chapter 189

POV: Remi

The Varani line was finally cracking. It had been a few hours since we got into position defending a battlecruiser named Vengeance of the Sunrise. Before we got here, it had been forced to take on a tank position on the front lines, as the designated one had been damaged too much and needed to pull back.

While we couldn’t take its spot entirely, we were able to share the incoming fire. This allowed our left side to continue to fire at the enemy ships without much interruption, while the Vengeance of the Sunrise was finally able to do what it does best on its right side, and that is bring destruction to its enemies.

Forward Horizon was hit so many times that we were constantly shaking. Our heat load was still manageable, but we had to start dumping superheated gas to keep up with the heat buildup.

We had already crippled a dozen ships, with the Vengeance of the Sunrise doing triple those numbers. It was a bigger vessel, about three times as large as we were, but it wasn’t using regular railguns, or at least their ammunition wasn’t normal.

Each time they shot, it looked like they were firing bolts of light, but they were 100% physical projectiles. At first, we all thought it was some special material, but during the hours we had been here, we were able to communicate with our neighbouring ship, so we could coordinate our attacks. Turns out that the captain is the one who’s turning regular railgun projectiles into imbued versions.

Half an hour ago, two more squads joined the fight. They brought with them a few heavy hitters, which have allowed us to quickly start dismantling their tank ships. The Varani were impressively good at fleet manoeuvring. We were nevertheless heavily punishing their every switch, and every time they tried to attack, as our AIs were simply too good at what they did.

We have been sharing the targeting data with all our neighbouring ships, which has helped so much. The red dots were constantly being darkened. The darker they were, the more damage they had. When we got here, most of the frontline was bright red, but now there weren’t any bright colours left amongst the Varani fleet.

“Why aren’t they retreating?” I heard Sam ask, and I was wondering the same thing. From what I’ve read, they were truly brilliant in ship combat, so they should understand that they were in a losing fight. It would be better for them to pull back towards the portal, where resupply ships would have a shorter trip to them. However, those seemed to take way too long to return to the portal.

“I believe it’s because they have only recently escaped from the portal. Their minds are not yet fully theirs. They should also have an instinctual fear towards the portal for some time, as it was something that, to them, would seem to have enslaved their minds,” FH explained.

They seemed so good at fleet tactics, it was hard to think about them not truly being themselves. “Wait, could that make them feel like they’re cornered?” I spoke, not to anyone specifically.

There was silence, at least as much silence as there could be with us constantly taking fire. I could feel the AIs taking this information into model predictive behaviours.

There were some concerning results, as the enemy ships seemed to be clustering together in a different way than the AIs could not figure out before, but now there was one clear reason they would be getting into that kind of fleet configuration.

FH and all her AIs started feeding information about this new discovery to fleet command. I sat up straighter in my chair, as we should’ve realised sooner what would happen if we pushed them too far. They were not going to retreat, but like cornered animals, they would attack while abandoning all defence.

Unfortunately, the Varani were not that stupid. They were fully intelligent people who were scared of what was behind them and knew that what they were preparing to do right now would lead to their demise.

It took fleet command a while to start giving out new orders, longer than I wished. It was now 100% confirmed. The enemies continued to cluster up tighter and tighter, making spearheads that were going to push as deep into our lines as possible, trying to get to the weaker ships behind our tank ships.

As soon as our fleets started to manoeuvre, no matter if those clusters of the Varani were ready or not, they surged forward.

“Get ready, FH. Be ready to pull from us. I do not want us to be a sitting target when they break through our lines. I want us to be behind them.”

“Yes, captain.”

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We dumped as much heat as possible before things got truly desperate. We got a message of good luck from the Vengeance of the Sunrise. I sent a similar message back.

Damaged tank ships joined back into the fight, taking positions in the rear or sides of squad formations. That was the best we could do. The fight wasn’t immediate; most ships still needed to cover a distance of over 1000 kilometres, but the closer we got to each other, the less E-war worked on each side, allowing everyone to hit more accurately.

We didn’t have a squad assigned to us, so we could fly about freely. One of the enemy clusters was heading straight for us. Instead of waiting to take their charge, we used our adjustment thrusters and side engines to pull us upwards while also accelerating towards them.

That seemed to surprise them, as we weren’t their only target. Our weapons never stopped firing. With the rest of the fleet’s combined fire, the first layers of those dozens of clusters heading towards the 3rd battle group had been destroyed, but that didn’t mean they stopped moving forward.

Now they were flying hunks of metal that would disable or destroy your ship just as well as any railgun hit if you didn’t get out of the way. This disrupted our squad formations heavily, but space was big and you could dodge in any direction.

As soon as the enemy cluster was underneath us, we flipped so that our front end was facing them as they passed by. For the first time in this fight, our biggest railgun fired alongside every other turret, doing to them what they wanted to do to us.

We were, of course, taking a lot more fire because of that, and for the first time in this battle, even after our shield upgrades, our armour needed to do its job. On a display that showed our armour integrity, the bright green was slowly being marred by darker spots, some turning yellow.

All of this only lasted a minute and a couple of seconds before the cluster of Varani ships underneath us had passed. We turned to face them, continuing to fire, and started to chase them.

Their cluster started to break apart when they passed our front lines, circling back. We started to lose a lot of ships, but they were losing more. FH pulled from us heavily as we dived in and out of heavy combat, getting behind friendly tank ships to let our heat dissipate before continuing.

The Varani fleet fought to the last, taking a lot of the third battle group with them. Fortunately for everyone, they did not focus on fully destroying ships, only disabling them and then moving on.

They were trying to cripple as many of our ships as possible, so the reinforcements we could offer either the first or second battle group would be too little to change the overall outcome of the war.

All of us were only given an hour to enact repairs and rest before we needed to head towards the second battle group. The fight was far from over, but from the numbers I was seeing, we should have enough to make a difference in the other fights.

“Captain, a call for you from the Vengeance of the Sunrise,” FH informed me, and I accepted the call.

“Forward Horizon, this is the Vengeance of the Sunrise. You came just in time, thank you for the assist. We were getting battered.”

“We appreciate the thanks. You are Captain Rollo Ruiven, correct? That is some impressive skill you have to use so frequently to enhance your ship’s railgun shots?”

“I thank you, but Captain?” His voice sounded confused. “Oh, right, sorry, I’m kinda new to this captain business. It is a confusing title. For the past 5 years, I’ve been called Sir, and now I’m a captain all of a sudden. Did you have the same problem when you took to space?”

All of what was said was thoroughly confusing. “Always been a captain, even before I was mana reborn?”

“Oh, that sounds like an interesting story. And that’s why the captain’s title is so confusing to me. We should get more respect because we have reached the first stage of truth. I had gotten used to people calling me Sir, but now it feels like I have taken a step backwards. Anyway, I don’t want to keep you. Thank you for the assist once again. I have some repairs that we need to do.”

And just like that, the line clicked shut. He seemed like he had an interesting personality, but what was he talking about? “FH, can you please clarify that strange interaction?”

“Captain, did the Vengeance of the Sunrise feel different to you somehow?” Now that FH mentioned it, a little bit, so I nodded.

“I think others who have touched the truth can feel each other’s presence. Sir is a title given to adventurers who have reached the first stage of the truth. A corresponding space adventurer title is Captain. The title above that is Baron.”

That sounds troublesome. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about that, or perhaps there is. “FH, add a critical priority: finding out if this aura of truth can be hidden from others.”

“Of course, Captain.”

There wasn’t much to repair, but there was some heat damage. The repair drones took care of it quickly enough. This damage helped us find out that FH did develop some automatic repair capability thanks to her latest rank-up, but it was slow.

A good comparison would be a regular human body slowly healing itself from a cut. Nothing spectacular just yet, but with a few rank-ups and some skills, this could turn into quite the trump card.

The hour went by so fast. As we were heading towards the second battle group and the Varani fleet they were fighting, we were not taking stupid chances.

The ships in that fleet were bigger, with their weapons being a lot more dangerous. It was strange to be behind a tank ship, with our job being to pop out behind its shadow every once in a while and shoot at a ship the fleet command designated for us to attack.

The comparison was quite jarring. The last fight seemed like a car race, while this one seemed like we were driving on a highway. It took hours to whittle the Varani fleet down. This time, instead of attacking us, they retreated towards the 1st Varani fleet that was fighting with the first battle group.

We were now winning quite decisively. It still took another 17 hours for the star system to quiet down, with the last Varani ship disabled enough so it wouldn’t pose any danger. It had been truly exhausting.

“Captain, it’s Verrona.” I accepted the call, as our ships were close enough that there wouldn’t be too big of a delay.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” she asked, and I could sense the anger in her voice.

“Did you manage to kill your father?” She didn’t answer back immediately, but I waited until she did.

“No, but I watched him run away, the coward. It was healing. My Duke explained your part in all of this.” There was a pause before she continued. “Thank you.”

“Hope you get the bastard next time.” She laughed at that in her half-insane, half-cute way.

“It will be a while before the rest of the Dukes get here to tackle the inside of the portal.” Her tone was quite suggestive.

Looking towards the screen that was connected to fleet command, my request to leave had been approved. We wouldn’t be getting any of the dropped loot anyway, as the Four-Leaf Station was quite close to here with their salvaging crews ready to process the thousands of wrecks in the system. At least they would be giving us a bump in credits for not getting anything directly.

“We won’t be joining the fleet that will go to take down the Varani fortress; we simply aren’t at that level yet. We’ll be leaving as soon as the all-clear has been given.”

All I could hear was breathing from the other side. “Somewhere better for you to be?”

“Possibly, and I have a feeling that our meeting would first start with a fight. Let’s do that in a more private venue.”

“We’ll see,” she answered, ending the call.

“FH, prepare for us to leave the star system. From what I’ve read, we do not want to be anywhere near that fortress when they assault it.” But I would like to get my hands on a blueprint of it. At least the payday from this fight should be quite substantial.

“Yes, Captain.”