[h2] 1st Expeditionary Fleet, Athene class Battlecruiser "Abbadon" [/h2]

Loken smiles at what he was witnessing. Everything went exactly according to plan. The "Archimedis" and the "Togo" were to be sacrifised from the start. That was part of the Wotan protocol. Immediatly as the enemy opened fire the automated turrets on all his ships started clearing everything in orbit surrounding them, another part of the protocol. The Lanceturrets obliterated spacestations in but two volleys.

When the enemy used their miniature sun however he was impressed. This weapon was able to disintegrate the 3 km long Nova class in the blink of an eye. Then the enemy strikecraft were spotted. They appeared slow in comparison to the Harpy fighters the Confederacy used. But there was ofcourse strenght in numbers.

When more and more of the enemy forces exposed themselves Loken started to grin more. [i]Yes, this is exactly as I had hoped. The idiots really exposed themselves and all we had to do was sacrifice two outdated ships and some cadets. This is marvelous. [/i]Loken immediatly ordered that his fighters would hold back and stay inbetween the cruisers. With his direct surroundings secure he ordered the Athena class Battlecruisers to open fire on the approaching strikecraft, still hundreds of kilometers away.

They were using deepspace anti-fighter missiles. These were meant for fighting at lightyear distances. Their tops speed was 0.5 IAU every second, basically impacting instantly at this short range. They were build to fragment in millions of pieces in a radius of one kilometer because of the inacuraccies over the long range they were normally fired from. This also meant that they were easy to be fired on masse without all the targets detected on radar, basically assuring that 90% of the squadron would be destroyed by the missile. And this was only the effect of one missile, the Athena class was able to launch 550 of them in one volley and there were 10 Athena classes in his battlegroup. 

After that, the fighters would engage the enemy and clean up the remaining enemy fighters. And so it happened, the missiles were fired and they caused carrnage amoung the enemy strike craft. Loken grinned at the thought of how his opponent would react to the sight of this.

Now there was the problem of the groundforces. 

The marines were guarenteed to be dead by now, or atleast in the following minutes. But Loken didnt want to destroy the entire planet and everone on it with an orbital bombardment. No, that wouldnt suffice for Loken. Loken didnt just want to defeat his enemy. Loken wanted to make the enemy fear him and then crush them. And as luck might have it, he had the ideal weapon for it: the Götterdämmerung weapons.

He let his life sign scanners pick the ideal targets and then observed the wind paterns to make for the ideal targeting vector. After a couple of seconds of calculating the computer had found just that target.

"This is Baron Reinhart Loken to TCS "Retribution". I hereby sanction this planet it's death sentence. Let the plague run rampant amoung the unworthy and foul. Let them suffer and make them beg us for mercy. Fear the Xeno, hate the Xeno, kill the Xeno."

Immediatly a response came:

"I, captain Lysander of the TCS "Retribution", hereby accept this honourous task granted to me. I shall purge this planet of it's foulness in the honour of the Autarch."

The TCS "Retribution" entered the atmosphere only slightly and one missile was launched from it's frontal torpedo tubes. The missile traveled slowly but with a sound audible over the entire continent. It flew towards it's target and then exploded about 10 kilometers above the target zone. A large green cloud appeared and slowly spread out. At first the Draconians who were under the cloud were laughing at this. It looked like a failed gas attack. As if gas would even work against the Draconians, their rebreathers would just filter it out... But they had no idea of what was unleased upon them.

The Götterdämmerung weapon was the most destructive weapon the Confederacy had. At first glance one might mistake it with a very large nuclear weapons. But you couldnt be farther from the truth. The payload of this weapon wasnt nuclear, it was biological. It held a virus. Not a disease or anything like that. It was a virus which would consume all organic material it would encounter. To make sure it hit asmuch targets as possible it would be launched with the wind direction carrying it to enemy forces. The only known counter to the virus was to be locked up in a airtight room BEFORE the virus was launched. Rebreathers and HAZMAT suits were not able to counter this virus however. The beauty of this weapon was that it left the infrastructure intact, aswell as any technology used by the victims. If the virus would not be able to find anymore organic material it would start to devour itself. Basically cleaning itself up. The weapons would also leave a large gas cloud. This gas cloud could be ignited by Lance weaponry and it would result in a spectacular fireball.

The virus now made contact with the Draconians. Were they first mocking the insigificance of the weapon, now they were screaming in agony. It almost seemed as if they were melting. There was no place to run and the comchatter was filled with painfilled screams and yells. Begging for help against this microscopic enemy. Not only the Draconians were suffering; the grass, trees and wildlife also had to suffer the consequences of the launching of this weapon. And after only a few minutes, there was silence. The virus had consumed itself and the largest concentration of troops on the planet aswell as consuming all large amount of the native life on the planet. The weapon was detonated at a location where it would hit 50.000 square miles.

After launching the weapon the TCS "Retribution" immediatly went back in high orbit and fell back in formation.

A satisfied Loken now opened a communication line to the planet below. He looked around and saw that several of his ships were damaged because of the early engagement, but there were no considerable loses. He then proceded to contact the species on the surface.

"I come here, trying to aid you, and you respond by attacking me. Is that how you greet a new species? Is that how you treat a potential ally? Well... Luckily we were perpared for your treachary. What your forces just experienced is only one of our destructive weapons. We have dozens more in this fleet alone. We could render this planet uninhabitable if we'd want. I will give you one chance to surrender. If not, then I will order the launching of hundereds of nuclear missiles which will detonate in low orbit, the resulting EMP charge will render all your technology useless. Then we shall launch a real invasion with millions upon millions of troops. The choice is up to you."

Loken goes to his throne on the observation deck and proceeds to sit on it comfortable awaiting the reply while he again listens to the same classical masterpiece composed by the greatest musical talent of the Tallarn Confederacy while sipping his Mordian wine. He turns to his aide:

"So far, this has been a wonderfull day, wouldnt you say so?" He says with a wide grin on his face.