After some more time of waiting, another round of alarms began blaring through every ship and base. In the distance, a large fleet composed of hundreds of battle ready starships transitioned into the system. The ships of the Xenon were a dark gray in color, and were all cone shaped. Unlike humanity which relied mostly on hard technology, the Xenon were more fond of biotechnology, and liked to experiment on themselves. But even then, their starships were still metallic and not made of flesh or anything weird.
That said, their means of fighting was different from that of the humans. While they also relied on starships to fight large battles, with the extent of their experimentation, they had augmented their bodies to be able to withstand the rigors of vacuum environment for a period of time, while also granting themselves powerful individual combat power.
There was no need for any communication between both sides. As soon as the Xenon transitioned into the Solar System, the human defenders immediately fired. Beams of light that were as thick as shuttles lanced through the dark vacuum, burning their way forward to strike against the energy shields of the Xenon starships. At the moment, it would be the starships who handled the fighting. Mechs would not take action yet until the Xenon fleet came within their active firing range, and even then, it would only be the ranged mechs who acted first.
The Stellar Chaser immediately stood out amongst the human defenders, her main cannons applying a lot of stress to the energy shields of the Xenon flagship.
In the bridge of the Xenon flagship, Grokus sat upon his throne, his eyes calm and his gaze steady. He did not feel any pressure, as he had already prepared for the resistance that his fleet would face. He was even ready to lose up to seventy percent of his fleet to inflict heavy damage on the humans.
"Activate the Honeycomb Projector." He passed on orders to one of the crew members in the bridge. The gray skinned man nodded and turned to the terminal before him. Unlike a high tech projector or a panel covered in buttons, there were only two hollow spaces that were in the terminal before him. He stepped forward and dipped his arms into the two hollow spaces, twisting them around.
Bzzt!
On the outer armor of the flagship, arcs of electricity suddenly flashed, and strange, honeycomb shaped panels extended from the hull of the ship. The were lit aglow with bright, blue light, and in the next moment, a honeycomb pattern of light spread outward, with the flagship as the center.
In the next instant, the faltering shields of the ships on the side of the Xenon instantly recovered, sharing the burden amongst themselves. Like that, the fleet steadily progressed forward, returning fire to the human defenders.
The Honeycomb Projector was a piece of advanced technology developed by the Xenon. The theory behind it was a bit complicated, but it basically had to do with using a complex energy projection to power a special shield generator that would allow all the starships that possessed this projector to share the burden. That allowed them to persist for longer before going back to using their normal shield generators to withstand fire. This whole thing required a central receptor, though. This receptor was responsible for bearing the most burden, and it was located on the flagship of the fleet, Grokus' ship.
The defenders were already familiar with this scene, and quickly rearranged their formations and tactics, focusing their fire on the edges of the approaching fleet where the honeycomb shield was at its weakest.
Fighter class ships broke off and danced around the firepower that came their way as the flanked the approaching alien fleet. Their pilots gritted their teeth as they did their best to dodge the laser beams that tore through the darkness. With the speed of these lasers, they only had a split second to dodge out of the way. As pilots who had been trained for years, their intuition and gut feelings were what guided them. As for any beams that they were not able to dodge, their shields absorbed them with varying degrees of difficulty.
The smaller ships of the Xenon fleet that could be considered to be in the same class split off, racing forward to do direct combat against their human counterparts. Explosions silently erupted in space as ships burst into fireworks. Shields were breached and hull plating was torn through, leaving melted slag that rapidly cooled in the freezing temperature of the vacuum environment.
The exchange of fire at long range continued for several minutes, stretching until almost an entire hour had passed, before the next phase of the battle commenced. A new type of starship, slightly larger and bulkier than the fighters flew forward. They were clearly a bit slower than the fighters, but that was because they boasted thicker armor and heavier firepower.
These new crafts were of the bomber class. They flew in groups of six, and utilized a similar strategy to that of the Xenon, sharing the burden of shielding, but instead of utilizing a high technology application like the Honeycomb Projector, they simply let one craft take the beating before switching out with another to let the first one recharge its shields.
Together, they coasted forward until they approached a squadron of fighters that were coming to intercept them.
"Not so fast!" The leader of the bomber squadron snarled within his cockpit before flicking on a few switches to turn on a component of his ship. A nearly invisible pulse of energy burst forth from his ship, sailing forward to affect the incoming fighters. The effect was almost immediately noticeable, as the Xenon fighters immediately started displaying coordination issues.
This was a relatively new application of technology that had been developed by a research team under no one other than humanity's most brilliant scientist and researcher, Doctor Stewart. After studying the ships of the Xenon for a very long time, he had finally developed a device that could temporarily derail the controls and coordination of the ships, allowing the humans to seize the opportunity to counter attack.
"Heh! Damn aliens!" The bomber squad captain sneered as his team began bombarding the fighters around them with heavy firepower.
Broken Xenon ship wrecks began to appear all over the battlefield as the various bomber squads began using the disruption device to cause chaos.