• Chapter 2
    The issue is... the fact they never surrender, Sir Executor
    - Naught General Nero

    A now Admiral Nero looked around again in anticipation, nothing had changed much, but anticipation came with being a Naught,
    “Hey, squid face, good news, the cloak flux fields overlap, the Reaver BattleStars are hidden too” called his Anthro engineer, Alox; in reality, his face looked like a nautilus, hence his race’s name, but Alox called him squid face to keep humor in the tac rooms, it helped during times like these.
    “Great, just as I had hoped” replied Nero, in the best light tone his jaw would allow. It was just as he had hoped; after detecting the plot to take Arcadia, Nero had come up with this plan; uncloaked were the usual Arcadian patrol, forty five Thor Corvettes, fifty Chimera gunships, ten Artemis frigates, and two Revenant Cruisers, actually a heavy patrol for a planet, hidden under the cloak fields of the Reaver BattleStars were the five Reavers, one-hundred twenty Thor Corvettes, an additional two-hundred Chimeras, forty five Artemis Frigates, and a whopping twenty three Revenant Cruisers, which on their own were tough to fight, thus the UCCPE fleet was in for a surprise.
    “Admiral, the advance scouts are reporting in, the UCCPE fleet has disengaged their Jump on the edge of the system” stated Vanessa, Nero’s Logitech, she turned to face him, pushing back some black hair from her pale face and revealing the silver piece of phytech on her cheek, “they have confirmed four Paladin BattleStars, one Reaper BattleStar, and known two-hundred fifty-five ships, mixed between the lower classes.” she finished bluntly; “they are charging their Antimatter reserves for an in-system jump now” finished the Tech. Nero quickly calculated the numbers and replied,
    “charge reactors on all ships to fifty percent combat potential, tell them to wait for the signal from our Revenants, they should be able to see the ‘CPE fleet while it’s jumping” he almost lectured; Vanessa turned her gaze to the Holomap in the room and telepathically relayed the message through her Phytech to all the other Logitechs in the fleet.
    Two minutes to contact, Alox finishes the necessary power relays for the battle, Vanessa’s face betrays her, a little worry plays across her face about the scope of the enemy fleet.
    Thirty seconds, Vanessa places two hands on the Holomap projector for support before she is barraged by damage assessments and firing relays, Alox queues the boot-up for the Fire Control and main cannons, tail now flicking side-to-side in anxiety.
    Battle of Arcadia, Zero hour, the ‘CPE fleet careens out of their respective jump holes, shouting their battle cries, from whining plasma storms to rumbling autocannons, and even the shriek of missile batteries, they begin firing at their pre-selected targets, the outer defense platforms, the stations turn to face the fleet, dealing damage despite being cut thin; the fleet proceeds inward, engaging the ‘thin’ defenders while not breaking formation, Vanessa and Alox instantly begin shouting their status reports, through the cacophony, Nero quickly bellows his commands back at the crew, waiting, waiting, but than...
    The ‘CPE fleet moves right where they need to go,
    “Uncloak all ships!” calls Nero, at that instant, the three hundred eighty-eight plus five cloaked ships decloaked, in a firing line, the ships quickly cut through much of the ‘CPE attack ships; as if in surprise, the new front-line ships begin to turn away, taking defensive formations and firing parting shots; the BattleStars behind them came forward in challenge, their forward guns bellowing in defiance, but the Reaver-Revenant team quickly tore through several of them without taking much damage themselves, sending new debris into the graveyard that had become Arcadian space. Few of the ‘CPE ships remained, one Paladin BattleStar and a few mixed lower classes, as they retreated, it arrived. It was rarely detected as it was, and ignored over during the hoots and laughs of the command crews in the various ships, only Vanessa pulled Nero back into the battle,
    “Nero, one new contact, Unknown class, it’s above a BattleStar’s weight class” she called, pulling everyone back into combat mode; the new ship glided along the battlefield as an angel of death would, it’s elegant design hiding it’s malice. It quickly fired off a swarm of guided plasma bolts, taking out the outer ring of defenders in one barrage, as the remaining defenders scrambled, taking up defensive positions against the threat, Nero noticed something about the ship,
    “All ships! Fire on the ship’s Generators!” he cried, but he was too late. The ship took up a firing angle on Arcadia, its Maw cannon charged up in record time, and it fired. The white light blinded all who saw it, but in his ship, the Misery’s TAC room, with only the holomap to judge what the space around the Misery looked like, Nero saw it all; he saw the blown-off Port hangar of a Paladin BattleStar hit the ship in it’s side, he saw it fire a second after...

    He saw almost half of Arcadia destroyed.