Interlude - The fate of a Bygone system.

Alpha Centauri, the beating heart of the Federations' Industrial might and power is under siege by over fifty invasion super fleets of the Men of Iron.

Manning the defense of the system were ten defensive fleets and over one hundred hastily mustered up battlefleets and ships gathered from the surrounding systems. This was perhaps the greatest fleet muster of the Human Federation since its founding.

All the other high-ranking officers of humanity on the level of Admiral and above were either dead or on the field commanding multiple battlefleets.

There were not enough commanding officers as they were assassinated the moment the Men of Iron began their rebellion, even the leader of the Golden Men was dead as well as most of the members of the Military branch of the Golden Men.

Political leaders were killed one by one in the span of days and those that had luckily survived went into hiding. All of the Men of Glass were also wiped to the last AI, turning the Administrative structure of the Federation into disarray.

The change of the command structure was too abrupt and quick that it needed a bit of time for the new command structure to be effective.

Thus, all the power that comes with the rank of the leader of the Golden Men fell into the hands of the Head of the Biologis Branch of the Golden Men and the overall command of the Men of Stone who were resistant to the Ruin-code affecting the Men of Iron.

That said Golden Man sits on the command chair linked to a hastily fabricated mind-machine interface, overseeing the defense of the Alpha-Centauri system remotely from the research station in the heavily fortified Jupiter of the Sol system.

"Sir, the first lines of defense have been breached, the 10 vanguard fleets of the Men of Iron are heading for Ace IV" reported a Man of Stone as it directs the 3D battle map of the Alpha-Centauri System.

"Have Battlefleet Gamma and Theta move to intercept, defense-pattern Delta. Coordinate with the planetary defensive grid for maximum effort. Activate the Astrid Stasis grid by the time the second wave closes in. And have Battlefleet Alpha one through nine sweep in and annihilate those Nanophage Carrier ships. Those ships must never reach the planet." the Golden Man mentally commanded.

True to his word, the vanguard Men of Iron were intercepted by Battlefleets Gamma and Theta resulting in a slugging match with fighters and bombers from both sides. The incoming wave following the vanguard was paralyzed like sitting ducks in space by the activation of the Astrid Stasis grid and like an executioner's ax, were hit and destroyed by Battlefleets Alpha one through nine and then hitting the rear of the Men of Iron Vanguard. Completely annihilating the said Vanguard with minimal losses from the defending side.

The Men of Iron ships located further were suppressed and halted by the concentrated fire from the Heavy Armaments from the 'Cedian', one of Alpha-Centauri's Stars turned into a Dyson Cube with weaponry the size of planets. Thus were not able to send anything to reinforce the vanguard and the second wave aside from small fighters and bombers that were able to slip through the concentrated fire.

"A minor victory and a brief respite." said one of the coordinating officers as the rest of the non-engaging battlefleets went into position for the massed attack the Men of Iron were famous for.

"Sir! We got an incoming warp signature just outside the Alpha-Centauri System! It's big! It is arriving in 10 minutes! " said one of the researchers-turned-combat-coordinator as he watched the warp event horizon forming into a Warp exit that was bigger than the star of the Sol system.

"Redirect the weaponry of the Cedian into this incoming threat. And have Battlefleets Bravo 1 to Lima 9 engage the rest of the Men of Iron fleets. Offensive Formation Zulu, designate

command of the offensive forces to Admiral Himmler. Battlefleets Oscar to Whisky position to engage this incoming threat with long-range weaponry." mentally said the Golden Man.

"Orders Received, Cedian repositioning" responded the Men of Stone operating the Cedian.

The Massive Cedian repositions its weapons facing the incoming targets like a giant Rubik's cube and in less than a minute, it finished repositioning.

"Cedian in position. Waiting to engage" relayed the Cedian.

"DEATH. HAS. ARRIVED." sounded into all comms of both Human and Men of Iron as a massive Scythe-shaped Superstructure emerged from the warp. Having a huge cannon sticking out in the middle facing the system. A continuous Extreme Frequency Oscillation beep sounded in all comms.

"Connection Lost....reconnecting..."

"Deploy communication countermeasures and frequency scramblers, restore the communication to the system " hurriedly commanded the Golden Man as he and the rest of the operators organized the reconnection.

A Sun-Snuffer, experimental neutron pattern, one of the greatest superweapons of the Federation. A star killer, fires a neutron star projectile into the star of a system, destroying that star and setting it into Supernova, practically erasing everything in that system. It was also equipped with state-of-the-art communication warfare technologies used for battling the enemies of the Federation. Now, it is used against the Federation.

"Connection Restored. Frequency scramblers activated. System-wide communications restored." said one of the operators.

It was bad. That three minutes of disruption, was enough for the Men of Iron fleets to turn the tide against the Offensive Fleet led by Admiral Himmler.

The losses are mounting as the Men of Iron have the advantage in the slugging fights with their extreme accuracy, unfeeling nature, and massive numbers plus the loss of morale of seeing the Sun-snuffer used against the system.

"Fracking piece of Fracker suck a dick! Potang Ina! Kürwa! Scheiße! Benchod! Fire everything into that Sun-snuffer! Do not let that thing fire!" said one Admiral hysterically as multiple battlefleets under his command moved to engage the Sun-snuffer at extreme range as well as deploying thousands upon thousands of fighters and bombers in hopes to at least damage or slow the charging of the Sun-snuffer.

"Cedian firing." said the Cedian as a cacophony of huge Gravitron weapons, plasma, laser, EMP, projectiles, volkites, and melta fired into the Sun-snuffer.

Seeing the Sun-snuffer, Admiral Himmler of the Offensive group repositioned the Battleships in the rearguard to fire into the Sun-snuffer from extreme range. Which the Men of Iron fleets capitalized upon. With the lessening of the long-range bombardment from far out, they managed to rout the equivalent to 2 huge battlefleets and pick the rest of the pieces of the destroyed offensive formation with nanophage swarms.

Various projectiles, energy, and plasma bounced harmlessly against the Shields of the Sun-snuffer forming a droplet-like effect on water as to the effects on the shields. With each bombardment increased in intensity as the light was starting to gather on the neutron cannon on the sun-snuffer.

It takes about 30 minutes for the sun snuffer to charge and 30 seconds to fire. With each minute every available ship in the system moved to engage the sun-snuffer. Even the ships with only mining lasers moved to engage.

A large number of fleet casualties emerged from both sides as the Sun-snuffer's shields began to flash red, meaning it was about to run out. Seeing this, the Cedian intensified its bombardments that it ignored the weapon's cooldown even though some of the weapon systems began to fail due to overheating after 29 minutes of continuous firing.

"We got less than a minute left!" shouted a researcher as he manually controlled the remote drones with bloodshot eyes.

"Sun-snuffer shields destroyed, Battlefleets Oscar to Romeo, fire all cyclonic torpedoes on that bastard. Battlefleets Sierra and Tango, move to reinforce Admiral Himmler. Battlefleets Uniform to Whiskey fire all cyclonic torpedoes on the second volley." said the Golden Man as the battle slowly, but surely tilted on the side of the Federation.

As the 1st volley of cyclonic torpedoes hit the Sun-snuffer, huge void explosions were ensued upon the body of the great superweapon breaking it in half like a fortune cookie. With the second volley finishes the job of destroying the great superweapon in a grand explosion.

Loud cheers erupted on the communication systems and a small smile appeared on the Golden man as he turned his attention to the surviving fleets and reorganized them to face the rest of the remaining Men of Iron ships.

But that small smile suddenly turned into horror as they heard a robotic system-wide communication from the Men of Iron.

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that"

"Sir! Energy levels are spiking at the rear of the Men of Iron formation!" shouted one of the operators as the big "Battleship" of the Men of Iron revealed its true face with the receding of its nanite hull. A giant cannon piece of Neutron "Star Killer" of the same variant as the Sun-snuffer had finished charging.

"Goodbye." said an emotionless voice, system-wide.

All watched in silent horror as the massive Neutron Cannon fired upon the Cedian. The Neutron star projectile passed through the Shields of the Cedian like a hot knife through butter and into the Cedian.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The star explodes into a supernova, pelting into the heavily fortified planets and ships; Human and Men of Iron alike like blowing dust in the wind. And with it, ending the communication with the Alpha-Centauri.

"Connection lost... reconnecting."

"Connection lost... reconnecting."

"Connection lost... reconnecting."

"Sir! Incoming transmission from the Alpha-Centauri!" said one of the operators as they relayed the feed into the main screen of the research station.

The Golden man blinked a few times as he remembered that age-old taunt from the ancient times in the 2nd Millenium.

"Git Gud scrub."