As the fleet began slipping into convoy formation and prepared to leave, the three Supernova class battleships, the heart of the Arisen Imperial force, formed a back line, protecting the retreating ships from the vicious attacks of the fast-moving sleek Neo-Luddite bombers.
Buzzing around just outside of the maximum weapon range, the bombers looked like a pack of blood crazed sharks watching a colony of seals swim away from them, but being unable to do anything about it. Clearly unhappy about the situation they tried taking pot shots at the convoy from extreme ranges, however they were much too far away for the required accuracy and the shots went wide and exploded harmlessly in an impressive display of pyrotechnics. Occasionally a bomber would get overzealous and fly too close in an attempt to get in a real shot and would promptly get obliterated by the combined firepower of the three battleships that made up the rear guard.
Then it happened. The sharks decided that they were through with trying to get to the prey and being slapped away by its noble guardians. They would settle for ripping their protectors to shreds. Moving in unison, the bombers came straight at the three battleships. With their guns mainly trained on protecting the convoy, the battleships were unprepared for a direct assault and wheeled to get all their guns in firing position to protect themselves. Even unprepared the ships represented massive firepower and many bombers were destroyed before even getting into range.
“No… no!”, Djenkato watched in horror as the bombers screamed overhead of the Lightbringer, having released a deadly payload straight into the side of the Vengance. The ship was now dotted with huge holes all along the side and from the wild fluctuations of her engine it was clear that the main power core had been breached and threatened to explode at any moment.
“Tell the convoy to go to full power immediately and get the hell out of here. Full power to our shields and weapons, be ready for those bombers when they come back for another pass.” The sense of panic aboard the bridge was palpable. The crew had just watched the unthinkable happen. A Supernova class battleship, supposedly an indestructible floating fortress of Imperial power, destroyed by a group of fanatics that they were told barely had access to even the most pathetic of military space weapons.
The convoy disappeared out of the scanner range of the Lightbringer quickly. The bombers turned around sharply and came back straight at the two remaining battleships, seemingly completely indifferent to the now only lightly protected escaping convoy. No, these were far more prestigious targets to feast on.
30 minutes later Djenkato realised she had made a terrible mistake at assessing the power of the enemy bombers. The Justice was a twisted 800 meter long smouldering piece of space junk and the Lightbringer was running for its life, holes in the superstructure sticking out like gaping wounds on a dieing animal. The bombers pursued relentlessly, one at a time weaving in and out of the incoming fire from the lumbering behemoth. All remaining functioning guns on board the Lightbringer were firing wildly in a last act of defiance. Occasionally the projectiles hit home and a bomber exploded in a searing burst of light, but it was too little too late.
The deathblow came an hour later. With the engines having set out, the Lightbringer was now dead in space. Forced to be a sitting duck while the bombers, with rising blood lust, fired off their payloads with less and less regard for their own safety. The protected structure around the main power core had been peeled away by previous explosions and presented the perfect target for the enemy ships to focus their fire on.
At 22:39, September 24th 4933 Djentako gave order to redirect all shield power to the exposed core in order to protect it from incoming attacks. That order never had a chance to be carried out, as less than one minute later, a missile from one of the attacking bombers struck the core and set off a massive chain reaction, causing the complete and violent destruction of the Arisen Imperial flagship ISS "Lightbringer"
.
The battle for Foenix was over. The Neo-Luddites had won their first battle against a fully equipped Imperial force.
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