Before Simon even got close to the shuttle,there were a bunch of drone escorts waiting for him.
Shield drones and guardian drones surrounded the shuttle in a defensive perimeter.
Before he left the arena he spoke briefly with Liara and Alesia explaining that he had to go to his flag ship and take care of whoever was attacking.
His opponent just disappeared into thin air but he had a hunch that they would meet again and not as friends.
When his shuttle left the atmosphere he saw what was going in with his own eyes.
The chaos of the battle was immense but for now he couldn't do anything about it.
He approached the Thanatos and just flown through the shields of the dreadnought
thanks to the shields pairing technology.
Simon ran to the bridge as fast as he could.
-Admiral on deck.
One of the officers shouted and all of them stood at attention saluting.
-At ease,we don't have the time for that.
What do we know about the enemy and what's the status of the fleet?
-The enemy is an unknown species but their weapons and shield signatures are quite similar to the federation.
Our fleet is doing great and so far none of our ships have even lost shields.
The Elani fleet is not doing so well but they are hanging in there and according to my predictions they will win this battle but they will pay a high price for the victory.
Athena said while simultaneously targeting the enemy ships.
The Thanatos was a real beast on the battlefield destroying ship after ship with its energy weapons,missiles,and torpedoes.
The MAC's were charged up and loaded but there was no target for them yet as they were too far away from the enemy's cruisers and battleships.
However the enemy corvette,frigate and destroyer class ships were being wiped out wholesale by the monstrous war machine and her escorts.
The enemy soon started a slow retreat but they didn't jump,just went to the reverse thrust and moved away from the planet while still engaging the Elani and the Terrans.
-What are they doing?
Simon asked as it made no sense to him at all.
If the enemy wanted to retreat,all it took was a jump and the battle was over but for some reason they just retreated on sub-light engines alone.
-It looks like they're trying to do a fighting retreat sir but I don't have any idea why don't they just jump?
Simon's tactical officer answered his question.
Simon thought for a moment and went pale at the answer he came up with.
-Send half of our fleet to protect the planet and inform our people on the ground that they might have guests coming down.
While you're at it, inform the Elani space command about a possibility of a ground assault incoming.
Simon tried to find a purpose in the enemy movement and the only option was to get the defensive fleet away from the planet to either drop troops or to do an orbital bombardment.
The last option was highly unlikely because of the orbital and ground defenses but if they managed to land troops on the planet and disable the defenses or capture the Imperial family then it made sense.
His communications officer relayed the information and orders as soon as he possibly could and got a reply from the ground that half of the unit was guarding the envoy and the rest were with the empress and her family to ensure their safety.
Hearing their response Simon breathed out a sigh of relief.
Now he could focus on destroying the enemy in front of him.
-Enemy battleship went into effective range of our MAC's and we have a firing solution.
The weapons officer reported.
-Fire at will.
Simon commanded and a moment later the whole ship shook slightly when all of the Mega MAC's fired at once.
All four projectiles went for the target and struck it, bypassing the shields which were calibrated to the energy weapons,cutting the battleship in half with their kinetic energy.
Their next target was a destroyer and it didn't last long, under the assault of the Thanatos energy weapons its shields collapsed in less than two seconds and it was ripped to pieces.
Simon's ship also got its fair share of incoming fire but thanks to the new shields they were still over 50% and charging.
Unfortunately not everyone had the luxury of the newest equipment and some of the terran ships lost their shields but thanks to their armored hulls they were still in the fight and recharging their shields.
The human fleet lost only two ships and one of those wasn't really destroyed but heavily damaged.
Some other ships had slight damage but most of it was to the armor.
The dance of destruction continued for another hour when the sensors detected another incoming fleet.
This time they were using the standard FTL so they were detected before they jumped in.
It turned out that Simon was right,the second fleet jumped in close to the planet and there were many big ships amongst its ranks that looked like troop transports.
The aliens had a nasty surprise waiting for them as half of the Terran fleet was in orbit along with some Elani ships,not to mention the orbital defenses and ground based weapons capable of reaching the orbit.
They jumped in and right the next moment came under fire losing over 20% of their fleet before they could figure out what was going on.
Despite their losses some of the troop transports managed to launch their shuttles down to the planet.
Many of them were destroyed by the ships and orbital defenses but there were too many of them to take them all out.
Elani air defenses also shot down many of the incoming enemy transports but they couldn't get them all and around 30% landed on the planet engaging the Imperial ground forces.
Within two hours the transport fleet was reduced to scrap by the combined might of the Terran and Elani defenders.
The battle fleet wasn't doing any better and soon the ships that were still capable of FTL flight jumped out of the system.
The rest stayed and covered their retreat while still engaging the Terran and Elani fleets and they fought to the last.
The space battle lasted for almost six hours in total and left many ships destroyed or damaged on both sides.
The enemy ships that were dead in space but relatively in one piece started to explode one by one leaving no trace of their crews and no information about their origin.
The same thing happened with all of the bodies floating in space or lying on the ground.
Whoever the enemy was they made sure to cover their tracks when they lost.