Aleksander Farrheim's Story

Proceed with active scans. Hold position.

Aurora commanded, directing the now-emerging fleet with clear instructions broadcast directly to the ears of her generation.

We show marginal anomalies, residual traces of void relics and other arcane energies detected. Confirming sources...

trailed off a voice from the engineering console of The Hyacinth, a Saracen-class hybrid born to the fleet just over 4 cycles prior. Now the focal point of the Hegelian legacy, The Hyacinth gleamed with an eery iridescence as radiation from the nearby stars scattered across her hull.

Deploy the Seekers.

she interrupted, eager to make her journey to this realm a success.

On queue, a dazzling series of spiraling fountains of light emerged a few dozen kilometers ahead of the leading edge of Hegelian ships. Flickering and arcing with energy before evaporating into empty space, these brilliant bursts gave way to clusters of Tacitus-class destroyers, each proudly emblazoned with the Hegelian Empire's Coat of Arms.

Forward they began, their Q-drives humming into the silence of space.

Farrheim smiled, his neural link igniting with data from this new realm. It'd been too long since he'd tasted the vapor of the void, but his journey had his senses honed in on the precious substance.

Prepare for sublight jump, deploy drones at 500 kilometers. Execute sequence, on my mark.

he prepared, signaling to the vessel that they'd be going in first.

The iridescent glimmer across the hull began to ripple into a glow as the energetic taps ramped up, drawing on the space around them to prepare the slipstream for their travel into the system.

It was supposed to be a generic reconnaissance deployment for Admiral Nash and the Aschen Empires Reverence II class planetary assault carrier and her nameplate identified her as the Absolution.

The thirty kilometer long ship winked suddenly into the system with a brief spatial tear, and a brilliant flash of white light. She was escorted by about a dozen capital ships, which were glimmers compared to the size of this mammoth Aschen warship.

Settling into position inside the void, Admiral Nash looked at a mostly empty holographic display, save for what appeared to be sensor readings on the far side of the system.

"Unidentified vessels detected, designs and markings have no matches in all existing databases." EVE chimed in, her voice echoing through the interior of the CIC.

Admiral Nash grimaced, and then gave her orders.

"Order the fleet to move into defensive position, set condition yellow, and send hostile challenge and ID. Push the reply up onto the speakers." Nash ordered.

The flickering hologram of Eve offered a slight nod, before broadcasting with a monotone voice across several frequencies in a basic mathematical language that could be easily translated.

"Attention unidentified vessels, this is the Absolution. Please identify yourselves at once."

Incoming supercapital. The locals have arrived, madam.

Aurora could already feel them, the cluster of grit which had begun to scrape against her spiderweb of sensory nodes. She could smell the iron in their hulls, and she relished in the ochre burn which reminded her so deeply of her mission.

Initiate jamming, all systems status red.

she responded, immediately resulting in the emission of a wide-range band of radiation from the fleet's outermost vessels being blasted in a conical section towards the cluster of ships ahead of them. As the beams arrived upon their targets, they began to modulate and narrow towards any reflection or energetic emission, honing in on any potentially sensitive sensors or communication devices.

She glanced towards the deploying ships, which had already begun to make their slipstream towards their target. She nodded before looking over towards engineering, expecting a readout of results at any time.

The Harrfeldt coasted out of the slipstream, leading the charge of a glimmering cluster of Hegelian hybrids. As the drones deployed, Aleksander issued new orders on account of the fleet engagement beginning just on the other side of the system.

Active scans, all-ahead at 20% with holding pattern Gamma 5. Let's see if they bite.

he opined, eager to unleash his arsenal on a worthy target. The newfound satellite fleet smoothly complied, beginning to spread out in a tactical arc around the local region where the slipstream had arrived.

"Admiral, I am detecting some form of radiation that seems to be focusing on points where sensor arrays are located on this ship, they appear to be trying to jam our sensors." Eve reported as the cone of radiation incoming from the alien fleet was highlighted.

Nash leaned forward and inspected the holographic readout.

"Bring our ships into defensive formation alpha, move our aegis cruisers into aegis field position. Move the missile carriers out of their weapons and sensor range. Power to shields and weapons."

Nash paused for a moment, before she turned to her executive officer.

"All hands, action stations."

Alarms began to blare, and the white CIC lighting shifted to a deep red. The holographic projection flickered into a tactical readout, displaying shield strength, and damage statistics across the entire ship, as well as linking the command systems of all escort ships through a tight band subspace frequency that could not be jammed.

The aschen vessel lurched forward, a milky white ribbon of light coalesced into a bubble around the vessel and began to easily disperse the cone of radiation around it.

A similar ribbon of light coalesced around the ships escorts as they moved into a tight formation around the Absolution.

A second message went out in the same mathematical language, as shields would block any attempts to further probe the aschen vessels with a staticky band of interference.

"Unidentified vessels, This is a military vessel aligned with the United Aschen Empire. Your actions are currently being construed as hostile, disengage at once or we will be forced to respond."

Aleksander glanced at the communications panel as the Hegalian Standard swept over the ship.



He smiled, eager to get this era started with a bang. He tapped a few buttons on the console to engage his fleet's intake arrays, resulting in a series of translucent beams scattering outward from every ship—even the drones—before folding and curling back in upon themselves to form a strange, iridescent field of subtly glowing light.

Bring fleet around for slipstream, positive 750 kilometers. We shall strike at their heart.

he resolved, crossing his legs in the command chair and splaying his hands out across the armrests.

His fleet complied, arcing in unison back towards the rest of the Hegalian armada as their collectors drew in energy from the surrounding system. It was time.

Array fully charged, livelink received. We have insertion.

the tactical officer reported, giving Aleksander a blank stare as he looked back over his shoulder.

Aleksander locked eyes with him and smiled, remaining seated as he gave his next order.

Engage slipstream, drones in configuration Charlie Two. Torpedo spread Alpha Three, release on naught-point-nine.

his commands came, each executed in unison as the words exited his mouth.

Over the span of 1.5 seconds, the secondary fleet had entered slipstream as their stream of drones accelerated out towards the bowshock. The Hegalian Directive sat firmly in the minds of each and every member of the crew, their entire existence having been constructed for moments like this.

In a glimmer of light, the slipstream collapsed directly off the port bow of The Absolution, dropping the secondary fleet a few hundred meters from the supercapital, which had begun a turn into their direction. Ten thousand drones proceeded ahead in a tidal wave of rippling particulate, the smaller and more personally-sized vehicles pouring past the Absolution's upper decks in a storm of unexpected hellfire.

Beams of charged plasma cut across The Absolution's shielded superstructure, hundreds landing in unison as the drones accelerated out and away, each beam cutting in for half a second or so before the drone passed by and moved on to the bevy of smaller ships which they could more appropriately engage. Lights scattered and spread as the beams danced between the vessels, with return fire already dropping a few dozen of the less-protected drones.

Following the drones came the 64 torpedoes released during slipstream, slamming into The Absolution in unison over the course of the 1.5 second spread that they'd been released on in the first place. Aleksander smiled, eager to see that the fleet had left the system only to return with more friends — giving him a target-rich environment in which to engage.

The elite secondary fleet of battlecruisers accelerated from slipstream exit into an immediate overtake maneuver, the capital-class ships easily turning faster than the flagrantly-displayed supercapital. Their dorsal batteries held their fire, reserving their target designation for the next phase of the attack run, but nearly every ship in the secondary fleet now released a torrential outpouring of hundreds of self-targeting antimatter warheads.

Mass compensators detected, madam. They've entered the third age!

gravitometrics reported.

Aurora had already processed the enemy fleet's response by that time, smiling as she outstretched her hand towards them. No additional vessels in the fleet opened fire, but the glowing tendrils surrounding them hummed in unison.

Utter silence accompanied the explosions, warheads cascading into the field as their concussive impacts shook the hulls of the Hegalian Fleet. The lack of sound was normal for space, but sensors showed minimal radiation being emitted from the explosions, mostly limited to the visible spectrum with a smattering of infrared. Around them, the pale glowing field seemingly vanished, but quickly closed back in to fill the vacuum left by the matter which had just been voided.

But behind the cloaking salvo of missiles came the excruciating pain of direct-fire disruptors, which cut through the mysterious field effortlessly to slam into the hulls of The Hyacinth and a number of the other nearby supercapitals. The screams of a dozen ships fueled Aurora's bloodlust as their ill-adapted crystalline structure absorbed the heat and began to crackle and furl along the surface. Long, jagged black scorch marks scarred the otherwise pristine silver sheen as the Hegalian Ships began to veer away from the onslaught.

But Aurora was just beginning. With a deadened stare, she closed her fist and the remaining two torpedoes arced back in towards the exposed underbelly of The Absolution. The tactical officer glanced back at her for a moment, but the next moves were clear.

Some would say to jump this close to an Aschen fleet formation was suicide, but to jump in and among it was even worse, as the Hegelian vessels were now within weapons range of the entire Aschen formation of ships.

EVE continued to calculate all possible positions in real time, as the second fleet jumped amidst the Aschen fleet formation. Ten thousand drones were met with a thick orange wall of flak. The flak suppression field spit fire in all directions, bathing the Absolution, and the nearby Aegis cruisers in a glow of bright orange, as the oncoming drones would be torn asunder by a thick soup of incoming fire before they got within a hundred meters of the Aschen Supercarrier.

Their incoming ordinance flared brightly, but negligibly against the Absolution's shields, which dissipated the charged plasma in a ripple outwards along the milky energy of the ship's shields. Which stood like a sentinel against the incoming drones, and the Reverence II's hull.

That wasn't all, as Aleksander's ship, the Harrfeldt was now close enough to be engaged by the trio of Aschen Iconoclast Class Battleships, thirty billion tons, and five point six kilometers in length. The Inomine Veritas, the Sanctis Legate, and the Solar Wyvern moved in a delta pattern formation, turning on their axis about ten kilometers above the Hegelian formation of battlecruisers.

Their eight, three-barreled super MAC batteries hurled ten-thousand ton ferric-tungsten slugs at near relativistic velocities, each slug careening towards the battlecruiser with enough kinetic energy to punch clean through their superstructure. With three battleships concentrating their fire, the Harrfeldt had to contend with a salvo of no less than seventy two of these slugs converged on what the Aschen identified as the lead battlecruiser that was overtaking the Reverence II. Turbodisruptor salvos from the Iconoclast withered away at the remaining battlecruiser formations in the form of dazzling green bolts that did not let up.

Turbodisruptor salvos didn't just come from the Battleships, but every other Aschen ship in the formation withered away with unrelenting turbodisruptor salvos, flashes of green streaked back and fourth at each of Aleksander's battlecruisers, in addition to Ajax missiles carrying thirty gigaton quantum plasmid warheads, which detonated in a brilliant flash of white, vaporizing anything within thousands of kilometers caught within their explosion.

The incoming Antimatter warheads sailed fourth, but only a handful would find it's target amid the soup of Flak from the Aegis cruisers, but also amidst the intense ECM Jamming, chaff, and electronic countermeasures that surged fourth from the formation of Aegis cruisers. Dummy-Targets, and high-energy drones would cause the antimatter warheads to veer wildly off course, detonating harmlessly in space.

One struck a Hastati cruiser, causing it's shields to boil away in a brilliant display of multicolored light, carving a deep gouge into it's superstructure. A second one veered into a Hera class fleet tender, engulfing it in an Antimatter explosion. Another one struck a cluster of drones, consuming them.

Several struck the Absolution, but it's shields flared defiantly against the onslaught, and absolutely refused to collapse.

Admiral Nash had nearly been thrown from her console in the last impact, but from what she could tell, the Aschen fleet was holding it's own.


The Bloodied Spirit, the second Reverence II Class Planetary Assault Carrier which seemingly, had largely been ignored during this engagement, her Commander, Commander Ronson clutched his own console, before he called an order to make a Danger-close jump in the formation of Hegelian Ships.

He relayed the orders to EVE, whom coordinated a small task force of Hastati cruisers, Punisher class Battleships, and a handful of Gemenon, and Sagittaron class Battlecruisers to jump with the Bloodied Spirit.

With FTL drives Synchronized, the Bloodied Spirit executed it's FTL jump, going directly for the throat of the enemy formation.

The Bloodied Spirit winked out of existence, along with a dozen Aschen vessels.

The remaining torpedoes closed in, but the Underbelly of the Reverence II was just as protected as the rest of the ship, the Torpedoes struck against the milky-white ribbon of light that protected the underside of the Aschen Carrier, stripping them of most of their kinetic energy, as they moved to strike against the Kanvium hull plating of the armored bay doors. The Kanvium, like the first Torpedo impacts rippled, and dispersed the remaining kinetic energy before returning to it's original state.

The Impact was felt all through the ship, and sparks showered the CIC as Admiral Nash pulled herself back to her feet.

"We can't keep this up! Admiral we're going to lose primary shields!" The Tactical officer called out. "Hull cladding will take most of the brunt, but not much, we need to get out of this soup!"

"Weapons capacitors at seventy five percent." EVE reported. "Signal confirmation, Langaran fleet will arrive in two Millicentons. Emperor is returning to Langara, Once departure from the Sirius system is confirmed, we can disengage, and retreat. I have almost completed analysis of Hegelian ships, but we still do not know total disposition."

"Primary shields are at twenty five percent." EVE Added.

"Activate hard light shields, divert additional power to weapons, and shield systems. Cycle primary shield recharge, and get us back into the fight." Nash ordered.

"Acknowledged." The XO Called out.


The Absolution suddenly ceased fire, but the other Aschen ships in the fleet kept up the pressure, it was at this moment the Absolution cocooned itself in a hexagonal series of interlocking plates of hard light, which shimmered into existence, and locked the entire ship in a cocoon of light. The ribbon of light that was originally protecting it vanished, leaving the Hard Light shield in place to provide supplementary protection.

---

The Bloodied Spirit winked into existence danger close to the port side of the Hyacinth, maybe a scant one hundred kilometers away, parallel to the Hegelian ship. The instant it appeared, it unleashed it's withering broadside against the smaller Hegelian ship. One thousand five hundred Turbodisruptor emplacements lit up, sending a sustained, sequential hail of Turbodisruptor bolts that would aim to slam into it's hull. The salvo didn't stop however, and the second Reverence II kept firing, concentrating it's weapons fire on a single point center-mass on the Hegelian cruiser.

The remaining weapon emplacements unleashed against the surrounding Hegelian ships with frightening precision. With one thousand five hundred Starboard turbodisruptor emplacements, Five hundred forward, seven hundred ventral, and five hundred on the ship's dorsal side. It unleashed a torrential barrage of Disruptor fire in all directions, with it's starboard side focused on a single ship.

The Aschen cruisers that jumped in with the Reverence kept a staggered Capital phalanx position, opening fire on the other Hegelian support ships in much the same manner, a non stop torrent of a mix of Turbodisruptor, missile ordinance containing both quantum plasmid, and nuclear fusion, and lastly solid kinetic projectiles. With the aim to wither down the Hegelian numbers with sheer overwhelming firepower.

Unlike the Absolution, the Bloodied Spirit came in fresh, shields and weapons fully charged.

There was also the three Frag cannon rounds to consider, which would likely slam into the Hyacinth with enough kinetic energy to punch clean through the ship's superstructure.

Aurora whirled her outstretched hand above her head and out to the left with a snap, her outstretched palm facing the Bloodied Spirit directly as she sneered into her power.

The entire humming glow surrounding the million-strong capital fleet arced into a brilliant web of charged plasma, phasing through the multi-layered plane of the manyverse as it cascaded through the anchorstones placed by generations prior. Swirling rivers of white-hot hellfire engulfed the space between the ships, snapping and jumping from vessel to vessel in an indiscriminate torrent of destruction for the thousands of kilometers across the fleets.

Just then, three 1.5 megaton tungsten shells slammed into the Hyacinth, embedding themselves within her hull as the crystalline superstructure shattered, but the non-Newtonian biomass therein absorbed the momentum of the blow and turned the slugs into glowing decorations. She listed to port as the energy dissipated, bringing her upper side to face the Bloodied Spirit.

Aurora's arm continued to track the enemy supercapital, rising slowly as her own ship rotated about its axis. In the seconds since, as her ship's armor continued to be scarred by the disruptors, a parabolic arc of white energy converged towards the Bloodied Spirit, separating the Hyacinth from its onslaught.

As the field absorbed the fire, it began to adopt a sour green hue — humming in increasing frequency as it amalgamated mass and energy. Aurora was now channeling the enemy fleet's fire into her own reserves.

---

Included with the explosive display of fireworks was Aleksander's auxillary fleet, which had up until now simply held their fire. Over the course of a second, three massive columns of energy bridged their own network of fields with Aurora's, charging the space between with the sizzling stench of vaporized metal and flesh.

Aleksander's maneuver had been successful, the drones receiving minimal losses as their gained momentum and close proximity kept them well beyond the tracking speed of the supercapital's weapons during their acceleration onto the rest of the fleet. They continued onwards, scattering about the fleet to carve into the hulls in an effort to inflict as widespread damage as possible, falling off as the storm of flak occasionally landed a square blow on their otherwise wildly-resilient sentient hulls.

In the hum of the tangled web, Aurora's fleet had already reacted to the dozen-vessel microwarp by releasing their own drones — ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 per vessel — which were rapidly converging on the now-isolated subgroup of Aschen rebels. Their numbers seemed endless, and they were fast little buggers, too.

Aleksander smiled as his ship coasted past the volley of hastily-fired shells, gripping the chair in his right hand to stabilize himself as a handful of shells slammed into the aft of the Harrfeldt despite his overtake speed. No matter that his ship was now tilting aft-over-end from the momentum, the rest of his hunter-killer group now had the Absolution surrounded.

Bubble up. Let's finish this.

he commanded, resulting in the radial acceleration of the iridescent sheen from his group of Dommfeldt-class battlecruisers outwards, racing towards the Absolution.

Black Templar’s Fleet: Crusade Fleet under Marshal Renalanus Phorixx.

Battle Barge: Crusader Of Truth
Battle Barge: The Emperors Halberd
Battle Barge: Righteous Fury

Weaponry: Dorsal-mounted bombardment cannons. Each cannon comprises a series of heavyweight batteries, huge turret-mounted linear accelerators that launch salvos of heavy magma bomb warheads. Also maintains a hefty compliment of Macro-cannons, Plasma projectors, Fusion Beamers, and missile launchers

Armor: Constructed with its unique role of low-orbit planetary assault in mind, the battle barges’ skeletons were forged from a an ultra-dense alloy. The rare base mineral can only be mined from the sites of recent volcanic eruptions, and is further hardened by ballast compression tanks situated on high-gravity moons. The pressurized environment hardens the alloy, ensuring the superstructure is reinforced. These inner frameworks were then girded in kilometres of hardened plasteel and adamantium, and edged with thick ferrocrete buttresses that surround the main hull like a reinforced rib-cage. Finally, a second and ablative layer of armour was added to each vessel’s prow. Each Battle Barge also contains layers of Void Shields

Strike Cruisers: 6
Equipped with two Macro cannons and one Bombardment Cannon.

Strike Cruisers: 7
Equipped with Two missile launchers and one Bombardment cannon

Vanguard Class Light Cruiser Mk. I: 6

Armed with Torpedo launchers, Macrocannons, and launch bays for Attack Craft.

Vanguard Class Light Cruiser Mk. II: 4

Armed with Lances, Macrocannons, and Attack Craft launch bays.

Vanguard Class Light Cruiser Mk III: 4

Armed with a single Bombardment Cannon, Macrocannons, and Attack Craft Launch Bays.


Escort Vessels:
Gladius Class Frigate: 14
Armed with Lance weaponry

Crew

1,000 Black Templar’s Space Marines

2,500 Chapter Serfs

3,000,000 Servitors



“Marshal, Warp space jump complete. Exiting into real space momentarily.” One of the Chapters Techmarines reported as a tear opened up in reality within the Norma Arm. There were reports that this area was a notorious hideout for pirates, as such the Black Templar’s of the Imperium’s mighty Space Marine chapters, the angels of death have come to this sector of the universe.

From the tear of reality, massive regal and ordained ships began to exit from the openings, 44 ships in total. Their mission in their mind was the extermination of the pirates here, believing them to be Eldar Corsairs or even Chaos Raiders hiding out in the asteroid belts. As sensors were trying to pick up activity, the first to pick up anything was radio chatter. Their Vox Communicae was picking up up a familiar frequency seen before during Terra. It was Aschen in origin however they were not clear what the message was due to them not receiving it.

The Imperium had few encounters with them, one requesting a trade of technology and the other was attacking the Guardsman on Terra after they would attempt a coup. However their Emperor was in a meeting with one of their own, as such they dared not do anything that would interfere with the Emperors plans you attacking them, however sensors began to pick up massive amounts of fire being exchanged nearby.

“Marshal Renalanus To Fleet. Prepare all weapons and ready shields, if it’s the Eldari or the hateful enemies of Chaos fire on sight at once. Massive amounts of weapon fire has been detected in the area. In the Emperors name we serve.” The Marshal ordered to fleet as the ships set course to where the weapons fire was was detected through the asteroid belt.

"Coordinates locked in, recommend tactical jump." Eve advised as the display highlighted the cruisers that were moving in to surround them.

Briefly, Nash looked over to damage reports, so far, the shields of both reverences withstood the onslaught of drones, but her own hard light shields were beginning to show their signs of stress. Slowly, they shifted from a brilliant blue, to a red hue with each weapon impact, but the hard light shields held fast no matter what the Hegelians threw at it.

Drone onslaughts were subject to the AI tracked weapons of the aegis cruisers, which had point defense, and flak weapons specifically engineered to track, and engage fast moving strike craft. Drones that got too close to these aegis cruisers were felled by the tens of thousands through a combination of flak, and stormbringer point defense laser systems.

Gritting her teeth, Nash was barely making a dent in the enemy formations. It didn't matter though, a plethora of data was obtained for the Eggheads over at the iia to study, the prowlers had completed their mission, taking some rather detailed footage of the Hegelian ships before returning safely back to the Absolution.

"We have signal confirmation, Continuum, Taiyou, and the First Langaran fleets are positioning to assist us, stand by for time estimate for reinforcements."

Nodding, Nash let her hands dance across the holographic display, she had to put some distance between her ships, and the enemy.

"Initiate tactical jump, anywhere in the system, get us out of this soup. Initiate Planck packs the moment we exit jump. I don't want them following us." Nash ordered.

Without so much as a hesitation, the Absolution winked away with a brilliant flash, leaving a void in it's wake.

Moments followed, and nearly a hundred aschen ships winked away with it, leaving the Command Carrier and about a thousand aschen capital ships to remain in the fight.

The Absolution and her escorts flickered into existence nearly a hundred AU away inside the star systems oort cloud, far beyond the range of the Hegelian ships.

"Fleet is synchronizing ftl drives for jump, all ships will be synchronized in two millicentons." Eve reported.

With a brief respite, the Absolution could recharge shields.

The bloodied spirit followed a similar path, as it became evidence that her weapons were no longer effective, the supercarrier vanished in a flash of white light and a brief release of spatial energies. The accompanying fleet immediately followed suit, winking away from Aurora's formation.


The thousands of Aschen ships followed suit, those with intact ftl and valid synchronization points winked away from the onslaught of drones and capital ships, joining the battered Absolution in the far end of the system. But with the arrival of the Imperium, things grew even more tense for the Aschen.

"Imperium ships detected." Eve reported in the silence following their brief retreat, and Nash grimaced.

Things seemed to only get worse.

Warp inhibiting Planck packs began to slowly charge, and come online.

"Let's recalibrate for an exit jump, Shaw protocol." Nash added.

It was at this time that several ships appeared, cloaked in a yellowish-green energy veil. They were visibly decelerating with haste as they retained a formation ready for battle. The yellow-green veils soon receded, replaced by a yellow-purple sphere around each ship that shimmered for several seconds before completely fading from sight. Their designs were vaguely insectoid/robotic, and they were colored in darker shades of grey, green, and red with purple, yellow, and orange glowing patterns across certain features. No doubt the designs were born of a combination of things thought to instill fear from the Continuum's point of view.

Indeed, the logo the ships bore identified them as Continuum, and their armor had the distinctive, subtly quivering sheen of something not truly inanimate and the reflective crystalline plating atop it along with a rubbery material that was smooth. Their weapons were visible and appeared to be of simpler designs, though it was likely just an aesthetic choice, as their lights showed something far more.

The fleet itself quickly grew in number up until there were almost 1000 ships aside from the overly large central one. A paling number compared to the involved fleets, but it was clear that they had to be sure of themselves if they brought a smaller number. The largest ship appeared to be almost the size of a small moon, and the fleet was carefully assembled and numbered in designs to provide a well-balanced challenge if anyone dared try.

Four smaller satellite fleets eventually entered the area, visibly slowing down. Each numbered nearly 500 ships beyond the central ship of each satellite fleet, though these fleets seemed more specialized than the main fleet. The satellite fleets took up specific positions around the main fleet in a defensive formation. No communication was made toward the others already present, sans the Aschen as the large central ship of the main fleet flashed a pattern of lights toward the Aschen fleet in a pattern long known to them; a sign of alliance and support that indicated the Continuum was about to provide the military assistance arranged for as per existing treaty application. Additionally, the Aschen would receive a video message if they had the resources available to respond.

A white-haired bold and smug-looking female humanoid with vulpine ears and tail was on the screen, standing firm and tall (or as tall as she could stand) as if at what others might call "attention". With a fist across her bountiful chest, that her uniform was able to keep in check even while buttoned properly, the female humanoid commanded a level of respect through her presence she imposed. A long blade was kept neatly at her side, appearing as a cross between a rapier and a katana, and it stood out for its unique design. It was kept opposite a large hand-cannon that was holstered, a hand-cannon that looked quite dangerous even when put away. She spoke clearly, using mostly well-practiced, if somewhat accented, Anquietas (bar some minor word order flubs). The whole proper greeting and addressing, as well as language grasp, was quite impressive for an apparent non-diplomat.

A~hahaha! Ad Vic'toriam, Ab'solution Ac'tual! Hel'lo! I am t'he C'T-6 for t'he Con'tinuum f'leet. T'he As'c'hen al'lies' reques'ted as'sis'tan'ce for'ces have ar'rived! Do w'hat you mus't; we wil'l p'rovide g'reat firepower bac'kin'g!

The fleet was quite immense...

Continuum Stay Armada, under CT-6 R'laet'te K'las'ga - 3000 Ships

Primary Fleet - x1000
Supercarrier - x1 (CRYSTON-SC♚)
Gooebomb - x1
Starbase - x2
Dreadnaught - x6
Battleship - x20
Heavy Carrier - x20
Battle Cruiser - x60
Cruiser - x70
Light Cruiser - x120
Destroyer - x200
Frigate - x200
Escort - x300

Satellite Fleet A - x500
Dreadnaught - x1 (CRYSTON-DN♜)
Starbase - x1
Battleship - x4
Heavy Carrier - x4
Battle Cruiser - x20
Cruiser - x70
Light Cruiser - x120
Destroyer - x80
Escort - x200

Satellite Fleet B - x500
Dreadnaught - x1 (CRYSTON-DN♜)
Starbase - x1
Battleship - x4
Heavy Carrier - x4
Battle Cruiser - x20
Cruiser - x70
Light Cruiser - x120
Destroyer - x80
Escort - x200

Satellite Fleet C - x500
Dreadnaught - x1 (CRYSTON-DN♜)
Starbase - x1
Battleship - x4
Heavy Carrier - x4
Battle Cruiser - x30
Cruiser - x70
Light Cruiser - x80
Destroyer - x120
Escort - x190

Satellite Fleet D - x500
Dreadnaught - x1 (CRYSTON-DN♜)
Starbase - x1
Battleship - x4
Heavy Carrier - x4
Battle Cruiser - x30
Cruiser - x70
Light Cruiser - x80
Destroyer - x120
Escort - x190

Adopting an aggressive formation, the Continuum ships prepared to engage Hegalian forces, making the short trip toward them, staying close to the large central ship that made the Dreadnaughts surrounding it look like mere Cruisers at best in comparison.

The Stella Tempesta navigated sloppily among the planetary debris. The pilot clearly didn't have much experience, but wasn't hitting anything just yet.

Admiral Nash grasped the console in silent consideration, as she watched the Hegelian formation on the holographic projection in front of her.

EVE's voice chimed into the CIC. "Priority one alert from the Scylla, and Director Angel!"

Nash looked up to the display. "Patch it through!" As she considered her next move.

"You've been instructed to retreat from this battle, and return your fleet to Imperial Space at once. This is a priority one directive."

EVE's serenity was abruptly cut by the chime of the DRADIS Systems. "Sir! We have two FTL Signatures on the far side of the system!" The Bridge officer called out. "Identifying.... they're Thunderbolt--"

The pair of Thunderbolt Missiles detonated roughly a hundred AU from the Aschen fleet, and while it seemed to be random, the path, and location of the Detonation was precisely calculated to create an intercept course for an approaching ship.

"Tricobalt explosion detected!" What the frak is going on!?" The Officer called out.

Nash was just as confused. Were they planning on saturating the system?

"As Soon as the FTL Drives are synchronized! Get us the frak out of here!"