The Mecha began to pour out of the human vessels as the attack intensified, with the rapidly evading Galen vessels beginning to return fire and adapt their shields to the Disintegrator beams that the Destroyers used as their main weapons.
Unfortunately, they had nothing that could deal with the Mass Drivers. Each of the Titan Class Mecha that Uncle Lu had sent mounted two of them, one on each shoulder, as a last-minute addition once he learned of the situation here inside the vast Nebula.
With the Warp Field Generator in the Nuclear warheads, they were decimating the shields of the Galen attack fleet faster than the ships could adjust. It was beginning to look like a lopsided battle, but the Galen force wasn't as unprepared for the humans as they had seemed.
Once the fleet was fully engaged, thousands of Attack Fighters, shuttle-sized boxy vessels with an array of lasers as their main weapon, as well as hundreds of gunboats, dropped out of Warp.
Now the humans were the ones outnumbered and possibly outgunned, but there was a reason that they had chosen to stay with Mecha instead of switching to an all-attack craft fleet. The irregular shape made it much harder to hit the Mecha when they were evading with their shields tight to their hulls, and the accuracy rate of the Galen fighters was bordering on dismal.
The humans also had a long history of varied warcraft technology, and their shields were holding up well against the Laser fire, while the Galen shields couldn't take a hit from a Mass Driver and were suffering greatly from the dispersed waves fired by the Disruptors.
Streaks of light and explosions lit the sky as the two sides engaged, and Max spun Cleansing Light to get a let out and intercept a close passing fighter, knocking it off course when his foot met the shields and making the entire volley from its main weapons fly wide.
He could hear the Pilot inside swearing, though he didn't know their language, and the panic as they realized his blade was penetrating their shielding and then their main engines, causing them to go critical before the small vessel was kicked away by the Mecha into the void of space.
Max split his Disruptor fire into two beams, destroying two more attack craft, While Nico focused fire on the larger ships with her Mass Driver.
Behind him, Light of Truth took a direct hit from a main Ion Cannon, drawing Max's attention. The Giant barely evaded the next shot, stopping faster than the Galen's vessel had anticipated and giving Max valuable insight into the lead times on their targeting.
Most Ion Cannons had very limited mobility, and the shots took time to reach their target, so sudden changes in velocity could cause a miss. They made up for it with the volume of fire, but the Giant had Light of Truth set up for a broadside fusillade and put a dozen Warp Torpedoes into the Galen Destroyer, shattering its shields and puncturing the bridge section with a Warp Speed projectile.
Max watched as three of the Titan Class units were brought down by the combined fire of the fighters, but they didn't pursue the ejected cockpits, so the Pilots were likely fine and could be recovered after the battle.
The Admirals had already sent out recovery vessels, small tugs with frames, to recover the pilots of fallen Mecha and clean the battlefield after the fact. The Galen started to go for them now that they realized there was something valuable in the cockpits, but the action infuriated the other Pilots to the point that nothing could get near the recovery tugs.
When anyone got a chance, they would kick the cockpits of the destroyed Mecha toward the nearest vessel to be recovered, either by tug or gravity beam, and keep fighting, knowing that their comrades would do the same for them.
A shockwave rippled through the defenders as a lucky shot from a Galen Laser managed to hit and detonate a Mass Driver round just after being fired, sending the nearby Mech flying through space before anyone could recover control.
The fighters took that as an opportunity to force everyone away and get a clear shot for their ships against the Destroyers, but for some reason, the shot never came.
There was a massive Destroyer Class vessel lined up and ready to fire, but it wasn't shooting at all. Then the Galen Fleet realized that things here had gone horrifically wrong for them. Three Darkling Attack Cruisers had appeared out of nowhere and were unleashing hundreds of attack craft to ambush their fleet from behind.
[Mecha, do not engage the third party unless they engage you. They didn't attack us when we were fighting the Arisen, so they might not be here for us.] Max ordered on the Command Channel, commandeering the entire human force.
He charged forward with Cleansing Light, going for the Galen Destroyers, and was quickly flanked by a wing of Darkling attack craft. Max hefted his Mass Driver and put a round into the three-kilometre-long vessel's shielding, then followed it up with an Orbital Lance shot, which the Darkling Fighters chased toward the Destroyer, overtaking his Mecha with ease.
The shields breached, and the fighters focused their fire on the hull of the Galen ship, creating a breach that they attached themselves to.
It was a boarding effort, Max realized. They weren't here to kill the Galen. They wanted to capture them alive. That was almost certainly a fate worse than death, but Max repeated his Orbital Lance shot, keeping the shields down as more attack craft swarmed the Destroyer.
[Form up on the Commander.] Sergeant Khalil ordered the test Pilots, who all moved to protect Max's back as he fired rapidly, keeping the Galen fighters away from the doomed Destroyer.
For three minutes, they held the position as the Galen desperately struggled to retake the Destroyer. But then the attack craft suddenly detached and returned to their motherships, accompanied by the anguished mental howling of the captured Galen prisoners.
[Vervak, da Umros ath slaverth] The Galen lead vessel broadcast on their main frequency, causing the fleet to disengage.
They fled to warp speed as fast as they could, leaving behind one crippled Cutter, which was swarmed with Darkling attack craft, and the abandoned Destroyer.
Max sent a direct message to Commander Yuri as they left.
[What did that last message mean? It seemed to be the voice of panic and not a standard retreat order.] He asked.
[It meant "Retreat, the humans are slavers." They think that you are working with the Knife Ears to help them harvest sentient species.] The Koleska Commander replied in disgust, though Max couldn't tell whether it was for the Galen or for the thought of working with the Knife Ears.
[Got it. Hopefully, they won't be back. I will contact you again once we have casualty counts.] Max informed him, then focused his attention on the battlefield.
There was a lot of raw material out here and a lot of destroyed vessels, with the resultant number of corpses to be disposed of.
[One last message. What is the Galen funeral ritual? So we can put the deceased at rest properly?]
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