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However, coupled with some incredible dog fighting skills which was the hallmark of Symphonia\'s military, the homing missiles released by the fighters allowed them to deal much more damage than they received. Only less than 25% of the fighters were destroyed.

Because they shared a single centralized supercomputer within the Mothership, no two missiles were fired at the same target. The incredible efficiency totally demolished the wave of drones which went after the fighters.

The surviving fighters immediately turned back and fired their energy weapons at the mass of drones still drilling at the Defensive Link Formation of the frigates.

PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

The barrage by the fighters joined those released by the battlecruisers and destroyers, and continued to smash into the drones unabated. Slowly but surely, the drones began to weaken until finally, they hit a critical point and immediately dispersed.

Commander Batrias gave a silent sigh of relief. "All fighters, return and re-ar-"

"A second drone wave detected!" His aide shouted urgently. "Estimates number them at over twenty million! And they are much larger than the previous drones!"

"Buy time." The cold voice sounded in Commander Batrias\'s ear. "Secondary cannons of The Tiger Lord are charging."

"All fighters." Commander Batrias said calmly. "I salute you for your incredible bravery and service to the Empire. You are all heroes. This is your final mission. Attack and destroy the incoming drones. Godspeed to you."

There was silence for a moment within the bridge of the Mothership. Blink.

The massive screen within the bridge suddenly showed the view of the fighters from the Mothership\'s vantage point.

They were like an island facing a hundred-meter tall tsunami that stretched from the East to the West.

The fighters hovered in their impeccable formation for a few moments before finally, one squadron after another, they spread out and accelerated towards the incoming drone wave.

Thousands of missiles shot out towards the drones as the fighters emptied their remaining missile inventory. Beams of energy fire also struck the drone wave all across the board.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Hundreds of thousands of drones exploded. But it was a tiny dent to an unstoppable wave.

Finally, the first fighters smashed into the drone wave.

BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMM!!! BOOOMM!!!

Much larger explosions ripped into the drone wave, destroying large swathes of drones.

BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!!! BOOM!!!!

The people in the bridge fought down their tears as they witnessed the final charge of their friends, brothers and sisters.

Many fighters managed to survive the first few seconds as they agilely avoided impact with the drones. They maneuvered with breathtaking skill past the nigh impassable wall of drones and pierced deep into the drone body. However, there was nothing but death awaiting them there.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Muffled explosions sounded continuously a few seconds later as the final fighters exploded within the drone body.

Seventy five thousand fighters survived the first drone wave. None survived the second.

All for a few precious seconds. Seconds which could determine whether the remaining nine hundred thousand souls in the other ships could survive or not.

"Frigates. Hold your ground. Ready the Mothership\'s long range nuclear missiles." Commander Batrias commanded.

"One hundred seconds." The cold voice sounded in Commander Batrias\'s ear.

"The frigates would not survive a hundred seconds." Commander Batrias grimly thought to himself. "If the frigates fall, then the battlecruisers and destroyers would fall within seconds as well. And once they do, the Mothership would be defenseless."

The Mothership was designed for transport and defense. It was basically a rocket-powered tortoise. Apart from long range missiles and standard short range defensive energy cannons, it had nothing that would give it even a glimmer of fighting chance against even a few thousand drones, much less millions.

With the firepower of the fleet stationed within the Mothership, nothing was supposed to close within a hundred miles of the Mothership. And if they did, it meant that its fleet was destroyed, and by default, so would the Mothership.

"Battlecruisers and destroyers, link up with the frigates. Full defensive mode!" Commander Batrias commanded.

Going into full defense would be pure folly. Without the battle cruisers and destroyers raining death upon the drones, it was only a matter of time before the drones break through the shields and shred them all into pieces.

However, with the Starship\'s secondary cannons charging, they could turn the tables around if they could hold out until the secondary cannons could fire.

"Nuclear missiles ready." His aide reported.

"Fire!" Commander Batrias immediately ordered.

Ten hatches opened on the Mothership and ten regular sized missiles launched almost noiselessly.

"Brace for impact." Commander Batrias commanded his fleet.

The missiles accelerated rapidly, broke past machs one, two, three and four in mere microseconds and ate up the distance between them and the drones rapidly.

"Nine seconds to impact.... Five… Four… Three… Two… Impact."

B O O O O O O O M M M M M M M ! ! ! ! !

The drone advance stopped as the powerful nuclear blasts obliterated everything within a one-kilometer radius.

For a few agonizing seconds, the bright lights caused by the explosion was all that everybody could see. However, for Commander Batrias, he could \'see\' everything very clearly using his instruments.

And what he saw caused him to go very pale.

Beyond a few hundred thousand drones in the front line which was caught in the epicenter of the nuclear blast, the remaining drones were still operational.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!!

They quickly resumed their charge and smashed into the frigate shield with devastating power.

BOOM!!

This time, there was not much resistance. The drones in the second wave were much stronger and much greater in number. They quickly hit the critical mass required to smash down the frigate shield and shredded the frigates into nothing within a few brutal seconds.

Commander Batrias sighed, sat down upon his captain\'s seat and closed his eyes.

Very soon, his earpiece crackled lightly and then his fleet captains\' voices sounded.

"Shields at 40% power, dropping fast! Shield\'s are down! I repeat shields are-"

"Commander, it was an honor serving the Empire with you."

"Commander Batrias, it has been an honor."

"Commande-"

"Sir. I\'ll see you on the other side."

"Farewell, Commander."

…

...

And then there was silence. Only his battlecruiser captains managed to get their final words out.

"Shields at seventy percent." His aide said softly.

"Forty percent."

"Ten percent."

"Shields are down."

BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!!! The drones quickly swarmed the Solar Class Mothership - Tiger 24 and caused it to explode.

*-*-*-*-*

Prince Jolto frowned.

His motherships had met with unbelievably stiff resistance from endless numbers of drones. The situation with Commander Batrias were repeated many, many times over. Out of a thousand, over a hundred motherships had been overwhelmed and destroyed. Another hundred would soon follow their unfortunate brothers and sisters to the grave.

Another seven hundred were in a stalemate. Only a small number were actually winning outright, but that was due to the help of the starship\'s secondary cannons. Only twenty motherships had met with relatively weaker resistance and had managed to land on the planet.

"Uh oh. You\'re not crazy after all." Princess Jenny muttered while shaking her head as she watched the live report of the battle. "Flario\'s power runs much deeper than I thought. For him to be able to arm a mere Arcanus planet to the teeth with Level 1 and 2 drones is rather incredible. Jolto, he\'s probably ten times richer than you. You might have picked the wrong side there. Hee hee!"

Prince Jolto shrugged lightly. "They\'re just motherships. A reasonable price to pay to undermine my dear brother\'s image."

"You\'re talking as though you\'ve already found Princess Anastasia. With only twenty damaged motherships, how are you going to find her AND fight off the drones at the same time? Look, some of the drones who managed to kill their motherships are already flying off in the direction of your motherships on the ground."

"All motherships on the ground. Begin Operation Stardust immediately." Prince Jolto ordered.

"Ooooh Operation Stardust. I like the sound of it. What does it do?" Princess Jenny asked curiously.

Prince Jolto smiled gently at Princess Jenny. "Little girls should keep quiet and ask less questions, lest their big brothers get annoyed and throw them out of the bridge."

"Pooh! You won\'t throw me out of the bridge. Who will finance you and your crazy and very costly plans if you do?" Princess Jenny snorted.

Prince Jolto laughed.

"That\'s true." He said mildly and pointed at the screen showing the various motherships on the ground. "Operation Stardust simply means sacrificing the mothership and sending out all personnel to quickly gain control of the powers on the ground to execute their mission."

"Oh so you\'re not killing everybody anymore?" Princess Jenny pouted. "If you aren\'t killing everybody, why should I finance your operations then?

"Of course I still am going to kill them. But that has to wait until AFTER I capture Princess Anastasia. I need the manpower now, can\'t you see?" Prince Jolto rolled his eyes at his bloodthirsty little sister.

"Alright then! Hee Hee!" Princess Jenny giggled cutely.

*-*-*-*-*

In the distance, Alexander watched the final wave of drones explode, taking along with it the battered battlecruiser.

"Only the mothership and three other battlecruisers remain." Alexander said softly to Flamewing.

"What are you going to do?" Flamewing asked Alexander.

"Capture them.." Alexander said.