The Monarch and Claymore were firing their railguns creating a wall against the Ra’a’zani missiles. Then the Ra’a’zani energy weapons reached their ships. The commander of the Claymore had turned its bottom side to the enemy fire. The four energy bolts hit the Claymore’s hull mangling the entire length of the ship. But the Claymore survived. Ship master Andros Venter on the other hand, didn’t bother to spin the ship he plunged through, the energy bolts hitting the dreadnoughts doubleheaded forward section. The Monarch shrugged off the Ra’a’zani powerful weapon and kept going, losing only some forward railguns and two laser turrets.
Johanna noticed another signature appear on her holo, but quickly Turiel concluded that it was not fired at them. And its signature was strange, having a big energy reading. She concluded that it might be an escape pod. But since it wasn’t a threat to her fleet, she put it out of her mind.
The Ra’a’zani missiles were still speeding towards the Monarch and the Claymore. Their point defense systems trying to take down as much as possible. The Ra’a’zani missiles had great maneuverability, but the sheer amount of shells that the Monarch and the Claymore sent out was overcoming their better technology. Out of the hundreds of missiles the Ra’a’zani fired, only nine went through. Three hitting the Claymore amidship, one of the missiles got lucky, it penetrated inside the hull and exploded. The explosion resulted in the Claymore losing power. Then another Ra’a’zani energy bolt struck in the same spot, and Claymore exploded.
The remaining six Ra’a’zani missiles hit the forward section of Monarch. Three of the missiles hit the right axe-head of the ship, at the exact same spot that the Ra’a’zani energy weapon struck. The missiles penetrated inside, and exploded. The fire reached the forward cargo hold of the Monarch and the air inside fuelled the explosion further. Johanna felt the ship shake, as almost half of the dreadnought’s right axe-head blew up, the debris flying in all directions, a big chunk of the hull flew in the direction of the Citadel, glancing off the side leaving a huge surface gash across it. But the Monarch kept going. The bulkheads between the right axe-head and the rest of the ship came down, cutting off that part of the ship off the rest. Even after losing an entire section of the ship, the dreadnought was still operational. The rest of the ship functioning at near full capacity. Johanna turned to Andros.
“Ship Master, fight your ship.” She said. She had lost most of her fleet, and the rest of her ships were unable to move and help. There was no point for her to direct the combat from the c-board. It was all up to Andros and the Monarch.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Vit’r’an watched as the big human ship advanced forward, even after losing a big chunk of its hull it still kept going. Its Tarsha’ka weapons still firing, the closer they got the more damage their beams did. Vit’r’an could read heat increases in more than half sectors of his ship. Hull integrity was almost below twenty percent, and more and more hull breaches appeared on his terminal. His ship had depleted its Pasha’ka supplies, but it was still firing the Larsha’ka at the incoming human ship. Which was shrugging them off. Its hull too thick for his weapon to inflict serious damage fast enough. The Blood Claw had ravaged the forward section of the ship. It was venting atmosphere at several hull breaches. But Vit’r’an knew that the big ship was too massive and powerful for it to die before his ship did. Then Vit’r’an saw the human ship roll and adjust its course, bringing all of its top weapons to bear. Vit’r’an knew that this were the last moments of his life.
Ship Master Andros Venter ordered his ship to roll and adjusted the course, so that his ship would pass over the Ra’a’zani ship. All of his top weapons would be able to fire. The Monarch was sustaining serious damage, but it was still going strong. Fleet Commander Farkas was right, the dreadnought class warships were fortresses. As long as the Citadel was safe, the ship would keep going. Monarch had lost more than half of his weapons from the middle and the forward sections, Andros hoped that what he had left would be enough. He didn’t want to use the torpedoes, they didn’t know the range or even what the Ra’a’zani defense weapon was. And he didn’t want to have a nuclear weapon explode in front of his ship.
Andros waited for his ship to enter the optimal range of his kinetic weapons, all the time his ship was assaulted by the enemy energy weapons which were eating at its hull. Then it was time.
“Open fire!” Andros ordered. And Monarch’s railguns, turrets, and laser weapons fired on the Ra’a’zani ship.
The human warship, the Monarch, dreadnought class, advanced above the Ra’a’zani ship Blood Claw, fire erupting from its weapons, even as air and debris flew off its hull leaving a trail of gas and metal in its wake. Thousands of 150mm shells were fired from the Monarch’s railguns, hundreds of 700mm bolts of metal were fired from the Monarch’s double-barreled turrets, three of the Monarch’s still working 600mm lens laser turrets were sending down fire on the Ra’a’zani ship. The space between them was Hell. But just as the human ship spew fire at the Ra’a’zani, so did they return in kind. Ra’a’zani energy weapon, the Larsha’ka cannons fired on the human ship. The energy bolts disappearing as they clashed with the incoming metal rain. Those few that passed through that Hell, reached the Monarch scorching its hull. But like an indomitable beast it just kept coming, pieces of its skin flailing about, its front opened up like a gaping wound, its life blood spewing from dozens of breaches. The Ra’a’zani ship was firing its maneuvering thrusters, its drives had been brought to the brink of what they could handle, and still it was not enough. The Monarch’s lasers seared the Ra’a’zani hull, the scale like plates of their ship melting under the immense heat.
And then the rain of metal fire struck the Ra’a’zani ship. Its slow, cumbersome attempts at evasion were simply not enough to save it. The small railgun explosive shells clobbered the hull where it was intact, and punctured the hull where it was already weakened. Then, the massive 700mm bolts of metal smashed down on the Ra’a’zani ship’s hull. They cleaved through the Ra’a’zani hull, parting it like paper. Their mass and speed converted to pure destructive power. The bolts punched right through the ship. The return fire from the Ra’a’zani ship stopped, its drives exploding in small contained detonations. The ship was dead in space, nothing but a piece of debris floating in the endlessness of space. But the rain did not stop, the fire of Hell descended on the wreck smashing it further. Pieces of it flying off in hundreds of different directions, the insides of the ship opened up, its skin smashed inward. The bodies of the crew mingled amongst the pieces of their dead brethren that were sliced apart by the metal shells of the rain. The Ra’a’zani ship’s spine broke, the ship splitting in half. And still the halves were hammered by the rain, pulverized into smaller and smaller chunks. Then finally, the rain stopped. Its source, the dreadnought Monarch, moving forward spent, scarred, bleeding, and mangled.
As the Ra’a’zani ship fell apart, the weapon it deployed – The Destra’ka – continued on its path. Its curved course soon brought it in the view of its target, Earth. The Destra’ka reached the Earth’s atmosphere falling through it, its plating and an energy field keeping it safe as it burned a red streak across the sky. It passed the white clouds and then fell into the ocean. Its drives functioning perfectly even under water, pushing it further down at an amazing speed. Now going directly towards the ocean bed, the steam of evaporated water was left behind it on its path. As it drew closer to the ocean floor, the tip of the Destra’ka shone with a greenish energy. It slammed into the ground and kept going, burrowing through it on the way to its true target – the Earth’s core. Three hours later it reached its destination, and the Destra’ka detonated.