Empires of Saturn, Part One

Chapter 16, Dealanach a 'Tuiteam

Chpt. 16 Dealanach a 'Tuiteam

Every pilot of every craft out of atmosphere all saw at the same time as... a planet... moved around Saturn, drifting in silence. A large white-grey crescent in the distance slightly larger than Titan, the shadow of the fatherworld moving off it as it was pulled around and changed course, heading towards them, a swarm of ships around it. Eight main ships of colossal scale were quite literally tethered to the planet by thick, pulsating, wild strands of energy condensed into a cable chain. On the surface of the frozen world, eight identical superstructures were built in symmetry across the planet, like the corners of some gargantuan cube, but they were round, the flat tops of each embracing- or perhaps generating- the cables being used to tow the planet.

All of a sudden, bolts of electricity so large they could be seen at this distance started to flash through the swarm of ships surrounding the planet, allowing them to be seen in great horror as they began swirling in a horizontal cyclone, the end of which funneled forward as the unknown ships sped towards the ongoing fleet battle at speeds so far only theorized for Slower-Than-Light Travel.

Each ship had a vertical, curved dark purple hammerhead shape on front, repeating and shrinking into a slightly compressed cylinder with fins on the sides and glowing blue ovals along the sides, a large on afront the first hammerhead. Bluish-white flares trailed each ship from their seemingly single engine, massive lances of electrical power jumping between them. As they neared, the Titanite and Allied Fleets could see those pulses of space lightning were coming from the glowing ovals of the ships. It wasn't a mistake; it was an attack.

"All ships, retarget the newcomers!!!" Draconis nearly screeched out.

"All craft new target!!!" Hasion roared.

Every ship native around Saturn turned towards the new attackers, but the enemy had predicted them.

Frozen Sun had six fusion bombs loaded and in the tubes, but suddenly dozens of enemy craft, each one of the smallest easily three times larger than the average Saturnian craft, all discharged a concentrated burst of space lightning from their frontal oval, all merging as they struck the V-shaped ship right on its nose, passing right through its shielding, which flickered a dull white for only half a second before the bolt struck, vaporizing the command deck and shattering the craft, splitting it down the middle and each half bursting into large chunks.

"Frozen Sun is down!" The words rolled over the command channel leaving horror in their wake. It had taken seconds.

In the time it had taken for that report to be given, Crystal Mountain had been simply obliterated, hundreds of enemy ships pounding it from every direction at once with secondary weapons while their primary ones blasted through normal craft, bouncing from one to the next and leaving scorched and crackling husks behind, if anything at all.

A larger few enemy ships, perhaps a third of the size of Night Sky, had formed into a ring of six, firing their secondary weapons towards each other, where they held in a constantly fed ball of energy. They fired their primary weapons towards Night Sky, and the energy ball arced out after the shot, the pulse smashing into the command ship so hard it was shoved backwards in spite of how much thrust it was putting out, so much so that several of the closest fighter craft trailing it were either crushed by the hull or vaporized by the engines.

"Shields down!" Another report came.

Suddenly amidst the slaughter, a wormhole opened up, smaller than the ones the Allied Fleet had come from, but on the other side was a colossal weapon, and upon the wormhole opening in front of its barrel, it launched a spray of spinning, bladed, explosive projectiles at speeds over twice as fast as sound.