BACKGROUND DEVELOPEMENT - THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE DREADNAUGHT
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With all the ships in Notil, the total was about 200,000. The Ediens were rumored to have approximately 80,000 of their own, plus the dreadnaught, plus approximately 50,000 ships in reserve.
Ships from nearly every race and nation had come to Notil. The Voinians and Federation obviously, the Igadzra Republic, the Igadzra Union, the Kayans, the RA, the Miranu, and the Azdgari. There were also the two outcast races, survivors of the Ediens fury that were to get their revenge quite soon; the Horoth and Sladerei.
As these ships assembled, word was recieved that the Ediens had obliterated Mark and were preparing to move out; to Notil.
The alarm was sounded as every ship got into battle formation. The few Juggernaughts that the Feds had were grouped around the Sladerei Dreadnaught. There was also a battlesquad of 6 Voinian Dreadnaughts, as well as numerous other large warships including the Azdgari Supercruiser Rune. The Templar had been requested and was in-route to Notil. In return, the Federation had lent the Igadzra the temporary use of one of their battlecruisers, the U.F.S. Maverik, which was to guard Igadzra space from any Akrahd incursion that might occur.
Then, it happened. Long range sensors detected an energy surge as 80,000 Edien ships, along with the Edien Dreadnaught Demon , slipstreamed into Notil.
Commanding from the Voinian Dreadnaught Darkest Shadow , Federate Fleet Admiral Scorcher and Voinian Grand Admiral Nahar were coordinating the battle. Even President Carnotaur was there to oversee the whole operation, and Admiral Firebird was to be part of the actual battle. Scorcher turned to Carnotaur as he gave the word.
"President Carnotaur to the fleet; open fire!!"
Beams of pure energy lanced out, torpedoes were fired, missiles launched, rockets screamed from their launchers as SAIs, SAVs, and SADs rocketed out into the Edien haord. The Federation had the upper hand as weapons streamed into the Edien fleet, but the dozens of weapons that were hitting the Edien Dreadnaught had little effect, simply exploding on its shields and creating a blue, eerie shockwave.
The Edien fleet then returned fire as Scorcher gave the word. "Forward shields to full!"
The forward shields of the many vessels absorbed the impact and the two fleets screamed in. Particle and beam weapons flew as the two gigantic fleets engaged each other. The Federation had the upper hand in numbers but the pure power of the Edien dreadnaught could easily wipe out 100,000 ships.
This was to be a close battle.
The Sladerei Supercruiser Savior moved forward, protected by its escort group of Federation juggernaughts and even a few dreadnaughts. The massive vessel flew alongside the dreadnaught, pounding it with thousands of tons of explosive force. And yet the dreadnaughts shields held.
Then began the massive and savage fighter conflict. Thousands of fighters engaged each other, swarming this way and that. The sky was filled with their explosions as their dueled. The Edien fighter force took extreme casualties, loosing over 1/3 of its fighter force in a matter of minutes. A mere 20 minutes later, there were barely 5,000 fighters left.
Fighters from the grand armada engaged the dreadnaught. Streaking across its hulled they opened fire with a savage ferocity that not even the dreadnaught could compare to. But even so, it could certainly come close as it opened fire with massive barrages of gunfire which incerated dozens of fighters at a time. Still dozens more were hit and spun into the dreadnaught, but doing only minor damage.
The massive battlegroup of Voinian dreadnaughts moved ahead, sending a hail of rockets and photon bursts into the Edien ship. Whole Edien battlecruisers were vaporized but the Dreadnaught's shielding held fast as it's kills reached to 20,000 ships and climbing extremely fast.
Millions, almost billions of tons of wreckage filled the system, making fighter duels extremely hazardous, but not to the dreadnaught. It simply plowed through it, burned out hulks disintigrating upon contact. There wasn't much left of the Edien fleet, but the Dreadnaught had barely lost 1/5 of its shields.
It was at that moment that reinforcements, including the Templar, arrived. The new reinforcements helped boost the morale against the Ediens, and soon they had blasted off 1/4 of the Dreadnaughts shields, but had still suffered massive casualties.
Notil station was caught in the crossfire and incinerated. Streaks of blue erupted from the Edien dreadnaught as it vaporized warship after warship with its dozens of Ion Beam Turrets. There seemed no stopping this monster.
Then Nahar ordered that all ships to engage at a few specific spots along the dreadnaughts hull, to minimize casualties and to try and create large holes in the shields of the dreadnaught. Azgara Bombers from the Azdgari proved especially useful in this fight, their plasma bombs rocketing into the shields and creating enough damage to vaporize most big warships instantly, but they barely dented the dreadnaught.
One large group of ships consontrated on the engines, which were one of the weakest points. A few ships even hyperspaced into the ship, but it still did not do much at all. If only they could punched through the ships rear engine shields, then they could set off a chain reaction which could do TONS of damage.
The alliance of nations continued to fight, having already lost 50,000 ships to the dreadnaught alone. They were forced to pull back, and began to use long range weapons against the Dreadnaught, keeping away from its deadly array of turrets and beams. However, a problem soon arose.
Nahar slammed his fist on a table after hearing a report from Admiral Firebird. He turned to Admiral Scorcher. "We're running out of missiles, we need to fall back to Igadzra to regroup and re-arm."
"How do we know they'll chase us?" Scorcher asked, and Carnotaur spoke. "I know how..." he tapped the com pannel and sent a message to the Edien dreadnaught, commanded by Grundulator himself as the fleet began to hyperspace out of the system towards Igadzra. "Care to chase use, Edien 'Emporer'? Or are you so cowardly that you think you cannot stand up to our wrath."
Then he turned to Nahar. "Get us out of here now. He'll follow, believe me."
Once the fleet was in Igadzra, they quickly regrouped and rearmed. Firebird hailed the Voinian Dreadnaught Darkest Shadow. "President Carnotaur; here they come..."
The remaining 15,000 Edien ships, and the Dreadnaught, hyperspaced in and were met by a hail of gunfire. The Ediens returned fire with long range weapons as they charged. Firebird hailed Carnotaur. "You know, that ship may be big, but it sure is fast for its size! It's so big, for what it would call slow, for us it's called fast! We have to engage in a close-combat battle."
Nahar nodded as the alliance fleet charged back. Weapons fire flew as the two fleets engaged. Carnotaur was suddenly brought a bit of information. Part of the database on the Edien Battlecruiser captured a few months ago had been recovered, and it said that the only jumpgate ever destroyed was lost to a Rarkyl fleet which used Quantum Singularities to tear it apart. Carnotaur showed the others this. "We may not be able to produce a singularity, but we can sure make a sub-space rupture." He hailed Firebird and gave him some instructions.
A large group of Federation ships moved around to the rear of the Dreadnaught. One a command, a large spread of Sub-Space Torpedoes were fired, but these ones were specially modified to create sub-space ruptures. In a dangerously bright flash of energy, several large, sub-space tears formed. The combined strength of them blasted away at the shielding of the Dreadnaught, causing massive damage to the engine section.
The alliance continued to hammer away at it, until finally the shields in the rear section began to fail, and Firebird quickly sealed up the ruptures.
With the shields on the dreadnaught down, the fleet could now do a great deal of damage to it. The Voinian Dreadnaught Group charging in, rockets streaked into the engines of the dreadnaught. Though they were massively armored, finally one small engine gave way. Imploded in on itself, the engine then exploded in a massive fireball which took out a small piece of the dreadnaught by damaged it greatly overral.
Another sub-space tear was formed amidships of the dreadnaught, and another hole was punched. Then another hole was punched in the shields near the forward section. The thousands of energy bursts and warheads streamed in, wreaking havoc on the giant behemoth. The Dreadnaught Demon had lost over half of its shields and the rest of them were dropping fast.
The Dreadnaught, though nearly invincible, could not stand up to the combined firepower of 100,000+ warships. The Sladerei Supercruiser Savior , however, was hit badly and started to burn. The Templar was also hit bad, a large chunk of it blasted off, disabling the ship. Fortunately a Voinian Dreadnaught had towed the Igazrada, and was then towed away by Federate ships to a nearby shipyard. The Savior was moved away, but not before it punched yet another hole in the dreadnaughts shields, and even created the first hull breach on the dreadnaught.
Then, the Voinian dreadnaught Avariace , after being hit badly and all weapons disabled, moved far away from the battle. However, after abandoning the ship, the auto-pilot was engaged and the massive dreadnaught went into hyperspace for the Dreadnaught. Though it never reached true hyperspace speeds, it was going quite fast when in slammed into the dreadnaughts hulk, making a good part of it shake as a massive explosion erupted, spewing out wreckage, and created a massive hull breach 10x bigger than any Federate Battlecruiser.
The Dreadnaught was doomed, the pride of the whole Edien fleet, and the Ediens knew it. Grundulator escaped the battle in the last remaining ship from the Edien fleet, hyperspacing out and back to Edien space...
The crew of the Demon still fought on like Edien warriors; to the death.
None would return.
Suddenly, one of the dreadnaughts main engines ruptured, spewing out drive plasma. A rocket was fired, which ignited the plasma. The following explosion completely obliterated one of the dreadnaughts engines. As two more small engines exploded, massive hull breaches occured accross the dreadnaught. It shields finally imploded in a flash of blue light, and its hull would not last much longer...
Beginning to drift, its weapons still blazing as the fleet moved away from the doomed vessel. Finally, its reactor went critical, and a core meltdown ensued.
As 95,000 ships watched, the Dreadnaught slowly began to disintigrated. It suddenly began to imploded, but stopped. Carnotaur braced for what was next as the massive ship glowed bluish white...
...Then exploded in the most awesome fireball anyone had ever seen.
Billions of tons of wreckage spewed out, hurled at unthinkable velocities. A fireball started to expand, and soon became the size of a small moon as an energy shockwave billowed out through the red and yellowed.
"ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!"
The alliance fleet was hit hard by the shockwave, dozens of weakened ships exploding. But most of the fleet had made it.
The Edien Dreadnaught Demon , one of the greatest Edien threats ever; was gone.
But the fleet did not celebrate immediately. They had lost 105,000 ships, and over a million men and women who died bravely. Carnotaur spoke to the fleet. "We commemorate this day to the many people of both sides who died. Though the Ediens were our enemies, there is no reason that we should not feel sorry for those many people who died, maybe for now reason at all."
The fleet slowly moved in orbit above Igadzra as celebrations on the Igadzra homeworld were begun. Meanwhile, Firebird took his fleet to Mark to secure the border against any possible Edien incursions.
The Edien Dreadnaught was no more, but the Ediens still posed a threat to the whole galaxy...
