his fleet in a wall formation. “Iris,” he called, and within moments, the shape of a human-sized fiery woman appeared beside him.
“Yes, Adrian?” she asked. She was connected to the interface through the ship itself, and while this space was in fact in his head, she could enter it through his connection to the Watchtower.
“Can you check my targeting calculations on this?” He sent her the targets through his implant. A moment later, he had the firing solutions for all his warships. With a thought, he sent out the order.
His ships opened fire with their kinetic weapons, firing from far outside the Sowir range. Massive 900mm tungsten rounds, both grav and explosive shells, blasted out of his ships on their way towards the Sowir stations, defense platforms, and stationary ships. Another timer appeared, counting down from thirty two minutes—the time it would take for his attack to reach the Sowir at target B.
He moved his entire fleet towards target B, the closer of the two planets. According to his calculation’s, the Sowir would detect his fleet just before his attack hit. And by that time, they would be just inside his ships’ maximum range. He prepared targeting solutions and sent them to his ships. Then he used the Watchtower to move his drones above his formation, and he adjusted the fleet’s formation to that of a concave lens, allowing all ships to fire on Sowir targets.
Then he settled to watch as his previous attack neared the unsuspecting Sowir, even as his fleet grew ever closer.
***
The Sowir sensory net at target B detected the Empire ships as they moved towards their positions. Immediately, alarms sounded throughout their positions around the planet. Ships started firing their drives, and their defense platforms brought their weapons online. In all the confusion, as the Sowir focused their sensors on the incoming fleet, they missed the danger about to reach them until it was too late. The Sowir sensors discovered the incoming hail when it was just a minute away. Immediately, those ships that had their drives already primed hurried to get out of the way, while the ones in the initial phase realized that they had no chance. Desperately, they turned their point defenses towards the Empire’s attack, but it was futile; their lasers had no hope of stopping the sheer mass of the Empire’s main weapon.
Tungsten explosive shells ripped into their ships, shredding their armor, which made the following effect of the 900mm rounds of metal that much greater. The massive rounds struck their ships with such force that they smashed them inwards and punched through, leaving mangled messes in some cases. But more often than not, a hit resulted in complete destruction of the Sowir ships, with short-lived explosions appearing by the dozens in the span of a couple of seconds as the air inside the ships burned out.
Their defense platforms and station didn’t fare any better. Massive grav shells hit the armored hulls of the defense platforms and the gravity generators inside activated, creating powerful gravity fields that resulted in small, contained implosions that tore their armor apart. Following them, explosive shells hit, resulting in the platform’s complete destruction in most cases. Thirty-two defense platforms out of thirty-seven were destroyed completely, with explosions so powerful that massive debris pieces flew outwards, only to impact nearby stations and ships docked with them.
Stations, too, suffered enormous amounts of damage, but they were too big to destroy outright. The debris from the defense platforms and destroyed ships was sticking out of the holes in the stations made by explosive shells previously. Six large stations were wrecked to that extent that most had lost all power. One of them had a lower part of one tower missing, leaving the station open to space where it had been ripped off by a grav shell.
In that initial attack, the Empire had smashed every defense platform, with
“Yes, Adrian?” she asked. She was connected to the interface through the ship itself, and while this space was in fact in his head, she could enter it through his connection to the Watchtower.
“Can you check my targeting calculations on this?” He sent her the targets through his implant. A moment later, he had the firing solutions for all his warships. With a thought, he sent out the order.
His ships opened fire with their kinetic weapons, firing from far outside the Sowir range. Massive 900mm tungsten rounds, both grav and explosive shells, blasted out of his ships on their way towards the Sowir stations, defense platforms, and stationary ships. Another timer appeared, counting down from thirty two minutes—the time it would take for his attack to reach the Sowir at target B.
He moved his entire fleet towards target B, the closer of the two planets. According to his calculation’s, the Sowir would detect his fleet just before his attack hit. And by that time, they would be just inside his ships’ maximum range. He prepared targeting solutions and sent them to his ships. Then he used the Watchtower to move his drones above his formation, and he adjusted the fleet’s formation to that of a concave lens, allowing all ships to fire on Sowir targets.
Then he settled to watch as his previous attack neared the unsuspecting Sowir, even as his fleet grew ever closer.
***
The Sowir sensory net at target B detected the Empire ships as they moved towards their positions. Immediately, alarms sounded throughout their positions around the planet. Ships started firing their drives, and their defense platforms brought their weapons online. In all the confusion, as the Sowir focused their sensors on the incoming fleet, they missed the danger about to reach them until it was too late. The Sowir sensors discovered the incoming hail when it was just a minute away. Immediately, those ships that had their drives already primed hurried to get out of the way, while the ones in the initial phase realized that they had no chance. Desperately, they turned their point defenses towards the Empire’s attack, but it was futile; their lasers had no hope of stopping the sheer mass of the Empire’s main weapon.
Tungsten explosive shells ripped into their ships, shredding their armor, which made the following effect of the 900mm rounds of metal that much greater. The massive rounds struck their ships with such force that they smashed them inwards and punched through, leaving mangled messes in some cases. But more often than not, a hit resulted in complete destruction of the Sowir ships, with short-lived explosions appearing by the dozens in the span of a couple of seconds as the air inside the ships burned out.
Their defense platforms and station didn’t fare any better. Massive grav shells hit the armored hulls of the defense platforms and the gravity generators inside activated, creating powerful gravity fields that resulted in small, contained implosions that tore their armor apart. Following them, explosive shells hit, resulting in the platform’s complete destruction in most cases. Thirty-two defense platforms out of thirty-seven were destroyed completely, with explosions so powerful that massive debris pieces flew outwards, only to impact nearby stations and ships docked with them.
Stations, too, suffered enormous amounts of damage, but they were too big to destroy outright. The debris from the defense platforms and destroyed ships was sticking out of the holes in the stations made by explosive shells previously. Six large stations were wrecked to that extent that most had lost all power. One of them had a lower part of one tower missing, leaving the station open to space where it had been ripped off by a grav shell.
In that initial attack, the Empire had smashed every defense platform, with
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