Humanity Endures

Part 12 - Bravery and Bloodshed | Chapter 5

The Harbinger continued to soar towards Nahmatiix, now being so close to the world that the vessel, even in its extensively damaged state, was not even five minutes away from its salvation; the space directly above Nahmatiix was a region of space mostly dominated by Nahmatiixian forces and their doubly-traitorous defences. The ever-expansive, space-centric network of skypiercers that dominated this area glistened beautifully in the light of countless nuclear detonations. The byproducts of these atomic conflagrations were enough to generate a dazzling array of multicolored lights across the skies of Nahmatiix, providing a morbid, beautiful backdrop to the carnage occurring across and around the world; those on the planet's surface who had not been mobilized, were instead mesmerized.

Where the Harbinger went, the battle seemed to follow, as both sides rushed to the support of their imperators. This trend had only been broken once the craft reached the skies just above Nahmatiix, where a hastily-organized group of half a million Traitor warships lay between the galaxy's two claimants. Behind them, the planet of Nahmatiix, frighteningly close to the entire affair, loomed, its countless skypiercers and high-orbit space stations making maneuvering difficult for the Nahmatiixian forces who guarded it; by pure coincidence, the glimmering spire of the Nahmatiixian planetary government building stood in clear view of both sides. Surrounding this building were the shattered wrecks of numerous defensive stations, all of which had been destroyed shortly after Felcamaxa's hack to preserve the integrity of what had become the Traitors' Capital Complex, their loss being one of the only examples of Traitors destroying their own defensive platforms in the wake of the EWCC's capture. Indeed, the Traitors may have been regretting their choice now: Lassarha's pursuing force, originally quite small, had been steadily reinforced to the point where it was now a strategic threat in its own right.

The Harbinger, at present, was steadily advancing towards its planetary government building. Both of the navies above knew that if the Harbinger were to land safely on the surface of the labyrinthine world, finding and ending Heralax would be nearly impossible, and this only served to further inspire them both. With the Harbinger already beginning its landing sequence on a flat stretch of city, and with any attempt to try and avoid the hostile blockade doomed to be intercepted, Lassarha wasted no further time before commanding an all-out assault on the defensive blockade of the Traitors' capital planet, and it was but mere moments until Terilan fine-tuned and then distributed this order. Lurching forwards, their nuclear weapons brandished proudly and a tidal wave of ordinance already darting through the ether towards their foes, the pursuing Loyalist force complied without hesitation or mercy for those whom they fought.

As the Loyalists advanced, however, the Nahmatiixers, supported by untold numbers of fighter craft, rushed to meet their quarry; though hundreds of thousands of civilian fighters were mercilessly obliterated by indiscriminate nuclear fire, there were millions more seemingly pouring out from the void of space itself. The people of Nahmatiix had their gleaming planet behind them and retribution their hearts; they would not yield to an invader, they would not relent to save their imperator, and they would sooner see their system burn to ash than shake hands with defeat. Crying out with a single voice, "humanity endures!" the Traitors rushed into the desperate fray. Their determination was a testament to Nahmatiixian character, and the power of the Nahmatiix system itself; the extent to which Heralax had mobilized them was a monument to the strength of his rule, and his ideals. There were multiple hundreds of billions of people on that world, nearly all of them owned and could operate fighter-like craft, and almost all of these would happily clamber into the cockpit and charge suicidally into battle for their consul and imperator. Even without a Traitor armada of tens of millions of warships to defend the system, the people of Nahmatiix themselves would ravage any invading force.

It was not long until the two fleets collided; Lassarha's force, comprised of some of the most elite and heaviest vessels the Loyalist armada had to offer, found their equals in Heralax's almost entirely Nahmatiixian reserve. The occasional battlegroup of rank-and-file Traitors or Loyalists that soared into the battle found themselves cut down with ease as some of the most skilled forces in the galaxy took turns nuking each other. Tehkria-classes, their own hulls a weapon, smashed Traitor cruisers aside or nuked them to ashes, only to find themselves cornered by their prey's allies; at such close ranges, the two battle-lines of colossal warships stood little chance of intercepting each other's warheads, and the combat threatened to devolve into a free-for-all as warship duelled warship with munitions powerful enough to level half a planet. The Ineffable, as it contained the most valuable soldier on the Loyalist side, lay just behind the front line and fired away at its many foes with long-ranged weaponry, all while the Ruthless, heavily damaged from its recent ordeal and being unwilling to risk total destruction, instead engaged lesser vessels on the less-chaotic flanks of the Loyalist formation.