Ch36: End of the Line?

The B-class starship with the Neurorevo conglomerate logo soon jumped and left orbital space of Mars, leaving behind the two A-class starships, Oneiroi and Atlas.

There were no more words left to say from either side.

Starship Oneiroi immediately accelerated towards Phobos, having already calculated its orbital trajectory around Mars.

Starship Atlas accelerated in the same direction, and the two polygonal tube-formed starships sped in the same direction side-to-side as they began firing at each other with their artillery, railguns and missiles.

The two similarly activated their laser defense system, repeatedly softening and disabling the many rounds and missiles about to strike their starship with pinpoint accuracy.

The scene was of one world against another flipped world, the two ships like inverted clouds raining rounds at each other, with the laser defenses like flashes of lightning when illuminating and burning down the opponents metal rain.

Both starships occasionally received damage to their x-alloy plates, yet the durability of the material ensured the kinetic energy from the strike was dissipated. Nanobots also continuously circulated and repaired systems.

The two sides soon employed their nexarms' vast device control systems. None deployed out of their ships. Instead, they controlled a multitude of extra devices from within the hangar, hoping to overwhelm the opponent.

Swarms of spherical automatons protected the sides of both A-class starships and provided additional cover from the additional weapon systems of either side.

It was somewhat a deadlock, and yet, James MacLeod knew the EFSF would soon take an advantage. Their ten nexarms averaged around twenty devices each. The T3ST unit? Four nexarms averaging just over thirty?

James did not know it was Xeight who controlled the unknown haisnaf unit and captured Athena's original nexarm. Nor was he aware that Xeight could control over forty neuro devices.

Yet, it remained very much so that the NSF had a slight advantage in terms of number of neuro devices, as well as the materiel for replacing damaged weapons.

So it was that soon, Enine gave the order for Starship Oneiroi to rotate ninety degrees to point the bow of the ship towards the enemy while strafing towards their destination.

With a smaller cross-section area, the space they had to protect decreased and their slight disadvantage in number of neuro devices altogether vanished. The downside was that the ship would not be able to travel to Phobos as quickly as originally intended.

"This is getting us nowhere," frowned Vice-admiral Son. Any deployed nexarm mainframes would only fall behind with their continued acceleration towards Phobos.

"Sir," James MacLeod had an idea. "Should we… ram them?"

A dangerous idea. The closer the two starships are to each other, the more likely the laser defenses would fail for both of them. A collision might cause the personnel on both ships to suffer injuries with the sudden change in both ship's direction of travel.

"Special Lieutenant." Son exhaled with a shake of his head. "You are too reckless. There is no need for us to do so. Our mission is to prevent the T3ST unit's interference with the other fleets. Even if the T3ST unit arrives at Phobos, as long as we are present, they will not be able to influence the battle to any particular degree."

"Fall behind the T3ST unit. We will follow their ship. Contact the Pham Fleet. If the Pham fleet has forces to spare, we can pincer the T3ST unit as it arrives at Phobos!"

Starship Atlas slowed its motion and shifted behind Starship Oneiroi.

___________________________________________________________________________

Interamnia, The Belt

Commander Khan's eyes squinted in concentration. She was remotely controlling a B-class starship. Quite naturally, she did not have the capacity to control the hundreds of weapon systems on board. However, she was fully capable of navigating the starship along with a few other functions.

She was patiently waiting for a half-chance, hidden close to Lieutenant Allira's group of starships.

Once again, Lieutenant Allira controlled her A-class starship along with a few B-class ships to exit the protective cloud surrounding Interamnia. Once again, the EFSF S-class ship along with a A-class starship and a few B-class starships shifted to intercept Allira and prevent her from traveling through the zone occupied by the shell formed by EFSF buoys.

The EFSF group chased Allira's group back towards Interamnia with their guns blazing. This sort of scene had already happened quite a number of times, not only with Allira but also Sanchez performing the same action in another location.

"Now, Respectable Allira," ordered Khan. She activated the thrusters on her remotely-controlled B-class starship.

One of the primary thrusters on Allira's A-class starship 'inconveniently' turned off, and the starship dragged behind the accompanying B-class starships. All knew of the danger posed by the mega-particle beam cannon on board an A-class starship.

"A malfunction! Get that A-class starship!" Those were the orders of Vice-admiral Gagnon leading the siege on Interamnia, unable to resist the taking of an enemy A-class starship.

Khan breathed with relief at the enemy having fallen for her trick. Her remotely controlled B-class starship shot out from behind a buoy, having disabled many of its systems to remain as stealthy as a prowling cat in the cold and dark space.

The EFSF S-class starship that had repeatedly blocked Allira's ship certainly noticed the approach of the B-class starship now with its dark hull glinting like a knife's edge.

Self-destruct mode activated.

A voice announced this to an empty B-class starship.

The EFSF fleet began accelerating sideways to avoid the incoming B-class ship, while firing their many weapons in a bid to delay the clearly suicidal B-class starship.

The B-class starship easily corrected its trajectory while suffering damage to its x-alloy plates. Eventually, a few rounds penetrated its hull, but that was of no consequence-- the ship carried no personnel!

"How long will it take to charge the mega-particle beam?"

"Sir! Too long!"

"Fire everything!"

Increasingly more holes were punched into the B-class starship. It might just be luck, or divine intervention, but none of the rounds caused damage to the ship's navigational system.

As the ship plunged directly beside the EFSF S-class starship, an automated system within the remotely-controlled B-class starship began detaching all the x-alloy plates that protected one side of its hull. The jet-black x-alloy plates drifted behind the continuously accelerating B-class starship.

With the plates on only one side removed, much of the force from the internal combustion would burst out in that specific direction.

Then, Khan controlled the B-class starship to explode like fireworks on New Year's Eve to celebrate a new chance at salvation.

For at the same time that Khan performed this action, Allira's A-class starship along with two B-class starships had sped outwards while contending against the many EFSF weapon buoys to escape the encirclement.

Without the intercepting EFSF fleet, the buoys were no match for the starships' combined might of nearly a thousand weapons.

"Godspeed, Lieutenant Allira."

"Hold the line, Commander."

Then, the starships under Allira's command vanished from Interamnia's space.

"Status!" Vice-admiral Gagnon demanded within the EFSF S-class starship.

"Sir! One of our cylinders was lost. But we remain operational." S-class starships consist of three connected polygonal tubes, forming a triple barrel. Even if one or even two of these barrels were to be damaged, the ship would remain functional. An A-class starship only had one barrel. B-class ships, an undersized barrel.

Khan knew that the self-destruction of a B-class starship would not be enough to destroy the sturdy x-alloy wrapped starship fleet of an enemy. But, her goal was accomplished-- she had successfully caused a distraction that allowed her to send reinforcements back to Mars.

"Fool. Will you be able to hold Interamnia now?" Vice-admiral Gagnon felt rather embarrassed by the whole situation. Yet, now that the A-class starship originally defending this asteroid resource base had left, it became far less dangerous for them to launch a proper attempt at defeating the defenses.

"Return, Sanchez." Khan knew this as well and ordered Lieutenant Sanchez to cease his activities and return to reinforce the defenses of Interamnia.

She was fully aware of the situation. Originally, with an A-class starship present, she effectively had a mobile mega-particle beam cannon difficult to pin down. With the A-class starship protected and hidden within the defense cloud around Interamnia, any offensive action from the EFSF would be like a fire in a dark forest, an easy target for the hidden, protected and moving A-class starship.

Now? Any comparable weapons had static positions on Interamnia-- the buoys in the defense cloud are unable to carry the energy for a similar weapon. That made it rather easy for the EFSF to track any incoming attack from said powerful weapons.

A precarious position. But if the martian moons were to be lost, it was all over for Mars. Thus, Khan made her decision and could only bet on her own ability to defend Interamnia with a weakened defense.

___________________________________________________________________________

Pallas, The Belt

Zheng had attempted the same actions as Khan. Yet, he failed due to the enemy's astuteness. The vice-admiral leading the fleet besieging Pallas was far more meticulous, and did not fall for the trick of even a 'malfunctioning' S-class starship under Zheng.

Zheng could only sigh as he scratched his head in acceptance of his situation. He was very much locked down in Pallas.

____________________________________________________________________________

Vesta, The Belt.

"Fight us, you fuckers!" Laurent hollered as he transmitted his message far and wide. "Are you but Remus and Romulus still suckling on the Wolf Coil's tits?!"

Did the EFSF fleet circling Vesta receive his message? They certainly did, but had little-to-no interest in responding to the martian insult.

This only further enraged Laurent. His subordinates could see steam rising out of his ears and his red face of an overheating kettle. They, too, shared his frustration.

They were unable to reconnect the communication chains to bypass that siege shell of the EFSF's buoys. The EFSF only hovered about patiently, having no interest in combat. When those on Laurent's side attempted to engage in combat, the EFSF fleet would back off, attempting to draw Laurent's starships out of Vesta's defense cloud.

Laurent might be fuming, but he had not completely lost his wits. He knew that his smaller fleet would suffer irreparable damage if he engaged in combat without the assistance of Vesta's defensive buoys.

As for the four nexarms he controlled? The enemy's fleet was over double the size of his. Four nexarms was nothing compared to a few extra A-class and many B-class starships.

Why was the EFSF so content with just locking them in Vesta? Laurent was quite certain that something nefarious was going on. Yet without communications, he simply could not be certain of what exactly might be going on elsewhere. In his mind, it was quite likely that the other two asteroid resource bases needed his reinforcement.

That young Khan must be the one in trouble, so he thought!

____________________________________________________________________________

Phobos, Mars

"Another shot down, Vice-admiral!"

Vice-admiral Duterte grinned. His fleet was positioned between Phobos and Mars, orbiting in the very same directional pathway. His role was to protect the Pham Fleet assaulting Phobos from the incomplete defense umbrella of Mars and the potential use of surface-to-space weapons.

It was quite impossible for the Duterte fleet to orbit around Mars repeatedly to take out the buoys which were spread out. They could fire missiles the loop around Mars and strike said targets, but such missiles are easy to defend against.

So it was that the Duterte fleet orbited in a similar pathway to Phobos, demolishing any of the buoys of the defensive umbrella they came across, while defending against any ballistic missiles launched towards the EFSF fleets.

By now, the Pham fleet had already carved a path through the defensive cloud surrounding Phobos, and its particle beam cannons at the ready. Those could not be used during the initial assault due to the martians having wrapped Phobos with a thin film of dense particles as defense.

Thus, the Pham fleet had to slowly and meticulously navigate the minefield surrounding the major martian moon, and defend themselves against the kinetic rounds fired from Phobos. Phobos, too, was equipped with particle beam cannons, but as the defending martians opted to put up a particle defense cloud, they, too, could not employ their own particle beam cannons.

"Detach an A-class starship and two B-class starships to block and pincer the approaching T3ST unit." Vice-admiral Pham had received communications from Vice-admiral Son. The Pham fleet, having bypassed the defense cloud, was already raining hell onto the Phobos military complex.

He informed Vice-admiral Duterte of the approaching T3ST unit, and they decided that it was best for Duterte to maintain his position and ensure no weapons could strike the Pham Fleet from the planet.

When the T3ST unit entered the vicinity of Phobos, they were immediately greeted by an A-class starship and two B-class starships detached from the Pham Fleet. Chasing behind, Starship Atlas began their attack, and Starship Oneiroi, positioned between the two, came under heavy pressure. If not for the many spherical automaton shields controlled by the nexarm pilots to orbit around Starship Oneiroi, their ship would have suffered significant damages there and then!

Yet, not all hope was lost. For at that very moment, a martian A-class starship and two B-class starships jumped into the space behind Starship Atlas! This was Lieutenant Allira, who under orders from Commander Khan, had successfully broken out of the encircled Interamnia!

Both Starship Oneiroi and Starship Atlas now had to defend against attacks from two sides. The two starships simultaneously strafed while facing each other, and circled around to join their own compatriots. Starship Atlas now floated beside the detachment from the Pham Fleet, while Starship Oneiroi of the T3ST unit hovered beside the ships under Lieutenant Allira.

Five nexarms appeared from the T3ST unit's side. Ten were sent out from by the EFNSF. Both sides had learned from their previous encounters. With this area being a complete open space. The five T3ST nexarms immediately clumped together and concentrated all their devices to cover their mainframes. EFNSF did the same as well.

Both sides had already modified their nexarms to have more close combat capabilities after the hainaf incident at the Kasvallian Yellowstone Complex.

Now, with the concentrated firepower tightly grouped up, the closer one reached the position of a nexarm group, the denser the artillery and laser defense would be. As such, it was basically impossible to effectively attack the nexarm mainframes from range

"So it was you after all." James recognized the captured unit that once belonged to Athena. He could not help but wonder why there was no current use of haisnaf on the battlefield on the T3ST unit's side.

"Soldiers. Remember. Our goal is simply to delay the enemy. The Pham Fleet is already in the process of destroying all military installations on Phobos. Once the martian admiral surrenders, it will be over," Vice-admiral Son reminded the EFNSF.

"Acknowledged, Sir!" James and the others answered in unison as NSF continued blocking the T3ST unit.

As ordered, James avoided any direct combat with the T3ST unit. Unlike the EFNSF, Xeight led the five T3ST nexarms and repeatedly attempted to engage in close combat against James. As long as they remained at range, the two nexarm clusters would have ample time to defend against each other's projectiles. James was happy to play this game, only needing to prevent the T3ST unit's interference with the Pham Fleet conquering Phobos. However, Xeight knew that Phobos needed help.

Despite Xeight's attempts to close the gap, James never allowed bloodlust to fill his mind, and calmly controlled the NSF to swerve and avoid any direct close-ranged conflict. It certainly helped that he had Vice-admiral Son behind his back, occasionally informing him of various occurrences on the battlefield observed from Starship Atlas.

"All members of the T3ST unit. We will be firing the mega-particle beam cannon," Grand Elder Enine decided. Even if aiming was difficult in the current combat situation, as long as they disrupted the Pham Fleet, that would be enough. Lieutenant Allira began charging up the mega-particle beam on board her A-class starship as well.

"Sir. Both enemy A-class starships are charging their mega-particle beam cannon," said Vargas, now serving under Vice-admiral Son.

"Charge our particle cannon. Communicate with the A-class starship from the Pham Fleet and inform them to do so as well. If the martians wish to launch an attack on the Pham Fleet, they must receive ours'!"

Starship Oneiroi, who had first chosen this course of action, was the earliest to fire. Many shields formed from spherical automatons positioned themselves directly in front of each of the EFSF starships in order to block the mega particle beam.

However, none of them were the T3ST unit's target. The mega particle beam shot forth between two EFSF starships in a blinding light towards the cluster of Pham Fleet!

A B-class EFSF starship was hit from behind, and due to its defense being lesser compared to higher class starships, it began malfunctioning and dipped down before colliding directly into Phobos and crushing the primary military complex on the moon.

The T3ST unit might have taken out a B-class starship, but at the same time, assisted the EFSF in destroying the military base on Phobos.

Then, the shields formed by the automaton clusters of both Starship Atlas and Allira's A-class starship shifted to form an opening at each other. These two ships had surprisingly chosen each other as targets!

The nexarms in combat swerved out of the way as the two starships simultaneously fired their mega particle cannons at each other. All members of both sides only had one last thought-- this might be an unintended but horrible mistake!

The two particle beams collided mid-space and the particles and energy from both sides arced in every direction due to the clash of the beams. All who directly observed the scene viewed a sparkling scene similar to a metal being welded in a forge in darkness, except an infinite magnitude larger in scale!

"Grand Elder. Incoming burst of subatomic particles and thermal radiation!" Qeleven announced in trepidation.

There was nothing Enine could do. The commanding officers on the other starships in the vicinity also found themselves helpless, and could only brace themselves for the fallout.

In order to protect his team, Xeight immediately lined himself at the very front of the T3ST unit despite Bone yelling for him to not be an idiot. Already, many of the automaton clusters positioned themselves to protect the nexarms.

The EFNSF was not as quick in response, primarily due to them having added three new members. Though many of them formed the very same protected shields with their automaton clusters, one of their new members filled himself with a heroic zest and dashed forward.

It was the newly-joined Einar Thorsson!

James could not react in time to stop the young and reckless fool before the burst from the colliding mega-particle beams passed through their positions.

Xeight lost consciousness as he felt a heavy wave of information entering his brain, the Nexarm Chimera turned limp in space as the many neuro devices it controlled also became unresponsive.

A fourth mega-particle beam was fired from the other EFSF A-class starship, but this beam arced uselessly into empty space-- the collision of the two particle beams had severely disrupted the aiming of this beam.

"Xeight!" Bone and Yfour simultaneously yelled as both clutched onto Nexarm Chimera, unsure of their brother's status.

"Grand Elder!" Asix was far calmer than the two siblings.

"He's fine. Just knocked out," Enine's voice sounded through the comms after a few seconds, having checked the vitals of each pilot. "The nexarm's plates and the automaton shields seem to have protected him. I can but assume that a miniscule number of subatomic particles that leaked through might have triggered a reaction in the neural frame of his unit."

"Incoming!" The newly-added fifth pilot named Jone announced. The other three conscious T3ST unit pilots refocused their attention and sensory devices. True enough, the EFNSF was now heading towards them at breakneck speed!

Einar Thorsson, similar to Xeight, had lost consciousness, having dashed forward bravely to use himself as a shield for the EFNSF. James had ordered the other newly-joined member, Saanvi Patel, to escort Thorsson back to Starship Atlas. He had opted to do so as the third new member, Moise Benteke, had shown himself to be far more disciplined. As for the rest of them, now was a good chance for the EFNSF to remove a troublesome foe!

Yet before the two sides could engage in another round of combat, the pilots received an announcement.

"I, Sullivan, Admiral of the martian fleet, do hereby announce the unconditional surrender of Mars. Too many lives have already been lost, and it is my hope that the terrans will at the very least treat martian lives with a degree of--"

"How disappointing." A different voice drawled and interrupted the announcement of Admiral Sullivan. The forces in the present space attempted to triangulate the source of this new transmission, but that was wholly unnecessary.

A second later, a new extensive fleet jumped into space at a further orbital distance to Phobos. The fleet consisted of five S-class starships, twenty A-class starships and fifty B-class starships!

The black-pearl hull of all these newly-arrived ships glimmered menacing in space. Then, nine exo-armors launched from the S-class starship at the very front in an orderly manner and lined up one-by-one. The many vice-admirals immediately recognized this as the unknown far bulkier exo-armor that Athena had battled against, the haisnaf!

The most eye-catching unit was the one that stood slightly higher than the rest, with a dark sapphire blue scaly image of a hydra wrapping around its body. Hovering below this 'head' unit were eight other units in a perfectly distanced row of dominating presence. These other eight units were decorated with a similarly glittering sapphire hydra head.

"Today, I, Vezna de Lerna, do hereby announce the formation of the Kasvallian Republic! We are not terrans or martians, both with the wretched desire to root themselves on planets, wishing to languish in their daily comforts. We are a new space faring race. A productive race! Ever at the forefront, breaking new boundaries! We humans need to dance on the edge and compete to build a brighter future! I bid you all in the belt-- Join us! I, Vezna de Lerna, declare that I will only return to Earth as a conqueror, and Earth abiding by the rules set forth by the Kasvallian Republic!"

"What an idiot. And I thought him to be a genius of the new generation." Vice-admiral Son commented. There is a very good reason as to why the other large conglomerates never attempted to build their own domain. Earth's foundation and connection with the human race is deep beyond measure. Beyond that, the population of Earth is, well… good for business, so to speak. And it is and remains the perfect environment for human life. Yet, Vezna's very next action would cause Son to bite his tongue.

"Allow me to show you the methods of the Kasvallian Republic. Now, come to me, Syned!"

For a second, all present wondered what this meant. Then, they understood. The starships and exo-armors systems were disabled in a rapid wave of thermal darkness spreading out from the epicenter that is Vezna's haisnaf, leaving crews and pilots groping blind!