Soon after the final battles of the Unification period, the nascent Terran Republic formed a fleet to protect the Outer System from threats, both within and without. While at the time a very serious assignment, boasting over a hundred ships from across the Republic client states and handling everything from rogue asteroids to pirate clans, by the present day the Outer System Defense Flotilla was made up of three dozen aging cruisers, many of them Europe-class or Belter made Isle-class missile destroyers, retrofitted for logistical roles. Many of the Europe-classes had also been refitted, replacing many weapon systems with high end sensor suites and scout probe launch points. It served them well when it came to discovering rogue heavenly bodies or incoming radiation storms, moving on fairly predictable paths.

It did not, however, serve the ships of the OSDF well when said heavenly bodies dropped out of FTL practically on top of them. An asteroid roughly the size of Phobes, powered by a single fusion reacter engine, had dropped out of FTL within a thousand kilometers of the OSDF headquarters station orbiting Neptune. This station had only just received, and dutifully passed on, the news of Titania’s death, and began training their powerful sensors towards the moon. They never stood a chance. Railgun projectiles within that range struck almost instantaneously when fired, slugs punching even through the tough outer shell of the Belter made station. Eight rounds shredded the station within seconds, fires breaking out as subsystems were annihilated and atmosphere and personnel being vented out the holes. One round of the second firing wave struck the station’s reactor; from the outside, the station would have flared brilliantly for a split second, then began to drift apart in dozens of pieces, to be caught and pulled in by Neptune’s gravity well.

A flotilla of six Europe-class cruisers had been in high orbit around Neptune, running training exercises, when this occured, and their upgraded sensor suites reported their base’s initial annihilation- and gave them a greater strike distance with their torpedo batteries. Under the command of their battle-AI, Destiny, torpedos roared around the planet’s atmosphere and began their attack course, while their mother craft followed them to get a path for their own railgun rounds. And flew directly into a cloud of mass driver projectiles.

Moving into a more battle-ready X formation, only two cruisers took direct hits; the Palmyra buckled as three heavy railgun slugs punched through just above the bridge, cutting through its sensor suites and annihilating its main crew quarters. The ship to its starboard and slightly aft, however, was much less lucky. A projectile directly struck and vented out its bridge, then continued through to hit its aft torpedo bay- a flash of light would have blinded anyone outside, and a now aft-less cruiser began its slow descent back into Neptune’s gravity well.

The OSDF salvo had some luck, however. Four torpedos, loaded with high yield explosives, had impacted against the main body of the small asteroid, shredding many of the railgun emplacements that had so badly mauled their motherships. The other torpedos, under the guide of their AI handler, had rocketed into the vessel’s engine system. A shield flickered as the first six armor piercing torpedos struck and blasted over its surface. The seventh, eight, and ninth got through, however. The engine flared- and detonated like a massive bomb, turning the asteroid into dust- and further annihilating the OSDF fleet base.

Nothing was to be salvaged from either, and unfortunately, the battered fleet could not detect any lifepod transponders from the wreck. Now under the command of Lieutenant Commander Devon Tracer, the OSDF fleet launched all of their message buoys, and even their scout probes, towards the rest of the system, while turning to make their way towards the Jovian system, one cruiser staying behind to attempt rescue of their fallen brothers before they were destroyed by Neptune’s gravity…

The sacrifice of Titania and the OSDF headquarters did, however, give the rest of the OSDF and the Jovian defense fleet time to deploy. The moons of Jupiter and its own small asteroid belt and rings was one of the richest zones in all of the Sol System, which was why it boasted the largest shipyard in all the Republic, leased out to each of its constituencies. Situated just outside the main gravity well of Jupiter itself, and close to the moon Ganymede, the shipyard was made up of ten large scaffold platforms, attached to a single hub, built out of a captured Ceres-class asteroid, and built into the main living and command and control center of the shipyard. This station, known as Jovia Central, was also playing host to the Cervine senators, who were interested in setting up a small test hub for building designs for their people.

When the asteroid cluster detected by Ceres broke off, two major asteroids had targeted the Jovian system- one aimed for Jovia Central, and the other for the densely populated Titan. Impacts from either would destroy their targets utterly, not to mention the clouds of mass driver shells being flung out ahead of them. Half an hour after their detection, the first railgun rounds were streaking in system- and largely spattering against EM shields utilized by blocking heavy cruisers of Martian design and build, having been moved by their captains and AI to intercept the now radar painted clouds. Jovia Central’s own shields rippled as two fairly large, almost battleship-style railgun rounds, slammed into them. But thankfully, no casualties were initially reported.

Initially.

“The Northern Star is gone!” A human shouted, and Cadence’s eyes widened- before she realized what he meant.

‘A starship name, right. ...doesn’t make me feel better though.’

Humans were dying. The Ceres’ Command staff had ushered them to one side of the C&C room, allowing the royals-cum-senators to watch, but needing them out of the way. Cadence could tell that Shining was listening closely, his soldier eyes trained on the readouts and tactical map the humans were going on. Cadence did her best to keep up, worrying her lip. She had learned more about war in the past year than she ever thought she would.

“They have ten ships around Ceres,” Shining explained calmly, eyes flicking over the display, “One just disappeared, so I’m guessing it was destroyed. The tremors are those Seraph things firing on the station.”

“They can’t ever leave us alone,” Cadence growled, hugging Flurry Heart close while she leaned against her husband, “Monsters…”

Shining’s scent had always calmed her, but she could scent his own stress, and that of the humans rushing in front of them. Things weren’t going well.

Persephone had positioned all responding ships around the station, to give them the best chances of dodging the asteroid’s railgun strikes- but as it got closer, that was quickly becoming a moot point. The AI was… annoyed, as angry as AI were ever allowed to get. Mars’ Command was unable to send any ships, as they were preparing their own defense, and a major security breach had their faster craft scrambling in Mars orbit. The OSDF HQ was not answering her tight-beam communiques, and the majority of its fleet was out of position to come to Ceres’ aid. All she had were Ceres’ own defenses, and now nine various Belter warships.

The Northern Star, an Endeavor-class battleship, had been absolutely savaged by the full might of the asteroid’s railgun arrays; its EM shields overwhelmed and main laser battery leaking, along with much of its air. Its captain was attempting to pull the ship behind an asteroid for emergency repairs, while its sister ship, the Evening Star, moved into its place. Its fully charged boring laser snapped out, gleaming in Persephone’s technical “sight,” and began to scorch along the asteroid’s surface.

“Captain, aim at the vessel’s engines,” Persephone communicated to the human, watching her scans of the asteroid closely, “The craft is reinforced- you will be unable to burn it away in time.”

“Acknowledged, Ceres’ Command.”

Persephone watched as the laser turned to burn across the engines’ shields, and trace along a fat silver line that encircled the rock- only to start as the asteroid began to pick up speed. Hundreds of pods had launched from the silver line, rocketing ahead of the asteroid on paths whose G’s would have destroyed the internal workings of any human. Still…

“Attention- boarding parties on path to Ceres’ Station; updated time to impact- one minute, twenty seconds.”

The imminent threat unlocked more of Persephone’s shackles- two Damocles-class nuclear torpedos rocketed from their silos, their payloads blindingly flashing over the stern. As an AI, Persephone had no need to shield her “eyes,” and watched in annoyance as the nuclear payloads simply wiped out the forward railgun systems, and turned the rock into a glowing slag-pit.

‘Very well.’

Persephone’s prime directive was the preservation of Ceres and her people- in that order, unfortunately. Ceres’ EM shields could not hold an asteroid of that mass or speed with its current energy allotment. Using drones under her control, the power from Ceres’ life support and main power began to be re-routed towards the EM. Very likely, this would kill many thousands of humans, but-

Ceres’ flared with a pinkish light as the Seraph asteroid closed in; well before it would have struck the EM field, the asteroid began to buckle against a shimmering field. Its disembarked boarding pods screamed in- and impacted against the shield as well, shattering and spilling many feral Seraph into the void of space. Other pods veered off, heading for the closest human vessels- and most were quickly obliterated out of existence.

The reinforced asteroid stayed largely intact for several moments, pressing firmly on the unexpected shield. But it could not break through. The stone and metal buckled and crumbled, pressing back and into its hollowed out spaces, and into the flaring engines. Once the crumbling reached said engines, however, the damage was done. The fusion became entirely uncontrolled, buckled- and exploded outwards, shattering the new shield- but not the flaring EM shield beneath it, which protected Ceres from any debris and radiation. The threat… was gone.

Inside, Ceres’ Command clustered around the crumbled, barely breathing bodies of the Crystal Royals, all clutching each other tightly and still surrounded in nebulas of magic. Cadence shuddered softly as they called for medics, a weak smile on her slender muzzle as her head fall back to the floor.

Five minutes after the initial railgun strike on Jovia Central, the shipyards were in serious trouble. The asteroids had picked up speed seemingly at random, rocketing for their targets; the EM shields of Jovia Central were holding well, but Ganymede’s surface had no such protection. Atmosphere-less, impactors buckled and blew chunks out of rocky moon- and destroyed several service colonies, though the main colony was on the other side of the moon and thus protected- for the moment.

Jovia’s defensive fleet had redeployed; twenty capital ships split between the two sizeable asteroids- largely made up of Endeavor-class battleships and several Martian Olympus-class battlecruisers. But the railgun arrays had been half-targeting the capital ships since coming into range, and they were not faring well this close together. Two battlecruisers were adrift, dead in space and barely reporting any life signs. An Endeavor, the Liberator, had attempting a close range boring laser assault on the Ganymede targeted rock, but was now in three separate pieces, surrounded by fleeing lifeboats. Another Endeavor had taken a direct hit to the reactor, and its pieces would be found on the moon for decades to come.

But coming straight out of drydock was a very new vessel, a Hurricane-class supercarrier- recently renamed the Tanbor, captained by the Jovian system’s main military commander, Rear Admiral Rebecca Tsan. Over one hundred strike craft, Fury-class fighter bombers, were launching in two squadrons while their mothership powered with all speed towards the pair of hostile engagers.

Standing with her hands behind her back, the stately fifty year old Admiral stared ahead at her tactical screen, AR goggles flashing with rapid-fire updates to the Battle Net. To her right, perfectly still but for her lightly buzzing wings, was the insectile Changeling Queen, Chrysalis- her eyes also covered by goggles as to keep up with the quickly unfolding battle. Her jaw was set in thought, but she remained quiet and respectful, something that surprised the Admiral somewhat, but was grateful for.

“Alpha Squadron on approach.”

“Roger that, Alpha Leader. Expend all Fox Five on primary target, then engage secondary if the main is intact. You are cleared to fire.”

“Fire on my mark…”

The Fury’s settled into a loose claw, pulling up and behind the asteroid as to get a proper and full target reading on its shielded engines. Railgun fire was targeted back at them, but they were quickly finding that the Seraph targeting suites could not get a lock on such small craft. A small cloud flicked through the formation, and one fighter spiraled away at a glancing strike.

“Mark!”

Fifty Damocles-class nuclear tipped torpedos roared ahead of the fighters from their heavy hardpoints, dipping and weaving around the asteroid’s railgun fire, guided by extremely limited onboard VI’s. As they closed on the engines, they broke off into a circle to evade the fusion emissions- and darted down and in. The fighters’ viewport cameras immediately cut out to protect their pilots’ eyes as the torpedos detonated.

The CAG’s voice cut back into their comms almost immediately.

“All strike craft break starboard and let the AI take over; mission priority beta in effect.”

Well-trained, the pilots allowed the battle AI to guide them towards the second asteroid and their sister squadron- there was no need to attack the expanding ball of dust and radiological debris now. The EM shields of the Jovia Central, bolstered by gleaming blue magical fields from the Cervines within, would be more than adequate to repel the cloud of debris.

Rebecca couldn’t help but smirk in no small amount of pride at the low chuckle emanating from her guest. Chrysalis had a holed hoof to her muzzle, trying to hold back her amused, and very interested, giggles.

“Very, very impressive, Rear Admiral. I think I would like to study those craft at the first opportunity, if I may be so bold?”

“I think that can be arranged, Senator. But let’s watch them blast the second one. Communication, send a message buoy to Solar Command, let them know these things’ weakness.”

Author's Notes:

We must remember those lost in these dark days.