*tick*
*tock*
*tick*
*beep beep beep*
"Sir, contact! Sorry, multiple contacts, detected by Deimos base. Enemy motherships, 2500 km away." the sensors officer reported. "They are finally here."
Mei raised the alert status to ALCON 1. Lodos and nearby ships entered combat configuration, half-retracting their radiators, deploying their weapons and (the most advanced ones) powering up their electromagnetic shields.
"Notify the civilians." I said. "They need to get out of here ASAP."
"SS Setsuna, SS Deniz and SS Comanche; enemy vessels approaching. You need to leave immediately." Mei said.
The three ships of Fleet #17 had been left behind and abandoned by their fleet long ago. Yet, until now, crews of SS Deniz and SS Comanche were trying their best to get SS Setsuna operational again.
"SS Setsuna, we are sorry." the commanding pilot of SS Comanche said. "We did our best, but we too have many people aboard that need saving. Goodbye, compatriots."
"Are you out of your mind?" commander of SS Deniz interrupted him. "We can't just leave like a thousand people to die!"
"Why didn't you think of it when you left millions back on Mars?" SS Comanche replied, shortly before engaging it's main drives and leaving the area. "We don't want to die together. We saved as much people as we can."
"You can't leave us behind!" SS Setsuna's co-pilot cried.
"Don't worry, we are with you Setsuna." SS Deniz's commander said. "We will make it out together. Mechanics say that they can get at least one of your engines to work at 3/4 full thrust."
"Sir, torpedoes ready to launch." the tactical officer reported.
"Fire at will." Mei ordered the fleet, and fired two torpedoes herself. "Deploy drones and fighters on your own fleet configurations."
All carriers opened their hangar bays and rapidly started pushing their drones out. Scanners were cluttered with blips representing small spacecraft flying around in a seemingly random way, which then slowly turned into an eye-sugar of pretty geometrical formations.
"Sir, enemy is shooting back and launching swarms." the sensors officer said.
"Make sure our engineers keep close-in weapon systems healthy and well-fed with ammunition." Mei said. "One mistake, and we are done for."
"Run ECM systems at full power." I ordered. "Make sure all active laser mediums perform as expected."
"Swarms are moving to attack the fleet."
"Move the drones to intercept. While they are busy, target them with point defense." Mei said.
Thousands of enemy and friendly drones started flying towards each other. Our drones were no match for the swarms, but they could give us time to shoot some of them down ourselves.
"No." I suddenly had a better idea. "Move our drones to attack the motherships. That could give us a better opportunity to strike."
Our drones swiftly flew past the enemy swarm to attack their motherships. Many of them were destroyed by enemy point defense in short time, but the enemy swarm, nonetheless, had aborted it's attack on our fleet and was going back to protect the motherships.
"Now." I said. "Hunt them down!"
Our missile cruisers launched salvos of torpedoes. The enemy ships, mostly busy with our drones, could not target each of them with point defense in time. We could destroy two motherships, along with some drones belonging to both sides.
"We don't have a lot of drones left, sir. They will be on top of us any minute."
"Signal the Grand Admiral to start his attack." I said. Mei sent an encrypted message on my order. Moments later, missile launchers and monstrous railguns carefully placed on Martian surface started firing. After a few minutes, our military bases on Phobos and Deimos joined the party. The first enemy fleet was caught in a rain from hell. The remaining 5 motherships were destroyed quickly, and we still haven't lost any major ships.
"Haha!" Mei screamed with joy. "Eat this!"
"Sir, new contacts! At around 1700km and approaching fast!"
"More targets, more fun." I said. "Do not spread our fleet apart. Don't let them encircle us!"
With most of our drones gone, swarms from the second enemy fleet started picking Republic warships one by one to destroy them. Nearby ships were having a hard time helping those who were encircled, because even with highly accurate and smart targeting computers, there was still some risk of friendly fire.
"Large ships MUST stay in formation. Let fighters and agile corvettes help clear the swarms encircling large ships." I said. "Mei, that includes us."
"With pleasure." she said, and Lodos engaged it's engines to save a nearby missile cruiser.
"Sir, new enemy fleet! Coming from Phobos' direction, at only 750km!"
"A third fleet? Already!?" I asked. "Damn it, we will last shorter than I imagined."
"Lodos, this is M Lucky Baron. Leave us and help the fleet carrier, we are done for already!"
Mei looked at me expectantly through her helmet's screen.
"You are the ship commander." I said. "Your decision."
Lodos moved away from the missile cruiser to go help the fleet carrier. Missile cruiser Lucky Baron only lasted a few more seconds against the swarm, and flames began bursting out of it's hull. Life boats were launched, all of them to be hunted down by the swarms just milliseconds later.
"Sir, the third enemy fleet is attacking Phobos base!"
"We can't protect Phobos or Deimos. They are on their own." I said. Just as I finished my words, a spectacular explosion lit up everyone's sensors. The military base on Phobos had obliterated itself with nuclear weapons, also greatly damaging the small moon on Phobos itself.
"Sir, fleet carrier down! I repeat, fleet carrier down! FC Eridani is destroyed!"
Fleet carriers were the largest, most expensive (excluding Lodos) but also the most important vessels in our war fleet; so losing them hurt everyone the most.
"Close in to protect other carriers!" I said. "Close up the fleet formation! All ships target one mothership at a time. Don't lose the pressure!"
"Sir, gunships are having a hard time hitting the drones." Mei said.
"Order beamships to close up to each other and move to the center of our fleet, maybe lasers will be more effective." I said. "Place remaining gunships in a distance and order them to rain bullets from the perimeter as if they are providing suppressive fire."
"Yes, sir!"
"Sir, this is SS Deniz. We can not repair SS Setsuna. We need some time to transfer some of Setsuna's passengers to our ship."
"What!?" I was in shock. "You are still here!?"
"SS Setsuna has thousands of people aboard! We couldn't leave them!"
"Sorry, SS Deniz." I said. "Mei, target Deniz and Setsuna and fire. We can't risk them getting tracked while returning to their fleet and giving away the rest of the civilians' whereabouts."
Lodos shot two remaining civilian ships, instantly destroying them.
"Sir, our last missile cruiser has been destroyed!"
"Our WHAT!?"
Suddenly, I heard a loud 'thump', followed by the distinct hissing sound of an air leak. Lodos was hit by a projectile which penetrated the thin armor and the hull, opened a continuous hole through multiple decks and came out of the other side of the ship. The bridge and most of the other habitable parts of the ship were losing air pressure.
"Commander!"
A crew member threw me and Mei space suits, and we quickly put them on. The tactical officer disabled artificial gravity and placed his own body against the inner-side hole to slow down the leak.
"Find something to block the other hole!" he screamed.
Before anyone could do anything, another high-velocity projectile penetrated Lodos, opening two more holes in the bridge.
"A swarm is on to us!" the sensors officer yelled.
A third projectile didn't just open two more holes in the walls, but also took most of the upper body of our tactical officer who happened to be on it's way. There were floating legs and a head in the bridge.
Lodos was knocked out.
The sensors officer pulled out a pistol and aimed outside through one of the holes on the bridge.
"It is no use." I shouted at him. "Just run!"
However, he didn't hear me. There was no air left around us.
An explosion inside Lodos broke the ship apart in half, violently launching everyone out into open space.