Ravens of Eternity

354 The Drums of War, Pt Outside, the heavily ridged chitin plating on the topside of the Imperial battleship began to slide open in long sections. As they drew back, they revealed further chitin plating beneath, which also opened up.

Once the final layer had been drawn back and out of the way, massive hovering guns floated out of the pockets that the chitin revealed. Each one was about the size of a frigate, and looked to be a deadly pair of insectoid-like mandibles.

They spun in space towards the Hegemony battleship, which was still recovering its position. Similar to the rest of Imperial beam weapons, the very tips of these mandibles began to glow, and a bright orange ball of energy began to gather in between them.

Each of the energy balls grew brighter and larger as they charged up. And right when they seemed to reach an absolute peak, fired.

Streams of devastating dark orange energy burst out of the bright balls of light and struck the Hegemony battleship squarely. As they raked the battleship’s armor, the beams themselves narrowed to some degree, though the intensity of the stream seemed to increase.

As though they were being optimized to annihilate the exact armor they struck.

And although the beams exerted zero force on the battleship itself, the damage they did was absolutely monumental. The charged particles within the beam crashed into everything they hit, and completely disintegrated them with absolute ease.

They quite literally chewed into the Hegemony battleship’s armor as though it was made of wet paper. And it took them literal seconds to break it down atomically, then broke it down further into their bas particles. The beams tore the whole thing apart, particle by particle by particle.

And when there was no armor left to eat up, they went further in and disintegrated the structure and the inner decking and the circuits and the modules and the people.

.....

It didn’t matter what was inside. The most hardened omnitronium parts were split apart as easily as the weakest flesh.

The Drogar’s weapons were so efficient that the Hegemony battleship didn’t even have the time to explode. And even if it did, those beams would have ripped even those apart – even chemical reactions were susceptible to particle destruction.

Those devastating beams scoured the battleship, and chewed into everything they came across. They ate into it for what seemed like an eternity, as though their job with destroying the ship was far from over.

Eventually, the hovering guns stopped, and the glow on the mandibles ebbed away. They moved back to their original positions above their wells, then lowered back down into their housings. Once they were safely back in, the numerous chitin sections slid back closed in layers over each other.

Their work was clearly done.

Swarmchief Leroth grinned happily at the sight of the Hegemony battleship, at how little of it was left. His toothy maw practically glistened with saliva at the destruction his ship had wrought.

The enemy ship had been practically hollowed out. Every deck on the ship had been excised, and everyone inside had been completely atomized. And if they didn’t, they were dead regardless. Their bodies spun helplessly in space as they froze and choked to death amidst the ruins of the mightiest ship they served on.

All that was left was the husk of its structure and armor on the far side. There were still some leftover parts here and there, such as partially-disintegrated modules, frayed circuits, and unidentifiable system housing. Part of the power plant’s external frame was also visible, along with a few terminals, and some random parts.

But it was all little more than scrap at this point.

The swarmfather took control of a few live feeds, and zoomed up close to inspect the damage firsthand. At the same time, he kept an eye on his weapons’ energy usage and noted how much damage they were able to sustain during their attack.

He was incredibly pleased at their current efficiency, though he knew that it could be even better.

“Send a note to the machinechief,” commanded the swarmchief. “Have him optimize power usage by 5%. Tell him he has once cycle to accomplish it, or I will find someone else to take his place.”

“Yes, swarmchief.”

He turned his head to the other side, and glanced at a few reports regarding the remaining Hegemony forces. There were a few cruisers, six destroyers, and a dozen frigates left. Whatever fighters leftover were negligible.

“Can the fleet please finish off those apes already,” he grumbled. “They’ve had a monumental amount of time to do so, but they seem to be wasting it...”

“Swarmchief,” said one of his technicians, “enemy annihilation is delayed because some of the enemy fleet are attempting to parley and surrender. Some of our battlechiefs are awaiting instructions.”

“This is a no-quarter excursion,” Leroth quickly snapped back. “They should know better. Destroy all ships without haste.”

“Yes, swarmchief.”

Outside, the swarms of imperial fighters and frigates continued their assault on the Hegemony ships. Or at least, what was left of them. They were accompanied by the rest of the Imperial cruisers and destroyers, who easily tore into whatever survivors were left.

They swarmed around them, punched deep into their armor, and ripped them open from the inside.

Even those who had long since stopped firing back and merely waited to be captured were struck down. Though they expected to be taken in as prisoners, they were instead wiped out with extreme prejudice. Their faces were awash with surprise and fear as their ships were pummeled all around them, until there was nothing left to tear apart.

Together, the Imperial fleet swept through whatever remained of the Hegemony, and eliminated them thoroughly.

Once everything was mopped up, the fleet turned towards the nearby orbital array and began to advance on it. Though it fired at them defensively, there was absolutely nothing they could do.

And when the Imperial fleet fired back, the result was nothing but devastation. The array was taken apart just as easily as the Hegemony fleet that was defending it.

Swarmchief Leroth watched it all break apart in front of him with utter glee. To him, there was nothing more glorious and satisfying than taking apart humans and their feeble ships and structures.

There was a delight in using such devastating weapons of destruction on them, as though the very act of blasting them apart was itself a truly joyful feeling.

It was certainly worth the damage his own fleet received in exchange.

He took a quick glance at his casualty report, which showed that his fleet’s losses were well within an acceptable range – less than 10%. Though it wasn’t the best, it certainly wasn’t the worst, either.

Regardless, he vowed to optimize his numbers in the next engagement.

“Have our analysis teams determine avenues for improvement,” he commanded. “I only want to see single digit casualties in the next fight we engage in.”

“Yes, swarmchief.”

“Now, open a connection to the Senator. I’ve some good news to share.”

One of the swarmchief’s technicians quickly tapped into their secure communications lines, then sent a request to the center of Drogar power.

It was accepted almost immediately, and moments later, a perfect projection of Senator Konleth appeared on the bridge. The projection turned towards Leroth, and smiled toothily.

“Swarmchief Leroth,” he said happily. “I hope you have some news for me.”

“Look for yourself,” answered Leroth.

He waved at the screens around him with a sweeping gesture. There was a certain pride within it, and it was clear to Konleth that he was boasting an accomplishment.

The senator chortled happily as he soaked in all the carnage across the screens surrounding him. And his grin only grew wider as a result.

He too felt the satisfaction of destruction, as it was laid out all around him. Though his was less visceral, it was a touch sharper. The both of them allowed the feeling of destructive pride to wash over them. If they could have bathed in the blood of the fallen, they would have.

“You did well in capturing the Feron system,” Konleth said after some time. “It’s a big step towards achieving Drogar supremacy.”

“Well, we haven’t quite captured the system yet,” Leroth replied. “I still have a few orbital defenses to destroy, and some more beacons to take over. But otherwise, yes, we own this space.”

“Am I hearing you correctly? You signaled me before you completed capture? That’s premature. And a waste of my time.”

“Cool your blood, Senator. I’m certain none of these apes can challenge my fleet. The technologies that the machinefather granted us makes us quite invincible.”

“Oh? Is that so? You’re confident enough with his technologies that you’re calling a premature victory?”

Leroth nodded resolutely. His own damage reports practically confirmed it.

“Well, what do you think about that?” Konleth asked. Though it didn’t seem as though he was talking to the swarmchief.

Instead, a perfect projection of Machinefather Gravoss materialized on the bridge. His presence immediately sent a wave of awe through the swarmchief. Leroth himself had never been so close to a machinefather before, and instinctively kneeled in front of him.

“Get up,” said Gravoss. “I need doers, not bootlickers.”

“Of course, Machinefather,” Leroth replied as he stood up. “Forgive my foolishness.”

“Now, you were heaping praise on my defensive systems? Tell me more.”

“Yes, machinefather. I sent our raw data to my commanding officer already – but I’m happy to share it with you this instant.”

Leroth turned towards his technicians, and ordered them to send a copy of their defensive data straight to Gravoss. They didn’t hesitate to comply.

“Ahh, yes,” Gravoss said. “Nothing beats raw analytics, does it?”

He scanned through the dataset with his DI, and ate up all the delicious information inside.

“Good work, swarmchief,” he finally said, moments later. “This is valuable data that the shareholders would love to see.”

“It’s all thanks to your powerful antimunitions field,” Leroth said. “We wouldn’t have won this fight without it. Not that I doubted its power for even a moment.”

“Of course it did. And of course it’s powerful. Anything that fool Szereth can design, I can do better.”

“Machinefather Szereth also has an antimunitions field?”

Gravoss harrumphed. Then grinned happily.

“No,” he said. “Not since I won the naval contract. Now only Belynn Industries can manufacture them.”

“You have an obsession with Szereth, my friend,” said Konleth. “Perhaps an unhealthy one.”

“What, like your obsession with Retholis?”

“That’s an obsession that will end very soon.”

“Promises, promises.”

“Should we, perhaps, inform our Federation partners of our progress?” asked Leroth. “Surely, they will want to know how far into the Hegemony we’ve already torn into.”

“Oh, they certainly will,” Konleth answered. “But we won’t be telling them right now.”

“Of course not,” Gravoss added. “In fact, as far as I’m concerned, we needn’t give them any more intelligence than we already have. Not any that’s accurate, anyway.”

“True, true,” said Leroth. “After all, once we’re done with the Hegemony, they’re next. We’ll gobble up whatever systems they take from the Hegemony, then head into their own territory and take the rest.”

“And all the wealth in the galaxy will be ours,” said Konleth. “Where it belongs.”