Chapter 150

Plan Start

An hour before the start of the invasion, Lucas started lining up s.h.i.+ps. Placing his stealth s.h.i.+p in orbit around the seventh planet, he ordered its stealth systems to be activated ten minutes before the enemy usually invaded.

Communicating with the AI, he coordinated their attacks. Aslo, Chu Shen, and Chrissa were not allowed to partic.i.p.ate in this fight. He was worried they might do something dumb like activate their teleporters. 

Currently the only technology they wanted to reveal was the railgun turrets. Just that should be enough to make the drones want to run and inform their ‘masters’ of the advanced technology they had. There was no need to inform the enemy of their other capabilities such as the tachyon cannon.

Right now they had matched the enemy's numbers with the AI’s s.h.i.+ps. It apparently had never stopped manufacturing s.h.i.+ps, even though its industrial capabilities was badly outmatched.  The battles.h.i.+ps were the only s.h.i.+ps that were not made by the AI and had been replaced by Lucas’ battles.h.i.+ps.

This fleet had positioned themselves in orbit around the sixth planet, placing the planet between them and the emergence point of the invaders so as to avoid detection. At the expected time, the enemy jumped in. Now it was time to wait.

Finally, it was time to enact their plan.

First, the AI moved all of its s.h.i.+ps towards the enemy. Fighters launched and engaged in dogfights with the enemy’s fighters. Lasers and plasma bolts streaked across the void of s.p.a.ce, causing s.h.i.+elds to flare to life all over the arena. s.h.i.+ps exploded as their s.h.i.+elds failed, exposing their weak armor to the rigours of superheated plasma. 

After thirty minutes, the entire AI fleet had been wiped out. The enemy only had a third of their fleet left with most of it being the heavy battles.h.i.+ps and some destroyers. Without the support of their own battles.h.i.+ps, since Lucas’ was withholding them at the moment, they didn’t have enough firepower to take down the heavily s.h.i.+elded behemoths. 

As a result, they were limited to harrying actions on the battles.h.i.+ps and mainly focused on the less-protected destroyers and fighters. At the same time though, the enemy battles.h.i.+ps only had large-bore plasma cannons and laser arrays. 

The huge weapons, while powerful, couldn’t turn as fast as their smaller counterparts. As a result, they couldn’t keep up with the smaller s.h.i.+ps agility, though they were able to come to bear on some of the destroyers. It had come down to each sides smaller s.h.i.+ps clas.h.i.+ng with the occasional lucky hit landed by the enemy battles.h.i.+ps.

Now that the AI’s fleet was destroyed, it was Lucas’ time to s.h.i.+ne. The enemy s.h.i.+ps turned towards him and lit up their engines. The handful of fighters shot towards the front of his formation. Before they came into laser range though, the suddenly split apart, going completely vertical.

Lucas realized they were just trying to distract his s.h.i.+ps and draw fire. Ignoring the pitiful attempts at distraction, he ordered his battles.h.i.+ps forwards in an arrow formation. His s.h.i.+ps were layered so that each one had a clear view of the s.p.a.ce in front of it.

Firing their railguns, Lucas’ battles.h.i.+ps focused on the enemy battles.h.i.+ps, completely ignoring the more agile destroyers. The railguns range was, theoretically, unlimited. The projectiles would continue through the void of s.p.a.ce, unhindered by the confines of gravity. Lasers and plasma, on the other hand, would lose focus and dissipate. 

As a result, Lucas’ battles.h.i.+ps was able to fire as soon as he ordered. They were currently outside of laser range, meaning there was no return fire yet. Soon, the enemy started to realize something was wrong.

The first indication that they had that they were under attack was when one of the battles.h.i.+ps lost half of its engines. Shortly after, multiple holes appeared in the s.h.i.+p until it promptly exploded. 

It seemed as though the s.h.i.+p exploding was a signal of some sort. Over fifteen battles.h.i.+ps exploded within seconds of each other. Realizing they were under fire, the enemy started to conduct evasive measures. Another thirty battles.h.i.+ps exploded before they could get out of the way of the incoming projectiles.

Soon though, the enemy had reached the farthest range of their lasers. The plasma cannons still needed some time in order to get into range. Several of Lucas’ battles.h.i.+ps started to get low on s.h.i.+elds as groups of twenty enemy battles.h.i.+ps focused in on specific s.h.i.+ps. 

Upon reaching 30% s.h.i.+eld integrity, Lucas’ s.h.i.+ps slowed down, dropping out of formation. Other battles.h.i.+ps took their place as the ones they replaced tried to replenish their s.h.i.+elds energy. Like this, Lucas avoided too many casualties until they started to form groups of 30 to hunt his s.h.i.+ps down. 

Since they were no longer in the extreme range of his railgun turrets, Lucas decided it was time to stop with the kiddy gloves. Ordering his battles.h.i.+ps to go to fully automatic, he started to return fire. Over a thousand projectiles per second from 1 turret. 10 turrets firing at once. From 150 battles.h.i.+ps. It was a slaughter.

The enemy battles.h.i.+ps started turning into swiss cheese within seconds of the order. This might seem exaggerated but it was completely normal. A single railgun projectile can punch a three foot wide hole upon entry through the armor of a battles.h.i.+p and make a twelve foot hole upon exiting the s.h.i.+p. Imagine over a hundred of those hitting all over the s.h.i.+p.

A laser could burn a five-foot hole through a battles.h.i.+p. However, it took over ten lasers to take a s.h.i.+eld down 30% in two minutes. A railgun projectile ignored s.h.i.+elds though. With no protective measures at all, the enemy battles.h.i.+ps were, essentially, sitting ducks with a slightly annoying beak.

All of the destroyers suddenly lit-up their engines and fled the system. The battles.h.i.+ps, along with the pitifully few fighters and their carriers, charged right down the battles.h.i.+ps throats. Within fifteen minutes, all of the enemy forces was annihilated. The destroyers, though, had managed to gain a significant lead on him. 

Realizing that the enemy was now free from distractions, the destroyers started to conduct evasive maneuvers. Lucas ordered his battles.h.i.+ps to start firing on the enemy. Identifying 8 destroyers that were the least damaged, he ordered those destroyers to be the ‘miss’ targets. Now his battles.h.i.+ps would deliberately miss shots on those destroyers.

After about ten minutes, the 49 enemy dreadnoughts that had fled was reduced to sixteen. Now they were out of the railguns conceivable range. It was so far that it would take the railguns one minute to cover the distance. With that much time, the enemy could certainly avoid the incoming projectiles. a.s.suming they could see them that is.

Lucas kept his battles.h.i.+ps chasing after them, even though it was obviously futile. While they were busy following his orders, Lucas activated his stealth s.h.i.+p. The s.h.i.+p closed in on the enemy destroyers. 

Firing its missiles, they closed in on the enemy. The missiles flew rapidly until they were even with the enemy s.h.i.+ps. Matching velocities, they activated their programming. The missiles had small hatches the size of the tip of a pen open all along its sides. 

Thousands of nanites flew out of the hatches and attached themselves onto the enemy s.h.i.+ps. The nanites matched the same color as the outside of the enemy s.h.i.+ps. Activating their Tachyon comms, they sent a small pulse to Lucas, confirming their viability. 

The eight s.h.i.+ps he had tagged as ‘miss’ targets had received the nanite payload. Upon reaching their entrance point, the enemy destroyers disappeared into hypers.p.a.ce. Lucas grinned.

It looked like it was finally time to enact their plan.