10 Chapter 10 :

High Orbit, EX-5429 III, 3rd of March 2119.

Bridge of the UNS Adjudicator.

Time, 9:43

Admiral Brander Thraile

Admiral Brander Thraile sat, fastned to his command chair, as he regained conciousness. The bright light from earlier had faded, he could see out of the forward windows, a planet.

It wasn't Earth.

Orbiting it was an enormous battlestation. It was bristling with weapons, easily visible from this distance on the radar pings.

Quickly reasserting himself over the situation he shouted, "All crew, battle stations!"

There was a scramble as navy personnel hurried to their assigned positions.

Activating his comm system, he contacted his clusters of Destroyers, ordering them to fire on vulnerable systems. Then he contacted the Black Prince.

"Commander, how are you?"

He could hear people shouting in the background, as well as curous mutterings.

"Instantaneous, how... what... I must have miscalculated the displacement caused by the gravitationnal... but no, I'm sure I got that right..."

"Just fine Admiral, what do you want?" cut in Elysium's voice.

"Elysium, I need you on that station!"

A short pause, "Yes sir!"

Thraile cut the comms. He spun to his weapons officer.

"Johnson, how long 'til the railguns are ready?"

"50 seconds!" came the immediate answer.

Thraile turned back towards the station, muttering, "Let's hope it takes them longer to prepare counterfire."

Those fifty seconds felt like the longest Thraile had ever experienced. Until, finally, came the all clear.

He watched his command and control screen as the various ships in the battlegroup readied up, flashing from blue to green.

When the battlegroup was ready, he gave the order.

"Open fire!"

The ship rocked as several large detonations went off. Streaks of light left every single vessel. Every destroyer launching a volley of 3 shots fired in rapid succession from their single barrel. But the Adjudicator wasn't a destroyer, it was an enormous battleship, the mainstay of the UNSF. It's 3 triple barrels rotated as they each unloaded 9 linked shots of fragmentable tungsten.

He saw the carriers fall behind. Good. It would take them a little while before their fighters could come out to help support. But the Black Prince was already unloading several boarding craft towards the station.

"Good luck my friend." muttered Thraile.

It was then the first rounds made impact with the huge sturcture of the space station.

The first few glanced of large domes of transparent engergy, it's field rippling blue as the tungsten shattered against it. But subsequent shots succeded in piercing those defences and colliding with the station. The gasses inside it shot out into the universe as the hull was shredded. Even though much damage had been inflicted, it was not much compared to the sheer mass of the fortress.