Ravens of Eternity

411 Killers & Survivors, Pt The fleet was out in the middle of Imperial space, far from any settled or civilized systems. It was composed of hundreds of light cruisers and frigates, as well as thousands of heavy fighters and mecha.

They weren’t there to rearm or regroup or repair. All they did was simply sit there.

Or rather, all they did was monitor critical communications all throughout the Empire. They weren’t looking for any meaningful content in the communications themselves, of course. All they wanted to know was if any communications were happening at all.

More importantly, if comms stopped, anywhere.

Orsethii stood on the bridge of the lead cruiser. Her eyes narrowed as she scoured the countless holoreports that hovered all around her. In it were mere hints of Ra’ventrii and her Einherjar, buried amidst all of the casualties and devastation they left in their wake.

Because they almost completely razed whatever planets they attacked, almost no data was left for anyone to study. For the most part, all they could tell was that a fleet came, pounded everything into dust, then left.

One of Orsethii’s officers walked up next to her, stiffened his back out of respect, then issued his report.

“Dreadmother,” he began, “network integrity analysts are reporting that five more Imperial systems’ communication arrays have been completely annihilated in the last ten minutes. Packets sent prior to their shutdown confirm the presence of Hegemony warships in their vicinity.”

Orsethii didn’t turn away from her reports, but nodded in satisfaction regardless.

.....

“Good,” she replied. “Send the next batch of scouts to each one, as fast as possible. And get me an update on the previous batch of deployed scouts. I want to confirm which planet Ra’ventrii razed last.”

The officer nodded, then issued his orders to the technicians set into the floor itself.

It only took a few moments for various reports around Orsethii to shift and change to the data she requested. There was so much of it that it scrolled through her holoprojection with seemingly overwhelming speed.

But she appeared to absorb it without flinching.

“There!” she exclaimed. With lightning-fast reaction speeds, she reached out and stopped a report mid-scroll.

Amidst the veritable sea of weapons emissions data were numerous reports of Annihilator Mortars. The accompanying krohn cost in damage as well as the estimated casualty rate all but assured Orsethii’s gut feeling.

“Ra’ventrii was definitely here,” she said. “So that’s where we go.”

Confident in her hunch, she opened up comms to the officers of the fleet all around her.

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“Prepare the fleet for mass teleport,” Orsethii commanded. “Send a comm to Scout Fleet C12 and order them to activate their cruiser’s beacon module and await our arrival.”

“Yes, dreadmother.”

It only took a few minutes for Orsethii’s fleet to gather up around the main cruiser. The energies of a teleport net shot from ship to ship until every single one was linked to each other.

Then, over the course of a few seconds, space warped around their hulls as flashes of light consumed the ships themselves.

When the galaxy righted itself, the fleet found itself above a vast planet.

And even from orbit, they could all see the destruction that raked across the planet. Its largest cities had been completely razed, and entire swaths of land burned fiercely as massive fires consumed them. Large clouds of black smoke and soot from every corner of the planet rose up and choked out the atmosphere.

Countless craters scarred the planet’s primary industrial city to such an extent that they could be seen from orbit.

But this devastation was nothing anyone on the fleet hadn’t seen before. In fact, since they began to chase after the Einherjar, they almost became used to it.

Some, including Orsethii, seethed at how many Imperial citizens had been killed. Orsethii in particular was both awed and horrified by it.

At first, she was truly impressed by Ra’ventrii’s bloodthirstiness. It seemed to match her own.

But after seeing the millionth drogar family ripped to unrecognizable shreds, it dug into her. Constantly seeing their blood bathing the streets and their homes and their workplaces did little to keep her stable.

The more she saw the dead, the more her desire to stop Freya grew. Part of it was due to a deep loyalty she held over her own people, a quirk of her blood. Mostly, it was because of her need to tear down every opponent she came across.

Doing so would only prove her own dominance over all.

“I want a comprehensive scan across the surface,” she ordered. “Concentrate on lifesigns and mass drogar bodily signals.”

The fleet itself spread apart to some degree as the various cruisers and frigates swept the surface with their high-powered sensors from high above.

It didn’t take long for their reports to flood Orsethii’s cruiser. Dozens of analysts at the Dreadmother’s feet sorted through the data, packaged them up, then sent them to her holoprojectors as fast as they could.

Orsethii herself rearranged the data as it came up, and organized it all by landmass, then survivor ratio, then damage assessments. But as she put the data together, realized that she was going about it all wrong.

He had been chasing after Ra’ventrii for so long that she forgot that the target of her hunt shifted ever so slightly. And that meant a different mindset altogether.

“Keep compiling this data,” she said after a short pause. “However, send me more data on emergency signals. Find out who’s loudest down there. Who’s the most wounded. Whoever needs the most help.”

It only took moments before one of her holoprojectors updated with new datasets and information. There, Orsethii stoically watched the top three regions with the most amount of emergency request signals emitting from them.

Once it was clear which of the regions needed the most help, Orsethii opened comms to the officers of her fleet and issued her next set of orders.

“Set the trap,” she commanded.

Her fleet obeyed immediately.

The cruisers quickly broke formation and moved towards the far side of the planet. More importantly, they left the planet’s orbit and veered further out into space in an attempt to hide their presence.

While the cruisers began their maneuvers, countless frigates flew down towards the three regions with the highest emergency signal count. More specifically, they flew down to the battered cities inside those regions.

One of the cities was being consumed by a massive blaze. The towering fires swept through the streets and turned almost everything they touched to ash. Most of what remained after the flames were the charred corpses of people and hoppers and buildings alike.

The frigates hovered over to the edge of the city itself, at the furthest end from the all-consuming flames.

Many of its once-grand buildings had been reduced to massive piles of rubble. Though they were blacked by soot, their insides glowed a dull orange as though they were piles of red-hot coal.

A battalion of Imperial Dreadstar Troopers jumped out from the frigates’ open bay doors and fell down to the city far below. With heavy THUDS, each one landed below with great force. More than enough to cause the ground around them to shake and shudder and groan.

Half of them wielded heavy underslung disintegration beams, while the other half wielded large particle repeater rifles.

All of them were in sleek and robust chitinous power armor which easily protected the soldiers inside. Not just from the usual battlefield weapons, but also from the extreme heat surrounding them.

In fact, the temperature was so intense that the air warped all around them. But that hardly stopped their advance. They all got into small teams of four, then ran deeper into the city itself.

At the same time, the frigates above them closed up and flew away. They too joined the cruisers in hiding on the other side of the planet, far outside of its gravitational pull.

It didn’t take long for the fleet to rendezvous – only an hour at the maximum. And once they all got into position, each of the ships powered down absolutely everything they didn’t immediately need, such as their energy shielding and weapon systems. Everything else was set to the lowest amount of energy possible, even their life support.

And there, they waited patiently for their prey.

It was almost an entire cycle later when reports of ship emissions flashed on Orsethii’s screen.

She stirred at the sight.

“Dreadmother,” said one of her analysts, “Hegemony warship signals detected. They’re headed towards the planet coming from the next nearest port beacon over in sector 05:823-TZ.”

“Get me a base reading of the fleet,” Orsethii ordered.

“Three cruisers,” replied another analyst. “They’re accompanied by seven destroyers and two dozen frigates. The fleet appears to be escorted by over three hundred fighters, mecha, and drones.”

“Armament?”

“Very heavy. Two of the three cruisers are heavy, along with four of the destroyers and half the frigates. All with cutting-edge armor. Also please note that a third of the ships are drogar in design.”

That sent a wave of alarm through the officers on the bridge. Even Orsethii was troubled by what she heard.

“Drogar? Are they spoofed?” she asked. “I want visual confirmation as soon as possible. For now, send a comms to the ground teams – tell them to remain powered down, but be ready to activate on my signal.”

“Yes, dreadmother.”

The wraparound screen on the bridge flicked to live feeds from the city below. Scattered among the ruins were hundreds of small reconnaissance drones. They were very much like standard Imperial EyeCast drones. Except, of course, they were well-armored.

They were strewn all about as though they were part of the debris from the battle prior, and from their fixed positions showed what was going on in the city all around.

Over the past half-cycle, the civilians and inhabitants of the city crawled out of their hiding spots and underground facilities. Many were distraught at the damage they saw, and wept at everyone and everything they lost. They could hardly look at the charred corpses that lay all around.

Others were wounded, or hungry, or lost. Some helped dig others out of the charred, smoldering ruins.

Some of the more enterprising drogar set up makeshift camps and shelters, where they gathered the wounded and treated them as best they could. A good amount of people brought their food together and boiled up stews that they could all share from.

Those tending to the stew itself doled out cupfuls to anyone who wanted some. And there were certainly plenty who did.

As some of them hobbled away to slurp their cup of stew, some of the ships of the Corvus Republic flew over them. Although some of the drogar looked on in horror, others waved their hands at the ships, as though to get their attention.

As though to say, ‘Hey! We’re alive down here!’

Then their worries were relieved as the ships themselves transmitted their status as a rescue ship. In Drogar.

Numerous officers in Orsethii’s fleet were shocked at what they saw, and all the reports that came with those live feeds. Rescue hoppers came down from the ships and immediately assisted the civilians below. Teams with humans and drogar helped countless Imperial citizens.

They watched as they gave extra rations to everyone, along with blankets, clothes, and medicine.

They watched as a few who were on the verge of death were brought back to the living, as though their wounds were never dire at all.

They watched it all in utter horror, as they had imagined that the Hegemony was capturing the Imperial citizens, and perhaps torturing them. But what they saw was the absolute opposite.

Dread filled each of them as Orsethii issued her command with resolute authority.

“All ground units, activate and attack.”