The main armada and the two secondary armadas glowed with light as massive spell formations appeared in front of them to shoot out a distorted light that broke through space itself. Spell formations appeared behind the ships; brilliant blue arcane fire lit up the ship’s hulls, ripples of power shaking off it as the armadas surged ahead.
They passed through the wormhole, exiting the system that they were in and entering a new one.
“Full stealth is engaged,” Navigation called out. Missile ports slammed open as warheads were activated and readied to take down all that faced the armada.
The arcane fire that had been surging out of the rear of the ships died down. Instead, other propulsion spell formations appeared. These couldn’t impart as much thrust; however, they were hard to detect. The runic lining of the ships changed colors, becoming black as spell formations appeared on the hulls of the ships. These spell formations were the manifestation of the stealth coding. The spell formations seemed to sink into the ship as they surged forward. The ships seemed to distort as they faded to become sensor ghosts.
It was only with the connected Mirrors of Communication that the ships were able to see one another and know their positions.
The three armadas powered into the system, as stealth ships that had been sent out along the Jukal’s line of advance by the Deq’ual system found that they were now linked to the Pandora fighting force. Unlike the Deq’ual, none of the Pandora fleet ships were made to be scouts. They had the stealth capabilities, but their crews weren’t trained to be scouts and their ships were built to fight, not observe.
“We’ve got the sensor logs from the scouts,” Sensors called out.
Frank looked to his screens. Seeing the distances between the Pandora fighting force and the Jukal fleet, he nodded and started to complete his emergence checklist.
“New orders received. Sending to you, Nav,” Communications said.
“Got it. New waypoints have been laid down. Moving to follow.” With her words, the ship turned on a new angle. The rest of the armada followed the BloodHawk’s actions. Spell formations fluctuated around them, moving their ships before larger spell formations applied thrust to push them forward.
“Weapons are going safe. Taking it down to thirty percent,” Frank said. Seventy percent of the guns were placed on standby, with all defensive weapons remaining online. The missile ports closed, once again hiding the missiles that waited within the hulls of the BloodHawk.
Frank now took a more detailed look of the Jukal fleet. It was impressive, to say the least. There were five different fleets that all moved together, each of them composed of thirty ships. There were destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and carriers throughout the armada.
To most of the races in this part of the galactic neighborhood, they were a powerful and awe-inspiring sight; not so to the people in the human fleet. Instead of feeling fear or apprehension, Frank gritted his teeth together. His lips turned white as they pressed against each other. A terrifying expression covered his face as he looked at the Jukal with hunger.
To him, this would be the first true battle between Emerilia and the Jukal. Before, they were hitting the Jukal ships with numerical advantage, but here the Jukal fleet had nearly three times as many ships as them and ten times the tonnage. That wasn’t including the drones that lay in their carriers.
Even facing such an imposing enemy, he felt pride as the Pandora fighting force moved forward, unimpeded by the sight of the Jukal in all their might.
All eyes were focused on the Jukal fleet. The room seemed to grow colder as rage flickered behind the eyes of those there, not hiding their killing intent in the slightest. Instead of it weakening, it seemed to grow stronger.
As fast as it descended, the crews of the armada once again focused on their tasks as the seventy-seven ships of the Pandora fighting force silently shot through the empty system, heading straight toward the Jukal.
***
The Pandora fighting force moved through the system slowly, only using the power of their drive spell formations. They didn’t want to use their teleportation spells for fear that the Jukal would detect it and then hammer them with fire as soon as they emerged.
So, they silently and slowly made it across the system on an intercept course with the Jukal, as there were just hours to go until they engaged the Jukal.
The other fleets had all taken over the contested key systems, destroying the Jukal fleets. The Deq’ual ships were hitting more of the Jukal Empire’s key systems, with the arks assisting them.
They dropped into the planet’s atmosphere and unleashed ground forces at the remaining vestiges of the Jukal Empire and dropped off supplies that the people of these planets would need to survive.
The human armadas had cut out a big section out of the empire, causing it to fall into disarray in many facets of its economy as well as society. All of the available Pandora ships were heading out to meet the Jukal fleets now, transitioning through the portal network and were just a day behind the first Pandora fighting force. There were two more Pandora fleets on their way, which would bring all nine of the Pandora fleets up against the Jukal invasion force of over one hundred and fifty.
With the Mirrors of Communication widely dispersed and now being used on many of the Jukal planets, everyone could see the Pandora armada as it moved in on the oblivious Jukal fleet.
The secondary armadas moved far to either side of the main armada, lined up to go through the edges of the Jukal fleet. The main armada was aiming to go in just above the center of the Jukal fleet.
Frank had taken some time to go through the ship to check on his people, look at their preparations, and offer support where needed. He made his way to the hangar bays; instead of shuttles, there were portals. They were lined up in rows, ten in total. These portals were the planetary portals the size of those that could be seen on Emerilia, instead of the ship-sized ones that were mostly based in space.
They were made from soul gem construct seeds. They were bulkier than normal portals as these had a thick covering with heavy runic lining engraved into it. There were a total of forty portals, ten in each of the four hangars that lay on either side of the BloodHawk. The destroyers could only hold five in their hangars and had two hangars; the missile boats only had two hangars but they could also fit five portals in their hangars.
Frank checked them all and listened to the load master as she talked about them and how they were set up, maintenance and all things portal geeks knew.
She had been first mate on a merchant vessel that traveled from Ashal to Markolm, to Heval and Opheir back before the world knew the truth about the Jukal. It hadn’t taken her much time to adapt her skills over to the Pandora ships.
He left her feeling a little better as he made his way to the command deck. There were just a few hours left until they would finally reach the Jukal fleet.
One hour later, Frank was chosen to be the point man for when it finally hit the fan. Thus he was in his seat as the BloodHawk’s fire controller as they neared the Jukal fleet.
They had built up some impressive momentum, and were now in the process of burning it off so that they would get more time in close to the Jukal fleet. Instead of just split seconds, they would get nearly a minute among the Jukal fleet.
They would have to make it count. After they hit the Jukal this time, they would be watching out for sneak attacks in the future.
“Starting to get some odd movements from the Jukal. Looks like they’re using some pretty powerful sensor rigs. Might have picked up something from us,” the sensor officer said.
“Wait for the admiral’s word.” Captain Xiao seemed like a calm pond without a ripple on its surface: everything was expected, and nothing could shake him.
***
A Jukal sensor operator flicked his screen and turned his head to look at it from another angle. “What do you make of that?” he asked his fellow Jukal sensor operator
“Sensor ghost?” the other asked, a bored
look on their face.
Crossing long distances in space was a boring exercise. The first sensor operator had just got onto shift, while the second was thinking about their dinner and getting some sleep, the only time when they weren’t incredibly bored and wondering just why he was part of the Jukal fleets. He was supposed to be at home with his concubines, being waited on hand and foot, but his father had told him to become a Jukal officer in order to bring prestige to the family.
The first sensor operator shrugged, understanding the second’s boredom. “Oh, well, I’ll run a sensor check. Gives me something to kill the next few hours.”
“Have fun with it.” The second sensor officer rose from his station. “I stand relieved. Good luck staying awake.”
“I relieve you of your prison,” the first Jukal sensor operator said, inputting commands that heightened the power going to the sensor array to try to get a better picture of the sensor ghosts.
***
Across the Pandora fighting force, all eyes were focused on their screens. They no longer looked like members of the Pandora Initiative: they were predators stalking their prey, moving closer and closer, bringing them in close, ready to lunge at a moment’s notice and tear out their throat.
They had crossed star systems and the void between them, but now they were measuring the few thousand kilometers between them and the Jukal fleet.
They had already crossed through the upper range of their weapons. Now they were headed to their optimum firing distance, where it would only take a matter of minutes for their fire to reach the Jukal.
The glow of the soul gem crystals illuminated their faces as only the slight sound of breathing could be heard. Even that was hushed until it barely left a trace.
A bit closer—come on, just walk right on in, Frank thought, just like most of the other members of the armada. As if they were luring their mortal enemy into danger with fake smiles and cunning.
“Let’s show them just what Emerilians can do! Pandora armadas, open fire!” Admiral Forsyth’s voice cut through all of the ships. Immediately ships flared to life with full power, the people within snapping into action.
“Release portals, missiles away!” Frank barked as he sent a surge of Mana into his command center, activating multiple systems.
In the missile bays, techs watched as the missile doors snapped open and power surged into the runic lines that ran through the acceleration tubes.
The missiles were hurled out into space. Spell formations appeared around them; arcane fire appeared on the spell formations and altered the missiles’ direction. They fanned out from the ships like tridents, pointed right at the Jukal.
Hangar doors slammed open and the hangars depressurized. The rush of air tore the portals out from the hangars and sent them spinning into space.
Load masters watched them as they flew outward, seeing spell formations appear. The bulky covering around the portals was actually a series of thrust spells. The portals spread out and created a circle around the BloodHawk, facing forward as umbilicals of soul gem shot out from the ship to meet up with the portals.
“Asteroid base, this is Pandora Fleet One. I hope you’ve got those ranges set up!” Admiral Forsyth’s voice cut through the barking orders and the ships that were shuddering as missiles poured out from them.
“Pandora Fleet One, this is asteroid base. Ready when you are,” Dave’s voice replied.
“We have green light for portals. We are linked to asteroid base!” Communications yelled.
“Good on range. Powering them up!” Frank said. Mana poured through his hands, creating a glow through him.
The fusion reactors that lay within the BloodHawk seemed to wake from their slumber as the runic lines connecting them to the rest of the ship shone with a powerful light.
The portals ringed around the BloodHawk glowed with power as the magical coding activated. Runic lines appeared across them as power from the fusion reactors solidified the glowing lights of the portals.
The portals activated and the stars behind them disappeared. The nose of the BloodHawk changed, showing a room glowing with runic lining and what looked like a wall of missile tubes.
The Jukal carriers were now unleashing their drones and most were just launching their first salvo of missiles while trying to get their Mana barrier up.
“Ready to fire!” the weapons crew of the portal range said.
“Fire!” Frank said.
Through the portals, massive spell formations appeared, pointed right at the portal generating power.
Pillars of light ten meters thick shot out from the portals. Others unleashed missiles after missiles; others showed a Nalheim wielding a spear. A spell formation tens of meters large appeared in front of their spear before a truly terrifying Mana stream shot from the portal, forming into a spear with a spell formation around its tip as a beam of disrupting energies carried forth.
Across the three Pandora armadas, the portal ranges unleashed their various spells and attacks. As one range was recharging from a massive spell, the portal would cut the connection and would reconnect to another range, allowing them to unleash spells that might only be used once by an armada.
The first of the missiles started to hit the Jukal.
Few of the Jukal ships were able to get their shields up in time, not that it would help much as sowed among the missiles were the new disruption grand working spells that played havoc with the Jukal Mana barriers, damaging them to such a degree that they were incredibly hard to stabilize and even opening holes all throughout it.
Jukal defenses finally activated, destroying or deflecting a small percentage of the grand working shells. Distorted spell formations filled the space between the two forces as the energy stored within the grand workings fought to activate their spells. The space around the Jukal ships bloomed in terrifyingly powerful displays of light.
Being totally unprepared, their hasty and panicked defenses weren’t enough to stop the oncoming missile salvos. Majestic and powerful spell formations appeared in the space surrounding their ships, filled with seemingly boundless energy.
Staring at them would make one’s scalp tingle in fear.
The grand working warheads within the missiles unleashed their spells. Long-range beams of multicolored light crossed empty space; the Jukal ships shuddered with the massive impacts, their hulls bubbling under massive heat, being vaporized as it met its arch nemesis of golden light, or being shredded by the power of wind blades within the ruptured hulls, warping and rusting with the will of the Dark magics.
This laid down cover for the close-range missiles and multi-stage missiles.
Spell formations appeared and golden light pierced through the hulls of the Jukal ships. Just moments after the attack landed, more spell formations appeared on their heels, using the opening of the first attack to gain entry to the ship.
Spells ripped through the void and the Jukal started to get their weapons and shields online. Unfortunately for the Jukal under that massive barrage, there was no stopping the first attacks.
The Jukal counter-missiles met the second salvo of missiles after the attacks from the portal barrage had impacted.
The Pandora fighting force’s first attack was terrifyingly brutal and left no room for the Jukal to retaliate.
Under the weight of the grand working warheads, the massive spells coming through the portals as well as the wealth of fire from hundreds of grand working shells fired from ship cannons and grand working-filled missiles burst upon the Jukal fleet.
It was as if a hammer of the gods had landed. It smashed away the feeble Jukal. Ships were torn apart, just spinning, lifeless derelicts; some even exploded under the truly devastating attacks.
The Jukal missiles and attacks were stopped dead in the face of the Pandora fighting force’s overwhelming fire superiority and vastly stronger multilayered defenses.
The destruction passed through the Jukal fleet, claiming more and more of those that were farther back. Drones
deployed from the carriers. Any of them that exited the carrier’s Mana barrier and were too close to an explosion or attack were torn apart, unable to deal with the terrifying firepower.
The Jukal started to pull themselves together even as they were getting hammered by the fighting force. Missiles started to shoot out in massive numbers. The Jukal might have just over twice the fighting force’s ships, but they had nearly four times the tonnage of the Pandora armada, giving them much more firepower.
Lines of fire intersected. The space between the Pandora armada and Jukal fleet filled with spell formations, grand working missiles, and the angry glow of cannon shells that looked like a group of wasps attacking one another.
Laser beams shot out from the Jukal ships. Some of them shook and failed as they were hit with spells that made their spell formation fall apart and fail. Even as the Jukal were caught off guard and some of their tech wasn’t working anymore, they were hitting back and they were hitting back hard.
Across the Pandoran fleet, Mana barriers flared and ships shuddered with impacts.
“Prepare for close combat!” Captain Xiao barked.
“We will intersect the Jukal fleet in two minutes!” Navigation called out as the BloodHawk moved ahead, as if nothing in the universe could stop it.
“Cannon crews, fire when you have targets,” Frank said. He got confirmations back as he moved to look at the combat portals, selecting what he wanted and where. Portals closed and then opened again. Instead of missiles spewing forth, terrifying disrupting spell formations cut swathes through the debris and ships in front of the BloodHawk.
The forward destroyers of the main armada intersected the Jukal fleet. Cannon crew’s cannons that had been silent this entire time now opened up with fire.
Runic lines burned in the darkness of the void. Streams of grand working rounds shot from the cannons that fired as fast as they could, much faster than any Emerilian crew could do before. Dwarven cannon commanders moved from gun to gun, keeping them in the best condition as the hulls vibrated with the raging tempest of their weapons systems.
Emerilia Series Box Set 5 Page 47
