[h2][b]Falul 'Taham - The [i]Immaculate Aegis[/i][/b][/h2]

[hr]

While the [i]Immaculate Aegis'[/i] sensors had detected the strange energy readings that preceded it, the rest of its scans had revealed nothing before the group of small ships revealed themselves. Falul did respond appropriately to their arrival, using sensor scans to track and mark targets, as well as rotating the ship to bring the majority of their point-defense pulse lasers to bear on the targets. However, it did not take long for the threat to show itself to be much greater than Falul initially expected. 

The [i]Aegis'[/i] shields flared brightly upon the first beam weapon striking against them. Falul saw on the status readouts of his ship that even one shot had drained far more of their shields than any ship of that size [i]should[/i] have been able to. Were that not enough of a concern on its own, the first of their fleet's ships to receive their opponent's focus was the massive organic vessel. Three of these, presumably, Imperial strikecraft combined the power of their primary weapons into a single, devastatingly powerful beam that ripped through the Zerg ship in a single, lethal attack. Regardless of any distrust that Falul felt towards the swarm of beings, to see it destroyed so quickly was cause for immense concern. 

"Launch strikecraft, and concentrate weapon batteries on any hostile ships flying in clustered formations!" Falul shouted, his orders being acted upon immediately by his officers. 

As seraph and banshee wings emerged from the ship's hangar, Falul had only a short time to analyze the information he had available to him. The Imperial craft had already proven they had the firepower to threaten large ships, so the priority was to prevent them from combining the effects of their weapons. The most obvious pattern that Falul could see in their movements, however, was the fact that they became stationary just before firing. They had done so when they combined their fire on the leviathan, and he could see them stationary before firing on the [i]Daedalus[/i]. He did not know if they had any other weapons, nor the strength of their shields, but he did have this piece of information. 

Being that the [i]Aegis[/i] was now the largest ship present, it now had the focus of several of the hostile craft. In fact, the three that had destroyed the leviathan were now on course for the [i]Aegis[/i]. Based on the range at which they had fired on the leviathan, he could make a rough guess about where they would need to stop to fire on his vessel. 

"Target all available pulse lasers with line-of-sight onto...this region." Falul ordered, designating the area on his map. "Prioritize these three ships." 

While Falul's prediction might not have been [i]exactly[/i] accurate, the three Imperial ships still stopped close enough to the target area that the point-defense lasers only required minor adjustments to bring themselves on-target. As the small ships charged their weapons once more, every single pulse laser that had the ability to target the ships, with the exception of those directly in front of the Imperial ships' weapons, fired on the trio. Well over a hundred pulse lasers converged upon the ships within seconds of one another. As well, since the ships were now stationary, the lasers could target much more accurately. It would not have taken long for the Imperial ships to charge their weapons, but neither did it take long for such a heavy concentration of firepower to overwhelm them. They had powerful weapons and were more resilient than most strikecraft, but they had no support from other Imperial ships, and there were relatively few of them. There was nothing to pull the [i]Aegis'[/i] weapons away from focusing on them. Two of the ships were destroyed before they could combine their weapons, and the third only fired a partial beam before being finished off. 

Despite these Imperial ships' destruction of the leviathan, Falul wondered why they continued to remain in a fight that would certainly guarantee their deaths. Even if they could destroy another ship, they could not hope to survive on their own. They were not invincible.