A Mother From Galaxy Far Far Away

The six thrusters on her Type-22's body roared to life as she and Lancer Flight took off, following their assigned cruiser to the nearest ship which was a dreadnought classification. The ship was rectangular in shape with an oval shaped bow and top hull, giving it a half blocky, half curvy appearance. The 5km blocky portion was littered with holes that served as barbarically bastardized mockeries of actual hangar bays. Surprisingly, despite its horrendous state of appearance, the Orcs had some sense to put large rotary turrets along all areas of the ship.

"Cruiser Manifold to Flight escorts, sensors detect hundreds of turrets of numerous models. They look like trash but with their psychic gestalt field changing the probability of their reliability, we'll have to assume they will be effective against us. Fight smart and don't try to be heroes. Heroes never live to see the end. Flight Primals, have your squadrons target those gun emplacements to clear the way for us. If you clear on side of majority of the batteries, the Manifold can handle the rest. All Flight Primals, break off and fight as your awareness dictates."

The cruiser Manifold ended the cluster-wide command with a volley from its bow guns and a stream of molten metal from its mouth. The red beam of molten slag splashed across some sort of gravity-based shields for the majority before the final bits broke through to slash across the port side of the ship. Angel 'tsked' in annoyance. Gravity based shields were a lot more broad than kinetic and energy shields in what they defended against. It was a sort of 'jack of all trades' method of shielding instead of specializing in a single duty.

"Flight Primal to Lancer Flight, assume strafing formation. We'll get in as close as possible to lessen the effectiveness of the gravity shield."

A weakness the Valkyrians knew of gravity based shields was that the further you were from them, the more effective they were. When up close, the time a munition was affected by the shield was much shorter than if it was fired from far away. Sure, if your attacks were strong enough, they could ignore the gravity repulsion but when up close, the shield's effectiveness would be negligible at best.

The seven Type-22s slithered around the incoming AAA (anti-aircraft artillery) fire, showing maneuverability unmatched by any other ships known to the galaxy. They moved like living, breathing creatures instead of their linear, mechanical motion-like prey. The seven fighters lined up in a large 'V' formation with Angel in front. Their ships came upon the Orc dreadnought and turned at the last second to race along the side of where they believed the densest layer of the gravity shield resided; any closer and the shield would physically push them away and it would be like trying to fly up against a metal wall.

The first set of targets came up on their HUDs, twelve targets in all. She locked onto all twelve and fired a salvo from her ADMM pods, twenty-four missiles glowing like blue stars shooting up and down vertically from her fighter before making near 90 degree turns to streak towards the turrets which were firing erratically at her flight. The Type-22s' built in BAA (Battlefield Awareness Amplifier) warned them of any incoming threats aimed at them, allowing them to automatically respond with necessary evasive maneuvers.

Due to being fired so close, the ADMM salvo was hardly affected by the gravity shield and slammed into all of those turrets, two missiles apiece being more than enough to turn the scrap turrets to wrecks of superheated slag. The next set of targets numbered in the sixties. They would have to take out as many as possible on this run before moving to the next area. They'd let the approaching Buzzard swarms pick off the leftovers.

Angel locked onto a total of forty-eight targets and fired four simultaneous salvos, one from each of her four ADMM pods. The ninety-six missiles streaked across, their targets selected to blow a clear path through the multitude of CIWS. About six missiles were shot down by either lucky or competent gunners but the rest met their marks. The side of the dreadnought erupted into spouts of fire. Before the smoke even cleared, Angel and the rest of her flight opened fire on more targets with their TLS. The heads of the Type-22 split open like the mouth of a snake and a large five meter laser cannon moved forward into place. They all glowed red for a second before unleashing at 54% the speed of light one of the deadliest weapon systems put on any fighter craft.

The red lasers lanced into their targets near instantly due to the close range. The lasers burned a perfect ten meter hole in each of its targets, even ripping through the superstructure of the ship to cause secondary explosions, no doubt due to the Orcs' habits of filling every bit of space in their ships possible with weapons for war.

The lasers were designed to last up to five seconds per charge. The Valkyrians used this to strafe extra targets after destroying the initial ones, digging crisscrossing trenches along the dreadnought's side until the charges were depleted for the next fifteen seconds. The damage caused by the seven fighters would be significant for any other species but the Orcs only grew enraged. Angel couldn't really believe her eyes when she detected Orcs jumping out of holes in their ship into the vacuum of space to shoot at her despite the fact doing so would put them in an environment that'd kill them in seconds.

"Enemy heavy infantry weapon fire is negligible. Let them continue killing themselves," Angel said to her flight.

"Cruiser Manifold to Lancer Flight, enemy anti-ship capabilities have been hindered drastically. The Buzzard swarms can take care of the rest. Focus your fire on the engines and the bridge. Targets will be uploaded to HUD (Heads Up Display) now that deep scan is finished. Be noted that the bridge is not located along the outside of the ship structure but about 150m within. If you destroy those engines, our Kreons can quickly position themselves to bombard it."

Upon the outer edges of her HUD, five arrows popped up pointing in different directions, four grouped close together while the lone fifth one was most likely pointing at the supposed bridge of the dreadnought.

"Lancer Flight on me. We will aim for the engines. Once we find it, fall in the seven-point box formation."

The seven fighters flew through space, gaining a bit more distance between them and the dreadnought as AAA fire continued to erupt around their formation. The buzzard swarms and the four other Type-22 squadrons were quickly mopping up the defenses but due to the 5km length of the ship and its numerous gun emplacements, it would take a bit more time to make a serious dent in their anti-air network.

When they came around the stern of the ship, they caught a closer look at the engines. They are composed of four massive engine thrusters arranged in a four point trapezoid. Each looked heavily armoured and there were even turrets on them as well.

Coming upon the first engine, all seven Type-22s charged their TLSs. The charge took a second before seven red beams flew out of the noses of the fighters, impacting straight into the round side of the first engine. The enemy turrets were quick to return AAA fire but the ECM defense fields did their job of deflecting the kinetic artillery shells, though there was no defense really for the shockwaves of those shells that detonated close to the attackers. The lasers meanwhile did an excellent job of burning gouges into the engine block, causing secondary chain reaction explosions. Pieces of ship metal flew through the space as they were ripped from their spots like flaps of shingles on a rooftop during a storm.

The combined thirty-five second barrage of lasers was enough to deal critical damage to the engine despite the Orcs' psychic gestalt field adding its functionability. The rotating thrusters for Angel's Type-22 sped up as the connected links that made up her fighter were twisted to allow the ship to maneuver like a snake in the sea, avoiding debris and flak alike. To finish it off, Angel fired forty-eight ADMM missiles which were guided by the onboard dummy A.I. towards the areas they would have the greatest impact in.

All the missiles zipped inside of the engine block through the openings made by the lasers, the last missiles detonating a few dozen meters within the outer tears, blowing chunks out of the armor and turning the insides within thirty meters of each impact into molten metal. That pattern continued from the rearmost missiles to the first, igniting a series of explosions that snaked their way deeper and deeper into the ship until the first several missiles finally made contact with the inner structure of the disabled engines. Orcs were running about, some with blue-themed armor and hats that had an electric current between two horn-like accessories.

These were the rare 'Smart Boyz' that were gifted via genetic memory to instinctively know how to build and modify weapons, vehicles, and equipment. Several saw the blue missiles impact within their corridors though the time between its appearance and detonation didn't give them any chance to think about it or run. The overall effect was the engine block pulsating like a heart before exploding miniature nuke.

The shockwave was enough to destabilize the flight path of the dreadnought as it started tilting forward and listing to port. The explosions from the engine snaked through a hundred meters of the ship before reaching a storage of fuel. Another massive explosion occurred within the ship's stern that caused a third of it to swell up but otherwise stay intact. The damage severely damaged the second port-side engine as its luminosity dimmed from the bright white glow to a greyish color.

"Cruiser Manifold to Lancer Flight, excellent attack run. The other flights are making a strafing run on the starboard engines. The Manifold will continue bombardment with broadside guns until the Kreons destroy the bridge. That should hopefully disrupt that psychic-based gravity shield. Afterwards, you will stay clear of the dreadnought while the Kreons and the Manifold use their main weapons to finish it off." 

"Orders confirmed, Manifold. Lancer Flight will proceed to aid with the destruction of the remaining engines."

Angel looked over to the right as the inside of her cockpit was surrounded by screens being fed live imagery from outside cameras, making it look like her seat and controls were flying through space itself without the actual ship. Focusing on the other flight wings, the cameras magnified their progress to her naked eyes. She could see the ships taking heavy fire from the engine block defenses and couldn't get a clearer lane for a strafing run. Looks like she would have to relieve some of that pressure.

"Lancer Flight, we shall assist Graviji Flight by destroying those turrets. My ADMM launchers can handle them. You will focus on the engine itself. Our attacks with Graviji's focusing on both sides will suffice in destroying the engine. Follow my lead." She opened up comms with the flight primal of Graviji Flight, getting a response back immediately.

"Your plan is sound, Angel Harlaown. We will sync our attack run with yours after you destroy those turrets," came the thankful voice from Graviji's primal.

Angel weaved around the floating wreckage of the destroyed engines and stern portions to line herself up with the starboard engines. She could see the flashes of lights across space that painted the picture of Graviji's troubles. She locked on to the turrets with ninety-eight missiles as her serpent fighter began descending like a bird of prey, the irony hopefully not lost on the audience as it's usually the bird of prey that swoops down on the serpent. Locked on, she mentally gave the command and the 98 miniature missiles flew out from the bottom and tops of her craft before cutting forward to rain hell upon the unsuspecting Orc gunners.

The result was satisfactory as over thirty turrets were destroyed and reduced to superheated slag. The rest of the missiles that arrived after the destruction struck the plating of the engine block and ripped out a full third of the engine armor, causing orcs, fuel, and machinery to vent out into the merciless embrace of space. The two flights now unopposed moved in on the bleeding engines like a school of sharks. The two flights opened fire with their TLSs without remorse, carving deep fissures into the engine that was joined by internal explosions that spread to the stern of the ship like before only this time the explosion was more massive and obliterated the entire rear of the ship, taking out a good fourth of the dreadnought.

The blastwave through her and Graviji's flight for several tumbles due to their close proximity to the ship. The universe began spinning like a sadistic cyclone and it took a lot of Angel Harlaown's experience and skills to maintain a form of cognition as the shapes of the space around her began blurring into a single mesh of blacks and greys. Luckily, the fire from the engine was like a beacon in the grey and she was able to steer her fighter away from the majority of the debris but she wouldn't be able to avoid it all. Not having time to lock on, she did her best to manually target whatever she wanted to attack and launched several salvos from her ADMM pods. The addition of all those blue streams of light didn't help her vision nor did their explosions as they blew apart a somewhat usable corridor for her ship to fly through. It was a gyroscopic ride for her as her ship made multiple contact with large pieces of shredded metal that her ECM field could push out of the way.

It felt like too long a time for her before she and the onboard A.I. finally stabilized the fighter's flight. The first thing she did was look around her to make sure she wouldn't fly into another scrap heap. The second was to check the status of Lancer Flight.

"Malus, status of Lancer Flight," she spoke for the first time since this battle to her ship A.I.. A synthetic male voice answered her command. " Lancer Flight has sustained minor damage though one casualty. MRIA's craft was in the furthest back when the dreadnought's main fuel source exploded. The shockwave indicated the concussive blast disoriented her and she crashed into debris. Luckily, her A.I. was able to launch her ejection capsule though readings indicate it has sustained significant damage as well. It'd be best to have some of the Buzzard drones retrieve her and her wrecked fighter. Graviji Flight has suffered minor damages but no casualties."

Angel gave a sigh in relief. She's yet to lose a member of Lancer Flight, though that wasn't to say she hadn't lost a wing woman before. Maria had a set of twins that would be finishing their final year at the nursery academic schools back on the Outer Heaven. She didn't want to imagine having to tell them her mother died under her responsibility.

"Cruiser Manifold to all flights, excellent work. Any recovery efforts will be made by spare Buzzard drones. Afterwards, maintain appropriate distance while we bombard the ship. That last explosion took down the gravity shield. We'll be going for the kill here and now. Due to how effective the results were, we'll be sending the battle data to all other ships currently engaging enemy dreadnought class ships."

The recover of Maria's capsule and destroyed Type-22 was over within minutes as a group of Buzzards came by and used their onboard tractor beam capability to recover the remains. The same was happening to the remnants of around a dozen Buzzards that sustained too much damage.

Angel watched idly as the drone carrying her squad member came closer and closer to their assigned Kreon. Switching views, she focused on the five Kreons maneuvering themselves into position in front and above the drifting Orc battleship. Dozens of turrets still shot at the Kreons and the Manifold but the fire was insignificant to any of them. The Kreons tilted their bows downward for a better position to angle all of their guns at the ship.

Six, double-barreled charged particle cannons for each Kreon rotated and their guns swiveled upwards to focus within a target zone two hundred meters in diameter. A golden light began glowing at the muzzle of each barrel while a deep red light began illuminating from within the mouth of the Manifold.

Within a single second, all thirty heavy charged particle cannons, the 'Shearing Light', as they had nicknamed the main weapon of the cruiser class, and hundreds of gravity manipulating and antimatter, pure energy missiles flew towards the dreadnought. The 'Shearing Light' lived up to its namesake and bore a molten hot hole through the entire height of the ship like the metal was paper, destroying the bridge containing the leaders of the ship. The rest could only be called overkill as the particle beams began gouging out huge chunks upon impact and created similar scenes of destruction as the shearing light did. Following the end of that barrage were the incoming missiles that flew into the huge holes and fissures before detonating to create a massive gravity well like a singularity. Any orcs unlucky enough to still be alive and nearby were sucked into the well and crushed upon the bodies of each other and any solid materials caught up the pull. Tens of thousands of tons of metals, scrap metals, Orc weapons, Orcs, and debris were crushed into each other almost on a cellular level due to the pressure. Within seconds, a massive ball floated aimlessly within the now larger holes of the dreadnought, some of the balls of smushed junk having been close enough to attract each other.

While the gravity missiles were terrifying weapons themselves, their use here had a second purpose. Any passageways, corridors, and large rooms were now unobstructed by any molten debris or Orc presence as they had all been pulled into the wells. This left room for the smart, guided antimatter missiles that were launched last for a reason. The missiles, about ten feet long and four feet wide, flew through the gaps and corridors to reach deeper areas of the ship. On signal, these missiles exploded into a mass of negative matter that collided with the regular matter, wiping all traces of the 140m target area of each missile from existence. One moment, the dreadnought from before and after could be described as a block of cheese with several gouges in it suddenly looking like Swiss cheese.

Any chance of the ship ever being operable by the Orcs on board was so low that it encroached in the negative number range.

Angel Harlaown watched this unfold with indifference doused with subtle sadism. It was a quick and beautiful sight, like a lightning bolt arcing across the rainy night sky. She sighed in nostalgia of her home. This fight against the dreadnought only lasted five minutes. Perhaps another dreadnought would provide a better challenge.

"Cruiser Manifold to all manned and drone flights, recovery operations are complete and complete destruction of the enemy dreadnought is confirmed. Fall back into formation and prepare for our next target. There are plenty left but the rest of the armada is completing their roles almost as quickly. Let's keep the lead while we have it. Proceeding to the next target. We've also received a fleet wide message from the Grand Primal Commander. She, her royalty Esdeath, and her primal ship 'Erubetie' are leading the Leviathans through the warp holes to begin the purging of the planet. She wishes us good fortune and if it comes to some, a proud death."

Angel idly glanced back and magnified the view to show that the Leviathans were indeed pouring out of the warp holes they used earlier to surprise the enemy. They were being led by the gold and black color schemed Leviathan that looked as every bit as awe inspiring and terrifying as when she first laid eyes on it. They were followed by the ten Type-33 bomber Transport Carriers. Angel might have felt pity for whoever would be within the attack paths of 2,000 Type-33 DFH (Devastation From Heaven) bombers had they been any species other than the Orcs or Batarians.

With that amount of firepower, they could and probably would level everything on the planet surface enough to go through half the planet's crust, and that's just with the default loadouts. Since this species was such a sore for their Queen, who knew just what those flying fortresses were packing. This is not even including whatever might be leftover from High Primal Esdeath's tender mercies. She felt a shiver of delight at the carnage to come but was put out that she almost never got to fly sorties within a planet's atmosphere so she could see a planetary purge up close.