Max launched Cleansing Light the moment that he stepped inside, not even waiting to strap himself into the seat.
The gravity stabilization would keep things in order as he glided out of the bay on Santa Maria, and he could strap in while the sensor sweep ran its bootup diagnostics. So, while the Mecha powered up, Max checked the sensor logs of the main ship to see what he could learn.
The Arisen Fleet had appeared at the very edge of the solar system, and they had chosen to engage a patrol fleet instead of going straight for the station. The patrol was outnumbered and outgunned, but the Arisen had only sent one main ship, a dark metallic cube that was launching War Walkers and a few of the croissant-shaped fighters.
The Koleska fleet consisted of three ships, all of which were Cruiser Class, by human reckoning, and they had sent out thousands of War Machines to counter the Arisen threat, but they were proving unable to hold their ground.
Thirty minutes might be what it took the Arisen fleet to reach the station's defence lines, but that was only because the patrol could only be expected to last about twenty-eight minutes.
[Requesting a deployment formation to avoid line-of-sight interference.] Max requested dispatch. It was a very normal message, just to let them know he was heading out and to make sure he wasn't going to cut anyone off.
The response came right away, with the usual half-circle formation heading for the battle in six minutes once the new recruits were all properly launched.
The Commander in charge had determined that it would be better to wait for them instead of sending them as a second wave for the battle, so they would be a few minutes later than usual in reacting but still well within a reasonable amount of time for a large response force.
Max led Nico to a position on the right flank of the battle and started to mark targets with his System Functions.
"That should introduce some chaos, and we will need to prioritize the fighters since the Koleska patrol isn't doing a very good job of defending against them," Max informed her with a smile of anticipation.
"This is going to be great. I've reoptimized the Mass Driver rounds for use against those new ships, and I think that we will be able to do some real damage this time without resorting to antimatter rounds." She announced and then sent Max over the details of the first batch she produced.
They were very much a tit-for-tat retaliation against the Arisen Army, Warp Capable Mass Driver Shells with a small fusion bomb in them. The Arisen had used nukes against them, so she would use nukes right back.
Max charged the Orbital Lance and prepared to target the mothership first to slow or stop the flow of fighters and War Walkers that were coming from it, and Nico followed his lead by picking the same targeting point.
"This time, I go first, and your Orbital Lance can follow through. It might have more luck with the shield weakened than it did last time, and this ship looks like it has already been through hell."
She wasn't wrong, there was a lot of partially repaired battle damage on this cube, and the three Koleska ships were still trading fire with it, keeping the shields somewhat weakened.
Nico's round would be faster to the target than the Lance, so as soon as Nico fired, so did Max.
The result was truly glorious. The round impacted the shield with enough kinetic energy to make the entire barrier glow, just as a bloom of white light, as bright as a newly formed star, shone at the point of impact.
The glowing barrier began to crack and collapse around the point of impact, sending streaks of nothingness racing across the surface as capacitors overloaded and the barrier system went offline.
That was when the Orbital Lance struck, with the carefully controlled radiation of the Disruptor tearing apart molecular bonds and ripping a hole deep inside the ship.
Secondary explosions rippled out from the path that the beam had carved, and before Max could even celebrate, the ship had vanished, leaving behind a mighty fleet of War Walkers and fighter ships to wage war with the Koleska patrol.
[Good work, Commanders. I doubt that they will fall for that trick too many times in the future, but today you have saved us a lot of pain.] The lead ship of the patrol messaged them.
[Even if they don't fall for the trick, the question remains if they can do anything about it. In the face of overwhelming force, there is often no choice but to retreat or die.] Max replied.
That was what the Arisen ship had done today. They had chosen to retreat and save as many of their occupants as possible while abandoning the force that had been deployed to their fate.
Max's luck wouldn't hold for long, though, and the cube wasn't truly alone, only the first to arrive.
Just after it vanished, another cube and two Cutter-sized ships of the more familiar pattern, similar to Absolution, appeared between them and the station, in the more conventional attack position well inside the star system.
[It's a diversion. The first attack was to draw out our fleet and leave the station undefended.] The patrol leader called over the command channel, followed by a string of expletives.
The Arisen had either overestimated the Koleska ability to respond, or they had come prematurely when the first ship was damaged because the main attack fleet was just beginning to assemble outside the station when the new ships arrived, leaving the Arisen in between the defence force and the patrol, with Max and Nico at their backs.
Max charged his Orbital Lance again while Nico fired the first round against the Cutter on the flank.
The ship immediately flashed out of existence when it noticed the energy signature, letting Nico's round detonate where it used to be, then the ship reappeared on the far side of the other Cutter.
[Oh, that's a new trick. This battle just got much more interesting.] Nico celebrated while putting calculations into her system, using stochastic evasion patterns to predict where the ship would appear if it vanished again.
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