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Mathilde looked somewhat frantic despite her otherwise calm demeanor. Or, perhaps, it was some degree of anger that wanted to break through the surface.

“Corvus Republic, I wish I could greet you with good tidings,” she said. “But I’ve heard some troubling things. I’m assuming you’re here to confirm those same things?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Lucifer replied. “Sending you a briefing now, including raw sensor data from one of our vessels. It doesn’t look good.”

Mathilde cursed sharply under her breath as she glanced over the Republic’s report.

“You’re the seventh confirmation in the past three minutes,” she said through gritted teeth. “And all combined, it looks like they’ve doubled their numbers in conflict sector two. If this is just the start, then they’ve got a whole lot more incoming.”

“You honestly don’t sound very surprised, Minister,” said Azrael.

Mathilde’s grimace eased up instantly. She rolled her neck and relaxed her shoulders and worked the tension out. Then, when she was ready, she replied.

.....

“I’ve been expecting this for a while,” she said. “Which is why the Hegemony asked the Star Dragon to station himself there. His very presence keeps their rather pathetic fleet at bay. But these numbers... They’re fielding a navy far larger than we can account for.”

“That seems an egregious error,” said Raijin.

“My thoughts exactly. Question is, is this a case of bad intelligence, or good counterintelligence?”

“I’ve got another question,” said Lucifer. “What does their Drogar front look like?”

Mathilde was immediately taken aback. It suddenly dawned on her that the Federation could initiate a great offensive if they pulled their forces from their other fronts. But that meant that they were open to the Drogar.

Did they beat them back?

Mathilde found the idea preposterous. But she sent a query anyway. The answer shocked her to her core.

“I sent out a pulse check,” she said, slowly. “And my people report a quiet front. No combat. No limited war. No ships in any lane, not even pirates.”

Lucifer’s brow furrowed. Something was happening, but ze didn’t have enough information to make a proper conclusion. All ze had was hir best guess.

“It’s possible they held a full ceasefire just so the Federation could push in on their Hegemony front,” ze said after a moment. “And the Empire may have accepted, if only for the opportunity to commit a betrayal down the line. Neither side could be so foolish not to account for this, though.”

“Agreed,” said Mathilde. “Though I wouldn’t discount that they were somehow able to push back the Drogar to force a truce. If they successfully hid their manufacturing from us, then we must assume they have a massive fleet.

“And if they have enough to push the Empire back, then they have enough to push us back. The Federation may be the least technologically advanced of the three great galactic nations, but that doesn’t matter if their ships outnumber ours.”

The entire room turned grim at her words. It was the last thing anyone wanted to hear.

“How about your Drogar contacts?” Mathilde continued. “Any word from them?”

“Last we spoke was a couple weeks ago,” Freya said. “But they were kinda tense now that I think about it. Didn’t seem as outgoing and cheerful as normal.”

“They possibly knew they were getting beaten back,” Raijin added. “Or knew they signed a truce with the Federation. They’re defense contractors and Justicars in the capital, after all. Telling us anything might have been seen as treason.”

“Can we turn them into sources?” asked Lucifer.

“Possibly,” Freya answered. “But we’d need to be in Drogar space to ask. And that’s probably not a good idea right now.”

“We shouldn’t be in Imperial space anyway,” added Azrael. “We need to be in conflict sector two, helping people out. If the Federation’s starting a war, we need to get aid to all those people out of there! They’re gonna get caught up between all the fighting – even more than before.”

A murmur of agreement erupted from most of the other First Feathers. But not all of them.

“But we can’t,” said Claire. “Our fleet isn’t allowed to commit major engagements in Hegemony Conflict Sectors. Not until we’re a fully-fledged nation-state. The only auth we’ve got out there is commercial.”

“Would you rather leave those people out to die?” Xylo chided her.

Claire grimaced, and shook her head adamantly.

“Of course not! But we need to be aware of what we can or can’t do. They could easily deny nation-statehood if we broke their rules! Everyone’s lives are at stake!”

“Exactly why I wanna go in. Everyone’s lives are at stake.”

“I think we oughta go in, too,” Freya added. “They might use disobedience as a reason to turn us down, but we can’t just ignore our own charter, right? Nation-statehood sounds nice, but we exist to protect people. In my mind, nothing else is more important than that.”

“Not only that,” said Lucifer. “But this is an emergency, and we have the ability and the skill and the resources and the will to act. We should argue that although we violated a rule, we were true to our own Articles. And that should supersede soft restrictions like that. It would be proof of the strength of our nation-state.”

“Alright,” said Claire. “Let’s hold an emergency vote.”

~

There was a bright flash as the Fleet of the Corvus Republic ported into space, high above planet Tarsus. And they were immediately met with the sounds of combat, along with a request for assistance on Hegemony military communications lines.

A few thousand meters away from the Hegemony’s teleport beacon were a couple of small fleets in combat with each other. A large Hegemony cruiser slowly trundled through space as it fought off numerous destroyers and fighters all around.

Not that the cruiser was alone – it was defended by a half dozen frigates and a squadron of fighters.

Both sides exchanged beams and chaingun rounds and cannon fire and missiles and flak, and pounded everyone around them. Their armor was shredded and torn and ripped apart, even as the fighters pursued each other with guns blazing.

Lucifer paced around hir TacMap and reviewed every ship on the field. Ze looked at their fleet’s loadout, their readiness. Then smiled.

They had grown much in the past handful of years, with their first expansion being a second destroyer. Unlike the Raven’s Refuge, this one was specifically meant to act as the fleet’s primary protective vessel.

Of course, it was heavily armored and armed to the teeth. It had more than double the armaments that the Raven’s Refuge enjoyed, which unfortunately also meant its civilian space was also reduced to a quarter.

–

Raven’s Refuge

Class: Destroyer

Role: Flagship

Bridge Officer: Admiral Aurora

Armament

Broadside Turrets: 20x [M3]

Broadside Emplacements: 6x [M3]

Topside Hangar Bay [12/24]

Bottom Hangar Bay [24/24]

–

Blade of Damocles

Class: Destroyer

Role: Fleet Defense

Bridge Officer: Rear Admiral Nehara

Armament

Broadside Turrets: 36x [M3]

Topside Emplacements: 10x [M3]

Broadside Boarding Cannons: 4x [M3]

Bottom Hangar Bay [12/12]

–

“This’ll be a nice warmup,” ze said.

Then, ze traced numerous attack patterns into the TacMap and began to issue hir instructions to the two destroyers.

While the smaller ships of the fleet began their descent over the planet, the two combat ships adjusted their formation and advanced on the Federation aggressors. They adjusted their flight path and flanked the enemy destroyers, even while they were engaged with the Hegemony cruiser, and sandwiched them.

The Raven’s Refuge and the Blade of Damocles began to spin and rotate and maneuver around each other as they moved forward, as though they were tracing the helix of a strand of DNA. And as they spun ever closer, rotated their bodies so that their starboard guns were constantly pointing at their targets.

By the time they were in range, they had repositioned to be one on top of the other, with both of their broadsides clear. And in unison, fired every cannon they had.

Shells screamed towards a handful of the Federation destroyers and smashed into their armor with devastating force. Some of the plating was heavily dented as the shells bounced off them, while others punched through the thinner or weaker sections.

A few forced themselves between the plates and ripped into the structure below. There, they caused a great deal of strife as they shredded numerous modules apart. And any crew members nearby.

Both destroyers lurched slightly towards their portside from the force of the blasts, but didn’t bother to readjust for a second volley. Instead, they continued performing their spinning helix as they ducked just out of range.

As they continued with their helix flight pattern, they wove back into effective combat range with both starboard sides presenting. And once again, fired their cannons in unison.

Their shells struck another set of Federation destroyers, and shattered whatever armor and turrets and modules as they could.

Though the Federation fired back, most shots simply went wide thanks to their constant weaving in and out and up and down. Whatever few that did hit left nice dents on the destroyers’ armor, but there was plenty of time for their repair modules to patch them back up.

By the time the ships were in position for a third time, whatever damage they had taken was gone.

The Republic’s destroyers released a third devastating volley just as they veered into range again. Their shots peppered the enemy destroyers more and more, and whittled their armor down further and further.

As they attacked on one side, the Hegemony cruiser and its frigate escort defended on the other. They pounded on the Federation destroyers that were sandwiched between them, and wrenched their armor from their end as well.

Together, the two fleets hammered on half the Federation destroyers in the battle space. Shells and missiles struck their ships on both sides, and shredded their armor to pieces. They also struck their turrets and thrusters, which were blasted apart from the force of impact.

.....

One of the Federation destroyers was utterly pummeled by concentrated fire, and ripped apart by their crossfire. Shells ripped through its midsection with such force that it was literally torn in half.

Small explosions burst up and down its passageways as multiple breaches ripped across its decks.

And both halves also began to fall down, even as it continued to disintegrate from the inside. The hulls began to glow brightly from atmospheric entry, and turned its disparate fragments into slag along the way.

The detritus of their ships floated in space all around, and were slowly drawn down towards the planet, by the very edges of its gravitational field. And burned to nothing as they fell further and further down.

A rain of fire descended on Tarsus as the fighting high above escalated further and further.