"Sir, our ship is in full alert status, fire suppression and damage control teams have already deployed to all sectors and are standing by for tasking. We're arriving in 5 minutes."
"Good job Jack, go ahead and sound the general alert a final time, then depressurise everything and redirect all non-essential power to shields, sensors and weapons, run life support on the tanks for now; I want every last MWh of power to weapons, sensors and mobility, we're saving the drones for possible cleanup."
On the bridge inside the CIC of the railgun cruiser Valourant, Mike was doing every possible thing to prepare for arrival after the Solar Navy Royal Guard had taken their first step out into Eden space, there was no doubt in Mike's mind that the Eden theocracy would try to sucker punch the flotilla the second they returned to normal space, and he was preparing accordingly. Throughout the Valourant, bulkheads were being sealed and weapons were loaded, while multiple nuclear missiles had their safety pins removed as the warheads were armed before an automatic loading system attached them to their drivers. The same thing was currently happening all over the flotilla formation, every possible caution and preparation was or already had been made, and damage control party captains were doing final checks on their subordinate's flak jackets, knowing full well some of them wouldn't survive their next 30 minutes while ship captains like Mike were making the best of their last 5 minutes before combat.
"... Okay, we're ready, or at least I think we are."
Aboard Mike and River's Wyrm, River and Jessica were also making final preparation for combat, everything that needed to be strapped down was strapped down and double-checked, all weapons were armed, primed and tested.
"We're as ready as we can be, nukes and all."
Even the few nuclear missiles River, Jessica and Mike had fought tooth and nail for were loaded into the launchers and in event of a fleet-sized combat encounter Jessica and River would be conducting flanking manoeuvres and exploitations while also relaying targeting and sensor data to the fleet.
"Just in case, be ready to take over piloting as Mike suggested."
Although Mike had suggested Jessica take over piloting duties after they had suffered an ambush where the Eden forces would have had ample time to analyse River's flight patterns and habits, Jessica and River had agreed to a system where River would initially be piloting until they were warned, then Jessica would take over and they would swap responsibilities.
[Attention all units, 1 minute until arrival. Be prepared for heavy resistance and remember to obey directives and be on the lookout for Eden capital class ships, good luck and godspeed.]
"Here we go, if we get through this, the first round is on me."
"Roger that captain."
Bracing on his map plot, Mike fixed his eyes on the sensors and took a deep breath. With a bang, the railgun cruiser Valourant exited faster than light travel as the craft flexed returning to non-compressed space as it started to look for opponents.
They didn't have to search for long.
"Captain! Unidentified contacts front! They're closing rapidly!"
Also looking at the numerous bibs on the sensor rapidly closing in the fleet formation, Mike instantly recognised what was happening.
"Emergency evasive action! Helm sound impact alarm and shift portside at flank bell!"
"Helm aye sir, evasive action, manoeuvre thrusters to full! Shifting to port!"
"Sysops! Shift front shields to full power! Comms issue fleet-wide alert, we've entered a pre-sighted sector and are under ultra-long-range kinetic attack!"
Making the most of the few seconds he had, Mike alerted the rest of the fleet formation as he ordered his own ship into evasive action. Like he warned the rest of the fleet, they were under attack from ultra-long-range as salvos of kinetic penetrators possibly fired in their direction hours or days earlier were currently passing through their sector. Having acted immediately Mike's Valourant managed to avoid anything more than minor hits, but the rest of the fleet wasn't as fortunate.
"Sir! Justice, Victory and Unity are breaking up!"
"Launch our drones and have them chase down and triage the damaged vessels. Systems, continue to scan for contacts, there's no way the Eden forces will let this kind of chance slip away!"
Just as predicted, it didn't take more than a few seconds before numerous larger contacts were detected both in front and behind the formation.
"... Fuck, Helm break formation! We need to protect the civs and our supplies!"
Looking at the map, Mike predicted that the Eden forces in front would try to draw the royal guard thin by fighting a delaying action, meanwhile, the forces to the rear would spearhead a raid into the middle of the stretched-out formation and target the fleet's tankers and supplies in addition to the evacuated citizens.
"Sir! We don't have pre-"
"I don't give a shit about permission right now Jack! Comms, let Commander Simmons know we're shifting to the rear to protect the civs! Weps open fire immediately, we don't need to hit them, just keep them busy!"
"Sir! Yes Sir!"
Wording it so it seemed like he was more worried about the civs than the supplies, Mike quickly won most of the CIC over to his side, seeing he was outnumbered Jack quickly folded, although breaking formation like this without orders could be considered deserting in the face of the enemy he recognized that the ship needed to be in line with the captain's word, even if it was in opposition with doctrine.
Aboard the Royal Guard flagship, Mike's decision to break formation was quickly noticed.
"Sir, the Valourant is breaking formation, it has communicated that it is shifting to the rear to protect our supplies and civilian transports."
"Of course he is… Let Mike do as he wants, for now at least. If he gets too far out of line, warn him that he'll be breaking our agreement."
"Sir."
"Sir, command is telling us to go ahead, but be careful not to get too far out of formation."
(Simmons doesn't give a shit about the formation, he's pulling my leash…)
Doing his best to hide his bitter expression, Mike did his best to continue as normal.
"Wilco, weps work with sensors and get the feeds and speeds of targets Delta-9 and Echo-16, we're clipping the wings of that one first."
Working within the limits of his leash, Mike designated the first targets as the Valourant passed by a massive fuel tanker going flank bell to get away from the hostiles going for their rear. Passing by the tanker, the Valourant shifted in to cover for the tanker as its spinal mounted high calibre railgun came online targeting the Eden ships Mike had pointed out.
"Engaging contacts Delta-9, Echo-16, weapons system locked to propulsion, now firing!"
At the weapons system officer's command, the Valourant opened fire, the first high calibre tungsten alloy penetrator ripped straight through the contact delta-9 stern, an Eden navy close range cruiser, and strafed its fusion reactor and stern drive core, igniting the fuel lines and leading to a bright flash when the fusion pellets ignited.
"Contact Delta-9 breaking up, switch focus to Echo-16 then weapons free! Systems and sensors give me a fleet-wide sitrep, any sign of Eden flagships?"
"Sir, no flagships have been detected, signet command also hasn't been able to pin any data clusters so far."
(So no flagships and the ships aren't talking to each other in any detectable way, so either they're talking over Witch space, or…)
"So we're fighting yet more unmanned crafts, then again the Eden Theocracy is pretty liberal with their waste of manpower…"
"Sir, contact Echo-16 destroyed."
Having his thought process interrupted by the update, Mike glanced at the map plot and checked the position of friendly and hostile forces.
"Good work, weapons free, continue to engage. Helm keep up the chase but don't let anyone pass us. Jack, you have the conn, comms put me into direct contact with signal intelligence network command on our flagship."
"Sir, patching your personal comm in now."
Leaving the ship command to his X. O. Mike chased down his hunch and started talking with the special detachment deployed onboard the Royal Guard flagship.
"Signet, this is Captain of the Valourant-"
[Yeah, yeah, Mike right? What do you want? I'm busy.]
First cutting Mike off mid-sentence, then refusing to name themselves, what Mike assumed to be the signet commander didn't make the greatest of first impressions on him, but he nevertheless did his best to push his pride aside as he confirmed his suspicions and reported them to signet.
"The contacts I am encountering seem to be unmanned, are there any indications of that on your side? Any comms clusters I can poke with a nuke?"
[What!? Unmanned craft? How the hell-]
"I've disabled or destroyed 9 contacts so far, none of the disabled ones has deployed life rafts, furthermore take a look at the data packet I'm sending you now."
Luckily for Mike, one of the Eden cruisers he had destroyed, contact Echo-16 to be exact, had happened to break up in just the right way to reveal the bridge and the terminals hooked up to the controls instead of people.
[So they really are unmanned… In that case how-]
"Through their so-called 'witch space' track gravitational waves instead of comm signals, with the amount of traffic going out the waves should be extreme enough that your people could… Hello?"
(They fucking hang up on me… Well, I guess that just means I don't need to keep feeding them bread crumbs…)
Although Mike knew exactly how the Eden Theocracy operated, including the true nature of their god, convincing the Solar Navy royal guard of it was another matter entirely. After getting stonewalled for long enough Mike decided he would act doing combat like this, it was far easier convincing people when they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, looking for any possible way of escaping.
(Well, they should be able to track down the control vessel with this much assistance, if not I need to start looking into escaping this flotilla with River and Jessica.)
Getting back to the central map plot, Mike asked Jack for a sitrep as he took over command again.
"Sir, we've wiped out the forces here, I was about to order us back to the front lines now that even the civilian transports can fight off the last of these forces that remain."
"Good, my ship."
"Your ship."
"Helm, make for the front lines, double time. Weps, arm and load the nukes, we're going to be authorised to use them soon… Ladies, gentlemen and everyone else, it is time to wrap this up!"
"""""SIR! YES SIR!"""""
Onboard the Wyrm, River and Jessica had been striking at targets of opportunity since the fighting began with relative success, but like Mike, they had started suspecting there was something wrong with the forces they were fighting.
"Get that guy!"
"I'm trying!"
Making themselves a hard target engaging at medium range, Jessica was launching kinetic energy missiles after a destroyer which had taken interest in them while River was doing her damnedest to evade its pretty meagre return fire. Having taken note of the destroyer's defensive actions, River hurriedly programmed a salvo of missiles and released them in a dormant state along with several flares and chaff. Remaining dormant for a few seconds, the missiles avoided being targeted by the Eden destroyer before activating and seeking out the destroyer's thruster housings, penetrating deeply and rupturing the fusion reactor. Within a few seconds, the Eden destroyer completely lost power before scuttling to deny the shame of being captured. Having defeated the 3rd contact, River was about to start looking for new targets when a fleet-wide directive from commander Simmons reached the Wyrm.
[Attention all Royal guard vessels: Break their back!]
Immediately after the directive had reached the fleet, the flashes of nuclear detonations tore through the remaining Eden forces, targeting ships in the rear of the formation before the remaining fell silent.
"... Seems like they located the drone control command vessel. Let's get back into formation."
"Right-o."
Back aboard the railgun cruiser Valourant, Mike participated in the nuclear bombardment of the remaining Eden forces and as the remaining fell silent he ordered to seize fire.
"Captain, what just happened?"
"It seems like most of this Eden fleet was unmanned, after destroying the command vessel, the rest ran through their orders and fell silent. I imagine they'll start self-destructing in a few minutes, but we're going to remain vigilant until that happens… God I need a beer."
With pressure draining from Mike, his subordinate Jack ordered the CIC to repressurise before he removed his helmet along with the rest of the crew around him. Wearing a slight smile, Jack looked wordlessly at the officers inside the CIC, each of them met his smile with a wordless nod before Jack finally let Mike in on what was happening.
"Here in the Royal guard, we have a bit of a tradition, nothing major, but a tradition nonetheless."
Around Mike, the rest of the officers also stood up from their posts and took off their helmets wearing the same kind of grin as Jack.
"... If you guys are about to start hazing me I will start shooting at people again."
"No, nothing of the sort captain so calm down. The tradition I'm talking about is the crew judging their captain in battle. If the captain falters or abandons their post, leaving it to someone else the crew will band together to make the captain's life aboard hell, but if the captain rises to the challenge, and leads the crew with valour and skill the crew will celebrate their captain, just like this."
Out of nowhere, a crystal glass was handed to Mike, Jack pulled out a bottle from underneath the map plot and started pouring his captain some sort of amber-coloured liquid.
(... Fuck it.)
"Well, don't mind if I do."
Removing his helmet Mike downed the glass as the crew around him started cheering and clapping. Emptying the glass in one swig, Mike brought the glass down and breathed a satisfied sigh as his mouth felt like it was on fire, the satisfying heat was one he had missed from his days as a student.
"Well done Captain!"
Before Mike could even get his bearings, Jack commended him on his drinking as he was already pouring him another glass.
"Come on Captain, it's bad luck if you can't empty the bottle."
With the Valourant's first real battle under command of a new captain, celebrations lasted for about 8 hours, by the end, Mike managed to empty the bottle, and the rest of the crew also made marry well into the night after surviving their first real battle without a single casualty