Collab between [@Sigma], [@Irredeemable], and [@Jeddaven] The Relief of Americana The flagship of the Azulvistan fleet for the push into Americana was the aptly named [i]Libertad[/i]. She was an old vessel, pockmarked with battle damage and showing the signs of refits, overhauls and extensive repair jobs, its aesthetic crude and boxy. Its colossal main railgun had been retrofitted, its previous armaments having been thirty years out of date, and the communication systems had needed hundreds of millions of NuevoReals to be on par with its contemporary command vessels. Despite all of these problems though, she was a fearsome beast indeed, helmed by a veteran officer, and with a storied history behind her. The [i]Libertad[/i] had been born to fight during the Reconquista, its munitions blasting through Axcuapatal’s atmosphere to sunder spaceports, and had then immediately been turned to battle again during the War of Yyasum Aggression, trading fire with xenos cruisers and knocking out their bulky colony ships. She had spent much of her time since then in dock or doing small peacekeeping tours, and she had long since reached a Ship of Theseus-esque tipping point, but still she sailed, and now she sallied out to meet another foe. Around her, set just outside of Azulvista’s gateway, the ‘American Fleet,’ assembled and readied to relieve their new allies and shatter the invading New Terrans. It was fairly typical for an Azulvistan naval detachment- a cluster of large, bulky and slow ‘artillery’ vessels, most of which were nowhere near as venerable as the [i]Libertad,[/i] and several wings of lighter, faster and more manoeuvrable vessels. There had been some consideration regarding how suitable this was for fighting with others, but there weren't exactly other options- this was how the Republican navy was formed, and they couldn’t very well start producing entirely new chassis in the few months they had had time to mobilise in. At the helm of the fleet was Almirante Catalina- a stern faced patrician in her late forties with a skunk slick of silver hair running fashionably through her neat bobcut. In her palm rested a heavy golden key, which she turned over and thumbed repeatedly, face a mask of consideration and deep thought. Just as she came to a conclusion, the course of action set before her, the speakers across the vessel barked out the fateful sentence every person aboard had been waiting for. [b]”All hands make to battle stations. Repeat, all hands make to battle stations. This is not a drill. Prepare for gate-jump.”[/b] “So. Into the jaws of Hell we charge.” She turned to her deputy, a wily patrician in his thirties with five-o-clock stubble that never vanished. “On the contrary. I think we’re bringing Hell along with us.” He too thumbed a gilded key, Catalina offering her subordinate a single nod. Both keys slotted home smoothly, and a single twist caused the command deck’s lights to flash a deep crimson, a brief klaxon sounding out. As the autoloaders began to fix their fresh payloads into place, the Almirante returned to her command station. “This is Almirante Catalina of Azulvista’s Republican Navy. We are prepared to make our jump. Americana, Europa, can you confirm battle readiness?” [hr] [i]Strasbourg[/i] felt its communications circuits awaken. Compared to its Azulvistan counterpart, it was a top-of-the-line, sleek, modern vessel, hundreds of years of naval history and gunnery experience arranged neatly within its data storage. Hundreds more vessels buzzed about the ancient, constantly-evolving artificial intelligence, plus many more sub-intelligences, drones, and missiles beeping and buzzing as their controllers sought targets, their own primitive intelligences ready to guide themselves into battle. It possessed no fleet-cracking railgun like its Azulvistan counterpart... But what it lacked in brutish awe-inducing firepower, it more than made up for in precision and sheer versatility. Like someone cracking their knuckles, it activated its multilayered energy shielding with a great, electronic yawn that echoed over communications, powerful magnetic fields jumping to life. Pre-arranged configurations of missiles were shunted into its cornucopia of vertical cells, too -- at a moment's notice, it would unleash hell alongside its erstwhile comrades. "Ready as we'll ever be," it replied -- mere milliseconds after it received the Azulvistan message. "How many years has it been since our people have done this together? Too long. Too soon, too." [hr] The original plan called for the allied fleets to rendezvous at the Mojave Gate, and to move forward from there into the offensive. Unfortunately however, no plan ever survives contact with the enemy as the Americanans will see for themselves. Admiral Drayk’s fleet, after a series of retrofits, repairs and the enlistment of other flotillas in the front, were on their way towards the gate. It all seemed to go smoothly thus far, a bad omen to be sure, and like clockwork, everything was thrown out of order. The 3rd Expeditionary Fleet quickly found itself in pitched combat with a Terran battle group, enemy ships making their advance, waves of strike craft acting as the vanguard as they entered within combat range, the Americanans launching their own fighters as a massive dog fight took place. All the while, capital ships and lighter warships between both sides tossed heavy munitions towards one another, from torpedoes and heavy railgun rounds, all the while, the 3rd fleet was trying to make a get away towards the gate. It would eventually get more ugly as the terran ships made their advance, the battle quickly turning into a knife fight. Admiral Drayk struggled to maintain his posture as the Carrier [i]Orion[/i] trembled with every shot taken, the shields holding the worst at bay for the time being. “Damn it all! No point in running, all ships! Stand your ground and hit them with everything you got!” The Admiral gave the order through a fleet-wide intercom. “We’ll hold this position until reinforcements arrive!” Drayk turned to his X.O. “Contact the Azulvistans and Europeans, let them know we…hit a bit of a snag.” [hr] “Ma’am! Americans reporting contact already! They’ve been intercepted by Terran vessels.” The words sent a shot through the bridge staff. They had expected a few moments of peace before everything went to shit, but now they wouldn’t even get that. “Copy. Battle wings 1-3 begin gate jumps ASAP. Remember what we’re fighting for, and may you find yourself rich in targets.” Wing commanders crackled out their responses, and Catalina watched as the signatures on her command matrix charged up, then vanished through the gate. Wings 1 and 2 were entirely comprised of lighter vessels, originally for establishing a beachhead to allow wings 3 and 4 to move in, but they didn’t have that luxury. The largest of wing 3’s signatures would be needed to punch through the Terran line now, and clear the way for the heavy artillery. Wing one had barely cleared the gateway before the maelstrom engulfed it. Targeting systems lit up with friends and foes alike the sleek hulls of cruisers and corvettes opening up with salvos of missiles and heavy flak fire. “Wing 4. Check capacitors and set to 80%. When we make the jump, hardcharge to 100%. Fire on [i]my command[/i] and no others. Are we clear?” Affirmative replies in the response. Excellent. Things were proceeding OK, so far even with the unexpected difficulties. “Americana. Europa. Wing 4 of our fleet contains neutron carriers and superheavy railguns. If you’ve got anything in close range of their capital ships, I recommend you clear them out, because we’re going to blow these gates down.” [hr] “We’ve got something up our sleeves of our own. We’ll saturate the enemy fleet with Pulsed Energy Projectiles on transit, and thus affect partial shutdown of as many PUNT ships as we can. They’ll be dead in the water for Wing 4 -- like shooting fish in a barrel. Impact of PEP will occur at the speed of light, so there’s no need for you to delay.” [i]Strasbourg[/i] replied. Sure, it doubted they could disable [i]all[/i] of the PUNT vessels... But it should be possible for the fleet to temporarily disable enough of them to create a far more appealing target for the Azulvistans, it thought. Then, saturate the PUNT formation with a few thousand armour-penetrating missiles at once, and... It’s a shitshow for the Nazis. “Intent is to then initiate saturation of the fleet with approximately 4800 missiles -- a complete launch of rapid-reload cells. Affirm?” [hr] “Copy that, we’ll get clear of the firing range, and you let loose on ‘em.” Admiral Drayk replied to his two counterparts, returning his attention to the rest of his staff. “Alert all ships to fall back immediately, this area of space is about to get a hell of a light show, and we sure as hell do not want to get caught in the middle of it.” Within moments of the plan, the 3rd fleet begun to slowly scatter in wherever safe direction there was as the AFE and Azulvistan fleets unleashed their deadly salvos on the unsuspecting Terrans, and the Admiral was good on his word, it was quite the light show as they made their retreat back to friendly lines. [hr] “Confirm Strasbourg. You’re clear to begin.” With that, wing 4 pushed through the gateway, and into the warzone. The chaos was tremendous- ships of four separate nations wheeling, banking, spinning and turning, missiles, railshots and flak pinpricking the stars. The airwaves were thick with combat reports- of kill confirmations and deaths… And now, there would be even more. Inside [i]Libertad[/i]’s command hub, a low drone had become audible, and the faint, tingling sensation of immense amounts of electricity filled the air. Capacitor banks rushed to full capacity, the colossal turret atop the vessel making microadjustments, its target now fixed firmly in its line of sight. [b]”FIRE!”[/b] The entire ship shuddered as electromagnets sparked to life. The tremendous projectile rocketed out, carving through the distance, far too rapidly for even an attempt at a dodge. Across Wing 4, the scene was repeated, and when the volley of slugs struck home, they tore through the Terran vessels. But that wasn’t the end of it. [b]”NEUTRON TUBES! FIRE!”[/b] This time it was rockets. As the Europans unleashed their swarms, and the smaller ships filled skies and overwhelmed point defences with flak, trefoil-emblazoned missiles, trailing blue flames, winged their way out towards the survivors of the initial engagement. A few were cut down, intercepted, or malfunctioned, targeting systems scrambled or damaged. Enough got through. There were a series of bright flashes, dazzling enough to dim the stars. The neutron burst would be lethal on its own, but the Terrans had been using nuclear weapons too- and now, fuelled by captured neutrons, these began to initiate fission on their own. It was a mercy that the effects on the crew were left unseen. [hr] ...But the effects on the vessels were more than visible -- thousands upon thousands of invisible laser pulses ablated at stripped away the outermost layers of their hulls, spawning bubbles of exploding plasma. As those bubbles detonated, sending thundering pressure waves through the hulls, warping them -- but, more importantly, the electromagnetic radiation they unleashed fried circuits and burned out sensors at the speed of light, leaving many of the ships unable to do a thing to stop the violent explosions ripping them apart from the inside, nor to defend against the unceasing barrage of fire from the allied fleet. For allies that nearly hated each other as much as they hated the enemy, in concert, they became a terrible orchestra of unstoppable violence. Thinking silently and communicating with its many siblings, [i]Strasbourg[/i] ordered the second phase to begin. As more missiles were being shunted into their cells, the European fleet began to unleash the remainder of its energy weapons. While invisible PEPs still sought to cripple enemy vessels by frying their circuits, many more needle-thick lances of bright pink stitched their way across space, boring tiny holes through whatever they struck -- particle beams. While they lacked raw, explosive power, these beams were incredibly precise, able to pick out individual targets on a ship thanks to the impressive computing power of AFE vessels. Losses mounted -- but the AFE pressed on, hardly phased by the destruction of non-sentient drones. [hr] The Americanans wouldn’t be left out of the continuing onslaught, as once the fleet was in safe range, joined its allies in the barrage, the cruisers within the fleet being among the first in letting loose their heavy railguns and torpedoes, other ships within the scattered fleet following their lead as they pinned the Terran fleet to a standstill, the sight filled the various crews with a sense of….renewed morale, the Terrans were a stepping stone to what could be done against the Yulzan invaders, and that hope of reclaiming Columbia, just got an inch closer. [hr] The information rushing in was by now, all good news. As the electrical hum of the [i]Libertad[/i]’s capacitors returned, she was struggling to see what ships were left for the superheavy cannons to actually take care of. “Strasbourg, Orion, I’m not seeing much left on the Terran side of things for our big guns to crack open. Wings 4 and 2 are going to establish a picket line around the Gateway- 1 and 3 will proceed with your forces and pursue the stragglers. I’m hesitant to start cheering right away, but I think we can say that their main battlegroup in this system has been sunk. Confirm?” [hr] “This is Strasbourg -- our sensors aren’t picking up much more.” it replied, silently relieved that it hadn’t needed to reveal its antimatter trump card. “We are ready to commence landings on Bludia PUNT defences permitting, for our part.” [hr] “Orion to Strasbourg and Libertad. We got an all clear, no hostiles remaining.” Drayk replied to his counterparts. We’re battered but we’re well and ready for the next phase of the operation on your go.” This was shaky but promising start in the operation in pushing back against the Terran menace.