan launched a bomb at the rest of the Advent fleet; an antimatter bomb, of unsurpassed firepower.

There was a blinding blue flash, as the bomb detonated in the heart of the Advent fleet, and for a brief instant it seemed that a miniature blue dwarf star had appeared in the midst of the enemy fleet... then it was gone. And so were the ships inside it.

The entire defending fleet, nearly one hundred fifty ships in all, had been destroyed in less than three minutes.

The Leviathan turned its deadly gaze on the star base. There was another flash, another volley of railguns and ion cannons, and then another blue sun appeared. When it dissipated, however, the star base remained intact; its shields had shrugged off the damage. The unshielded defense turrets were not as lucky- they were gone. The Leviathan and its escorts poured into the gap, ignoring the angry fire from the star base and the few remaining enemy squadrons, spewing death and destruction from their cannons as bombers launched by the thousands from the carriers.

When the last of the fighters were gone, the Leviathan accelerated towards the planet while the carriers launched assault craft, sweeping away the remaining defense turrets and targeting the other orbital structures.

Drake gave the order to close the gap; he wanted to see what weapons the enemy would bring to bear on the planet, what they would use to bomb.

He would later regret this decision, for he saw the bombing raid in its entirety, and it would plague him for the rest of his life.

The Leviathan did not launch ion cannons, nor railguns, nor plasma bursts, nor a bomb of any kind.

It fired radiation.

The scanners aboard Drake's craft picked up signatures of gamma rays; the enemy was literally sterilizing the planet, killing all life on its surface, but leaving the buildings largely intact.

For the Empire was nothing if not efficient.

As the Advent reinforcements entered the system, the carriers turned to leave, but the Leviathans fired one last salvo consisting of microwave emitters. The planet's atmosphere boiled, its seas dissolved, as fires broke out all across the cities.

But no one was killed in the firestorm, for everyone was already dead. The purpose was to destroy anything of use on the planet, and to demoralize the enemy.

For the Empire was nothing if not efficient.

Drake stared in silence as he witnessed the holocaust. As the Leviathan turned to leave, one shaking finger pressed the end recording and transmit data button on the scanner.

Aboard the Leviathan Battleship Righteous Fury, the comm officer told the captain of the transmission. “They have seen enough.” The captain ordered the scout's destruction.

For the Empire was nothing if not efficient.

CHAPTER SIX

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

The Advent did not fail to retaliate. Scouts in the Algieba System witnessed the fury of the Unity brought to bear on the Imperial task force there. Their forces consisted of the bulk of the local Advent fleet: five Radiance battleships, fourteen Progenitors, six Halcyon Carriers, and two Rapture Battlecruisers. Facing down the wrath of the Unity was the 15^th Task Force: eight Leviathan battleships modified to assault fleets instead of systems; four Hydra Carriers and their escorts, loaded with heavy interceptors and fighter wings instead of the standard assault squadrons; three Galbana Class motherships; and the planetary defense rings. It should have been a grueling fight.

But the Empire had expected the Advent to attack, and that made all the difference.

Deep inside the fleet command center, the one they called Commander watched as the beings who called themselves the Advent phased into his star system. He gave an order over the comlink.

Only one.

A single word: Attack.

In the Algieba System, the clouds of nanites that had been scattered across the system activated. The Advent Fleet passed by, and the mines detonated. These mines were ion based, designed to jam all communications, to disrupt sensors and targeting arrays. It was important that the enemy was blind, that they could not communicate with each other...

because the 13^th Reserve Fleet jumped into the system immediately behind them, taking advantage of the confusion to slip into the gravity well undetected. As the Advent fleet was reeling from the shock, the main battlegroup launched their fighters and attacked, as did the defenses. All the while the battle group behind the Advent fleet was moving into position.

A ship detached itself from the Reserve Fleet.

Only one.

One was enough.

The Draconis Class Battleship is the pinnacle of military engineering. Heavily armed and armored, no credit was spared in lavishing the latest technology in its massive design. It bristled with ion cannon, railguns designed to fire nanite projectiles similar to the ones used at Obrai, and heavy plasma turrets, all of which were designed to maximize firepower. This particular vessel was even deadlier; armed with a dangerous experimental weapon; an ion cannon capable of penetrating any shielding and overloading enemy reactors with static energy, to lethal effect. The cannon was highly unstable, and could only be fired once per day, if at all.

One shot was all that was required.

The Advent Carrier Maleficent exploded violently, is new reactor overloading and scattering lethal antimatter across the system in a great explosion. The tightly knit Advent Carrier group was devastated by the blast, which was followed by another series of explosions, as the Leviathans launched their sixteen bombs, following up their initial ion beam and railgun attack on the Progenitors to lethal effect. By the time the explosions died down, two of the six carriers, and seven of the Progenitors were gone, along with a large portion of their escorts. All of the Radiances were intact, however, and though the remaining carriers and Progenitors were damaged, they were still operational. The Draconis closed to engage the three battleships, and the reserve carrier group attacked the eight remaining Progenitors.

Which left the Raptures for the defenses.

The Rapture is a large vessel, but by no means a sturdy one. Its primary strength is the skill of its Psintigrat- which are largely ineffective against the largely automated Imperial vessels. Against eight Leviathans, they had no chance of victory. The Draconis, on the other hand, was in trouble. Though it was large and tough enough to hold off three battleships for a short time, if left to its own devices it would be defeated in the end. But of course, the Empire did not leave it to its own devices. The Raptures were quickly overwhelmed by the Leviathans. Once they were destroyed the Leviathans divided into two groups, one assisting the Draconis against the Radiances, and the other group attacking the carriers. The Galbana Battlecruisers accelerated to join the carrier group.

The battle was over almost before it began.

CHAPTER EIGHT

REASSIGNED

Admiral Kol looked up from his desk as the Comm Officer approached. The man stopped in front of him and saluted. “Sir, our reconnaissance data has just returned.” “Bring it up on the screen.” He watched as the Obrai system was raided, as the Advent counterattack ended in the destruction of the Advent fleet. This does not bode well.... With the destruction of the main Advent battle fleet, the Unity would be powerless to resist the imperial advance... and the TEC would be next in line for invasion. Kol stood, and walked to the door. “Send a message to High Command. Tell them that the Areolian Sector will fall to the enemy unless they send immediate reinforcements.”

The officer clenched his jaw and swallowed. “About that sir... High Command has ordered your task force out of the system.”

Kol stared at the officer. “What do you mean, they have ordered me out of the system?”

The officer flinched at the tone of Kol's voice, but continued, “They... told me only that they have a new project for you to work on...”

Kol clenched his jaw.

Above Firrendir

The doors were supposedly soundproofed, but Zane thought that he could hear the admiral through them regardless. He does not see the sense in abandoning Ronellidor, but he has not seen the figures. The fact was that they simply could not afford to spare enough ships to protect Ronellidor: the loss of the 12^th Fleet had left them without any major reserve force within the entire Eastern Front, and the Western Front demanded all available material from the Core. There simply were not enough ships to counter the opposing fleet. None of which will appease him. Not that Zane could blame him; even he knew how tough it would be to reclaim the sector after it was united under one banner, and Kol was likely the man who would have to do it. We will be better armed then, he told himself, we will have better ships, more ships...

we will have the Astrom.

None of this consoled the Admiral, however: he had personally spoken to the remaining crews, explaining what was asked of them, why he needed to leave only a token force...

why he needed men willing to die....

There were few volunteers, but those few were enough to field a single Dunov and a light escort, though at a skeleton crew. It would only take a skeleton crew to accomplish their assigned task...

for the ships were packed with explosives.

Within the briefing room

The High Command war room was lavishly decorated, a legacy from its use as a trade office. Just now, though, Kol would have preferred the spartan accommodations of his chambers aboard the Aceron; the wine red carpeting reminded him unduly of blood. It certainly did not improve his mood.

“How long until the prototype is ready?” The chairman looked down at him, and said, “The doctor insists that the Astrom Prototype will be operational in eight months at the most. Kol scowled.

“Eight months is too long to wait! The Areolian Sector-”

“will wait; the Vasari will not. Already they are raiding the 2^nd Quadrant capital at will; it will not be long until they conquer it, and then they will have a clear path to the Core.” “So will these Imperials. The Areolian Sector is strategically located-” “I may be old, but I can read a star chart as well as you, Admiral. The Empire will not recover from their fleet's destruction above Ronellidor for some time.”

“If it is destroyed.”

“It will be; we are certain.” Seeing the grimace on Kol's face, the chairman smiled.

“We are working on a new weapon to employ in the war, but first... an ambassador from the enemy has arrived to discuss our borders...”

A tall, lithe woman entered the room.

“The Unity will smile upon your triumph over the Imperials...”

CHAPTER NINE

THE OPENED DOOR

It was no mistake that the system of Ronellidor was the one star system to resist Imperial incursions. Its defenses were the strongest in the region, with not one but two Argonev Star Bases in orbit. Nearly one hundred thousand Gauss Platforms ringed the planet in an impermeable web of steel; any ship within two hundred thousand kilometers of the planet would be within the range of at least five individual turrets, with more coming into focus the closer one approached. Nearly fifteen hundred space stations, each host to six to eight squadrons of fighters, acted as regional nexuses, coordinating fire with the surrounding automated turrets. The planet's sole moon, Ronell, was honeycombed with tunnels connecting bunkers, hangar bays, weapons emplacements and more. The system was not merely the best defended in the sector; it was the best defended in the quadrant.

It was not enough.

The TEC crews had expected to face a large fleet; they had expected to face down the Leviathan; they had dreaded to confront the Hydra. A few even feared to be assailed by the Draconis.

None of them expected the Javelin.

The Javelin, as it was dubbed by the defenders, is a massive orbital structure constructed specifically for sieges. It was heavily armed and armored, with enough firepower to destroy an Argonev in under five minutes. It was the size of a large asteroid, fifteen kilometers in diameter, and more than fifty kilometers long. It resembled a javelin, vaguely; a giant spear, aimed at the heart of the TEC defenses.

The defenders might have been able to hold against one Javelin, or even two...

so the Empire built five in-system.

It was not long before the first star base fell, and the second shortly thereafter. Ronell was on the other side of the gravity well, helpless to intercede. The fleet, pitiful as it was, attempted to carry out their desperate suicide mission, but even this was beyond their reach. The bomber wings and heavy interceptors dismantled it before they entered cannon range.

Faced with no other alternatives, Ronellidor surrendered.

Just as the Chairman had anticipated.

He gave the order to fire.

CHAPTER TEN

THE PROTOTYPE

Above Firrendir

Admiral Kol looked out at the weapon as it fired. So this is how we will win...by bombing our own planets as the enemy conquers them.... the ultimate scorched earth tactic. He grimaced. Desperation and honor are difficult to reconcile... and desperation and folly are easy bedfellows... For it was a folly: sound military tactics would do little to appease the citizens when they learned just how little the Chairman cared for their well being. Let us hope this is the only occasion we use this... folly. Zane approached him. He gestured at the cannon. “This is what we hope to accomplish with the Astrom- a giant cannon, in essence, designed to obliterate enemy vessels from across a gravity well.” Kol turned to face him. “This is why we will lose; whenever we are confronted with an unforeseen threat, our first response is to build something with even greater firepower. What ever happened to tactical ability, to stealth or skill? Surely we could find another way to bring the Hydra down.” Zane looked at Kol with a somber face. “Sometimes, in war, you have no other choice than to go bigger, stronger; faced with a boulder the only two choices are to avoid it or to destroy it, and as the enemy won't let us avoid their boulders...” “There are many ways to destroy a boulder; the consistent pressure of a river can erode it over time; an explosive charge can destroy it quickly; there are alternatives to simply increasing firepower.”

The doctor shook his head. “Open your eyes, Kol: we have been trying every alternative, and none of them have worked. We need the firepower of the Astrom if we are to win.” Kol looked away.

“What about peace? Why must we fight? There is no surer means of ending a conflict than turning a foe to a friend... and this foe could help us against other enemies who are more implacable...”

Kane spoke up.

“The Chairman once thought as you did.”

Kol said nothing to this, so the doctor continued where Kane left off. “You haven't seen the message they sent us after the fall of Adonica.” It was not a question. “I saw it, and I do not see how it will make any difference.”

Zane sighed. “Then I know you haven't seen their latest transmission.”

Before I could elaborate, however, the alarm klaxons blared. Kol immediately snatched the comlink from his belt. He spoke a few terse words into it. His face paled slightly. “Are we under attack?” Kane asked. “An enemy task force has just captured the Kronac System.” There were murmurs at this, and I did not fail to notice the look that passed between Kane and Admiral Kol. “Put me on the fleet comm.”

I would never forget the following battle. So much hinged on our victory... should we fail, the enemy would be capable of launching assaults directly into the heart of Trader Space.

We could not allow that to happen.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

BEFORE THE STORM

Admiral Kol looked out from the bridge of his flagship. He began to speak.

“The enemy is well situated. Their recent conquest of The Areolian Sector has provided them with a secure foothold in the Eastern Front. Control of that sector puts them directly athwart all major phase lanes between the Core and the eastern colonies; if we do not answer this, and quickly, they will be able to strike at the core with impunity. Their conquest of Kronac is a sign anyone can read... they aim to strike at the capital... they mean to strike at the Homeworld.”

“We cannot allow this to happen.”

“The enemy will expect us to retaliate... they will have brought their reserves into the system... do not expect them to be lenient. Their conquest was complete; not a single warship has died in their assaults, but they are not invulnerable, as we will prove here today. We will be but the tip of the spear, the first wave of the counterattack, but that does not mean that we should rest easily. All of you have heard the tales, of the 12^th Fleet's demise at the hands of a fleet a fifth of its size... this was the result of superior tactics, speed and stealth... surprise.”

“Zaarus did not know, could not have known, what he was up against. And that is why we will succeed where he has failed. That is why we must succeed where he failed. We cannot allow these intruders to penetrate further into Trader Space. It ends here.”

But the admiral was wrong. Even the enemy did not know what awaited us, all of us...

for this was just the beginning, of a new brutal chapter in the bloody history of war.

Above Kronac IV, the 12^th Task Force of the 122^nd Expeditionary Legion prepared for battle. It numbered twelve Hydra Carriers in strength, divided into six battle groups, each of which was precisely the same as the force that annihilated the 12^th Reserve Fleet. In addition, Assault Force Five, which had jumped into the system to handle the orbital defenses, was comprised of two more of these battlegroups, one of which was the very same group responsible for Zaarus' defeat above Adonica.

These two battlegroups flanked the main fleet, four Leviathan Class Battleships, three in the front and one in the rear, escorted by an amalgamation of gunships, heavy cruisers, and heavy beam frigates. In the center, between the two task forces of carriers and the two assault groups of Leviathans, was the heart of the Assault Fleet: two Galbana Class Motherships and their escorts flanking the Task Force Flagship, the Draconis Battleship Saruna's Pride. Altogether the fleet had enough firepower to destroy ten 12^th fleets... which meant that they were more or less on even terms with the thirteen battle groups preparing to jump into the system.

The Galbana Mothership is the Legionnaires' equivalent of an Akkan, relatively lightly armed and lightly armored but equipped with powerful targeting, communication and sensor arrays capable of augmenting the main fleet. These Galbanas were specially designed to increase the range and accuracy of Hydra carriers. Without the Galbanas, the battle group would have been devastating; with them they were all but unstoppable. The Leviathan battleships were designed for longer range than the Draconis, being heavily armed and tough enough to take on enemy defenses. The Draconis, on the other hand, was as tough and fiery as its name sake, the pride of the 122^nd fleet, capable of taking on entire fleets by itself. Like the Hydra it was designed for close range arbitration, but it was easily the slowest vessel in the fleet. As such the main battle group was stationed near the defenses, serving as the reserve, a mobile defense grid that would chastise anything foolhardy enough to approach it and harassing anyone craven enough to stay away. The idea was for the main battle group to work in tandem with the defenses while the six independent carrier groups used their speed to harass the enemy flanks. In effect, the defenses and the Assault Force would served as the rock that the TEC would break themselves on, while the main carrier groups were a series of spears, prodding the TEC forces to their doom.

Admiral Kol was aware of all of this, as his scouts had collected enough intel to know what he was up against. He knew better than anyone that the TEC fleet was entering a meat grinder.

But this too was only the tip of the spear, for the enemy also had, unbeknownst to admiral Kol, a twelfth battle group waiting just outside the system: a Commando task force, one elite battalion consisting of eighty gunships, sixty heavy cruisers, twenty Infiltrator Class Commando Cruisers, two heavily upgraded Hydras-

and one Arbiter Heavy Cruiser.

The Commander watched from a holoscreen as the TEC battlegroup phased into the system. He saw Admiral Kol's flagship at the heart of it, and he smiled.

Here's the next chapter, the beginning of a decisive battel between the invaders and the TEC:

CHAPTER TWELVE

FIRST BLOOD

Kol looked at the scanners. High Command took too long to respond; the enemy have had too much time to prepare, they are too well situated, our fleet will be annihilated regardless of the outcome. Should we succeed at recapturing the system we would not be able to defend it from the Advent and the Vasari. Even if we win, we lose.

 He did not give voice to these thought, however; he had a job to do, and his fleet must win, or at least slaughter enough of the enemy to prevent them from retaliating. He watched as two of the six battlegroups of carriers detached themselves from the ring and wondered if the enemy had intentionally chosen to use the same fleet configuration as they had at Adonica to demoralize his crews or if they merely intended to hide their other ships' capabilities in order to surprise TEC star systems later. Perhaps they are just that confident of success. It hardly mattered; from what he had seen, he was in for a tough fight regardless of the enemy's reasoning.

He switched his comm to the hangar bay. “Launch all fighter wings, with orders to remain on the starboard side of the Aceron until I give the signal, and prepare the bomber wings for launch at my command.” He turned to the helm officer. “Bring us about roughly 80 degrees and head twenty thousand kilometers planetwise, then turn to face the closer enemy battlegroup, and tell the Gauss Crew I want the main cannon ready to fire in five minutes.” Once that was done he ordered his escorting Kols to follow the same instructions, with orders to prepare their bombers for synchronized launch with the Aceron.

He switched his intercom to the Battlegroup channel and contemplated the enemy fleet again, before making a decision. “Admiral Farrone, tell your carrier group to launch their bombers as soon as you close to three clicks from the planetwise carrier group, under orders to remain less than three thousand kilometers from their launch bays. Arm them with laser cannons, no missiles, and give them as many fighter squadrons as escort as you desire, but under no condition are they to close within four thousand kilometers of the enemy carriers without my explicit authorization. Also order your escorting Gardas to remain within three kilometers, in a hexagonal defense grid formation.”

He next ordered the Akkan Task Force Alpha to close to fifteen kilometers from the other enemy task force and to coordinate their escorting missile frigates' attacks with the bomber wings of the Carrier group. “Prepare to target the planetmost carrier of the planetside battlegroup with your ion cannons, I want a single coordinated assault in four minutes, to be followed with a missile attack. Once that is done you may close to engage the other carrier group, but do not launch your bombers until you are within two kilometers from the targeted carrier. Is that understood?”

He then sat back and watched the formation of the battle lines. The enemy are reckless, to assault us so openly, but then, they can afford to be reckless. A lieutenant approached, and told him that the Kol group's Gauss cannons were ready to fire and that they were within range. “Give the order to fire immediately after the Akkans launch their ion burst, and tell the bomber wing to launch in one minute and join up with the carrier group's bombers. Loose formation, standard attack pattern. Helm, close to engage. Captain, tell the gunners to concentrate on the same carrier as the rest of the fleet and command our escorts to do the same.”

He gave the order for the carrier group to close the gap with the targeted battlegroup, their bombers remaining within cannon range of the escorting Gardas. After that there was nothing else to do but to wait and watch. He switched one of his private scanners to the targeted carrier, to observe the effects of the assault, and hit the record and transmit button, so that High Command back in Firrendir could see. Shortly thereafter the ion burst fired, followed by the gauss cannons and a swarm of missiles. By this time the carrier group had closed and the combined force of bomber wings synchronized their assaults with the ion and Gauss bursts, and the Carrier group opened up.

He gave the order: “Open fire.” The slights dimmed temporarily as the main beam and laser batteries fired on the targeted carrier. He watched impassively as the bombers and missiles were largely destroyed by the defense turrets, but as he had hoped the synchronized assault had allowed a few to slip through. It will not be enough. The Ion burst hit barely a second before the Gauss rounds, and shortly thereafter the laser batteries from the Carriers and the Kols hit. The enemy's shields brushed off the assault, though he thought he saw a few lights dim when the ion blasts hit, and then the enemy was on them and there was no more time for idle musings.

The ship rocked as ion beams hit the hull, and the shields were failing already under the brutal assault of plasma. He watched helplessly as the carrier group was destroyed piecemeal, but was consoled by the sight of several of the enemy's escorting gunships going up as their reactors overloaded. It's about bloody time the enemy lost a ship or two, but at such a cost...

 He was even more pleased when the second fleet phased in. It was larger than his task force, and the commander, upon seeing the state of the battlegroup around Kol, immediately opened up with his missile batteries, attempting to get a few shots in before the enemy could react. Kol saw a few more gunships go up, and one of the enemy carrier's shields were noticeably dimmer... but the other carrier was pristine.

He switched his intercom to the escorting Kols. “Launch all fighter wings, and tell them to remain close.” Sure enough, the opposing carriers' bay doors were opening, and he could see the glimmer of the bombers within. He seized the opportunity. “All ships, focus all firepower on the damaged carrier's hangar.” He briefly reflected on the sad state of affairs when an enemy ship with more than half-strength shields was considered damaged as the fleet opened up.

The concentrated fire temporarily overwhelmed the ship's strained shields and the hangar erupted in flame. Cheers flooded the comm system as the enemy carrier fled the battle, plasma streaming from numerous holes in its hull. “Gauss crews, open fire on the engines.” He allowed himself a small smile as the engines of the damaged carrier were annihilated one at a time. His smile became slightly more noticeable when the carrier exploded. A small victory, but it will help morale, and it proves that they are not invincible... but even so... he looked around him.

The second enemy carrier had lost its shields and was being pounded by the fleet, but its bombers were still streaming out, and he saw the battleship Guardian explode as ion beams pierced its hull in several places. Worse, another enemy battlegroup was now closing to engage the third task force, and he saw the second plunge into the roiling battle that was raging around the Akkan task force. We are alone now, but we are winning... so why am I so uneasy?

He commanded the sensor crew to sweep the area, just to be sure. The three remaining enemy carrier groups were still just outside the gravity well, presumably to deal with the remaining task forces that were phasing into the system even now. But we have thirteen task forces... at this rate their main force would be annihilated before half of our fleet enters the system... surely they must know that? He studied the console again. They are relying on the defenses to sweep up what is left after the carriers are gone; that battle group over there is the anvil they expect to break us with...

but where is the hammer?

The conclusion to the battle:

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE HAMMER BLOW

From within the command center of the Heavy Cruiser Avantua, the Commander watched impassively as the first of his carriers died. He recalled that the Hydra had a crew of two thousand, and felt nothing. He tried to remember the commander's face... a woman, short and lithe, strikingly beautiful, as his people usually were... Miranda, that was her name. One of his sons was betrothed to her... he remembered this, and still he felt nothing. He tried to remember the last time he had felt sorrow, fear, rage...

anything...

and still, he felt nothing. Had the centuries of experiencing life and death, of service in and out of the Homeworld, leeched his emotions from him? Time may not have ravaged his body, nor dulled his mind...

but had it stolen his heart?

Mentally shrugging, he set aside his frivolous concerns. They could wait.

He had a job to do, a task assigned to him personally from the hands of the Emperor herself. And if there was one thing he felt, it was pride. Pride in his race, in his people, in his crew.

For his people were perfect; his people were powerful; his people were merciful; his people were wise. In their wisdom and in their mercy, with all of their power and in all of their perfection, they had decided to bestow their divine protection on this primitive race...

For they were doomed... doomed to die... doomed to suffer...

They thought that they were capable of protecting themselves, but they were wrong.

They thought that they were capable of saving themselves, but they were wrong.

They thought that they knew themselves, but they were wrong.

Only his people, only the Aeronia, could protect them.

Only his people, only the Aeronia, could save them.

Only his people, only the Aeronia, could know them.

For the Aeronia were perfect; the Aeronia were powerful; the Aeronia were merciful; the Aeronia were wise.

And the Aeronia are nothing if not efficient.

Admiral Kol glanced at the scanners again. The last two carrier task forces of the enemy fleet were moving to engage the seventh, eighth, ninth task forces as they entered the system. So far the battle was more or less even, with the five intact enemy carrier groups slightly superior to the eight and a half task forces currently under his command... but the enemy defenses remained wholly intact, and the Anvil, as his men were calling it, was still in place. When the rest of the fleet entered the system the remaining enemy carriers would be casually brushed aside, but then they would have little choice but to assault the orbital defenses. It will be a victory, but a bloody victory...

Already they had lost thousands of good men and women, and the battle showed no signs of being easily- or quickly- resolved. He looked at the star base. Why don't you surrender, damn you, you cannot win... what do you hope to accomplish by fighting? Why do you fight? We did nothing to you...

The captain approached him. “Sir, the tenth and eleventh are entering the system now.” Kol nodded. The tenth and eleventh battalions were the last of the main battle fleet, each half again as large as any other division present, and were the last of the major offensive groups available to assault the system; the twelfth was a planetary assault group, a mixed force of Ogrovs, Gardas, Percherons and Javelises geared towards assaulting planetary defenses. Leading them was a small flotilla of Marzas and their escorting support craft and heavy cruisers; while they posed little threat to a battle group the size of the Anvil they would annihilate the planetary defenses... or so we hope.

 The thirteenth was a planetary bombardment squadron, consisting of a single Marza and several Krosov siege frigates, escorted by a small contingency of Gardas. It was currently sitting just outside the system, waiting for the main battle to conclude before jumping in to “mop up” the planetary garrison.

Kol was contemplating the battle when the alarm klaxons interrupted his line of thought.

He immediately accessed the command bridge from his console; the primary bridge had been damaged when the other enemy carrier went up and so he was forced to use the secondary command console from within his private chambers while repairs were underway.

“Sir, the Anvil battlegroup-” “I see it.” It had begun to move.

 From the command center aboard the Avantua, the Commander saw Assault Force Five begin to move. All was according to plan. Check.

Kol raced to the newly repaired bridge, giving orders all along the way. “I want all our bombers to report to the starboard hull! Tell Admiral Kane to move his ships fifty kilometers-” He never finished his sentence.

For another battlegroup had appeared on the scanners, directly opposite of the Anvil group...

and was plunging into the heart of the fleet.

The Arbiter is the most powerful vessel in the Aeronian Fleet, crewed by the legendary Auroq Warriors, and equipped with the latest technological innovations. While its primary armament is unremarkable and its hull is relatively weak, it is fast and agile, and is equipped with highly potent experimental weapons. It was using those weapons now.

Ionic Emitters that bombard the surrounding area, disabling enemy communications and sensors...

Gravitational Guns, capable of spawning miniature wormholes at will, used to tear apart the hulls of enemy vessels and make it a magnet for nearby fighters...

Ion Torpedoes, lethal weapons that deliver potent ionic charges to precise locations on hundreds of surrounding vessels...

and assault shuttles loaded with heavy weaponry and commando units, tasked with boarding enemy vessels and sabotaging them...

As its escorts diverged methodically, branching out into the TEC fleet, the Hydras launched endless waves of bombers while shooting down anything foolish enough to come too close. As Kol watched helplessly, the Arbiter accelerated, bursting past its escorts while spewing countless waves of torpedoes and ionic discharges, and the occasional wormhole or two...

But its main target was the Aceron.

As its weapons cooled, it reached Kol's flagship and his escorting task force...

The command center of the TEC fleet.

It fired its greatest weapon, a generator designed to tear a rift in local space, sending all nearby vessels, Aeronian or foreign, into Phase Space. But while the Aeronian vessels were built to withstand the Rift, TEC vessels were not.

The smaller ships, and those capital ships that were heavily damaged, were destroyed, buffeted by Phasic energy that tore them apart.

Kol's vessel was shaken, damaged, but not destroyed, but it remained in Phase Space for at least fifteen minutes.

During those fifteen minutes, Kol's ship was unable to communicate with his fleet, unable to move, unable to attack...

And the Anvil passed through the space once occupied by Kol's vessel, and descended on the remnants of the TEC fleet while they were reeling from the shock of the Avantua's attacks.

Kol had made a critical error; Assault Force Five, the Anvil, was not the anvil.

It was the hammer.

Kol groaned as he regaqined consciousness.  He sat up and looked around.  The bridge was a mess, with the crude makeshift repairs failing to hold up to the strain of whatever weapon the enemy had used.  Other officers were sprwled across the deck, and a few were standing by the viewport...

Looking out into Phase Space.

They sent us into Phase Space inside a gravity well?  Kol shook his head  The Vasari had made limited use of similar technology; it had long been known that the Vasari scouts could cloak themselves in Phase Space, as could certain planetary structures; their Antorak vessel could temporarily send a vessel into Phase Space, and recently the Vasari had even managed to send fighters into the Beyond with Hangar Inertial Generators...

But an entire fleet, being sent into Phase Space by a single vessel?  This was commonly thought impossible; the sheer amount of energy required to do such a thing was beyond even Vasari warships.

Kol stood up, and called to the nearest conscious deck officer.  "captain, I want you to review recordings of the battle.  Analyze the enemy flagship, I want to know what it did to us."  The officer nodded, then turned to a console.

As he began to type into it, the ship lurched, sending everyone standing to the floor again, and the Kronac System appeared outside the viewport...

along with the enemy fleet.

Aboard the flagship Avantua, the Commander smiled as the Aceron reappeared in exactly the same location it had vanished; his engineers had predicted the moment down to the second, a feat even the Aeronia could be proud of.  He watched as his fleet encircled the battleship, guns glowing ominously but not firing, as per his orders.  Checkmate.

Kol looked out impassively as the enemy fleet moved to intercept, as alarm klaxons blared.  The captain approached with a taut face.  "Sir, what should we do?"

Kol clenched his jaw.

"Sir?"

After a long silence, he responded.  "Send the enemy a message..."

"We surrender."

I've been busy coding the mod for this, that, and I'm not entrely sure where to go with this... I've got a vague notion of what I'd like to do, but my main issue is how to get Kol out of the mess I put him into.  I'm presently debating whether to take the Star Wars route, the James Bond route, or the GRRM route.

Its not that bad.  Its a good cliffhanger for what is to come.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE SOUND OF DEFEAT

In orbit over Firrendir, the Chairman and his staff watched silently as their fleet was demolished. They listened speechlessly as Kol surrendered. They considered carefully as the aliens withdrew. The chairman spoke first.

“Do you have anything to say, Admiral?”

Kol turned his gaze to the Chairman. “I say that we should accept the alien's terms.”

There was an uproar at this, but the chairman silenced it with a wave of his hand. “Tell me why you would make peace with the... creatures... who killed your wife and crippled your son.”

Ko0l nodded. “The Vasari have already sent envoys; they are clearly willing to talk. As for the Advent, if we can persuade the Vasari to end this war and make peace with these Aeronians then the Advent cannot stand for long; I believe that if the Advent refuse to accept peace then the Aeronians will give them war, and they cannot survive a two front war alone.”

The chairman nodded. “All rational and reasonable thoughts... but the terms are unacceptable. They demand more than peace; they demand control of the Areolian Sector, and this we cannot give.”

“With all due respect, chairman, the Areolian is no longer ours to give; the Aeronians have complete and utter control over the sector, and are not likely to abandon it anytime soon.”

“So you would have me abandon all efforts to reclaim it?”

Kol shook his head. “We do not have the manpower to reclaim it. If we continue to fight, we stand to lose much more than a single sector, or have you forgotten that the Core Worlds can easily be assaulted by the Empire at any time?”

The chairman rose.

“I have not forgotten.”

Kol stood and paced to the window. Whatever his line of thought, it was quickly broken off when a deck officer approached. His face was pale. He walked to the chairman and whispered in his ear.

The chairman's face paled slightly. “Put it on.”

As the officer returend to his station, the chairman turned to the perplexed board members. “I have just been informed that the enemy has made a broadcast on all frequencies to all sectors...”

“They are assaulting Hygeia.”

From the bridge of the cruiser Avantua the Commander watched as his fleet moved into position. He turned to his comm unit and began to speak.

“To whom it may concern."

"My people have watched your petty squabbles with disdain for some time, but we did not interfere. We swore vows of stoicism, of isolationism. It was not always this way; for millennia our empire ruled wisely, humanely, for the good of all races.”

“It was our downfall.”

“We believed that we could control power, that we could remain virtuous. We were wrong. Our empire rose to great heights, constructing entire star systems, self sufficient bastions of perfection that we bestowed upon our subjects. We accumulated unsurpassed knowledge and wisdom; we perfected the arts even as we perfected ourselves. The poorest citizen of the empire lived longer, healthier, happier, lives than the greatest of your kings or princes. Our leaders lived like gods, avatars of perfection, beautiful and powerful, as eternal as a star. But as your myths tell you, a god does not live in happiness... for they are always bickering amongst themselves; for to be a god is to be perfect, and to be human is to be wise, and wisdom does not come without sacrifice. In their perfection, our leaders were leeched of all that made them who they were, of all their quirks, their emotions, their personalities, for there was no means of improving themselves; they knew neither pleasure nor pain, as these are of mortals, lesser beings; and so in their greatness they humbled themselves before God, living only in service to God, and in so doing they doomed us all. Our empire grew too great, our society too lax, for perfection, like all great things, comes at a steep price; it is not a cup that many are made to swallow, that any are made to enjoy, and this was why we fell; we tried to make everything perfect, and in so doing we destroyed the very essence of life, of beauty, of humanity. We were cast down, forced into exile. We vowed never again to make the same mistakes as our ancestors... but nor could we sit idle as mortals lived and died in pain. And so we returned, again and again, once every fifty years, to kindle a flame of God, to devote our efforts to one purpose.”

“We are the 122^nd such expedition, and we are here to end this war, to unite all of this galaxy in peace and prosperity... we are the Aeronia, and we will not relent until our sacred task is fulfilled.”

“So you have a choice: peace, or war."

Deep in uncharted space, the conclave watched silently as the message died away.  Their leader turned to the messenger.

"So it is true..."

"The empire has returned."

Quite a battle there

RL has interfered... well, here's the next chapter.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE BUTCHER'S DEN

Kol looked out calmly as the Advent reinforcements arrived. Good old Murphy's Law... It was fortunate that he thrived on such chaos. He switched his intercom to the Carrier group. “Admiral Kane, tell your squadrons to dock and make full speed for Hygeia.” He had carefully considered when to send his fighters to aid the weary defense fleet above Hygeia; too soon, and the Advent fighters would ravage his unprotected fleet; too late and Hygeia could fall to the enemy. Now that the main Advent carrier group had been destroyed and the new defense cruisers had arrived, he could afford to dispatch the bulk of his air power to Hygeia's aid. If only the Vasari would be so accommodating... He had been stunned by news of their assault on the western capital; even as he was battling the Advent here the Vasari were rampaging in the western front. The regional capital was too valuable to lose; with the eastern front in shambles, High Command could not afford to lose the west, and so they dispatched the bulk of the new defense vessels to the western sectors. He could understand the reasoning well enough, but he still felt uneasy... the timing is too fortuitous for it to be coincidental. He had no proof, of course, but should any assert that the enemy were coordinating their assaults, he would be the first to agree. Whether the deliberate result of careful diplomatic negotiations or simply a spontaneous exploitation of momentary weakness, it was no accident that the enemy were striking deeper into TEC territory. The Aeronians are to blame. Their complete conquest of the Areolian sector had crippled the eastern war effort and left High Command reeling.

An alarm klaxon interrupted his line of thought. "Sir, the Vasari have just jumped a Migrator into the system." Kol did not hesitate. “Bring up the Vasari fleet, and give me a link with Assault Group Alpha.” Consisting of thirty Ogrov cruisers and their escorts, the assault force would make short work of even an Orkulus Star Base, but only if it was given the time to engage before it was finished. If the Vasari should get it operational... The Vasari fleet appeared on the main holoprojector, and the Assault force commander appeared a short while later. By that time Kol had made a decision. “Commander, break off your attack on the Transcencia and head forty clicks corewise to join up with Admiral Gerard's task force.” Switching his comm unit to the admiral, he gave orders to dock his bomber squadrons and refit them for structural assault. He then switched his attention to the carrier group

After the fiasco above Adonica he had taken the time to assemble a carrier group and introduce them to a new, or rather, very old, tactic. They weren't on par with the Aeronian fleet, but they were proficient enough in Blitzkrieg warfare to accomplish what he had in mind. He carefully detailed to the captain what he wanted, before returning to the main projector to watch the fleet unfold. As he had foreseen, the Vasari targeted the Ogrov and Assault group first, but the carrier group took a few hits as well. He made another decision. “Tell the Dunov Battlegroup to join the assault on the Vasari fleet.” The three groups closed on the Vasari forces from three separate angles, with the Ogrovs holding back so as to remain out of range of the main Vasari fleet and the other two groups plunging into the enemy fleet at full throttle. The carrier group retained their bombers until they were at close range with the enemy battleships, then launched their squadrons before diverging into the escorting Sentinel craft. After brutally assaulting the escorting gunships they accelerated out of the main Vasari fleet and towards the Dunov group. The groups met on the fringe of the Vasari Armada and remained together long enough for their shields to recuperate somewhat and the Dunovs' Hoshiko escort to repair most of the damage the carriers had sustained before accelerating out the other end, again targeting the escorting gunships in a strafing run as they fled back to the Assault group.

By this time an Akkan squadron tasked with escorting the assault group had reached the fringes of the Vasari fleet. They accelerated through it, meeting up with the Dunovs in the heart of the enemy armada before launching their wings of fighters. The bomber squadrons already in the air docked in them long enough to rearm and refuel before launching again. The combined assault took less than eight minutes, but it effectively stripped the Vasari of their escorting gunships as well as dealing considerable damage to the main battle group and nearly destroying the Orkulus. Only a single carrier had been lost, and of the main battlegroups only thirteen vessels were destroyed. Kol gave the order for the groups to withdraw, content to leave the Vasari reeling from the shock of the assault.

It could not have been better timed.

“Sir, an Aeronian fleet has just jumped in system.”

Kol immediately turned to the projector. “Show me.”

The projector whirred to life, and the enemy fleet appeared in orbit. The Vasari were between the Aeronians and his fleet, and the bulk of the scattered remnants of the Advent forces were on the edge of the gravity well, racing towards Hygeia. He frowned, staring at a blurred shape on the screen. He pointed to it: “Focus on that.” It appeared on screen, and it looked familiar... He realized where he had seen it before. Groping for the comm unit, he frantically punched in a code. The sensors officer looked at him queerly. “Sir, why are you contacting the Vasari?” He turned to the officer. “They are the only ones close enough to destroy it in time.” Ignoring the look of confusion on the officer's face, he turned to the holounit again as the Vasari commander appeared. “What do you want, human?” “The vessel I highlighted for you is a grave threat to us all, it must be destroyed instantly or-” The alien waved at him. “And why should I do that?” the transmission cut off before he could reply. Kol stared into space for several moments before turning to face the officer. “Captain, that vessel is a Star Base Constructor, but the enemy is not building a star base with it.”

“They are building a siege weapon.”

Kol had witnessed what the siege platform could do to defending fleets. Though lacking in anti-strikecraft weaponry, the Javelin was more than a match for even a star base and could hold its own against the heaviest warships in battle. Designed to be constructed quickly and efficiently in any situation, the main drawback of the Javelin was its staggering cost, partially compensated by the Javelin's ability to be quickly and cheaply converted into a star base after a successful siege.

Despite this, Kol was wrong to assume that the Javelin was the greatest threat. The Aeronians had dispatched one of their greatest legions to conquer the system- the 54^th Legion.

This is awsome. keep up the good work.