“Shields down! Hull strength down to seventy percent! Missile batteries A through F, and AA-AG are down, energy weapons offline, starboard guns offline!” the watch officer on the bridge yelled. The ship’s captain was yelling out orders, doing whatever he could to keep his ship together as the fleets maneuvered for another firing pass.



Admiral Karta Vauclas, commander of the corporate navy in this sector of space, paid limited attention to the reports. As fleet commander he had more ships to worry about than just this one. On the various displays hovering in front of him, reports were coming in from the rest of the fleet. All of his destroyers were gone, as were most of his cruisers and half of his battleships. Of those that remained, few were still combat worthy. For all the problems being called out by the watch officer, the Chronos, the battleship he was on and flagship of this force, was currently the most capable ship in the fleet.



“All ships, maneuvering orders being broadcasted now. Execute at time .30.” he ordered over the fleet channels, delaying the time for the maneuver to give the ships farthest out from the Chronos time to receive the orders. There was simply no way that the fleet could handle another firing run, not in the condition that it was in. Their only hope was to get some distance between them and the unknown enemy fleet.



This was supposed to have been a routine investigation mission. Several of the outlying colonies in Imperial space had gone silent. Nothing had come through the jump point to those star systems in weeks. Even the corporation that managed the system was silent. No CEOs could be reached on any kind of channel, and finally Vauclas was sent with a small investigative force to see what was going on. So with ten destroyers, three cruisers, and two battleships, he jumped to the Aradil System. It was the only system that had star lanes that led to the silent systems. But going in with so few ships just set Vauclas on edge. None of the scout ships they had sent in ahead of them had returned. But orders were orders, and the bureaucracy wasn’t known for being all that intelligent.



He would have loved to see fleet headquarters try to give so few ships to Admiral Forscythe, though, the so-called greatest Imperial admiral ever. Corporate officers were looked down upon by the Imperial Navy, as they were seen to be selling out the skills the academy gave them to the highest bidder. Sure, they served the empire by serving the corporations, but why not serve the empire directly? Why not pledge loyalty to the emperor, and not to a paycheck? So whenever they could, they gave corporate leaders as few Imperial ships and men as possible.



On arrival to the Aradil System, his gut proved correct. They came out of jump space almost directly on top of a minefield. The lead destroyers never knew what hit them, but the rest of the fleet was able to pivot “up and over” the mines. Lying in wait right past the minefield was a fleet that outnumbered him two-to-one. The ship IDs were unknown, although those that remembered the Craver War that had happened several decades ago felt chills run down their spines at the similarities. No IFF was broadcast, not that it mattered as this fleet opened fire on his own ships the moment that they came into range. Vauclas had no other option but punch straight through their formation at full speed, a charge that left him in the situation he was in now.



“Captain Smerov, I need a report on the weapons the enemy fleet is using. How the hell did they tear us up so badly in one pass?” he called out to the captain. Smerov was a rising star in the navy. All of his records and simulations from the academies were flawless, and he proved himself as a more than able officer in brief Hissho-Human War. He just signaled one of the lieutenants on the bridge whose job it was to handle such information.



“They’re…stronger than anything we have. That’ll all I know. Their energy weapons tore through our shields as if they weren’t there, and their main guns strong enough to punch through our destroyers with no problem…” the woman said, waving through her display to find any information that could actually help, “But their defenses are on par with our own. And sir…they have no missile capabilities, and no missile defenses that I can see.”



Vauclas just nodded and turned his attention back to the fleet display. The more damaged ships in his command were falling behind, slowly. They would be torn apart once the other fleet reached them. He needed a plan…Staying here to fight would be suicide. They could make a run for one of the other systems they were sent to investigate, but if this enemy fleet followed them, they were done for. But that fleet and what was left of the minefield blocked their way back home. Could he…?



“Desolate, Beneficent, and Intemperate,” who the hell named these ships, Vauclas wondered as he hailed them, “You are unable to keep up with the rest of the fleet. Evacuate your ships. I’ll assume direct control of your systems. Fleet commander’s authority.” Several of the officers on the bridge, as well as Smerov, looked at him surprised. Such an order was taboo in the chain of command. But Vauclashad no choice. They had this one chance to get out of here alive.



As escape pods started ejecting from the three named ships, he ordered the rest of the fleet to reverse course. Hopefully to the enemy it looked as if they were going to try and protect the escape pods and the now derelict ships. The engines of those three ships fired randomly, as if they were failing, some crew onboard trying to save them. They would be overtaken by the enemy fleet minutes before Vauclas could reach them…And that was his plan. The bulk of the enemy fleet was around those three ships when he sent a core override signal. Before anyone could detect a threat, three seemingly harmless ships became three gigantic mines as their energy cores overloaded. The resulting explosions disintegrated anything within their radius, and the last minute maneuvering that looked like attempts to save the ships, were actually Vauclas positioning the ships to do as much damage as possible when they exploded. The resulting hole in the enemy formation was enough for him to get his ships through.



“All ships, fire all missiles as we pass the enemy fleet. Target enemy weapon banks on the ships closest to our fleet.” He ordered, taking advantage of the weakness the lieutenant spotted. Before they were in firing range of the enemy beams his missiles flew out, punching through shields and armor to destroy weapons. Few were able to fire back at him as he passed through their lines. What was left of the fleets main guns were then tasked to fire ahead into the minefield, clearing as much as possible for them to engage jump drives and make it to safety.



As they entered jump space, Vauclas closed his displays, folding his hands in front of him and resting his chin on them. Four hours total had been spent in the Aradil System. His fleet was reduced to just the two battleships and three cruisers. That last gambit had inflicted serious retribution on the enemy fleet, at the cost of the lives of the men on those three ships. It was doubtful that any escape pods had cleared the blast radius, and any that had were now at the mercy of those unknown ships…



“Captain Smerov, send a full-report of this incident to my quarters. Make sure than when we exit jump space engines are fully operational, and all mines are deployed.”



With that, the Vice-President of Winter left the bridge. No concern shown for the men that had been lost, of the wounded. Their captains could care about them. His job was to look after these ships, and make sure what was left of them made it back home. He would submit his report and start analyzing what information they had on these unknown ships. Was the United Empire under attack by a new race? Possibly, but those ships appeared to be heavily redesigned Imperial vessels. Were they facing another rebellion? If that was the case, how did they get such advanced weaponry?



Too many questions, and not nearly enough answers…

Great read and a compelling start!



The Corporate Navy/Imperial Navy relationship is intriguing. Is that somewhere in the official ES Lore (which I have dug into yet)? Or is it something you came up with because its a pretty neat angle, especially in the face of a new, unknown danger...

Thanks!



I came up with that (or made a very lucky guess, if I missed it in the lore) little bit of info. I've read in a few of the UE Heroes that the corporations seems to have their own kind of naval schools, so, I figured why not take it a step further and say they might have their own fleets as well. It's a WIP idea, one I'll expand on as I write some more and trust myself with long stories.



Right now I'm trying to keep things contained into a single post, so I don't get accused of spamming posts or something. ^^;;



I can finish hashing the idea and post it up here, if you wish.

Damn corportist Imperials, sacrificing their own soliders for the bottom line. Good story, I wonder who the enemy is? A faction of your own design, perhaps? With great anticipation, I shall read on...

Good read, would like to see more!

Oh, hey, I wonder why this is here and not in the Temple...



Anyway, Senor, if you check out the Temple, there are a few more stories I have posted. One is a sequel to this one, and a few others with are just their own little things. You can also find everything I've written in my blog page here on the forum.