Two different fleets were locked in struggle!
Task Force Umbra along with extra forces dispatched by the Praetor Clan and the Planat Clan barreled down onto the Golden Skull Alliance's fleet with hatred driving them onwards.
The Fridayn hated the Larkinsons and their leader!
The Praetors and Planats resented the Crossers!
Much of the excitent that took place in the beginning phases of battle centered around the Komodans. The result of the artillery duel between the Transcendent Punishers and the elite ranged ch troops of the Friday Coalition had far-reaching effects.
Despite involving a relatively small quantity of chs, the clear advantage secured by the Ylvainan artillery chs left them free to train their prodigious firepower against the advancing carriers and chs of the opposition!
That did not necessarily an that the thousands of other Fridayman ranged chs were incompetent. They just excelled in a different form of combat. They placed less emphasis on long-ranged precision and more on dium-ranged suppression and skirmishing.
The rifleman chs of the 1002nd Holvein Grenadiers, 77th Corundian Giants and other elite ch regints numbered much more than the contingent of 125th Destiny Hamrs and 219th Witch Slayers.
Yet much of their laser beams and gauss rounds slamd ineffectually against the thick hulls of the opposing starships.
While the damage onto the Larkinson vessels kept accumulating, the lifespans of the targeted combat carriers in question did not diminish fast enough!
Even if the combat carriers finally succumbed under all of the weight of fire, their destruction accomplished little else besides robbing their owners of a bit of cover.
Escape pods launched towards the rear minutes before the vessels drifted out of control or ruptured when their structure was thodically torn apart.
Billions of pieces of debris flung in each direction as other starships exploded as critical power reactors or other volatile components reached critical levels!
Not every evacuating crew mber managed to make it back to the Spirit of Bentheim.
Plenty of escape pods were shot down by errant attacks or deliberate shots.
Deadly debris could also shred the vulnerable shells keeping their occupants protected against the hazards of space.
Sotis, escape pods arrived at the flagship of the Larkinson Clan intact, only to deliver a corpse as an intense burst of radiation turned its occupant dead!
The battle was becoming more and more tragic as the range between the two fleets continued to shrink!
As destruction rained down on both sides, a group of expert pilots gathered together in the hangar bay of the largest capital ship on the battlefield.
The Hemmington Cross was at least a kiloter longer than the Spirit of Bentheim. The fleet carrier was also considerably thicker, though that ca at the expense of mobility and other properties.
The ship endured significant attacks from the beginning. The Praetors and Planats had focused much of their firepower on the pride of the Cross Clan, but their bombardnt only resulted in surface damage.
The ship may not be as well-armored as other fleet carriers, but she was still a vessel built for war!
It was not a problem for the huge vessel to endure the firepower outputted by thousands of enemy chs for an extended amount of ti!
If that wasn't enough, the Crossers also adopted the sa tactic as the Larkinsons. Nurous combat carriers flew in front of the Hemmington and used their considerable bulk to block the enemy from compounding the damage inflicted onto the Crosser flagship!
Of course, the Crossers did not have much luck in felling the enemy capital ships eithers. Both the Praetors and Planats had committed one fleet carrier each to this operation.
The Praetors had dispatched two different capital ships. The first one was the Vindicator 35, a fairly average fleet carrier with a total capacity of 500 chs. Despite her lack of strengths and weaknesses, the Vindicator 35 was a versatile and useful capital ship that served the Garlener clan well.
The second fleet carrier was even bigger. Capable of carrying 700 chs, the Palmis Crislin was almost just as ludicrous as the Hemmington Cross. She also happened to possess the sa faults as her armor and mobility were not very good.
The Planat Clan dispatched just a single capital ship. Compared to the other capital ships, the Soaring Eagle perford below average, reflecting the relative weakness of the Planat Clan. Capable of holding 450 chs, the Soaring Eagle was a fleet carrier that was past her ti. Her aging hull may still be serviceable in contemporary battles, but she was destined to be replaced at any ti!
If the two clans of the Becker Tribe only brought these capital ships, then the Crossers would have gone on the offensive by now. Yet the clans that had turned their coats had also brought 51 combat carriers, though several of those vessels were already taken out of action!
Both sides knew that this was just the prelude. They had clashed many tis after the Cross Clan lost its warlord and ace pilot. They roughly knew what both sides were capable of. As clans who used to be part of the sa tribe, the intelligence they possessed on each other chs, starships and ch pilots was still relevant.
The Crossers knew that they were the disadvantaged compared to their opponents, but they were already used to these circumstances.
Different from before, the Cross Clan now gained the confidence to reverse the expected outco!
Patriarch Reginald Cross proudly stood before three other expert pilots. All four of them exuded aggressive force of wills. Despite their nature, they peacefully existed alongside each other.
The battles the Crosser expert pilots had been through had forged an undeniably close relationship between them. These seasoned warriors wouldn't have been able to make it out with the remnants of the clan if they didn't learn how to trust each other's backs.
"The traitor clans have made a very grave mistake this ti." Reginald grinned. "They only dispatched a portion of their forces. We weren't able to beat them when entire ch divisions hounded our tails, but now that they have brought less than 4000 chs, we stand a good chance of crushing our current opposition!"
The other expert pilots looked fired as well. Many Garlener tribes and clans had all conspired to tear the Cross Clan apart. The Praetors and Planats had behaved especially reprehensible because they had switched their allegiances to the enemy as soon as the Cross Clan no longer possessed its invincible montum!
"The two traitor clans must not be doing so well back in what remains of the Becker Tribe." Venerable Linda Cross, an older and grizzled female expert pilot surmised. "While we aren't privy to the details of the peace treaty brokered by the Empire, the Praetors and Planats are probably more on guard against their neighbors than us. We are little fish compared to the giant sharks that are swimming right next door."
Just because the traitor clans switched over to the side of their forr enemies didn't an they were buddies now. The Billard Tribe and the Chardon Tribe still harbored great suspicion and greed towards the remaining territories of the Becker Tribe. The Praetor Clan and Planat Clan had to keep as much of their strength at ho in order to guard against any untoward actions.
Venerable Banner Cross, another old expert pilot, frowned. "Perhaps the Praetors and Planats have already put us out of their minds. They succeeded in preserving their clans at the cost of our own. In our current state, we pose no threat to them anymore."
"What do you think, Imaris?" Reginald asked.
The fourth expert pilot let out a weary sigh. "We are already beaten. We used to rule over entire star systems. That ti is past. We have been reduced to a single fleet, and a diminished one at that. I wish.. I wish.. we could have saved more Crossers. I still mourn for our expert pilots. They were too young to sacrifice themselves during our retreat."
A heavy mood descended over the gathered expert pilots. Their force of wills grew calr as the four old expert pilots painfully recalled the desperate flight that caused them to lose so many comrades.
One of the biggest tragedies of their initial flight from Vicious Mountain was that they lost all of their younger expert pilots!
None of the Crosser expert pilots that survived to this day was younger than 50 years old. Those with brighter futures and greater talent had all t their end prematurely as they gave up their lives to hold back the enemy expert chs.
Patriarch Reginald's force of will suddenly grew intense as he raised his fist!
"We can't tear down the traitors entirely today, but we must not let their dishonor go unanswered! We must not let our descendants grow up hearing that we have fled Vicious Mountain like craven rats. We must beat our enemies today if only to regain our honor and build a better future for the subsequent generations of our clan! Let us smash the traitors and let the entire Garlen Empire know that the Cross Clan can still earn glory!"
The expert pilots all boarded their chs. Even though they weren't actively developed anymore, the expert chs were all formidable in their own right.
The only Crosser expert pilots who survived up to this point were all strong, experienced and tricky without exception!
Venerable Linda Cross was a space knight specialist. With a piloting career spanning over three decades, she and her expert ch were countless tis more formidable than Venerable Jannzi Larkinson and her Shield of Samar!
Venerable Linda's expert ch, the Amphis, was a formidable dium space knight that boasted unparalleled defense but also considerable offensive capabilities.
The most notable weapon system on the Amphis was its compact shoulder-mounted laser cannon arrays. Able to output 6 powerful laser beams at the sa ti, the Amphis was capable of suppressing powerful enemies or wiping out many weaker opponents without needing to close the distance!
Venerable Banner Cross was responsible for providing more powerful ranged solutions. The Leskin, his expert rifleman ch, was ard with a special heavy multi-rifle that was able to output many different types of damage. The Leskin was also incredibly fast and mobile, allowing it to outpace every other expert ch aside from lighter machines!
The oldest surviving Crosser expert pilot also happened to pilot the fastest expert ch in the possession of the Cross Clan. Venerable Imaris Cross may be over 80 years old, but his slightly-declining reflexes was still good enough to pilot the Conavis r, a very agile light skirmisher. Even if Imaris fumbled for so reason or another, his expert ch's formidable active and passive ECM systems had always managed to rescue him from a difficult situation.
As for Patriarch Reginald Cross, his expert ch was the most formidable and most valuable expert chs of them all. He boarded the cockpit of the Bolvos Rage, a hefty dium hybrid ch that possessed a myriad of close and dium range solutions!
The Bolvos Rage's most formidable weapon was an axe made out of mysterious exotics and other materials. The weapon did not possess any special gimmicks, but it didn't need any. The axe was both hard and sharp, allowing the Bolvos Rage to hack through most shields in a single blow!
The hybrid ch also carried a shotgun. The weapon was notable for its huge threat against other expert chs. It was capable of firing specially-manufactured pellets that was very effective in exhausting resonance shields!
The only downside was that the defection of its high-ranking ch designers left the Cross Clan with no ans to produce additional shotgun shells.
The Crossers had lost the formulas.
Patriarch Reginald had already requested Professor Cortez to reconstruct them or develop a viable alternative. That would take ti, however, so the expert ch only had a limited amount of shells at its disposal.
The Bolvos Rage actually integrated several other weapons and modules in its fra. The high-tier expert ch surpassed the narrow specializations that the local ch community favored. Hardly any enemies knew what to expect when they faced the expert hybrid ch in battle!
Patriarch Reginald Cross briefly closed his eyes before fury entered his gaze!
"Our ti has co. Let us launch and et our old enemies!"
Four glowing stars rocketed out of the hangar bay of the Hemmington Cross and ford up in front their fleet!
User Comments
0 comments from readers