The only problem Hanaru saw was that this system was well defended—very well defended, actually. Not as well defended as the core systems of the Erasi, but still more than what he had thought that he would find. He also couldn’t identify everything; the scout was scanning the system passively, and while some objects could be identified easily based on the traffic to and from them, as well as their size, other objects were unknown to him. They could have been anything from more defenses to simple satellites; there was no way of knowing.
But they did find matches on the known Empire defenses. This system had two stations just like the one that had showed up in Sol, both positioned at the two incoming trans-routes; obviously those stations had been designed to defend trans-points. And there were several thousands of their defensive platforms. That was a problem. He didn’t have the numbers nor enough ammunition to take care of those. Although he didn’t really need to, his job was to wreak as much havoc as he possibly could and then leave and attack another system.
Hanaru brought a scan of the system from the Ancient’s maps and added all the scans from his scouts, overlapping the two. The Empire hadn’t moved much towards the inner border of the nebula; presumably because they didn’t yet need the resources of the third asteroid ring. Hanaru saw that there were only a few patrols moving around there, and seemingly in set patterns.
Hanaru looked over the data one more time, a plan forming in his mind.
Chapter Thirteen
Occupied Shara Daim territory — Har Kaleras sector — Bloodbringer
Ten Shara Daim Legions exited the trans-space and entered the system. Immediately, Anessa used the new c-board to send a message to all of the ships in her First and Second Legion.
“Move away from the rest of the Legions. Power up weapons, load missiles, and raise shields. Be ready to skim on my command,” she ordered, and closed the channel. She looked at Garaam, who shook her head.
“They are not close enough for passive sensors to see them yet,” Garaam answered Anessa’s questioning look.
“Prepare to go to active scanners,” Anessa ordered. The active scanners would allow them to see far farther than the passive light sensors could, but it would also reveal her Legions to their intended target. The Erasi fleets that were supposed to be traveling through this system would detect the tachyon scan immediately. Hopefully the Erasi were unaware that two of her Legions had been equipped with the Empire’s skim drives and would be caught off guard.
“All weapons ready. We can initiate the scan on your command, Kar Daim,” Garaam reported.
Anessa opened a channel to Dai Sha Karoom of the Twenty-Second Legion. “Karoom, follow us as soon as we skim. Best speed. Be ready to join in the fighting.”
“Understood, Kar Daim,” Karoom answered, and Anessa closed the channel.
She turned to Garaam and gave the order. “Initiate the scan.”
A moment later, the holo in front of the c-board that was connected to all the sensors in the Legions started filling up with up to date information.
“There they are, two light minutes from the fifth planet,” Garaam reported.
“Skim us!” Anessa said quickly. The Erasi would have detected the scan and would soon go to active scans themselves. Hopefully the skim would confuse them, as it seemed a bit confusing on scans, and would allow her two Legions to catch them off guard.
As soon as Anessa gave the order, both of her Legions engaged their skim drives. In a heartbeat, both Legions had entered FTL. The plan had always been for them to drop out of FTL above the Erasi formation. Adrian had suggested that she might want to split her two Legions and catch the Erasi fleets from the sides in a crossfire, but Anessa believed that keeping her two Legions together would serve her better. She could give off a far stronger first shot and her two Legions would have much easier time defending when they were together. Adrian’s plan was good, but much better suited for the Empire’s fleets; they had drone ships that could help them soak up damage that Anessa’s ships couldn’t, not without losing far more lives in the process.
“Exiting skim in forty-six seconds,” a Va Sun at the navigation console reported.
Anessa was still amazed that they could travel through a system so fast. She had seen what one could do with this ability in Sol, when Adrian had used it to ambush them. And now she was about to do the same to the Erasi.
“Exiting skim in fifteen,” the Va Sun reported.
“Activate communication jamming as soon we are out. Acquire targets and fire as soon as you have them. Focus on their super battleships,” Garaam ordered over the c-board’s comms.
“Exiting skim in five!”
Everyone on the bridge watched the countdown, and as soon as it hit zero, they sprang into action. Both Legions exited at the same time; the Empire’s people had given them software that helped with the synchronization of the skims, and as soon as they exited, their scanner went off, getting far more detailed data on everything around them.
Anessa checked her c-board and saw that the Erasi were completely unprepared. Their formation was loose, and their shields were down. As soon as her Legions locked on to targets, her ships fired. A continuous stream of missiles exited every one of her ships, crossing the short distance to the Erasi ships. Her capital ships opened fire with their main weapons and dark blue energy beams reached out from her ships to maul the undefended hulls of the Erasi; her smaller ships used their smaller versions of the same weapon to add to the carnage. The short-range plasma maulers of her ships each fired half a dozen contained plasma bolts in quick succession, before cooling off for ten seconds and firing again, scorching and eating into the Erasi ships.
A great majority of her ships’ missiles passed almost unopposed to hit the Erasi warships; only several of their ships managed to bring their point defense online in time to do anything, but in the end, it wasn’t nearly enough. Shara Daim missiles were more powerful than their Erasi and the Empire counterparts, although they didn’t have as good of evading systems as the Empire’s or the Erasi missiles had. But it didn’t matter; with no real defensive net, the thousands of missiles struck the hulls of the Erasi battleships and super battleships, creating large craters in their hulls, which her particle weapons took advantage of. The Erasi warships were exploding at an amazing rate, with their losses after the first minute already climbing close to a thousand, and most of the destroyed ships being of their larger class.
And then, sporadically across their formation, their shields came online along with their point defense. The Erasi tightened their formation and started fighting back. Anessa checked the c-board and saw that the rest of her forces were an hour away, and while her forces were still outnumbered, her initial attack had leveled the playing field as her two Legions’ attack had destroyed a large number of the Erasi heavy warships.
She had the upper hand. Anessa led the battle from her c-board, shifting the focus of her two Legions as needed. And as the battle continued, it became apparent that the initial attack had shaken the Erasi enough that they were in a state of disarray. Their attempt at fighting back crumbled under the continuous pressure of her two Legions. Eventually they broke and attempted to flee, but by then the rest of her Legions had arrived. In the end, no message left the ambushed Erasi fleets, and no Erasi warship survived to bring word of what had happened.
Chapter Fourteen
October; Year 58 of the Empire — Shara Daim territory — Har Kaleras sector
“What do you think about this?” Anessa asked the room.