The ten torpedo ships of the Talon Fleet began to converge at the front of the formation. These torpedo ships, a new class of vessel, were designed purely to launch devastating torpedoes, omitting even the installation of lances or arc weapons to maximize their payload. Once assembled, they fired into the endless ranks of the biological fleet ahead, launching thousands of torpedoes that streaked toward their targets.
In response, the bio-ships emitted a black mist composed of swarming insects, which charged toward the incoming torpedoes with the tenacity of kamikaze fighters. When these insects realized that their own bio-ammunition couldn't penetrate the torpedoes' outer shells, they formed clusters and hurled themselves directly at the warheads. Inside the torpedo ships, transport-loading systems delivered a fresh round of torpedoes from the armory directly into the launch tubes, readying them for a second volley.
This new volley matched the first in number but consisted of heavy-duty, shielded torpedoes, including ten massive, slower-moving ones. The first wave was intercepted, with half being destroyed, while the remaining torpedoes detonated among the bio-ships with varied effects—some erupting in explosions, others unleashing arcs of electricity, and still others emitting hundreds of particle lances in a blinding flash. At least three hundred bio-ships were annihilated, and realizing the danger posed by these weapons, the swarm intensified their interception efforts.
Swarms of drones and warriors surged forward to intercept the second wave, but these heavy-duty torpedoes bore their own point-defense systems, picking off incoming enemies. The Leviathan Swarm was puzzled by the torpedoes' defensive armaments, unable to fathom why such munitions would be equipped with close-range defenses. The slow-moving torpedoes' effectiveness seemed diminished compared to the first wave, yet hidden among them were the ten massive torpedoes that represented the main offensive force.
The reinforced torpedoes pushed through the bio-fighters and tore into the bio-ships' defenses, penetrating deeper into the swarm. Upon reaching the heart of the enemy fleet, these oversized torpedoes self-detonated, opening rifts in dimensional space that swallowed all nearby bio-ships. Dimensional Torpedoes—Talon's rendition of the Vortex Torpedoes. Any creature drawn into the dimensional tear would be shredded, its soul devoured, and its husk aged and disintegrated in the relentless tides of time.
Although the Swarm's Overmind perceived the threat posed by the torpedo ships, it refrained from redirecting its forces to eliminate them, deeming the thousand bio-ship casualties an acceptable sacrifice. The bio-fleet continued pressing to sever the human fleet, nearly succeeding. With each lost cruiser, each fallen ship, the fleet's formation threatened to shatter, and the bio-ships seemed poised to split them in two.
Realizing they could advance no further, Qua'ron understood that some form of protection was essential to buy time for the fleet to regroup. Adam, too, reached this conclusion.
"Deploy the defense platforms."
Upon Adam's order, the platforms stationed in the shipyard were immediately activated and teleported to the fleet's perimeter, surrounding it in a protective formation. Equipped with firepower that dwarfed even that of battleships, the platforms unleashed lances that incinerated bio-ships within range. Heavy torpedoes launched from the platforms' underbelly, providing cover for the fleet's besieged vessels.
After five relentless minutes of lance fire, two blazing orbs erupted from the main cannons at the core of the platforms, melting everything in their path. Fifty kilometers out, these orbs fragmented into rays of fiery rain, riddling bio-ships below the devourer class with countless punctures.
From above, the orbital shipyards unleashed arcs of electricity upon the swarm below. With the double-edged assault of the defense platforms and the orbital shipyards, the Swarm had no choice but to circle, evading direct attacks while waiting for an opening. Yet the platforms' shields, constantly replenished by currents of blue energy streaming between them, proved impenetrable. Faced with these resilient defenses, the Overmind realized it could either destroy all the platforms or concede the field.
In the sanctuary of the platforms, the human fleet regrouped swiftly. Damaged vessels entered the shipyard for rapid repairs, nullifying the Swarm's attempts to disrupt their formation. The fleet resumed its advance, while the defense platforms teleported into the heart of the enemy swarm, poised to engage the bio-mother ships.
Qua'ron hoped the platforms might sink the bio-motherships, only to find the Swarm's commander seemingly one step ahead. Enormous siren-beasts swarmed the exact points where the platforms emerged, colliding with them as soon as they left dimensional space.
Psionics. Only psionics could explain this uncanny foresight. Just as the Swarm had psionic broodlords, capable of glimpsing the future, so, too, must they have foreseen this attack.
Though the assassination attempt had failed, the fleet, now restored and reformed, pressed onward. Relentlessly harried by the enemy, they advanced inch by inch, with the bio-mothership ever just out of reach.
"If it keeps fleeing, we'll never catch it," Qua'ron remarked to Adam.
"Indeed, but that's no surprise," Adam replied, calculating that at their current speed, pursuing the mothership was futile. Yet a solution was at hand. "If we can close the gap to seven hundred kilometers, we'll have a stable range for teleportation."
"All we need is an opening within that range—a space the bio-ships can't fill shoulder to shoulder," Adam explained.
Qua'ron found this plan sound, though the dense cluster of bio-ships meant teleporting any closer remained impossible.
Their advance resumed, slow and arduous, and just as Qua'ron and Adam braced themselves for a prolonged battle, a sudden blaze erupted from the planet below, hurtling toward the fleet. Cutting through bio-ships as if they were made of paper, it approached without veering, leaving a trail of destruction.
As it drew near, Adam discerned that this was no mere flame—it was a humanoid being wreathed in fire.