“The enemy is nearly upon us, coming in numbers far superior to our own, possessed of a false courage granted by insanity. It is true that we could retreat, we could run, hide, cower from the wrath of these fanatics. But if we do that, not only do we sacrifice the lives of every one of our citizens on ASVS, not only do we hand the enemy a forward base from which to strike at the very heart of our nation, we abdicate our responsibility to defend the secular peoples of this galaxy. Our people have sacrificed everything to give us the best ships, the best training, the best tools they could provide with which to fight the madness. I am asking you all to do your duty here today, to very likely give your lives in the service of the Empire, but most of all not to betray that trust. For if we do, I fear the galaxy will fall into darkness.”
“Man your stations, charge shields and weapons, and make ready to blast these sorry wretches all the way back to the rim. The enemy heavy cruiser
must be destroyed, or they will burn ASVS to a cinder.”
Captain Onasi clicked off the comm. “ETA?”
“They should be dropping out of hyperspace just about.... mark. Three to five minutes at sublight sir. As you predicted, they're approaching from the far side of that sensor blind.”
The cultists took their approach slowly; it seemed like an eternity to Onasi, waiting in the CIC of the INS Darth. Eventually the blurred shapes of the cultist capital ships began to emerge on the magnified visual display.
“That's it, full power and hard to port! Maintain speed, but don't get us any closer than you have to.”
The cultist fleet was accompanied by more fighters than Captain Onasi had ever seen, a plague of metal mosquitoes out to sap the life from his capital ships.
“Brigadier Drason, do you have a solution?”
“A few more seconds Captain... Firing now.”
Hypervelocity slugs slammed into the misshapen enemy flagship, battering her shields and knocking a few weapons out of calibration, but doing no serious damage. “Fuck” Captain Onasi momentarily lost his composure “that thing is even tougher than it looks.”
The enemy fighter squadrons washed over the Imperial ships, far outnumbering the interceptors sent up to stop them. Lances of blue ionic energy struck the two Victory destroyers over and over, until they were almost powerless to resist. The cultist capital ships followed close behind and poured fire into the INS Darth. The Imperial flagship gave as good as she got, but the enemy bombers were barely hindered by the overwhelmed friendly fighter squadrons, and they unleashed wave upon wave of proton torpedoes.
“Captain? How's it going up there.”
“Not good Brigadeer.” The deck was shuddering now, the damage control display starting to light up all over as shields gave out and systems failed.
“We've almost ready for another shot. Hang in there.”
The hypervelocity canon fired again, this time doing significant damage, but it wasn't enough.
“Captain Solauren! Don't give up, that flagship is vulnerable, you have to...”
With the Darth gone, commander of the battered Imperial fleet passed ot Captain Solauren, currently trying to coax the INS Defiance's engines back into some kind of life.
An insufferable nasal voice spilled out of the speakers. “And lo, finally the delusional Imperials are shown the true folly of their works, the sweet lies that are their promises of safety and order, the utter inferiority of their starships and their tanks. For now we, the servants of the Master, shall rain death and destruction upon their holdings, shall slay their allies and bathe in the blood of their loved ones, as is...”
“How is that crap getting through?”
“Sir, when we lost the Darth we lost half our jamming capability, but I don't know how they cracked our secure...”
“It doesn't matter, just sanitise our comms ASAP! Engineering, you said I'd have thrust by now!”
“We're starting to make way sir. Shields still out.”
“It doesn't mater. Take us in close to that flagship. Give it everything we've got.”
The last of the station's bombers launched, weaving and jinking in a desperate attempt to find a route through the cultist fighters to hit their flagship. Few made it, and the Defiance was taking heavy damage from the circling enemy destroyers.
“...their attacks were as nothing to the faithful, for the Blood God gives us strength, he proclaims that the Imperials are wholly inferior, from their pathetic hyperdrives to their puny turbolasers, that they could never stand against our jihad, that their...”
The CIC was a mess, severe shock damage taking its toll on the equipment and the crew. “That's it sir, primary and secondary fire control out! Still firing on manual, but we've lost nearly all...”
“Then ram them if you have to!”
Brigadier Drason fired again, just as the Defiance made her final charge.
"“Noooo!" The sight of his God's chosen instrument blasting itself apart incensed Darth Yoshi. "The Prophet! Heathens!" He spat the word out in disgust. In some part of his mind, he knew that his lord would eventually resurrect the High Prophet as he himself had been resurrected, but that did not matter now. "They will burn, burn, all of them burn for such insolence! Destroy that station! The planet as well, all of them must die! We
will have blood for the Blood God!”
As the first turbolaser bolts rained down, the Brigadier hastily diverted power from the cannon to the shields, reinforcing them against the deadly assault. With the heavy guns on the enemy cruiser gone, they would hold, at least for a while. The orbital forces were not so lucky. Only a Victory and an Acclamator remained, and both of them had long since lost hyperdrive capability. The Imperial forces had no choice but to make a last stand around the defence station. Precision fire from the remaining weapons took out two of the cultist gunships and many of their fighters, but the outcome was inevitable.
(part 1 of 3)
I'm glad at least that my death was met with the proper respects.
Commander of the MFS Darwinian Selection Method (sexual)
