Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11)

by Michael Chatfield

  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.

  Drones passed through the explosions and destruction, tailing missiles that were cut down by interceptor modules.

  Explosions tore at the Pandora ships’ shields; massive weapons systems on the Jukal fleet ships rotated into position, unleashing pillars of light that could be up to twenty meters thick.

  The impacts rocked the Pandora ships but they kept on going.

  “We’ve got shield activation,” Sensors yelled out as the front of the secondary armadas entered the Jukal formation.

  The missiles and Pandora armada smashed into the activating Jukal shields, the destruction rocking the ships.

  Frank called out orders. The noises of the rest of the bridge faded into obscurity as he continued to pull the best from his people and get the most from his weapon systems.

  In the silence of the void, Emerilia and the Jukal clashed: juggernauts slugged it out, spell formations illuminated the darkness, and Mana crashed into the Jukal shields or the unlucky Jukal that were unable to get their shields online.

  Missiles were hurled backward and forward; concussive waves of force rippled through a ship’s Mana barriers and shields.

  Grand working shells and the Jukal light projectors that created and focused incredibly powerful pillar of light spells cut through space, the two forces caught in a bitter struggle between life and death.

  The first Pandora ship lost its shields as it continued to fight on with everything it had.

  A missile leaving a missile boat was struck. The explosion took out a chunk of the ship’s side, causing it to alter course.

  Jukal ships were falling out of formation as well. Behind them, debris could be seen as their hulls were punctured and the lights over their ships were flashing or went out.

  Jukal drones that had survived the tempest now unleashed their close-range attacks.

  Interceptor modules opened up with their grand working rounds and spell disrupting abilities.

  Frank held onto his station as an explosion rocked the BloodHawk, making the soul gem pulse with light for a second before returning to normal.

  “Overload the soul gem weapon systems!” Forsyth barked as they were now three-quarters of the way through the Jukal fleet.

  Madness seemed to rage in Frank’s eyes as he poured power into his station.

  Fusion power plants raged like chained dragons; a sea of energy poured out from them as the power reserves around the Mana wells was poured out.

  Spell formations that had been tens of meters wide were now hundreds. The Pandora ships shone with incredible light. Even as their ships were battered and the shields went down, they poured everything they had into offense.

  “Destroyer three, missile boat five and two are teleporting away!” Communications called out. The badly wounded ships were being rocked by explosions; their shields were down and their hull was open to space.

  They disappeared from the battle, but left a hole in the secondary armada.

  There was no helping it now.

  Frank was talking to the fire controllers on multiple ships, concentrating fire on ships, and using different spells to optimise the damage output.

  “Shield disruptors on that carrier! Bring the portals to bear, cannons with Dark rounds!” Frank called out.

  The portals flickered, pausing a moment before grand working rounds with Dark attributes shot forth. Disrupting missiles slammed into the carrier’s shields, taking them out of action in the path of the Dark grand working roun
ds. They pierced through the fluctuating shields and hit the Jukal ship.

  The armor stopped the rounds from penetrating too deep.

  The spell formations activated and the impact areas started to crumple as the metal started to compress. The carrier’s outer hull started to shake as it started to bend over to one side.

  More and more rounds charged inward.

  “Penetrator missiles, one spread. Missile boats, concentrate on it. All other ships, hit that battleship,” Frank called out. With one ear, he was listening to what the other two armadas’ main fire controllers were saying; with the other, he was hearing confirmation and ideas from his people.

  “Exiting the enemy formation!” Sensors reminded everyone.

  “Flip the ship!” Xiao barked.

  “Flipping ship!” Communications said.

  Inside the ship, no one felt any difference. But on the outside, the entire Pandora fighting force’s remaining ships were flipping over. Now the spine of their ships was their belly as their bow faced the Jukal. The portals on the front of the BloodHawk fired out a disrupting spell that caught a Jukal destroyer, taking down its shields. Frank saw it and called in more fire on the ship. He checked the Mana barriers on it; they had been whittled all the way down to just ten percent of their Mana barriers.

  The runic lines and the power systems of the BloodHawk were so hot that they were melting in places and the magical coding that made up the runic lining was failing as they became distorted.

  Less and less of the Jukal were being cut down now.

  Finally, the Pandora ships and the Jukal fleet separated, yet they continued to fight one another. The Jukal were pouring on as much speed as possible in an effort to try to get away from the Pandora ships.

  The Pandora ships cut their engines, allowing themselves to drift. After a few more minutes, the two forces were out of each other’s ranges.

  “Set up a portal. We’ll send people back to the asteroid base and we can pull in more ships to reinforce us,” Forsyth said.

  The ships that were damaged started to pour the power from their systems into the soul gem construct that quickly grew to cover over breaches and repair whatever was broken.

  Soul gem patches appeared on the ships as people rushed about checking on everyone. Wounded were collected, stabilized and then sent via portal to Ice Planet, where Jules had created the biggest healing center ever made. People were directly moved through portals and into the healing center for treatment.

  Cannons were made safe and their glowing runic lines faded away. The portals that had been thrown out were collected and pulled back into the hangars while runic lining across the ships dimmed down.

  Spell formations appeared around the ships, moving them into position as one of the battleships from the main armada opened up its armored panels. It had some problems as a part of its hull around the armored panels had been twisted by an incoming round.

  “Call coming in from the admiral,” Communications said.

  “Put it on,” Xiao said.

  The screen changed, showing Admiral Forsyth in his command center separate from the ship’s command center.

  “Captain Xiao, I want you to lead your secondary armada to recover those who were ejected into space and recover the four ships that were knocked out of action,” Forsyth said.

  “Yes, sir, will do.” Xiao straightened in his chair. They would never leave even a single person behind.

  “Good. I’ll leave you to sort out how you want to go about the rescue.” Forsyth closed the channel.

  “Communications, message the rest of the secondary armada. I want the destroyers to focus on collecting those who have gone Dutchman. The missile boats and the battleships are to move to recover the ships that are dead in space. Get in contact with the ships and let the people who are out in space know that we’re on our way,” Xiao said. Being a Dutchman meant that they were outside of the ship, with no way to control their movements or try to return to the ship as they spun in the silent void.

  “Yes, sir,” Communications said.

  “Sensors, get me clear readings on all of our people. Navigation, work with the other navigation officers and see if we can get a plot together to speed things up,” Captain Xiao said.

  Frank looked over the bridge and then turned back to his station, checking on his different systems. There had been some breaks in the system but they had fared much better than other ships in the fleet.

  Information was still coming in from the battle. It would take some time before they were able to know what they had done to the Jukal fleet and what had happened to their own side.

  Frank looked at the sensor readings of the Jukal fleet. Although there weren’t as many ships as there had been, it looked as if they had been able to damage or destroy at least a third of their ships.

  It seemed like a lot, but in a straight-up fight, the Jukal ships would defeat them. They were going to have to use all of their tricks in order to completely defeat the Jukal.

  Chapter 9: United Front

  The Stone Raiders’ leadership, Party Zero, as well as Commander Sato, Admiral Adams, Admiral Forsyth, and the leadership of the Pandora Initiative were all in the same Mirror of Communication conference room.

  Forsyth cleared his throat as he stood at the end of the table in front of everyone. The actual fighting between the two forces had been over in just minutes, but the casualties on both sides were hard to digest.

  “In the operation, nineteen of our ships sustained damage that will require a day or so to repair. We have five other ships that are in transition or are already at the asteroid base. One of them was able to fly under its own power; four of them were not able to. We have some eight thousand wounded, with one thousand two hundred and fifteen dead.” Forsyth’s voice was grave as the people in the room showed complicated expressions.

  Once the shields of the vessels failed, the hulls couldn’t take that much of a beating. Anyone near the hull when it was hit by a warhead or a cannon, or even flying shrapnel, might have a personal Mana barrier but these were weapons that had broken fusion-powered Mana barriers.

  Mages who had been working on repairing damage, weapons techs dealing with their weapons—any one of the tens of thousands of crew members per ship were in the line of fire. A ship might live on; it could be repaired. But people—with their Altars of Rebirth destroyed by the Jukal kill switches—there was no more coming back.

  “The Jukal suffered for it. They have twelve ships that are only barely moving. It’s hard to kill those damned things. However, they’ve got about sixty-seven ships that have sustained decent damage. Twenty-one of those have taken on damage that will require a shipyard to fix. Unlike our people, they don’t have soul gem constructs nor do they have portals. Their damage control teams will have to attempt repairs en route. Most of these fixes aren’t going to be as strong as they were before and they only have a limited number of supplies for things like replacement cannons, or missile ports or hangar doors. However, this was not the most important thing that was accomplished with our first strike. The biggest thing we’ve come to learn is how the Jukal fight in this day and age.”

  Forsyth opened something on his interface. Screens appeared in front of everyone, showing different battle screens.

  “Now this might be a bit hard to see, but in the fighting as we came through, the Jukal start to go into a panic. They’re moving away from us, trying to get behind others. They’re blocking their own guns so that they can be protected. If they hadn’t done this, stayed in formation and attacked us with the rest of the others, we would have lost a whole lot more and we wouldn’t have been able to do the damage that we did. Also, when a Jukal ship was badly damaged…” The screens moved and showed a dot on the screens. It went from red to purple, showing that it was hit. The ships around it started to disperse.

  “The ships around them would move away, as if scared that we would start targeting them as well. There was little organization. They were all loo
king out for their own asses and were willing to reduce their combat effectiveness for what they thought was safety.”

  “It shows a weakness in their chain of command, as well as their discipline and training. If they were trained properly, this would have never happened. The Jukal ships are powerful and we were expecting a much harder fight. The Jukal don’t know how to use their ships, which means that they’re leaving themselves open for more attacks.” Adams looked to the others in the room.

  “We’ll get to the military part in a moment. First, I’m wondering how the wounded are doing?” Dave looked to Jules.

  “From the wounded that we received, most of them have been treated and should be good within a week. There were some pretty severe injuries that will take longer. The people in the worst condition aren’t the ones who are wounded but the people who were Dutchman for a long time. Thankfully, Air and her people are with them. They’re recovering faster than we thought they would.” Jules took a sigh. Her already pale face seemed as if she had lost a part of her vitality. “There were fifty-one people we were unable to help. However, Bob is with them now and is hopeful that he can save three of them by imprinting them upon bodies he is now growing.”

  Dave didn’t say anything, his face firm as he looked to Suzy.

  “Of the five ships, three of them have relatively minor issues. They will be fixed within five days. The other two have larger issues. I’m looking into options, but it might be easier to cannibalize the ship’s parts for others that are nearing completion. Then we take the hull, put it off to the side, feed it power and the soul gem constructs will repair it and the automatons can repair them over a period of two months,” Suzy said, looking to the military commanders. “I have been informed that we need ships as soon as possible; as such, I think that this is the best course of action.”