Humanity Endures

Part 4 - The Beginning of the End | Chapter 7

Though most of the Nahmatiixian fighters' weaponry was too light to pierce the armor of warships, the gauss turrets and exposed engines on the hulls of Lassarha's ships were easy targets which, if lost, could render a Tehkrian ship incapable of fighting — a powerless, weaponless hulk that was fodder for gauss rounds at best. Worse still, standard doctrine for dealing with fighters and strike craft was to fire a few nukes, supplemented by mostly laser point-defence, in the fighters' general direction — or to send out one's own fighters. Yet, as the Tehkrian remote-piloted fighters were unusable in the Remnant, and because Lassarha's nukes were unusable due to the battle's location, her ships had no choice but to rely upon its limited quantities of point-defence that simply were not up to the task of intercepting so many ships. While swarms of Nahmatiixian fighter craft strafed the Tehkrian and Ihndrastarian ships, doing so at close range in order to evade her clumsy point-defence while unloading unguided nuclear bombs and armor-piercing weapons into their rapidly-disintegrating targets as they went, Lassarha realized she would have to concoct an unorthodox plan, and do so quickly — her foe's tactics were possessed of a brutal efficiency, and with warship after warship falling to the fighter-based assault, Lassarha's fleet began to lose thousands of vessels within minutes alone. The bridge of the Ineffable lightly shook with the impacts of nuclear bombs, but few felt concern for this vessel; its escort fleet burned around it, and as millions perished, this fear had far better targets.

The Ineffable, possessed of more powerful and numerous gauss weaponry than most other ships in the Tehkrian fleet, continued to drown the Remnant in traitorous blood, smashing aside hundreds of Nahmatiixian vessels that were too slow to react, while its still-large coilgun array made short work of any nearby traitorous warships that may have escaped from its ramming maneuver. With each passing second, the Ineffable's antimatter cannons continued to reload in preparation for a second decisive volley, and due perhaps to them alone, though also because the craft held Lassarha, the Ineffable soon attracted attention worthy of its status as the galaxy's finest warship. Hundreds of thousands of Nahmatiixian fighter craft, seeing the greatest threat to their fleet in Lassarha's flagship, soon diverted themselves from their current prey to attack Lassarha's command vessel. Though their minuscule coilguns and limited nuclear armament could only destroy the ship after an obscene amount of time, they unquestionably could cripple it — while most of the vessel lay underneath two kilometers of armor and a veritable sea of microbial shield, the turrets and engines of any ship, by necessity, lay above almost all of the protection it could offer. If the Nahmatiixian fighters succeeded, they could scour the Ineffable's hull of turrets and weaponry, completely disarming Lassarha's vessel and leaving it without the means to call for help, or flee. After this, the proper warships amongst the Nahmatiixian force could have their way with the ship, destroying it and slaying its crew with impunity, for no Tehkrian reinforcements would be on their way.

That unorthodox tactic Lassarha had needed was needed then, and though she did have an idea, even the bold Lassarha was uncertain of how probable success was; her veins coursing with MECS and her mind's prowess enhanced by its effects, she nevertheless decided that the greatest risk lay in taking no risks at all, and dispatched an order to Yezalax, so that he could relay it to the rest of the fleet. The order instructed the fleet to "Overstimulate microbial shields and fire a limited barrage of nuclear weaponry, programmed to detonate after two seconds of flight." The Tehkrian fleet could prevail if it weren't for the hostile fighters tearing it to shreds, and this command sought to remove these hostile fighters, at any cost.

Lassarha doubted that the order, which had the potential to destroy smaller or damaged ships outright, would be received well, but that did not make her consider rescinding it for even a second. The Nahmatiixian fighters had to be eliminated; nukes could not stray too far off course after only two seconds of flight, and in the event of a nearby nuclear detonation, a Tehkrian cruiser or frigate stood a much better chance at survival than a strafing Nahmatiixian fighter craft. Doubtless, the maneuver would cost a vast number of lives for both sides — this was a terrible thing to order done, and Lassarha felt her hearts sink with disgust as she committed to it, though this did not change how necessary it was, nor did she ever consider finding another option, for there simply was no time. Humanity needed someone like Lassarha, it needed Tehkria, and both of these were under threat in that moment; what were a few million lives compared to trillions? The difference between the losses sustained in a victorious battle and the losses suffered after a defeat would always force her hand, and though the very notion of ordering the deaths of her own people threatened to make Lassarha sick even to her MECS-addled core, her iron resolve and endless tenacity ensured that not even her expression changed as preparations for the catastrophic nuclear barrage began across her fleet. The order was received by all the captains of Lassarha's navy, but even Yezalax was unprepared to receive such an unorthodox, costly command, and, despite the MECS in his mind, his expression contorted with grim surprise. However, a second passed; two thousand more Tehkrians died as a pair of light frigates succumbed to Nahmatiixian fighters, and as the battle moved closer to defeat, Yezalax finally recognized the cruel necessity of Lassarha's tactic. The ships of her fleet were similarly surprised, but, with Nahmatiixian fighters minutes away from picking their hulls clean, or cleansing them of all life, they didn't have a choice but to agree. Even if they were to be destroyed by their actions, they would take their foe down with them, and they could ensure that those who survived saw victory; in the face of otherwise certain defeat, no soldier could ask for more.