Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 388

388 The Promise of Retribution, Pt Naval Staging Complex, Dartarin System, Great House Shaizen

The large Hegemony fleet floated in the middle of a vast naval staging complex in the middle of open space.

The complex itself consisted of numerous ship repair stations, fabrication bays, landing pads, and atmospherically sealed hangars. There were also munitions and rearming installations of various sizes, as well as massive recycling yards.

More than that, there were also personnel stations complete with living quarters, restaurants, and entertainment venues.

The entire place existed as a jumping off point for Hegemony forces before they launched into combat, and was fully staffed and equipped.

And the fleet it was servicing seemed to be a hodge-podge of numerous different ships. All were marked with the various icons and logos of their original fleets, such as the Temple of Discord and the de Jardins.

Just like the now-defunct Erinyes fleet, they were populated by numerous houses and nation-states. Some who were themselves part of the Erinyes fleet joined up due to their need for revenge.

As it was currently, the fleet had 3 carriers, 6 battleships, 68 cruisers, 164 destroyers, and 331 frigates. They also had 529 fighters, 548 mecha, and 902 drones.

Their numbers were vast, though almost half were made up of Felrahn military vessels. Older in design, but currently being updated in terms of armament.

.....

And interestingly enough, not all of the ships in the fleet were combat-oriented in nature. Freya, having seen just how supremely effective Raijin was in every engagement, insisted on having a great portion of this fleet be filled with datacoders and hackers and potentially insane engineers.

More than that, she also ensured that they had medical ships and tactical teams and purely covert ships. Numerous subfleets were so specialized that they didn’t have any weapons installed at all.

Their skills and abilities were absolutely necessary if they were to succeed in their endeavors.

Many of the ships in the seemingly anarchic fleet were attached to the repair stations and fabrication bays, and were in the midst of numerous upgrades and retrofits. Felrahn ships in particular were given the most attention, and most of their combat systems were completely overhauled.

In particular, their standard kinetic ballistic weapons were removed from their turret mounts and quickly recycled. They were instead replaced with more up-to-date rail cannon designs, or plasma-based weapon systems.

Some of the chainguns and AA cannons on the smaller ships and defensive turrets were also removed and recycled. Installed in their mounts were EM Pulsewave cannons and missile pods..

And because most of their weaponry had been converted to mostly energy-based systems, it opened up all of their munitions bays purely for various kinds of rail ammunition and missile types.

Countless rearming drones flew into the hungry munitions bays and loaded them up with the newest armaments available. The vast majority of rail ammunition they now held was a new design. One that sat between rail sabots and rail spears.

Each of them tapered to thin points, and also had lithium silver cores that carried extreme electrical charges.

Their missiles were also updated from the standard explosive and kinetic. Though they certainly saw an increase in cluster bomblet missiles, a new missile was added to the stores. These also tapered down to thin points, and also had spiral threads on their surfaces.

Like screws, they were designed to dig into Imperial chitin armor. But instead of blasting them apart, these missiles instead emitted intense ultrasonic waves straight into their target’s exoframe. The idea was to disrupt ship crews with sound.

Crippling a ship was certainly preferable to outright destroying it, for a variety of reasons. Capturing them, for example.

Of course, the weaponry was far from the only systems that were replaced.

Entire sheets of armor had been completely uninstalled and also quickly recycled. The older titanium carbide was great against the Federation’s mostly kinetic weapon loadout, but was obviously terrible against Imperial disintegration weapons.

In their place were relatively expensive tungsten carbide plating, where the tungsten alloy was supplemented with palladium and iridium. This helped the metals themselves naturally resist disintegration. They were also installed with hyperionization submodules, which helped further defend their atomic structures.

The alloy also gave the armor a slight sheen that changed color depending on the angle they were viewed at.

Of course, most of that was painted over in black, as ordered by Freya. Simply, black ships in the black of space would be that much harder to see on live feeds.

Numerous antigrav drones slid the new armor plating into place, and were tightened down through electromagnetic clamps beneath.

As each ship finished up their retrofit, they disconnected from their refitting station then drifted over to the main fleet waiting in the center of the array.

Freya stood on the bridge of one of the de Jardin battleships, where she was joined by its commanding officer. Among them were the rest of the admirals and captains of the fleet. Although they were on their own ships, and were present as holoprojections.

In the middle of the bridge was a raised dais, on which was a tacmap of the staging complex itself. More importantly, every ship in the fleet was on it, along with their individual statistics, commanding officers, capabilities, and so on.

Freya looked over each and every ship diligently, and soaked up as much information as she could about them. Just as Lucifer would have done, if ze was there.

As she studied them, everyone around her was in discussion about their fleet – its composition, their strengths and weaknesses, and of course, the pecking order.

“High Admiral Halbrecht,” said Freya. “The fleet is hours away from deployment, which means we oughta make the official announcement. You have the honors of opening comms to the fleet.”

“Ah, yes,” said the High Admiral. “Of course.”

He was incredibly hesitant to do any such thing, as every ruling member of House Felrahn was already hated by half the Hegemony. Him opening his mouth as one of its leaders was the second to last thing he wanted to do. And him physically present in the first place being the absolute last thing.

But Freya was his superior now, and he had no choice but to follow her orders.

“Before I do, however, what title should I address you with?” he asked.

“Since she’s leading the fleet, she should be called Fleet Admiral,” said Admiral Anali.

Freya looked over at the woman. She was cousin to Max, and niece to the Star Dragon. Her age was somewhere in between the two, though she was closer in age and temperament to the Star Dragon than to Max.

On her collar were the pips of an Admiral. She seemed to wear them proudly.

“Not yet,” Freya replied. “I’ll start using that title once we acquire the fleet’s flagship. For now, simply call me by my name. That oughta suffice.”

“Very well,” said Halbrecht.

He cleared his throat, sent a critical communications alert, then opened up comms to the rest of the fleet.

It came through to every ship, from the capital ships to the skirmish ships. And everyone who saw it stopped what they were doing and watched their comms.

“Attention, this is High Admiral Halbrecht of Major House Felrahn,” he began. “I’m honored to announce that the head of our fleet, Freya, has some words to say to our newly formed fleet. Please, lend her your ears and your respect.”

Freya then took over comms, and appeared in Halbrecht’s stead.

“Thank you, High Admiral,” she said. “And thank you to all of you here. As some may already know, I talked to many of your leaders, and brought us all together under a single banner. Some already know why. Some only have suspicions. Some may have no idea at all why we’re all here.

“Truth be told, it’s because this war has taken too much from us. All of us.”

As she spoke, some in the various ships nodded and agreed. Although they were from far different walks of life – pirates and mercenaries and soldiers – they certainly understood where she was coming from, in their own way.

Though, not everyone. Some of them muttered in absolute disagreement with her. They didn’t want to be working with the Felrahn. Not after they caused so much damage in the first place.

“We lost so very much at Rhylen Terra,” Freya continued. “Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers. And we didn’t just lose those closest to us. Many lost House and home, lands and ledgers, pasts and futures.”

Her words sank into many around her, and even Admiral Anali’s eyes began to mist up.

“For most of us, that loss was devastating,” Freya kept going after a short pause. “And I understand why Lady Felrahn initially begged us to retake her lands and her House. Most of us do, now.

“There’s this dark, primal need to lash out at those who harmed you. Harmed us. To destroy those who destroyed what’s valuable to us, priceless to us. Even now, I’m filled with this need to find the nearest Imperial, and rend them apart with my bare hands.”

More in the fleet began to agree with her, and found that her words resonated more and more with what they were feeling.

They felt that same primal need deep in their hearts, despite the animosity they felt towards the Felrahn.

“And although we could empathize with Lady Felrahn and her need to retake Rhylen Terra, we certainly won’t be as foolish,” continued Freya. “We know now that the formation of a special fleet is critically important to the Hegemony. But not as a means to retake a system for one person’s pride and prestige.

“Rather, as a means to wholly disrupt the Imperial war machine. To utterly devastate their means of production, their means of prosperity, their means of profit. Remember: all the Imperials want, and have ever wanted, is to fatten their ledgers.

“Trust me, I’ve seen them in person. I’ve been their prisoner and saw up close how much they’re ruled by their money. Even those I like and respect are driven by a need to increase their Krohn.”

Freya paused for a moment, to allow everyone in the fleet to absorb her words. Then she looked all around the bridge, specifically at the officers around her.

“Some of you might think of the Drogar as being evil for this level of... currency worship,” she said. “Whether you’re right or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that we know the Empire’s biggest weakness – the Krohn. And that is what we will relentlessly, obsessively, violently destroy. We will use everything in our arsenal to do so.”

Freya then stood up as she laced furious passion into her words. Everyone in the fleet felt the strength of her resolve, and the fury in her heart.

Especially the officers on the bridge next to her.

“We don’t exist to parley,” she said. “We don’t exist to take back territory. We don’t exist to fight some righteous war. And we don’t exist to conquer.

“No, we exist to burn, to liquidate, to bring ruin down on the Empire. We’ll cause so much destruction that their precious economy will crawl down to a standstill. We’ll eradicate everything they have until they fall to their knees and beg for forgiveness, or until they’ve been set back a thousand years. Whichever comes first.

“We are the Grand Parliament’s 13th Hegemony Fleet, and we’ll lay waste to all our enemies.

“We are the Einherjar, and we bring death with us.”