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Although what they saw relieved most of their immediate worries, High Admiral Pavir and his officers were far from content. In fact, their anxiety lowered only marginally, even though their numbers had practically doubled.

—

Typhon Defense Fleet

Devastators: 4

Carriers: 12

Battleships: 23

Cruisers: 84

.....

Destroyers: 239

Frigates: 477

Fighters: 834

Mecha: 1104

Drones: 2275

Turrets: 2878

–

Typhon Reinforcement Fleet

Devastators: 4

Carriers: 11

Battleships: 18

Cruisers: 77

Destroyers: 288

Frigates: 431

Fighters: 1142

Mecha: 1259

Drones: 2000

—

Truth was, most of the Defending Fleet was getting progressively more damaged. They would certainly be able to keep up with repairs while the Reinforcement Fleet engaged, but they’d ultimately be stuck in an eternal cycle.

The two fleets would end up rotating who was up front fighting, and who was in the rear repairing. Which meant that they could weather this fight only as long as they had enough raw materials.

And unfortunately, many of their ships were down to less than half of their capacity.

Despite their fears, they worked quickly as they readjusted the fleet’s formation. They didn’t hesitate to have their reinforcements take to the front immediately.

Outside, the incoming fleet quickly fanned outward and merged down into the spiraling chaos below. They angled their broadsides as they descended, and fired into the enemy ships closest to them.

One of their devastators ripped into the most damaged Federation devastator with overcharged plasma lances. It tore into the already gaping hole in the armor and chewed further into the ship itself, deep into its belly.

As it ceaselessly dug in further and further, a half dozen supporting battleships adjusted their rail cannons’ aim. Their barrels glowed bright with energy as they hit their absolute peak, then discharged all that power.

The rail spikes shot out in the blink of an eye and drove deep into their target.

Some punched through the enemy devastator’s main power plant before they all perforated the plating on the other side. One of the Imperial cruisers hiding and repairing behind the Federation devastator was struck by many of those same rail spikes.

It too was perforated by the powerful de Jardin weapons.

The Imperial cruiser began to implode just as the devastator next to it tore itself in half with a vast explosion. The massive ship broke into two large pieces as the power plant erupted in every direction. A chain reaction of explosions spread deep through the ship halves, which tore whatever remained apart.

Slabs of burning metal were flung in every direction and struck every ship all around it. Though some of it left deep gouges or stuck into de Jardin armor, they dug much deeper into any Federation ships. They even caused Imperial chitin to get chipped and cracked on impact.

Some were flung down towards Dendrus, straight towards a number of mirror stations. A few struck defensive turrets and tore them to shreds while the rest buzzed by at speed. But they only got partway past the turret layer before an antigrav field shimmered as it caught the shards.

The sight of it caused Delvath to reel back in surprise. He believed that only the Empire held advanced antigrav shielding, but now it was clear that the Hegemony far surpassed their own technology. They had made one large enough to protect an entire planet.

It was awe-inspiring for him. Then, once that feeling passed, he knew he had to capture the station at any cost.

He felt that only the Empire was deserving of that kind of power.

That feeling was doubly reassured the moment the Federation devastator disintegrated quickly and completely. There was no way he was going to allow such primitive people to step foot on such a technological marvel.

Delvath shook his head as he watched the damage report scroll by a holoprojector.

“Pitiful,” he said into open comms. “This is the result of your Federation choosing quantity over quality.”

“So says the officer who lost a devastator before I did,” replied Tarvanos.

“Hmph. Well said. Do you have any ships on reserve? Best bring them in now.”

“Exactly. Pulling ‘em in as they finish rearmament and repair from wherever they’ve been deployed. They’ll help ease the front lines. I hope you’re doing the same.”

“Oh, I’ve got a nice surprise coming in, but it’ll take some time to put together,” said Delvath. His tone made Tarvanos incredibly suspicious. It made him wonder if he was still playing some kind of game, if he was delaying his own reserves to ensure higher Federation casualties.

He simply couldn’t shake that the swarmfather was purposefully using the Federation fleet as his shield. Hell, he felt like Delvath was practically insulting him by dragging his feet. But what could he do except turn? If he did, then neither of them had a chance of winning.

“And once it gets here, it’ll be the end of these Hegemony fools,” continued Delvath. “It won’t matter at all how many apes are flying out there. Everything dies.”

As Delvath spoke, Tarvanos issued silent orders to his officers seated by his side.

—

Direct Command

Issuer: High Admiral Fane Tarvanos

Priority: One-Niner-Xray

Classification: Tactical Adjustment

Command: Allow defenses to slip and for Imperial allies to suffer damage. Pretense: randomized evasive maneuvers. Do not acknowledge command, merely do it. Destroy this record of command.

—

The Federation fleet immediately followed their commander’s orders and slowly and subtly adjusted their flight patterns. They wove up and down more erratically as they swirled around the de Jardin ships.

Though they kept up the ruse and took a significant amount of weapons fire, some did slip past, and slammed into any Imperial ships hiding behind them.

And while they made those deceptive adjustments to their flight pattern, the space around Tarvanos’ devastator lit up. Space warped slightly as dozens of Federation cruisers, destroyers, and frigates ported in. They were accompanied by hundreds of fighters, mecha, and drones.

Tarvanos’ officers quickly assigned them to the front lines, where the reserve ships immediately sped towards. They opened fire on the de Jardins, even as they merged into the fighting lines.

Their fighters were the first to merge in. They all released unending streams of highly-charged chaingun fire along with overcharged tungsten shells at every de Jardin space superiority fighter they could target.

Many of the rounds rattled their enemies’ armor and dented them severely. Some had focused their fire so well that any shells that struck easily punched through. Dozens of de Jardin fighters were annihilated in that opening volley.

But the de Jardin fighter squadron reacted quickly. Once the first few were killed, they spun out randomly in evasive maneuvers, then regrouped skillfully. They quickly zeroed in on their enemies then angled their noses towards them.

The two squadrons headed towards each other as they zoomed into a merge, and fired with every weapon they had relentlessly. Arcs of bright blue-white plasma crossed against streams of ballistics, and slammed into all kinds of armor.

Although most of the Federation’s shells and slugs scarred and dented their enemies’ plating, their own armor could hardly handle the plasma lances. A third of the Federation squadron’s fighters were quickly sawed into pieces by the ravenous plasma, and exploded before the pilots could think to eject.

It almost didn’t matter how many of them were out there – the fact was their skirmish armor could hardly compete against the Hegemony’s weapons.

But even while the Federation fleet suffered a great deal of damage, the Imperial fleet was slowly cutting its way through the de Jardin defenders.

Swarms of Imperial light fighters buzzed past a de Jardin squadron at incredible speed. They completely ignored the fighters and went straight for the cruiser behind them. Each of them fired their bright orange disintegration beams as they crawled across the cruiser’s surface.

The fighters dug into its plating even as their frigate escort fought off the defending de Jardin fighters. It shot countless thin bright orange beams which continually chipped away at the ships. They sliced off chunks of armor at a time until they cut straight through the center.

Many de Jardin fighters exploded as they were cut into pieces. The remainder peeled away in retreat.

This all but allowed the swarm to cut deeper and deeper into the cruiser. Hundreds of fighters and mecha swept across its surface and raked the armor with their disintegration beams over and over. They left deep lacerations in the plating then split off in every direction.

Just a few moments later, a handful of nearby Imperial destroyers fired fully charged stinger-like spikes into it. The force of each shot caused the cruiser’s armor plating to split and shatter right where they had been cut apart.

The cruiser itself bloated outward before it exploded, which sent countless razor-sharp armor shards flying in every direction.

But they were far from the only ship that was torn apart at that very moment. Countless other battleships and cruisers and destroyers and frigates exploded all around them. Not just from the de Jardins’ side, but also the Federation and the Empire.

Everyone tore each other apart with mind-numbing ferocity and animalistic intensity.

~

A klaxon rang out all around the control room as the first de Jardin devastator exploded. Its marker on the makeshift tacmap blinked before it turned grey. Outside, it exploded brilliantly even as Imperial forces continued to pepper it with weapons fire.

.....

The ship had done its best to fall back from the front lines to repair some of its damage. Sadly, it never made it far.

The Grand Parliamentarian pursed his lips at the damage reports that scrolled past his eyes. Losing the devastator was a huge loss by itself. What was worse was that they had lost a great deal of their forces since the start of the fight itself.

Reports showed that they were rapidly on track to suffer a quarter of their forces in casualties. Things didn’t look good for them in the slightest.

He began to tug at his collar as the moments passed by. In fact, he became more and more frenzied and nervous and fidgety that the Matriarch easily noticed. Her eyes scanned the same damage reports that he seemed to be fixated on.

The numbers certainly didn’t impress her in the slightest. And they in fact worried her tremendously.

“I know it looks rough,” she told him. “But we’re taking them down equally as much. Both the Federation and the Empire’s fleets have lost a devastator each. They’re about to lose a few more if our front lines keep at it.”

“It isn’t just that!” protested the Grand Parliamentarian. “I know how much damage we’re doing! I’m no fool! But I’m also seeing their numbers flick up every so often. Even as we tear them further apart, they keep bringing in and reinforcing their position as well!”

“Exactly that,” Pavir said aloud. “The Federation is bringing in more and more reserve ships as time goes on. Usually only a few hundred every few minutes. It’s more than enough to minimize whatever losses they’ve suffered.

“Then we need to do something about that! Destroy whichever ship’s acting as their port beacon!”

“That’s impossible!” The Matriarch countered. “They’re way out of reach!”

She scoured one of the reports in front of her, then presented a section of the current combat field around them on a holomap.

The Federation devastator was well beyond their reach. An entire swirling armada was between them.

“Don’t worry,” Pavir replied stoically. “I’m already on it.”

The High Admiral then turned towards the officers next to him with a stern look in his eye. He inhaled deeply before he issued his commands. They were brusque and cold.

“Organize one-way squadrons,” he said. “Double strength. Suicide loadout. Volunteers only.”