It was then that the Sowir Construct fired another salvo of missiles, twice as large as the one before, while its energy weapons continued to batter his ships.
Audacious
Beth sent orders for her dreadnoughts to shield the damaged ships, most of which were her missile ships. Her Krakens and Mark Twos had managed to get through the Sowir fire with very little damage at that point; most of their fields still operational. As she received new orders from Adrian, she modified her own and sent them out.
Leaving behind twenty ships—ten Krakens and ten Mark Twos—to take care of the Sowir cruisers, she ordered the rest of her fleet to focus their attacks on the Construct, while they adjusted their formation to meet the new missile salvo.
Her Mark Two dreadnoughts took positions at the front of the formation, with her Audacious in the lead, and burned towards the Construct, making themselves targets for the incoming missiles even as their point defense struggled to reduce the numbers thrown against them. Her ship’s turrets fired shells constantly, and she decided not to keep anything back. She ordered her missile ships to fire all of their remaining missiles at the Construct.
Tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of missiles launched from the Second Fleet’s Furious-class missile ships. All types of Empire missiles intermingled in one large wave of destruction. But as they entered the Sowir Construct’s point defense range, they started to die. Their evading protocols, designed to work exclusively with FTL, had no chance of escaping the Sowir fire. But the sheer number of missiles forced the Sowir to use all of their available assets to defend, and in the end they destroyed most of the missiles.
But a couple Enforcer missiles with their field generators made it through and exploded against the Construct’s hull, blowing holes, opening compartments to space, destroying weapon turrets. But it was still not enough; even with the constant fire of the Empire’s ships, lasers, particle beams, and explosive shells, the Construct was still operational. Its surface was scarred, battered, and burned, but thousands of weapons were still operational and continued to fire at the Empire’s ships.
The second wave of Sowir missiles smashed through the Second Fleet’s point defense, thousands of missiles striking the dreadnoughts in the lead of the formation, crippling their field defenses and burning their hulls. But the Mark Two dreadnoughts were tough; even before the Empire’s scientists had developed the field technology, they had been juggernauts that could take punishment. Now, with most of the dreadnoughts having no field defenses, the Construct’s energy weapons reached their hulls. But the thick hulls and reflective coatings that all Empire ships possessed allowed them to weather the storm as even as many other ships succumbed to the impossible amount of fire. All the way the Empire’s ships were firing and blowing chunks of the Sowir monstrosity away.
Sowir Construct
The Sowir operating their greatest weapon noticed the shift of the enemy’s forces. The enemy fire on their battle station intensified. Their ships started firing waves after waves of missiles; their lasers scorched the station’s hull; their shells smashed at the battle station’s armor. It was not going to be enough, though; the Sowir had spent a long time making sure of that. Eventually, they knew, the enemy would destroy them, but by then the enemy’s impressive fleet would be reduced to a fraction of what it was now.
Chapter Seventeen
Harbinger
Adrian studied the battlefield, seeing the Second Fleet survive the second Sowir missile wave with another eighty-four casualties, with many others damaged. And then the Second Fleet’s missiles pushed through and hit the Construct. Adrian watched the scans of the Construct; its power and gravity signatures barely fluctuated at the havoc that the Second Fleet’s fire inflicted. Adrian quickly thought through hundreds of scenarios; he knew that the heart of the Construct had to be deep inside the moon buried beneath the rocks that were surrounded by armor. Its weapons systems and power plants were most likely compartmentalized, each section working independently. It explained why his forces hadn’t yet hit something that shut down an entire area of weapons. Until now, only weapons that were disabled were too damaged to fire or had been destroyed.
As the Second Fleet continued to move forward, spewing fire at the Sowir Construct, his own force was shooting down the Sowir missiles at an amazing rate, but was expending their new seeker countermeasures fast in order to do so.
Adrian watched carefully as the enemy missiles reached and hit his ships. By now, he too had put his heavier Mark Two dreadnoughts and the heavier Vanguard ships in front, shielding his Furious- and Kraken-class ships. The enemy missiles exploded and his Mark Twos punched through them, and he lost another thirty-eight ships. Others made it through with varying losses in field integrity, with some even losing it completely.
As the storm passed, Adrian focused on a small taskforce, including his Harbinger, which split from the main force and moved towards the Construct. At the front of the formation were Titan and Tiamat, surrounded by twenty drones, shielding the other twenty drones that were flanking Harbinger, which was following close behind.
The Titan and Tiamat fired their lasers and particle beams at the defense platforms in their way, clearing a path to the Construct. Then, as they entered the effective range of their molecular disruption cannons, both ships fired.
Two gray-white bolts of energy left the cannons from the two large ships speeding towards the Sowir Construct, and then impacted against its hull and spread in a spider web pattern around the impact site until their energy was expended. The attack did no outward damage, but Adrian knew that it had done its job. Harbinger positioned so that its front was angled towards the Sowir Construct, as its main weapon was built into the ship.
Glancing at Paul, he gave the order.
“Fire,” he said.
Immediately, Adrian felt the Harbinger shudder. Lights dimmed for just a fraction of a second as the massive rail-gun drew power. And then a boom echoed throughout the ship as the weapon fired.
The forward point of the Empire’s warship Harbinger exploded in fire and light as a massive 18600mm caliber explosive shell blasted out of it in a shower of electricity. The thirty-ton ri-steel shell sped towards the Sowir Construct at amazing speeds. In fifteen seconds, it crossed the distance between the Empire’s taskforce and the Construct. Striking its target and bursting through its armor as if it were nothing, it pushed inside the rock below, the force of its impact cracking the crust and tearing it apart. The cracked pieces of the moon shifted, crushing and blowing apart the facilities that the Sowir had built underground. Their massive power plants, ammunition depot, and fuel storage facilities ignited and blew, adding to already massive explosion spreading from the heart of the moon.
Harbinger
Adrian felt his lip curl upwards as his fleet’s scanners detected massive fluctuations and explosions coming from inside the Construct. He watched as internal explosions started blowing the Construct from within. And then the Construct started falling apart, its insides blowing outwards.